[Power 19] Faux-Fi Horror

[Illetizgerg]

For those who are interested, Faux-Fi Horror is the project that came out of the ideas discussed in my previous topic about humorous games. The Faux-Fi refers to the underlying dice engine, and Horror describing the type of game setting. This Power 19 includes information for both the Faux-Fi dice engine and Faux-Fi Horror as a game.

I use male pronouns. Sorry.


1.) What is your game about?**

At its core, Faux-Fi Horror is about abstract characters living in the 50's and 60's, encountering anything that could be classified as cliche' horror, such as monsters and psycho murderers. The game places the characters in the wrong place at the wrong time, and players control their character in order to achieve the ultimate goal of "defeating" whatever antagonist threatens them. As characters die off, players work in new characters connected to their old ones (think degrees of separation).

Unlike most games, players are not motivated by the ability to improve their characters as individuals. Instead players themselves collect different Fate Skills when their characters overcome certain obstacles (usually killing monsters). These Fate Skills are pooled, and when a player must make a new character (usually due to the death of their old one) they may choose one Fate Skill and apply it to said character. Fate Skills are not used up and can be applied to characters over and over, and so while players may lose individual characters they can retain and reuse specific abilities that they find particularly fun to use.


2.) What do the characters do?**

The character's goal is to survive the encounter using whatever skills and abilities they posses. Usually this means physical combat, puzzle solving, and social interaction with other characters.


3.) What do the players (including the GM if there is one) do?**

There is a GM, and there are players. The GM creates the adventures and paints of a picture of the characters' situation for the other players. The GM has the final say on how a situation plays out, however he is guided by the rules of the game and the numbers the dice show. It is his job to referee the game. As a side note, the GM also attempts to foil the characters by using their Flaws similar to how the other player's use their Skills (more on this later).

The other players each control an individual character who acts as their avatar, although because death occurs often in Faux-Fi Horror they will end up going through many characters. The players' goal is to defeat whatever creatures their characters encounter in order to gain Fate Skills and add them to their pool (see #1).


4.) How does your setting (or lack thereof) reinforce what your game is about?

The setting is basically just 1950's Any-ville, somewhere in the US, however it really is not all that deep. The game is basically just about mocking old-timey horror cliche's, and so the setting is really dependent on the specific adventure. I suppose you could say that the lack of a setting reinforces the individual adventures presented by the GM, and provides a certain feeling of abandonment because you can't just go to the next town.


5.) How does the Character Creation of your game reinforce what your game is about?

The character creation system is point based and attempts to balance out characters so no characters are blatantly better than others, however it also gives the players plenty of room to customize. User-specified Skills and Flaws lighten the atmosphere and encourage players to introduce humor into the game themselves, even before the adventure. While players create Skills and attempt to find (sometimes arbitrary) uses for them in-game, they must also create Flaws which the GM uses in exactly the opposite way (finding ways for the Flaws to hinder the characters). There is also no character advancement, so each character is basically a complete individual, and player's are encouraged to take this into account when creating them.


6.) What types of behaviors/styles of play does your game reward (and punish if necessary)?

The ultimate goal of the game is to defeat enemies.

Characters are encouraged to work together, especially when it comes to combat. The inclusion and emphasis on puzzles provides something for players who don't want to spend the entire time killin', and a social combat system allows for humorous debate finalization. My real goal was to make a three pronged system, where fighting, intelligence, and social interaction all contributed to a final goal. Furthermore, through the somewhat metagame benefits of Fate Skills, players can attempt to enhance their experience in specific areas of play that they find most enjoyable.


7.) How are behaviors and styles of play rewarded or punished in your game?

Fate Skills are really the reward, and they are rewarded when characters and their players accomplish basic goals (the kinds of Fate Skills earned are dependent on said goals). Character death could be considered a punishment, as it will probably occur most often when players do not attempt to work towards their main goal (like trying to go for help).


8.) How are the responsibilities of narration and credibility divided in your game?

The players declare the actions performed by their characters and roll dice, and the GM (assisted by the rules) narrates the rest of the story.


9.) What does your game do to command the players' attention, engagement, and participation? (i.e. What does the game do to make them care?)

The game encourages (and the answer is yes, I'm getting sick of the word "encourages") bizarre, unique characters that are fun to play, and the general atmosphere of the game is supposed to be humorous and entertaining for people familiar with fake science. With a limited and abstract variety of Skills, players must be on the look-out in order to catch opportunities where their Skills can be used to provide a benefit to the situation (same goes for the GM with the character's Flaws).


10.) What are the resolution mechanics of your game like?

I designed the Faux-Fi system to be as simple as possible. All rolls are d10 + Mod versus a set Target. This provides a linear distribution of probability for everything in the game, which can then be scaled and manipulated through character creation and predetermined targets. Even in situations where one character must roll a skill against another character's skill, a Target is generated using one of the character's skills and the other character rolls against it (the rules are set up so that it can be done with either character being in either position).


11.) How do the resolution mechanics reinforce what your game is about?

The simplicity of the system is used to prevent the engine from slowing down the game. Other things, like a social combat system and "regenerating" health, enhance the kind of humorous and old-timey movie feelings that I want my game to evoke.


12.) Do characters in your game advance? If so, how?

Characters do not advance. As I mentioned before, players gain Fate Skills.


13.) How does the character advancement (or lack thereof) reinforce what your game is about?

Players do not need to be concerned with the lives of their characters nearly as much as in other games, so for starters it means the game does not risk feeling angsty. Furthermore, it is not really possible for players to make decisions about their characters that they later regret, because characters themselves do not advance.


14.) What sort of product or effect do you want your game to produce in or for the players?

I really just want a game that's fun to play. I'm not aware of any game like this, and I think a combination of crazy movie monsters and painful sci-fi logic would make a nice RPG. I'm not really looking for something that would scare the players like a typical horror game, as I feel like this would detract from the humor. Basically, I want to take the fun and enjoyment of watching old black and white horror films in a well lit room and shove it into an role-playing game.


15.) What areas of your game receive extra attention and color? Why?

Monsters and enemies will obviously be given extra amounts of attention, simply because the entire game revolves around them. The other thing that I will probably emphasize when laying out the book is adventure creation, for two reasons. First of all, I'm personally tired of games where very little assistance is given to the GM when it comes to preparing everything needed for play, so I certainly wouldn't make a game that left people hanging. Secondly, my friends had a number of interesting ideas related to designing adventures that made no sense physically, like in movies where multiple locations were used and the layout is inconsistent, and I would like to explore what can be done to translate this into an RPG.


16.) Which part of your game are you most excited about or interested in? Why?

Playtesting, XD. I would have to say the monsters, in particular.


17.) Where does your game take the players that other games can't, don't, or won't?

Shady Snake Town House, the setting of my first miniature test adventure which I hope to playtest tomorrow night. In all seriousness, though, I'm not sure exactly how I would explain this, but the locations and feelings that the characters themselves will experience is not that different from others games, however the "place" that I hope to take my players is the well lit room mentioned in #14.


18.) What are your publishing goals for your game?

I really want to publish, however ultimately it comes down to whether or not my friends enjoy the game. Given that they do, I was considering creating a full rulebook (probably around 100 pages) that would be PoD. If that succeeds then I plan on diligently expanding on the core rulebook by creating mini books (utilizing the Guild of Blades services) that detail new ideas, optional rules, pre-made adventures, new monsters and minions, and new Fate Skills.


19.) Who is your target audience?

My friends and gaming group. I would be overjoyed if other people like the game, however my #1 concern is my friends.


- Gregory Zitelli

[Illetizgerg]

I wanted to ask people advice on handling player-designed skills, because I'm not 100% sure how I want to do it. I would like to come up with some kind of almost gimmicky thing that will get my players engaged. I was thinking of having players name their skills using phrases, and then making each player go around and tell a short (and possibly completely nonsensical) story about their character in which they must use all of their phrases.

I would like to do something original that gets people in the right mood quickly, and is fun and spontaneous. What do you guys think?


- Gregory Zitelli

[Illetizgerg]

One of my potential players was just making a character (I'm trying to playtest however my friends are not all ready), and he had some ideas which I immediately picked up on. He was talking about making a Hispanic character who crossed the border, and he started joking about putting things into his backstory about assisting as a grunt during an archaeological dig. As we joked around he mentioned being cursed or being influenced by an otherworldy power, and I strongly encouraged this because it occurred to me that this could really be something (as far as liberties and character creation are concerned).

Specifically, since Skills are vague I would like the system to allow for basically any kind of character, with Skills representing anything from a character's history that could come into play without being generic. This would mean that you can basically create a character of any class and of any level, however their health and attacks would be balanced out according to the game rules so they aren't overpowered. Still, that can be explained using the game setting (your physical health is restricted because it isn't literally your physical health, it is how far away from being "gotten" by the monster). This would mean that players can have psychic powers or age old curses, which are all added in through their Skills and Flaws.

- Gregory Zitelli

[Illetizgerg]

Oh yeah! Well, I don't love you either, The Forge.

*cries in the corner*

- Gregory Zitelli

[R00kie]

I wanted to ask people advice on handling player-designed skills, because I'm not 100% sure how I want to do it. I would like to come up with some kind of almost gimmicky thing that will get my players engaged.

I'm not an experienced game designer - but I have been roleplaying for 26 years now and know what works and doesnt work in the various game systems I've played. I feel I can safely say introducing a gimmicky anything purely for the purpose of introducing a gimmick will destroy your system. If you have a gimmick in your game it should be their because the game demands it. A gimmick might interest you players for a very short time, but after that unless its integral to the game it will just get in the way.

Having said that one skill description works well within many games. For an example have a look at any of the PDQ games.

[R00kie]

Okay, I've read through the description in more detail and I have a few concerns.

Your state goal is to: "make a three pronged system, where fighting, intelligence, and social interaction all contributed to a final goal." but then it becomes apparent that only one action will be rewarded within the game - killing creatures. You may want to rethink the rewarded activities or the goal.

I'm really not sure what you are aiming for. Several different comments suggest you are aiming for Toon level slapstick. On the other side you appear to be considering some mechanisms which are too complex for a game that silly. Also you may want to carefully consider the role of puzzles in a game that appears to be a high speed slapstick game.

If you aren't aiming for straight slapstick I would suggest using a light system but removing the silly aspects. Social combat should be as serious as physical combat, and silly character skills really only work in slapstick games. Good in game humour comes from the background, the situation and the players actions.

Good luck. Its very hard to write a good humourous roleplaying game - Spaceship Zero and Paranoia spring to mind as two of the best. You might want to have a look at them to see what makes them work.

[Illetizgerg]

I feel I can safely say introducing a gimmicky anything purely for the purpose of introducing a gimmick will destroy your system. If you have a gimmick in your game it should be their because the game demands it.

I understand exactly what you mean, and I probably shouldn't have said gimmick. What I was trying to say is I need something unique that will engage my players when creating skills. Unfortunately I still haven't playtested yet, so I don't know for sure that it is absolutely necessary, but I suspect that something will be needed.

Your state goal is to: "make a three pronged system, where fighting, intelligence, and social interaction all contributed to a final goal." but then it becomes apparent that only one action will be rewarded within the game - killing creatures. You may want to rethink the rewarded activities or the goal.

I have actually considered having each player choose a separate goal for their characters (possibly even including things like "achieve martyrdom"), however I'm not really sure because I think that might end up dividing the party. As far as the three things contributing to the common goal of killing monsters, I don't think it's all that unreasonable. Not every situation is just fist against fist, and there will be plenty of situations where someone needs to rally the townsfolk or create a car-mountable plasma cannon using only scrap from a nuclear reactor.

I'm really not sure what you are aiming for. Several different comments suggest you are aiming for Toon level slapstick. On the other side you appear to be considering some mechanisms which are too complex for a game that silly. Also you may want to carefully consider the role of puzzles in a game that appears to be a high speed slapstick game.

I am definitely not going for a slapstick kind of game. I'm hoping that a lot of the humor in the game comes from the players themselves introducing things into the game that are funny out of the game. If the game world itself were a show it would not have a laugh track, that's for sure.

As far as the actual system goes, it's really not that complicated, I just tend to explain things with more detail than is necessary. You basically get two scores for skills; the first is a Bonus and the second is a Target. Whenever anybody does anything they roll a d10 + Bonus and try to get equal to or higher than the Target. The health system is a little more complicated, but I've tested out a couple of battles using a bare-bones character sheet, and as long as the appropriate spaces are organized intelligently on the sheet then combat goes very fast.

The more I think about it, I really would prefer that the game pretended to take itself a little more seriously and make the players responsible for more of the humor, but of course that's very risky because you never know who's going to be playing. Once again, this leads back to my want of something that encourages humor from the get-go.

- Gregory Zitelli

[Illetizgerg]

I actually thought about changing things around and having Fate Skills activated when the players are able to get their characters to say specific catch phrases. I would still like any input people might have on the whole game, if anybody has got any more.

- Gregory Zitelli

[Illetizgerg]

So I've been doing a lot of thinking about the system I have set in place, and how the damage-to-your-stats health system should really be used. I like the idea a lot, but I'm having trouble getting characters balanced and still allowing people to specialize in social or physical combat. Here's what I've thought of so far.

Instead of separate health, all characters have Safety. This goes along with the idea of having monsters "get you", which I really like. Both Vitality (physical strength) and Influence (social power) will have little lists on the character sheet that allow for quick reference if they take damage. When you take damage to your Safety it can either be Brutal (hurting your Vitality), Cosmetic (hurting your Influence), or Bloody (which can effect either, decided by the player). If a character loses all of their Vitality or Influence then they are obviously no longer able to take damage to them, however their safety can still decrease to the point where they are "gotten" by monsters.

- Gregory Zitelli

[Mickey]

Hello Greg,

Repeating what I said to redwing concerning his project, I would love to playtest this sometime if possible

-M

[Marshall Burns]

So, if you run out of Vitality and Influence, then you're reduced and your only defence against getting "gotten" (I love that, by the way) is to run, just like in the movies?  Is that correct?  If so, I think that's neat.  Assuming that there's a way to earn Vitality and Influence back; is there?

It would also be neat if there was a way to accomplish something by being "gotten," or at least by spending your Safety.  I'm not sure how that would be implemented, but it's a thought.

-Marshall

[Illetizgerg]

Hello Greg,

Repeating what I said to redwing concerning his project, I would love to playtest this sometime if possible

-M

As I think I mentioned earlier in this topic, I am incredibly paranoid, so I'm probably going to stick to my small group of friends for the time being. The other thing is that a lot of the game has to do with the craziness of players' skills (as became obvious during the first, very brief playtest), and I'm not sure that would translate all that well to a PBP or IM setting. I really appreciate your interest, though.

So, if you run out of Vitality and Influence, then you're reduced and your only defence against getting "gotten" (I love that, by the way) is to run, just like in the movies?  Is that correct?  If so, I think that's neat.  Assuming that there's a way to earn Vitality and Influence back; is there?

It would also be neat if there was a way to accomplish something by being "gotten," or at least by spending your Safety.  I'm not sure how that would be implemented, but it's a thought.

-Marshall

The way I have it right now is that when your Safety runs out you are "gotten", similar to health and dying in other games, so you need to be cautious of it. If your Vitality is reduced to zero then you can still fight, it's just that you will get no Vitality, so you will be very weak, consequently running is probably the best option. In this way safety is a measure of how much stuff can happen to you before you are "gotten".

I'm not really sure how exactly I'm going to handle your Safety and stats regenerating. On the one hand I could say that Safety recovers quickly and stats recover slowly, meaning that when you get to a "safe zone" or a calm moment in the game your Safety starts going back up, however taking actual damage recovers slowly (which seems more realistic). On the other hand, I was thinking of having Safety recover slowly (making it more like the movies where no one is really safe) and have your stats regenerate quickly (it's bandaged so it's better).

The one concern I have is that I want to handle damage to Vitality and Influence in exactly the same way, for the sake of simplicity. If I was going to have it take a long time for you to recover damage to your stats it might get awkward when it comes to your Influence, although it might just liven up the game even more ("Ow, that zombie hit me in the charisma and now I can't seduce men quite as well!").

The way I have things set up right now is that your Safety is handled in little clumps called Brackets. When you take damage it begins to fill your top Safety bracket until it is full, at which point you take damage to a stat, and you move to the next bracket. What I could do is say that at the end of combat (or at least when things get relatively safe) you regain your stats and your current bracket is cleaned of damage, however you cannot move up in brackets, so most of your Safety damage is permanent.

The last thing on my mind is having more than just dynamic Vitality and dynamic Influence; specifically, I was trying to figure out a way to make Perception something that you can lose due to a loss of consciousness. The one problem is that many of your attack skills use both Vitality and Perception, and if they were both going to be dynamic then it would be hard to have to keep track of everything.

- Gregory Zitelli

[Mickey]

Hahaha okay that's understandable

Perhaps in the future though some online playtesting might be a good way to help solidify some of the concepts in your mind ie what works and what doesn't -particularly the part where you have to actually explain to people how the game works (which is always interesting xD)

I was going to read through all the posts to try and grasp the game concept, but I think I would rather hang out till your ready to playtest it with the forum (whenever/if-ever your ready to do so), that way I would be 'new' to the game essentially

Thought: they should have an introductions topic in this forum, so that people can meet and greet and whatnot...

Anywhoo good luck with the project

[Marshall Burns]

Okay, so, what do you think about "spending" Safety?  To maybe to something like protect someone else who's almost out of Safety?  Do you have support for that sort of thing?  'Cause I think that'd be way cool.

[Illetizgerg]

I'm thinking of allowing entire Safety brackets to be used in order to allow other characters to re-roll dice. Based on what I have now each character should have between 4 and 10 brackets, although I'm not sure how much damage each bracket will hold.

- Gregory Zitelli