Armored Soldier Valkyrion: A Mech-Type of RPG

[Adam Schiller]

Greetings to all. After lurking around for a week or so, scoping-out the myriad of creations being said here, I finally summoned the gumption to talk about my own games. Admittedly, I had no idea until recently that there was even an independent gaming scene out-there. A breath of fresh air, I tell you!--and this is what I hope to offer in my own games, as well.

I designed ARMORED SOLDIER VALKYRION in mid-2007 with specific aims to capture the feel of a military science fiction universe, complete with alien invasion, political unrest, and advanced war machines. As a game master (GM) for many years with other systems, I had always preferred simpler alternative more-common systems, and from a certain perspective, balancing the "hard SF" premise with "simple, no-nonsence gaming" has created a unique problem for me as a designer.

Before going any further, I have used IndyPlanet to publish the first book here. The main website for the books is as http://www.doukeshi.net .

In short, I am wondering today how to effectively balance the ideal that, on one hand, the reader should be "sucked in" to the universe and be able to experience it for themselves (achieved through provision of data and description), whereas on the other hand, they should never be bogged-down by the need to read-through an entire book or memorising stat rolls and such. Perhaps, as with all gaming, this balance is ultimately stricken by the game master himself, but from my perspective (as the writer and creator), ensuring that the reader understands their ability to control their own experience is something which worries me.

The other problem (which I will try to keep brief) is how to effectively "break" people's misconceptions that because I, as a traditional SF writer, have paired myself with a Japanese-inspired artist, the snap-judgment that we are effectively running a Big-Eyes-Small-Mouth operation, here. Once again, striking the balance is difficult to achieve, and any suggestions as to how to portray this to the reader would be much appreciated.

Thank you very much for reading. I look forward to becoming more-engrossed than ever in the culture here.

Sincerely,
Adam Schiller

[Anders Larsen]

Hi, and welcome to The Forge!

In short, I am wondering today how to effectively balance the ideal that, on one hand, the reader should be "sucked in" to the universe and be able to experience it for themselves (achieved through provision of data and description), whereas on the other hand, they should never be bogged-down by the need to read-through an entire book or memorising stat rolls and such. Perhaps, as with all gaming, this balance is ultimately stricken by the game master himself, but from my perspective (as the writer and creator), ensuring that the reader understands their ability to control their own experience is something which worries me.

I can not give a concrete answer when I do not know more about your game, but in general I would say that the typical player will be more engaged in a game where there are a strong focus on the parts of the fiction which are relevant for their character. Stuff that happen far away from the character or that the character do not have the power to affect, is not very interesting for the player. It can be there to create some background color, but too much focus on it can make the player feel that his character is unimportant for the game, and that will make him lose interest for the fiction.

It is also important that the player feels that he have come control over the stuff that is important for his character. Most players will lose interest for the part of the game they do not have any influence on.

So actually by reducing the stuff that is not relevant for the character, and  focus on the cool stuff character can do in the game, it is possible to "suck in" the players with less text.

So here is what you should ask yourself:

* What part of the setting is important for the story you want to tell with the game, AND is important for the characters?

* How can the character affect these parts of the setting, and how does these parts of the setting affect the characters?

* How does the rules support this interaction between the characters and the setting?

I hope this helps.

- Anders

[whiteknife]

The site does have a very anime-esque feel to it. However, I liked it. I thought the layout was kind of cool (although on the front page you linked to, up top it says "roleplaying games" "graphic novels" and "technical guides" which were underlined and I clicked on them, but they weren't hyperlinks. You might think about making those link to the relevant sections. Other than that though, I thought the character lines with the heading revealed by mousing over them was cool.

Hmm...I don't know how to get past the "anime feel". You could try just saying that you have Japanese influences but aren't full on anime (something like "traditional sci-fi with anime mecha sensibilities" or something, I'm not sure. Or you could just embrace it. Being "anime" isn't necessarily a bad thing you know.

In any case, good luck with the game.

[Adam Schiller]

I appreciate the feedback so far, guys! Thank you!

...in general I would say that the typical player will be more engaged in a game where there are a strong focus on the parts of the fiction which are relevant for their character. Stuff that happen far away from the character or that the character do not have the power to affect, is not very interesting for the player. It can be there to create some background color, but too much focus on it can make the player feel that his character is unimportant for the game, and that will make him lose interest for the fiction.

Truth be told, I've been thinking all day about what you said, here, as the next book is in-development. You're absolutely right on all counts, but I think that it is what bothers me the most as a designer. With Valkyrion, the books aim to do two things at once: Act as technical manuals and story books while simultaneously giving the player something fun to do with their gaming time. Off the top of my head, I think of the dozen or so Star Trek non-fiction books I have laying around, and know that, through these types of manuals, the fictional world gains more meaning and understanding. While on the other hand, I think of the RPGs I've collected over the years and consider how the town descriptions, conflict overviews, and even minute NPCs contributed to my experiences in similar ways.

Perhaps I am in the minority when I say that I tend to gravitate toward set-story and data-heavy RPGs, as they give me ideas to extrapolate; there's never been a single RPG book where I fully-followed the book's given plots. That being said, I've also been told numerous times by supportive friends that the majority of RPG-players WANT to ride on rails, WANT to be given instructions, and WANT to be able to affect the main story, even at level one. To these, I cannot disagree, but to no small extent, the mere idea of brand-new characters making great affects is contradictory to the nature of military science fiction--that is, you're a grunt until you become a heroic grunt until you get put behind a desk and flip the desk on your superior and go rogue and steal a ship to defeat "the real enemy" and come back where only your charisma will save you in front of a court martial but even then you've broken the rules so you're imprisoned and... :-) Well, there's a chain-of-command. How do you guys honestly feel that this can translate into gameplay for the majority of game-players?

Hmm...I don't know how to get past the "anime feel". You could try just saying that you have Japanese influences but aren't full on anime (something like "traditional sci-fi with anime mecha sensibilities" or something, I'm not sure. Or you could just embrace it. Being "anime" isn't necessarily a bad thing you know.

I can totally follow what you're saying, here, but I wish it were that simple. I have shared Valkyrion on SF-oriented websites and been bastardised for "copying the Japanese." I have shown it around on animé-oriented websites and been criminalised for adhering to realistic premises and refusing to include random slapstick. Effectively, I feel the same way as you--that having a Japanese-influenced artist is not a bad thing--but the hardline market doesn't see it that way. It's one of the great infuriations from which both myself and my artist suffer, knowing that the organised fanbases (which are key targets, I feel, in marketing an independent book) refuse to acknowledge the wonderful world we've created for opposite reasons. I could make my world "more animé," but that's not exactly a prospect I look forward-to, and I could instruct the artist to make her artwork "more American," but that's a horrible thing to do to an artist.

As a follow-up question, then: Do you feel that ignoring the "distrust," so to speak, and simply offering it on store-shelves as a self-sufficient book is enough? I like your idea of "animé mecha sensibilities," as it comes-off with both an "I'm not a poseur" and a "but I know what you're thinking" attitude. At this point, I wouldn't doubt that such a change in marketing strategy would offer ARMORED SOLDIER VALKYRION a stronger selling point to our loyal shop-owners as well as to those interested online. To supplement this, do you think that a section of the book (either two pages or twenty, whichever works) which describes "how to play this like animé" and "how to play this like SF" would be helpful and serve to make it stand-out a bit more?

Thank you all again for your replies. Let me know if you would like any feedback on your games, as well, and I'd welcome the chance to offer-up what I can.