New RPG idea Frozen Dawn RPG

[Alokov]

I think I may limit the number of fear points you can take to the number of points you have in beliefs (combined) or it could be that number plus a certain fixed number or mod. Not sure if this is a good idea or not but I thought I'd throw it out here.

[Callan S.]

I think, looking at your big conflict of about four factions and how they just don't get along together (scourge especially, of course), your better off playtesting what you've got (even if that means alot of just making it up as you go) and seeing how much that big conflict is engaged by characters in moment to moment play.

It's easy to get caught in analysis paralysis and keep changing little things - I think it'd be better to have a quick session and it be a collapse and catch on fire (so to speak) disaster than keep trying to fiddle things in advance. Though I'll admit, are the other people your playing with okay with having a session fail badly, since they know it's part of development (and they want to help with development). Or do they expect entertainment, more like a traditional audience expects entertainment when they go to a show? Hopefully they are more of a playtesting crew and are willing to potentially take some bad play on the chin as doing their part in the games development. And if you run it and it instead goes swell, I am jelous... >

[Alokov]

I think, looking at your big conflict of about four factions and how they just don't get along together (scourge especially, of course), your better off playtesting what you've got (even if that means alot of just making it up as you go) and seeing how much that big conflict is engaged by characters in moment to moment play.

It's easy to get caught in analysis paralysis and keep changing little things - I think it'd be better to have a quick session and it be a collapse and catch on fire (so to speak) disaster than keep trying to fiddle things in advance. Though I'll admit, are the other people your playing with okay with having a session fail badly, since they know it's part of development (and they want to help with development). Or do they expect entertainment, more like a traditional audience expects entertainment when they go to a show? Hopefully they are more of a playtesting crew and are willing to potentially take some bad play on the chin as doing their part in the games development. And if you run it and it instead goes swell, I am jelous... >

I think you're right, I know I have an Analysis Paralysis problem. About my group. They're all teens and most of them don't know that any game besides D&D exists or that any game can be anything but a dungeon crawl (drives me insane but, well, they are my friends) so I'm a bit scared of presenting them with such a "radical" game. Also, one of them is a neo con (which are the group that the Scourge parodies BLATANTLY) don't want to offend him. If I can find playtesters I would love to do it, otherwise, well . . .

[Alokov]

Ok, I have a default start point for the playtest adventure, and the default one for cons. The players are all running/hiding from the Scourge (great way to slot backgrounds in and for character development. Whaat did you do to tick them off?) and, at least for this adventure, meet in a warehouse where they decided to hide. This may become the default setup for all games (minus the warehouse). I did realize, however, that I probably need some sort of system for handling things besides just "belief battles." Fights, chases, disguises, stealth, anything that might be expected to come up frequently in-game. Haven't thought of one yet, but it's 6 AM, so that's not surprising. Anyway, I keep expecting to wake up any minute, I can't believe I've come this far from that original mental image of an eskimo with an AK. And in so short a time. This is incredibly cool.

[Alokov]

As per usual, as soon as I left I came up with more stuff (darn you, Murphy's Law).

For the combat: spontaneous system in which all players and GM write (or type) their actions. they then slide  the peices of paper into the center of the table (or tirn around the computer if typing) and show each other their actions. Unsure how to determine who wins/loses. Possibly based on descriptiveness (within limits of plausability of course)?

For non-combat skill test etc. I think I may steal a mechanic from an old free-form game my friend and I used to play in my basement. Each character gets 2 "feats" and 3 "skills." Skills are general things like, shooting, disguise, oratory. Feats are more specific, like accuracy with rifles, or, mimicry, etc. I'll probably change the numbers, but still, pretty similar to its original form. As for resolution, I'll probably use a Ubiquity-style mechanic. We originally used coin flips. You get a certain number of flips, based on your skill. For untrained skills, you get one flip and you have to win it or fail. Each rank you have in an applicable skill/feat, gives you an extra flip, but you still only have to succeed on one. If you succeed on more than are necessary you get extra degrees of success. Every rank an opponent has in an applicable skill/feat as well as other factors, such as bad weather, a slippery suface, whatever, adds one more flip you have to win in order to succeed. You can burn fear points to give you the equivalent of an extra rank per point untill the adrenaline wears off, but you have to narrate how your belief "kicks in" and the GM can spend his fear points similarly. He can also initiate a belief duel, if appropriate, by "seeing and raising" your point bid. In fact, I think I'll use this for combat as well, but keep the spontaneity bit, cause I've always wanted that in an RPG. Initiative order and its ilk have been a pet peeve of mine from the beginning.

Oh, and now Nathan gets a credit on the game like he wanted. He designed the coin-flip system. 

[Alokov]

Hey. Just in case I wasn't clear about the whole skills vs. feats thing, here's a stat block I did for Mad Eye Moody using this system.


Skills: Auror Training x3 (gives bonus to DADA stuff) (improves vision, plus special powers) Experience/rep x1 (he's a badass and everyone knows it) Contacts x1 (if you play the game long enough you get some friends) Cool DADA gear x1 (self-explanatory) Order member x1 (access to backup, gear, intel, etc.) Personal friend of Dumbledore x1 (Duh) Paranoia x1 (hard to sneak up on, etc)

Feats: Mad-Eye (special vision powers) Think Like a Death Eater

Flaws: (allows more feats and/or skills) Cripple: x2 (wooden leg, harder to be quiet and slower and harder to hide) Paranoia x1 (a bonus and a detriment) Enemies (too many people want him dead, eventually it's gonna catch up to him)

Hope this helps. I can do Lupin too, if you want.

I also decided that you only get 1 feat unless you take flaws. If anyone takes issue I can change it back. I may have gone overboard with him but it was fun.

This post was for a game I was trying to start, so if any of it doesn't make sense, that's why. I forgot about the flaws thing but it's a great idea (I think) especially for this setting.

So, hope that helped clear things up.

One final point. This is the only system I can ever do spontaneous character generation for. I never thought ahead at all about Moody's stats, just wrote them in stream of consciousness.

There will not be a hard and fast list of skills/feats for this game, I don't think it's necessary and I muchh prefer not to include one. The beauty of this system, to me, is how user-friendly it is. Especially for GMs like myself, who can come up with stories in the blink of an eye, but can't getr stats done in days.

Hope I don't sound too self-obsessed or anything (especially since I didn't even design the system, with the exception of the flaws part).

[Alokov]

I realized that I don't really have a way to handle health. I could, of course, just do it with plain vanillla hit points but I don't particularly like that mechanic. I think I'll take a page out of Chad Underkoffler's book here. Every time you take a "wound point" you take a cumulative -1 to everything. Once all, or a certain number of, your skills have been reduced to zero due to wounds, you fall unconscious and/or die. If you start out with +0 or llower in a skill, it has to be reduced to a certain negative number before it counts as being "disabled/" Very rough mechanic, but I like the basic framework.

[AcaBerry]

Thanks

[Alokov]

Thanks

For what? The example? Your welcome anyway.

[Alokov]

Oh, and, while you get experience, not sure exactly how much yet, you can only spend it on skills you used during the last adventure/encounter/however long it's been since you last spent XP.

[dindenver]

Alokov,
  One thing sprang to my mind when you said neo-con.
  That is how the neo-cons run, isn't it? By fear.
  So, maybe people change their beliefs when they are no longer afraid. Like if you can make it through a conflict without spending fear points, you get a change your beliefs free card?

  I dunno, it is just an idea. But I like the idea that the guy who can change his mind is the one that is not afraid...

[Alokov]

That's the point of reducing your beleifs to zero. And that's why I have negative effects to using fear points as well as positive ones. How about if you get through an encounter without using fear points you take one less in bonus or one more in penalty to rolls/flips to force you to act on your fear. For example, if you have a fear "red heads are of the deil" it would be a flip to determine if you are forced to attack/run away from any red-haired person you meet. Again very rough and very confusingly written, but I just realized that people might be more inclined to take fear pointsthan not to, so I thought I might need something to discourage that.

[Alokov]

I realized that it might be better if I changed somee of the terminology. Normal points in beleifs are now just "conviction points." Fear points are taken if you want to add more to a skill than you've got in a relevant beleif. This bonus only lasts for the duration of the encounter, but the fear point/s stay. For every fear point you have, you take a penalty to trying to "go against" your fear, such as trying to negotiate with someone you believe to be evil. If you take ten fear points in any one belief, you must make compulsion rolls to avoid fleeing from, attacking/whatever whatever you're that afraid of. For every point over ten, you take a -1 to compulsion rolls.

There, now that's much more in line with what I want.   

[Alokov]

Oh and you can still gain fear points by encountering stuff that the GM thinks would scare you. This is why Scourge members start off with so many fear points, cause they've been indoctrinated so heavily.

[Callan S.]

I think you're right, I know I have an Analysis Paralysis problem. About my group. They're all teens and most of them don't know that any game besides D&D exists or that any game can be anything but a dungeon crawl (drives me insane but, well, they are my friends) so I'm a bit scared of presenting them with such a "radical" game. Also, one of them is a neo con (which are the group that the Scourge parodies BLATANTLY) don't want to offend him. If I can find playtesters I would love to do it, otherwise, well . . .

Well, I'm in Melbourne, Australia, in terms of playtesting. And I'm not sure play by post would do your ideas credit (I shouldn't put you off by saying this, but at the same time I don't think it would do your ideas credit).

I'm thinking the way to handle it is to preserve the traditional gaming nights, but set up a series of radical gaming nights (or whatever you want to call them). Much like I talk about here. Perhaps after two traditional sessions, you do a radical night - and have several of them, like four, so it really gets a work out. If you can arrange something like that with your friends, you may get a proper playtest.

As I say in the link, if you think of the traditional game as 'yet another bloody dungeon!' they'll think of the new game as 'yet another bloody indie/freaky game'. You get what you give. Well, maybe even if you respect and support the traditional game, they might still think that way - it takes that chance risking of respect for their dungeon crawling to get the chance of them paying some respect to something different. And as I said, you make it a specific night, so it's clear it's not just the usual game night thing.