Hard Travellin' - new game

[gentrification]

Hard Travellin' is a game wherein you play hobos in the early part of the 20th century. Drift into town, get tangled up in people's lives, drift out again before they drag you down. It uses The Pool as its core mechanic.

Design notes (goals, assumptions, etc.) are on the next-to-last page (click the tornado-looking symbol on the index page). I'm very interested in opinions, particularly from people who've had experience with The Pool, and particularly particularly from people who are conversant enough with the probabilities involved in The Pool to see whether the game will actually do more or less what I want it to do. I haven't had a chance to playtest this thing yet.

Oh, and if you're not keen on game fiction, just stick to the green-boxed text (except for the last two pages, which are not green but also not fiction).

[Mike Holmes]

Hmmm. What's to stop a Hobo from Skedaddlin' at the first sign of trouble? Before he gets entangled in any relationships. Which are, after all, the only thing preventing him from reaching Rock Candy Mountain? Also, is this for only one player, or will the hobos find themselves split up a lot as one by one they skedaddle? And won't that leave a lot of unresolved matters? Or is that part of the whole idea?

How about starting the character with ghosts?

Mike

[gentrification]

Hi Mike,

Unresolved matters is definitely the idea. Once you skedaddle, you don't ever go back and fix things. The loose threads just continue to haunt you in the form of ghost dice. You lose ghosts by not skedaddling in a later adventure. By helping little Jimmy Beaner today, you assuage some of the guilt you're carrying from abandoning Widow Parsons three months ago.

What's to stop a hobo from skedaddling as soon as the adventure starts?
Nothing, which is a design flaw. Originally, I had a rule where you can't skedaddle unless you have generated at least one wanderlust die, which would keep characters in the adventure at least long enough to make one roll (which probably means they've gotten tangled up at least a little). I can't remember why I scrapped that. I think I was worried about how often a person would actually roll boxcars. What if it never happens? But then you'd just stick through the adventure to the end, wouldn't you, and skedaddling wouldn't be necessary. Hmm. I think I'll put that rule back in.

Is this for one player, or will the hobos find themselves split up a lot?
I haven't thought of a good way to address this yet. In the literature, hobos don't usually stick with the same travelling companions for very long, so from a setting standpoint it makes perfect sense. But skedaddling essentially means the adventure's over for the guy who leaves, so he doesn't have much to do while the other characters work out their issues. Also, if one guy splits west and the other guy splits east three days later, someone is going to have to make a new character the next time everyone gathers around the gaming table. It's a toughie.

How about starting the character with ghosts?
That's probably a good idea. I was considering allowing players to gain one extra knack die for each ghost die they take at character creation, to a maximum of 4 (or 10 knack dice, total). I'm unsure whether that would be too many knacks to start with, though -- I'm interested in other people's experience playing Pool games for that reason.

Good questions. Thanks.

[Valamir]

One thing that came through in your flavor text is that most of the 'bos know a good number of other 'bos at least by reputation.

Why not have each player make up 3 or 4 or even 5 'bos

Each player randomly draws one of theirs at the beginning of a session and that's who's there.  When one of them skeddadles he gets shuffled back into the draw pile.

That also provides a little incentive to stick around and not skeddadle...players get a little attached their 'bo and if he beats it, who knows when their paths will cross again.

Also solves the problem of being out of the scenario.  Some new hobo is always riding or walking into town, sharing a lump by the fire, and hearing tell of the doings going on.

Gives a number of recognizable names of hobos that the current PCs know and have heard of too.

If you like you could even just have 1 big draw pot that all players share, so they never know who their going to play.

[Clinton R. Nixon]

Solutions for the above problems:

"What if a hobo skedaddles before everyone else?"

Well, that hobo's player is sittin' it out. That's a consequence of skedaddlin'.

You might want a rule where a skedaddled hobo can still help - he can donate some of his pool dice to another player and initiate a flashback scene where he told one of the hoboes still in the adventure something.

Example: The hobos come across an especially mean yard bull. James, who's playing Jimmy No-Pants, a hobo who's already skedaddled, says, "I'm giving David two pool dice. I told him about running across this guy before. He's got a big dog that likes to chase hoboes, but loves to chew on leather. If you run across this guy, remember to carry a little leather in your pocket to throw to the dog." David now has two pool dice he can roll to evade the yard bull.

"If one hobo splits west, and another east, what happens?"

Hard Travellin' seems like the sort of game you'd run episodically, anyway. That is, if Jimmy No-Pants goes east, and Jack Hop-Rail goes west, they'll have met up in the next episode, which might be months later.

[joshua neff]

Another solution to the "one heads west, another heads east" question: take a cue from Trollbabe (when it's available to all, that is) & run the 'bo PCs in two different places, getting involved in two different conflicts--that are connected thematically. Or connected by NPCs who are related in some way (either as family, by marriage, or business, or some other way).

[Tim C Koppang]

Each player randomly draws one of theirs at the beginning of a session and that's who's there.  When one of them skeddadles he gets shuffled back into the draw pile.

I'm going to become an official fan of this idea.  Just to expand a bit: If each player has a stockpile of lets say five characters he could design the group around a central theme - with each hobo representing a different aspect of that theme.  Then no matter which character is in play the player would still be able to maintain a certain amount of continuity.

I think the solution would both keep a group of characters together and prevent one player from sitting around with nothing to do if his character exits.  While a player wouldn't get the satifaction of playing only one character and developing only him, it would emphsize the wandering nature of hobos and work well to maintain that feel within the game.

It would also allow for a game that wants to tell multiple stories with many characters, but in the end come together to form a thematically complete whole.

[Mike Holmes]

I think Tim's right about Ralph's being right.

Mike