New game: Frankenstein's Monsters (long)

[quozl]

In the year 1799, Dr. Victor Frankenstein discovered the secret to reanimating dead tissue. He used this knowledge and, to his dismay, created a monster. The monster killed Frankenstein's wife and then fled to the arctic wastes.  Frankenstein followed, found the monster, and destroyed his ill-made creation. This story was published in 1817 by Mary Shelley.

Years later, Dr. Frankenstein inherited a small castle in Transylvania. He moved there and repeated his experiments, hoping to improve the result and create a person that could function normally in society. Sadly, he failed again, creating another monster. The townspeople of Transylvania rallied together, and with pitchforks and torches, stormed Frankenstein's castle. The monster was killed and Dr. Frankenstein was imprisoned.

While in prison, Dr. Frankenstein mentally went over his experiments again in an attempt to discover what went wrong. At the same time, he plotted revenge against those who had jailed him. Eventually, he went mad with remorse and hatred. When Frankenstein was finally released from prison, he had become the archetypal mad scientist.

Dr. Frankenstein returned to his castle and began his experiments again but this time he set out to create monsters – grotesque freaks that would enact his revenge against the townspeople and the rest of the world. Fortunately for the world, this new plan of Frankenstein also failed. The monsters he created were indeed grotesque freaks but they yearned for acceptance, companionship, and even love....

In Frankenstein's Monsters, you take the role of a monster trying to gain its freedom. The Game Master (GM) plays the mad scientist, Dr. Frankenstein. He uses the monsters in order to rule the area around him, gain subjects for more experiments, and do anything else he wants done including cook his meals and clean his castle.

The monsters are tired of this and want to escape but the mad scientist has control over each of them that is hard to break. In addition, each monster has a love interest which gives them the incentive they need to resist Frankenstein's control and break free.

The game is about striving to gain freedom and how love helps fuel that desire and strengthens it but it is also about the possibility of sacrificing freedom for love.

Each player character (PC) has three attributes:

Love
Strength
Will

Strength can start at no lower than 6 and can be no higher than 10.
Strength and Will must be no lower than 1 and no higher than 5.
Each player starts with 13 points to distribute among the attributes.

Normal humans have attributes from 1 to 5 with an average of score of 3.

Whenever there is a physical fight between a PC and a normal human and the PC hurts the human, a point of love is lost. If the PC kills the human, a point of Will is gained and two points of Love are lost. If Love goes to zero, the PC becomes a monster in the worst sense of the word and can no longer be a PC.

If a PC is captured, a point of Will is lost. If Will goes to zero, the PC becomes a monster in the worst sense of the word and can no longer be a PC.

If there is a contested fight and the love interest of the PC is somehow related to the fight, add the Love score to Strength for purposes of the fight roll.

Dr. Frankenstein has the same attributes as a PC except that Will can be no lower than 10, not Strength. A total of 15 points are spent and all attributes must be at least 1.  

In order to fight the mad scientist, the PC must first conquer Frankenstein's Will. The contest is settled just as a normal fight except that Will is used instead of Strength. Also, Love can be added in if the love interest is somehow involved.

Everyone has a love interest including the PC's, Dr. Frankenstein (who loves his dead wife), and all humans. The love interest can be a person, place, or thing.

Each PC also has other monstrous abilities that come into play at appropriate times.

The Difference Engine

Higher total – Lower total = Difference

If the difference is zero (the totals are equal), each side rolls one die plus any dice from monstrous abilities. If the difference is five or more, the side with the higher total automatically gets total success, the side with the lower total gets nothing, and no roll is needed. If the difference is less than five, the side with the higher total rolls a number of dice equal to the difference plus one (plus any dice from monstrous abilities). The side with the lower total only rolls one die (plus any dice from monstrous abilities).  

Whichever side rolls the highest on a single die wins. Each die they rolled higher than the other side's highest die counts as a success. If there is a tie, the side with less dice wins with one success.

For example:
Jane rolls 4 dice:    5 4 3 2
Tom rolls 1 die:    3

Jane wins and gets two successes because her 5 and 4 were both higher than Tom's 3.

Each PC with a Will of 5 or less has a Monster Die as follows:

Will 5 – d4
Will 4 – d6 (of a different color than the other dice so it stays separate)
Will 3 – d8
Will 2 – d10
Will 1 – d12

Every time the PC needs to roll dice, the Monster Die is also rolled.  If it is the highest die rolled (or is tied with the highest die rolled), the monster still succeeds or fails according to the other dice rolled but now the Monster is in control and the PC does something bad instead.

Any thoughts on the above are welcome as well as how monstrous abilities should be handled.  Credit goes to Donjon and Shadows for system inspiration.

[Paul Czege]

Hey Jon,

You've got some very cool stuff going on with Frankenstein's Monsters. It's obvious to me from reading your post that we have very similar interests and think a lot alike. My own current design effort, My Life with Master, covers quite similar thematic territory. The player characters are the significant minions of a horrific and dysfunctional Master. The game features rules for Master creation by the play group prior to chargen. And although Victor Frankenstein is certainly one of the archetypal Masters, so are Miss Havisham, from Great Expectations, Dr. Moreau, Dracula, Dom Frollo from The Hunchback of Notre Dame, and any parental figure from a V.C. Andrews novel.

If you want to see the playtest rules I took to GenCon, just let me know, and I'll make them available to you. I'd love to hear what you think. But were I in your position, I can see that I might hesitate; and I'd totally respect you if you turned down the offer. I'm not sure I'd have wanted to be influenced by someone else's similar game when I was at the pre-playtest stage of my own design. I'm pretty happy with my own answer to the monster powers question in My Life with Master, for instance. But I'm not sure how well I'd have been able to continue with my own design effort if someone had showed me someone else's answer before I'd figured it out for myself.

Either way, I'll be following your development of Frankenstein's Monsters with interest. I think it's very cool to see the process of someone else producing different solutions to  creative challenges you've both confronted.

Paul

[Ron Edwards]

Hi Jon,

Here's my question: are you sticking with the early-1800s period in Europe, or are you opening up the concept to multiple times and places?

Best,
Ron

[quozl]

Hi Jon,

Here's my question: are you sticking with the early-1800s period in Europe, or are you opening up the concept to multiple times and places?

Best,
Ron

I am limiting this game to early 1800's, specifically 1820-1840.  I do have plans for bringing this into modern day, with the name Modern Monsters, which will focus more on modern mad scientists' genetic creations.  In this game, I am trying very hard to stick to the theme of Shelley's novel.

[quozl]

And although Victor Frankenstein is certainly one of the archetypal Masters, so are Miss Havisham, from Great Expectations, Dr. Moreau, Dracula, Dom Frollo from The Hunchback of Notre Dame, and any parental figure from a V.C. Andrews novel.

I've taken a lot of inspiration from the Masters above, expecially Dr. Moreau, but am surprised to see Miss Havisham there.  I might have to think about that.  It could fit in quite well.

If you want to see the playtest rules I took to GenCon, just let me know, and I'll make them available to you.

I think you're right about not seeing those playtest rules yet.  Our games sound very similar but (hopefully!) thematically different.  I think I'll wait until this game is done until I ask for yours.  Thanks for the offer and if you see some hurdle that I missed and you've already overcome, please point it out to me!

[quozl]

For anyone interested, I've figured out what to do about monstrous powers (good and bad) and just need to write up a playtest version so people can try it out.

If you want to see the playtest rules I took to GenCon, just let me know, and I'll make them available to you.

I think I would like to see these now that I have the mechanics for my game figured out.  Thank you!

[Paul Czege]

Jon,

I think I would like to see these now that I have the mechanics for my game figured out. Thank you!

I just sent you a private message.

Paul