New RPG project I'm proud to be a part of...

[Jared A. Sorensen]

Here's a teaser. More images are available on the Studio Ronin site.
http://www.studioronin.com/catalogue2/prints/Print103.htm

Quite the list of Forge luminaries. ;)

We're very much in the prelim. design phase but it's developing into something really cool and weird. Feel free to ask questions but please be aware that I won't be able to answer all of them at the moment.

- J

Edit: Jurgen and Matt, feel free to chime in as well. I don't think Derek Guder haunts the Forge...do ya, Derek? And yes, AFAIK this RPG does qualify as "indie" in the Forge sense of the word.

[Paul Czege]

Death
Dream
Alreadyness?
Fate

How much of the game will be in German, Jared? What does "alreadyness" mean to you?

Paul

[Valamir]

cool graphic...might want to spell Matt's name right though ;-)

[Jared A. Sorensen]

I have no idea what "alreadyness" means. And damn, didn't even notice Matt's name was spelled wrong.

As for the language, I'm pretty sure that the German edition will be 100% German. Hah.

The RPG will be in English.

- J

[Rich Forest]

Nice teaser.  Here's my question--what do characters do?

Yeah, it's an oldie, but a goodie.  

And I think I can clarify the "already-ness" question.  Although it's hard to make out in the image, there's an umlaut over that "o."  So it's not "alreadyness."  It's "beauty."  Those two little dots make all the difference.

Rich

[Jared A. Sorensen]

Nice teaser.  Here's my question--what do characters do?

Yeah, it's an oldie, but a goodie.  

And I think I can clarify the "already-ness" question.  Although it's hard to make out in the image, there's an umlaut over that "o."  So it's not "alreadyness."  It's "beauty."  Those two little dots make all the difference.

Ah, beauty...that makes much more sense, esp. in context.

Anyway, "What do ya do?"

You change the world. And I'm not talking about "you do X and then because of this the world changes a bit..." I mean, you change the world. People live or die because you wished it so.

That's the short version.

Essentially, the characters are wanderers in the classic Mad Max/Shane mold (not surprising as the game's vibe is very post-apocalyptic/western/weird fantasy -- Dust Devils and Sorcerer & Sword will be mentioned, natch). When you encounter stuff, you deal with it...or not. But the Narrativist Premise of the game is, "Do you follow the dream or do you sink into decay?"

[Paul Czege]

Although it's hard to make out in the image, there's an umlaut over that "o."

Ugh. My decrepit monitor at work was clearly not equal to the task. Thanks, Rich.

But the Narrativist Premise of the game is, "Do you follow the dream or do you sink into decay?"

Could be cool. Metabarons, from my skim, seemed to be flirting with a similar Premise with the "can you find a source of honor or will you succumb to the necro-dream" stuff, but I was deterred by the crunchiness of the character sheet. What kind of stuff will we see on the Decay character sheet Jared?

Paul

[Jared A. Sorensen]

What kind of stuff will we see on the Decay character sheet Jared?

Cool. I'm doing primary game design on this sucker so this is kinda my department. Keep in mind that this is all vaporware at this point.

The character sheet is going to emphasize *character*. No attributes, no skills, no numbered stats to speak of (more or less...definitely not in the traditional sense of stats). Inter-character bonds will be explored and the primary game mechanic deals with metagame stuff and narrative control.

One cool thing: character sheets are divided into two basic areas. The first area NEVER changes. It's completely static. The second area is just the opposite...it's completely dynamic and will change before the game, during the game and after the game (think of it like a perpetual form of character generation and you're not far off...I got the idea from workin' on Black Lipstick).

Another idea we have is to create a unique character sheet tailored to each type of character you can play (there are only three "types" of PC in the game).

[Rich Forest]

Ok, here I am again with the next obvious question:

What are the three types of characters you can play?

Rich Forest

[Jared A. Sorensen]

Ok, here I am again with the next obvious question:

What are the three types of characters you can play?

Rich Forest

I'm taking inspiration from Trollbabe (et al) by saying that you can only play specific character types -- so it's not one of these "play anything" games (like, you can't play a cook or a blacksmith).

The three character types are:

Ronin - human wasteland warriors. A bit of a gunslinger/samurai type crossed with Nekro-99 (from the film "Wizards") and Nausicaa from the eponymous Miyazaki/Studio Gihbli anime.

Doll - Zombie prostitutes. Ala the Companions Guild from "Firefly" -- albeit with a necrophilia thing going on.

Ferrant - Big, fuck-off mutant guys.

And when I say "guys," I mean guys. Dolls are always female and Ferrants are always male. One thing we're seriously considering is having a metagame rule where your gender determines what character type you play. Men can be male Ronin or Ferrants. Women can play Dolls or female Ronin.

[Jason L Blair]

One thing we're seriously considering is having a metagame rule where your gender determines what character type you play. Men can be male Ronin or Ferrants. Women can play Dolls or female Ronin.

Jared, you seriously need to chill on your cross-gender phobia. Having all Ronin be men and all Dolls be women is fine, whatever. But extending that to the players is just, well, retarded. And yes, I've heard your rationale behind it, but your rationale is really not that rational.

I only say the above because I respect your work and the work of Studio Ronin. To see that second part implemented would cause me to skip the book. Not that you rightly care, but there you have it.

[Jared A. Sorensen]

Jared, you seriously need to chill on your cross-gender phobia. Having all Ronin be men and all Dolls be women is fine, whatever. But extending that to the players is just, well, retarded. And yes, I've heard your rationale behind it, but your rationale is really not that rational.

I only say the above because I respect your work and the work of Studio Ronin. To see that second part implemented would cause me to skip the book. Not that you rightly care, but there you have it.

Phobia? I wouldn't go that far. But to be fair, you also won't be able to play a hobbit or an elf if you're a human being.

[Paul Czege]

Hey Jared,

One thing we're seriously considering is having a metagame rule where your gender determines what character type you play.

What do you accomplish, from a gameplay standpoint, by having the constraint? I think the important thing to take away from Jason's post is that as a constraint, the mechanic comes across as personal bias, as opposed to facilitating a gameplay design objective. Have you considered applying different reward mechanics to cross-gender play? What about different chargen mechanics?

Paul

[Jared A. Sorensen]

What do you accomplish, from a gameplay standpoint, by having the constraint? I think the important thing to take away from Jason's post is that as a constraint, the mechanic comes across as personal bias, as opposed to facilitating a gameplay design objective. Have you considered applying different reward mechanics to cross-gender play? What about different chargen mechanics?

Hahaha...okay, here we go for a ride on this train.

If it comes across as a personal bias, it's because y'all know my personal feelings on the subject. But really, the game hinges on a whole yin-yang kind of thing that I really wanted to hammer down in the mechanics. Jason mis-quoted the text, anyway -- human characters have no gender bias. Just the half-breeds. Personally, I think it's interesting to separate the characters on a metagame level.


RANT MODE ON
I DON'T BELIEVE FOR A SECOND THAT "PRETENDING" TO BE SOMEONE IN AN RPG GIVES YOU ANY GREATER INSIGHT INTO THAT CHARACTER.*
RANT MODE OFF

Plus, guys playing sexy zombie prostitutes squicks me the hell out.

Besides, if the most Hated Man in Roleplaying won't buy my game...I figure that's gotta mean something, right?

* Feel free to start a new topic in the *main forums* if you really wanna discuss this.

[Paul Czege]

Plus, guys playing sexy zombie prostitutes squicks me the hell out.

Okay, a 320+ lb, 6'7" male player with a thing for zombies just emailed and told me that with Decay, there's no way in hell he's going to play anything other than a zombie prostitute. Now you gotta help me reign this shit in. A constraint mechanic that's otherwise un-integrated with the rest of the game is too easy for a play group to ignore. How about if the Dolls have a "Crippling Necrosis" score equal to the player's shoe size, something like that?

Paul