ex-mas (Santa Claus is Coming to Town; he should stay there)

[Green]

Premise: The players portray the elves of the North Pole in the midsts of a civil war, being either elves loyal to Santa or elves whose allegiance lie with the rebellion.

Summary:  For 1,000 years, they have worked non-stop for 364 days a year, making all the toys that kids enjoy around the world.  He only works once a year as a glamorized delivery boy, but he gets all the credit, all the publicity, all the milk and cookies.  Not anymore.  Some elves are tired of working in what is essentially a sweat shop and getting nothing for their efforts.  They are going to take it right to the Jolly Fat B*****d, and they're getting a 5-day work week and 8-hour shifts, or there won't be a Santa Claus to deliver the toys.

Ideas:  Elves are immortal, so currently the most they can do is beat each other senseless until a weapon is developed that can kill them permanently.  Elf magic is now limited to enchanting their toys, which the sneaky little critters use to devastating effect.  Imagine walking, fighting giant teddy bears and water guns that shoot...something else.

Working mechanics:  Using a d12 for the die, representing the 12 days of Christmas.  Using Departments as a ways of telling which toys the elves know how to make.  Stats called Cute, Cunning, and Skilled for social, mental, and physical tasks.  A Naughty and Nice pool to assist in particular tasks based on the intent of the elf in question.  Holiday Spirit as a stat that measures an elf's abilities to bounce back from the brink of death and to enchant toys to use as allies and weapons.

[xiombarg]

Working mechanics:  Using a d12 for the die, representing the 12 days of Christmas.  Using Departments as a ways of telling which toys the elves know how to make.  Stats called Cute, Cunning, and Skilled for social, mental, and physical tasks.  A Naughty and Nice pool to assist in particular tasks based on the intent of the elf in question.  Holiday Spirit as a stat that measures an elf's abilities to bounce back from the brink of death and to enchant toys to use as allies and weapons.

If you're going to have a naughty and nice pool, why not make it a really odd setting for Paladin? You could have Orders for both the loyalists and the rebels.

[Green]

I like it, but it's a bit too serious for what I'm looking for.  As I am envisioning it, Naughty helps you do destructive things, and Nice helps you do creative/helpful things.

Not to mention, I have to be a bit tight with spending for a while.

[lumpley]

Doncha hate it when you bring an idea to Game Design and everybody says hey! make it a mini-supplement for blahblah?

Hey! make it a mini-supplement for Elfs!

Or anyway read Elfs, at least.

-Vincent

[xiombarg]

Doncha hate it when you bring an idea to Game Design and everybody says hey! make it a mini-supplement for blahblah?

I think it's cool, actually, especially if I haven't heard of the system in question.

[Henry Fitch]

Cool setting idea. I like the idea of the Naughty/Nice pool, too.

I know it isn't what you want to here, but this would make a sweet Elfs campaign. Really sweet.

[Ron Edwards]

Hello,

H'm, the idea of inflicting Elfs onto a Santa-context strikes me as a little gross. For those of you who don't know, Elfs is a role-playing game from Adept Press which really, really kicks typical-fantasy role-playing in the balls. It's very funny but it ain't nice.

Green, I'd rather talk about your game idea. I have two points.

1) Is there any special reason why an existing game cannot be used for this idea? I think that Risus and Fudge would be good candidates, depending on the approach to play.

2) Naughtiness vs. Niceness seems out of place, if the player-characters are elves. It seems to me that N/N applies to kids, not to elves.

Best,
Ron

[Green]

Ron:

I've looked at those games, and the flavor for both strikes me as a little lacking for a game specifically designed for Christmas-like RPing.  I also like designing my own systems for the games I make up.  Generic systems can be fun, but with this game, I'm aiming to be very specific.

I included Naughty and Nice as Christmas stuff, not for elves per se.  I toyed with other ideas for these things, but the more I thought about it, the more it seemed like Naughty and Nice fit the ideas better and are easier to implement.

By the way, after reading the intro to Elfs, I agree that it would make for a most disturbing Ex-mas game