8-Bit theater: Freeform?

[szilard]

One element of character creation in Hero Wars and The Pool which works really well is to disallow certain phrases:

"Best"
"Always"
"Never"

... and so forth. These are really putting outcomes (play-stuff, story-stuff) into what should only be methods (i.e. personal character-stuff).

...so allowing such phrases only in superfeats might be a very effective and simple way of differentiating them from feats.

Stuart

[Colin Fredericks]

I actually worked up a much less freeform game inspired by 8-bit Theater, Adventurers!, and RPG World. You're welcome to take a look (and pass it around); maybe it will help spark some ideas.

It's called Console, and you can find a copy at http://www.rpi.edu/~fredec/Console.pdf

Any comments are welcome.

[Eric J.]

I just glanced at it, and it looks pretty good.  I really liked the whole 9999 cap.  It seems to emulate console gaming well.  Hopefully I can use some of the ideas.  Thanks.

I chose freeform, not because mechanics would be hard to do, but because the game is about awsome class powers and flashy dialog.

...so allowing such phrases only in superfeats might be a very effective and simple way of differentiating them from feats.

When I said that feats and superfeats would be different based upon guidlines; this is the type of thing that I meant.  Thanks for the advice.

[Jack Spencer Jr]

...so allowing such phrases only in superfeats might be a very effective and simple way of differentiating them from feats.

When I said that feats and superfeats would be different based upon guidlines; this is the type of thing that I meant.  Thanks for the advice.

Which is pretty much what I meant. What makes a superfeat different from a regular feat but things like Always and Never and so on. Which is what your description of the difference using the "Always wins at game" feat confused me. As a superfeat, he always won, as a regular feat he only won most of the time? If it reads he always won at games then he always won, super or no. Such was my thinking.

But at least not I can see a reason to have superfeats/hooks. You have only one always/never/etc feat and hook. The rest cannot be above "most of the time" which is clunky anyway.

In either case, Ron has a point. "Always wins at games" talks about in-play events. "Very skilled at games" sounds better and does not dictate in-play events. You could make "very" the super indicator so a regular feat here would simply be "skilled with games" This way you have a simple hierarchy and it will be easier to tell at a glance what is what. If you do not limit it to "very is for superfeats only," then you'll get silly things like "very very very very very skilled at games" and if you go that route, you might as well give up on the whole freeform idea in general.

I chose freeform, not because mechanics would be hard to do, but because the game is about awsome class powers and flashy dialog.

Tell me, have you developed a mechanic to reinforce this? You have the feats/hooks system to illustrate the nifty class powers. WHat encourages the snappy dialog?

[Eric J.]

Which is pretty much what I meant. What makes a superfeat different from a regular feat but things like Always and Never and so on. Which is what your description of the difference using the "Always wins at game" feat confused me. As a superfeat, he always won, as a regular feat he only won most of the time? If it reads he always won at games then he always won, super or no. Such was my thinking.

But at least not I can see a reason to have superfeats/hooks. You have only one always/never/etc feat and hook. The rest cannot be above "most of the time" which is clunky anyway.

In either case, Ron has a point. "Always wins at games" talks about in-play events. "Very skilled at games" sounds better and does not dictate in-play events. You could make "very" the super indicator so a regular feat here would simply be "skilled with games" This way you have a simple hierarchy and it will be easier to tell at a glance what is what. If you do not limit it to "very is for superfeats only," then you'll get silly things like "very very very very very skilled at games" and if you go that route, you might as well give up on the whole freeform idea in general.

Well, I think that I will restrict all feats and superfeats to 0 very's or whatever.  It will be something like: Wins at games

Tell me, have you developed a mechanic to reinforce this? You have the feats/hooks system to illustrate the nifty class powers. WHat encourages the snappy dialog?

Sorry, not yet.  I think that I will try to do this with the experience system.
Durring our play session, I found an overuse of powers and not enough of dialog.

Another thing that I need to produce is the character's ability on describing the world.  Oftentimes that is how new factors are introduced. Mabee I should have the GM take each player aside and tell them the detailes (5-10?) that he wants the character to introduce before each session .  Every time a character does this humerously, (s)he gains a bit.

[Jack Spencer Jr]

[quote="Eric J I think that I will try to do this with the experience system.
Durring our play session, I found an overuse of powers and not enough of dialog.[/quote]
You mean like the only way to gain experience is through snappy dialog? That can work, but what is the experience for? You mentioned the ability to change class. I don't see it being a big motivation. I mean, I wouldn't want to change my class if I had selected a class that sounds interesting. Perhaps if you elaborate on this.

Another thing that I need to produce is the character's ability on describing the world.  Oftentimes that is how new factors are introduced.

Do you mean a form of director stance? Maybe this is a better use for XP?

EDIT: Just now had a bit of inspiration. Right after I hit Submit. Naturally.

Here's my idea:

Players gain "points" through snappy dialog. This means that they can use their k3wl powers all they want or rack up huge body counts or treasure or whatever and it is meaningless if they don't quip something to go with it.

The GM will award one "bit" per bit of snappy dialog. I was going to say line, but you don't want your players counting lines. If they say something clever, they get a bit. That's it. You could use poker chips for this. (Don't use things like cookies or jelly beans. The players will eat them and then become very sad)]

A player can spend a bit to introduce a part of the environment. You can keep it just that simple or you can introduce a bidding mechanic a la Baron Munchausen so the player & GM can bid bits to introduce elements. I don't know about that.

What a player can also do with bits is spend them to gain more feats. How it would work is there are 8 bits in a byte, right? And one byte = one letter or number. So somewhere on their character sheet is the feat they're trying to gain. For every 8 bits they turn in, they can a letter. Once it's fully spelled out, they gain the feat.

I think the GM should spend more time working with the players to develop the feats and hooks to make sure they are worded properly. You kind of have to. In a regular RPG, the GM would be checking the players' math to make sure they spent their points correctly or whatever. This game lacks math like that, so you have to check the phrasing because that's what says what the character can and can't do.

[Eric J.]

I was going to do that, basically.  However, I'm not sure on what, exactly the bits should do.

Rather than relating them to the class change, they will allow for about two things:

Allow for a character to use a power that they really wouldn't have.  This will cost 8-bits.  There are several examples in 8-bit theater.  Red Mages use of a hypercube, Fighters ability to survive being crushed by the Armoure of invincibility without being harmed, etc.  This use of the bits can result in you gaining back half of the bits you spent if its appropriatlly funny.

You can spend 16 bits to gain a new feat and hook.  If this is appropriate for your class and is justifiably funny you get half of the bits that you spend back.  The reason why you don't just get a feat is that, the hook is supposed to make the feat funny, and can be just as usefull, since it is for comedy purposes and not achieving objectives.  You will achieve objectives.  That is a given, so it really doesn't make sense to try to have great ability from a meta-game point of view.  Characters are supposed to come off miserably incompetant in the long run.  Black Mages using their 9-th level spells on bees, running away from the simplest of random encounters etc....
 
You can earn bits by using snappy dialog.  Your abilities are only used to make it easier.  It is by paragraph though.  If you and another character have an interesingly funny conversation you will both gain one bit.  This should amount the average amount of bits per character per session to around ummm... 14?  This would allow them to take a special action about twice per session or gain a new feat/hook once.