schismatic free rpg entering draft 3 feedback needed

[Ron Edwards]

Side note: James has demonstrated the CORRECT AND APPROPRIATE use of illustrations in Forge postings. (Another good idea would be to ask the person you're responding to if you can e-mail them the picture privately.)

Standards for including illos in your postings are now posted in the Site Discussion forum.

Best,
Ron

[poppocabba]

to answer the question why not a movie or anything else. the answers are...
1-I couldn't afford to make it a movie
2-I beleive in the moral imperitive to jump start peoples ability to translate verbal data into mental images
3-gamings' my bag
as for the current state of our mechanics. I would have to agree with phineas j. west that they are a " placeholder system". I am concerned that they do not reflect the cosmology,and flavor of the game enough, but every other mechanic I come up with lately smells to heavily of torg amber or feng shui to me. I do not think a completely open descriptor system would benefit setting well, because people are not aware enough of the primary sources involved in the setting.
here is the start of a racial description
Kipchak
Easily the most inhuman looking of all the races, but they don't start out that way. They ritually mutilate themselves, and slowly become more inhuman as they grow. The transformation rituals are a result of the tremendous pressure associated with the combats the Kipchak tribes hold to determine leadership. Naturally Large, and hairy the kipchak are represented by men in coarse gorilla-like suits. Most of the rank and file of the
kipchak hordes look like mini-sasqautch lite as they become fully of age, but it is not uncommon to see tails, claws, extra limbs, tentacles and other monsterous features added. Scarification, and tattoos are common,. It is unclear wether they have any relationship to the progressive mutations or not. The rituals also can cause madness that makes it impossible for the individual function as part of the tribe. These unfortunate individuals them become the result of even more unholy rights becoming riding beasts or even larger terrors with no memory of their humanity.  The kipchak are the least technologically advanced of the races but the make up for it by being savage, unpredictability, and a diverse array of units

[Ron Edwards]

"2-I beleive in the moral imperitive to jump start peoples ability to translate verbal data into mental images"

I buy that. To paraphrase ('cause that helps us know we understand one another, if we do), "Role-playing is a valuable creative activity."

Now for the next question: without using "just because" as an answer, why not use an existing system? What aspects OF role-playing that you want to emphasize have not been met by other systems? What range of games have you explored through actual play, and are you willing to try a few others that exist well outside this range?

Best,
Ron

[poppocabba]

Well, we started out with champions,and that fell through because it wasn't free form enough, and we had a rules rapists in the group
So why not use an existing sytem?
1-I have been noticing at cons lately that people have a lot of preconceived notions about existing systems, that are often not based on fact, and they color peoples ability to choose different games
2-I don't own the rights to different systems, and I want to distribute a complete package for free, so it can gain a wider audience while maintaining the ability to be adapted (see prior posts)
3- I don't think a third party system would add flavor to the games, and ultimately I am finding the idea of universal mechanics to be insipid at best. Simple rules that have a few simple mechanics directing relating to the game cosmology seems to be the logical route
4-I think prgs are really over priced in relation to most printed material,and am firmly in the camp that believes high quality free rpgs are the best way to grow the hobby

all this being said I have considered some of the free rpg systems around for adaptation currently I like shadowbindings,and might talk to them, but any other free systems people think would work would be taken as valued recommendations
for those readers bold enough to make it this far in the topic, please email me for the schismatic developers email newsletter if you are interested

[Paul Czege]

Christian Aldridge has been begging for plug-ins for Story Engine on the Hubris Games mailing list.

[poppocabba]

I liked maelstrom, but I doubt he would let me use the mechanics for my completely free rpg. and we did look at the system as a serious replacement in out early post-hero system stages,but found it was just a hair too lose to really contribute to game flavor more then our simple homebrew mechanic. I beleive I could adapt the system with a couple independant mechanics to give me what I need however
I also was really advocating amber at that time as well, and I think defining characters abilities relitive to one another is a good way to add some form and unity to a group. I have always contended that amber could be adapted much more universally then it is,and that the books really short sighted some good ideas in favor of being fan fiction.
all this being said the main things I would be looking for in a system, are period flavored ways of representing combat, wealth, and status
what rpg has quick musket rules that add flavor?
the other concern is having something that informs magic specific to the setting, not making it too fantasy or comic book  w/o being to complex

[Paul Czege]

You should take a look at the freely downloadable Sixguns & Whiskey and Retro Rockets plug-ins from the Hubris Games website. I think as long as you're not duplicating the game engine itself in your plug-in, he'd green light you. From a marketing standpoint, the purpose of having freely downloadable plug-ins is to drive sales and interest in the rulebook.

And if you're personally hesitant of making your game such that it requires users to purchase someone else's core rulebook, there's the freely downloadable Story Bones light version of the Story Engine rules.

Additionally, when I was considering developing a plug-in for Story Engine I asked on the mailing list about things like replacing the Chaos Aspect with something else and was impressed by how open Christian is to intelligent modifications of even the core mechanics of the rules.

[ This Message was edited by: Paul Czege on 2001-05-11 10:01 ]

[poppocabba]

well it is about 3.30 am, and I have just finished draft 3 as an incomparably better looking pdf. it comes to 41 pages w/ all the mechanics. please email me for draft copies, and hopefully tomorrow I will have downloads up as well from my website.
I also reveived a reply email from the story engine folks, and they were very reasonable and open to my (our) adaptation ideas to improve the mechanics.
I am really impressed with the retro rockets plug in.

[Paul Czege]

I also received a reply email from the story engine folks, and they were very...open to my (our) adaptation ideas...

Hey...that's cool. Christian really does seem like a great guy.

I'd also recommend taking a close look at Sixguns & Whiskey. I think it's indirectly a great tutorial for customizing Story Engine. When you look at an Affinity like "Train Legs" (which would probably be an Acrobatics skill and and a specialized Knowledge skill in any other game system), you realize that you need to think differently for Story Engine; you need to distill your Affinities out from the elements of the style of the genre you're developing, rather than basing them on over-elaborate separation into distinct skills.

I also learned a lot about making specialized items with descriptors (either magical items, or by extension, future tech) by looking at the magical ones in the Dublin's Tomb downloadable as well.

Good luck,

Paul

[poppocabba]

I went and posted to the hubris games site, and uploaded all the playtest files to their yahoo groups site
( http://groups.yahoo.com/group/Hubris-Games/files/ )
I have yet to get feedback from anyone other then the big cheese, so I beleive that anyone could download them from there.
I hope to have some more potent posts over the weekend.

[poppocabba]

I have just completed draft 3 revison 1 after some painful proofing, and also I have the first developers newsletter half way done. I also have the first printed copies as well, and as an added incentive to get you guys thinking on the topic, I will send out a free copy to anyone that makes a usable contribution to the game, as well of our promo cd-rom w/ 100s of megs of rpg related material, and additional reference materials for the setting.
the major overhaul is coming up, for draft 4 I am really getting into some major system revisions. right now I have decided to go with a hybrid system of characteristics with 7-8 system defined characteristics,and 2-3 player defined characteristics, and including some optional character templates. mostly I will still be going with some hubris games story engine mechanics. the other idea I am toying with is consquential character developement, and by that I mean having disadvantages based on skill set worked right into the generation, for example the more combat skills taken the more likely a combat injury is, and some mental disfunctions will also be related to unsupervised dealings with the supernatural.
The more I consider period texts, the more I realize the possibilities of the setting come to me. james had addressed some converns about clarity and possibilities of the setting, but with authors such as Dumas, Hawthorne, and Voltaire writing works that would all be possible with in the setting I am very excited as I watch the concepts mature