My Little Game Idea - An Update

[Galfraxas]

Hello Again,

Some of you may remember a post I made earlier about a game I was designing, a sort of COPS with magic thing. Well, anyway, I thought I'd post a small small update here just to let those who are interested know how it's going. Working by myself has made it a slow process, since I'm also juggling college and playing RPGs with this project. I know that if I did have more than me working on this, It would go faster, but there would probably be creative differences and stuff like that, but those can be worked out. Anyway, on to the update. I'm creating a rough sketch of a system and expect to have a version ready for people to read through by the end of the month. (Note: This will be a very background lite document.) The system I've come up with is based on the idea that each level of difficulty, lets say 1-20, is represented by a number of dice (say, 1 = 1d4, 20 = 5d20+3d10). Characters are represented by attributes and skills, which combine to form the second part of the system, the Target Number. To acheive a goal where fate comes into play, the difficulty dice are rolled, and if the die total is less than the target number, success is achieved. Rolling straight 1s is a critical success, and rolling maxes (4s on a d4, or 20s on a d20) is a Critical Failure, even if the total still beats the Target Number. The magic system is a lot more complex than I thought it would turn out to be, but I'm working on it as fast as I can. I'm considering creating a website for the game, but will probably just let people ask for a copy, at least for the early versions of the game. When I get something more stable, I'll create a webpage. That's it for now, feel free to post replies. :grin:

[Jared A. Sorensen]

Hey, Gal...

#1 - Peter from DoD was cool as hell, wasn't he? Try watching that movie with the color turned off...it's even better (like watching the action from the mall security cameras or something).

#2 - Cops w/magic. Cool. But how does the system you just described help with the game? Seriously, if the system doesn't matter then you can lift anything that already exists (which, most likely, is as good as anything else out there). But if it does matter...how and why does it matter?

[Galfraxas]

I'm not really sure if it does matter. At first, I thought about grabbing an already existing universal system and adding in the background info, but then I thought that It would be an interesting experience to create my own system. (Though I'll admit, it's been quite a headache.) I thought about going with a light system, but I like lots of rules once in a while. I thought about a very rules intensive system, but decided that I didn't want to work longer than I had to. So... I find myself taking the middle of the road. Not system-light or system-less, but not system-heavy either. In all reality, I think I'm just going to go with the flow and see how it turns out. Then I'll playtest it, and have others playtest it, and take all the comments and criticism and revise my work. I really really wish I could find some help, but have no such luck. All of my gaming friends are too busy with other stuff, or they don't think that indie game design is a wise hobby. (Either from the money making stand point, or the fact that they feel that they won't be taken seriously. I myself could care less about making money, although I'm not against the idea, and I don't care who sees it as long as somebody does.) :grins:
So, as you can probably tell by now, I have managed to confuse myself heavily, so I'll be quiet and wait for responses. (P.S. Peter from DoD was indeed the man. The only weird thing is that he does some show on Nickelodeon now... )

[Galfraxas]

Another Update From The Mind of Galfraxas:

I've been thinking about it for a few days now, and I decided today to change the system I am using. The system I was working on was getting rather complex, and was taking more time than I thought. So, I ditched it for a much simple system, this one also of my own design. In just under an hour I completed a rules-lite Generic system to use to power the game I am designing. I'm calling the system "The Fifth Trait", and I've typed up the bare-bones generic version as a text file. It comes in at just over a
single page. So, "Magical Crimes Division" (the working title of the game I'm working on) is now looking at a release toward the end of the month. Unlike "The Fifth Trait", it will be a snazzy RTF file. (If I had a copy of Adobe Acrobat, I'd use that. But I don't. Nyah.) The first version of MCD will probably weigh in at 20 pages, 30 if I get annoyingly detailed with my descriptions of stuff. The character sheet will be able to fit on an index card. As I stated before, any comments, questions, other stuff you want to post as a reply is cool with me.  

[hardcoremoose]

I have absolutely no idea what mechanics you have in mind for the game, but this is what I think would be cool...

Police procedure = red tape, right?  No one in the cop shows on TV ever accomplishes anything by doing it "by the book", so I'm thinking a mechanic that encourages players to play to that genre convention would be appropriate.  Depends upon what your intent with the game is, but I'm seeing it as cinematic, so I would try to push the characters to break the rules of police procedure.  I'm not saying let the players go Dirty Harry on the bad guys and just wax them at every street corner, but hostile interrogations, searches without warrants...all of that stuff would be fun.

And I wouldn't worry about the real-world legality of it all...at least not any more than the writer's of NYPD Blue do.  

Sipowicz busting renegade wizards...I could get into that.

Take care,
Moose

[Galfraxas]

Yet Another Update From Galfraxas:

I've decided to reduce the background down to the bare essentials to run the game, thus giving GMs the ability to run the campaign NYPD Blue style, as Moose recommended, Law and Order style, where the cops follow the rules of order to a tee, or Police Academy style, where the police haven't bothered to pick up a police manual from day 1, and they catch crooks in whatever twisted way pops up into their corrupted minds. There will be a small section covering crimes specific to magic (Sneek Peek: Most uses of Necromancy are outlawed, but the police may use whatever magic is deemed necessary.). There will also be a section on a criminal organization called The Order Of Galfraxas, a group of magical terrorists bent on world domination. That's all for now, post whatever replies you may have.

Galfraxas

[Marco]

Well, if you're looking for a system, we've got a free, universal RPG that has both modern-day and magic systems. It's JAGS (Just Another Gaming System) and you can check it out here:

http://jagsgame.dyndns.org/jags/index.jsp

Also: we have PDF technology (the game's PDF) so if you were interested in doing it as a JAGS source book we could PDF if (if you're offering it for free we might even host it if you wanted).

JAGS is (complexity-wise) about like GURPS. It's a point-based 'realistic' system. Firearms are pretty deadly (to normal people) and there's a good deal of work on things like hand-to-hand combat and the like.

Our magic system has over 300 spells and it's not too hard to make new ones.

If you're interested I invite you to have a look.
-Marco

[Marco]

I forgot to add that while you haven't gone into a lot of detail I really like your concept! A COPS + Magic game could be great!

-Marco

[Galfraxas]

I'm probably going to use the rules-light system I've come up with for the initial version of Magical Crimes Division, but I'll give anything a shot. Sooooo... I'll look over your system, and if I like what I see, I might use it. (I'm actually planning a second project, and I might use it for that. The second project is currently in the brainstorming stage, and I'm not ready to say much more than that.) It all depends on how I like the game using my system. I had an idea to create versions using 2 or 3 free, generic, systems other than my own, package them all together in a zip file, and send them to a few people for their opinions on the game in its different incarnations. Thanks for the info, and keep watching for more info in the near future.

(Side Note: I may be attending TrollCon (run by Troll Lord Games) this year, and I might, just might, run a demo or two of MCD... if I can get it worked out with the people in charge there.) :grin:

[Galfraxas]

Marco,

After skimming through just the basic JAGS material (the 3MB zip file), I've decided that, at this point in the creation process for MCD, it would be a rather sizeable setback to change the system to JAGS. However, there is a bright side. The second project I mentioned in the previous post, which is still nothing more than a figment of my imagination waiting to be molded, will probably use JAGS, for the sole reason that JAGS is infinitely more complex than "The Fifth Trait" (T5T is a 1 page text file, JAGS is several MB of .pdf material... big jump in complexity.) and I'm wanting to dabble in rules heavy RPG construction. (I consider MCD to be rules light.... )

Be sure to post replies and stuff.

[Marco]

Hey, that's cool! We know full well that JAGS isn't the best solution for everything. If you do use it for any world books we'd love to know (and offer whatever assistance we can!)

If your game, post the kinds of things you'd be looking for from a rules-heavy system and we can discuss how good a fit JAGS is/isn't.

-Marco
[http://jagsgame.dyndns.org/jags/index.jsp ]