Long Pig - Chapter 1 - Request for Comments!

[iago]

Here's my first draft of the first chapter, covering character creation and the basics of using your attributes.  Comments appreciated!

Chapter One: Roll The Bones

Who Are You?

We already know what you are.  You're a cannibal.  But there's so much more to a man than what he eats, isn't there?

So let's start with the what, and see if we can't work back from there to the who.  Decide, first, what the breaking point was, that moment from your past when you crossed the threshold and joined Club Cannibalism.  

Were you stranded without food but with companions?  Were you a dabbler in the occult who saw this as the route to real power?  Was it out of desperation, insanity, love, greed?

Once you've arrived at an answer to this, the rest of your form should begin to suggest itself.  The man stranded at sea was the ship's chef.  The occultist is a thin, reedy guy who just wants to be respected.  The glutton knows only how to relate to the world through his stomach and appetites.

These decisions should be made keeping the intended tone of the game in mind.  Black comedy played "straight" should try to keep the concepts within the confines of (marginal) plausibility, while something a bit more slapstick can accommodate the most ludicrous of character notions.

Example:
Bob knows what he is.  He's a cannibal.  He also likes the idea of playing his character as a commentary on the government.  This leads him to the root of his concept: he's ex-CIA, or so he believes, part of a scrapped research program that delved into the ramifications of cannibalism.  He works from there — he's a patriot, a dedicated American and proud of it.  He plans to riff during the game on how he only eats bad people, enemies of the government and the country.  He doesn't really believe that his program's been scrapped — the Agency's been corrupted from within, by those people, by those edible people, and he's had to go into deeper cover to wait for a signal to reemerge.  He often refers to how he needs to get back into contact with his "unit".  In the meantime, of course, he'll be continuing the research on his own.  By God, communism waits for no man!

Hidden Hunger

So now you know what your break-point was.  You have a decent idea of the sort of guy you were and are.  Now it's time to decide how much the moment you crossed over has turned into a passion.  Now it's time to decide how much you hunger for the flesh of mankind.

This is reflected by your appetite rating, which runs from one to six (though your gamemaster might wish to limit this initially to a cap of four).  You can choose whatever number within this range you like as your appetite.

Appetite translates into several effects in the game.

Appetite represents the intensity of the hunger you feel.  Someone with a lower appetite will be able to go longer between meals.  If your appetite is low, you have it under control.  Your mealtaking is likely refined, the kind that has a place setting and a nice Chianti.  Those with a higher appetite are themselves consumed, by hunger.  If your appetite is high, it controls you.  True feeding frenzies are not uncommon, and cleanup's a bitch.

Appetite translates directly into your chosen delicacies.  Later in the character creation process, you'll pick a number of body parts equal to your appetite rating.  

Appetite reflects your inner wendigo.  It ties directly into the supernatural effects of eating human flesh (be they overt, subtle, or imaginary in your game).  A low appetite yields few effects of low potency with decently long duration.  A high appetite grants many potent effects, at least for as long as your hunger is sated.

The particulars of all of this are covered in the next chapter.  For now, just rate your appetite.

Example:
Bob was trained by the CIA, so he's looking at a balance between control and potency, something thta sits right at the middle of the range of possibilities.  He decides on an appetite rating of 3.

Pieces Parts

Your appetite drives you and gives you purpose.  Your anatomy, on the other hand, is what gives you the means for interacting with the world.

Your character is broken down into his parts.  Your brain, eye, gut, mouth, muscle, and nerve are each rated on a seven word scale, best to worst, as follows:

    Gourmet, Flavorful, Tasty, Edible, Bland, Inedible, Vile

The actual mechanics whereby these ratings are used are covered later in this chapter.  Each part is rated at edible to begin with, and during character creation may be improved as high as flavorful or as low as inedible, using a one for one trade-off of a single level increase for a single level decrease.  Your gamemaster may choose to allow you to take a single gourmet part, but that is at her option.

First, let's learn what each part does for you.

Brain

Your brain covers the aspects of intelligence, knowledge, and memory.  Your brain will be tested whenever you're trying to figure out the best way around the city, your knowledge of anatomy, the name of a constellation — anything having to do with cognition and recall.

Eye

Your eye covers how perceptive you are, and how accurate you can be when aiming something (like a gun).  Your eye will be tested whenever you're looking for something hidden, listening for something on the other side of the door, or throwing a rock at someone's head.  Your eye works for you when you are specifically looking for something; passively picking up on a detail is the domain of your gut.

Gut

Your gut covers your intuition, how good you are at making guesses, and how difficult you are to surprise.  Your gut will be tested whenever you're about to get ambushed, when you're trying to pick the right door from a range of identical choices, and whether or not to trust the guy you've just met.

Mouth

Your mouth covers your ability to relate to people through charm, intimidation, and the use of language.  Your mouth will be tested whenever you're trying to fast-talk some information out of a guard, sweet-talk your landlady into not looking in your basement, or scare someone into running the other way.

Muscle

Your muscle covers your strength, toughness, and ability to endure pain.  Your muscle will be tested whenever you're wrestling with a victim, breaking down a door, or taking a punch in the face.

Nerve

Your nerve covers your reflexes, speed, and reaction time.  Your nerve will be tested when dodging an axe, running from the police, or catching a ball.

Example:
Bob decides that eye, muscle, and nerve were best honed by his government training.  He decides that he wants a flavorful eye, and tasty muscle and nerve.  This puts him having increased those parts a total of four steps, so he must reduce gut, brain, and mouth a total of four steps.  Bob's honest with himself — he's a bit of a dim bulb and a bad judge of character, so he drops his both his brain and gut to inedible, leaving his mouth at edible.

Dry Bones (Rolling Dice)

The dice you will be rolling will be six-sided dice.  You should have at least four to six six-sided dice at your disposal.

The rating you have in each of your parts determines how many dice you will roll, and how your roll is interpreted, whenever you are using that part to do something.  

The number of dice rolled is determined simply.  An edible part always rolls a single die.  For each step up or down from edible you are rated, you roll an additional die.

At edible or above, if you roll any even number on one of your dice, you succeed at the task.  Below edible, you must roll even facings on all of your dice to succeed.

If you succeed, at edible or above, the highest rolled die (even if it's odd) indicates the magnitude of your success.  Below edible, you take the lowest rolled die.

The behaviors of part ratings as translated to dice are summed up in the following table.

Code Select Expand


Rating      Roll    Success on  Magnitude   % Chance
Gourmet     4       Any Even    Best Roll   94%
Flavorful   3       Any Even    Best Roll   88%
Tasty       2       Any Even    Best Roll   75%
Edible      1       Any Even    Best Roll   50%
Bland       2       All Even    Worst Roll  25%
Inedible    3       All Even    Worst Roll  12%
Vile        4       All Even    Worst Roll  6%


Bonuses and penalties are handled as moves up or down this table.  For example, someone rated at tasty who takes a -3 penalty, drops to inedible.  If a bonus or penalty takes you off either end of the table, just add dice and roll as indicated — flavorful + 2 means roll 5 dice, succeed on any even, magnitude is the best roll.

Difficulties for tasks are rated on a scale from one to six.  Since the magnitude of a success can never be rated at less than a two (think about it), a difficulty of one indicates an "automatic" task — don't bother rolling.  Otherwise:

Code Select Expand


Magnitude   Difficulty  Competency
1           Automatic   None
2           Easy        Basic
3           Medium      Competent
4           Difficult   Professional
5           Hard        Expert
6           Extreme     Guru


Due to granularity, we choose not to represent impossible tasks on this scale of difficulty.  If you want to represent something that's more difficult than extreme, however, it's pretty simple — require a roll against tasty or higher, and require multiple six results, one extra for each step above extreme (a gourmet rolling 6, 6, 5, 6 would be able to hit a difficulty target of 8).

Example:
Bob has a flavorful eye and he's trying to find a friend in a crowd.  Since flavorful is two steps above edible, he rolls three dice.  He does so and gets 2, 4, 5.  He has rolled at least one even result, so he succeeds, and the magnitude of that success is a 5.  He spots his friend easily.

Later, Bob loses control of his hunger and decides to eat his friend.  His friend has gotten wise to this and is hiding just around a corner to whack Bob over the head.  Bob has to roll against his inedible gut in order to determine whether or not he gets wise to it.  Inedible is two steps below edible, so he rolls three dice.  He does and gets 2, 4, 5.  Since he has rolled at least one odd, he fails.  If he had rolled a 6 instead of a 5, he would have succeeded, but the magnitude of that success would have only been a 2, his lowest roll.

[clehrich]

Sounds exquisite.  I'll bring the Chianti if you bring the fava beans.

I think the die rolls are a bit complex, what with the switching between edible and everything below, but it's entirely possible that once you've done it a couple times it'll all become clear.  Certainly it seems like the odds make sense.

I do think that the 7-point ranking system is a bit difficult.  My memory nicely generates Vile, Inedible, XXX, Edible, Tasty, XXX, Gourmet; looking it up I see that I'm missing Bland and Flavorful.  I guess the problem is that "flavorful" doesn't seem to fit all that well between Tasty and Gourmet, but looking at it I guess Bland does make sense.  It's just not that obvious a list, if you see what I mean.  Perhaps you could get out a thesaurus and find striking words that stick in the mind a bit more?

One other point is that the style, while clear enough, is a bit, er, bland.  A such, it doesn't really convey a spirit to the game.  If you're going to do strong black humor, I think that needs to run through the prose a bit more.  Vincent did this well with kpfs, but it seems to me you don't want that style so much.  The point is that kpfs conveys, through style alone, the sense of the characters being losers in a profane and disgusting little society of sickos.  Your game needs a style of its own.  

One possibility would be to write up different sections in different styles.  So you could do one section a la Hannibal Lecter, i.e. raving intellectual aesthete; another could be panting maniac, sort of like Peter Lorre does Jeffrey Dahmer; and so forth.

So far, so good.  I'm wondering where the tasty tidbits and so forth will come in.  Mmmm... spicy brains.

[iago]

I think the die rolls are a bit complex, what with the switching between edible and everything below, but it's entirely possible that once you've done it a couple times it'll all become clear.  Certainly it seems like the odds make sense.

Yeah, it's an untested notion, but I think it makes sense if you step back and think about it in fairly abstracted terms -- 1 die is the "center", steps beyond that add a die and a rule of "select the best", steps below that add a die and a rule of "select the worst".  That's pretty much it.

I do think that the 7-point ranking system is a bit difficult.  My memory nicely generates Vile, Inedible, XXX, Edible, Tasty, XXX, Gourmet; looking it up I see that I'm missing Bland and Flavorful.  I guess the problem is that "flavorful" doesn't seem to fit all that well between Tasty and Gourmet, but looking at it I guess Bland does make sense.  It's just not that obvious a list, if you see what I mean.  Perhaps you could get out a thesaurus and find striking words that stick in the mind a bit more?

I agree.  I'm willing to take suggestions, and I'm going to be hitting the thesaurus soonish.

One other point is that the style, while clear enough, is a bit, er, bland.  A such, it doesn't really convey a spirit to the game.  If you're going to do strong black humor, I think that needs to run through the prose a bit more.  Vincent did this well with kpfs, but it seems to me you don't want that style so much.  The point is that kpfs conveys, through style alone, the sense of the characters being losers in a profane and disgusting little society of sickos.  Your game needs a style of its own.  

One possibility would be to write up different sections in different styles.  So you could do one section a la Hannibal Lecter, i.e. raving intellectual aesthete; another could be panting maniac, sort of like Peter Lorre does Jeffrey Dahmer; and so forth.

These are good points.  I think the instinct that's been kicking in is a desire to play things pretty straight up the middle due to the subject matter, but you're right, it'd be a bit better if the text said "fuck it" and immersed instead.

This is pointing out to me that I need to decide whether to do a "bland" first draft just to get the ideas on paper and then return later to put the style in there, or to stop myself from going further and get the style working now, and keep it in mind when I move on.

So far, so good.  I'm wondering where the tasty tidbits and so forth will come in.  Mmmm... spicy brains.

Tasty tidbits will be making their appearance in the unwritten next two chapters, "You Are Who You Eat" (the expanded chapter on how appetite works in the game) and "To Serve Man" (the chapter on running the game).  This first chapter's mainly about building your character and the basics of using the stuff on his sheet -- the next ones are where you start putting the carrot on the end of the stick.

[clehrich]

This is pointing out to me that I need to decide whether to do a "bland" first draft just to get the ideas on paper and then return later to put the style in there, or to stop myself from going further and get the style working now, and keep it in mind when I move on.

I'd say work on a bland draft in order to keep working on the game, but keep in mind any ideas you have about styles for sections.  Ideally, you want the section written in the Panting Maniac style to be the one whose theme best fits that voice.

Bear in mind that "putting the style in" is going to be difficult: you're really going to need to rewrite the section, but if you have a nice clear draft to work from it shouldn't be all that hard.

I'd strongly recommend that this section, which presents relatively technical material, not be written in too garish a style -- you don't want it to get in the way of clarity.

[iago]

I'd strongly recommend that this section, which presents relatively technical material, not be written in too garish a style -- you don't want it to get in the way of clarity.

Oh, I agree.  If anything, this is the one written by The Good Doctor, who will occasionally digress into talking about past favorite patients and surgeries, but in general is really there to help you learn.  A more informed patient is a more helpful patient, after all.

[Thomas Tamblyn]

Gourmet, Flavorful, Tasty, Edible, Bland, Inedible, Vile

Maybe its just me, but Flavorful and Tasty don't immediatly leap out as one being better than the other. I'd try and find an alternative for flavorful - maybe delicious - though that sounds similar to gourmet. Hmm. Here's some random 'tasty' words that you could use if you happen to agree with me.

Delectable, paletable (sp?), succulent, scrumptious, appetizing, delicious, yummy, succulent.

Plus I have a gut desire that the best be "Ambrosia". Completely irrational though.

Do you really need all those attributes? Rename them to Intelligence, perception, wisdom, charisma, strength and dexterity and you have Joe Blog's Generic Universal Uninteresting Dice-rolling System. They don't seem terribly focussed to the cannibal theme (aside from the names). What if each stat had a particular culinary application as well as a 'normal world' application.

For example,
GUT might also cover your ability to stomach more challenging food.

I'd also suggest calling Eye, tongue instead, since taste is more important than sight in this game (and if it isn't, then why not?).

The stat 'Muscle' bothers me, since all the other names (except eye, but I've already covered that) are cannibal related. Howsabout calling it teeth instead, since its basically how good at violence you are? Plus what kind of cannibal game doesn't need an attribute called teeth?

I hope this doesn't come across as me being negative, I think you've got an interesting and unique idea and I like the style of writing you've used, "You already know what you are".

I definitely suggest, KPFS-style that the first thing players do is write on their character sheet "I know what I am, I'm a cannibal". And THEN they get a free snack - just to give them a taste ... FOR FLESH/snacks!

[Lance D. Allen]

I really rather like it. I was iffy about the game to begin with, but your methods of classifying the "attributes" and their descriptors is absolutely perfect.

For some ideas on style, I'd recommend the 2nd Edition Clan Books for V:tM's Tzimisce and Malkavian Clans. Say what you will about White Wolf, but you have to admit that they manage a great style and flavor in their books.

Yum.

[iago]

Gourmet, Flavorful, Tasty, Edible, Bland, Inedible, Vile

Maybe its just me, but Flavorful and Tasty don't immediatly leap out as one being better than the other. I'd try and find an alternative for flavorful - maybe delicious - though that sounds similar to gourmet. Hmm. Here's some random 'tasty' words that you could use if you happen to agree with me.

Delectable, paletable (sp?), succulent, scrumptious, appetizing, delicious, yummy, succulent.

Plus I have a gut desire that the best be "Ambrosia". Completely irrational though.

Oh man!  You just renamed half of the ladder to my liking.  Excellent suggestions.  I think you've saved me half an hour of tooling around thesaurus-land.  Thanks much.

Do you really need all those attributes? Rename them to Intelligence, perception, wisdom, charisma, strength and dexterity and you have Joe Blog's Generic Universal Uninteresting Dice-rolling System. They don't seem terribly focussed to the cannibal theme (aside from the names). What if each stat had a particular culinary application as well as a 'normal world' application.

You've got a good point, and it's good enough that I'm going to try to incorporate it as I do my style-rewrite.

I'd also suggest calling Eye, tongue instead, since taste is more important than sight in this game (and if it isn't, then why not?).

Hm.  I'd probably go for 'nose' instead (it at least syncs to wine, and scent is an important component of taste), since tongue hits a little too close to mouth, in terms of the meanings it suggests to me.

The stat 'Muscle' bothers me, since all the other names (except eye, but I've already covered that) are cannibal related. Howsabout calling it teeth instead, since its basically how good at violence you are? Plus what kind of cannibal game doesn't need an attribute called teeth?

Teeth.  Yeah, I'll buy that.

I hope this doesn't come across as me being negative, I think you've got an interesting and unique idea and I like the style of writing you've used, "You already know what you are".

I'd rather you be brutally honest than falsely glowing.  No worries, mate.

I definitely suggest, KPFS-style that the first thing players do is write on their character sheet "I know what I am, I'm a cannibal". And THEN they get a free snack - just to give them a taste ... FOR FLESH/snacks!

Good idea about the free snack -- the character sheet notion is more or less what I already had in mind, heh!  This might make a good opener to any session of the game.  GM goes around in a circle, asks each person "What are you?" -- if they respond "I am a cannibal", they get the treat.

[iago]

I really rather like it. I was iffy about the game to begin with, but your methods of classifying the "attributes" and their descriptors is absolutely perfect.

Yay!

For some ideas on style, I'd recommend the 2nd Edition Clan Books for V:tM's Tzimisce and Malkavian Clans. Say what you will about White Wolf, but you have to admit that they manage a great style and flavor in their books.

No argument there.  My main problem with White Wolf is the amount of time investment necessary to read their stuff -- I usually can't manage it.  But I keep hearing their setting material is great. :)

[iago]

Rather than repost the whole thing, I'll summarize changes, present and future:

1. I'm revising the section to give it a somewhat more conversational, urbane, "Good Doctor" sort of feel to it.

2. Muscle is now Teeth; Eye is now Nose.

3. The seven levels are now: Ambrosia, Delicious, Tasty, Palatable, Bland, Unappetizing, Tripe.

4.  I added a small additional bit at the end that talks about applying bonuses to effect, after success/failure has been determined.

5. Rewrote the explanation of the dice mechanics to achieve something a little clearer; hope to retain it when I "doctor" that section.

[Lance D. Allen]

I just got the most bizarre root of a character..

Fred knows what he is. He's a cannibal. Only, he's not a very good cannibal. For one, he hates the messiness of killing. He also fears conflict. Basically, he's about as spineless as some of his latest meals have been. So he managed to get a job working in a city morgue, where a bit here and there is rarely missed. His reason for eating human flesh is somewhat of the empowerment angle. He believes that by consuming people, he can gain their strengths (though, really, it's just a primitive sort of superiority complex.. If I can eat you, I'm higher on the food chain than you, therefore better than you.). Maybe one day he won't be such a spineless prig.. Though it's not likely.

[Piers]

Good idea about the free snack -- the character sheet notion is more or less what I already had in mind, heh!  This might make a good opener to any session of the game.  GM goes around in a circle, asks each person "What are you?" -- if they respond "I am a cannibal", they get the treat.

How about, "Hi, my names Bob, I'm a cannibal and I like to eat brains."  I know they'll have to choose multiple body parts later, but it'd be good to get them to choose one to straight away, just to get them in the mood.

On a more general note, while the various body parts as Attributes is a great idea, you might want to cut them down a bit, to a smaller handful just to keep things running fast.  Say, Fingers, Stomach, Tongue and Teeth or something.  Maybe a Cutlery stat for equipment.  

But you're the Chef, you know best.  Hmm, maybe we need a special term for gamemaster too.

Looking forward to dinner.

Piers

[clehrich]

3. The seven levels are now: Ambrosia, Delicious, Tasty, Palatable, Bland, Unappetizing, Tripe.

All this is good, except the last.  How about Roadkill, or Excrement, or something?  Trippa alla fiorentina is phenomenal, and I once had a terrific Szechuan tripe dish in Taiwan that would knock your socks off.

Sorry, it's just a little peeve of mine, this bad habit of using certain foods as "obvious" examples of basically nasty, inedible crap.  Take
anchovies -- I like anchovies, as do lots of people.  But Farscape did a whole show where the sole joke was how horrible anchovies are.  And chicken feet can be good, and fermented tofu, and Limburger cheese, and so on.

In a game about cannibalism, surely it doesn't do to be overly picky about one's food choices, right?

[iago]

How about, "Hi, my names Bob, I'm a cannibal and I like to eat brains."  I know they'll have to choose multiple body parts later, but it'd be good to get them to choose one to straight away, just to get them in the mood.

I think the choice comes pretty soon, but I like the idea of someone picking a "favorite" and making that a part of their declaration (in order to get the free start-of-session treat).

On a more general note, while the various body parts as Attributes is a great idea, you might want to cut them down a bit, to a smaller handful just to keep things running fast.  Say, Fingers, Stomach, Tongue and Teeth or something.  Maybe a Cutlery stat for equipment.

That drops a few stats and replaces them with an equivalent number -- still six.  Six is a pleasant number for me, and together with appetite keeps things within a "no more than 7, please" rule of thumb.

But you're the Chef, you know best.  Hmm, maybe we need a special term for gamemaster too.

I toyed originally with calling her the Tempter, to underscore that element of things, but I don't want to slip up and call her a Tempter sometimes and a gamemaster another, so I'm just sticking with gamemaster for now. :)

[iago]

3. The seven levels are now: Ambrosia, Delicious, Tasty, Palatable, Bland, Unappetizing, Tripe.

All this is good, except the last.  How about Roadkill, or Excrement, or something?  Trippa alla fiorentina is phenomenal, and I once had a terrific Szechuan tripe dish in Taiwan that would knock your socks off.

I'll go back to Vile for now, which was the original one, and conveys things pretty nicely.