Casefile: ZODIAC forged anew

[scobie]

Hi gang

After the kind comments of the Forge crew last time I have rewritten Casefile: ZODIAC to hopefully be more consistent and more fun.  The pdf for the first section can be found at:

http://www.members.optusnet.com.au/lucifuge/zodiac_a.pdf

I have changed the core resolution mechanic from the cumbersome coin pool to something pinched from blackjack.   I hope it works for other people, in playtest it worked just fine, but then again my players are not the kind to try and break a system, even if I ask them to.

Also, the soundtrack/character theme idea that came out of another set of discussions (any movement on GunKnight?) has been introduced as a way of smoothing out some of the potential for disaster in the new mechanic, when over-excited players make their characters go bust.

Anyway, hope this is of interest...
Scobie

[Shreyas Sampat]

I've only glanced over this, but it looks pretty good; the first couple of pages really set the mood.  Just wanted to let you know that I took a look; do you have any specific questions that you'd like examined?

[Spooky Fanboy]

I have taken a look and found it quite groovy.

The only thing I would ask for is a specific section detailing the base resolution system, complete with examples and seperate from the surrounding text. I'm still not sure how the game works, exactly, as information seems scattered about the document in some cases.

So, is this right: The character has a base score that they must roll equal to or below, in order to succeed. They roll as many six-sided dice as they want; if all dice succeed, the bigger the impact the action has. Is this correct?

What happens in the case of Discoboulator's "Boss of the Lovelies", which has a score of 7? Guaranteed success? You mention in the text that you must roll as high as your score without going over. Then the difference of the scores is compared. Compared how? If that means what I think it means, can the above score by Discobobulator  be beaten if the enemy agent, with Disinformation 6 (who is attempting to spread dissent among The Lovelies) who rolls an exact six during the roll, as he rolled closer to his success threshold than Discobobulator, who rolled a five?

I think some clarity is in order, as I'm not sure how to play this and am reluctant to playtest it until I do.

[Little_Rat]

Neat.
Just to see how it worked, I whipped up a character. But I have a question. How do you get the 6s and 7s and 5s for your total? Maybe I missed something, though. Also, I got stuck on "soundtracks", maybe because my character was a computer geek. Oh well.

I love the concept, though. Brings a whole new level to the disco pick up line, "what's your sign?"

[scobie]

Looks like I need to work on the clarity of the rules.
Yeah, I think I had a rules summary at the start and then was too vigorous with the trimming.

///So, is this right: The character has a base score that they must roll equal to or below, in order to succeed. They roll as many six-sided dice as they want; if all dice succeed, the bigger the impact the action has. Is this correct? What happens in the case of Discoboulator's "Boss of the Lovelies", which has a score of 7? Guaranteed success? ///

The dice you roll are added together.   I need to make that clearer.  I originally had a 'dice pool' mechanic and some scraps of the old rules may still need to be purged...

Both 'sides' of the conflict are trying to get as high as they can.  If you have a 6 or higher you can roll one dice and know you won't go bust, but your opponent may still roll higher.   In that case you might want to roll more than one dice.  (I guess it also needs to be clearer that when you get down to random rolls, even inanimate opponents get to roll, against their fixed values).  I wanted to somehow include the idea of gambling and choosing level of risk in the mechanics

///You mention in the text that you must roll as high as your score without going over. Then the difference of the scores is compared. Compared how? If that means what I think it means, can the above score by Discobobulator  be beaten if the enemy agent, with Disinformation 6 (who is attempting to spread dissent among The Lovelies) who rolls an exact six during the roll, as he rolled closer to his success threshold than Discobobulator, who rolled a five? ///

Not what I intended (more Baccarat than blackjack).  I should make this clear in the text, highest roll wins and the margin of success is figured by subtracting the loser from the winner.

Thanks for the comments.

[scobie]

Neat.
Just to see how it worked, I whipped up a character. But I have a question. How do you get the 6s and 7s and 5s for your total? Maybe I missed something, though. Also, I got stuck on "soundtracks", maybe because my character was a computer geek. Oh well.

I love the concept, though. Brings a whole new level to the disco pick up line, "what's your sign?"

It is possible (I think, unless I missed something) to focus on certain aspects of your charcter and get 7s.  A normal Z agent gets 1 in rank, can have 2 in the other 3 traits.   I'll see how I can make this clearer.

The soundtrack bit still needs work, I'm sure there's some 70s Kraftwerk or Eno kinds of themes that can go with your geek. 'Better than human', 'Logic circuits', 'slide rule supremacy' 'better living through technology'?


Thanks.

[scobie]

Do you have any specific questions that you'd like examined?

I guess fundamentally I need to know if the core dice mechanic works, I already know that I need to explain it better to indicate that the dice are added, not considered separately.

I am also curious to see if the soundtrack system works, or whether characters run out of resources too quickly.  Ditto with the vehicle and base rules which have been through a million permuatations.

I am not much of a system designer and I really have focussed mainly on the setting.  I don't think the system needs to be brilliant, but I hope it doesn't break too easily.

If anyone wants to seriously playtest, let me know and I will send you the rest of the book with the background, sample characters etc.  You will have to send me a report though (no free lunches :) ).  I can be emailled at scott.beattie@vu.edu.au

Scobie

[Mike Holmes]

The basic die rolling concept is essentially OK, but your optimum strategy might surprise you. You're expected value for 2d6 against a target of 6 is 1.94 as opposed to a 3.5 for just rolling one die (the 58% chance of Busting kicks in hard). In fact it's better to roll one die against a 7 rating, or anything lower. But at an 8 or less, suddenly you jump to a massive advantage for rolling two dice. This continues like this with optimum points for the addition of dice coming in at intervals.

Essentially there's no strategy to the die rolling once you've worked it out, just a weird curve of success. So why have the complexity? That said, it does expand infinitely in a quite nice manner (though there are other ways to do that).

The setting/situation is great. I hope you get it all working in the end.

Mike

[Jared A. Sorensen]

Haha, El Hombre! I love that font...

Oh yeah, this looks pretty interesting. I like some of the artwork a lot (the 70's caricatures). Soundtracks is pretty good idea and I like how you've used it.

- J