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I don't speak from experience, hopefully a week or two on the forge will help that. If not already done, I'm asking of a system template I call the colour triangle.

You could playtest the system directly from the system, but I haven't applied it to any game yet. Here goes . . .

Each end of the triangle represents physical, social, or mental. Inside is a triangular graph, and filling in your character's stats is nothing but colouring those triangles.

The primaries, and their mixtrues, fit the nature of the colour. So for example . . .

Red is solid, blue is empathetic, yellow is aggressive. Some might find these colours a little off their usual places, but it was the best way I could fit them. I felt red is more "tought" than it is "mean." Yellow is more "forward" than it is "solid."

In physical: Red means toughness. Yellow means strength. Blue means lithe.

In mental: Red means stoicism (lawfulness, not necessarily honourable), yellow means rage, blue means real empathy. (The ability to relate, but not magickal).

In social: Now it has society toward you and not the other way around. Red means you have a lot of barriers. Yellow means you have danger (hunters or thieves after you). Blue means you have opportunities.

Afterward is another element: The outside vs. the inside of the triangle.

The middle triangle is the "core." Who you really are. Your "soul." Just outside is your more pesonal nature. Finally the edge is your demeanor.

SOME EXAMPLES . . .

Red in mental edge.  Blue in between Mental and social edge. Red on the inner side for mental . . .

You keep your promises, and you tell it like it is. You have a "heart" for things, and people sometimes recognize you for it.

Blue in social edge. Purple in core. Red in physical.

People know you well, you're famous. You're rather stout and tough. On the inside, you're sensitive but bold (red and blue). Ie: You can relate to things, but you stick to your decisions.

All black . . .

A pretender. You're a jack-of-all trades. You'll do anything, be anything. And you've had a history to match that, too. People have hated you, loved you, feared you. You're unpredictable. You could be perfectly reliable for a  time, then suddenly betray everyone. You have all the physical advantages . . .

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I may have to extrapolate more to really get a solid "system" for it. Obviously, I should give this a question. The thing is, I haven't really put it into a dice system. In some ways I'd rather make it a direct influence.

I may have to create a point system where colours in certain places are penalized. Because some colour-places are more advantagious than others. (Eg: Anything physical vs. red in social).

Here's specifically what I could use:

1) Give me a challenging group of colour-places that I have to interpret.

2) Tell me if you interpret some colour-places differently than I do.

3) Tell me whether or not it's original. And whether you think it can be developed. Does it have potential practicality? Or is it more of a bubbly scheme that wouldn't actually affect game mechanics?

4) Imagine what sort of style this could be applied to. Should it be on its own, or combined with Traits like Merits & Flaws? Should it be Gamist or Simulationist?

5) The reverse of #1. Tell me a situation, and the colours for it have to be interpreted.

6) By all means, you're willing to try applying and playtesting it, then tell me how it works out.

Phew. I hope that covers it. Thanks!

I think this is a really cool idea. Of course, the game I'm working on uses colors, and I'm obsessed with triangles, so...

What would help is an image of the triangle you're putting the colors in, and some more detail on what the colors mean and how they get placed. What does chargen look like? Do you want to use dice, or colored tokens, or something else entirely?

I think this sort of mechanic would be best suited to narrativist games, but that's just me.

I hope you can explain some more!

Aidan

http://roleplayingperm.tripod.com/roleplaying
(PS, I'm terrible with internet for time being).

Heya PCG,

I've been thinking, and I can't figure out how this would be used for skills and such. It does a nifty job of describing a character's personality, but I have no idea how it could be used otherwise. I even went through the work of creating a nice example for brainstorming with:



According to your description, this is the minimum size it could be, though if you let the soul/center be a single color, it could be a little smaller. THis is nice though - 9 on a side. I didn't see how the inner triangles would make a relevant difference, so I deleted them.

Anyway, do you have ideas of how skills could be represented? If you figure that out, then the next question is how does the mechanic work - the fact that I put X skill here and not there - how does that get tested? And how do you know how good or bad you are?

Aidan

Thanks, Aidan. I didn't expect such profound response. And my apologies for taking a while. I tried writing an explaination which still doesn't do the greatest job yet. Hopefully it will shed light.

I copied my write file onto here . . .

*******************************************************

Hello. I'm here to introduce my concept of "colour-triangle" roleplay stats.

Everything here is theoretical for the moment, only the "colour-triangle" need apply. I'm not nearly done extrapolating everything. So bare with me on the little written so far.

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This system is ideal for games in which your character has a basic lifestyle as part of his or her "extraordinary" lifestyle. It's not a great way of making super powers, although it could be a design for its own magic system.

This would be done before you purchase other stats such as special items, powers, etc.

Here's how it works.

You make a triangle with 7 to each edge. That's the same as drawing three equidistant lines between each point and each base.

(NOTE: 7 along the edge is not the concrete suggestion. 2 is the simplest. I haven't tried to imagine 9).

A triangle of 7 along the edge creates 16 triangles. That's using the drawing method.

ALTERNATIVE: Make a list of numbers 1-16 and answer each number with any stand-alone or combination of the letters: Y, B, or R (Yellow, Blue, or Red). This is the written method.

The written method translates to the drawing method in a reading line, from the top point to the base.

Going back to the drawing method.

Fill in a triangle with any single or combination of primary colours.

Clockwise from the top, your triangle represents the following . . . (P) Physical, (S) Social, and (M) Mental

Physical is obvious. What you might do that's strenuous. It's generally geared toward hand-to-hand combat (when you're not using powers).

Social is your reputation. How others perceive you. It's useful in avoiding troubling situations and getting your way. Again, that's regarding your simple life and not necessarily regarding your political / supernatural relationships.

Mental is how you are. This is one that does tend to affect you all around. Unless, of course, you have split personalities, or the like. It's not simply your attitudes toward things, but also your level of comprehension in certain areas.

From OUTSIDE to INSIDE represents the following . . .

The triangles whose BASES are on the edge are your outer triangles. These represent the everyday you.

The triangles whose POINTS are touching the edge are your inner triangles. These represent your more personal life.

The triangle in the middle is your "core." Who you are deep down.

The finishing touch is to fill any number of triangles with any colour(s).

Here is the difference in colour . . .

RED -- STOIC

Resilient. Tough. It doesn't like to back down.

BLUE -- LITHE

Sensitive, careful, fluid. Able to alternate with circumstance.

YELLOW -- DETERMINATION

Not necessarily mean, but it can be powerful and dangerous. So it likely will result in aggression.

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HOW THIS TRANSLATES TO GAME . . .

Physical combat will affect the ability you have depending on your actions. HOWEVER, those actions will always have to fit in only one of -3- categories: attack, block, dodge. They may act simultaneously.

Spells and persuasions that are to affect you mentally will have a harder time if you are mental red. Things that you use to understand something will help with mental blue. Any time you want to persuade someone will help with mental yellow.

Social gatherings that deal with people you generally know will help if you  have social blue. Social blue represents your overall appeal. Otherwise, a stranger that you want to intimidate will help if you have social red. But social yellow is a bad trait. A person should gain points for choosing social yellow. (NOTE: I know this part may have trouble fitting, but I felt there needs to be a way to represent troubles in mortal society, not just advantages). Social yellow might mean that you're repulsive or just disturbing.

If a spell or power tries to control you, it will deal with your inner core. This is like your willpower. If it's blue: You're very perceptive, and therefore the nature of it cannot easily be trickery. If it's red: you're very stoic, so the nature should not be persuasive. This still means you can be fooled into believing a lie, just not convinced into doing other things. Finally, if the core is yellow: Then you are unlikely easy to stop. You are still susceptable to all sorts of trickery, but you will keep on going for what you originally intended, regardless.

But this is only the three triangles on the corners of your "pyramid," as well as the one in the middle. This doesn't include all the other 12 triangles!

Well, a simple game might only do four. But if you want to make things very dynamic, this is a whole new set.

We'll tally up all the triangles by grouping them in the following THREE categories . . .

1) For each corner, there is 1 triangle that leans toward EACH other corner in your most public personna. 2 for each 3 corners (makes 6).

2) For each edge, there is 1 triangle that leans in between two corners in your personal personna (3 in total).

3) Each corner has a second triangle that stands on its own, for your personal personna (3 in total).

Finally, we add the 4 triangles that have already been identified. This makes 16. Now let's address those "three" supposed categories.

1) For each triangle named, there is one vice-versa. Here goes: Social to mental, Mental to physical, Physical to social . . . Let's work with these first.

Social to mental is how others perceive you, depending on your attitudes. So you will be treated appropriately to the colour, but that all relates to how you act about it.

Mental to physical is your ability to command your body. You could be pumped like arnold shwarzenneggar, but unless you have martial arts: You're no Chuck Norris.

Physical to Social is how you can appear to others physically. Whether you flex a muscle or give a smile.

(more to do here)

2) So we have three personal triangles in between stats: Social-mental, Mental-physical, and Physical-social.

Social-mental would reflect how your friends interact with you.

Mental-physical doesn't reflect your combative abilities directly, but the things you do before and after a fight. The way you repair and prepare yourself. (will extrapolate)

Physical-social would be the teamwork you have in a fight. Perhaps you are part of a "pack" that fights as a team. This would be empty if you are a stand-alone type of fighter; like Highlander.

3) This part is a little simpler. Once again we have Social, Mental, and Physical. These now deal with the more personal you.

Physical: How you keep together, regardless of combat. Necessities for general health, perhaps specialties for talents. (Will extrapolate)

Mental: Thoughts you have, which do not automatically affect the game. Things on the backburner.

Social: A simple discription of your group of friends. Yellow: They are part of a team to accomplish a goal. Blue: They are available for a certain resource. Red: Deals can be made. You scratch their back, they scratch yours.

MY THOUGHTS ON A MAGIC SYSTEM . . .

Blue: Blue is the eye. Scrying.

Red: Red is the stronghold. The ability to block and contain.

Yellow: Yellow is the disruptor. The power to dismantle something or blast it alltogether.

The closer your spell is to the center, the more advanced the power is.

Mental: How you can control the thoughts of others, whether directly through the mind, or indirectly using social interaction.

Physical: This is how you manipulate the environment around you, including individuals within that environment.

Mystical: The power to directly affect spells.

EXAMPLES

Blue inner mental: Look into someone's darkest secrets.

Red outer physical: Cause a jerking movement, such as the sudden pull of one muscle (if partly mental), or the twitch of a string.

Yellow inner mystical: Disrupt a spell that is extremely difficult to disrupt.

Yellow-red inner mystical: Trap a spell and alter it to a certain degree.

I've completed the triangle system, but I still haven't made the mechanic. I will be thinking on that shortly, but anyone is welcome to troubleshoot what I have before I try to get this written in stone.

I have ideas for mechanics at the end (up to six dice for each aspect of 26 challenges: 6 x 26 = 156). I personally like ten-sided, so . . . well . . . lol, you could theoretically get such a challenge that would rack up 1,560 points (discluding any bonuses). But generally the challenge may use 2 or so dice.

Just click on my signature and click on "triangles" file. Hopefully it's not painful to read (I put some hamhanded illustrations of better triangles).