X-mas: a game of mischief, mayhem, and holiday cheer

[Green]

I gave myself a Yuletide project this year, and that is to design a game based around Christmas.  Although I've been working on it off and on since spring, since I now have more time on my hands, I'm developing it more.  Currently, I have the first draft done, and I'd like input on how I could refine it to make it more elegant and more user-friendly.  The game is called X-mas (pronounced "Ex-mas").

Premise: The players portray the elves of the North Pole who are engaged in a conflict between Loyalists (those devoted to Santa) and Rebels (those who no longer want to serve Santa).

Notes:  
1.  Everything in the game is supposed to be based around Christmas, and, more specifically, Santa Claus.  
2.  There are two modes of play supported by this game: Play Nice (cooperative) and Play Naughty (adversarial).
3.  In this game, players and characters are not supposed to be doing any sort of deep thinking or moral/ethical inquiry.  Most play should be centered around furthering the goals of the allies (depending which side players choose) and subverting the aims of the opposition.  Vandalism, kidnapping, torture, and sabotage are all encouraged.
4.  Since all the elves share the same physical attributes, it is only in personality that they differ.  As a result, characters only have three traits: Naughty, Nice, and Spirit (detailed below).
5.  This game is not meant to be a long-term venture.  Since all the fighting has to take place during the elves' break, things have to be kept short.

What I need help on:
1.  I really want to find a way to have the system encourage players to be creative with their roleplaying.
2.  I'd like to develop a mechanic that handles mission objectives and that sort of thing, to give more guidance during play.

I wrote more than I'm posting here, but the system itself is this:

CHARACTER CREATION
The only stats for characters in X-mas are traits and qualities.  Traits are the essential elements of who your character is, a measure of how potent some of your personality traits are.  Qualities are aspects of these traits that stand out.  You get twenty points to distribute amongst your traits.  The scores you get for each trait becomes your trait rating.  Then, you must choose which trait you favor: Naughty or Nice.  In your chosen trait, you get a quality, which gives a +3 bonus for task rolls when it involves that quality.  Of course, you may narrate your actions using qualities as your descriptor that reveals your intent, but you only get the mechanical bonus for one quality.

There are three traits for X-mas characters: Naughty, Nice, and Spirit.  They range from zero (soulless husk) to twelve (epitome of Nice/Naughy/Spirit).  The average score for a trait is six.

Naughty represents deeds and motives generally thought of as bad.  Elves who favor Naughtiness are usually not the most congenial of folks.  However, there are elves that prefer being naughty yet have good hearts.  It's simply that their methods are often morally questionable.  Rebels tend to favor Naughty.  Qualities associated with Naughty are: mean, perverse, cold-hearted, destructive, dishonest, cruel, angry, and bitter.

Nice describes deeds and motives that are normally considered good.  Elves favoring Nice are usually thought of as pleasant company.  This does not mean they are genuinely motivated by the desire to do good, but their way of doing things tends to cause less discord.  Loyalists tend to favor Nice.  Some qualities associated with Nice are: sweet, innocent, kind, obedient, compassionate, joyful, selfless, and helpful.

Spirit represents morally neutral acts and abilities.  They can turn out to be Nice or Naughty depending on the intent of the elf. Qualities associated with Spirit are: passionate, resilient, ingenious, clever, reasonable, wise, and creative.

RULES OF ENGAGEMENT
The basic process of doing anything in X-mas goes like this:
1.  The player describes what her elf attempts to do, making sure the intent is clear.
Example: "Tinsel is going to be Mean and slap Mistletoe in the face."
2.  The Higher Power determines the nature of the task
Example: "That will be a hard Naughty task."
3.  The player rolls a d12, adding the rating of the relevant trait, and sees whether the task succeeds or fails.
Example: To succeed in a Hard task requires a result of 15.  Tinsel's Naughty rating is 7, and the player rolls a 9.  The result is 16, which succeeds.
4.  The player or the Higher Power narrate the results.
Example: The player chooses to narrate.  "KA-POW! Tinsel's strike leaves a solid red hand print on Mistletoe's cheek."

Any action that has a significant chance of failure (about 50-50 for a reasonably competent elf) is called a task.  Tasks are resolved by rolling a d12, adding the relevant Nice, Naughty, or Spirit trait, and modified by any qualities the elf has.  Tasks have four levels of difficulty, and each level has a total which must be reached on a die roll to be considered successful.

A normal task is an action that the average elf has a 50-50 chance of succeeding at.  Normal tasks are not usually risky for an elf.  Example: assembling a complex toy based on one you are familiar with.  To succeed at a normal task requires a result of at least 12.

A hard task is one where there is an element of risk for success and failure, whether the elf's own or someone else's.  They also indicate tasks that require notable luck or skill.  Example: any form of combat.  To succeed at a hard task requires a result of at least 15.

A crazy task is one that is extremely risky, often endangering both the elf performing the task and others around him.  Crazy tasks require chutzpah, insanity, or plain old stupidity to even attempt.  Example: disarming a bomb.  To succeed at a crazy task, the player must roll a total of at least 18.

An uber task is one that needs more than average talent, luck, and guts.  Example: piecing together an elf who has been blown to bits by a hand grenade.  To succeed at an uber task requires a result of at least 21.

WEAPONS OF MASS DISTRACTION
Of course, what war would be complete without weapons?  Do you actually think that just because the elves are small and cute that they don't want to tear each other's throats out?  How have you been mistaken!

Whereas human wars are fought primarily with technology and made more deadly with innovations in the sciences, elves fight with magic.  Elf magic is nowhere near as vulgar as flinging a fireball from the fingertips or turning someone into stone or some loathsome creature.  Elf magic is centered around the toys they make.

The toys elves enchant and use in the war are taken from three sources: surplus toys, stolen toys, and excess materials that are used to create makeshift toys.  When an elf enchants a toy, it imbues it with a piece of his own essence, whether that be Naughty or Nice.  As a result, toys only have two traits: Naughty/Nice (depending on the elf's intent) and Spirit.  The form these traits take depend upon the form of the toy and what the elf wants to do.

For instance, suppose an elf wanted to enchant a big stuffed Teddy bear.  If he wants it to be a Nice bear, perhaps he would enchant it to carry wounded allies to safety.  If he wants it to be Naughty, there is the option of turning the bear into a rampaging killing machine.  A Naughty use of water balloons would be to make the water into a corrosive acid or maybe boiling hot or burning cold.  A Nice use of water balloons could be like healing potions in computer games and high-magic roleplaying games.  While some toys seem like they can only be used one way, if an elf is creative, new uses can be found.

Mechanically, enchanting a toy is usually a hard Spirit task (or higher, for more potent toys).  If successful, the elf enchants the toy and distributes trait points to the toy equal to his Nice or Naughty rating, depending on what you want the toy to do.  A toy made to be Nice uses the Nice rating; one made to be Naughty uses the Naughty rating.  Regardless of what type of enchantment the elf performs, at least one point must be distributed to the toy's Spirit trait.  Spirit represents the toy's self-awareness, volition, and powers of perception.  As a result, figurines, dolls, action figures, and plush toys tend to have higher Spirit than other types of toys.  Toys with Spirit on par with elves (four and higher) often develop lives of their own.

Example: Noel wants to enchant a Teddy bear to carry his wounded Loyalist allies to safety.  He wants it to be a Nice bear.  After successfully performing a hard Spirit check, he gets to distribute points for the bear's traits equal to his Nice score of 7.  He puts four of the seven points into Nice, since the bear is a very decent sort.  The other three he puts into Spirit because he wants the bear to have a little personality and volition too.

[Nathan]

Yo,

I like this idea.

Have you seen the 3D film, Santa vs. the Snowman? Check out this link here: http://www.imax.com/santavsthesnowman/. It was pretty cool. Essentially, the snowman is a loner, and he encounters Santa and becomes jealous of the cheery old dude and his elves. So he hatches this crazy scheme to attack Santa and take his place. It is cool and a little insane. They have a huge epic battle scene on the plains outside of the North Pole, with igloo walking robots, elven snow speeders, and more. Definitely check it out if you have an iMax theater nearby...

Watch the outtakes to get a taste by the way.

Thanks,
Nathan

[Green]

Nathan> Thank you for the Santa vs. the Snowman link!  It was hilarious, and it shows almost exactly what I have in mind (except instead of Santa vs. Snowmen, it's Elf vs. Elf).

[Andrew Martin]

I got this link from a email list:

http://www.teamfrog.com/tcw.htm

Santa miniatures for skirmish wargaming:
Snowman with M16, Christmas Elf with AK47, Toy Soldier, Penguins in Tracked Power Armour, Snowman with candy cane rifle, Scrooge.

[Green]

Cool toys, and in line with what I'm trying to do with X-mas.  But, seriously, do any of you have thoughts about the mechanics or questions about how to play the game?

[James V. West]

This cool little game is gracing the pages of Random Order #5. I'll post a release announcement very soon.

[Doctor Xero]

A very cool setting for a game!

I once ran a game like this for a gamer Christmas party, in which elves
had to rescue Santa Claus from the Anti-Claus (a conscientiously generic
bad guy).  The difference is that I carried over from *Call of Cthulhu* the
idea of sanity points -- injured elves didn't lose hit points, they gained
sanity points, until eventually instead of dying they forsook elfdom and
Santa Claus, became cost accountants and business attorneys, and
left the game.

Doctor Xero

[Green]

A very cool setting for a game!

I once ran a game like this for a gamer Christmas party, in which elves
had to rescue Santa Claus from the Anti-Claus (a conscientiously generic
bad guy).  The difference is that I carried over from *Call of Cthulhu* the
idea of sanity points -- injured elves didn't lose hit points, they gained
sanity points, until eventually instead of dying they forsook elfdom and
Santa Claus, became cost accountants and business attorneys, and
left the game.

Doctor Xero

LOL! Awesome!

BTW, X-mas is now online, along with Kathanaksaya.  You can find them here.