The Frankenstein System

[Matt Wilson]

This might be too daydreamy a post for the design forum, but I've been thinking about this other iron I have in the fire, and which elements of which systems I really like, and whether they'd all play together nicely in one game.

What I'm asking from the kind Forge folks is if it sounds like any of these elements go together like ketchup and ice cream.

I think ideal gameplay would most likely be N, probably setting-based.

Anyway, here's the bits and pieces:

Sorcerer's die mechanic. It's so wonderfully simple. Same basic concept as used in Sorcerer, Donjon and Danger Patrol. Used to address conflict rather than yes/no tasks. Probably a short list of basic traits, like mental, physical social.

Combine this with some Hero Quest. In HQ, your trait gives you a number of points that the opponent needs to whittle down in order to defeat you in a conflict. In this case, it'd be the number of successes the opponent would need to get via the above mechanic. I don't think I'd involve bidding, but it might work.

I'd want game play to be a little less moody than in Sorcerer, so I probably wouldn't apply die penalties after one exchange, instead taking the HQ route and applying possible post-conflict penalties.

So far so good, I think. Playtesting I think might reveal appropriate trait ranges. If I recall, Sorcerer conflicts usually produce 1-2 successes on one side or the other per exchange unless the opponents are unevenly matched. So average traits of 10 would result in multi-exchange conflicts, and average traits of 3 would produce quick ones. That sound right? Mike? Anyone?

For my own input into the game, I have this idea where each player creates a "faction" for his or her character. It's tied into the setting, which is a sort of far-future space adventure thing. It'd be kind of like demons in Sorcerer, but the relationship mechanic would work a little differently. I see it as a sort of "debit pool"  that you can draw from, and in order to fill it back up, you have to kiss the faction's collective ass, do things that will naturally conflict with the agendas of the other factions, whom the other characters are probably indebted to.

I have some other ideas for "reservoirs" like the above, but I'm worried that having too many of them might dilute the moral quandaries that the above would probably generate. They might be very small "use once" things like Trollbabe's reroll checklist, and then as a last resort you have to lean on your faction, like going to the loan shark after all options are exhausted.

Another influence might be Universalis, with its neat coin economy. I like the idea of coins being used to make non-conflict ideas fact on the fly, and Universalis needs to influence more RPGs. How do players earn more coins? That's the toughie. I think there's opportunity there to encourage a certain style of play. I think maybe it'd be whenever players help other players to make their characters shine, like sharing bonus dice and stuff.

So that's where my thoughts are so far. If you have any suggestions on what I should be cautious of as I move ahead, options to consider, etc, that'd be swell.

[Valamir]

Another influence might be Universalis, with its neat coin economy. I like the idea of coins being used to make non-conflict ideas fact on the fly, and Universalis needs to influence more RPGs. How do players earn more coins? That's the toughie. I think there's opportunity there to encourage a certain style of play. I think maybe it'd be whenever players help other players to make their characters shine, like sharing bonus dice and stuff.

Well you indicated that the faction was a sort of debit pool.  What if you take a page from Illuminati and Nobilis and sew them together (how's that for 1 uping your Frankenstein).  Each faction represents something (like the organizations in Illuminati) and then like in Nobilis the player gets control over aspects related to that factions area of influence.

So the Gnomes of Zurich faction is heavy into international banking and finance.  So any aspect in the game that would involve finance, banking, economics, etc.  That player can spend "Coins" (heh, how appropriate) to manipulate on the fly.  The spending of the Coins would be pure player empowerment but would represent the behind the scenes manipulations, machinations, and string pulling of other factions that led to the item in question.  This can then be replentished by whatever ass kissing mechanism you wanted.

You can further draw upon the illuminati idea of a network of interrelated factions by allowing players to alter things that go beyond the sphere of influence of their own faction, by inventing on the fly some new faction that the players faction is affiliated with.  There can be some system for designing the faction and a cost to be paid for assigning it spheres of influence.  This cost would be paid out the players faction debit pool (representing the resources spent by the faction to solidify the relationship).

After that the player could spend Coins 2:1 to influence that other factions sphere of influence as well.  Other players could seek to use the sphere of influence from the newly created factions as well but this would be at 3:1 (with perhaps 1 of the Coins filtering back to the original players faction).

You could go all kinds of crazy from there and actually flesh the factions out into characters of their own complete with the ability to take them over and destroy them like in Illuminati.

And just to brink ole Frankenstein full circle you could treat the factions as Sorcerer Demons.  Create them with Summons and Binding Rituals and allowing other players to tap their "powers" with Contact Rituals, or destroy them with Banish Rituals.  With the rituals being renamed something more Illuminati-esque of course.

[John Harper]

I like the idea that your faction works like your demons in Sorcerer. Since the Sorcerer die mechanic can be "unreliable" (it's never a sure thing for the guy with the bigger pool) I think it works well to couple it with a secondary system that lets the player throw her weight around. Demons handle this nicely in Sorcerer, and I can see the factions working in the same way. Sure, they can offer all kinds of advantages to the character, but they have their own needs and desires that you can't ignore.

Maybe the factions offer the use of Universalis-style coins. You can spend these to buy facts as in Uni, or you can spend them to get auto-successes during a conflict, on a 1:1 basis. Every coin you spend goes into a "debt pool" for that faction. At any time, the GM can cash in that debt pool and turn it into the difficulty level for a task that you have to undertake for the faction.

So, the character can pursue his own goals and try to get along in the universe without help from his faction. But, the dice system being what it is, the character is bound to whiff it big time at some important moment, which will tempt him to start spending those faction coins. This makes him beholden to the faction. So the player can choose to sell-off future freedom in exchange for empowerment now.

[Matt Wilson]

Well you indicated that the faction was a sort of debit pool. What if you take a page from Illuminati and Nobilis and sew them together (how's that for 1 uping your Frankenstein). Each faction represents something (like the organizations in Illuminati) and then like in Nobilis the player gets control over aspects related to that factions area of influence.

Sorta works. One of the setting influences on play would be that there's these bickering, scheming factions, and meanwhile a possible looming threat, and the characters caught in the middle. So it shouldn't necessarily feel like the character is weilding serious power. If you get too indebted to a faction, you have a harder time being flexible.

And just to brink ole Frankenstein full circle you could treat the factions as Sorcerer Demons. Create them with Summons and Binding Rituals and allowing other players to tap their "powers" with Contact Rituals, or destroy them with Banish Rituals. With the rituals being renamed something more Illuminati-esque of course.

I thought a lot about the possibility of the game actually being a Sorcerer mini-supplement, so yeah, that's along the lines I was thinking. I mean, there's this potential danger, and what are you prepared to do in order to stop it. I'm just not sure how prominent I want it to be. When you're playing Sorcerer, that power relationship doesn't like sharing the spotlight.

So, the character can pursue his own goals and try to get along in the universe without help from his faction. But, the dice system being what it is, the character is bound to whiff it big time at some important moment, which will tempt him to start spending those faction coins. This makes him beholden to the faction. So the player can choose to sell-off future freedom in exchange for empowerment now.

Yeah, that's sort of the idea as well. Like that point on Alias when Sydney asks Sloane for help, and he says "I hope some day I can ask a favor from you," and you see a general look of horror cross her face.