Duality- a relatively simple RPG about conflicting aspects

[Phillip]

Duality is a pretty simple game that revolves around conflicts between a protagonists opposing and often conflicting aspects.  It uses polyhedra dice, and borrows the mechanic from BattleBall; the idea of duality is from Wurthering Heights RPG.  There are plenty of genre examples at the end (except for Wurthering Heights- emulating that should be obvious...).

http://www.scarletmars.com/RPGs/Duality/Index.htm is where you can find it.    It's only in HTML format, unfortunately, because I don't currently have the resources for PDF publishing.

The feedback I am looking for is mostly what the game lacks, if anything, and what parts don't seem to fit or might not work.  Any suggestions on possible genres are appreciated, as well.

[Emily Care]

Hi Phillip,

Looks fun. What happens is/when either aspect is reduced to zero?

--Emily Care

[Phillip]

Good question.  Conflict will not affect either Aspect, and the Game Styles indicate what happens in certain situations when an Aspect drops below d4 / above d30- in the case of a Call of Cthulu type Game Style, the Duality would have aspects of something like Mythos Knowledge / Insanity- the more Mythos Knowledge a character gains, the more it pushes him closer to insanity.  If the Insanity is the secondary (roll low) Aspect, then the investigator would be permanently insane when it goes over d30.  In other words, either Aspect should never be allowed to go over d30 or below d4 unless it represents a sort of 'sliding' Aspect like Insanity, or the Humanity Aspect in the Vampire Game Style.  Another example where the Aspects never split is the Crazy Cartoons! Game Style with Zany / Mundane- when a Toon does something boring or hesitates too long, and fails a Mundane roll, his / her /its Duality (and thus Zany) drops one level, even though it gets easier to make a Mundane roll.  If somehow the Toon's Duality goes below d4, the Toon is Erased (no longer playable).

Perhaps I should add a statement to that effect for clarity, and take another look at the Game Styles to see if any more clarification is needed.

[Mark Johnson]

Phillip,

I think the lack of response here indicates how well realized this idea is.  I have played around with the BattleBall mechanic before, but it would have taken me a million years to come up with an application this cool.

And just keep on cranking out the styles.  Hit all the major game types and be a truly "universal" game.  Some possible styles:

Dungeon (Mundane/Heroic? or Mundane/Arcane?)
Cthulu (Sanity/Insanity)
An angsty take on Superheroes (Power/Responsibility proving that power corrupts)
Pulp (Talented/Lucky)

None of those suggestions were particularly inspired, but I do think it is possible that most existing game types can be superficially modeled by this system.  

Good Job,
Mark

[Phillip]

Thanks for your comments!  I'm glad I did a good job conveying the basic ideas I was trying to.

Styles:
Dungeon- I would go with Heroic/Arcane, since mundanity is not a part of the genre, but that one could be a challenge to correctly convey the style.

Cthulu- I was thinking more about Mythos Knowledge / Sanity (mistakenly referred to as Insanity in the above post)- the more your knowledge of Things Man Was Not Meant To Know (Duality die size increases), the more your grip on reality slips and the harder it is to maintain your Sanity (rolling low on a higher die type).  I wanted to include this one, but my knowledge of the game and genre would probably not do it justice.  I may give it a shot, though.

Angsty Superheroes- What you are suggesting sounds a lot like Aberrant, with Power / Taint.  Definitely should be included.

Pulp - I think The Justice Club already covers this style.  I could expand it for Pulp, though.

[Ron Edwards]

Hello,

Awesome! I'm a big Wuthering Heights fan. Here are some games you will enjoy checking out:

Le Mon Mouri
My Life with Master
Pendragon
InSpectres
The Dying Earth
Albedo
Lace & Steel

Best,
Ron

[Phillip]

Wow.  A message from God...

I'm glad you like it.  Actually, I had read Wurthering Heights, then your review of it where you mentioned that more people should apply the duality-based method or sliding scale that WH uses to RPGs, which put it in the back of my mind, then when I picked up BattleBall, everything clicked.  I'll try to check out the games you have mentioned (I've already seen an earlier version of Inspectres).

[Ron Edwards]

Oh criminy, I'm just a guy.

Here's what I think you ought to do, though: your game is looking to be playable at this point, so while you're hunting down the games mentioned so far, take some time to grab some friends ears and play the thing.

Post about it here or in Actual Play, depending on the emphasis you want in the discussion, and let's see this rev into phase B of the design process.

Best,
Ron