Small World, The Code, Insecterotic

[Jared A. Sorensen]

The first is an insect game.

The second...I was watching Law & Order: SVU  (Special Victims Unit) and figured out that The Code could work well for playing a game about cops. I'll look into it and post some alternate rules.

Last is a really weird idea. Not too sure about it, but:

The game is set in a surreal kingdom that blends horror and sci-fi CONCEPTS (no lasers, no vampires, etc.) and lots of weirdness. Kinda like Amber crossed with Mojoworld (from the X-Men, if you know that comic at all).

Everyone has two characters, two different versions of the same character. One "good" and one "bad" (or at least, mirrors of one another).

The "kewl" part of the world comes from its inhabitants decadant use of body modification to look like insects (and insect-related technology).

Lots of sex.

Oh, and your character is in charge of it all. More to come...

[Bret]

I like the sounds of it. Keep us posted.

[Mike Holmes]

Mojoworld? IIRC wasn't it called something like The Body Shop?

That last bit is tantalizing; fes up, Sorensen!

Mike

[Jared A. Sorensen]

Yes, the Body Shop is where Mojo turned Ricochet Rita into Spiral (and also created Lady Deathstrike).

Insecterotica has "BodyBoutique" which is run by a pack of sinister domina-witches (or something). Lots of shiny, slick leather.

A lot of the stuff comes from ideas from a game that never happened. Really weird stuff.

One idea is that the players portray characters who are the rulers of the kingdom -- and are amnesiacs, with little to no recollection of who they are or where they are.

[sdemory]

    The Insecterotica thing's got a certain degree of resonance with me. Had a dream once that I was a one-eyed, 20-foot long sluglike being trapped in a crypt of some sort. I was being transfused by emaciated woman-things in rubber nun costumes. It was my brain deciding that sex dreams were dull, but Cronenberg-Old One dreams would serve that evening. I made the mistake of telling my then-girlfriend about this dream... I think I've reached the "too much information" stage.
   Short form, I'm looking forward to the gameworld. Sounds promising. Disregard the rubber nun thing.

[Joe Murphy (Broin)]

Last is a really weird idea. Not too sure about it, but:

The game is set in a surreal kingdom that blends horror and sci-fi CONCEPTS (no lasers, no vampires, etc.) and lots of weirdness. Kinda like Amber crossed with Mojoworld (from the X-Men, if you know that comic at all).

Everyone has two characters, two different versions of the same character. One "good" and one "bad" (or at least, mirrors of one another).

The "kewl" part of the world comes from its inhabitants decadant use of body modification to look like insects (and insect-related technology).

Lots of sex.

Oh, and your character is in charge of it all. More to come...

When!?

See! Both an exclamation point and a question mark in the same sentence.

I warn you, I hardly ever use excess punctuation, but if I hear this is going to take another month to come out, I'll go up to three on you!

Please? I'll buy you chocolate.

Joe.

[sdemory]

... finished too much Buffy; I've got Dru on the brain.
Nevertheless, I second the call. Insecterotic, once you're up for it, would be the whip, the chain and the bomb.

[Jared A. Sorensen]

Here's what I posed on my journal about Insecterotic:

Came up with an idea, perhaps to use with my Insecterotic concept:

Let's see if I can explain this. Character A (Master) has attributes that affect Character B (Servant). Successes from Character A's skill roll adds to the attribute of Character B. Failures detract.

Example: I'm the corner-guy for a pro boxer. His ability is set at a certain point, but because he is following my orders (as it were), my influence will affect his ability. If I give him good advice, he's able to use ability more effectively. If I give him bad advice, it will hurt him.

Because Insecterotic pre-supposes a game in which the players are high-up nobility types who act through their servants, their true ability is their ability to influence, cajole, persuade and intimidate others. Their servants' abilities are more aligned with directed action.

Get it?

In game terms, Master rolls his Influence and adds the success (or subtracts the failures) from his Servant's Action. His Servant then acts upon that influence.

Either attribute could be Karma or Fortune-related. I'm more inclined to use Karma for the Servant (Servant with a 4 beats a Servant with a 3, always) and Fortune for the Master (roll dice, add successes to the Servant's score).

What I like about this is that it takes success/failure of an action away from the character and gives it to a proxy. The player's character simply enhances or degrades the ability of that proxy. This could work well in a game where the PC's are decadent, possibly physically-limited nobility.

[Mike Holmes]

This could work well in a game where the PC's are decadent, possibly physically-limited nobility.

Arrgh. More tantalizing info.

Yes, the mechanic sounds cool. Sort of an advanced form of the normal augmentation rules that many games have.

From the description, I'm getting an inkling that the players will not necessarily be co-operative with each other? More details!

Mike

[Joe Murphy (Broin)]

Because Insecterotic pre-supposes a game in which the players are high-up nobility types who act through their servants, their true ability is their ability to influence, cajole, persuade and intimidate others. Their servants' abilities are more aligned with directed action.

Doctor Who. Big time. The various Doctors rarely got involved in fistfights, but the companions always did. And often, the companion was spurred to action by the Doctor. Or you could even look at the Picard/Riker relationship, at least in those episodes where Picard doesn't throw right hooks at the bad guys.

I like it. It also sounds a bit like the way rolls in Sorceror carry over from primary to secondary action.

So would the nobles have a lot of servants? Is it like Ars Magica, where one magus might have a dozen assistants, all suited to different jobs? Or do you see it more like... one noble, one companion (or consort)?

Joe.

[Jared A. Sorensen]

So would the nobles have a lot of servants? Is it like Ars Magica, where one magus might have a dozen assistants, all suited to different jobs? Or do you see it more like... one noble, one companion (or consort)?

My initial idea (ie: the Idea that could change at any second) is that the PC's are playing nobles of an island city-state (named something-or-other) and they all have a major domo who does stuff on their behalf (as the nobility are too pre-occupied with sexual liaisons, backstabbing and rumor-mongering to do anything themselves). That major domo would then delegate tasks and duties to lesser beings.

One thing I dislike about detailed settings is the amount of knowledge that the players have to digest. What I want to do is make it so that the player characters know next-to-nothing (due to some form of amnesia) and the players get to dictate how the world works (in the form of other characters).

Confusing, I know. Argh.

It's kinda like Ron's Sorcerer & Sword material writ large...the GMs and players define everything about the world, using the pre-defined "color" of the setting as set of aesthetic guidelines.

Right now this game/setting idea is just one of those total-image games, where I can picture all kinds of weird shit in my head and it just needs to get translated to the page.

- J

[Joe Murphy (Broin)]

One thing I dislike about detailed settings is the amount of knowledge that the players have to digest. What I want to do is make it so that the player characters know next-to-nothing (due to some form of amnesia) and the players get to dictate how the world works (in the form of other characters).

Confusing, I know. Argh.

It's kinda like Ron's Sorcerer & Sword material writ large...the GMs and players define everything about the world, using the pre-defined "color" of the setting as set of aesthetic guidelines.

Amnesia, eh? Hmm. =)

They could certainly be disconnected enough from the to-ings-and-fro-ings of their duchies and baronies that they don't pay much attention; cf modern British politics. Depending on how satirical your setting is, that might be enough.

And yup, I'm thinking of running Exalted for my group, but the game is so damn full of setting information. I'd only be 'happy' running it if every player had a complete grasp of 500 pages of rulebook. Which is nonsense.

I've been writing up locales since I read my first Fighting Fantasy rpgs in the mid 80s. It's not like I can't write simple settings. The Sorceror approach would seem to suit me.

(random idea: like the way Confessionals work in Inspectres, in this new game, players could 'trump' others with descriptions of their realms: "Oh, you're Balthazar? I thought those tremendously devastating floods in your Eastern province would have kept you from the party, dear boy.")

Right now this game/setting idea is just one of those total-image games, where I can picture all kinds of weird shit in my head and it just needs to get translated to the page.

Oh, it's perfectly possible to keep those ideas in your head for, ooh, years. Bloody ideas.

Joe.

[Jared A. Sorensen]

Amnesia, eh? Hmm. =)

They could certainly be disconnected enough from the to-ings-and-fro-ings of their duchies and baronies that they don't pay much attention; cf modern British politics. Depending on how satirical your setting is, that might be enough.

Amnesia, yeah. I know.

As for the geography, it's not not going to be a kingdom in the usual meaning. Very small place, few people. The recurring image is a castle-like structure floating on the surface of a dark red ocean and canals wind their way through the interior of the city.

Shit on me, I just realized that I could probably do all this stuff using Sorcerer & Sword.  Hum.

[sdemory]

Had two thoughts about what might be cool to see in Insecterotic:
1) Betrayal- I don't know how this could be done, but I'd like to see a mechanism which (a) creates a benefit from abandoning a Minion at the right time and (b) allows a Minion to rebel against hir Master... possibly something where a Minion might be more useful if more independent, but has more of a chance of going hir own way. Don't know how it'd work, but I think it'd be neat to be able to betray one's self and have to play through the betrayal on both sides.
2) Livery as modifier- Since I'm hoping for some sort of ooky, icky dynamic, look at warping one's servants as a way of presenting unique livery  for each Master. For instance, Beautiful Dreamer has the livery of "dead flesh" for hir servitors. Hence, hir three minions, Gentle, Meek and Mild don't notice damage until they lose a part. They don't heal, though, so they've got to be quick with a needle and thread (or stapler or whatever) to keep themselves together after a scuffle. Other Masters might like chitin, or vestigal body parts or uplifted predators or quadrupeds or something of that stripe. Each has a simple descriptor, a simple advantage and a simple disadvantage. Might work to do the descriptor thing with all Minion characters and make all Masters a set of resources.
  Just bounding hither and yon. I like the amnesia aspect quite a bit, actually. Another option would be cloistering... have the Minions be new to the world in one way or another and the Masters too hedonistic, disinterested or alien to know or care about the world outside until it forces them to act.

[Tim Denee]

(a) creates a benefit from abandoning a Minion at the right time and (b) allows a Minion to rebel against hir Master...

Perhaps to make their minions work more effectively, the Master has to actually 'invest' the points, and should the minion die, they lose these points permanently. BUT, if they freely abandon or sacrifice the minion, they gain the points back. So, when someone's usefulness is up, it makes sense to off 'em yourself. Especially before they get any ideas, because...

A minion, whilst in the employ of a master, cannot succeed at many tasks without their master's help. If they go it alone, any points currently 'invested' in them become a permanent part of them, and they can now use those points as they see fit. They will most likely have less potential, but a wider 'range' of operation and more independence.