[INGENERO] second draft available. How does it grab you?

[stefoid]

I think Ive got some stuff going on with this game.

http://ingenero.wordpress.com/


Heres the spiel.

I would love to get some feedback on this from other designers and Ron particularly, if possible?

Ingenero is a little system with a big engine.  Its primary purpose is to propel the characters towards dramatic action.

Ingenero is for action-themed play in any setting – players describe their characters in terms of actions they can take, rather than skills or equipment they possess.

The most important feature of the system is goal-oriented play for pacing and focus. This is achieved using two alternating phases – the first deals entirely with story development, character decisions and consequences, and the second zooms in on those decisive moments of achievement or failure when the characters advance closely on their goals.

An important principle is adhering to the rules of drama rather than the rules of physics or probability. Characters always get a chance to at least compete for their goals – they are never completely knocked out of a conflict prematurely.

A key aim of the system is cinematic conflict resolution. Conflicts are resolved using descriptive, competing actions which can be used to target other characters, maneuver for advantage, and even aid or interfere with another characters actions.

CINEMATIC STYLE, DRAMATIC ACTION:

The aims of the system can be summed up by the answers to the following questions. If you find your own thoughts similar to those below, then Ingenero is the system for you.

What makes a good story?

The essence of a good story is that you care about the characters – you care if they achieve their goals and what happens to them if they do or they don't.

What is the role of action in a story?

In an action story, action provides vivid and exciting obstacles to characters goals, and a certain amount of escapist wish fulfillment to boot.

What makes a roleplaying session fun?

Being immersed in the moment during play, rooting for your character, trying to achieve what your character wants to achieve, planning and overcoming obstacles in your characters way, being entertained and pleased by what unfolds.

[stefoid]

Oh, and Im looking for scenario writers and artists to partner with, as per my sig. 

My audience is mainstream gamers looking to branch out a bit without sacrificing the tactical action and combat they like.

So the canned scenarios so far are Goblin World and "supernatural nazi fighters" (working title). 

Im interested in if those scenarios would be appealing to people, if you consider yourself maybe in the audience I described?

[stefoid]

Have a third scenario planned.  (sci-fi based).
need two more.


Guidelines for canned scenarios can be downloaded here.  http://ingenero.wordpress.com/downloads/

But I will reproduce here, in case it seems like something you might want to help with, or at least give more advice on the subject.    Is htere anything fundamental about the process of writing canned scenarios or modules that I am overlooking?

CANNED SCENARIO WRITING:
In a nutshell, your aim is to hook the players by inspiring them with possibilities.

This is a little bit like writing the first chapter of a novel that is then played out via the game.  You have to introduce your main protagonists and possibly antagonists to the reader, give them an idea about the setting and hit them with an interesting situation that draws them in to find out what happens.

The most important thing to note is that it's the combination of setting and situation that hooks people.  A setting should be inspiring and full of exciting possibilities for the players and GM to riff on. But by itself, it doesn't do anything. What will the characters in this setting be doing and why? That is covered by the premise. But still, that's not enough.  You're the author of this first chapter of the story, so you have the opportunity and the obligation to set the story in motion by outlining the situation.  I can't stress enough that it is primarily the situation that will differentiate your scenario from other games set in a similar setting.  Its highly unlikely your chosen setting is so unique that something similar hasn't been done many times before.

The whole process will be circular, each part feeding into the other and round again, but it's probably best to start with setting and premise.

SETTING AND PREMISE:
What – in a general sense – are the characters going to be doing, and why?  And where will this be occurring?  In the scenario itself, I don't think you need to explicitly state the premise and tone to the audience. That should be obvious from the characters, situation and goals that you set up. But you'll have to keep it in mind yourself as you design the scenario.

How much setting detail to offer is hard to define.  Enough so that you are wowing the audience with the possibilities but not so much that you leave no room for their own imagination to flesh out the details.  You also don't want to overwhelm them with detail so that nothing stands out. You need to prioritize exactly what it is about the setting that you want the audience to know – is it the geography, the politics, the cultures, the sheer uniqueness, the history, etc...

The other purpose of setting information, secondary to hooking the audience with excitement, is to make the GMs life easier. The GM needs to continually improvise obstacles and complications for the players to run into as they pursue their goals. Hints and hooks in the setting detail will help with this – who are the possible antagonists they might run into and what are their possible motivations? What type of political situations might they become embroiled in? What type of environmental hazards or obstacles might they face? To reiterate – you aren't giving them a plot, you're offering a world of possibilities.

CHARACTERS:
Your characters have lived in this setting, so the character history section is where you tie them to it. The purpose of the history section is to provide possible hooks for motivations, goals and ongoing improvised plot, as well as engage the players and make it seem like an interesting character to play. Character history detail is a little like setting detail – hint and hook rather describe everything. Leave the player something to round out and put their own stamp on.

You decide what the character is like, what they want, and how they relate to the other PCs – motivations. This is the most interesting and dynamic part of the scenario creation. This is where you set up major themes of behavior and general play. In the rules it suggests a minimum of one motivation per type, but you aren't limited to that – use as many as makes sense for the character and situation you have in mind.

The characters goals will derive from the initial situation and motivations. See the diagram at the start of the rulebook. The players will be pursuing those goals throughout play, so they are the major factor in what will happen in your scenario. The fact this is a role-playing game with multiple players means there will have to be some level of unity of purpose in the group of PCs, but creating tension by also giving contradictory goals and goals that are at odds with other character goals and motivations is also a good thing.

At the end of character generation, you should have a sketched out character that makes the players care about if they achieve their goals or not. A 'realistic' character with motives, likes, dislikes, emotional quirks and goals they want to pursue.

SITUATION:
All of the preceding stuff will feed into creating the initial situation, which you will probably find feeding back to that stuff as well. The initial situation is what will be selling the scenario. It's the 'blurb on the back' of your scenario. What is currently going down that has resulted in one or more character goals? What are the probable immediate obstacles and complications they will have to deal with right from the start when they sit down to play? The initial situation is a 'bang'. It can't be ignored, the players have to do something about it and start making decisions. Even if they do nothing, that's a decision that will have significant consequences. It can't be a static situation – shit has to be going down and continue to go down. And the more it effects the characters – pushes their motivational buttons, plays on their dispositions, etc...the better.  Think of matinée cliff-hanger situations – something urgent requires direct action right now!

SCALE:
Don't try to be epic with the initial situation and character goals. If the players are faced with epic problems and epic goals, it makes it hard to know where to start or which way to jump – blank page syndrome.  Make the scale more personable and place more restraint on PC choice initially, and both players and GM will have an easier time of it.  Things may end up epic anyway, but at a more reasonable pace.

PROFICIENCIES AND PLAYS:
The rulebook gives good info on creating characters that are effective. You don't want to create marginal characters that will essentially be spectators. Make sure you understand the distinction between describing the characters marginal abilities in the character's history and the proficiencies that are essential because they describe how the character will be effective in achieving goals.

Sig Plays are your way of giving the characters their own style, particularly the 'how' part of the play. The type and description of the plays define the areas in which the character will be particularly effective.  Make sure they are reasonably coherent. Prioritize the areas where the character should be particularly effective and assign a handful coherent sig plays that will be useful in a range of situations. By coherent, I mean not a bunch of random, unrelated plays across a wide range of activities. i.e. if the character is a fighter who wears chainmail and carries a honking big two handed axe, then demonstrate the style of how that character goes about fighting by defining a handful of sig plays that reflect that style, and make them descriptive and inspiring.  These are showcasing the system and are effectively extra examples that show the 'best practices' of how to set up Ingenero games and characters.
Go for ten +1 plays rather than one +2 play and five +1 plays.  More is better.

NPCS:
You might want to consider brief char gen of significant NPCs. Particularly ones that are involved in the initial situation right from the start, or are explicitly antagonists the PCs will run into early.  Brief means give them only one motivation and one goal, say, and go with (one +2 play and five +1 plays) if they are the type of antagonist the PCs are likely to get into conflict with.

OTHER PRACTICALITIES:
Maps, lists of possible NPC names, etc... stuff that will save the GM from stalling while trying to reach for information. Include that so they can have it ready to hand without interrupting flow.