The Forge Archives

Hey.

So I'm working on this fantasy game, and it's in a good shareable state:
OtherKind

My goal was to make a fantasy game where the fantasy peoples mean something, and I think I've sort of succeeded.  I wanted the dwarfs elves orcs and trolls to all mean something different, and instead they all mean basically the same thing, but at least they mean something.

The mechanic is toothily Fortune in the Middle: you roll your dice and then spend them on success, complications, and who gets to narrate.  The reward system is based on Tim Denee's Hell-shift.

Anyway, tell me what you think?

(Interestingly, and I hope I'm not spilling too many beans here Scott, Scott Knipe's been working on a game with some striking similarities and striking differences.  We're thinking of coordinating or integrating them, so there's that in the future.  His game features dragons, conspicuously absent from mine.)

-Vincent

WOW!

Vincent.  That's fantastic, absolutely fantastic.  It's likely way to much short notice, but I'd love someone to run this at Demon Con tomorrow.

We were talking in other threads about how to maintain a sense of wonder in a fantasy game.  Man, you achieved that in spades.  

I'd love to see some "unseelie" otherkind in the game.  I'm thinking the chief difference would be a different twist to the Connection to Life, something where doing harm to people increases the Connection instead of decreases, and which relates to Connection to Life in the same way as Moonlight relates to Iron...meaning the two could cooperate...to a point, and then they become incompatable.

Very impressive.

Unseelie, hmm...

Hmm...

-Vincent

Vincent! Dude!

I agree with Ralph, man...this is really, really, really GOOD. I'm jealous. I love the idea of rolling the dice, then assigning them to the various things (Narration, Safety, Life and Motion).

Wow. Damn, now I wanna steal it. Curses!

- J

(how cool would that be for Hollywood-style car chases? really cool.)

Vincent, this is VERY cool.  I'll digest it and offer any further feedback I may have, but right now, this looks marvelous.

Best,

Blake

Vincent,

This rocks out. I want to run this for my group in an el pronto fashion. I'd do it this weekend, if they weren't clamoring for more Riddle of Steel.

Here's a question:  Color dice.  Is there any particular effect attached to a particular color?  The rules imply there might be, frex, a different effect for a red die than for a green one.

Great stuff, BTW.  Moonlight and Iron.  Awesome.

Best,

Blake

Vincent,

I knew this game would go over big.

And since he spilt the beans, here's a peek at http://hardcoreroleplaying.homestead.com/Draconic.html">Draconic.

It's not nearly as complete Otherkind  (hopefully I'll get a chance to work on it soon, but I have at least two other projects pending before GenCon - a newly revised NightWatch and another that I hope to announce shortly), but you'll see some definite similarities.

The funny thing about these two games is that neither was written with knowledge of the other, but they were inspired by the same thing, and in our ways, Vincent and I arrived at similar conclusions.  It wasn't that long ago that threads here at The Forge were spouting about "finding the wonder" and "capturing the essence" of this or that.  Well, Draconic was my attempt to make good on those claims, and I think Otherkind was Vincent's.

One note: Although I haven't read all of Trollbabe, I have had a chance to look at it, and some of Draconic was inspired by that game.  Namely, the wandering hero image and a little bit of how I dealt with damage and Wellbeing.  I gladly cite Ron's work as inspiration, and if it hews too closely to that project (which it may, since I haven't read it in it's entirety). I'll gladly take down the URL and that'll be the end of it.

That said, look for some artwork from none other than Mr. Baker sometime in the near future.

- Scott

Jared: you're right about the car chases.  Nice.  (I hope you do steal it, I'd play that game.)

Blake: not the colors as such, but what the colored dice represent.  Say I roll three white dice, plus a red die for my Sword - Graceful and a green die because I'm in a place that's Numinous at 6.  If I wind up assigning the red die, then whoever narrates has to talk about my grace with my sword.  If I wind up assigning the green die, the narration has to include the place's Numen.  If both, then both, if neither, you don't have to include either (but you can).

So the colors are to tell the dice apart, so you know what you have to include in your narration.

Ralph, Clinton, Scott: thanks!

-Vincent

Is there a mechanical use for Graceful, Artistic, and Powerful, or are those primarily guides for how to narrate the use of that skill?

Just guides.  Mostly guides for the GM when she gets to narrate, I think.

Thus you could use completely other adjectives if you wanted, I suppose.

-Vincent

Thanks for the color clarification, Vincent.  Hmm.  Graceful and Artistic sound a lot alike to me.  Graceful, Brutal, and Flashy might be more intuitive descriptions, though there's nothing wrong with Powerful.  OTOH, once Artistic is lined up with Flashy, Showy, Flowery, or Dashing, my confusion with Graceful fades.

Best,

Blake

Is there a PDF available? Character sheets? I couldn't find links to them on your site.

Very impressed.

Jake

You may want to adjust that section of the text abit.  As I was reading it through the first time my assumption was that the 4 colored dice corresponded 1:1 with Graceful, Artistic, Powerful, and Life.  It wasn't until the example that I realized the colors connected to the skills not the adjectives.

Quote from: Jake NorwoodIs there a PDF available? Character sheets? I couldn't find links to them on your site.

The menu's not showing up in Internet Explorer - I found it via Netscape.

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