Some of you may remember Crux, an urban fantasy rpg using colored tokens instead of dice. Well, development went on hiatus for about 6 months, but I'm gearing up to start revising again. Though dev was on hiatus, playtesting wasn't, so I have some issues on which your help and thoughts would be appreciated. The details below are not the whole game, obviously, just the bits I'm having issues with.

Chargen
Characters start with 9 passions (some of which may be identical), and each passion grants three points (or motes) for aspects. Passions describe what you're passionate about, significant events, places, things, or people in your life, and activities you've spent considerable time developing skills in. Aspects are the skills and backgrounds of other systems, and also describe common quotes, descriptions, and objects that they keep around.

The issues:
- I feel like 9 is too many. I'm fine with Aspects at 27 or so, but 9 Passions means that scaling Passions for difficulty and challenge makes for huge lists. The bad guy that they build up to defeating, the archenemy, might be 20 Passions in strength. The question - am I just being silly here? Is 9 fine?

- Objects can have Passions or Aspects. Passion objects are hard, if not impossible, to lose (like Luke's lightsaber), while Aspect objects are simply cool gizmos you happen to have on hand. The problem - in chargen, how do you turn what has been setup as an Aspect object into a Passion object?

Mechanics
Basically, draw a number of tokens equal to your score in an Aspect. Colors that match the target color (the kind of action determines the color) are successes.

The issues:
- How to make this diceable? While it's not the intended method, I want it to be accessible to people who don't have the desire to use colors. It can't be a perfect match because each character has it's own probability pool and mix of colors, but it would be nice if it was close.

- There are three tokens called Fates: Boons, Banes, and Wyrds. Boons put the best possible spin on an action, regardless of success or failure, while Banes put the worst possible spin. Wyrd is just that - weird coincidence. The problem is that they're showing up to often. I had 5 draws in a row from one player contain the Bane. That's too much. Ideas on other ways to do these things and limit frequency? I was thinking of removing those tokens altogether, and doing something like 3 of the target color = Boon, 3 of the opposite color = Bane.

- Should there be a difference between drawing with a Passion or an Aspect? A draw uses 3 default tokens, plus whatever you have in an appropriate Passion or Aspect. I feel that Passions should be different than an Aspect, but I also think that the difference in scope may be enough. If not, is a Passion better than an Aspect?

Magic
Very common in the game-world, magic occurs in two types: feits and raptures. Feits are single memorized/routine spells, while raptures are spontaneous spells. A character must have an Art (like wortcunning, or necromancy, or technomagery) in order to weave raptures.

The issues:
- How to distinguish between feits and Raptures in a draw? There are actually a couple layers here, from easiest to hardest:
has an Art, throwing a feit
no Art, throwing a feit
has an Art, weaving a rapture
no Art, weaving a rapture (if it's even possible)

I've done various combinations of default/no default, Art or Feit score or nothing, and nothing so far seems very intuitive. Any ideas?

Thanks in advance,

Aidan

Heya Aidan!

taalyn wrote: The issues:
- I feel like 9 is too many. I'm fine with Aspects at 27 or so, but 9 Passions means that scaling Passions for difficulty and challenge makes for huge lists. The bad guy that they build up to defeating, the archenemy, might be 20 Passions in strength. The question - am I just being silly here? Is 9 fine?

The issues:
- How to make this diceable? While it's not the intended method, I want it to be accessible to people who don't have the desire to use colors. It can't be a perfect match because each character has it's own probability pool and mix of colors, but it would be nice if it was close.

- There are three tokens called Fates: Boons, Banes, and Wyrds. Boons put the best possible spin on an action, regardless of success or failure, while Banes put the worst possible spin. Wyrd is just that - weird coincidence. The problem is that they're showing up to often. I had 5 draws in a row from one player contain the Bane. That's too much. Ideas on other ways to do these things and limit frequency? I was thinking of removing those tokens altogether, and doing something like 3 of the target color = Boon, 3 of the opposite color = Bane.

- Should there be a difference between drawing with a Passion or an Aspect? A draw uses 3 default tokens, plus whatever you have in an appropriate Passion or Aspect. I feel that Passions should be different than an Aspect, but I also think that the difference in scope may be enough. If not, is a Passion better than an Aspect?

heya Jason! How's life treating you?

cruciel wrote:

taalyn wrote: The issues:
- I feel like 9 is too many. I'm fine with Aspects at 27 or so, but 9 Passions means that scaling Passions for difficulty and challenge makes for huge lists. The bad guy that they build up to defeating, the archenemy, might be 20 Passions in strength. The question - am I just being silly here? Is 9 fine?

Hmmm... that depends. Can you map them out like the following?

Daughter 4
Father's Shop 2
Newlywed Wife 1
Sunday Basketball Games 1
Motorcycle Hobbyist 1

If yes, then 9 seems fine. Though, as I recall the stat scale in Crux, you'd have to add 2 to each if you wanted to allow them to be used as substitutionary stats, like using 'Father's Shop 2' instead of 'Dexterity 1' to fight to protect the family auto parts store from being looted.

If no, and it's just a list of nine... then my feeling is that nine is too many - dilutes the character concept too much. A simple, clear concept is better and less Passions would encourage that. This is an opinion question though, so gains of salt in your eye and all that.

The issues:
- How to make this diceable? While it's not the intended method, I want it to be accessible to people who don't have the desire to use colors. It can't be a perfect match because each character has it's own probability pool and mix of colors, but it would be nice if it was close.

The first thing that comes to mind is a dice step mechanic. Roll 1d4 (2), 1d6 (3), 1d8 (4), 1d10 (5), 1d12 (6) as appropriate to the primary stat involved; roll 1d for each adjoining stat at one step lower (2 = 1d4); add Aspect rating to highest dice result; highest value wins. Something like that?

- There are three tokens called Fates: Boons, Banes, and Wyrds. Boons put the best possible spin on an action, regardless of success or failure, while Banes put the worst possible spin. Wyrd is just that - weird coincidence. The problem is that they're showing up to often. I had 5 draws in a row from one player contain the Bane. That's too much. Ideas on other ways to do these things and limit frequency? I was thinking of removing those tokens altogether, and doing something like 3 of the target color = Boon, 3 of the opposite color = Bane.

That might sort of ensure that Boons occur on success (assured 3 in favor), and Banes on failure (assured useless 3). In which case you could just have Boons apply when you succeed, and Banes apply when you fail (thus allowing you explain a 'failure' as a success gone awry). However, that may not be what you're going for.

Another idea. You could have a Boon/Bane meter of some kind. Drawing a Boon moves the meter right (good karma accumulates), a Bane moves the meter left (bad karma accumulates), and when you hit one of the end points (the bar could be say, five long) you get a Boon or Bane.

I feel like I might be missing something here. Have you ditched the stat ring altogether?

One obvious hole in that treatment of the Fate is that players will have a very easy route to avoiding Banes if they so choose by simply associating Bane with their smallest colour, and likewose for maximizing Boons.

I suggest that the Fate be character-independent: going the Alyria route, the Boon resolves a conflict in the service of Good (which is an objective and impersonal force), and a Bane in the service of Evil. (Or something like that.) This permits the players to make interesting choices with Boon and Bane, rather than simply using them as routes to maximal effectiveness.

Shreyas,

That's true. Min-maxing is easy. And it's meant to be that way. Or can. There are plenty of ways of using these factors against a character if necessary. One of the chargen rules is "Yes!", for example. If a character is munchkinned, I say hose them with their own skills (or lack thereof). In a world a inclusive and expansive as the Coil (Crux's setting), no matter how awesome you are, there's always something worse, because anything ever imagined (and some things that haven't yet) can be found there.

Got a munchkinned combat monster? Face them with Slake-moths, from China Mieville's Perdido Street Station - they exist in multiple dimensions and feed on consciousness. No matter how big your guns, you're going to have a very difficult time wounding them in all their dimensions at once.

A munchkinned psychic/telepath? Throw a brain looper (from Jonathan Tweet and Robin Laws' Over the Edge) at them.

And that doesn't even count subtle problems their power will bring - such as multiple covert organizations seeking them out for experimentation, cloning, elimination, brainwashing, etc.

Also, I understand you're making reference to the way Alyria does it, but Good and Evil are concepts alien to Crux (as much as they can be, anyway). Even the "bad guys" of the setting, the Marahh, out to eliminate humanity, (are attempting to) do so because of valid concerns. They're nothing more than a political division, really. Much like certain religious groups, who have valid reasons within their own faith system for taking such actions.

Aidan

It isn't the precise implementation I'm talking about here, or whather Good/Evil are absolutes, it's the fact that, as you have them set up, there is no interesting reason to configure Boon and Bane differently than the maximally efficient options.

Which, if you ask me, is the same thing as setting them as those options as the default. Which doesn't seem to be your actual design goal. If you want to have your options be meaningful, then they don't have to be equally effective, but they have to be sifficiently distinct that each one is worth choosing!

(And, personally, I don't think it's ever a satisfying thing to say, "you can never be the coolest thing, ever"... but that's an ideological point, not a game design point.)

Okay, I see what you're saying. Just to put my communication skills to work, you're saying that there's no meaningful or significant reason to pick any color over another, except the maximally efficient options.

So, let's suggest some of the following as possibilities:

- any color can be chosen for the Boon, except the color most present in your caern, and conversely, any color for the Bane except the one least represented. Any color at all for the Wyrd.
- GM assigns color based on described personality.
- Thinking seriously about the idea that 9 Passions waters down the character, I'm considering a move to only 3 (with appropriately increased Aspect points). Then each Passion's color would be assigned to one of the Fates, so that Guitar is my Boon, School is my Bane (Passionate but unlucky), and Fast Cars is my Wyrd, or Amber, Green, and Blue (willpower) respectively.
- Player describes their character's greatest fear - the appropriate color is the Bane, and the opposite color is the Boon, and the Wyrd could be drawn at random.
- Draw each color at random to assign.

Any other ideas? Any of those strike your fancy? I think I'm partial to the fear method and the passion method, simply because they tie the mechanic back to the emotional and psychological facets of the character, thereby emphasizing them.

And ideologically, on being the coolest ever, I agree. I think I forgot your games for a sec there, because it should have been obvious, really...=)

Aidan

Yeah, exactly! These new ideas are great. I definitely like 3 and 4, too; it'll change the emphasis of the game depending on which you choose, but I think both are clearly good options.

Incidentally, I'm glad to see that you've come back to this.

(As for being the coolest thing ever, I don't like it as a default (usually), but I like to believe it is a viable option, even if it's the coolest thing in a very narrow field)

Edit:

"GM assigns color based on described personality" might turn out to become a very strong personality-defining mechanic.

taalyn wrote: heya Jason! How's life treating you?

This is exactly what I was thinking. One of the emphases of the game is on the power of Passion to accomplish great things, which creates another problem. If I reduce Passions because of dilution (a good idea, I think), then drawing on a Passion (because you don't have an appropriate Aspect) would mean your chances were less. I rationalized this as follows: though you are passionate about your daughter, you didn't focus on the future education Aspect, but on entertainment, cuddling, and playing. So though it is a Passion, you won't be as good as with the other stuff, though still better than if you didn't have the Passion at all.

A draw is 3 default motes plus the appropriate Aspect. When it comes to Passions, though, what to do? The obvious seems to be: draw default plus Passion divided by some number (2 or 3), rounded up. Though if there are less than 9 Passions, simply drawing default plus Passion accomplishes the same thing - your character will have much better Aspects than Passions (though Passions are more flexible in their usefulness).

Well, there are stats no longer. Ditched 'em, and with the default 3 motes(representing average), it seems to work fine. That, and I hate using 47 different kinds of dice.

So, I think I'd want some sort of target number based on Aspects and/or Passions (you have daughter 4, so roll better than 6 on 3d6, or something), or some sort of dice pool mechanic. Of course, the diced mechanic needs to include some way of allowing for Fates too.

If any math geniuses out there would be willing to help, I can post more details on how a draw happens, so that you'd have an accurate picture of how the mechanic works, and could simulate probabilities somehow.

[a bunch of stuff about Fate]

Another possibility for handling boon/bane/wyrd popping up too often is the following.

Add a single "control" chit to the mix. Distinguishable from everything else. The boon/bane/wyrd only occurs if the control chit is ALSO drawn. This effectively increases the number of chits relative to the boon/bane/wyrd chits without actually requiring twice as many chits.

As an upshot, if a boon/bane/wyrd/control chit is drawn without its necessary partner, it should be replaced? That's an optional idea.

Also, a die mechanic would be a great help. I would try CRUX with my group, except that I have two players who are the poster boys for "Dexterity? We don't need no stinkin' Dexterity!". Rolling dice is a challenge for them some days (sorry guys...). I can't imagine how long action resolution would take if they're pulling chits from bowls.... :)

Regards,

Bunch of stuff all in one post...


Fate assignment
I think #3 (assign Passion colors to the Fates) is the way to go. One of the concerns with personality/fear stuff is that we'd be effectively linking personality to luck, and while it would work, it doesn't feel right. I can't say what exactly... I guess part of it is that the colors don't necessarily lend themselves to personality - Red is about the body, for example, so it would describe an athlete, but not her personality.

The concern with doing the Passion thing is what to do when your passions are all the same color? I think having the player choose a separate color for each Passion, only for Fate purposes, would probably be fine. I did it in the example in the list, since Fast Cars should technically be Amber. But I'd already used that, so I gave it the next appropriate color.

Another thing to keep in mind is that an Amber Passion is very likely to have lots of Amber Aspects, so though the mindset behind the assignment is good, effectively it can be identical with simply picking the most common color in your caern. Don't know about this - maybe the personality system should be developed and used....

Control chits
Good idea. It's definitely a possibility, especially if the comments above make a personality system unworkable. But what color? I've already got 10 colors in there, and I'm leery of making players figure out or buy yet ANOTHER color! This is partly why I like the system above - cuts the colors down again - it can be very difficult to see the difference between the Bane (black) and blue or green, depending.

The Dexless
Surprisingly, I have found that once the players get a hang of the draw and colors, it goes MUCH faster. It's easier to say " red that's 2, green, nope, blue, nope, amber, that's 3 now..." than to do the math on dice. Of course, slow rollers still tend to be slow drawers, but the system is generally more intuitive than the math, I've found.

using Passions
Passions could be included on a draw, but they're quite unlikely to occur with an Aspect, since the Aspect is derived from the Passion (Passion of Daughter, Aspects of Playing, Changing Diapers, Silly, for example). Generally, no, the Passion isn't included in a draw.
Passions are more flexible, but don't occur in resolution very often. They can be used for narrative control, hack-writer's gambit, redrawing, automatic 2 successes (or maybe more, since they'll be rarer), making it harder for your opponent, and so on.


Finally, thanks for your support guys. Mike has been a huge help in making me get it going again, and I'm glad he did. It's also nice to hear that people are glad I'm coming back to it.

I'm glad I took the break though - I've been going back through what I wrote, and I'm saying "Ick!". So I'm rewriting, and that's good.

Aidan

taalyn wrote: Surprisingly, I have found that once the players get a hang of the draw and colors, it goes MUCH faster. It's easier to say " red that's 2, green, nope, blue, nope, amber, that's 3 now..." than to do the math on dice. Of course, slow rollers still tend to be slow drawers, but the system is generally more intuitive than the math, I've found.

Passions could be included on a draw, but they're quite unlikely to occur with an Aspect, since the Aspect is derived from the Passion (Passion of Daughter, Aspects of Playing, Changing Diapers, Silly, for example). Generally, no, the Passion isn't included in a draw.
Passions are more flexible, but don't occur in resolution very often. They can be used for narrative control, hack-writer's gambit, redrawing, automatic 2 successes (or maybe more, since they'll be rarer), making it harder for your opponent, and so on.

Ah, way ahead of you, Jason! Cards are already planned for inclusion, because they are easier. But there are still going to be some people who want "Dice, dammit!", so I want to provide some sort of imperfect solution.

I say imperfect because the system just can't be duplicated by dice. But I think there should be something that would work well enough...

Aidan

taalyn wrote: Ah, way ahead of you, Jason! Cards are already planned for inclusion, because they are easier. But there are still going to be some people who want "Dice, dammit!", so I want to provide some sort of imperfect solution.

I say imperfect because the system just can't be duplicated by dice. But I think there should be something that would work well enough...

Ewww...I hope you clean the math off of it before you post it. =D

Caern Building
- Start with 3 motes (tokens) of each color.
- Draw 12 from the Guide's caern (a balanced bag with 6 of each), redrawing if you get one of the Fates. These 14 motes represent genetics.
- Assign 8 motes among all the colors however you like.
- Add a mote for Fate (usually striped or white, to be distinctive), and you're done.

A caern will thus have 42 motes (21+12+8+1). Every character will have different numbers of motes in their caern, so their probabilities will be different. Over a large sample of possible caerns, it averages out to the same probabilities as a balanced caern, which is approximately 6 of each color: Red, Amber, Green, Cyan, Blue, Magenta, and Clear.

the Draw
Start with a default of 3 motes. Add any appropriate Aspect. Draw that many motes from your caern.
For every mote that matches the color of the task, get 2 Power.
For every mote that is next to the color of the task, get 1 Power.
If you draw the Fate, and you have drawn on of the Fate colors defined for your character, you get the Fate (Boon, Bane, Wyrd) of the appropriate type. If there are equal numbers, you get both Fates.
Succeed by getting more Power than the Obstacle, or than your opponent.

Minimum draw is 1 (possible if you are wounded, which can negate the default hand) and there is no maximum. Average is usually 5 or 6 motes in the draw. In general, the average Power that can be expected from a draw is equal to the hand divided in half. So, the average Power is 3, with a minimum of 0, and no maximum (though in play, average max hand is 10, for a power of 5). Maximum Power for any hand is generally twice the value - average max power is thus 12.


Example Draws
I have the Aspect "Shoot Things A4", and I plan to use it on the Marahh Terat heading my way. She has the Aspect "Shapeshift R2".

I will draw 7 motes, 3 for default, and 4 for my Aspect. My target is Amber (the A in A4). I get 2 red, an amber, a blue, 2 cyan, and a clear. That is 4 Power, 2 for the Amber, and 1 for each of the Reds.

The Terat draws 5 motes, targeting Red, hoping to shift shapes into something with holes where the bullet will be. She draws an amber, 2 greens, a magenta, and the Fate. Green happens to be her Bane color, so she ends up with 2 Power (1 for amber, 1 for magenta) and the Bane. Failure, with the worst possible spin. Poor Terat.

Is that enough?

Aidan

Is that enough?

There are a couple of other issues I mentioned that no one has commented on yet, so I want to highlight them again.

- Objects can have Passions or Aspects. Passion objects are hard, if not impossible, to lose (like Luke's lightsaber), while Aspect objects are simply cool gizmos you happen to have on hand. The problem - in chargen, how do you turn what has been setup as an Aspect object into a Passion object?

- How to distinguish between feits and Raptures in a draw? There are actually a couple layers here, from easiest to hardest:
has an Art, throwing a feit
no Art, throwing a feit
has an Art, weaving a rapture
no Art, weaving a rapture (if it's even possible)

I've done various combinations of default/no default, Art or Feit score or nothing, and nothing so far seems very intuitive. Any ideas?

cruciel wrote:

Should be. I'll be a little slow in gettin' to the figurin', but I'll let you know when I've got an idea (provided Mike or someone doesn't beat me to it).

No multiple die types right? No charts either?

Edit: double post.

After reviewing the caern building rules I'm not sure this'll work. Well, I'll spit it out anyway.

Going with your dice pool idea, here's what I've got:

Roll 3d6 (white) + 1d6 (red) per Aspect or Passion

Each die that comes up less than or equal to your rating in the color of the task is 2 power, each die that comes up less than or equal to the highest rating of the two adjacent colors is 1 power.

Boon: Roll all 1's on the white (default) dice.
Bane: Roll all 6's on the white dice.
Wyrd: Roll all 6's on the red dice.

Here's the problem - I was thinking old Crux rules again (1 - 6 stat for each color). So this doesn't quite make sense. Crap.

I'll have to think about it a bit more, but this idea might work with the current caern building rules by leaving a space on the color wheel to fill in a number for a dice system. It's a chart, but it's a chart you already have.

How to make that work...

You could make the normal success target number 3 or lower (default caern).

During character generation roll 1d6 for each color (genetics). If you get a 1 lower the target number of that color by one, if you get a 6 increase the target number by one.

Give the player two + 1's they may assign to any color(s) (player assigned motes).

I haven't done any calculations on this - I had the idea in the shower. Actually, I haven't done any calculations at all (my head has been in it lately). However, I'm leaving the caern/draw rules on my coffee table, so they can force me to think about them. I'll let you know if I have any other ideas.

Hmmm...I think you're on to something here, Jason.

There is no limit to your "stat" (aka Threshhold) in a color, but 10 is a comfortable max. So, you're right - that's not quite right.

Also, say I have 5 in red, 7 in amber, and 2 in magenta. If I roll my dice, and get a 4, is that 2 power or one? It's less than the 5 for red, but also less than the 7 for amber.

Actually, I'm starting to think that the system is so integral to the game here that dice just will not work, period. I will provide a card draw system (still doable following the rules, but your caern will be a customized deck instead of a bag of glass blobs).

So, unless you have a sudden insight - don't worry about it. I have other things that I could your help on, if you're willing...

- having players just choose their Fate colors doesn't work. Nor does associating it with their Passions - someone with a Passion for music will probably have loads of amber motes, and they're likely to associate that passion with the Boon (I have one such player now), so it is essentially the same as pick whatever color you want. The color association to determine the kind of Fate works well, but not how the colors are assigned. I'll also note that the one Fate mote works MUCH better - now it actually means something to get the Fate. Before, it was "I got the Boon again. yay. whoopee." Now it's "Oh crud!! I got a Bane!"

-Mike has been talking to me about putting the colors drawn to more use. All kinds of information in a draw, symbolized by the colors, so there could be plenty of additional info drawn from a draw.

For example, damage. It comes in multiple colors, but most swords, guns, and such like will do red damage. Some, such as soul-eting weapons, might do blue. When the draw to hit is made, you look at the color of damage the weapon does, and the motes you have of that color, or adjacent colors. The most predominant is the kind of damage it does. Ties - player chooses, or splits however if enough damage is done. If none of the requisite colors are drawn, but damage is inflicted, it goes to default color.

Examples:
Swinging a sword (R), I draw and get RAAAC, 5 power (assuming a red skill - likely). Swords normally do 1 mote of damage, amber in this case, because amber is adjacent to red, and most of my motes are amber.

Now wielding a Staff of Stupid (green damage), I draw RBBBMX - 3 Power (assuming red skill, 2 for red, 1 for magenta). Say that's enough to hit - it does 1 point of green damage, since green is default and none of the green or adjacent colors appeared.

Finally, I am throwing a Feit (I love that pun) which will cause cyan damage. I draw and get RGCMXXX (I'm really good with this one). That's 8 Power, facing, say, a Power of 1 from my target. The Feit will cause 1 mote of C damage to start, because of the successful hit. I also have 2 full sets of 3 Power beyond what was needed to hit (8 Power - 1 power is 7, which = 2*3 +1) so it will do 2 more motes of damage. Bcause I have a tie between green and cyan, I can pick one of those two colors for damage, or split up however I like. The possibilities: 3 green, 2 green and 1 cyan, 1 green and 2 cyan, or 3 cyan.

So there's damage for you. What I'm looking for is other uses for the color-information in a draw.

Aidan

taalyn wrote: Hmmm...I think you're on to something here, Jason.

There is no limit to your "stat" (aka Threshhold) in a color, but 10 is a comfortable max. So, you're right - that's not quite right.

Also, say I have 5 in red, 7 in amber, and 2 in magenta. If I roll my dice, and get a 4, is that 2 power or one? It's less than the 5 for red, but also less than the 7 for amber.

Actually, I'm starting to think that the system is so integral to the game here that dice just will not work, period. I will provide a card draw system (still doable following the rules, but your caern will be a customized deck instead of a bag of glass blobs).

- having players just choose their Fate colors doesn't work. Nor does associating it with their Passions - someone with a Passion for music will probably have loads of amber motes, and they're likely to associate that passion with the Boon (I have one such player now), so it is essentially the same as pick whatever color you want. The color association to determine the kind of Fate works well, but not how the colors are assigned. I'll also note that the one Fate mote works MUCH better - now it actually means something to get the Fate. Before, it was "I got the Boon again. yay. whoopee." Now it's "Oh crud!! I got a Bane!"

I'm going to expand upon a couple of things I said, now that I'm thinking clearly.

****

Ok, as far as additional information from the draw, nothing else has occurred to me other than my previous idea about removing colors from the bag when drawn for (basically) additional actions.

For example, if you get 3 red on a draw you can remove those from the bag to add an additional red action to the task. You may return one grass bobbly removed in this fashion to your bag after the next appropriate colored task drawn for. This would mean you'd get those 3 red bobblies back after you've draw for your third red task since you pulled the bobblies.

*****

One thing to be wary of is that the more information a draw presents you with the more complex and restricting (unless the info is optional) the resolution mechanic will become. Let me explain.

Take damage for example. Though the method you list is more interesting, just having damage equal base damage (1 Red) + red motes drawn would be simpler. The more features you add like this, the more a player's brain will have to work during resolution.

For example, you might say that if you get more cyan (or whatever) than red (or whatever) on a red task it requires the task to be described as cyan assisted somehow. Like, taking advantage of your enemy's weakness (cyan is perception, right?). If this is optional, then it might assist colorful description. If mandatory, it'll just impede player choice and create additional mental tasks for the player (they'll have to pause and ask themselves questions like, "How do I assist punching someone with magenta?").

I'm thinking your design goals are simple and free. Though I understand wanting to fully use what you've got, you might want to keep an eye on how much detail you add. I fall into this trap myself all the frickin' time. "It'd be neat if...", "Ooh and yeah." By the time I'm done talking to myself I've got 50 pages of rules on vehicles or something.

*****

On the Fate colors, I had another idea.

The GM could set the colors for the scene/episode or setting (prop: place special bobblies on a color wheel). This could be an interesting mechanic for influencing the feel of individual scenes, as it would allow setting how risky certain types of conflicts would be (play testing being the only way to tell for sure). For example, you might set Wyrd to cyan during a car chase so that it was more likely what weird things would happen when a character notices something.

taalyn wrote: - How to distinguish between feits and Raptures in a draw? There are actually a couple layers here, from easiest to hardest:
has an Art, throwing a feit
no Art, throwing a feit
has an Art, weaving a rapture
no Art, weaving a rapture (if it's even possible)

cruciel wrote: For example, if you get 3 red on a draw you can remove those from the bag to add an additional red action to the task. You may return one grass bobbly removed in this fashion to your bag after the next appropriate colored task drawn for. This would mean you'd get those 3 red bobblies back after you've draw for your third red task since you pulled the bobblies.

The GM could set the colors for the scene/episode or setting (prop: place special bobblies on a color wheel). This could be an interesting mechanic for influencing the feel of individual scenes, as it would allow setting how risky certain types of conflicts would be (play testing being the only way to tell for sure). For example, you might set Wyrd to cyan during a car chase so that it was more likely what weird things would happen when a character notices something.

This may have been mentioned, and Im not sure i understand the entire idea of the game but as for a dice solution..this may help.

Using 6 sided dice... even numbers are assigned Boon or bane. Odd Dice are assigned the other..and doubles become your wyrds.

The number of dice thrown represent the ammount of chips or cards the player has in their cairn.

Just a thought.

Heya Strams!

Just in case - Welcome to the Forge! =D

Since you've come in late, I think you've missed a big chunk of the game. In case anyone else is reading the thread (and lost), here's a quick summary:

Forget all you know about reality. Faeries are real, and so are vampires, centaurs, gods, ghosts, and every being ever imagined. This world is only half of reality, and the other is called the Plasm. These two Dominions are separated by the Caesura, a magical veil.
Long ago, there was a Compact, which ensured that the Caesura turned the shifting energy (or Quiddity) of the Plasm into the solid Quiddity of teh Tell, and vice versa. That Compact was broken, and as a result, all sorts of things are happening. All of them have led to the War, a major conflict bewteen the Calyx and the Marahh - the Calyx want to restore the Compact, but humans are required, so they fight against the Marahh, who figure all will be well without humanity ruining everything. There are many other political divisions, but they're the two most active.
Characters are people affected by the War, whether Shoal (unaware of the truth, and generally human) or Noom (awakened beings of the Plasm). Common game themes include ecology, dealing with the Dawning (the awakening process), stopping or hindering the war, and repairing a broken Caesura without getting possessed.

The game uses colored tokens, generally. Chargen is simple, and uses Aspects, each assigned a color and a number. Say I have Run Red3 (or R3), then I will draw from my bag of tokens 3 for default, and 3 for the # in my aspect. Every red (because that's the color my running is) counts as 2 power, and every adjacent color (amber or magenta, in this case) counts as 1.
The bag of tokens (the Caern) also has a single token of a different color, the Fate. If I get that, then the other colors in the draw define what kind of Fate I got, whether bane, boon, or wyrd.

The reason I've given up on dice is that there is no way to use dice to accurately represent the individuality of the Caern. Not without getting very complicated, anyway.

A.