[Setting: Orbital Trade Facility. One of the character's (Tirpse) has entered the facility in search of a specific item that the characters need to deliver to an ally. The other two characters have been waiting for him in their private starship.]

GM: Alright, Chester (looks to Dustin, Chester's player), you can see Tirpse here (gestures to Logan, Tirpse's player) running in through the docking room doors. Following him are several armed guards carrying powerful blaster rifles. Tirpse seems to be outrunning them, but they suddenly stop and just begin aiming their rifles. From inside of several other starships you see more guards come out, carrying similar weapons, and blocking off Tirpse's path.

Dustin: Damn it! This was a trap. I fire up the starship, locking sensors on the nearest group of soldiers and try to bring its weapons to bare on them.

Megan: Hey, what about me?

Dustin: The engines will wake you up, your quarters are right next to them!

Megan: Oh, yeah…

Logan: I'm going to stop, I guess. I keep looking around, getting ready to dodge if any of them fire. If I can dodge maybe I can get them to shoot at each other.

GM: First, Chester, the starship won't start up. There seems to be a dampening field in place, stopping you from activating your engines.

Dustin: (almost whispering to himself) Automatically anyway… (In his full voice) I comm. Sheila over there and tell her: "Hey, lazy, wake up! I need the ship on, quickly now!"

GM: Well, she wakes up. Sheila?

Megan: I rub the sleep from my eyes and hit the return button: "I'm up, and on it. Next time try giving me time to take a shower please, sheesh…" Then I shut of the comm. system before he can respond. (Sticks her tongue out at Dustin.)

GM: Alright, so Sheila is attempting to turn on the engines while the soldiers are slowly closing in on Tirpse.

Logan: Oh, they are, are they? Well, I'm going to drop into a fighting stance.

GM: They put their ranged weapons aside, realizing how risky it would be to open fire, and pull out plasma swords.

Logan: Oh great. (Shakes his head.) I'll get ready, looking for the nearest one to open up on once they are within my range.

GM: Well, one of them gets into your range before the others, intent on taking your head off with his sword.

Logan: I try to duck under his sword, get into his range and grapple with him.

GM: As you do that, the others are getting read to strike you.

Logan: Which is why I use him and his body armor as a shield. (Smiles.) Thanks for letting us know that the guard's armor was plasma resistant last time.

GM: (Smacks his forehead.) Figures you'd do something like this. Well… oh god, you make it. Why'd you have to be so skilled in unarmed combat?

Logan: 'Cause I can't use guns, maybe? Anyway, whenever I get a chance I throw out a sidekick of a back kick to try to take some of them in the face and knock them on their asses. There can only be like six or seven of them fighting me effectively at once, right?

GM: Yeah, so you manage to knock a few on their asses before you start getting tired. Their armor can absorb your kicks as well as plasma or better, after all.

Logan: Shoot… I wonder if I should kick it up a notch… (Thinking out loud.)

Dustin: Hey, does Sheila get the engine going?

GM: Yeah, after a bit of fiddling she manually starts the engine and figures out how to create a force field to protect against the dampening field's effects.

Megan: Yeah! Score one for the engineer!

Dustin: I bring the weapons to bare on the outer edge of the soldiers. How many do the sensors say there are?

GM: 108, quite a few. Your ship can probably take them, but remember that Tirpse is in the middle.

Dustin: That's why I'm aiming at the edge closest to us. Fire!

GM: Bolts of hyper-charged plasma spit out from your ship's main cannon and cause explosions that rip through the armor of the outer guards, plasma absorbant or not. Surprised that a ship turned on, several of them run away, escaping into other ships. The dampening field shuts down.

Dustin: Uh-oh.

Logan: How many are left with me?

GM: Twelve have stayed back, but they backed away and pulled out their rifles.

Logan: Okay, time to kick it up a notch. (Smiles.) I start gathering my energy.

GM: The soldiers look a little scared as they see a glow begin to surround you and energy readings on their helmet displays skyrocket, but they just bring their weapons level to you. The other ships begin to activate, and since your ship is only 20 metres long, it is dwarfed by all of the other ships being activated which are 100-150 metres.

Dustin: I activate the lift-off sequence and try to fly by Tirpse, opening up a lower hatch as I do so once I get lifted off. I'll also fire at the activating ships with all available weapons before their defensive matrixes activate.

GM: Your aiming at the closest ships first then? (Dustin nods). OK, well, you disable 7 of the 11 activated ships, but the last 4 have their defensive matrixes up. You are about thirty metres from Tirpse when the riflemen open fire, but you can see and feel the energy emanating from Tirpse as he goes full power.

Dustin: "That kid is something…" I keep going.
Logan: If I don't get hit by any of the riflemen, I am going to go after the one that fired first and do a flying kick to knock him away, and try to rebound around to the next closest over and over again. I'm going to use them as leverage to get to my next target.

GM: Well, you manage to duck down just in time to dodge the first few shots, then move to the side to avoid the rest. You jump at the first guy and hit him solidly with a flying kick, which launches you towards your next target.

Logan: I'll punch him in the face and use a kick to his knee to leap to the next closest guy.

GM: You do so, reaching the next one just as he finishes reloading his rifle and setting it to fast fire. They all set to fast fire now that they know how quick you are.

Logan: I break this guy's knee if I can and try to grapple him into being a shield again.

GM: Damn you, this is a piece of cake at full power. The other eight are just pointing their rifles at you, and you notice several starship mounted weapons pointing your way. You also sense Chester and Sheila moving towards you fast, and suddenly your starship is above you.

Logan: "Well, smell you later!" I jump up into the open hatch that Chester left for me, letting the soldier I was holding fall to the ground.

GM: As soon as they notice the soldier is gone… (Logan smack's his forehead) You guessed it. Boom, your starship is under heavy fire from the four guard manned ships, and you also see more guards begin to pour in. Tirpse, you make it in unharmed thanks to Chester's quick reflexes on activating the defensive matrix, but the matrix is beginning to fail due to the concentrated fire of the four larger ships.

Logan: "Boot 'er Chester!"

Dustin: "On it!" I turn us around and blow us a door in the nearest wall, heading out at full speed, but dropping a little present as I do. Deducting one gravity mine from my stock, now. (He smiles as the GM shakes his head in disbelief.) I set it to small distortion however, so it will only affect the docking port we were in. I don't wanna hurt the civilians.

GM: Well, one ship manages to escape before the mine activates and causes most of everything else in the room to implode thanks to the dampening field still being down. However, before you start turning to engage this one, you should keep in mind that you have just sensed another powerful energy spike from another being on that ship, surpassing Tirpse in power.

Logan: I power down. "That doesn't feel very good…"

Dustin: "No, no it doesn't."

Notes:
Narrative style of play, (loose play without too many specifics to bog it down) but with the ability to allow tactical combats.

Quick and easy task resolution.

Martial Arts and Combat systems needed, starship system needed, social skills more than likely useful as well.

Anime style, so not too specific when it comes down to statistics. (Physique, Reflex, Mental, Spirit)

Need a system for energy, how it affects your combat skills and how you get more energy.

Need character advancement that allows one to increase different aspects of a character such as energy, attributes, skills etc… This system should incorporate some kind of training.

The central focus of the game will be a blend of anime-style combat with starships and/or people. There will also be many ways that social conflicts can affect play, as well as varying Human vs. Nature conflicts that may arise.

Players are often going to be headstrong and rush into things due to the overall power of their characters. Occasionally meet them with equal or overpowering forces when such actions are taken. May cause them to be more cautious - Not necessarily a bad thing.

*****

OK, so this is what I have so far. What do you guys think? Would you like to play this game? What sections should the design document have? I don't want to completely rely on what others tell me to do, but for my first 'project' a little help would be appreciated.

I'll start with what you said in the other thread:

Lonoto wrote:
Either way, the 3-4 crucial decisions thing that you suggested - Is that really part of a system. To me, it looks more like just good GMing. You can probably do something to that extent no matter what system you intend on using.

Notes:
Narrative style of play, (loose play without too many specifics to bog it down) but with the ability to allow tactical combats.

OK, so this is what I have so far. What do you guys think? Would you like to play this game? What sections should the design document have? I don't want to completely rely on what others tell me to do, but for my first 'project' a little help would be appreciated.

Hi Lonoto,

This is a good start. Eero's questions and comments point the way forward from here.

One of Eero's questions was, "can they lose?" That zeroes in on the main concern that came to my mind when I read the script: we seem to be seeing success after success on the player-characters' part (the only variable seeming to be how much success; that is, how many enemies are still alive after each exchange). Is that because that's the way the game works, or is this a rigged example? By "rigged example" I mean a description of play in which the system contains a strong possibility of adverse events (such as, perhaps, Logan being knocked out by one of the guards' plasma rifle shots) but the example doesn't ever show them actually happening, because it seems more exciting to portray a lucky success. I have a sore point about that, because it's an old-school practice I used to see all the time, and I always found it deceptive and disappointing. I'm talking about when the example-of-play text has the hero getting a critical hit and killing the dragon just in the nick of time, but most of the time in actual play in the equivalent circumstances, the player-characters fail. Rigged examples tell players, "here is the kind of adventures you can have in this system, but only if the dice come up the right way, otherwise you'll have something else that I won't even show because it's not nearly as much fun."

Another problem with all-success examples is that it's actually a lot more revealing about how the game works if you show how the participants play out the effects of a failure (again, assuming that failure is possible). Is the result temporary or permanent character impairment? Addition of complications to the situation? Death? Loss of resources? Who decides what the consequences are? Are the players disappointed or excited by the failure? That would also help answer the question: is the play shown in the example determining whether the player-characters escape the trap, or is it only determining how they do so?

Also on a related point, several times you show the GM acting surprised and/or disappointed (albeit cheerfully so) at a player's success. "Oh god, you make it" is one such comment. Does the GM really regret that the player made the roll? What was the GM hoping would happen, and why? Or is the GM just acting upset, to stroke the player's ego?

- Walt

Thank you for the response and good advice guys. What I can say about the resolution is that it is NOT freeform. I just am used to the players describing, rolling then asking the GM if their rolls succeed. That is why the GM responds. So whenever the GM is giving a result, it is because the players probably rolled for it and he or she compares it to a difficulty value or opposed roll to see if it succeeds. With the engineering check, I would compare it and if it succeeded then he would compare the degree of success to see how long it took.

For combat, I want a blend of pre-planning your characetr's abilities and tactical choices while in combat to allow for fun and strategic fights. I also want a type of 'mechanic' (I use that term loosely for this) for roleplaying things like when Tirpse was leaping from guy to guy to attack. Yes, the character's can lose, and if they do, they can be captured, killed or just setback. It depends on the situation.

Now for your the comment about the "all success" thing, yes it kind of was an all success example. The reason for this was that these were relatively experienced players and characters against enemies much lower than them, trying to get them into a trap. The trap wasn't truly meant to trap them from the GM's perspective, but the people setting it (I.E NPCs) were hoping to catch them. The only time Chester, Tirpse and Megan have to worry about defeat is when they face ships in ship-to-ship combat, or they face individuals of their own calibre. These guys were just 'mooks', so to speak.

The GM acting surprised and stuff was kind of sarcastic. The GM would have only been truly surprised if, say, one of the soldiers hit with their swords and succeeded in taking Tirpse's head off. Althought, I do think I am going to provide a type of 'Fate' mechanic to stop this (mooks beating PCs) from happening. Spend a few Fate points, and you get the dodge bonus.

I am planning on making another example of play, expanding on this one with more insight on what happens when PCs meet their match. I'll post that in my next post, after I hear what else you guys have to say. If I missed any relevant question, feel free to point it out as I typed this up right before I went to bed and just after doing homework, so no guarantees that I was all there... here, am all here.... Anyway!

Lonoto

OK, I am going to assume that the lack of replies means you are waiting for the next example of play. However, if you still have questions, feel free (and encouraged) to ask them, as it will help me in the design of the game.

[Setting: PC's are on their personal starship, being pursued by another ship carrying a powerful entity on board.]

GM: Alright, you guys are heading through a tunnel, and they are still right on your case, following your wake. They seem to be using your tunnel's residue to empower their own, and they begin to gain on you. [Task resolution for the enemy ship to gain on them]

Megan: I'm going to try to 'poison' the tunnel residue we leave behind. I'm going to try to do something to cause it to make them slow down, maybe release plasma particles or antimatter into the residue to screw them up. [Starting of task for Megan, will finish in a bit]

GM: Right, while you're making adjustments, they are coming into weapons range. You guys get to go first, what are you doing? [Initiative rolled, PC's win]

Dustin: "Hold on, boy, this might get bumpy." I enter in a series of evasive maneuvers and delay until they've gone. [Task resolution plus delay action]

Logan: "I hope you know what you're doing…" I just sit back, not knowing how to do anything of use in a starship combat.

GM: OK, your enemies are matching your evasive patterns, quite easily actually. They begin to fire at you… Your defensive matrix, however, absorbs almost the entirety of the damage. [Opposed roll against evasive maneuvers to match then fire]

Dustin: Right where I want 'em. To finish of my turn I am going to lay a mine on my projected course so they'll follow me right into it. [Offensive roll for PC's, situational modifier]

GM: Nice thinking… Too bad for you they have someone who can react fast manning the light weapons, and they shoot the mine before they can run into it. However, this activates its effects at an equal distance from you and them, causing your tunnels to fail and you guys both drop to sub-light speeds. Maybe you should have put off on the mine, Sheila just finished her modifications. [Good roll for enemy's weapons officer coupled with unnaturally high reflexes gets them out of the jam, applies partial damage to each ship for mine]

Megan: Over the comm. system: "Damn it, Chester! Why'd you do that? I was going to do something!"

Dustin: "Keep whatever you had ready, we're going back into tunnel ASAP. Get on that too, will ya!" This time I shut the comm. system off before SHE can respond. (Sticks his tongue out at Megan) Payback's a bitch.

GM: Kaboom! You just took a full barrage that disabled most of your aft defensive matrix projectors. They are three times your size, as you know. [Enemies launch full attack, opposed roll against evasives]

Dustin: I'm spinning us around to face them head on and unleashing a full barrage of our weapons during a strafing blow. As soon as our aft is facing them, I pull a high-energy turn and continue for a 'slide' effect while firing until the weapons are near overheating. [Maneuvering roll for HET and strafe, offense roll for weapons fire]

GM: Ooh, nice maneuver. Your HET stresses the hull a little, but you manage to keep it in one piece with minimal damage and also give them the biggest pounding a ship of your size can, considerably weakening their defensive matrix. They, however, don't need to worry about a soft spot in their defenses, and simply fire on you with all available weapons from that arc while turning to try to bring their main cannon to bear. [Offense roll and maneuver roll to try to match main cannon, failure due to size of vessel]

Dustin: Yeah, definitely keeping out of the way of that. I am trying to keep out of the main cannon's arc while keeping my aft away form them. "Hey, Sheila. Re-route all defensive matrix power to the forward projectors." [Maneuver roll]

Megan: "On it!" I start re-routing power. Also, is there any way for me to get access to their computer, like a power transfer beam or something like that? [Engineering roll]

GM: If you could connect with a tractor beam while their defenses were down, I think you might be able to try to hack their computer through the beam.

Megan: "Get a tractor beam on them, I have an idea."

Dustin: Right-o then. Focus all power on a segment of their defensive matrix big enough to fit a tractor beam through and fire. As soon as I penetrate, assuming I can, I'll lock on with the tractor beam. [Offense roll against enemy evasive, penalty for trying to focus]

GM: Well, concentrated that much you can cause a flicker, but you aren't quick enough to lock on.

Dustin: Not quick enough my ass. I'll pull it off by making the computer do it for me as soon as it senses fluctuations. [Spending of 'Fate' mechanic]

GM: OK, you get the lock on.

Megan: I try to send a virus into their system through the beam. [Rolls for Computers/Hacking]

GM: Well, you are starting to crack the code, but their system is trying to repel you. [Rolls opposed for defensive systems of ship] Also, they send a feedback pulse through the beam, essentially frying the emitters and blowing a hole in your ship's hull. Not a big one, but enough to cause some serious trouble. [Rolls offensive, bypassing shields and evasive due to tractor beam]

Logan: "What in hell just happened!"

Dustin: "Us being stupid and them being smart. I'm gonna land the ship somewhere, we've gotta get out and hide. There is only one SPIRIT capable soldier on that ship as far as we know, and two here, we should be able to take them if we can draw them out of their ship." I try to locate a nearby planet. [Sensors task resolution]

GM: You find a planet, breathable atmosphere. It has a colony on the side you are facing, and is therefore protected by a defensive matrix.

Dustin: I head at it, full speed, not worrying about evasive maneuvers. Can we coat the hull in something to interfere with the defensive matrix.

GM: Well, you could probably.

Dustin: "Sheila, coat the hull with something that has opposing elements to defensive matrixes. We need to power through this planets with relative ease."

Megan: "On it." I get on that right away, not knowing how close we are. [Engineering roll]

GM: You manage to coat the hull, but you still take some damage from the rough transit, and also set off many alarms. You are fired on by defensive weapons from the surface and are forced to do emergency evasive maneuvers and landing or get blown to smithereens.

Dustin: Yup, on it. [Rolls maneuvers] Oh shit…

GM: Difficult task plus low roll equals bad. Even with all your *fate, you'll still marginally fail. Want to spend it anyway? (Dustin nods) Alright, spending all Chester's fate. [Spending 'Fate' Mechanic] *Not sure if I will actually call it fate, need a spiffy name :P

Dustin: "This is gonna be a bumpy ride! I think we'll need to bail!" I get up and head to an emergency airlock.

Logan: "What about Sheila? How much time is left?"

Dustin: I check the readouts.

GM: You have about a minute to impact.

Dustin: "A minute kid… Damn it, you had to remind me of her. Come on, we'll find here a mech suit or something. I know we have one from the last time she needed to come with us." I search the computer, trying to find where it is stored. [Computer/Retrieve check because the computer is damaged and time is crucial]

GM: You find that it is stored near the bridge, which is opposite the ship to engineering.

Dustin: "Kid, go get her to this airlock-" I point to an airlock on a display if there is one available, or bring up a display if one isn't so I can point at it. "I'll get the suit there."

Logan: "Yeah." I head out of the bridge towards engineering as fast as I can.

Megan: I am trying to shut down the engines and trying to separate any compounds that would react very violently if they mixed in the crash. I still don't know that we are crashing, I think we're emergency landing. [Rolls Engineering and Computer checks to see everything is in order]

GM: OK, Tirpse, 45 seconds left and you arrive in engineering to see Sheila finishing preparations for emergency landing. [Secretly rolls starships structure test as it has been an allotted time in the atmosphere with no defenses to do so]

Logan: "We're crashing, we've gotta get out. Follow me, Chester's getting you a mech suit." I reach my hand out to her from the door.

Megan: I start running towards the door as I hear 'crashing.'

GM: Before you reach the door, the starship's hull gives out. A breach rips open between you and the door, Sheila.

Logan: I am going to try to jump across the gap and grab her, and jump out while holding her so I will take the brunt of the blow from leaving the ship. I flare my power to tell Chester something is wrong. [Task resolution to get across gap and grab Sheila]

GM: Chester senses that you are no longer on the ship and that you are flaring power.

Dustin: I sense for Sheila. [Rolls perception]

GM: She is with Tirpse.

Dustin: "Oh god damn it!" I get the suit and then blow a hole in my ship, jumping out with the mech suit and trying to find them as we free-fall. [Task resolution for blast to blow hole in ship]

GM: Well, you aren't free-falling so much as standing on the outside of the ship on top. You can't see them.

Dustin: I leap away, still holding the mech suit.

GM: You can see them as you leap away, off to the side and lower then the ship. Tirpse, you notice Chester as well.

Logan: Right, I am going to try to warp my energy to slow my fall until we are at equal elevation. [Task resolution and spending of energy]

GM: It takes quite a bit of energy, but you manage it. 5 seconds to impact.

Logan: I try to use my body movement to bring me closer to stuff Megan in the mech suit. [Task resolution, likely against reflexes and/or intellect]

GM: You're not gonna make it…

Logan: I am calling upon every ounce of resource I can. [Spends 'Fate' mechanic]

GM: You manage to get her there and into the suit just as you guys land. You are in an awkward position, and sustain damage to knock you out. Chester manages to land rather well, and using his energy he can absorb most of the impact. (Dustin nods to this). So, you are relatively unharmed. Sheila's mech suit activates emergency boosters as soon as she is in it, giving her a soft landing. Oh, and the ship is going to land in 3…2… [Task resolution for landings of Chester and Tirpse, modifier for Tirpse since he was getting Sheila in mech suit. Tirpse doesn't have enough energy to absorb impact but does have enough to avoid death]

Megan: I grab Tirpse and hit the afterburners. [Rolls reflexes to grab Tirpse on the run]

Dustin: I boot 'er out of there. [Rolls for extra running speed]

GM: OK, you guys manage to get away from the ship's main blast, and remnants of the shock wave knock you around a little.

Megan: As soon as we are out of immediate danger, I get out of the suit and inspect Tirpse's wounds.

GM: OK, as you are doing that, Chester senses the starship, or more accurately the powerful energy on the starship, descending towards your position…

***

OK, so, this is it. I plan on doing one more to describe how play works with characters facing off against individuals that are their equals. Also, I feel that I should point out that these characters aren't beginning characters, rather they have probably played for 7-10 sessions before the first example of play.

Lonoto wrote:
OK, so, this is it. I plan on doing one more to describe how play works with characters facing off against individuals that are their equals. Also, I feel that I should point out that these characters aren't beginning characters, rather they have probably played for 7-10 sessions before the first example of play.

The 7-10 sessions before only affects the character's power and overall growth. When they started, that mook battle would have been rather difficult for Tirpse because of the multiple opponents overwhelming him, making it fairly difficult. By this point, however, he has gotten powerful enough that their numbers hardly mattered. I don't know what you mean by 'they suck at it until they show their dedication', would you explain that a bit?

Yes, they are ad-libbing technical details. I plan on explaining that as long as they can do something that 'makes sense' in the game world, then they can get a check for it. They need to give some kind of technobabble before they get the check to try and damage the enemy's computer, etc... I think this will help give it a sci-fi feel without complicating matters too much.

I am going to state what I have in mind for the qualities that affect task resolution. It is pretty simple and seen in many RPGs, but I think it fits: Attribute + Skill + Equipment + Situation. Equipment would be things like a starship's targeting sensors, the accuracy bonus from a specific sword etc...

Well, I have to go now because I am going to miss the bus if I don't. Thanks for the help Eero, and ciao!

Lonoto