Okay, here's the game I have playtested and though of expanding here, to one day share as a free PDF online.

SWITCH : Is a role-playing game meant to be played to have fun and test one's limits to adapting to a situation/system shift all the while maintaining a coherent and fun game.

Unlike most RPGs, in SWITCH, all players at some point or another, play the role of moderating tha game. Whereas most games have a single person playing the Dungeon Master or Storyteller, in this game, the REMOTE CONTROLLER , who at certain key points in the game "Changes the channel"

CHARACTER AND WORLD CREATION
At the start of the game, All players will roll 1d10 and note down which "Genre" they roll from the table below. This is their Primary Trait. They roll a second time to determine their secondary trait (which cannot be the same genre).

Ex.
Jay rolls a 4 and a 7, which means his character is has Drama as his primary trait and Hentai as his secondary trait.

Once every player has noted down their Primary and Secondary traits, All players roll 1d10 once. The rolls are then totalled until they get one final number. This number is the World Genre at the start of the game.

Ex.
Jay rolls 7, Vic rolls 3, Adrian rolls 9 and Seth rolls 2.
7 + 3 + 9 + 2 = 21 = 2 + 1 = 3
The World Genre is 3 = High Technology

The player with the highest roll get's to define the World Genre to establish the setting of the game. In the event of ties, the older player among those tied gets to define the game. In the event of another tie, the cutest among the oldest decides. Obviously, you will have to come up with some way to decide on that. And no, there can be no ties for the cutest.

Ex.
Adrian, having rolled a 9, gets to define the World Genre: High Tech. He decides to define it as Big-Robot Steam Punk and has the game set in a planet similar to Earth ruled by an evil Artificial Intelligence calling itself the Emperor . He tells the players that they all are rebels part of a group attempting to overthrow the Emperor.

Now, Characters can be more clearly defined.
Will continue after Genre Table.

BASIC GENRE TABLE
1 - Comedy
2 - Occult/Magic
3 - High Tech/Science Fiction/Machines
4 - Drama/Musical/Emotional
5 - Environmental Messages/Issues
6 - Kung Fu Martial Arts Wuxia
7 - Hentai/Yaoi/Yuri
8 - Fantasy
9 - Talking Animals
10 - Noir

CHARACTER CREATION, the Details
THERE ARE THE GOOD DETAILS...
Now, with players knowing their characters Primary and Secondary Traits, as well as the World Genre, the Details can come in. The Player who determined the World Genre is also known as the REMOTE CONTROLLER and shall handle any artibration or approvals necessary for character creation.

The Players are welcome to come up with concepts that best relate to the REMOTE CONTROLLER's guidelines and at the same time relate it to the Primary Trait of the character.

Under Primary Trait: __________, players are invited to come up with five main things the character is good at. The REMOTE CONTROLLER decides if the traits are appropriate/acceptable or not for the genre. These five traits represent the things the character is skilled/good at.

Ex.
Jay, with Primary: Drama and Secondary: Hentai
decides that he can be the serious-rebel who has joined because he seeks to avenge his dead parents. His character is one who believes that war cannot be stopped unless one chooses to engage in it. For five traits, Jay decides his character has Big-Robot Piloting, Unarmed Combat, Firearms, Jury-Rigging and Stealth as traits that he is good at.

Vic, who rolled Primary: Noir and Secondary: Comedy
decides his character is a double agent rebel who is a master at pretending to be one of the Emperor's soldiers to penetrate enemy lines. He decides to reflect the Noir primary more by having his character be easily tricked by women and loves to speak in monologues. For five traits, Vic decides his character has Disguises, Investigations, Alertness, Sleight of Hand and Unarmed Combat as things he is good at.

AND THE BAD ONES...
The Secondary Traits represent negative traits of the character. The character has three negative traits which to complicate the character's life, ranging from events or scenarios the aspect can come into question. Again, the REMOTE CONTROLLER decides if the negative traits chosen is good enough for the game to be fun. Balance is less an issue here than being fun. How negative traits affect the character are explained better in the next post.

Ex.
Jay's character has Secondary : Hentai.
His serious rebel who is out to avenge his parents therefore has a negative aspect related to Hentai that complicates his life. Jay chooses "Irresistable Attraction to Blondes", "A stiffy that does not go away unless used" and "Bad Come On lines" as his three negative traits.

Vic's character has Secondary : Comedy.
Rather than stick to the usual comedy, he decides to ride on Jay's Secondary: Hentai and has his character also have an "Irresistable Attraction to Blondes", "Stutters when speaking to Girls" and "Can't get it Up."

The REMOTE CONTROLLER likes the concepts so far of all the players and decides to move on to the next step.

THE RULES
Every player gets 5 counters.
These can be dice or beads or coins, whatever is readily available and easy to use. There should also be at least twenty five extra beads at the center of the table. These counters are called "GENRE POINTS" (which the ones at the table being the GENRE POOL.)

There should also be three sheets of clear paper on the table and one pen/pencil beside it. These papers are to be known as the FACT SHEETS from this point on in the game.

One FACT SHEET should be labelled: NPCs
One FACT SHEET should be labelled: WORLD FACTS
One FACT SHEET should be labelled: PC FACTS

The game starts with the REMOTE CONTROLLER giving the intro sequenec of the scene, describing the necessary. He notes down on the WORLD FACTS sheet 1 to 5 established facts about the world the game is set in.

Ex.
Adrian describes the world to be a large war-torn world connected by steam-based power grid and internet stations that serve as energy stores for giant Steam-driven Robots. He notes down on the WORLD FACTS sheet "Steam based power grid" "Internet Stations serve as Energy stores for Giant Robots" and adds the detail that the characters are planning to attack the Emperor as he travels in a convoy towards the City Capital. "Emperor in Convoy to Capital" enters the WORLD FACTS Sheet.

The REMOTE CONTROLLER does the same for 1-5 NPCs he deems important or worth developing in the game as recurring characters and 1-5 details about the PCs when appropriate.

Ex.
Adrian mentions that Jay's serious rebel was once "A family friend" of Vic's double agent. That detail goes to the PCS SHEET.

Any details written on the sheets MUST BE MAINTAINED OR UPHELD during the game. Details can only be changed or editted by spending GENRE POINTS.

At any point during the game when a task resolution is required, the player of the character narrates how he believes his character would deal with the scene. The Remote Controller on the other hand narrates his own preferred version. After hearing both versions, A vote is called as to whether or not the act described by the player succeeds. Obviously, the more creative the action the character does, the bigger the chance the others might vote in his favor. Votes are done with thumbs up saying "Yes" and thumbs down saying "No." Votes are revealled simultaneously, with ties calling for a retest. A second tie is also considered a lost vote.

Winning a vote means the acting character's narrative is how the task resolves. Losing means the Remote Controller handles describing the results and continues running the game.

BUT, if the character has a trait which can help in the task resolution, he can choose to challenge those who voted against him to rock, paper and scissors. Those players he beats are forced to vote in his favor.

By now, you're wondering where GENRE POINTS are used and when does REMOTE CONTROLLERs shift position. That will be revealed next...

GENRE POINTS and NEGATIVE TRAITS
Genre Points are gained whenever a character successfully does the action a player wanted which a REMOTE CONTROLLER contested. (Note, this does not necessary mean the action itself was successful. For example, Vic might have his character try to approach the girl of his dreams to impress her and his description of him making a fool of himself but making her smile and more willing to see him later does give him a Genre Point, even if his character did make a fool of himself.)

Am extra Genre Point is also gained a player succesfully causes all other players to break out and laugh or stare in shock. This award will be decided upon by the Remote Controller.

Genre Points can be spent by any player who is not currently the Remote Controller to "gain control of the remote". If more than one player wants to have the remote, each player is given a chance to bid one Genre Point. Bidding continues until one players has more Genre Points bid than another. Obviously, you cannot bid if you have no Genre Points.

Other players who do not want the Remote can actually contribute a Genre Point to a bidding player of their choice. This is a purely altruistic act sure to get you into Heaven when Judgement Day cometh.

When a new Remote Controller takes charge, he should first roll on the Genre Table once again. This new World Genre should be incorporated into the setting by the Remote Controller, with 1-5 new details added to WORLD FACTS, and necessarily adjustments narrated to affect the NPCs and PCs (again, 1-5 details).

Then, the play continues on.

Obviously, some players would want to gain control of the Remote because it allows them to quickly have certain facts established in relation to their characters or setting. Others might want it just to shift things around for fun. Some might even want to gain the Remote just to stop an exisiting Remote Controller from running the story the way it already is headed.

SO WHEN DO THE NEGATIVE TRAITS COME IN?
Anytime during the game (other than during Remote Control bidding or during a Remote Controller's initial narrative), a player can toss back one Genre Point to the Genre Pool and require a player to portray or have a negative trait affect him. This must be done to the "worst" possible scenario possible.

Ex.
Vic's character, Chio R'so, learns that the leader of the Emperor's elite bodyguards is a blonde female poison-taster. The enemy has stepped into the bathroom to freshen up. Hoping to force her to give him the keys to the base, Chio R'so slips in and attempts to seduce her. But, Seth decides to have some fun and tosses 2 Genre Points back to the Pool. He declares "Stutters when talks to Girls" and "Can't Get It Up" to be in effect.

Thankfully, Vic can choose to declare the scene hilariously enough to gain a Genre Point for participating properly. Or if he tries to lessen the shame his character goes through, be challenged by the Remote Controller and have a vote called upon him.

The obvious benefit of Negative Traits, other than making things more difficult for the player and character in question, is it allows other players to "participate" in how a player is forced to go through a scene.

So that's the gist of the system.
Surely there's more?

Add Ons:
To make the games more interesting, try adding the following add-ons.

1) Allow character development
Each time a new Remote Controller takes charge, all characters gain new traits, be it positive or negative. The player rolls a 1d10 and consults the Genre Table. If the Genre rolled is a new one (meaning a Genre the character does not have yet), he writes that Genre down under his primary and adds three new things he is good at. As before, the Remote Controller arbitrates. If the Genre rolled is one already existing, it is written under Secondary and this gives the character 1 new negative trait based on the rolled Genre.

Ex.
Jay's serious rebel with Primary: Drama, Secondary: Hentai
makes a new Genre roll (because Adrian has passed the Remote to Vic) and get's a 6 for something Kung Fu-ish. Being a new Trait, Jay's character now gains 3 new things: Kung Fu in Big Robots, Running up walls and Catching thrown weapons.

Vic's double agent on the other hand is not so lucky. Having Primary: Noir and Secondary: Comedy, his new Genre roll is Comedy again. This gives him 1 new negative trait which he decides is "Depressed by lack of Girlfriend."

Yes, it is intentional that eventually, the chances of negative traits is absolute. This is because games using Switch are not meant to last that long.

2) Commercial Break Rules
Add a real-time timer to your games. Every 5 minutes, regardless of what's going on, stop the game and call for a commercial break. All scenes are temporarily on hold and all players roll a 1d10 again to see who rolls the highest. Ties are re-rolled. The winner rolls a second time to determine the new Genre for the World and has the option to become the Remote Controller. If he accepts the role play continues as before, with the Remote Controller ending the commercial break and uses his narrative time (5 traits for each FACT SHEET, etc) to conclude the events that were on hold and transmute them to the new Genre.

If he chooses to pass, a second Genre World roll is made and the player closest to where the dice fell is the new Remote Controller. That Remote Controller ends commercial break and must use his narrative time to conclude events that were on hold and transmute them into the TWO new Genres as he sees fit.

Play then resumes as normal.

3) GENRE POINT SALARY
Every 5 real minutes that pass, all players gain 1 free Genre Point to use in the game. This is to encourage its use.

4) EXPANDED GENRE TABLES
If you really want to go all the way, you can use the Expanded Genre Tables (see in the next post) to add to the game. In many ways these expanded tables are less flexible yet can add more color to your games.
Use this table instead of the basic Genre Table.

The less stark transisitons can be done with the expanded Genre Tables.
I've yet to post those.
But those basically spread out the convention/genres.

ex.

Sci Fi becomes
1) Big Robo
2) Cyborg technology
3) Virtual reality
4) Transformable mecha
5) steam punk
6) Cloning
7) Psychic Powers
8) Alien Invasion / Starships
9) Post Apocalyptic scenario
10) Interplanetary travel

====
FEEDBACK would be greatly appreciated!

tobie
http://garapata.blogspot.com

No comments?

I don't know why the others don't comment - personally, I'd love a longer example of play, to see how the game works/is supposed to work. It often says so much more than just the rules.

these "genres" all sound fun, but i wonder a few things.

1- will your game have all the facts about such genres? if im playing "henti" for example...i personally know nothing about that genre other then my friend collects henti porn...will there be items, armor, stats for travling on horses or what not? a market to purchase stuff? rates and stats for people in this genre?

2-will there be weapon charts for each genre? is so, what about a future genre? our game has over 500 weapons alone for our futuresk sci-fi game....if we had to detail that many weapons for other genres id be driven insain.
so how to do you pull this? will your game have thousands of pages dealing with this many genres? or do you have a simple matrix to handle this?

sounds fun..but again..i dont know anything about henti...and im confused as what a "cloneing" genre would be? i like the noir genre, thats a cool under-done genre...

and the whole "switching" of genres is cool.

ps...im sick of saying genre..

Okay, a couple of comments:

The Genre Point flow is like this, if I understand it correctly:

- Start with 5.
- Get points when you win a contest with the Remote Controller. This is done by
- - Doing something that the RC wants to challenge you about, and
- - Narrating it well enough to win votes, and/or
- - using traits to win votes.
- Get points when you get other players to laugh or stare in shock.
- Spend points to gain control of the Remote.
- Spend points to activate others' negative traits.
- Spend points to edit facts. (This isn't very well explained).

So the system rewards you for doing stuff that's on the edge of what the RC will accept, or that provokes strong reactions. That's often the opposite of maintaining coherence. I would expect players to try to narrate outrageous stuff to get points. There's really no reason whatsoever for people to try to keep the story coherent, which is one of the stated aims of the game.

The system also assumes that you'd want to activate others' negative traits. The only reason to do so is for laughs, right? Mechanically, they can actually score points by good portrayal of their negative traits.

Are players required to say how their traits affect events? Or can they just go "Oh, I have Eternal Stiffy, I challenge your vote"?

For a light, fun and over-the-top game (which seems to be what you're aiming at, and that would be fun), all this writing down of facts seems a bit much. Any way to get around it? Can't people just remember what's been established...? (Have you tried this out in playtest?)

Very good questions.

Hmm... let me relook at my notes before I respond.
:-)

THIS is why I was hoping for comments!

When I first saw the thread title, I immediately thought of Improv Theatre -- specifically, a game where the participants are running a scene and a third party gets to call out a new genre every 30 seconds (or whenever the play gets boring.) I'm not sure if this is what you had in mind, though; the game you describe seems to move more slowly, and the level of abruptness for 'switching' isn't clear.

I'd like to see the Genre elements come into play more overtly; given that players receive rewards called 'Genre Points,' their spending of those points does not seem to have much to do with Genre. It would be cool if the way players spent Genre Points had something to do with their character's (or other character's) genres.

Individual character Genres in particular seem underdevelopped. It's clear what sort of effects the World Genre has on narration, but the effects of the character's Primary and Secondary genre are not clear to me. It sounds like they are supposed to affect primary and secondary traits, and inform character generation in other ways, but if that's the goal I think you need to reinforce it. As it stands they only seem to have an impact in character generation, which seems like a bit of a waste. Maybe more examples would help make it clear how you want this dynamic to work?

Specifically, I was expecting that the game dynamic would involve a conflict of Genres between the individual players, the Remote Controller (whose genre is the World Genre), etc. The idea of a Noir character stuck in a Talking Animals world just seems too rich, and while the game seems to provide for that, it doesn't seem to be pushing it very hard. It seems like there's a lot of great conflict/entertainment potential if you make these sorts of conflicts a focus of the mechanics, which currently seem more like a generic popularity contest/consensus.

For example, players could gain Genre points when they successfully portray a scene in their character's genre; the goal of the player is to frame a scene entertaining or compelling enough that everyone else is willing to play along, and the job of everyone else is to try and twist the scene to make it fit with their Genre instead. If the players can somehow manage to deliver a scene that is a Yaoi Noir Comedy with Talking Animals, then everybody wins -- especially the players, because that's going to be one hell of a scene!

Another, possibly conflicting option, is to change the Remote Controller's role to one of... well... remotely controlling. When I first saw the title I figured that person would be responsible for the SWITCH -- i.e. the players are merrily Genre-ing away, but as soon as things look like they are slowing down it is the Remote Controller's job to mix things up, either by suddenly changing the Genre of the scene, or the Genre of the game-world. The name alone is pretty evocative -- maybe the RC should have some mechanically-supported way to cut scenes (i.e. change channels)? Fast-forward (play a GP to force the scene to conclude as messily as possible)? Mute (veto a specific suggestion of a player)?

Right now, the RC position seems to be a weird mix of standard GM and something more open-ended. For example, the first RC appears to have veto power over everybody's character traits -- but then what happens when the RC switches? Does the old RC take over the new RC's character, or make a new one?

It would also be great if the mechanic for switching World Genre's had something to do with the outcomes of scenes; for example, if everytime a character /player succeeds, he contributes a point to his Primary Genre, then the World Genre (and possibly RC) could change once a specific Genre reaches 5 points. Alternately, the player could choose to subtract a point from his Secondary Genre -- I don't know if this is your intent, but it seems to me like players want to /avoid/ their Secondary Genre, as this gives other players an opportunity to activate their Negative Traits. The advantage to players of having the World Genre be identical to their character genre should be obvious -- it's a lot more likely they'll get to tell their character's type of stories.

Anyways, that's enough rambling. I think the idea is great, and I would love to play a game where the manipulation of Genres is the key element of play -- but maybe my suggestions are more towards a competitive/Gamist sort of play, which may not be what you had in mind. I guess I have a soft spot for Genre Wars in general.

matthijs wrote:
I don't know why the others don't comment - personally, I'd love a longer example of play, to see how the game works/is supposed to work. It often says so much more than just the rules.

Sifolis wrote:
these "genres" all sound fun, but i wonder a few things.

Sifolis wrote:
1- will your game have all the facts about such genres? if im playing "henti" for example...i personally know nothing about that genre other then my friend collects henti porn...will there be items, armor, stats for travling on horses or what not? a market to purchase stuff? rates and stats for people in this genre?.

Sifolis wrote:
2-will there be weapon charts for each genre? is so, what about a future genre? our game has over 500 weapons alone for our futuresk sci-fi game....if we had to detail that many weapons for other genres id be driven insain.
so how to do you pull this? will your game have thousands of pages dealing with this many genres? or do you have a simple matrix to handle this?

Sifolis wrote:
sounds fun..but again..i dont know anything about henti...and im confused as what a "cloneing" genre would be? i like the noir genre, thats a cool under-done genre...

Sifolis wrote:
and the whole "switching" of genres is cool.
ps...im sick of saying genre..

matthijs wrote:
Okay, a couple of comments:

The Genre Point flow is like this, if I understand it correctly:

- Start with 5.
- Get points when you win a contest with the Remote Controller. This is done by
- - Doing something that the RC wants to challenge you about, and
- - Narrating it well enough to win votes, and/or
- - using traits to win votes.
- Get points when you get other players to laugh or stare in shock.
- Spend points to gain control of the Remote.
- Spend points to activate others' negative traits.
- Spend points to edit facts. (This isn't very well explained).

So the system rewards you for doing stuff that's on the edge of what the RC will accept, or that provokes strong reactions. That's often the opposite of maintaining coherence. I would expect players to try to narrate outrageous stuff to get points. There's really no reason whatsoever for people to try to keep the story coherent, which is one of the stated aims of the game.

matthijs wrote:
- Spend points to edit facts. (This isn't very well explained).

matthijs wrote:
The system also assumes that you'd want to activate others' negative traits. The only reason to do so is for laughs, right? Mechanically, they can actually score points by good portrayal of their negative traits.

Are players required to say how their traits affect events? Or can they just go "Oh, I have Eternal Stiffy, I challenge your vote"?

matthijs wrote:
For a light, fun and over-the-top game (which seems to be what you're aiming at, and that would be fun), all this writing down of facts seems a bit much. Any way to get around it? Can't people just remember what's been established...? (Have you tried this out in playtest?)

Ice wrote:
When I first saw the thread title, I immediately thought of Improv Theatre -- specifically, a game where the participants are running a scene and a third party gets to call out a new genre every 30 seconds (or whenever the play gets boring.) I'm not sure if this is what you had in mind, though; the game you describe seems to move more slowly, and the level of abruptness for 'switching' isn't clear.

Ice wrote:
I'd like to see the Genre elements come into play more overtly; given that players receive rewards called 'Genre Points,' their spending of those points does not seem to have much to do with Genre. It would be cool if the way players spent Genre Points had something to do with their character's (or other character's) genres.

Ice wrote:
Individual character Genres in particular seem underdevelopped. It's clear what sort of effects the World Genre has on narration, but the effects of the character's Primary and Secondary genre are not clear to me. It sounds like they are supposed to affect primary and secondary traits, and inform character generation in other ways, but if that's the goal I think you need to reinforce it. As it stands they only seem to have an impact in character generation, which seems like a bit of a waste. Maybe more examples would help make it clear how you want this dynamic to work?

Ice wrote:
Specifically, I was expecting that the game dynamic would involve a conflict of Genres between the individual players, the Remote Controller (whose genre is the World Genre), etc. The idea of a Noir character stuck in a Talking Animals world just seems too rich, and while the game seems to provide for that, it doesn't seem to be pushing it very hard. It seems like there's a lot of great conflict/entertainment potential if you make these sorts of conflicts a focus of the mechanics, which currently seem more like a generic popularity contest/consensus.

For example, players could gain Genre points when they successfully portray a scene in their character's genre; the goal of the player is to frame a scene entertaining or compelling enough that everyone else is willing to play along, and the job of everyone else is to try and twist the scene to make it fit with their Genre instead. If the players can somehow manage to deliver a scene that is a Yaoi Noir Comedy with Talking Animals, then everybody wins -- especially the players, because that's going to be one hell of a scene!

Ice wrote:
Another, possibly conflicting option, is to change the Remote Controller's role to one of... well... remotely controlling. When I first saw the title I figured that person would be responsible for the SWITCH -- i.e. the players are merrily Genre-ing away, but as soon as things look like they are slowing down it is the Remote Controller's job to mix things up, either by suddenly changing the Genre of the scene, or the Genre of the game-world. The name alone is pretty evocative -- maybe the RC should have some mechanically-supported way to cut scenes (i.e. change channels)? Fast-forward (play a GP to force the scene to conclude as messily as possible)? Mute (veto a specific suggestion of a player)?

Ice wrote:
Right now, the RC position seems to be a weird mix of standard GM and something more open-ended. For example, the first RC appears to have veto power over everybody's character traits -- but then what happens when the RC switches? Does the old RC take over the new RC's character, or make a new one? 

Ice wrote:
It would also be great if the mechanic for switching World Genre's had something to do with the outcomes of scenes; for example, if everytime a character /player succeeds, he contributes a point to his Primary Genre, then the World Genre (and possibly RC) could change once a specific Genre reaches 5 points. Alternately, the player could choose to subtract a point from his Secondary Genre -- I don't know if this is your intent, but it seems to me like players want to /avoid/ their Secondary Genre, as this gives other players an opportunity to activate their Negative Traits. The advantage to players of having the World Genre be identical to their character genre should be obvious -- it's a lot more likely they'll get to tell their character's type of stories.

Ice wrote:
Anyways, that's enough rambling. I think the idea is great, and I would love to play a game where the manipulation of Genres is the key element of play -- but maybe my suggestions are more towards a competitive/Gamist sort of play, which may not be what you had in mind. I guess I have a soft spot for Genre Wars in general.

garapata wrote:
May I ask what gives the impression that the game moves more slowly?

As to the switching, it was under my impression that switching happens quite often.  I was more worried it happened TOO often considering it can happen anytime someone is willing to pay to take control.

Actually, it was more the other way around. Everyone is forced to try and adapt to the World Genre while keeping their own genre's intact.  The desire to force others to adapt to their own genre of choice is given power through the act of gaining control of the Remote Control.  But you do suggest a good variant I didn't consider.

Everyone creates a character in the game.  Even the RC at the start has his own character.  The power of the RC to challenge other characters is one of the things to covet in the game, hence the option to pay a Genre Point to take control of the "World" so to speak.

The REMOTE CONTROLLER decides if the traits are appropriate/acceptable or not for the genre.

This sounds good but seems to possibly slow things down.  Especially considering this happens with every scene.  Hence my choosing to limit it to something done when you literally "take over the world" by taking over the Remote Control.

I did originally have each character have a separate Genre Pool of points based on the Ten genres, but it got too complex with all these numerous counters and the like.  So I cut it down.

Well, they can be used to give SWITCH two versions to play, what do you think?