Mike Holmes rightfully raised the question about the game I'm currently working on: "I don't see what the premise is." You can find the previous thread at:

http://www.indie-rpgs.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=1709

The game is posted on my website in pdf format at:

http://www.students.uiuc.edu/~koppang/roleplaying/content/Influence_Draft.pdf

Although I'm still working out the details, I think I've come up with something worth exploring. I thought I'd post some notes here and see what people think. Most of this stuff is lifted from the newest version of the text I'm still trying to bang out.

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INFLUENCE
A ROLE-PLAYING GAME

“Who influences you?”

In volatile times, when heroes emerge, people have only their lifetime to fulfill their destinies. Those who fall in battle prematurely must pass to the next world with the hope that their disciples do not forget them.

How does a person handle the pressures of completing their own goals and those of their ancestors? Does such a person prioritize his own agenda or that of his predecessors? Moreover, how does one cope with people committed to opposing everything he has been brought up to believe in?

Characters in INFLUENCE are always on the verge of death. They live in a dangerous world, filled with physical, mental, social, and spiritual peril. They constantly strive, with sweat and tears, for fulfillment. They have to cope with a lineage of people all vying for their aid, and all judging them based on what causes they take up. You, as the player, are encouraged to develop attachments to your character, but must also realize that they will die. In fact, the only way to increase a character’s greater strength is through death. Rest assured however, that the death of a character only means that some future generation will come to celebrate him as a martyr, a hero, or a visionary.

A motive provides your character with a goal, a personally significant purpose of which he will try to accomplish whenever the opportunity arises. Motives are not passing fads for the character. Instead, they represent a serious commitment towards a foreseeable end. Your character must believe in every way that he will accomplish his motives before the time of his death.

Unless your character has completed all of his motives, fulfilled his memories, and reconciled the effects of his battle scars, then he is not ready to die. The way your character dies should reflect his accomplishments, but also maybe the futility of his life. Chances are that he has lived his life as a race to bring about as much change as possible, always aware of the surrounding danger. How will his death represent his outlook towards life? What legacy does he wish to leave behind?

The amount of significance a particular memory evokes from a character is a central question for any INFLUENCE player, as it may serve to drive him harder than his own personal motives. Likewise, if the memory was forced on the character, he may attempt to ignore it altogether.

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Just for clarification purposes, a memory is game mechanic representation of a link between a deceased character the player once played. When the player takes the dead character as a memory, he gains an extra motive, but that motive is seperate from the character's personal motives - it embodies one of the dead's goals instead. The character may embrace that memory/motive, or try to reject it.

I'm still thinking about the above, but one thing does occur to me. You call the game Influence, and have that quote about who Influences you, but I see no mechanics for intracharacter influence (other than what you'd see in any other RPG). I mean, I understand that by Influence you mean how much influence the character has on the scene, but the quote is misleading. I was expecting all sorts of complicated Intracharacter mechanics, maybe like the game Isolation.

It occurs to me that including somthing like that might be an interesting way to move ahead on the Premise issue. Otherwise, I'd think about renaming the game Generations or Motives or something like that. Something that evokes the premise, not just a mechanic.

Mike

Something akin to what Mike said, Influence is really too passive and well... generic... a name that really doesn't tell me anything about the game. I'm very interested in the game's Premise: what you've written about it fascinates me, and I hope I get time to review the entire site soon. But the name... yikes. Its sorta like a vanilla pudding name that neither a) provide a sense of premise or b) invoke a specific mood. Somewhere there's a great thread about naming games that addresses the issue.

The game itself is very appealing so far, however.

Thank you both,

I think you are right - originally the name was more of a nod towards the mechanic, but when you add a concrete premise, you really have to take into consideration a lot more. I think I was still hanging onto the notion that people who have lived before you influence your actions and that the game's title still works. Now I think I was just trying to make the square peg fit into the round hole - or maybe I could just do a lot better. The general idea is now that sometimes your own motives are more powerful than your ancestory, but not usually (at least in this game). Therefore, the question would be, "who influences you?" But I can understand where your complaint comes from, and I agree it is a bit misleading.

At this point I'm not sure if I want to introduce relationship mechanics, or just focus in on more of what I already have. I think I'll mull over both options and write something up a bit later.

I am really happy with the premise and the way it is starting to give the game a lot more focus. It sure as hell isn't as boring to write anymore.

I came to the realization that in my first conception of memories I assumed that the player would always want the memory, and likewise the resulting motive. But now I find the idea of fighting against the influence of a memory much more interesting. It introduces character conflict and all sorts of messy relations between people who believe in the motive/memory, and those who want to see it die. Here's where I think relationship & interpersonal mechanics may help.

i'd call it atavism. i like the ideas immensely, by the way.