I wrote this light game called Exemplar a few years ago. You can find it by following the links in my signature. It was about psychic kung-fu heroes fighting against an evil dystopian empire called the IGAC in a far future soft sci-fi universe.

Then I re-wrote it. The re-write sucked, and I never got to play it. Then I started another re-write, and scrapped it halfway through. Then a did a third re-write, and by this time the theme of the game had drifted quite a bit. You still had psychic kung-fu heroes in a far future universe, but the technology was much less Star Trek style (no artificial gravity, glowy beam weapons, or transporters, f'rex), and things were set up so that playing an influential member of IGAC society was much easier (and much more highly encouraged). A pretty hefty focus on exploration of setting got built into the rules, via the nifty powers offered by various organizations and the amount of political power that starting characters usually had. There were a few scattered quirks that wanted to encourage nar play, but didn't do too well in practice, because they weren't cool or well integrated enough to make people want to use them.

Now, this third re-write wasn't very good. Andy K, Emily Care, Ben Lehmen, and Jason Morningstar got to see a bit of it at the first Yuki*Con. It had none of the frenetic energy of the original. It's main features were:

• d6 + modifiers versus TN or enemy's roll task resolution system.

• Occasional spurts of conflict resolution in special cases, such as chase scenes.

• A rather clunky combat system (=BAD for a game that's pretty much Wuxia in Space).

• Hella complicated ship to ship battle system with very little relation to combat system.

• Tons of kewl powerz arranged in various ways, including psychic powers, cyberware, etc.

• A pool of Willpower points that players could spend to increase their success chance; easily replenished. This basically allowed any character do something ridiculously difficult with no chance of failure a few times per scene, and fueled most psi powers.

• A pool of Nemesis points that's never renewed; Nemesis could be spent to replenish Willpower, to confirm a critical success on a roll, and to activate a few Psi powers that bent time in one fashion or another. It also serves as a definite limit to a game's run time: when Nemesis pools start getting low, it's time for things to end.

• A nifty advancement system, whereby a character chooses 3 abilities to focus on. They get a one fraction of an advancement in each ability per session automatically. More can be gained by training during downtime, highlighting the abilities in play, and spending Nemesis.

Despite it's failings, I started a campaign with it. Started off with two players, and added a third in the third session (he'd been grounded during the first two; he's grounded again right now, the naughty boy, so the game's on hiatus for a week or two). It went okay for the first two sessions. Nothing spectacular, in terms of system (the players were doing a lot of cool stuff--the system just didn't come into play that often, and when it did, it always turned out insufficient or inelegant). So, I thought, "Damn. I need to re-write this again." But, the problem wasn't that the system was hurting play. It was that it just wasn't helping. Just about the only things that worked the way they were supposed to were the advancement system and the chase scene conflict resolution system.

So I did a few changes.

• Turned the d6+ task res into a d6 dicepool conflict res (4, 5, and 6 is a success, 6 explodes, try to beat Difficulty Number or enemy's roll), with stakes clearly stated before each roll.

• An "in case of ties" rule: either status quo is maintained, something bad happens to both sides, something good happens to both sides, action is interrupted before a conclusion can be reached, or victory goes to the defender. Victory to the defender should always be used when applicable. Maintaining status quo is your last resort. If anyone at the table wants something bad to happen to both sides, that's the way it goes.

• Put a limit on the amount of Willpower that could be spent per roll, set DN values that make tests slightly more difficult, and add a list of ways to get bonus dice: taking extra time, assistance, and linked tests, primarily.

• Completely revise the combat system to be cleaner, more elegant, and more abstract.

• Completely revise the ship to ship system to be an almost perfect parallel of the combat system, aside from a bit of BW-style scripting and a more detailed damage system.

Perhaps most importantly, nothing I did screwed around with character generation or advancement AT ALL. That all remained untouched.

The third session turned out to be almost entirely one huge ship to ship battle, and it fucking rocked. Hella fun. Each of the three players scripted the action of one ship, and I scripted for three enemies. It was awesome. It felt like a really good scene from a really good sci-fi movie. Intense. Close your eyes and pray that their nuke misses, jump to your feet and shout "YES!" when your EMP warheads knock out the enemy's sensors, communications, and weapons array, wear that huge grin as you reveal the coup de grace kind of stuff. Absolutely awesome, and the system facilitated it all the way.

The only other scene that I remember too well (actually happened concurrently with the space battle) was pretty much perfect, too. Highlighted the parallels between the combat and ship to ship systems, demonstrated the power of the new conflict resolution mechanic. Good stuff. Got us all stoked.

Between the third and fourth sessions, I added a bit more in the way of uses for Nemesis.

• A chance to do a flashback whenever you spend Nemesis. Flashbacks let you buy the last fraction of an advancement or waive the training time required to gain some powers by narrating a training montage, let you establish a connection to a newly introduced game element (like some new NPC, faction, place, or item), or let you attempt a linked roll to the task at hand.

• A mechanic where a character spends a point of Nemesis for a chance to have Unexpected Stuff happen. They roll 1 to 5 dice, their choice of how many. Number of successes determines the magnitude of an Unexpected Good Thing. Number of failed dice determines the magnitude of Unexpected Bad Thing. This ranges from 1 success or failure (someone trips) to 5 successes or failures (something that will alter the course of the entire campaign is introduced).

The fourth session was, if anything, even better than the third. It included another ship to ship battle, which again rocked. It started off with a cool scene that tied the combat mechanics, advancement mechanics, willpower rules, and BOTH new Nemesis rules together perfectly. It ended with another brilliant use of the flashback and unexpected event rules. We've yet to play a session five, but we're all pretty stoked.

The game's kicking some ass now. Much more energetic and driven than during the first two sessions. Really facilitates the player-driven play I love, and lending itself to the heavy exploration of setting that I strive for. I'm really happy with it, and, although it's still got a few issues, there're 8-12 more sessions left in the playtest campaign (depending upon how fast Nemesis gets spent) to help iron them out.

This is the first game of my own creation that I've run for more than 3 sessions as part of a single, continuous game. It's really teaching me a lot about the importance of playtesting and revision that I probably should have learned earlier. All in all, a way double plus good experience.

My goal for the next few revisions: Encourage exploration of setting through use of Kewl Powerz!

--Jeff

Glad to see that you are still working on Exemplar!  From my limited exposure, it sounds like all the changes you've made are good ones.  Going with a BW-like die pool is a good bet for sure - the target number thing I recall as pretty complicated.  I think the nemesis pool is very cool and reminds me of Eric Provost's FH8/Villains of Safanubi - you guys should compare notes. 

I'm interested in the experience and reactions of your players.  When you ran the brief playtest at Yuki-Con, I felt as though I was disconnected because I lacked some cultural references - I've seen very little wuxia, for example.  Do you see Exemplar as having some hard-coded genre references that are necessary for satisfying play? 

--Jason

I remember reading a bit of the first FH8 thread; I'll track it down and delve into it more deeply. Thanks for the reference!

Jason wrote:
I'm interested in the experience and reactions of your players.  When you ran the brief playtest at Yuki-Con, I felt as though I was disconnected because I lacked some cultural references - I've seen very little wuxia, for example.  Do you see Exemplar as having some hard-coded genre references that are necessary for satisfying play? 

--Jason