Hi guys,
I have started talking about this idea over at <a href="http://www.rpglaboratory.com">RPG lab and I would like to engage the services of you good fellows. 'Peer Pressure' is a game about being at school. However this is no ordinary school. The pupils are stereotypical fantasy races, orcs, dwarves etc. before all the animosity that is evident in most fantasy games and ficiton ever occured. This school is basically the boiling pot for all those stereotypes we now know.

You make a kid by choosing a name, and then playing through your first day at school, where you decide a couple of classes you are good at, a nick name, a clique to be a part of and one or two extra-curricular activities you will engage in. I haven't quite worked out the full resolution system yet, but these things will be brought in. Race will also play some kind of role though I haven't quite decided what yet.

I think the system will resolve around 1 stat only. Cool. Cool will adjust dependent on things like clique, classes and extra-curricular activities. This will either be a dice pool or bonus to a dice roll most likely.

Ok, now to the meat of my enquiry. As another part of the mechanics I was thinking about including a pool of 'time'. 24 units of it to be precise. This would regulate what the character can do during a 24 hour period of game time. They may spend it to go to classes, or skip them, do stuff for their clique, do their extra-curricular activity, their homework etc. As they do different thing with their time, the character's trouble meters will fluctuate.

Each character has two trouble meters: parents and schools. As these fluctuate things will be harder to do and it will be much more difficult to play truant, thus threatening your cool. The idea is that 'trouble' balances the spending of 'time'. Obviously this is not fully formed yet, but any initial thoughts.

Cheers
Iain

Hello Iain,

I like those kind of games and they can be fun with the right crowd. R. Talsorian published a game called Teenagers From Outer Space. TFOS let you create humans, non-humans and everything in between. Cool was one of the stats and that reminded me of the game. Do check it out as TFOS has everything you need for a weird high-school experience. It focuses on aliens and super-powers but I'm sure you could get some inspiration to use in a fantasy setting.

Your fantasy setting may requires some tweaking to give it a medieval feel. Cool is a very contemporary word and I don't think it mixes well with orcs, elves and dwarves. Do some research on the language to gather a few choice archaic words. I can also envision a Harry Potteresque feel with the kind of races you're promoting. Time is odd in that the units of hours and days takes away the feel, too. Possibly use bells as a way to measure time, and also that becomes an expression of pressure and potential trouble. You failed to be in your seat by the bell. Homelife is boring and I suggest giving a stat to represent the protective nature of the parents. It keeps you from getting into trouble when high and lets you do more stuff when low. Pick a school of mastery, or let a random roll provide you with innate talents that you can explore or ignore. I imagine this school as a way for fantasy youths to determine what kind of "class" they are ushered into. This could be a great way to build a history and prologue for a campaign: childhood sweethearts, a teacher becomes a mentor, lost "library" books, school-yard fights, extracurricular activities, dungeon-bowl champion, the "haunted" castle, lessons in racism, friends and enemies.

I look forward to this.

Troy

Hi Iain,

Sounds like rich concepts to get into! Did you get the inspiration for this after a particular roleplay session? Or on thinking about old roleplay session and thinking 'Hey, what if we went this way with it?'.

Just asking cause my approach is to dig into what you've really gotten into, then I can help with mechanics. Umm, assuming you want help with that or something else, that is :)

Hi guys,
Good suggestions their Troy about terminology. These are just initial thoughts at the moment, so I will definetley think about rephrasing game terms. How you describe homelife is pretty much how it is going to work I think. Just a number that hinders when high. I wasn't really thinking about the game being a prologue as such, more a sort of comedic take on classes and races in fantasy games. I will definetley check out TFOS as well. I had totally forgotten about that.

Callan, the inspiration actually came from my job. We had a signing from a band at the store I work at, and loads of teenage girls were there. It started me thinking about peer pressure, school rules etc. and then I though it might be a funny idea to take those ideas and transport them to a fantasy setting. Help away with mechanics, but keep an eye on rpglab as I will be posting bits of the system there.

Cheers
Iain

Aye this sounds like a very fun idea, and would love to hear more about it.

Do you intend to create it as a chronicle-campaign type of game or more like a one shot scenario done in a few hours time?

Chris

I think it will be intended to run such that each session is a week of school time. For one offs this could focus round a specific event, such as a dance or school sporting event. For a campaign it could run over the period up to exams or something like that. I will be posting some more rules at rpglab in the next couple of days and will psot back here when I have done so.
Cheers
Iain

On the other hand...

you could really make this look like a modern day high school, camp it up, develop a lingo and use pastiche to reference contemporary culture.

"Oh look, its another ork. Pardon me, I mean dork. Watch out for the dork, he'll dribble on you."
"I'm Master Smith and this is the metallurgy class. Don't play with the anvil!"
"Where is Ed? Edwin Dolin Koban, I told you to feed the living room 3 hours ago!"
"My friend Vlad is attending the night session. Yeah. It sucks."
"Dori isn't an elf, silly. She's just a tall halfling."
"Yeah, it's my father's broom. Too bad it doesn't have a back seat."
"Satyr day is so much fun."
"That Blair is such a weeotch."
"I'm so embarrassed. I told my mummy to never pick me up."
"Ewww. There's a hare in my soup. Egbert, I found your familiar!"
"I don't know if Rory or Cory will ask me out. Since he's an ettin, I suppose it doesn't matter. They're both so cute!"
"Pez, put that magicmouth away, now!"
"Oh great. Another changeling. I hope his face stays that way."
"I can't find my way and I'm late for the Minotaur's class."
"Siouxzee, the carnival is in town. We could make out on the Dungeons and Dragons ride."

Nice lines Troy:-) This was very much the way I was thinking about it. A cam, piss take on the nature of fantasy classes and prejudices and where all that stuff may have orginiated. More to follow soon. I will be posting up some rules stuff in RPG lab in the next couple of days.
Cheers
Iain

Callan, the inspiration actually came from my job. We had a signing from a band at the store I work at, and loads of teenage girls were there. It started me thinking about peer pressure, school rules etc. and then I though it might be a funny idea to take those ideas and transport them to a fantasy setting. Help away with mechanics, but keep an eye on rpglab as I will be posting bits of the system there.

It wasn't so much what the teenager's were doing, it was more the fact that the event, a signing, had attracted so many of them because that band is 'In' right now. It just got me thinking about peer pressure and cliques in schools and then my brain translated that into the possibility of gaming. So their may be certain things that are 'In' in the game that characters wish to engage with or maybe what is 'In' can be changed through the efforts of the characters.

As for the time mechanic, I am thinking at the moment that their will be 10 bells in a day, and these are used by 'good kids' to attend classes, lunch breaks and get home on time. You can instead use these bells to frame different scenes, but this will affect your trouble meters. You can also gain bells by joining different clubs, affecting your cool rating in certain situations, and then use those bells to do things other than the club. So you can tell your parents you are off to wizards club, but are actually going to the local nightclub with some pals. Weekend events, like the one that got me thinking about this, I think I will keep to a minimum as the interest is within the politics within the school. Obviously weekend parties and sporting events etc. will need some way of being framed.

Cheers
Iain