Set in tumultuous and fictious 1960s sweden, Murdercycles is an RPG of motorcycle gangs run amok. The last days of the Devil Dogs (or whatever gang) is captured in this fast and deadly game of gang members alpha dogging one another across the scandinavian landscape. Steadily, the law gains on the gang members as they draw closer and closer to their end. Run without a GM, the game is almost an antithesis of George's Children, telling instead the story of youth gone wild.

Tonight was my third attempt at playtesting this. This is my first post about the game.

Playtesters: Aaron, Colin, Josh, Mark, me.

The game opened tonight with the death of the previous gang leader (as is normally the case; the players fight for "dominance" in the leaderless gang). During a turn, the active player sets up a challenge for the entire gang. The player who rolls the best for the challenge describes the failure of the person who rolled worst. And the person who rolled worst suffers "damage" getting them closer to being caught by the law.

This person then becomes the active player and sets up a new challenge. This continues again and again, as the story escalates.

While we had an "okay" time, there were a number of flaws with this design... which I am ironing out.

If you continue to fail, you'll never really be involved in the story and while I wanted an alpha dog-like design reflected in the game, this was too much.

So. I'm going to be fixing that.

The game needs a reward system, even if everyone dies at the end. Which presently, it does not have.

And there needs to be opportunities to affect the story, even if you're not "involved." Which I'll also be adding.

Hopefully, I can get more feedback on Saturday at Kubla Con and then have a better read on the mechanics.

Thanks to everyone who participated.

Hi there,

Are you familiar with Cutthroat, by Troy Costisick? There's a playtesting thread about from just a few days ago.

I think it's fun and interesting when two similar games are in development at the same time, and they often result in complementary games which are both enjoyed by the same people.

Best, Ron

Heya,

Yeah, this game shares many similarities with mine.  It seems much more plot-driven than mine, though.  Let me ask you something, Jim.  Do the characters or players have any respources they either spend or accumulate that affects how they can interact with the game's fiction?  You talk about damage.  Does damage have a benefit as well as its drawback?

Peace,

-Troy

I'm going to be adding a resource that they "collect" and spend. Yes. That was one of the flaws with this playtest... no rewards.

As for damage... no... because this is the last HORRAH for this gang... collecting damage is a necessity... but failure does have a reward. In fact, I may be able to lose the damage system completely, if the new KEROSENE and MATCH system I have in my head works.

We'll see.

If you feel like sharing notes offline, send me an e-mail.