hello, my name is david clarke and i am *shock* currently designing a new roleplaying game, which seems to be rather popular here in these forums ;-)

since i am a film student, i have written several movie scripts, and although they have their differances, they all seem to take place in the same mileau...

and recently i've had the idea of taking ideas from discarded script attempts, notes and other info and do some good oldfashioned worldbuilding for a website called world of nixon, which will describe the mileau of the world. and while i haven't gone far into it, i've been struck by the idea of roleplaying in it, since it so differant than anything i've ever played in or have heard of (i know, a brave boast, but stay with me!). so, i've decided to use the world as a roleplaying setting.

it is a world which borrows heavily from david lynch, dark city, hellraiser, brian aldiss, and j.g. ballard. a world where the people are normal, but the world is insane. the setting is a gigantic city full of factories pouring tons of smoke into the sky. the world of the prophet nixon, who brought the postindustrial antichrist complex with him after the destruction of rome in the eternal atomic explosion (yes, it reminds be a bit of the -hellstorm- of gurps technomancer, which i've recently got my hands on, but i had -my- idea earlier). a world where bomber-jets from -beyond- throw bombs on the -city- (the country of merica is no more, it was destroyed by nixon) which change reality and contaminate them with the deadly doxrine-analphs, a disease which causes one to bleed more blood than one actually has.

well, i don't want to get into too many details here, just wanted to hint at the surreal nature of it all.

the basic idea of the game is that players are ordinary people... waitresses, lawyers, factory workers and the like. normal people like you and me, with no "special" abilities.

i first looked around at other rpg systems for inspiration. i didn't want to base it off another rpg, since i want to eventually bring it out in (e)book form. i glanced over fudge, but it didn't seem to be what i wanted.

i am not going to use attributes, hit points and the like. i am going to use traits based on occupation and hobby. i have been thinking of four levels of job skill:

narrow - skill only usable in context of one's job
broad - skill also also adaptable to other contexts
specialized - very good skill (used within context of one's job)
expert - very good skill adaptable to other contexts

for example, a shoe salesman might have "persuasion (narrow)" which means he can sell shoes, but will have trouble selling insurance or otherwise persuading people. "persuasion (specialized)" will be an expert on shoes. shoe salesmen with broad or expert will be able to adapt their skills to similar situations to good or great effect, for example persuading an insane gunsman to put their gun aside in a bank robbery, whereas the first shoe salesman could probably only sell him new shoes.

it is very rough at the moment, but that is the basic idea. to have a job, one must at least have a narrow skill in the job qualifications... but some people are better at it, and can use it outside the job. for example, a secreatary might have "computer (narrow)" and type in addresses, but she won't be able to surf in the internet or play computer games ("computer (broad"). if she had specialized or expert, she could probably make homepages... (note: world of nixon has no computers ;-)

there are several "meters" however which can be compared to a combination of "hit points" and "saving throw" which play at intregal role in the game:

reality - the level of being "in" this reality. people who are not tend to fade away during the reality bombings

contamination - the level of contamination by doxrine-analphs

sanity - this is pretty much self-explanatory

memory - people tend to forget things when reality changes... memory level is the "strength" of memory

mundane - how "normal" you are. the more you fall out of line (or your role), the more tempting target you are for "strange happenings"... usually not that good... this is the simple single reason why most people are unaffected by the world dying around them. i might dump this one, though.

those are my first thoughts i've had up to now, but i'm sure things will change soon enough. i would love to hear comments or crititicisms.

I actually really like your skill rating system. It's definable, yet flexible, sensibly mathmatic, yet easy on the numbers (figuratively speaking, here). Your world sounds interesting, and the stystem seems like it specifically supports it (which is a thing I like), although it hasn't sold me yet as something I couldn't do with GURPS or Shadowrun.

So, tell us more.

Jake

Yes, definately tell us more. Here's some questions that immediately came to my mind.

What is the "postindustrial antichrist complex?"

What inspired you to make Nixon the central antagonist, a symbol of antagonism?

If you were going to state the premise of WoN in one sentence, what would it be?

Laurel wrote:
What inspired you to make Nixon the central antagonist, a symbol of antagonism?

It all sounds quite... grim.

Read some China Miéville (espcialy Perdido Street Station and the upcoming Scar).

Have to ask... what is the point? The point of play... it just seems so relentlessly hopeless, ugly, nasty, and dark... you play expressly mundane, ordinary people in a world gone completely to shit. What is the draw? What pleasure can I take from playing this game? Is it like Jared's Schism where character mortality plays a significant role in the game (but then at least you get some cool powers before loosing it...)? Or more like CoC where you can only hope to salvage some short-term exestential satisfaction from surviving against an awful horrible reality.

Actually, I laughed too at Nixon=root of all evil but then I went to look at the World of Nixon homepage (by correctly guessing it would be www.worldofnixon.com) and guessed that the author is German and hoping for a different, more sophisticated socio-political perspective than my whitebread middle class American education provided.

so let us answer your comments one by one...

it hasn't sold me yet as something I couldn't do with GURPS or Shadowrun

What is the "postindustrial antichrist complex?"

What inspired you to make Nixon the central antagonist, a symbol of antagonism?

If you were going to state the premise of WoN in one sentence, what would it be?

It all sounds quite... grim.

what is the point?

the author is German and hoping for a different, more sophisticated socio-political perspective

The premise seems more novel friendly than game friendly... I can't understand the draw... I get to play a what? Totaly mundane person who tries very very hard to stay mundane and do mundane things in the face of the bizare and wonderous and terrible? Oh shit! The neighbor's house just turned into a giant mound of sentient tapioca pudding! I'd better go to work on time today, fill out paper work for 8 hours, then come home! That will save me!


What are characters actualy supposed to do? Characters in ficiton can be brought to life through naritive even when their exploits are entirely mundane, I'm just thinking about the serious hard-sell when I try and convince my players that the goal of the game is to stay as normal and mundane as possible while I describe weird things to them... what do PC's actualy do? What is the point of making this premise into a game and not a piece of pure fiction? What is the attraction?

Bailywolf wrote:
What are characters actualy supposed to do? Characters in ficiton can be brought to life through naritive even when their exploits are entirely mundane, I'm just thinking about the serious hard-sell when I try and convince my players that the goal of the game is to stay as normal and mundane as possible while I describe weird things to them... what do PC's actualy do? What is the point of making this premise into a game and not a piece of pure fiction? What is the attraction?

I'm envisioning this as the characters wanting nothing better than to just live out their day to day lives fixing dinner, watching TV, filling out forms, but they *can't* do that, because no one will ever have a normal life again if someone doesn't take action.

I really like the idea of starting in normal jobs - for about five minutes. This game - so far - reminds me of Brazil. In that, the players should want to just get back to their normal jobs, but can't because of some problem.

I try my hardest not to cause an echo in here, but anyway - read this thread on Kickers. It's exactly what every player character in the World of Nixon (damnit, I love saying that) needs.

- Clinton

splattergnome wrote:
i will still go ahead and have mundane jobs to start out with, for the simple reason that no one (except superman perhaps) actually starts out as a hero. these are -normal- people doing the best they can... who decide to risk their own reality, safety, ect. to help out, something like freedom fighters or the resistance against reality (and NIXON).

thanks bailywolf, paganini... your criticisms are EXACTLY what i needed...

What if people develope into sort of magnified versions of their former selves- to extreme that they can no longer be considered mundane...or perhaps even human. THey are somehow metaphysicaly tied into that piece of the mundane they used to take part in, and must protect it... becoming sort of default guardian spirits or avatars or some such. But if they abuse their magnifications too much, they will weaken the percieved normality of their mundane roots and thus damage the reality they defend...


So, design a mundane person exactly like you describe- with abilities which describe their mundane lives- Short Order Cook, Bouncer, Beat Cop, Lawyer, Persuasion, Sex Apeal, Brawny, Streetwise, Good with Money- whatever.

Then, MAGNIFY them...basicly, create a paralel supernatural order of power based on each level of the mundane ability...these can be very weird but will always be tangentaly related to the mundane trait. The player gets to make up the magnified side of the ability, but must stick with it later during play.

some examples:

Short Order Cook With nothing but a decent kitchen and plenty of "ingredients" you can cook up living creatures to do your bidding...but they always smell like seasoned herbs.

Bouncer If protecting a building or entranceway, you can subdue and toss out ANYONE who lacks a Supernatural ability greater than your Bouncer ability.

Beat Cop While patroling the streets, you can impose any of three states of mind on anyone you meet- Difidence & Respect; Fear; or Good Will. Only a supernatural ability greater than your Beat Cop ability can counter this.

Lawyer You can negoiate a binding contract WITH ANYTHING. Such contracts must have stipulations for all parties involved, including conditions which break or void the contract. You could, for example, promise only to fill your car up with the best gas in exchange for your car promising never to need repairs. Contracts need not be between you and another person or object, but can be between other people or other people and objects. If the physcial contract is destroyed, it is nulified.

Persuasion You can alter a person's perceptions by suggesting that what they see or otherwise sense is in fact something entirely different. This is most powerful when the suggestion is close to the reality. "This is not a gun, it is a chocolate novelty pretend gun." would be very easy, while "Actualy, that burning car falling from the sky is in fact a trick of the light." would be hard.

Sex Apeal You can arouse even the dead with a promise for your affection. By whispering sweet words to a corpse or over a grave, you can raise the spirits of the dead to serve you. Ghosts want to feel loved and are attracted to beauty- and they will obey so long as you charm them into it. For the promise of a kiss, they will enter a corpse and animate it...but will require their reward immediatly on rising...

Brawny Simply- you are always just strong enough. Never overwhelmingly strong- just strong enough to get the job done as well as it needs to be done. Just a hair stronger than the guy are wrestling with, just a hair more powerful than the boulder is heavy, just modestly more tough than the thugs baseball bat strike. You are a single rank better than the minimum you need for success.

Streetwise the streets speak to you. You are more than just wise to the ways of street live- the streets live for you. Blowing trash spells messages for you...the grafiti is your oracle...the homeless treat you as their King, the gangs as a respected neutral party, the Beat Cop as his natural enemy...

Good With Money You are more than good at managing money... you rule it... under your influence, money will come to life...bills will fly like paper birds or fold themselves into orgami animals and follow your orders. Coins will streak from cash registers and strike like throwing stars. Credit Crads will move like cobras and hipnotize your victims...



Or you could have made up antirely different ones... no two Short Order Cooks need have the same Magnification either...

A bit of a lark, but eh?

Clinton R Nixon wrote: I really like the idea of starting in normal jobs - for about five minutes. This game - so far - reminds me of Brazil. In that, the players should want to just get back to their normal jobs, but can't because of some problem.

Instead of kickers to pry the PCs away from their mundane lives, you could use a group self-hosing, like in Metal Öpera.

bailywolf,

your concept is very cool... but i wasn't sure if it would fit my game, since it reminds me a little too much of "superpowers". however, i have put some thought into it, and i have found a comprimise to put it into play without changing the mood too much... using "supercharged" versions of your skills come at a great cost to you... in many ways, and are not possible if you are grounded in reality... but reality is not also "straight", but sometimes "liquid" in the world of nixon... so i would see such abilities as a bonus which you can sometimes use... but not always.


and now for something completely differant
or: my innovative bombing rules

the one single idea for this game i am most proud of are the rules for the bombs.

the -city- is continously being bombed by the those from beyond the veil (ie those who live beyond the eternal atomic explosion of rome). these bombs have a wide variety of effects:




• "normal" explosions
• doxrine-analph contamination
• radiation
• "lsd"-bombs... (reality becomes liquid, everyone begins to talk as if they were high)
• time-shifts (time moves ahead a few hours... and it is as you had actually lived this time and done everything you would have, but you have no memory of it. note that people at work love this bomb, since then they blink their eyes afterwards, their paperwork or whatnot is completed and if they are lucky they are already on the way home)
• cause visions and hallucinations
• transfer victims to the land beyond the veil
• among other effects...




i don't want this to be GM fiat. that is one of the main themes of the game - characters have relatively free will and succeed in what they do according to their abilities with little random influence... however, the world is random, and things happen which are even beyond the GM's control and make his job more... interesting. the GM is responsible for NPCs and similar events, the reality (level) itself acts by itself, and the GM has to adapt, making himself a player in a way.

the question is, how do you simulate this? how do you simulate these random bombings which happen every once in a while? then i had the solution:

all clocks, watches and other timepieces have to be removed from sight during play. the GM has a timer-enabled clock. depending on the actual length of the game-session, he sets the timer to regularly ring (or sets it manually each time) a certain amount of minutes, for example 45 minutes or an hour and a half. he then hides the clock.

now the thing is, noone knows how long it will take until it rings (unless the PLAYERS have absolute timesense.) but when it does, a bombing run occurs. maybe several game-days have passed in the meantime, maybe the players have spent the time making plans, maybe they are in the middle of combat... BUT WHEN THE TIMER RINGS, THE BOMBS FALL. the GM rolls on a table of effects... WHICH ARE IN EFFECT INSTANTLY. this simulates the randomness. of course, to us, it isn't random... it'll ring every 45 minutes. but time is relative in a game session, and the players (and the GM) will never know when it will ring.

i happen to love this idea, but i would like to know what you think of it, using an OOC object (timer) to simulate random IC events. i think it is rather original, but then again, i am rather biased ;-)

It's extremely bizarre, but it seems to fit with the setting. I would have to try it in actual play to say totally for sure. It seems like it could work very well though.

I love your idea for handling the bombs. Mechanics which play with the fourth wall like that are ideal for a surrealist game.

As a GM, I would probably drift this a little so that I had my bombs pre-rolled and written in order on a 3x5 card so that the second the timer went off, *wham* I could launch immediately into the bomb effect. It would still have been randomized, It would still hit the game at whatever period of time the play had moved to, but the game wouldn't have that minute freeze it would take to role the die and look up the chart. The flow itself would be less likely to be broken and therefore, the dramatic effect improved.

this sounds badass. like a david lynch adaptation of gravity's rainbow or catch-22 or something. but darker.

so this is funny -- i was working on a game with tangential references to dresden. mostly, it's the firestorm, those great winds, the walls of flame, sucking people out of windows into the street -- i can hardly imagine what it was like.

anyhow, the allusion to dresden was surprising, in that regard. but i love the idea for the game.

question: what, specifically, would characters do in a game? what would it sound like? any antagonists? threats, risks?

sounds cool, i must say.

thanks for your kind comments, guys. :)

As a GM, I would probably drift this a little so that I had my bombs pre-rolled and written in order on a 3x5 card so that the second the timer went off, *wham* I could launch immediately into the bomb effect.

You know, I associated it with Brazil right off as well.

like a david lynch adaptation of gravity's rainbow or catch-22 or something. but darker.

question: what, specifically, would characters do in a game? what would it sound like? any antagonists? threats, risks?

instead of opening a new thread (and taking valuable forum place from other good games ;-), i am added an appendum to what i wrote above. i have updated the www.worldofnixon.com website and added a rpg section with some short texts. it isn't finished, but i would like to here what you think about it. i am currently working on a new main menu, so in other words: its an "under construction" site. ;-)

oh, and there's still a little bug, BTW... if you click on a link back to indie-rpgs, the title bar still says "world of nixon". i'll try to correct that, but its nice to think that my homepage is aggressively trying to conquer other sites... ;-)

although it is quite far from ready, i have written up the first part of the character generation and task resolution rules, for those interested on how the project is coming along. note that these are only the basic rules, and prone to change a lot while i tinker with the dice rules ;-) i am currently rethinking the mundane stat... perhaps i won't need it, since it wasn't actually part of my original game idea, but i'll first have to check how this works. more problematic is probably the skill choice section, i'll have to fill in more detail there.

(note: file is a microsoft .doc file)

http://www.worldofnixon.com/rpg.doc

so, if you have any criticisms or comments, on with them! ;-)


EDIT: the first "official" version of the world of nixon homepage has finally been uploaded last night. you can find further information about the world setting here. note that the ruleset draft can only be downloaded with the link above. thank you all for your support!