I just ran the first session of the next round of <a href="http://wyrmwood.srgames.org/playtest/HomeworldProj.pdf">Homeworld Project playtesting. Due to scheduling, only one of the players was able to make the game, more are expected next month, we were able to get things rolling as is.

When the player, L, arrived handed her the playtest rules, and let her skim them. I explained a few things along the way, especially how the dramatic d12's work. L played in my D&D game last year, but has had very little experience in RPGs outside of that (and that game was odd for a D&D game, as you might expect). I wasn't too concerned with getting all the rules across, as 1) I know the document is rather opaque and 2) I know the rules start to fit together once you get playing (from a previous playtest).

When I suggested she start making a character, I directed her to read the Modes and Panache sections (for characters and ships) before hand. That's where I snuck most of the setting information. In essence, the Astral Space is represented by the strangeness of modes, and the Space Opera is based on the panache archetypes. 

She then created her character, Saris, a space pirate.  Saris is a dreamer, so she's a fun loving and playful, with her two Panache presently being Rake and Pilot - so she's also witty, dashing, and curious. After some discussion, her three starting grains were Pirate!, Loyalty (to her crew), and Dashing Duelist. She then picked the three reflections: Galaxy Space Police, Pirate Clans, and the Noble House of Master (the last had its heir killed by Saris in a duel, so it's prospective heirs must defeat her to gain legitimacy).

She put three layers into each grain, and then set aside three points for her ship. She then filled out decriptors for her grains (such as specific crew members she was loyal to, and her shadow sword) as I did the same for my reflections. When I noticed she put a treasure related descriptor in for Pirate!, I suggested she use her Ship's reflection to be the treasure, as I'd have limited resources otherwise to make an enjoyable treasure hunt.

She then designed a ship, Sinquest, a believer (old victoriana space galleon), courier / explorer. Sinquest has one grain, Destined, indicating that it is the ship destined to find the treasure in it's reflection, The Lost Treasure of Chaladni. of course, entire crews have died trying to be the one's to find it...

After filling in some more descriptors, we were ready to play through a chapter (from one Turning Point to another). I set up the initial state of the action, Seris had found a treasure hunter with a lead in Gaplingburg, where all hunts start. Just then a five man team of Galaxy Space Police showed up to apprehend them both. These were two manifests of mine, one from the Lost Treasure, the other from Galaxy Space Police.

L asked how flexible her actions could be, and I told her she had pretty free reign, it largely depends on the consequences of the action. So she decided to ascend to rooftop level using a grappling hook grabbing the treasure hunter with her. The result was to inflict a consequence on the team, Stuck on the Ground. Them taken care of for the moment, she turned to deal with the treasure hunter, who was now being less cooperative.

Saris was knocked Off Balance, and then injured by the treasure hunter. Things looked bleak, until L manifested her First Mate, Tristen, using her Loyalty grain. Tristen first Cowed, and then left the treasure hunter hurting. Finally the treasure hunter gave up the news, that the man with the map, Freddy was in the clutches of the police. At that point I unmanifested the treasure hunter, as he would have been destroyed on his next bout anyway, and the action moved to the police team ascending to the roof tops. It was around this point that I had to remind L about using her layers to progress the d12s, as that is how the grains change, as well as a way to help improve your rolls.

They removed the Stuck on the Ground consequence and then ran after the two pirates in a roof top chase. With both Saris and Tristen trapped with downward dice, L brought in her ship, dropping from the clouds to give them a chance to escape. The ship tried to attack the police team, but was instead Tethered. Saris turned to hold of the police for Tristen's escape, and was Disarmed. At that point Saris (from my suggestion) used her layers to progress her die to a 1. This caused the Turning Point, giving her a free mark, which she used to add Questing, a grain also reflected by the Lost Treasure of Chaladni.

Since it was the Turning Point I set up the situation for next session. The Sinquest escapes, but is being pursued by a corsair of the House of Master, called in by the police. Meanwhile, the police have captured  Saris, and are holding her in their planetary prison, coincidently in the same holding cell as Freddy. Those three manifest: the corsair, the prison, and Freddy are ready for next session.

That chapter took, approximately an hour. Of note, I tried a few changes, based on the previous playtest. First, the pace was one, to keep bookkeeping down and because that seems to be about right for the pacing of the game. Second, I started using the new initiative rules - which amount to players always get to initiate bouts first (although it gets slightly more complex with more players). This felt odd in places. For example, it meant I couldn't reintroduce the police till the treasure hunter was handled. But ultimately it seemed to work out fine. It does seem to put more pressure on the GM to keep manifests interesting and engaging.

All in all we both had fun, and we did lose track of time somewhat while we were playing. What I'm really intrigued by, this playtest, is the flexibility of the consequences mechanic. My first playtest tended towards it's use as narrative wounds, but things like Stuck on the Ground or Disarmed, seem to be more fun alternatives.

Unfortunately, my primary concern is that the chapters are too quick with multiple players. I have some thoughts about how to fix that, but until I have enough players at once, it'll be difficult to know for sure what would work.

To give a little more background, Homeworld Project is one of the game I've designed via my RPGnet column. <a href="http://www.rpg.net/columns/physics/physics44.phtml">Here is a quick overview of the game and <a href="http://www.rpg.net/news+reviews/columns/physics30apr03.html">these <a href="http://www.rpg.net/news+reviews/columns/physics28may03.html">two articles are the original development.

I've also posted quite a bit of the design work on my <a href="http://darklordforhire.livejournal.com/">livejournal (more than half of the front page), although most of that has become part of the playtest document.

I find the colour for this game really fascinating.  The idea of playing space pirates and such in a kind of metaphysical space is really interesting.  I'm finding the mechanics kind of opaque though.  It seems like the mechanics of the game reflect the mechanics of the universe in which the game is set, which is really cool, but you're throwing around a lot of new terms, which seem to have pretty specific meanings.  Is there a document which explains this game more concisely?

What was your player's reaction to the game? Did she enjoy it? I notice that a lot of the time, she was interacting with the game mechanically ("progressing her die to a one" for example) at your suggestion.  That's pretty normal for a situation where the player is learning the rules, but it's also a bit concerning.  How much initiative did the player take in using the mechanics of the game?

Simon,

One of my friends who was reading the post assumed that most of capitalized terms had a specific game meaning. But most of those terms are just consequences, which amount to traits that other people assign to a character due to the outcome of a bout. Perhaps this will help:

action - literally what we are seeing during play, it may be spread over space and even time, but it's all capable of interacting with each other. Being destroyed sends you from the action.

bout - an interaction between two entities (which could be characters, ships, or manifests) which results in consequences.

consequence - a narrative trait with a value describing its severity, both how hard it was to cause, and how hard it is to remove.

disabled, doomed, and destroyed - narrative "wounds", these are thresholds where a certain total of consequences requires narrating these effects into your next bout.

dramatic d12 - a way of progressing the d12 so that it becomes more and more likely to roll extreme values until a certain point (Turning Point) is reached. There are three regions of roles, the lowest attracts the die towards 1, the highest attracts it towards 12, and the middle lets you re-roll. But each one pulls the upper region down, and each 12 pulls the lower region up, until the meet in a Turning Point.

Grains - the core of a character or ship, these are the things that truly matter to them. These are tied to Reflections which the GM uses as her own resources. Spending a layer of a grain progresses your die in a bout as long as it isn't showing a 12 or a 1. If it becomes a 12 or a 1, the grain gains or loses a layer, respectively.

manifest - a supporting entity in the action, payed for by committing two layers of a grain or reflection. When that entity leaves the action, those layers are returned. Entities have modes and panache, like characters and ships, but no grains.

Mode - the way an entity exists in astral space, either as an astral being: stranger, shadow (refugee), native or as a human: dreamer, lunatic, guest (sorcerer), lost (trapped in astral space).

Panache - the dramatic modus operandii of an entity. For characters: mystic, noble, pilot, rake, rogue, techie, warrior. For ships: courier, defender, destroyer, explorer, and transport.

Turning Point - the end of a chapter in Homeworld Project, it allows the GM to direct the action for a time and inject more dramatic tension.

L's reaction to the game seemed fairly positive, she got into her character much faster than she expected and she didn't require much prompting to initiate bouts after the first few (indeed I, as the GM initiated no bouts - which seems to be the correct outcome of the initiative system). Explaining the trade-offs of how to use layers seems to be something that is best taught in stages, in this case, though the later stage (progressing to a one) was what was most appropriate due to the dice  outcomes.

One difficulty with Homeworld Project is that it has a sizable complexity to start, but there are very few sub-systems to learn afterwards. You need several pieces to get things going, but after that you don't start needing to juggle more.

Today we played through two more chapters in the search for the Lost Treasure of Chaladni. This time I recorded the events bout by bout, including the values of the dice and the consequences.

The previous turning point had Saris locked up in a cell with Freddy (who holds the secrets he desperately needs), while the Sinquest is being pursued by a House Master Corsair. Saris first tries to work out a deal with Freddy, She rolls a 10, he rolls a 12. Fortunately her panache negates the consequence that could result. She tries things more directly, and with a 12 against his 11, with her panache she inflicts a 3 point consequence, In League with Saris, on Freddy.

Now Saris turned her attention to the prison itself. The next bout is an attempt to find a weakness in the prison. Both Saris and the prison roll a 2. Laura chose to progress her die by spending a layer, causing an immediate minimal loss, but setting things up against the prison on a later bout. Thus, with Saris showing a 1, and the prison showing a 2, she takes a 2 point consequence, Under Watch, as guards notice her suspicious behavior.

Now the action moved back to the Sinquest, which is under pursuit by a Corsair. The Sinquest has remained tethered, by a chunk of the building dangling off it like a misshapen anchor. She initiates a bout having her crew attempt to cast off the tether while avoiding the weapons fire of the corsair. Sinquest gets a 9, and the corsair gets a 3. This is enough to remove the Tethered consequence. What's more, with only one more 1 rolled the Sinquest will be pulled into an upward spiral. With that in mind, Laura returns to events in the prison.

Saris changes tactics, trying to be Rakishly chat up the guards, hoping that there is a pirate clan agent among them. She rolls a 3, but the prison progresses to a 1 automatically, giving her a 4 point consequence (due to her mode and her Rake panache), Compromised on the prison. Laura then manifests a pirate clan spy using her loyalty, an importance 2 Rogue, by the name of Markus Wright.

Markus tries to sneak Saris out of her cell, but the prison gets a 7, while Markus rolls a 1. As a result the prison inflicts a 5 point consequence on him, Cover Blown. As things head South, Markus decides to do something rash, sneaking Saris her confiscated sword. The prison rolls a 3, while Markus rolls a 4. Deciding that I didn't want a series of meager losses, I progressed the 3 to a 1. This ended up giving Markus enough to return Saris' sword, removing her 5 point Disarmed consequence, but he was now locked into a downward spiral for the remainder of the chapter.

Moving back to the space battle, the Sinquest turns on its pursuers, and opens fire. Progressing to a 10, versus the corsair's 2, (and using a Panache vote of destroyer), the sinquest unleashes a frightening volley, leaving the corsair with a 10 point consequence, Engine Critical. As the corsair is only importance 1, it is not doomed, and so not much of a threat. Since the Sinquest heads to other matters, I unmanifested the corsair at this point.

Now the Sinquest initiates a bout with the prison, in the context of the falling piece of tethered building. This is part of the fun of the action, as long as you can find a justification, any participant in the action can affect any other (and in astral space justifications aren't hard to find). Sinquest progresses to a 11, while the prison rolls and gets a 1. The result is an 8 point consequence, Smashed to Hell as the ersatz orbital strike knocks through its defenses. That makes the prison unnecessary, so I unmanifested it.

Following this up, the Sinquest breaks into the prison, which again rolls poorly, getting a 2, against the ships progression to a 12. The prison gains a consequence Broken at 9, I unmanifested it. Thus the prisoners have a chance to escape, as Markus is unmanifested leading a handful of prisoners to safety in the ship.

So at the end, Saris is calling to Freddy, who initiates a bout himself to make a break for it. Saris progresses to a 2, while he progresses to a 12. Fortunately, he declines to cause a consequence, and instead removes, In League with Saris. And his 12 is the final step causing the turning point, as the Sinquest and Freddy flee the planet separately.

In the turning point I tried an alternate rule where the GM can eliminate a consequence in place of adding a mark. I eliminated Saris' Under Watch, and added a plus mark to the Sinquest's Destined grain, giving it, the Treasure, and Saris' Questing an additional layer. Then I unmanifested Freddy, and manifested the Charybdis Clan Warship he had hitched a ride on.

And the next chapter begins with Saris and the Sinquest in hot pursuit.

The second chapter of this weekend's session started with the Sinquest in pursuit of Freddy, who had gotten a ride on a Charybdis Clan Warship.

The first bout involved the Sinquest trying to close the gap, and the warship returning fire. The Sinquest got a 2, which Laura progressed to a 1, while the warship got a 12. After panache and mode modifiers, this resulted in a 9 point consequence for the Sinquest, Main Sail Hit. Of note, Laura progressed Sinquest's die to avoid being trapped with a 1 next bout.

Just then I manifested a House Master Heir who had snuck on board with the escaping prisoners. He challenges Saris to a duel. The back story here is that Saris defeated the inheriting heir in a duel, killing him. So, no other heir can take his place without avenging the slight to the honor of House Master. The duel starts immediately, with Saris rolling an 11, and the heir rolling a 7. I decided to re-roll (as at this point a 7 re-rolls when progressed) and rolled a 1. The duel goes miserably for the heir, leaving him with a Useless Limb consequence at 9 points.

He presses the duel, tossing his sword to his good arm, and Saris progresses to a 12, while he gets a 6. Saris knocks the sword away from the heir and across the bridge, gaining the 6 point consequence Disarmed. The duel (apparently) over, so we shift back to the ship combat. In this case, both ships get to roll once more. The Sinquest rolls an 8, while the warship rolls a 9. This is close enough to have panache remove any lasting consequence.

But back on the bridge, things were not over. As Laura was at a loss for what to do, I had the heir initiate a bout with the Sinquest, attempting sabotage. He gets a 6, versus Sinquest's 11, causing him to instead be blown back and Electrocuted (a 5 point consequence). The heir is now destroyed, meaning his next bout removes him from the action. And that bout is a last attempt to kill Saris. As his dying act, he pulls out a pistol, and gets a 4 against Saris' 3. After modes, this is enough to give her a 2 point consequence, Powder Burned. (We were trying to recall the term for a glancing blow from a pistol, but that was the best we could come up with.)

Back to the space battle, the Sinquest presses her advantage of a 11 showing against the warship. Sinquest progresses to a 12, while the warship rolls a 4, leaving the warship Battered as a 9 point consequence (it is of importance 2, so it's not even disabled yet). In the following bout, the Sinquest gets a 3, matching the 3 of the warship. I elected to take two mildly bad bouts in exchange for one good one and spent a layer to progress the warship to a 2.

This resulted in the warship being Locked and Boarded, as 3 point consequences each. But then the trap was sprung and the warship got a 5 against the Sinquest's progression to a 1. This becomes a Grappled as a 5 point consequence, to prevent the Sinquest escaping too. Now that boarding was inevitable, we began to manifest our boarding forces.

Laura added Tristan to aid Saris, this time as an importance 2 Warrior. I added two importance 1 bands of pirates, Treasure Crazed and Bloodthirsty. The former are strangers, resembling classic greys with ray guns, the later are more viking pirates, being lunatics (and thus humans).

The boarding fight started with a series of back and forth bouts, Tristan against the lunatics, and Saris against the greys. With a 7 and then an 8, Tristan defeated the lunatics with their 5 progressing to a 4. He inflicted first Pushed Back, and then Trapped (behind a bulkhead) on those pirates.

Saris, unfortunately, fared worse. She got a 2 on her first bout versus the grey's 8 (on an upward progress). Laura progressed this to a 1, and was stunned. However her next bout was a 10, giving a series of bouts where she removed a consequence (Powder Burned) and pushed back against the greys.

Finally, Saris got a 12, and I progressed the treasure-crazed pirates to a 12 as well, causing the chapter to end. The turning point I described was the greys activating a psychic blast as they start bringing out the big guns and the battle intensifies.

Stay tuned for the next chapter after this weekend.

Something I'm not picking up from your reporting here is what the reactions of the players were to the game.  Were they engaged? Frustrated? What bits made them really happy, and which bits didn't work so well?  What was your favorite part?  At this stage, how do you feel the rules are working?  Are they doing what you want them to?

A question I have from reading this is how do you decide when a conflict is resolved? For example, escaping from the prison cell, Saris seems to roll and fail several times, and she gets to keep on trying without any negative consequences.  What's the limit to that? Later, Markus' cover is blown, but he still gets to sneak Saris her sword (or attempt to).  I'm confused about the process by which this happened: Deciding that I didn't want a series of meager losses, I progressed the 3 to a 1.  What's that about?  The whole procedure felt a little bit like "roll until you succeed" which is a pretty problematic design.  I wonder if more explicit stake-setting might help?

Simon wrote:
Something I'm not picking up from your reporting here is what the reactions of the players were to the game.  Were they engaged? Frustrated? What bits made them really happy, and which bits didn't work so well?  What was your favorite part?  At this stage, how do you feel the rules are working?  Are they doing what you want them to?

Simon wrote:
A question I have from reading this is how do you decide when a conflict is resolved? For example, escaping from the prison cell, Saris seems to roll and fail several times, and she gets to keep on trying without any negative consequences.  What's the limit to that? Later, Markus' cover is blown, but he still gets to sneak Saris her sword (or attempt to).  I'm confused about the process by which this happened: Deciding that I didn't want a series of meager losses, I progressed the 3 to a 1.  What's that about?  The whole procedure felt a little bit like "roll until you succeed" which is a pretty problematic design.  I wonder if more explicit stake-setting might help?

Ok, sounds like it's more a case of me not understanding what's happening, rather than the game being unclear.  It sounds like you're pretty happy with the mechanics of the game. 

So, what do you want out of this thread? Are there some questions that you have?  I find your game pretty interesting, so I'd like to be involved here, but I'm not sure what you're looking for.

Simon,

Thank you.

On the whole, I have been pleasantly surprised by how the mechanics are coming together. But I still have a few concerns. As I view it, the next step is to enable someone besides me to GM the game. And a big risk in that is the unconventional nature of the GM in this game. Baring turning points the GM has generally fewer resources to work from than the players, especially since the GM must manifest to do anything, while players have automatic manifests in terms of ships and characters.

Personally, I find this tightness encourages creativity and helps keep the story focused on its protagonists. But, as I mentioned above it can also lend itself to antagonism, which I'm not sure if I should encourage or inhibit. So part of what I'm trying to get a sense of is, how can the practice of my GMing the game be translated into methods for a GM to use more effectively. I certainly see a section on strategies being useful, much like Capes, but ultimately, the GM isn't trying to win, they are trying to entice the players into more dramatic and daring escapades.

There's also a few things I'm realizing work best with the GM, such as the GM arbitrating when modes and panache apply, but that requires a more cooperative GM rather than an antagonist GM. So I'd really like to hear your thoughts on how the GM role appears to fit during play.

My other main concern is finding a way to relate the core of the game more effectively. As it stands, there are about five pieces that all interact and drive things, and you simply need to grasp them all at once. I'm actively looking for a better way to ramp up to an understanding of the game. Perhaps an initial chapter or two which can operate under simplified rules, and then new rules join in after a time. Although I'm also  considering a mini-play part of character creation, much like Dogs in the Vineyards. What do you think would work?

Admittedly the other reason I started this thread was just to have a public post on the playtest, it has already helped get one of the new players up to speed on past events, and with a few more likely to join soon, I'm hoping that will continue.

  - Mendel S.

Ok, those are some really good reasons for posting.  I can asee what you mean about the GM role, and I think it's a perplexing problem for a lot of game designers.  I applaud your decision to limit the GM's power in the game, but I can see how that leads to problems with how the role is percieved.

A concept that I think is useful is the idea of "playing hard".  What this means is that, whatever your role is in the game, the rules should allow you to play that role to the best of your ability, putting your ideas and goals out there, and trusing the mechanics of the game to mediate the conflicting desires of the players.  I think that limited GM powers are essential to this style of play.  As the GM, you should be able to come up with the toughest, nastiest opposition, the worst fears of the characters, all your favorite ideas, and throw that at them, and trust the game to allow them to cope with it.  Not that the GM is trying to win.  My favorite way to GM is to be like a cruel scientist, throwing different things at the characters to see how they react.  It seems like there's a lot of stuff in your game that encourages this, but that does conflict with other parts of the role, like being a rules arbiter.  Is this role essential? Can all players share this role? Can another player have that role?

When you're GMing the game, what are the fun parts for you?  Not the parts which you enjoyed because they were successful implimentations of the system, or because they made the player happy, but because you personally were invested in the outcome?  Is the game fun to GM?  What parts are fun and what parts are not?  I've always found rule-arbitration to be a not-fun part of play.  Is there a way for you to minimise this?  For example, is there a way to change the rule from "you get this bonus if you are in situations like this" (which requires the GM to arbitrate whether the current situation qualifies) to "you can choose to get this bonus.  When you do so, the GM is free to introduce this kind of complication".  So rather than "Lusty: You get +2 when dealing with members of the opposite sex", you'd have "Lusty: You can choose to take a +2 bonus.  When you do this, the GM gains two points to spend on consequences related to your characters sex appeal" or something.  (You'd need to translate this into your own game's terms - for example, maybe the GM can manifest an NPC with a romantic interest in the character, or inflict a consequence related to it in some way).  This is a cool way to do hindrances as well.  "You can take a -2 penalty to any roll, but you get X bonus".

I think an introduction mini-game is a good idea.  I like the feel of them as an introduction to the character, and they're practical in terms of teaching the rules.  I think it's imoportant to make sure they're mechanically useful to the players - for example maybe they get some of their pre-manifested things from these challenges, like they play the scene where they steal their ship, or seduce their lover, or whatever.  The scene should also have the potential to change the character, to make it a non-foregone conclusion.  Otherwise it's too easy to skip.

I've conversed with my playtesters about the GM role, and it seems that there is a certain playing hard that is relevant, but to (perhaps) abuse another theory notation, it's more of a pull GM than a push GM. The GMs role really sings when the GM can provide a smorgasboard of opposition, which really entices and draws in the players. And yes, that is the best moments for me as a GM, when my manifest really draws in the players. Making that clear will be an important part of the GM advice.

Interestingly enough, when I brought this up to Laura, she mentioned something she really wanted to be able to do in the game: turn her favored manifests into characters. Cogitating on that for a while, I discovered a whole bunch of sacred cows that remained in the game's assumptions. I'm still working out the details, but here is where I'm leaning.

Already in the rules players can buy a new grain with a free mark (the reward for spending the layer that ends a chapter). The easiest option is for a player to be able to promote a manifest by spending that mark. But then I realized there is no reason why a GM couldn't do the same (in principle). But this means letting the GM gain a character. That also means, in principle, that a non-GM player could acquire a new reflection from someone else's grain (essential if it's the GM's grain). Combined with the completion of grains and their reflections and it suddenly becomes possible for the GM role to literally evolve over the course of the game.

I'm still trying to figure out what should be done with turning point control and the initiative rules. But the idea of what amounts to an in-play re-design of the social structure of the game really intrigues me. How does that sound to you?

I've also considered a few other changes. One in particular is I've noticed low grains are too precarious, so I've been trying to figure out a more enjoyable "elimination" route for grains and reflections. One of these would be to have a grain be un-eliminatably (cannot be reduced below 1) until it has reached 12 at least once - at that point it has full descriptors, and so is fleshed out enough to be driven out of astral space.

As far as the character creation mini-game introduction, I'm working on putting that together. It is mostly a matter of deciding what to keep out of the simplier rules and how to introduce the complexity back in by the time the full game is reached. I've no doubt about the importance of the mini-game affecting the character. Do you have some ideas as to what mechanics would comprise a simple introduction?

  - Mendel S.