Hello Forge,

    A couple weeks back I was looking for some guidance on a core mechanic for my sci-fi game, now titled "Suns May Perish."  After reading the responses and working out some ideas in my mind, I came up with what I hope is a pretty good system.  Anywho, without further adieu, here is a general write up about what my game is about and what the mechanics look like (it's gonna be a long post, so I'll reply with the mechanics after this post).

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The earth is no more and mankind has drifted into the outer solar system.  Here, as new societies take root upon foreign worlds, the collective consciousness of humanity confronts the challenges of its own significance. Inspired by hope, curiosity, and fear, mankind must come to understand its role in the universe as new worlds of science and wonder unfold.

In Suns May Perish, players assume the roles of adventurers, explorers, scientists, interplanetary rogues, and vagabonds on a journey to understand their significance in the cosmos.  Each of these characters seeks to resolve his or her own obsessions, dreams, and motivations.  They learn (and sometimes choose to ignore) the transcendence they experience as they mature.  Often characters who are companions are brought into conflict with each others goals.  Yet through the force of will, characters must remain focused on their goals, or suffer the perils that the mundane will deal.  While most of mankind will remain subjects of their own suffering, characters in Suns May Perish will in the course of their lives come to realize that in spite of odds stacked against them - against all humanity - their place in the universe is not necessarily as unsubstantial as it may seem.

Suns May Perish is designed to be both a game and a work of interactive fiction.  The story's narrator – who guides the story forward and assumes the roles of all ancillary characters – serves to conduct the story like a symphony, cuing the introduction of parts and movements and maintaining the correct sense of time and order.  However, the story as a whole is built by the social experience that occurs between all players.  Within the guidelines that the rules of the game provide, players and narrators will both tell and experience the story at hand...

And now here are my game mechanics.  I owe a great debt to Unknown Armies and the wikipedia article on Neuroshima for helping me shape this (yeah, I never played Neuroshima...can't read Polish...but I read up on some of the rules, lolz)

Game Mechanics

The rules of Suns May Perish serve as fundamentals for play.  They are meant to be guidelines that reinforce elements of chance and resolve some elements of conflict, allowing the story itself to emerge as the dominant force.  Unlike many games, there is no way to “win” Suns May Perish in a traditional sense.  Rather, the way to win the game is to enjoy role-playing and to create a story that engages everyone.  Most of all, it is important to have fun.  Once the game starts to become a chore, it is no longer a game.  Only then will you truly lose.

The Dice

Like many RPGs, Suns May Perish uses dice to generate random elements of game play and heighten suspense.  The only dice needed to play Suns May Perish are three twenty-sided dice (d20), though if every player has a set of dice, it can ease game play. 

Statistics and Basic Task Resolution

Each character is rounded out mechanically by a set of aspects and skills.  Aspects represent overarching characteristics while skills, which are always tied to a corresponding aspect, represent special proficiencies and abilities that characters have.  Each statistic generally ranges from 3 to 18.  This rating is known as the statistic’s level. 

Action resolution involves both dice and statistics.  In short, to make a check, a character will roll a set of dice and compare the results with their aspect or skill level.  A die is successful when it is rolled under the statistic after modifiers (see below).  If the number of successful dice matches a target number (one, two, or three depending on the difficulty of the action), the action is successful.

Modifiers occur when something affects a character’s statistics.  A faulty pistol, an unusually fast computer, or a Martian dust storm all create modifiers to skill checks.  Modifiers directly affect the statistic at hand.  A positive modifier will temporarily raise the statistic level while a negative modifier will temporarily lower it.

Types of Checks

DEFAULT CHECKS: In situations where there is little risk and time to spare, a player can "default" any skill he or she has at level 5 or above.  This means that the player can assume success, though it may be prudent to roll dice simply to see how long it takes a character to succeed or if any special conditions result.  Always roll 3d20 when you need to roll a default check.

MINOR CHECKS: Minor checks occur when there is little risk, but also some degree of uncertainty.  To perform a minor check, roll 3d20 and compare the results to the number of successes required.  The Narrator will determine the number of successes required for the task (one to three).
 Quick Checks: Characters who are not fully dedicated to one action can “bid” dice on minor checks.  This allows characters do undertake multiple actions during their turn.  Each die bid adds 1d20 to the pool (to a maximum of three).  A character can thus take one, two, or three actions during her turn.  For example, if a player wants to take a quick glance over her shoulder while trying to hack a computer, she may bid 1d20 to the glance and 2d20 to the hacking work.

MAJOR CHECKS: When the situation is on edge, such as during combat, it is time to make a major check.  Major checks usually entail a higher risk of failure and greater urgency.  Before making a major check, each character is given a “scene” to work with.  Each scene consists of three “rounds,” one to represent each d20 available to them.  As a general rule, a round is usually a couple of seconds.  Players bid dice on each action they choose to take during the scene (to a maximum of three).  Bidding more dice on an individual action increases the amount of time spent on that action, and each die will take up one round of time.  As a general rule, quick actions use 1d20, normal actions 2d20, and highly focused actions 3d20.

The player rolls the dice she bid on each action in turn.  For example, if a player bid two-dice on firing a pistol and one die on dodging any further attacks, she would roll 2d20 against her firearms skill and 1d20 against her dodge skill.  Resolution then works the same as with any other task, although like quick checks, the number of dice is lower.

Matched Successes and Failures

When rolling two or more dice, if at least two of the results match (2-2; 6-6; 14-14; etc.), the result is either unusually good or unusually bad.  If a matched success occurs and the matches appear under the statistic, the Narrator will award a bonus to the action.  This could be anything from a skillfully executed piloting maneuver to a gunshot dead on target.  However, if a matched failure occurs and the matches are above the statistic, something unfortunate ensues.  The ship’s engines may overload or the pistol may jam.  Ultimately, the Narrator usually interprets what the results of a matched success or failure is.

Snake Eyes

If the result of rolling two or more dice ever shows matched 1s, the result is the best possible outcome available for the action. 

NOTE: Matching 20s do not result in the worst possible outcome.  They are treated like any other matched failure.

First of all, what are your reasons for choosing Neuroshima's dice mechanic? I did play the game a couple of years ago, and I must say it was one of the most clunky and cumbersome systems I've ever had contact with, as far as traditional role-playing games go. I'm not sure how close to the original mechanic you want to stay, but percentile difficulties, skills subtracted from dice results and the way damage and armor worked were major pains in the ass. It was all really distracting in play (and at the time, I used to enjoy much more complex games than I do today).

Second, it seems the role of the Narrator is very strong in your game. If this is the case, what are your reasons for using random resolution method in the first place? It seems to me like it might go in the way of this "conducting" thing you describe. What sort of random elements you want the dice to generate, specifically? It's possible there might be a more effective way to achieve the same result.

For instance, instead of typical dice checks and stuff, you could have a system that would allow for some randomness and provided the connected suspense, but without it being completely out of the Narrator's control? What if there was a deck of cards (maybe a standard deck of cards, or possibly a special, themed deck), with different suits and values mapping to certain in-fiction results, but only a chosen set of cards was available in each scene? Those results could be somehow affected by the characteristics of the protagonists, obviously. The GM could craft a "scene deck" by picking a few cards, only tied to the results he deems proper for a given scene, and let the players draw from those. Or, alternatively, he could remove cards that would produce inappropriate results (e.g. if you wanted to ascertain nobody dies in a scene, you'd simply have to remove all cards tied with the risk of death - like, all spades, or whatever). Obviously, the players wouldn't know the contents of the deck at any given time. That way, a certain level of randomness, suspense and variety would be maintained, but there would be absolutely no chance for the occurence of a result that could spoil the story (as is the case with most open resolution methods, which often invite the GMs to fudge rolls to jury-rig that weakness).

I like the title! Also, describing the narrator as a conductor in an edge-of-the-solar-system sci-fi story reminded me of the character Ames from Tony Daniel's _Metaplanetary_. It may be worth a read for inspiration, depending on where you're going with the game.

I like Filip's suggestion of a themed deck for each scene according to the overall story arc (or story symphony?). And I share Filip's concerns about the dice-rolling techniques you mention. I have not played Neuroshima, but they sound cumbersome.

Thanks for the advice, all, I really appreciate it.  It prompted me to do some dice testing, and it turns out the system is a little on the clunky side.  Though I don't really want to go the deck of cards root (my friends and I generally prefer dice), I'm gonna try to come up with a smoother system, and I'll post it as soon as I get it written up!

Thanks again!
~Klaus