For those who are interested, Faux-Fi Horror is the project that came out of the ideas discussed in my previous topic about humorous games. The Faux-Fi refers to the underlying dice engine, and Horror describing the type of game setting. This Power 19 includes information for both the Faux-Fi dice engine and Faux-Fi Horror as a game.

I use male pronouns. Sorry.

1.) What is your game about?**

At its core, Faux-Fi Horror is about abstract characters living in the 50's and 60's, encountering anything that could be classified as cliche' horror, such as monsters and psycho murderers. The game places the characters in the wrong place at the wrong time, and players control their character in order to achieve the ultimate goal of "defeating" whatever antagonist threatens them. As characters die off, players work in new characters connected to their old ones (think degrees of separation).

Unlike most games, players are not motivated by the ability to improve their characters as individuals. Instead players themselves collect different Fate Skills when their characters overcome certain obstacles (usually killing monsters). These Fate Skills are pooled, and when a player must make a new character (usually due to the death of their old one) they may choose one Fate Skill and apply it to said character. Fate Skills are not used up and can be applied to characters over and over, and so while players may lose individual characters they can retain and reuse specific abilities that they find particularly fun to use.

2.) What do the characters do?**

The character's goal is to survive the encounter using whatever skills and abilities they posses. Usually this means physical combat, puzzle solving, and social interaction with other characters.

3.) What do the players (including the GM if there is one) do?**

There is a GM, and there are players. The GM creates the adventures and paints of a picture of the characters' situation for the other players. The GM has the final say on how a situation plays out, however he is guided by the rules of the game and the numbers the dice show. It is his job to referee the game. As a side note, the GM also attempts to foil the characters by using their Flaws similar to how the other player's use their Skills (more on this later).

The other players each control an individual character who acts as their avatar, although because death occurs often in Faux-Fi Horror they will end up going through many characters. The players' goal is to defeat whatever creatures their characters encounter in order to gain Fate Skills and add them to their pool (see #1).

4.) How does your setting (or lack thereof) reinforce what your game is about?

The setting is basically just 1950's Any-ville, somewhere in the US, however it really is not all that deep. The game is basically just about mocking old-timey horror cliche's, and so the setting is really dependent on the specific adventure. I suppose you could say that the lack of a setting reinforces the individual adventures presented by the GM, and provides a certain feeling of abandonment because you can't just go to the next town.

5.) How does the Character Creation of your game reinforce what your game is about?

The character creation system is point based and attempts to balance out characters so no characters are blatantly better than others, however it also gives the players plenty of room to customize. User-specified Skills and Flaws lighten the atmosphere and encourage players to introduce humor into the game themselves, even before the adventure. While players create Skills and attempt to find (sometimes arbitrary) uses for them in-game, they must also create Flaws which the GM uses in exactly the opposite way (finding ways for the Flaws to hinder the characters). There is also no character advancement, so each character is basically a complete individual, and player's are encouraged to take this into account when creating them.

6.) What types of behaviors/styles of play does your game reward (and punish if necessary)?

The ultimate goal of the game is to defeat enemies.

Characters are encouraged to work together, especially when it comes to combat. The inclusion and emphasis on puzzles provides something for players who don't want to spend the entire time killin', and a social combat system allows for humorous debate finalization. My real goal was to make a three pronged system, where fighting, intelligence, and social interaction all contributed to a final goal. Furthermore, through the somewhat metagame benefits of Fate Skills, players can attempt to enhance their experience in specific areas of play that they find most enjoyable.

7.) How are behaviors and styles of play rewarded or punished in your game?

Fate Skills are really the reward, and they are rewarded when characters and their players accomplish basic goals (the kinds of Fate Skills earned are dependent on said goals). Character death could be considered a punishment, as it will probably occur most often when players do not attempt to work towards their main goal (like trying to go for help).

8.) How are the responsibilities of narration and credibility divided in your game?

The players declare the actions performed by their characters and roll dice, and the GM (assisted by the rules) narrates the rest of the story.

9.) What does your game do to command the players' attention, engagement, and participation? (i.e. What does the game do to make them care?)

The game encourages (and the answer is yes, I'm getting sick of the word "encourages") bizarre, unique characters that are fun to play, and the general atmosphere of the game is supposed to be humorous and entertaining for people familiar with fake science. With a limited and abstract variety of Skills, players must be on the look-out in order to catch opportunities where their Skills can be used to provide a benefit to the situation (same goes for the GM with the character's Flaws).

10.) What are the resolution mechanics of your game like?

I designed the Faux-Fi system to be as simple as possible. All rolls are d10 + Mod versus a set Target. This provides a linear distribution of probability for everything in the game, which can then be scaled and manipulated through character creation and predetermined targets. Even in situations where one character must roll a skill against another character's skill, a Target is generated using one of the character's skills and the other character rolls against it (the rules are set up so that it can be done with either character being in either position).

11.) How do the resolution mechanics reinforce what your game is about?

The simplicity of the system is used to prevent the engine from slowing down the game. Other things, like a social combat system and "regenerating" health, enhance the kind of humorous and old-timey movie feelings that I want my game to evoke.

12.) Do characters in your game advance? If so, how?

Characters do not advance. As I mentioned before, players gain Fate Skills.

13.) How does the character advancement (or lack thereof) reinforce what your game is about?

Players do not need to be concerned with the lives of their characters nearly as much as in other games, so for starters it means the game does not risk feeling angsty. Furthermore, it is not really possible for players to make decisions about their characters that they later regret, because characters themselves do not advance.

14.) What sort of product or effect do you want your game to produce in or for the players?

I really just want a game that's fun to play. I'm not aware of any game like this, and I think a combination of crazy movie monsters and painful sci-fi logic would make a nice RPG. I'm not really looking for something that would scare the players like a typical horror game, as I feel like this would detract from the humor. Basically, I want to take the fun and enjoyment of watching old black and white horror films in a well lit room and shove it into an role-playing game.

15.) What areas of your game receive extra attention and color? Why?

Monsters and enemies will obviously be given extra amounts of attention, simply because the entire game revolves around them. The other thing that I will probably emphasize when laying out the book is adventure creation, for two reasons. First of all, I'm personally tired of games where very little assistance is given to the GM when it comes to preparing everything needed for play, so I certainly wouldn't make a game that left people hanging. Secondly, my friends had a number of interesting ideas related to designing adventures that made no sense physically, like in movies where multiple locations were used and the layout is inconsistent, and I would like to explore what can be done to translate this into an RPG.

16.) Which part of your game are you most excited about or interested in? Why?

Playtesting, XD. I would have to say the monsters, in particular.

17.) Where does your game take the players that other games can’t, don’t, or won’t?

Shady Snake Town House, the setting of my first miniature test adventure which I hope to playtest tomorrow night. In all seriousness, though, I'm not sure exactly how I would explain this, but the locations and feelings that the characters themselves will experience is not that different from others games, however the "place" that I hope to take my players is the well lit room mentioned in #14.

18.) What are your publishing goals for your game?

I really want to publish, however ultimately it comes down to whether or not my friends enjoy the game. Given that they do, I was considering creating a full rulebook (probably around 100 pages) that would be PoD. If that succeeds then I plan on diligently expanding on the core rulebook by creating mini books (utilizing the Guild of Blades services) that detail new ideas, optional rules, pre-made adventures, new monsters and minions, and new Fate Skills.

19.) Who is your target audience?

My friends and gaming group. I would be overjoyed if other people like the game, however my #1 concern is my friends.

- Gregory Zitelli

I wanted to ask people advice on handling player-designed skills, because I'm not 100% sure how I want to do it. I would like to come up with some kind of almost gimmicky thing that will get my players engaged. I was thinking of having players name their skills using phrases, and then making each player go around and tell a short (and possibly completely nonsensical) story about their character in which they must use all of their phrases.

I would like to do something original that gets people in the right mood quickly, and is fun and spontaneous. What do you guys think?

- Gregory Zitelli

One of my potential players was just making a character (I'm trying to playtest however my friends are not all ready), and he had some ideas which I immediately picked up on. He was talking about making a Hispanic character who crossed the border, and he started joking about putting things into his backstory about assisting as a grunt during an archaeological dig. As we joked around he mentioned being cursed or being influenced by an otherworldy power, and I strongly encouraged this because it occurred to me that this could really be something (as far as liberties and character creation are concerned).

Specifically, since Skills are vague I would like the system to allow for basically any kind of character, with Skills representing anything from a character's history that could come into play without being generic. This would mean that you can basically create a character of any class and of any level, however their health and attacks would be balanced out according to the game rules so they aren't overpowered. Still, that can be explained using the game setting (your physical health is restricted because it isn't literally your physical health, it is how far away from being "gotten" by the monster). This would mean that players can have psychic powers or age old curses, which are all added in through their Skills and Flaws.

- Gregory Zitelli

Oh yeah! Well, I don't love you either, The Forge.

*cries in the corner*

- Gregory Zitelli

Illetizgerg wrote:
I wanted to ask people advice on handling player-designed skills, because I'm not 100% sure how I want to do it. I would like to come up with some kind of almost gimmicky thing that will get my players engaged.

Okay, I've read through the description in more detail and I have a few concerns.

Your state goal is to: "make a three pronged system, where fighting, intelligence, and social interaction all contributed to a final goal." but then it becomes apparent that only one action will be rewarded within the game - killing creatures. You may want to rethink the rewarded activities or the goal.

I'm really not sure what you are aiming for. Several different comments suggest you are aiming for Toon level slapstick. On the other side you appear to be considering some mechanisms which are too complex for a game that silly. Also you may want to carefully consider the role of puzzles in a game that appears to be a high speed slapstick game.

If you aren't aiming for straight slapstick I would suggest using a light system but removing the silly aspects. Social combat should be as serious as physical combat, and silly character skills really only work in slapstick games. Good in game humour comes from the background, the situation and the players actions.

Good luck. Its very hard to write a good humourous roleplaying game - Spaceship Zero and Paranoia spring to mind as two of the best. You might want to have a look at them to see what makes them work.

R00kie wrote: I feel I can safely say introducing a gimmicky anything purely for the purpose of introducing a gimmick will destroy your system. If you have a gimmick in your game it should be their because the game demands it.

R00kie wrote: Your state goal is to: "make a three pronged system, where fighting, intelligence, and social interaction all contributed to a final goal." but then it becomes apparent that only one action will be rewarded within the game - killing creatures. You may want to rethink the rewarded activities or the goal.

I'm really not sure what you are aiming for. Several different comments suggest you are aiming for Toon level slapstick. On the other side you appear to be considering some mechanisms which are too complex for a game that silly. Also you may want to carefully consider the role of puzzles in a game that appears to be a high speed slapstick game.

I actually thought about changing things around and having Fate Skills activated when the players are able to get their characters to say specific catch phrases. I would still like any input people might have on the whole game, if anybody has got any more.

- Gregory Zitelli

So I've been doing a lot of thinking about the system I have set in place, and how the damage-to-your-stats health system should really be used. I like the idea a lot, but I'm having trouble getting characters balanced and still allowing people to specialize in social or physical combat. Here's what I've thought of so far.

Instead of separate health, all characters have Safety. This goes along with the idea of having monsters "get you", which I really like. Both Vitality (physical strength) and Influence (social power) will have little lists on the character sheet that allow for quick reference if they take damage. When you take damage to your Safety it can either be Brutal (hurting your Vitality), Cosmetic (hurting your Influence), or Bloody (which can effect either, decided by the player). If a character loses all of their Vitality or Influence then they are obviously no longer able to take damage to them, however their safety can still decrease to the point where they are "gotten" by monsters.

- Gregory Zitelli

Hello Greg,

Repeating what I said to redwing concerning his project, I would love to playtest this sometime if possible :D

-M

So, if you run out of Vitality and Influence, then you're reduced and your only defence against getting "gotten" (I love that, by the way) is to run, just like in the movies?  Is that correct?  If so, I think that's neat.  Assuming that there's a way to earn Vitality and Influence back; is there?

It would also be neat if there was a way to accomplish something by being "gotten," or at least by spending your Safety.  I'm not sure how that would be implemented, but it's a thought.

-Marshall

Mickey wrote:
Hello Greg,

Repeating what I said to redwing concerning his project, I would love to playtest this sometime if possible :D

-M

Marshall wrote:
So, if you run out of Vitality and Influence, then you're reduced and your only defence against getting "gotten" (I love that, by the way) is to run, just like in the movies?  Is that correct?  If so, I think that's neat.  Assuming that there's a way to earn Vitality and Influence back; is there?

It would also be neat if there was a way to accomplish something by being "gotten," or at least by spending your Safety.  I'm not sure how that would be implemented, but it's a thought.

-Marshall

Hahaha okay that's understandable ;D

Perhaps in the future though some online playtesting might be a good way to help solidify some of the concepts in your mind ie what works and what doesn't -particularly the part where you have to actually explain to people how the game works (which is always interesting xD)

I was going to read through all the posts to try and grasp the game concept, but I think I would rather hang out till your ready to playtest it with the forum (whenever/if-ever your ready to do so), that way I would be 'new' to the game essentially ;)

Thought: they should have an introductions topic in this forum, so that people can meet and greet and whatnot...

Anywhoo good luck with the project :D

Okay, so, what do you think about "spending" Safety?  To maybe to something like protect someone else who's almost out of Safety?  Do you have support for that sort of thing?  'Cause I think that'd be way cool.

I'm thinking of allowing entire Safety brackets to be used in order to allow other characters to re-roll dice. Based on what I have now each character should have between 4 and 10 brackets, although I'm not sure how much damage each bracket will hold.

- Gregory Zitelli

So I've been thinking a little bit about running a non-serious game and what kinds of things I could introduce in order to make the game more fun, and I was thinking about introducing something new into the combat system in order to make it less bland. I was inspired by Regin Smith's idea of having combat stances, and I thought it would be interesting to implement something similar, though less complex.

What I've come up with is a small addition to normal combat based on the tactical wheel of fencing. Although the tactical wheel is often shown as having six, sometimes even seven parts, it can be generalized using four actions. For this game I have named them in such a way that they correspond to ABCD, which is also linked to 1234.

The combat types are....

Attack Oriented or just Attack (A, 1)
Brutal (B, 2)
Contemplative or Considerate (C, 3)
Defensive (D, 4)

Each type defeats the types after it (looping around), so A1 beats B2, D4 beats A1, etc. This matches the tactical wheel in the sense that a straight attack is beaten by a parry, which is beaten by a feint attack, which is beaten by a counter attack, which is beaten by a straight attack. Essentially, a normal attack can be beaten by defensive tactics. In order to beat defensive tactics you've got to try to deceive your opponents. A careful attack can be beaten by a quick, forceful attack. Lastly, that forceful attack can be beaten by a level-headed straightforward attack.

During each attack made in combat the attacker and defender both pick a style for that individual attack. Each player keeps a d4 on hand for combat, and when they participate in an attack they turn the d4 to their style (either 1, 2, 3, or 4, corresponding to ABCD). They then cup their hand over the die so that other players and the GM can't see it. Once both participants set their dice then they are revealed, and the attack die is rolled.

I've changed around the system so that brackets have sizes, and if an attack is "larger" than the size of the bracket then it is filled. This continues past the first bracket as well, so an attack dealing 11 damage could, for instance, break two brackets of size 5. Bracket do not, however, retain damage.

The sizes of a character's Safety brackets are determined by their armor, however the outcome of the style comparison changes this. If the attacker wins then each bracket's size goes down (I'm thinking by 2), and if the defender wins it goes up (again, thinking maybe by 2).

- Gregory Zitelli

Each type defeats the types after it (looping around), so A1 beats B2, D4 beats A1, etc.

EdEdEd wrote:

Each type defeats the types after it (looping around), so A1 beats B2, D4 beats A1, etc.

First off, I like this idea. It's an exciting strategic element that's not a convoluted mess and won't take forever to accomplish. It's also got a built-in Dramatic Reveal, which is awesome. Two questions, though.

Is this a straight victory if you're in the right stance (with attack rolls only mattering if you're in identical or opposing stances), or just a significant bonus to the one side? I suppose either could work, though I think I'd prefer the latter. It might be frustrating to learn you Just Can't Win because you chose to be defensive.

Is there any additional bonus to the stances? It would make your choice even more important than just trying to outguess your opponent. For example, a Brutal attack does a little more damage, a Contemplative attack lets you decide the TYPE of damage (Vitality or Influence), a Defensive attack takes slightly less damage if you fail, and regular Attack is simplest, so it has a slightly higher chance of hitting. Or whatever. It could help you out-guess an opponent by trying to figure out what effect they'd most want to have.

Just so people know, I am still in the process of creating this. I have, however, started to go off in a kind of weird direction, so bear with me.

I've become interested in creating a game centered more around old pulp style comics, and less around horror films. There would still be a very large sci-fi influence, however I would prefer that characters survived longer. Specifically, I'm thinking of a game where characters can survive almost indefinitely, and the idea is that your character becomes fleshed out (gains more player-decided traits) as they reach their goals. Alternatively, taking copious amounts of damage results in new player-decided detriments to arise.

This doesn't really fit my setting right now which is why I'm thinking of changing it to pulps, because the heroes always survive. The thing I'm really interesting in is trying to design a system where you attempt to "complete" your character, at which point you can either keep them (without the ability to gain more experience) or retire them and start a new character with added benefits.

- Gregory Zitelli