Hi there!

I've been working on an idea for a little while and wanted to discuss it with other game designers to see if I can get some feedback and better develop the project. My intent is to create a game that has a strong collaborative system of both game and character generation, a Player reward aspect, and the ability to maintain characters with fluctuating power levels within the game with options for exiting and returning as well as a few other ideas in mind.

In this game you play living Legends who are in pursuit of at least one Legacy.

The game world and the Legends are composed of traits I'm calling Arcana (there is a superficial link to tarot here on purpose), which assist in providing meaning, narrative control and help with conflict resolution. I'd like for it to be diceless, however I'm considering dice options as well.

Each person involved, including the GM collaboratively generates six to nine Arcana ideas about the world and character concepts to determine the stories they initially want to tell. Arcana can be people, places, things, phrases, descriptors and so forth as accepted by the group.

Some Arcana are pulled out for game theme uses. I'm currently calling the public ones Seasons and the private ones Elements.

Each Player chooses which Season and which Element their Legend is linked to. Then they choose five Arcana, assigning them to one of the four suits: Mastery, Aspiration, Foundation, Slavery. One of the Arcana must be shared with another Legend for example. The remaining Arcana are returned to the GM for the game world use. These Arcana may be tagged later during the campaign if appropriate.

Then the chosen and defined Arcana are strung together to create a paragraph representing your Legend that includes your name as well. What I want the Arcana to do is to help reincorporate meaning into the game, not to be a gag but to be a narrative game toolset not unlike from some epic poems where key phrases are repeated.

Then you work with that and the GM and the other Players to help design a Legacy for your Legend. Players are rewarded for adding conflict into their Arcana development through points or other methods. The GM can offer rewards in exchange for adding complications. The game has already begun and the Players are off after their Legend's Legacies.

Arcana can shift suits, be sacrificed, discovered through the campaign. Shared with others who may eventually be able to add that Arcana to their Legend.

There may be some kind of "Legend" points used to activate or compel of Arcana similar to the FATE system with Aspects, or 7th Sea Drama Dice, etc. Something I can give to Players who are making the game more fun.

I may include a level of stats that help define categories in general, like Mental, Physical, Social, Will or something more specific to a genre to give people ranks to add to their Arcana, so they would know if their Legend was faster, smarter, etc. compared to others.

Legends may exit the game when they complete a Legacy or should all of their Arcana be lost through sacrifice or other methods. Non-Legend Legacies may be created in response to the actions of Legends, promoting dramatic tension and adding complications to the stories and providing for new Arcana to be added to the game world.

But at its heart is a game system that while isn't for everyone, is one that works to get the Players and GM to collaboratively design a game and their characters with some stories going from the get-go all with fundamental beliefs, goals and personal characteristics linked to the setting and/or other characters.

While I may include a kind of default setting for the game I can see it working for any that is less concerned with task resolution or realistic detailed gaming given the nature of the system and the openness of the Arcana for the Legends and the game world.

Thanks in advance,
-David-

Hi David, welcome.

Is there some aspect in particular of the above that you'd like feedback on?

Mike wrote:
Hi David, welcome.

Is there some aspect in particular of the above that you'd like feedback on?

It's not clear what it means for Arcana to be public or private, so Seasons and Elements are a little opaque. Also I can't tell what "Arcana development" means.

Legacy is more clear but not entirely: it seems like it's some sort of goal or quest, but you're gonna want to spell it out some. Why are there Legacies that aren't tied to Legends?

You've barely talked about procedures, although you have some stats and some FATE-ish ideas, so I don't have thoughts about that yet.

It's not nebulous at all - you've got a clear thematic focus for the game in your four suits. I'm not sure it comes across to me personally as an inviting theme, but compared to other fantasy games at least it's direct: you get what you want through dominance and submission.

I don't see anything here that seems explicitly anti-collaboration, although the picture is still pretty incomplete.

Name is totally unimportant right now. If it works for you, use it.

You're pretty clear on your goals, which is awesome. Can you speak a bit about what's driving you to design this game - that is, what in your play history or other sources inspired you?

So, on another reading it looks like I may have misunderstood what the suits are about. Are these just markings of how good the character is at something?

Mike wrote:
You're pretty clear on your goals, which is awesome. Can you speak a bit about what's driving you to design this game - that is, what in your play history or other sources inspired you?

Mike wrote:
It's not clear what it means for Arcana to be public or private, so Seasons and Elements are a little opaque. Also I can't tell what "Arcana development" means.

Legacy is more clear but not entirely: it seems like it's some sort of goal or quest, but you're gonna want to spell it out some. Why are there Legacies that aren't tied to Legends?

You've barely talked about procedures, although you have some stats and some FATE-ish ideas, so I don't have thoughts about that yet.

It's not nebulous at all - you've got a clear thematic focus for the game in your four suits. I'm not sure it comes across to me personally as an inviting theme, but compared to other fantasy games at least it's direct: you get what you want through dominance and submission.

I don't see anything here that seems explicitly anti-collaboration, although the picture is still pretty incomplete.

Name is totally unimportant right now. If it works for you, use it.

Mike wrote:
So, on another reading it looks like I may have misunderstood what the suits are about. Are these just markings of how good the character is at something?

Mike wrote:
So, on another reading it looks like I may have misunderstood what the suits are about. Are these just markings of how good the character is at something?

It's very difficult to answer those last questions, or indeed any further questions, without having some sense of how all this stuff really interrelates. I get the feeling that you don't have a very good sense of that yet, either. It's going to come from getting down to the moment to moment nitty-gritty of what players want, why they want it, and what specific things they do to get it. You've been working at wide angle; it's time to zoom in.

Mike wrote:
It's very difficult to answer those last questions, or indeed any further questions, without having some sense of how all this stuff really interrelates. I get the feeling that you don't have a very good sense of that yet, either. It's going to come from getting down to the moment to moment nitty-gritty of what players want, why they want it, and what specific things they do to get it. You've been working at wide angle; it's time to zoom in.