I mentioned in my other thread I was working on another role-playing game. Well, here it is. It's not done yet, but I've ironed out a lot of the mechanics and rougher details before going into everything else. Tell me what you think, provide suggestions, and let me know about things you'd like to see kept when I finish it and things you'd like to see thrown away!

"Cowboys and Samurai" will be a long way from being even close to playtesting, much less finishing, but this project might be done a lot sooner depending on how much feedback and help I get from you guys. I respect a lot, if not all, of you and your opinions, and I'm sure that this RPG will find a way to catch your attention. :)

As mentioned in the topic's title, this game is based loosely on "House of Leaves", and when I describe the story, setting, and possible storylines for you to follow and alter, you'll see there are more differences and inspirations called upon. Some things are inspired by the psychological horror of "The Shining" and "Jacob's Ladder", while others have grown from ideas in RPGs like "World of Darkness" and games like "Silent Hill". I've also been inspired to attack this RPG with a more Narrativist view, while "Cowboys and Samurai" seems to be going for more of a Gamist approach at the moment.

Without further adieu, I present to you my work-in-progress, "The House of a Thousand Faces"...
http://docs.google.com/Doc?docid=0AQwCeSz3-It5ZGNxcTlwMzZfMTlocHNiM3dnbg&hl=en

Hi Marc,

I can't imagine what it'd be like to play this without knowing the sorts of situations that are likely to crop up.  As a GM, I'm not sure how I'd confront the players with "illogical change and traitorous thoughts".  I'm also not sure how I'd reference the character backgrounds. 

My first thought would be to fill the house with all sorts of personal apparitions that pressure the characters to change.  The change your mechanics highlight is mostly getting beaten up or going insane, so I'd probably try something like, "You see your little sister hanging dead from a noose!  Roll against your Steadiness score (or whatever applies) or take a Stress level!"  But I have zero idea if that's close to what you intended.

Likewise, although I like the 9 questions for char-gen, I have no idea what to refer to when answering them.  My recollections of horror movie protagonists?  Some group discussion?  A more fleshed-out version of your "decadent" normal world?

Here are my favorite ideas from your document:
- characters go insane and join the GM playing badguys, gaining powers (and insight?) in the process
- "Everyone knows everything, and nothing is a secret."  (I'd want to get a nice vivid idea of this setting, and a chance to develop my character within it, before throwing them into the House.  I'd also want a chance to take my experiences in the House back out of it at the end.)
- no colors in the House (I'd definitely dig this initially... might require a very creative GM to keep mining it for good effect, though)

If pushing your "more story-focused approach" is important to you beyond trimming out some math and bookkeeping (based on your examples of hit points and spells), you might want to think about mechanics that manipulate scene cuts, pacing, character positioning (within the world, House, and adventuring party), or overall plot arc, just to name some possibilities.

If you're curious about games with similar concepts, Don't Rest Your Head is kinda close.

Hope this helps,
-David

Thanks for the input David!

I'm actually thinking about ditching the whole health/insanity thing altogether... Or at least, going towards it with a different approach.

I've been reading into all sorts of metaphysical and philosophical texts, and I was thinking about applying some of the concepts presented by these works into the game as mechanisms.

Plato's Allegory of the Cave, anybody?

What sort of mechanisms?  GM-facing stuff to help arbitration/improv?  Player-facing stuff to enable philosophical choices?  Task resolution to turn actions into metaphysical feedback?  (Not that I'd know how to best pull any of these off... just curious and brainstorming... the idea's intriguing.)

Well, I'm splitting character's into two categories at the moment, which you can of course pick. Lemme show you an excerpt of what I have. It doesn't describe anything in gameplay... Yet... But it should provide a decent idea of where I'm headed.

Instrumentalis
People who fall under the Instrumentalis profile are generally introverted and more concerned about their own endeavors and activities in life rather that of others. They are often independent, always thinking for themselves, but they may sometimes be lonely or feel misunderstood.
Universalis
People who fall under the Universalis profile are generally extroverts, concerned for one reason or another about the state of affairs in the world or others. They are usually selfless people, always willing to a lend a hand or assist, but they might tend to follow the crowd or feel used by others.

Hmm.  I'd be curious to see how the GM is supposed to work with that.  Looking at a character's goals, expectations, fears, tribulations, and openness to change would probably give me all sorts of jumping-off points for situation ideas if I just had some sort of guidance about what sorts of situations play was supposed to contain.

I love House of Leaves - I find the idea of a game based on it tremendously exciting. To extend (I think) on what David is asking, how do you imagine a session of play going? For instance:

+ What sort of prep does the GM do? (Is it like Town Creation in Dogs in the Vineyard, or creating encounters in D&D4e, or something else?)
+ What sort of prep do the players do?
+ Is the layout of the 'House' randomly generated?
+ Do you (Marc) have a meta-plot in mind (stuff that will happen to PCs going in to the House, no matter what)?
+ In House of Leaves, characters don't really encounter anything except the futility of trying to map and understand the unknown. Is this the vibe you've got in mind for your game. If not, what sort of stuff will they 'encounter'?
+ ... in other words, what do the characters 'do' when they're exploring the House?
+ Is there an end-point for your game?

I'd find answers to any of these really helpful, because at the moment from reading your rules, I know how to create a character but as a GM I have no idea what to 'do' with any of them.

One technique that others here have found helpful is to describe to use (in a few paragraphs) how you think a session of play (or even two or three minutes of play) would go. To do this, you don't have to have finished making up all the rules of your game. Just describe what an observer at the table would see, and pretend that the rules are all working perfectly.

(In case it's not clear, I am keen to see more of this game!)

hix wrote:
I love House of Leaves - I find the idea of a game based on it tremendously exciting. To extend (I think) on what David is asking, how do you imagine a session of play going? For instance:

+ What sort of prep does the GM do? (Is it like Town Creation in Dogs in the Vineyard, or creating encounters in D&D4e, or something else?)
+ What sort of prep do the players do?
+ Is the layout of the 'House' randomly generated?
+ Do you (Marc) have a meta-plot in mind (stuff that will happen to PCs going in to the House, no matter what)?
+ In House of Leaves, characters don't really encounter anything except the futility of trying to map and understand the unknown. Is this the vibe you've got in mind for your game. If not, what sort of stuff will they 'encounter'?
+ ... in other words, what do the characters 'do' when they're exploring the House?
+ Is there an end-point for your game?

I'd find answers to any of these really helpful, because at the moment from reading your rules, I know how to create a character but as a GM I have no idea what to 'do' with any of them.

One technique that others here have found helpful is to describe to use (in a few paragraphs) how you think a session of play (or even two or three minutes of play) would go. To do this, you don't have to have finished making up all the rules of your game. Just describe what an observer at the table would see, and pretend that the rules are all working perfectly.

(In case it's not clear, I am keen to see more of this game!)

When I readed the Instrumentalis and Universalis description, it reminded me of the enneagram http://www.enneagraminstitute.com/ check it out, it describes 9 personality types along with their most common fears, it might get useful somehow. You will also need a list of usual phobias and other mental illness to color the states before transformed. I would also recommend a way to build characters that leaves them with some issues or weakness the house can tap into. The characters may be normal when they come in, just to find the house knows what lurks inside them.
You can also have characters find all sort of strange and powerful devices inside the house... objects whose posession of course curses the character into transforming quickly by destroying any aspect of their identity: their face, their body, their memories, etc. Hope anything here proves useful, best luck!

Thanks for those reponses, Marc.

Would you be willing to talk about what you liked about House of Leaves, and what you want to capture in your game?

What do you want the game to feel like when people play it? What emotions do you want them to take away from it?

Also, in your first post you talk about being "inspired to attack this RPG with a more Narrativist view". Given that, what difficult questions or themes do you want people who play your game to grapple with and try and answer? Are there insoluble moral issues you want to confront them with? Is there a single question without easy answers that defines what you want from your game?

***

I'm asking all this because I'm still unclear exactly what your game is about. You initially describe it as being (partially) a psychological horror. I totally get this; for me House of Leaves is brilliant at conveying 'fear of unknown' and 'fear of things that don't make any rational sense, have no predictable rules, and shift the ground from under you just when you think you know what's going on'. This is sort of confirmed when you say:

5. The game will present not only the fear of the unknown, but the fear of the strange and twisted and the fear of losing what means the most to you... I don't plan there to be monsters and entities around every corner, but if the Narrator feels that reflects best on the character's desires and conflicts, then they should go for that... On the other hand, if a feeling of isolation or being lost is better and monsters should be used lightly or not at all, then that is welcome too.