I have returned with my game, now called "MAYA", to be offered suggestions, criticism and hopefully some people that would be willing to playtest it.  I am working on the website probably as you are reading this.  I have incomplete "MAYA Basic" information up right now, but more than enough for you to pick up on and start messing with it.

http://mayatherpg.webs.com/

Keep in mind, "MAYA" is a little more complicated than MAYA Basic in that there are attributes and such, but I am still working on a character sheet.  This will be uploaded to the sight as a .PDF very soon and the rules for MAYA will be uploaded in their complete form.

MAYA is on Facebook:  http://www.facebook.com/pages/MAYA-the-RPG/222105103495

I am "Scott" on the page if'n you need another facebook friend.  I don't post hourly twitter updates on there.

Please let me know what you think about MAYA!  I am totally open to constructive criticism.  Thanks in advance!

I see you're into eastern philosophy.  A cosmic journey rpg sounds really cool, and I would like to see you polish it up.  What types of scenarios will the players find themselves in, and how will the system allow them to tackle conflicts, or overcome attachments?

I see you're into eastern philosophy.

A cosmic journey rpg sounds really cool

What types of scenarios will the players find themselves in

how will the system allow them to tackle conflicts, or overcome attachments?

For a fun thought experiment, I considered how I would adapt my engine to your game's concept.  Here's what I came up with:
1. My 12 attributes would be replaced with your personality matrix.  So instead of Strength, you have something like Compassion.
2. My skill set would be replaced with various bodhisattva disciplines.
3. So let's say your player was a Vietnamese monk, and you wanted to use the skill "Self Immolation".  You would compare your Relaxed attribute to the difficulty of murdering yourself in an excrutiatingly heinous and painful way, so let's give it a 10.  The GM doesn't tell you it's a 10, but you can safely assume this is an extremely difficult feat to accomplish.  Your attribute is 7, so you decide to tap into your Concentration effort pool by meditating, which allows you to apply the randomizer (exploding 1d4-1).  You roll a natural 4 (+3), so add another roll on top of it, which gave you another 2, therefore 7+3+2=12 meaning you pass with a moderate effect.  Looking at the effects table for Self-Immolation, it says you wince and grunt a bit from the pain (attachment to self-preservation), but you let go before the end, maintain your lotus position, and burn to a crisp gracefully.

4. Humoring myself further, along with attribute development points, should you fail an important check, you'll earn Ego points, which subtracts points and can cause your attributes to go back down.

5. Expounding even further, if we want to explore the concepts of right action, right speech, right understanding, etc., then we can add a strategic element to the way you utilize your skills.  Let's say someone is attacking the integrity of your wife.  You know she's wrong/lying/in denial.  Now, you can try to settle things by using a skill based on Objectivity, but your wife will probably resent you for it so your attribute is -2 in this situation.  It would be far better to use a skill based on the Heroic attribute, and stick up for her when her character is being trashed (+2 because it appeals right understanding: understanding her emotional needs).  And then afterwards, between you two in private, you may objectively work it out as she'll be more receptive.

I like the ego table, I was wondering if you were going to offer more paths to it, seeing as it only branches off two ways.

I like the ego table, I was wondering if you were going to offer more paths to it, seeing as it only branches off two ways.

For a fun thought experiment, I considered how I would adapt my engine to your game's concept.  Here's what I came up with:
1. My 12 attributes would be replaced with your personality matrix.  So instead of Strength, you have something like Compassion.

2. My skill set would be replaced with various bodhisattva disciplines.

3. So let's say your player was a Vietnamese monk, and you wanted to use the skill "Self Immolation".  You would compare your Relaxed attribute to the difficulty of murdering yourself in an excrutiatingly heinous and painful way, so let's give it a 10.  The GM doesn't tell you it's a 10, but you can safely assume this is an extremely difficult feat to accomplish.  Your attribute is 7, so you decide to tap into your Concentration effort pool by meditating, which allows you to apply the randomizer (exploding 1d4-1).  You roll a natural 4 (+3), so add another roll on top of it, which gave you another 2, therefore 7+3+2=12 meaning you pass with a moderate effect.  Looking at the effects table for Self-Immolation, it says you wince and grunt a bit from the pain (attachment to self-preservation), but you let go before the end, maintain your lotus position, and burn to a crisp gracefully.

4. Humoring myself further, along with attribute development points, should you fail an important check, you'll earn Ego points, which subtracts points and can cause your attributes to go back down.

5. Expounding even further, if we want to explore the concepts of right action, right speech, right understanding, etc., then we can add a strategic element to the way you utilize your skills.  Let's say someone is attacking the integrity of your wife.  You know she's wrong/lying/in denial.  Now, you can try to settle things by using a skill based on Objectivity, but your wife will probably resent you for it so your attribute is -2 in this situation.  It would be far better to use a skill based on the Heroic attribute, and stick up for her when her character is being trashed (+2 because it appeals right understanding: understanding her emotional needs).  And then afterwards, between you two in private, you may objectively work it out as she'll be more receptive.

In that case, I would like to make a critique.  Although I don't know yet the exact intentions of your game, I think I have a conceptual grasp of what you're trying to do, but please correct me if I'm inaccurate.  It seems to me that combat rules, or an emphasis on combat, seem out of place for this game.  Think about it: the more your ego drops, the less combat becomes likely.  In my opinion, if there is combat at all, it would be best to generalize it so that the player may approach it from a role-playing stance rather than a boardgame/tactician stance. 

Take note that this is coming from someone who has developed an elaborate combat system and loves that aspect of play.

So, let's say your character studied at Shaolin Temple, and someone tries to mug you on the street.  If you decide to fight him off, do you pull out your gun and shoot him, or do you subdue him with your martial arts skills?  Naturally, the former will be easier, but you'll accumulate tons of ego.  You'll accumulate much less ego should you choose the latter, but it would require a much higher Heroic attribute to pull off.  Now let's say you don't pull it off with that much success or you fail minorly, then a struggle ensues and you roll again, or you get hurt or both get hurt and the mugger runs off.  You can keep trying to subdue him, but instead of taking any further risks, you can also use your deadly poison palm technique and just end the fucker for massive ego points.

In my opinion, if there is combat at all, it would be best to generalize it so that the player may approach it from a role-playing stance rather than a boardgame/tactician stance. 

I think my only critique is that I would definitely include a setting, with a way to "unbolt" the mechanics from the standard setting to another one. You have an interesting idea, and the mechanics seem like they will support what you're trying to do, but there's no way to anchor the players unless you have a setting to showcase these ideas.

Still, with enough playtesting and continuous evaluation, you may well end up with the game that does for journeys of spiritual enlightenment what Sorcerer does for deals with the devil.

Also, I see you have rough descriptors of what your life is like at various Ego levels. That's a good start, but they look a little specific to KULT for me. Unless you are going for a battle against the Demiurge, you may want to include descriptions more pertinent to your basic setting.

And be sure to stress to people who are making their homebrew settings that defining how Ego Levels look in that game world is one of the most important part of setting creation. If you have that information, the rest of the details will fall into place.

I think my only critique is that I would definitely include a setting, with a way to "unbolt" the mechanics from the standard setting to another one.

And be sure to stress to people who are making their homebrew settings that defining how Ego Levels look in that game world is one of the most important part of setting creation. If you have that information, the rest of the details will fall into place.

By the way, thanks for the compliments!  They are much appreciated and much needed!

The marriage of humans to machines (implants, prosthetics, nanomachines, network interfaces etc.) could play a pivotal role, or obstacle, to a player's quest for enlightenment.  And what about AI?  If they have the same capacities for abstract thought as humans, is it possible for them to attain enlightenment too?  How cool would it be to climb the mountains of Tibet only to find out that the sage meditating at the summit is a robot?

The marriage of humans to machines (implants, prosthetics, nanomachines, network interfaces etc.) could play a pivotal role, or obstacle, to a player's quest for enlightenment.  And what about AI?  If they have the same capacities for abstract thought as humans, is it possible for them to attain enlightenment too?  How cool would it be to climb the mountains of Tibet only to find out that the sage meditating at the summit is a robot?

whoknowswhynot wrote:

I think my only critique is that I would definitely include a setting, with a way to "unbolt" the mechanics from the standard setting to another one.

Maybe I should approach the descriptions as if they are a scientist's observations. This could be more easily adapted to any character regardless of the setting.  That's what I guess I would like at least.  If I am misunderstanding you, please give me an example.  I would appreciate that.

Originally, I was developing a fantasy/low tech setting, but my continued interest in sci-fi made that difficult as I was trying to create an "ALIEN"-like universe too.  I have since decided they are in the same universe just light years apart.  It would almost be like space opera and unfortunately now that "AVATAR" is out, [hopefully] not too much like that.  Maybe just a matter of writing the descriptions which I totally admit are lame and kinda stream-of-consciousness/copy & paste from old notes (some of which were directly from KULT).  I am a HUGE Kult fan even though I never have played the game one time.  I bought the book, someone stole it.  Bought it again and lost it (probably stolen again) and years later, I just got a .pdf version (let them try to steal that!).  I then came to realize that KULT had similar mechanics and just threw in some of the rules there to compare notes more or less.  They fit almost exactly with what I was aiming for, but the developers of KULT knew what they were doing better than I and they said it better than I can.  My writing style is a little hard for some people to read so I copy and paste stuff A LOT, but this is only for the early development stages.  I can eventually brush things up and put them into my own words.

And be sure to stress to people who are making their homebrew settings that defining how Ego Levels look in that game world is one of the most important part of setting creation. If you have that information, the rest of the details will fall into place.

Maybe what would make this a lot easier is to somehow break it all down like Gurps does with a Planetary worksheet or something.  Any ideas?

Okay, what I meant was: include the examples/definitions of Ego for the homebrew setting, then do a different example setting (robots/sci-fi/whatever) and show how the Ego levels differ a bit for that setting, due to the differences in the setting.

Also, and I think you need to answer this before you go much further: what happens when the dice hit the table? If you want the spiritual journey to follow the template in the game, and have that be the "universal truth", then when the PC succeeds, he essentially has to narrate how his character acted correctly in regard to getting further enlightened, and narrate how his character fell back into bad habits if he fails. However, and what might be more interesting, is to let the player react however s/he feels the character would act in that situation, and then roll the dice to see if the PC got enlightened or lost by acting the way they did. Maybe doing the "wrong" thing finally jarred them into self-awareness, or maybe the "wrong" thing was actually the "right" thing to do. It may yield contradictory results, but that's kinda how enlightenment looks to someone who isn't also enlightened.

Also, do only PCs roll for results? Because I'm not seeing a lot of NPC information. I almost think that's the way it should be, since the players are traveling through the game inside their character's heads. Would cut down on the rolling.

When you have a chance, could you explain "density" and what role it will play in this game? I was a bit confused by your website.

When you have a chance, could you explain "density" and what role it will play in this game?

I was a bit confused by your website.

whoknowswhynot wrote:

When you have a chance, could you explain "density" and what role it will play in this game?

Absolutely! Density is how "pysical" a character is or what vibraton or frequency it is at.  I know you might think "alive" or "dead" there's only 2 levels, but I intend there to be "many mansions".  This way, after death, a party may still lose one of it's members for what ever reason but once their own density is reduced they may find them again.  Basically it's role in the game is to differentiate between non-physical or energy beings and physical beings, but this can happen on any level of reality all the way down to zero ego which also means zero density (by the way, 0 ego means omnipresent, omnipotent, omniscient and omnibenevolent).

And sorry for the question bombardment, but...character advancement is obviously an issue in this game. How is that done?

And sorry for the question bombardment, but...character advancement is obviously an issue in this game. How is that done?

Metaphysical Penalties
1-10 each (Start at 10) totalling -100 to 0
Telekinesis - move things
Telepathy - communicate/share
Intuition - know things
SUggestion - manipulate
Creation - bring forth something from nothing
Alteration - slightly affect something's nmbers
Hurt - cause pain, damage
Change - change something into something else
Restore - change something back/heal someone
Protection - protect from being hurt or manipulated

these supernatural attributes are neutral, essentially tools, usable however the wielder wants them to be used. However, they are also polarizing, in that once you learn them, you will be weighted to the positive or negative side, but will have a tough time reaching 0 ever again.

By the way, I'm experiencing a little bit of dissonance here. Do you think you could have the people who are losing Ego go into the positive, whereas those who are gaining in Ego go into the negative? For some reason, I'm having an easier time picturing it that way.

Or do you prefer keeping negative=ego-free, and positive=ego-heavy?

Good question!  I have thought about it a lot, changed my mind over and over again, but I finally decided to keep it this way even though it is harder to visualize mainly because I feel that if I were to spend more time with the descriptions, writing style, and all that it would be easier to grasp.  Plus...

I started thinking about what I was mentioning in my last post about Karma which will be a negative/high ego and positive/low ego scale.  This is another reason I wanted to keep it like as is.  I don't like the name "Karma" because it is a more religious term and MAYA is not about promoting any religion, but it goes along with my other idea about past lives and the alter ego thing* that I haven't mentioned here yet.

*The character's true identity at a lower density.  This would be an astral race and rank from like a "Messenger" (Angel or whatever) or a "god", "God" or whatever.  This part is still being detailed, so I have'nt really mentioned it till now.  It's where a ghost person goes to when they are finally moving on.  Johnathan Livingston Seagull left Sully behind, Donald Shimoda left Richard behind.  This is potentially a place where they may have gone to.

Good fictional inspiration: Demons by John Shirley. If you haven't read it, you should. It's what happens when the battle between Order and Chaos spills out into the public in a huge way. Conspiracies on both sides.

As far as games go, the early Mage: the Ascension games (if you pay attention to the fiction and ignore the mechanics) were inspired by Lila. 

Frankly, I don't know what else we can discuss until you put up more information about your advanced rules, or setting ideas, or something.

Yeah, no doubt!  I have had a busy work week, but it's closing here in 2 more days!  I am doing some stuff tonight finally!