Here is a bunch of the notes copy and pasted over from the google wave I am using to work on the game. I apologize for the lack of organization, but welcome all feedback and questions about any ideas I have worked in here.

21 and Down is a game of modern fantasy and espionage where shadowy organizations interact, manipulate, and confront each other and the otherworldly threats bleeding through into the world. Players assume the role of an operative or former operative that was trained and empowered by one of the secret societies in an attempt to pursue their agenda.

Here are some basic rules mechanics to cover how the game is played and how characters are defined.

The core mechanic of the game is a variation on classic blackjack. Challenges are resolved through the use of hands or sets of hands, depending on the length of the Challenge depending on the complexity of the narration. The hands can be affected by special abilities, traits, and powers. Each side bids a victory condition before hands are played. In the end the Dealer and Players narrate the result of the Challenge based on the outcome of the blackjack hands.

If the Challenge is based around a static obstacle (something that cannot actively resist) the dealer assigns a total hand value (thv) that the Player needs to exceed in order to succeed. If the obstacle is dynamic (something that can and will actively resist) then the dealer deals a hand to determine the thv before adding in any bonuses from the obstacle. In either case, if multiple PC's are involved in the challenge, the Dealer determines the number of successful hands needed to win the Challenge.

Attributes are ranked by cards. The cards determine a character's bonus, affinity, and depth of resilience when using the attribute.

The attributes are Physique, Wits, Guile, and Spirit.

Affinities are situations in which the bonus to the attribute is increased by 1. Affinities are broken down into broad and specific affinities.

Depth of Resilience is the amount of fatigue that can be accumulated in an attribute before the character is exhausted in that area. This is determined by the value of the card. Face cards count as 10, but carry a special trait to be taken from the chart based on face, suit, and attribute.

The suits and their benefits are as follows

Spade +4 bonus Affinities: 2 broad and 2 specific

Hearts +3 bonus Affinities: 1 broad and 2 specific

Diamonds +2 bonus Affinities: 1 broad and 1 specific

Clubs +1 bonus Affinities: 1 specific

Characters gain fatigue in an attribute after a failed hand, and each time they hit their hand. i.e. During a Physique Challenge Gary starts with a 6 and a 7 giving him a hand value (hv) of 13. He decides that his hv is not high enough so he hits and pulls an ace giving him a 14. Still not satisfied Gary hits again and pulls a 3 which gives him a final hv of 17. After adding in bonuses and affinities Gary's total hand value (THV) comes in at a respectable 20. The dealer reveals that he has an hv of 18 and stands. After adding his own bonuses and affinities the dealer’s thv comes in at 23. Since he lost the hand and hit twice Gary has picked up three fatigue points in his physique pool. If the dealers thv had been lower than 20, Gary still would have picked up two points of fatigue for the two times he hit.

If a hand busts, it is automatically a failure and doubles any fatigue gained. Only an hv, not thv, over 21 can cause a bust.

When a character is fatigued they can no longer hit, but can still participate in challenges at the addition of two fatigue points per hand. Once the character is at twice their Depth of Resilience that character is at risk of being disabled.

A Challenge is any task attempted by a character in which they have a chance of failure. Challenges are considered simple if there is no person or force actively resisting the character, and complex if something or someone is actively trying to stop the characters success. Challenges are also classified by length, which determines the number of hands or rounds needed to resolve the challenge. Quick challenges only require one round, Extended challenges require two rounds, and Long challenges require three rounds.

Each round consists of multiple phases. The first phase of every round is the Bid. The Fate Dealer narrates the situation the characters are currently in. The players bid their risk, and the Fate Dealer bids a victory condition based on the risk. Once the bids have been determined, the Action Round begins. Each player declares if they are using Aggressive, Balanced, or Defensive tactics. The tactics then determine which powers and equipment bonuses may be used in the challenge. Players then declare the use of any powers that apply. Once the Tactics and Powers have been declared, The Fate Dealer deals each player involved in the challenge a hand. The hand is resolved like a typical game of blackjack unless otherwise noted by powers and traits. Once the winners of the hand are determined any fatigue gained from losses or risks are added before moving on to the final phase. The final phase is Narration, in which the Fate Dealer narrates the result from the hand based on the bids and tactics given in the earlier phases.

Character advancement is handled through the expenditure of Personal Plot Points. PPPs allow the player to mark a scene as being important to the overall story of their character as well as manipulate the difficulty of a scene. When a PPP is spent the player chooses if there is a complication or advantage being added to the conflict. After the complication or advantage is resolved (usually through a bonus to either the player or the dealer’s thv) the player banks their PPP toward the completion of a Chapter. Once a certain (leaning toward three, but not sure) amount of PPPs have been devoted to a Chapter it is complete and the character gains a permanent bonus or ability based on the number of advantages and complications. The more complications in a chapter the bigger the reward becomes. Every three chapters complete an Act, which grants the character a more powerful Act bonus. Three Acts complete a Book, which grants the character a very powerful Book bonus. There are three distinct Acts in each Book, which determine the Chapter bonuses that can be chosen at any given time. This model is based off of Joseph Campbell’s “Hero’s Journey” and Chris Vougler’s  “Writer’s Journey.” It will be modeled to try and encourage a more natural character progression than the ramp of power common in most level based systems.

Hi, welcome to the forge!

How do you imagine an individual session ending in your game? Would it pretty much be decided by people or a person at the table, or by mechanical means? And how do you imagine a session - is it a build up of various elements towards a climax for that 'episode' so to speak? Or is it just a series of little elements/notable moments, sort of strung together without much adhesive between them?

I meant to address that in the initial post, but somehow forgot to put it down. 21 and Down is a game meant to encourage group storytelling. To facilitate this each character only begins with one personal plot point at the start of a session. The Fate Dealer has the framework of what he wants to do, with each major scene in the story being tagged as a plot point moment. If the players go along with the Fate Dealers plot they earn a personal plot point for each plot point moment they complete. This makes it so that playing group cohesion will lead to a more rapid progression without completely stripping the chance for someone to stray from the group story.

Thanks for your answer! I think I get what you mean...what do you mean by progression?

Also, what do plot points do?

progression = character progression. Plot points let the player have some control over the difficulty of the scenerio and are tied into character advancement. They are a combination of action points (or whatever they might be called in other games) and experience. Your character becomes more powerful as they amass chapters and acts, but they can only do so by spending their plot points. The Fate Dealer can use the plot points as future story hooks. i.e. Steven the agile thief is involved with a difficult conflict with a security group. He decides to spend a plot point to give himself an advantage. The Fate Dealer narrates that the secuirty detail's guns jam giving Steven just enough of an opening to make a run for it and take a swing at the group's leader in the process. In the future the Fate Dealer decides to reuse the security group as a recurring foil with their leader becoming a named NPC who is now a nemesis for Steven all because Steven had made the choice to use a plot point and make that scene important.

Your character becomes more powerful as they amass chapters and acts, but they can only do so by spending their plot points.

power was a poor word choice but I am having trouble thinking up an acceptable substitue. Personal Plot Points are the potential for character growth. They do not become actual character growth until the point is spent to mark a scene as being important to the character's personal story. Once enough plot points are invested in the story, the character has completed a chapter in their personal story which has an actual mechanical benefit. This could be the improvement of an existing ability, some sort of new assett, or a new ability entirely. The new abilities and assets are meant to give more variety. The improvements to abilities will also give minor upgrades intended to make the power more versatile.

I know that the system is set up to avoid character's breaking away from the group story, because that is what I want to discourage through game design. The game is about telling a group story, which doesn't work when you have one player decide that they want the story to be just about their character. With the economy of plot points, everyone is rewarded for making a cohesive story together.

Well, okay, this reminds me of Dave Andersons thing with D&D, where you would get XP for gold found, but only once you've spent that gold on what your character cares about, to the exact amount of gold he spent on it.

Except with yours they can only spend plot points on scenes the GM has set up, if those scenes happen to be important to them...and it's mostly in the vein of a gun jamming, which is kind of once or twice removed from the very thing that's important to the character.

Now either I'm not getting the direction your going, which is entirely possible, or I do get it and what I think is that this kind of waters down the 'I care about this shit!' factor that would happen with a spent plot point. Some stuff to chew over, anyway :)

Well Plot Points can be spent whenever the player wants. They only get more plot points by finishing a plot point moment. If a player wants to run off and do something that was not part of the original group story he won't get the extra plot points to spend for that session. I don't really invision this being more than two or three plot points at most for an average game session. The Fate Dealer is of course encouraged to try and work these plot points into the group story by the next session.

Plot Points can be gun jamming, activating an existing asset like an ally, or start a story thread that will lead to a new a new asset. If you want it to be more difficult it could be used to hinder the character instead.

Plot points are like making a time line of important events in the character's story. It isn't what they necessarily care about, but it is in event that stands out when talking about what happened in that character's life.

Hmm, actually that's different from what I expected! But I will say I think you described it really well here

Plot points are like making a time line of important events in the character's story. It isn't what they necessarily care about, but it is in event that stands out when talking about what happened in that character's life.

I will keep that in mind. I think some of my descriptions aren't as clear as they could be since I have been kicking around some of these concepts for so long (such as the personal plot point) that I forget to give the most basic details.