My ramblings coalesced into coherent shape, I hope.

A SMALL PIECE OF THE SUN [working title]
A roleplaying game about the theft of fire.

It is a dark, cold, hungry time.  The First People are sick unto death.  Their cousin, Coyote, hears their lamentations and wishes to grant them succor.  He knows a place to find the cure to the ills that plague them.  He can bring them a small piece of the sun.

This game is influenced (obviously) by Native American Coyote myths, but also by the story of Prometheus and the Greek pantheon.

This is a roleplaying game for five players.  I’m not sure if it will be able to played with less, but almost certainly it won’t work with more.

One player is Coyote, climbing the mountain to retrieve a small piece of the sun, so the First People may have light, warmth and food.  He is wise, but he is also foolish.  His actions, succeed or fail, will have consequences that last for centuries.

One player is the Earth God (Armadillo).  He helps or hinders Coyote to the extent that Coyote does things that please or displease him.  Needlessly killing the animals of the field, injuring a plant, or digging a hole to make a trap, for example, would be on the list of no-nos for Armadillo.  If Coyote hits the items on that list too much and the time comes to appeal to Armadillo his pleas will fall on deaf ears; or worse, on hostile ones that wish to pervert his requests.  Of course, doing things that please Armadillo, like giving thanks to a plant when it bears you fruit, would make that aid that much more likely.  However, as Coyote is quite a trickster he can sometimes convince Armadillo he’s been helping when perhaps the “facts” don’t quite bear that statement out.

Likewise, one player plays the Air God (Eagle) and one player plays the Water God (I don’t have a good animal for this yet) and the mechanics work the same for their respective lists.  At the start of play all three elemental gods are default anti-Coyote as if Coyote succeeds the balance of the elements will be thrown off, likely weakening their own power.  However, each god is selfish and prone to persuasion.

Finally, one player plays Fire.  This is likely going to correspond to a more traditional GM role.  However, I’m stuck between the options of Fire being the most anti-Coyote (if the People get fire it won’t be sacred and it will be bent to human will) or most pro-Coyote (fire would rule the elements, be omnipresent and be revered).  What does Fire want more???

I’m picturing each player with a Lady Blackbird/Apocalypse World style character sheet that makes each unique in the game world and outlines their powers and hindrances.

The water god is clearly Salmon.

Yeah, you could totally do a lot of stuff with Fire.
Maybe fire has some kind of resource, or complicated not-anti-Coyote-but-anti-some-of-Coyote's-actions,
like how the MC in apocalypse world has all these specific things they're doing in the background, in reaction to what the PCs do.
Or in Poison'd, how the GM is listening like an evil genie, like "Oh! OH! you said that thing that means i have to do THIS mechanical thing to you now."

Cool idea!

Here's an idea: remember the myth about Icarus and Daedalus? Fire is need not be hostile. It might be welcoming, helpful, luring, enticing... But get too close, call on it too often, and you'll be consumed!

Also, you might want to take a look at a Game Chef Alumni – Polaris by Ben Lehman. The game has a similar mechanic that might give you some ideas.

Good luck with the concept! I'm happy to see somebody took an idea similar to mine (which was bound to happen as it's hardly original) and is taking it in a very different direction.

jackson_tegu wrote:
...MC in apocalypse world has all these specific things they're doing in the background, in reaction to what the PCs do.
Or in Poison'd, how the GM is listening like an evil genie, like "Oh! OH! you said that thing that means i have to do THIS mechanical thing to you now."

Lucas wrote:
Here's an idea: remember the myth about Icarus and Daedalus? Fire is need not be hostile. It might be welcoming, helpful, luring, enticing... But get too close, call on it too often, and you'll be consumed!

Also, you might want to take a look at a Game Chef Alumni – Polaris by Ben Lehman. The game has a similar mechanic that might give you some ideas.

UserClone wrote:
The water god is clearly Salmon.

By pointing to Polaris I meant that game has one player plays the Protagonist, two players play a mix of opposing or supporting NPCs (Full Moon and New Moon), and one player plays the antagonists and demons (I believe this role was called the Mistake or something similar).

Hmmm, the water god should be Saguaro then, since cacti are the most readily available water source in the desert, if I'm not mistaken.

UserClone wrote:
Hmmm, the water god should be Saguaro then, since cacti are the most readily available water source in the desert, if I'm not mistaken.

Oooo...beaver. I like! And Crow has more powerful imagery for me that Eagle, too! Very cool!

I've been thinking about the Fire player and I might eliminate it.  I was originally thinking he would be the one to do the bulk of world creation, but I have been increasing the roles of Armadillo, Beaver and Crow and it seems that they can do that via the obstacles they throw in front of Coyote.  I do love Jackson's description of how "the GM is listening like an evil genie," but I think to some extent this game could have three evil genies.  And three is better than one, right?  You know, unless your Coyote.  Good luck, sucker!

Question: you have your players enacting from what I can see folklore.  Do you plan on getting them to transcend or transgress the traditional narrative?

desiderata wrote:
Question: you have your players enacting from what I can see folklore.  Do you plan on getting them to transcend or transgress the traditional narrative?

A Small Piece of the Sun sounds nice.  Keep it.

I definitely agree. Keep the name as is. I on the other hand, prefer my game's new name to it's original. It was called Ephemera, and now it's called Becoming. Yours already was pertinent to your game's content. To make it quite so straightforward would be a disservice to your reader, I think.

I've got all the ideas in my head, it's just getting them out onto the page that's the problem.  Laying things out in a logical order turns out not to be a strength of mine.  Editor, please!

Heya,

Back in 2007 I created a series of nine design outlines for my blog.  Unfortunately, they aren't hosted on the Internet anymore, but I'll paste one of the more basic outlines here for you.  Now, these outlines fit my personal style of design, so they might not be right for you.  If it doesn't work for you, don't worry about it.  It just means we're different people.  But I understand how overwhelming the design process can be, so I thought I'd just jump in here and offer what paltry advice I have.  Let me know if you have any questions :)

Outline for Design #3

I. What this game is about.

II. What the characters do.

III. What the players do.

IV. The Situation.

V. The Characters.
A. Chargen
B. Equipment, Skills, Blah Blah Blah

VI. Resolution.
A. Standard Task/Conflict Reso
B. Combat/Wounding System
  a. Healing

VII. Advancement
A. What behaviors are rewarded
B. How are those behaviors rewarded

VIII. The Setting.
A. Setting Advancement

IX. The Set Up.

X. Playing the Game.
A. Setting Stakes (if necessary)
B. Reward Cycles
C. Endgame

XI. Final Advice

XII. Character Sheets.

Thanks, Troy!  Even if I don't hew too closely to that model, it's nice to have something to deviate from, if you know what I mean.

BlazmoIntoWowee wrote:
Thanks, Troy!  Even if I don't hew too closely to that model, it's nice to have something to deviate from, if you know what I mean.

Troy_Costisick wrote:

BlazmoIntoWowee wrote:
Thanks, Troy!  Even if I don't hew too closely to that model, it's nice to have something to deviate from, if you know what I mean.

Yep, I do.  Sometimes all you need is a kickstart and after that, everything flows naturally.

BlazmoIntoWowee wrote:

Troy_Costisick wrote:

BlazmoIntoWowee wrote:
Thanks, Troy!  Even if I don't hew too closely to that model, it's nice to have something to deviate from, if you know what I mean.

Yep, I do.  Sometimes all you need is a kickstart and after that, everything flows naturally.

Dang, did it flow.  Using your layout as a base, I knocked most of the text out tonight.  I still need to finish the character sheets, but then I'll be 100% through (I think...)

https://docs.google.com/file/d/0B0Nn_OAO6qmzdElZVDR3aUtzajg/edit

BlazmoIntoWowee wrote:

Troy_Costisick wrote:

BlazmoIntoWowee wrote:
Thanks, Troy!  Even if I don't hew too closely to that model, it's nice to have something to deviate from, if you know what I mean.

Yep, I do.  Sometimes all you need is a kickstart and after that, everything flows naturally.

Dang, did it flow.  Using your layout as a base, I knocked most of the text out tonight.  I still need to finish the character sheets, but then I'll be 100% through (I think...)

https://docs.google.com/file/d/0B0Nn_OAO6qmzdElZVDR3aUtzajg/edit

Edited to, I think, make this publicly viewable.  Also, Dropbox'd:

http://dl.dropbox.com/u/41199446/A%20Small%20Piece%20of%20the%20Sun%20%5Bdraft%5D.pdf