After writing some thoughts and questions about resolution mechanics for sim games in this thread, here's my sketch of a sim game that has a resolution system that focuses on resolving the players efforts to explore setting rather than resolving character's attempts to perform tasks.

At least I think it does. And I think its sim. Please tell me if I'm getting this wrong.

Exploring the City
A) Players individually create tenets for an imaginary civilisation. Any aspect of that civilisation may be detailed. Players determine 5 different tenets in this way.

Tony creates "Kage Island" It's tenets are "Worship the cult of the sword", "Rice is the staple food", "Water cleans spiritual impurity", "Trees are very sparse", "Surrounded by seas".

Ben creates "The Gila mountain range". It's tenets are "Annual plague of lizards", "Matriarchal society", "Goats are kept by everyone", "Children are shepherds until chosen as apprentices for a trade", "Very cold area".

B) The GM creates an imaginary city which has contact with each of the player's civilisations.

Gerry creates the city of Catharge, the most important trading port in the known world.

C) The GM creates a guide. An individual within the city who could conceivably come in contact with visiting members of the players' civilisations.

Gerry creates "Portia" a beggar who works the docks.

D) The GM writes out a list of situations which the guide could typically find himself involved in. The GM presents this list to the players.

Gerry lists "Running from the watch", "Begging for alms", "Informing on smugglers", "Preparing food".

E) Each player, for their own civilisation, rolls a six-sided dice for each tenet of their civilisation. Rolling a 4, 5, or 6 is considered a fail. Meaning that the tenets of that civilisation have no particular influence on that kind of situation. Rolling a 1, 2, or 3 is a success. The player has a number of successes equal to the score on the dice. The player may once reroll any one dice until it yield successes.

Tony's successes are: Worship cult of the sword (2), Water cleans spiritual impurity (1), Surrounded by seas (1).

Ben's successes are: Annual plague of lizards (1) Goats are kept by everyone (1) Children are shepherds until chosen as apprentices for a trade (2) Very cold area (3)

F) The player can spend successes by using them to buy details for how members of the civilisation would behave in any of the situations. The details must reflect the tenet that generated the success.

Tony spends successes to buy details like this:
Worship cult of the sword - Never turn your back on an armed enemy (running from the watch), never use bladed implements in cooking (preparing food).
Water cleans spiritual impurity - Money is tainted by human greed and must be washed before passed on again. (Begging for alms)
Surrounded by Seas - Always position yourself with the wind at your back (running from the watch)

Ben spends successes to buy details like this:
Annual Plague of Lizards - A gift of reptile meat is an insult (begging for alms)
Goats are kept by everyone - To offer a guest goat's milk is an insult (preparing food)
Children are shepherds - Gila people can run as fast as mountain goats (running from the watch), Gila people can see well in the dark (informing on smugglers)
Very cold area - Cold food is an insult to a guest (preparing for food), Clothes are the best gift (begging for alms), Gila people are always wrapped up and prepared for long waits (informing on smugglers)

G) When a situation has any bought details, the player may give the situation a name that is particular to his own civilisation.

Tony calls running from the watch, "The Way of Warfare". Calls begging for alms, "The Way of Money", and calls preparing food, "The Way of Sustenance".

Ben calls running from the watch "Flight", calls begging for alms, "Charity", calls preparing food "Hospitality" and informing on smugglers "Watching".

H) Each player creates an individual from their own civilisation.The player is responsible for ensuring that the character observes the details for any situation they find themselves in. They must create a reason for the character (PC) visiting the city. The GM must narrate events that will introduce the guide to the PCs, and involve the PCs in the situations which the guide typically finds herself.

Tony's PC (Hiro) has come to the city to arrange lumber shipments to Kage island. Portia offers to introduce him to the city merchants, however is spotted by a watchman who gives chase to the beggar. Tony narrates how his PC runs in a different direction from Portia, in order to keep the wind at his back in accordance with The Way of Warfare.

Ben's PC (Gola) has come to the city to sell a cart load of goat skins for his sister. When Portia and Hiro split he easily keeps up with Portia while spotting which way Hiro has run. Ben justifies this saying that the Gola people are skilled at Flight, able to run as fast as mountain goats.

I) The GM is responsible for ensuring that the inhabitants of the city respond consistently to PCs that are observing their civilisation details. Every time the GM has the inhabitants respond in a way that threatens the PC's ability to pursue their reason for being there, the GM must pay that player a dice.

The dock lands gang see how fast Gola is. If they can "convince" him to be a runner for them they'll never fear the Watch again. They corner him and Portia and pull out some knives in order to be extra convincing. Dead men can't trade furs, so while narrating these events, Gerry pays Ben a dice.

Keeping the wind at his back means Hiro runs down an alley way which he shouldn't really run down. The Watch are now covering the alley. Hiro is lost in the back streets, still not having met any lumber merchants and now not even having any idea where his ship is. Tony asks the GM for a dice to reflect the threatening nature of these events and Gerry agrees, giving him one.

J) A Conflict arises any time circumstances complicate the PCs' relationship with their guide. The player may roll the dice in their pool, attempting to get a number of successes equal or above a number determined by the GM. If successful the player may narrate any means or occurrences that would allow the character to be able to negate, ignore, or overcome the circumstances. The GM may instead choose to resolve the conflict (before rolling) by narrating circumstances that would alleviate any complications to the PC's relationship with their guide. All dice rolled in a conflict are returned to the GM after rolling.

Tony's character Hiro is lost in alley ways, realising he's lost any hope of finding his guide Portia again. He declares a conflict, rolling the dice in his pool. If he meets the GM's target number then he may narrate circumstances that get him back in contact with her.

The dock land gang are waving knives at Gola and Portia. Ben asks for a conflict as there's every chance this could be the end of Portia (not to mention Gola). Instead the GM narrates that the dock land gang promises "We're not interested in you girl, scram!". Portia whispers "If you get out of this you can find me at the Green Dragon" in Gola's ear and runs out of there. Gola's relationship with Portia is no longer being complicated by this event - she's safe, he knows where she is, she'll still be his guide if he wants that. It's only Gola whose life is getting complicated just now!

K) When players cannot use conflicts as an opportunity to narrate what is happening round about them, they can instead rely on their civilisation details. In certain situations the player can argue with the GM that the details would ensure a particular course to events.

Tony reminds Gerry that The Way of Money means that all Kage coins should be washed of human greed before being passed on. He claims that this means that all of Hiro's money would be especially shiny; throwing a few coins out the alley way should be a sufficient distraction for the watchmen. The GM agrees and narrates how the watchmen rush over to pick up the glittering coins allowing Hiro the opportunity to escape.

Ben reminds Gerry that the Gila people are skilled in Flight and are faster than mountain goats. Gerry therefore lets him narrate Gola dodging a knife and legging it away. Ben narrates that Gola will keep running until he finds a dark alley or abandoned ware house and take advantage of the fact that Gola people see well in the dark to avoid any trailing dock land gang members. Impressed, Gerry agrees that this is successful.

Designer Notes.
The guide represents the player's ability to explore.
Complications to the player's reason for being there, represent new avenues to explore.
Because the guide is initially tied up with the player's reason; new avenues threaten the player's relationship with their guide (thus reducing the chance the player will be able to explore those new avenues).

So... Give a free dice every time the player's reason for being there is complicated.

Player can ask for a conflict every time their relationship with their guide is threatened.

This allows players to preserve their relationship with their guide, and explore new avenues.

Influences:
In different ways, this game draws upon ideas presented in, and experiences of playing, Legend of the 5 Rings, Promised Sands, Paladin, The Pool, Universalis, and The Burning Wheel.

Good stuff.

Just wondering if there was a way to more formally tie storytelling about the city into the system. "Derek asks, 'what is that old ruin', the wiley old man responds, "there is an interesting story about that...'".

I teach a crime fiction course and your ideas connect with what we do with a shared universe writing project (set in a fictional city), but of course with a more formal 'game' approach to balance.

Looking forward to seeing this one develop.

scobie wrote: Good stuff.

Just wondering if there was a way to more formally tie storytelling about the city into the system. "Derek asks, 'what is that old ruin', the wiley old man responds, "there is an interesting story about that...'".

I teach a crime fiction course and your ideas connect with what we do with a shared universe writing project (set in a fictional city), but of course with a more formal 'game' approach to balance.

Looking forward to seeing this one develop.

Players save up a pool of the dice they earn from the GM. The GM awards dice when the city responds to the PC in a way that complicates the very reason the PC came to the city.

When the PC's relationship with their guide is threatened the player may declare a conflict.

The GM can either avoid the conflict by narrating events that remove the threat to the relationship with the guide, or can accept the conflict.

On accepting the conflict the GM sets a target number - this is the number of successes needed for the player to modify the situation and alleviate the threat. The scale of this number should reflect the severity of the threat.

The player may chose to roll any or all dice in their pool. 4s, 5s, and 6s are fails. 1s, 2s, and 3s give one, two, three successes respectively.

Compare the player's success total to the GM's target number. If the successes total is equal to or higher than the target number, then the player may either accept the difference in number as free dice added to his pool, or narrate events that allow the character to ignore/overcome/nullify the threat to their relationship with their guide.

Rolling under the target number means that the player is unable to narrate events that mollify the threat and also loses all dice that were used in this roll (the player's pool remains untouched).
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I think this would allow players to prioritise how much they want to preserve their ability to explore, in any situation where the nature of the setting is vying with the players ability to explore that setting.

This is boldly, madly brilliant, and from what I've heard, feels rather HeroQuest-y.

One question: do you think it's possible to remove the guide with a modification of the mechanic, or would that totally break it? I can see a lot of players wanting to explore setting while also exploring highly independent adventurers.

Dave Panchyk wrote: This is boldly, madly brilliant, and from what I've heard, feels rather HeroQuest-y.

One question: do you think it's possible to remove the guide with a modification of the mechanic, or would that totally break it? I can see a lot of players wanting to explore setting while also exploring highly independent adventurers.

This is very close to how Universalis looked in it's earliest incarnations (before we extended most of the principles to their absurdly logical conclusions). The way we had it, there was no guide, however. I'm not sure I'm getting the reasoning behind the guide, just an in-game way to introduce details? If that were the case, I'd just let the GM do it with any NPC he liked. Or am I missing something?

Mike

Tony Irwin wrote: After writing some thoughts and questions about resolution mechanics for sim games in this thread, here's my sketch of a sim game that has a resolution system that focuses on resolving the players efforts to explore setting rather than resolving character's attempts to perform tasks.

Mike Holmes wrote: This is very close to how Universalis looked in it's earliest incarnations (before we extended most of the principles to their absurdly logical conclusions). The way we had it, there was no guide, however. I'm not sure I'm getting the reasoning behind the guide, just an in-game way to introduce details? If that were the case, I'd just let the GM do it with any NPC he liked. Or am I missing something?

Mike

Marco wrote: I think to be said to have explored something one must have learned something about it. Often this is "we learned what was in the dungeon." Sometimes this could be "we learned what the Illuminati was really up to." Or even "I learned what it was like to be an alien."

In this case, I didn't learn so much about the *city* (which seemed pretty generic. I learned there were docks and a watch) as I did about the culture's impact on situation (the guy who runs the wrong way).

Setting Up
a) The GM creates an imaginary setting, recording important aspects of it as Facts.

b) The GM describes enough aspects of the setting to the players to allow them to create a character who while a stranger to the setting, would have reason to visit it. This reason should be recorded as the player-character’s mission.

c) The GM creates character abilities that allow the players to impact characters and locations within the setting. All players have access to all these abilities through their characters.

Playing the game
d) Once play begins, the GM takes turns to narrate separate scenes with each player at the table.

e) Before a scene begins the GM should describe its features in terms of characters, location, and time. The player can use character abilities to add, remove, or replace features of the scene. When using character abilities, the player should narrate the processes involved in using those abilities within the game-world. The scene does not begin until the player is finished altering it in this way.

f) The GM awards the player 1-3 six sided dice based on the player’s level of description in narrating their character’s abilities, and attempts to enter into the spirit of the setting.

g) The GM secretly chooses a Fact for this scene.

h) The GM starts to narrate the scene and the situations that might arise from this particular combination of characters, location and time. The GM should ensure that their narration “proves” the fact they have selected for this scene, focusing player attention upon it. The player reserves the right to narrate for the activities of their own character within the scene.

i) Any time the player feels that their mission has been complicated they may elect to roll their dice. First the GM reveals the Fact for this scene. If the complication can be attributed to the Fact then the player may roll their dice. If the complication is clearly not arising from the Fact then play continues as normal. Any dice that rolls 1, 2, or 3, earns that many successes. Any dice that rolls 4, 5, or 6, is ignored. Depending on the number of successes rolled, the player will have different options available to them. All dice rolled are removed from the player’s pool. If the player chooses an option that required less successes than the number rolled, then the player receives the difference in dice added to their pool.

j)

Number of successes needed for each Player Option:

1 Switch scene’s current fact with GM’s choice of existing facts.
2 Switch scene’s current fact with own choice of existing facts.
3 Switch scene’s current fact with new fact of GM’s invention.
4 Switch scene’s current fact with new fact of own invention.
5 Destroy scene’s current fact, replace with GM’s choice of existing facts.
6 Destroy scene’s current fact, replace with own choice of existing facts.
7 Destroy scene’s current fact, replace with new fact of GM’s invention
8 Destroy scene’s current fact, replace with new fact of own invention



k) The player may ask to end the scene at any time. They retain any dice in their dice pool for use in future scenes. The GM starts a scene for the next player.

l) Play ceases once all players have completed their missions.