Okay, a rough idea here to face scrutiny and smoothing down for it.

Now, we all know that when the full health fighter wanders into the room full of demons, he's in trouble.

And we all know that the heavily wounded guy who is just outside a hospital is probably just fine (cough, depending on system, cough)

Okay, so we can either have HP's or somthing, and a bunch of to hit rules and such to prove just how bad ass a demon is. There can be all sorts of factors.

But what are we trying to impress on the players...your in trouble or your not (or somewhere in between). We go through all those mechanics to suggest...that demons (or whatever nasty) are bad ass. Yus, we know that...a million rules don't impress it nearly as much as common knowledge.

So it occurs to me...can't we just directly show how much peril, how much danger a character is in. I mean, all those to hit bonus's, HP, etc, you could boil them down into a 'how much your screwed' factor. Why not work with that factor to begin with? Sure, have various modifiers and influences, but instead of going through a combat system to suggest peril, just outright quantify it to begin with? Well, I can think of a few reasons, but suppose your kink isn't simulation.

So say your completely healthy PC walks into a room full of demons, his peril count ramps up. If he staggers and collapses in front of a hospital, it actually drops instantly.

Various weapons ramp up peril against those their used against, etc etc. You can have various tweaks in there to get some tactics, without having quite as much detail as exact HP, bonus to hit, etc. Ie, one goal would be making it about building tactics in instantly, rather than trying to accomidate some simulation of swords and health, etc, and after all that, build in tactics.

A further goal is the honest and direct implication of peril. Instead of adding monsters and expecting a certain reaction, lets just get to the nitty gritty, this is where your peril count is. Although monsters would influence it strongly, such a design could include a window of adjustment the GM can add. Such systematic underlining works in synergy with the session material (ie, when a fight is diffucult to underly important factors in a scene, the importance of that scene wont be based on the players strategic evaluation of it, it'll be based on direct feedback, direct peril rating)

Another goal is making death or fear of death come at a meaningful point. Ie, if you fall off a ladder while changing a lightbulb, typically your peril at that point is zero or low, you just wont die. When your in the cave of evil though, slips and falls are dangerous there, fighting monsters is bound to be nasty, etc. Peril gives you an idea that when you can take things with a joke and when things are pumping up. It's a foreshadowing method too, instead of the blind 'is this the big nasty of what...what is going on, what's the GM thinking', you know when your peril is up, it wont go down unless you beat somthing or go hide under a rock for a month.

Okay, there it is, rough as hell. If it tickles your fancy/imagination, give it a reply if you want. If it doesn't tickle you, I'm not surprised, it's rough as hell. I'm sort of interested in 'there's somthing to be mined here...perhaps not much, but somthing' sort of replies.

Hiya,

Callan, check out the card game Dungeoneer, published last year by Citizen Games. It's very fine and based on the principle you're describing.

Best,
Ron

FYI: Dungeoneer has been rereleased along with the first expansion by Atlas Games this year.

Doomchaser, currently in playtesting, has a "Doom" level, which tracks how dangerous a situation you are in / how much risk (of dying) your character is in.

The characters "Doom" level also potentially adds power to your character as it gets higher... to defeat riskier situations, but being at higher Doom levels presents higher risk to the character.

Yeah, that's what's so great about Doomchaser. Your goal is to stay as consistanty screwed as possible, without getting over-screwed.

Ron Edwards wrote: Hiya,

Callan, check out the card game Dungeoneer, published last year by Citizen Games. It's very fine and based on the principle you're describing.

Best,
Ron

I believe there is a playtest version of it in the Files area of Yahoo Indie-netgaming Group... it may be an older version of it.

Or you could e-mail Chris Edwards, or Lxndr...who are active here on the Forge, a long-term playtest game is set up to start monday...there's always at least lurking space...we game on Magicstar IRC.

There's a link to the indie-netgamer group site in my sig below...yahoo will probably make you have to sign in though.

Hey Callan,

You can get the version of Doomchaser that I'm going into this round of play testing with from the Files area of the Indie-netgaming site, or if you'd like I can email a copy of the file. Just let me know.

This play test draft isn't what I'd consider a complete version of the game but you should be able to determine if Doomchaser operates in the manner that you're describing.

Also, I've got a complete website redesign coming up. Because I just can't stand to look at what I'm currently trying to pass off as a site. :)

-Chris

Ah, excellent, downloading now! Thanks Chris! :)