So, since attending Conception 2008 I've been somewhat more focussed on this whole game design lark and have been working on Anarchy for pretty much the first time since Conception 2007. I actually lost my notebook with my Anarchy notes at the con but I'm not sure that was such a bad thing. I've found that starting from scratch with only vague memories of what I was doing with the system has actually helped more than it has hindered me and has freed me from some of the baggage that I had built up around Anarchy in my mind over the last year to year-and-a-half.
Anyway, I got an introduction section written up a few days ago and posted it on my blog (which is part of the feed on this site) and have since been working on character creation. I've pretty much got the whole chapter down now but wanted to focus on the first section of it and throw it out to you guys for some opinions and feedback. From reading a number of indie rpgs and taking on board some of Malcom's experience with Cold City I decided that a good way to begin would be to ask some focussed questions that should help define a players character and set them neatly within the game world with some ready made hooks and potential conflict points. What follows is these questions with my elaborations and pointers as written up in my current playtest document.
What I'm lookig for is some feedback on these questions. Do they seem to focus on the correct areas (especially given the background info that I've linked to above)? Do you think that they will produce useful information that can be brought into later conflicts? Have I worded them in an excessively shite manner or are they reasonably clear and understandable? That sort of thing.
Cheers.
The Five Questions
1. What do you do?
In the world of Anarchy everyone has an assigned role within society. You may not like it, you certainly won’t have chosen it but it will be something that you are, in some small way, suited to. You will have natural talents or affinities, or perhaps a specific personality-type, that are a good fit for your given task.
This question asks you to decide what it is that your character does when they’re not at home or planning the revolution. What is their day job? What is it that society expects of them?
This is important as it provides grounding for your character in the world outside of the Anarchist Movement and ties him into the world of Order. If he starts failing to show up to work people will notice and become suspicious, if his productivity or quality drops off too much someone is bound to notice. How will he balance this potential for discovery against his need to do something and bring about change?
Your answer to this question will also be the primary source of inspiration for the generation of your characters Order Traits (but more on Traits later.)
2. How did you awaken?
The British population is in thrall to the government. Using a combination of subliminal suggestions, tailored drugs, fear mongering and propaganda they keep any thoughts of rebellion or a better life in check. Yet your character has seen through the lies. He is somehow able to resist the suggestions. He either avoids or is immune to the drugs. He sees past the propaganda and the manipulation to the truth that lies beneath.
How did he get to this point? Was it a gradual realisation? Some singular event? The manner of his awakening can say a lot about your character, the how and why of becoming an Anarchist can be intricately tied into his awakening as can his thoughts and feelings towards the government that has done this to the British people.
3. Who is important to you?
People’s relationships with those around them are one of their most defining characteristics. Who you care for and why says a lot about you and your priorities in life. The same holds true for your character.
It should be a given that your character cares for their ideals and their goals within the Anarchist Movement but what about those around him? Who does he love and care for? Who is he in a relationship with and what is its nature? Does he have a family? Close friends? What would they think of his secret life? Most would likely turn him in without a second thought as it is what they have been conditioned to do. The desires to both protect the ones that he loves whilst simultaneously trying to bring about sweeping, perhaps catastrophic, change as part of a group of freedom fighters are unlikely to be compatible, which creates great potential for conflict.
You should use this question to note down any Non-Player Characters (NPCs) who have an important, personal relationship to your character.
4. Who recruited you and how?
At some point your character woke up. The how and the why should have been dealt with by the question ‘How did you awaken?’ but you must still consider what happened to him next. The Anarchist Movement doesn’t take out adverts in The Times for new Anarchists to join their crusade against the forces of Order; they recruit people in a very select, careful manner. They must for government agents lurk everywhere and successful infiltration attempts can have disastrous consequences for the Movement.
Nevertheless at some point your character will have been approached. It may have been by another, more experienced member of his current Cell or it may have been by a different member of the Movement. Perhaps he was recruited by his Cell’s immediate superior, their connection to the wider Anarchist Movement. Perhaps it was by someone he has never seen again. Whatever the case this was his introduction to the Anarchist Movement and the world of possibilities that it offered. This was also the lead in to the introduction to his Cell, the most important group of people in any Anarchist’s life.
5. What is your preferred method of instigating change?
There are many potential ways to affect change within a political system and the route taken by an individual or group can earn them the moral high ground or see them derided by the international community as terrorists. Of course those striving for change may not care what outsiders think of them, their place in the footnotes of history paling in comparison to the ultimate success of their goals.
In the end the acts necessary to bring about the downfall of the British government may go far beyond that which your character believed himself capable but, especially in the beginning, he will have lines that he believes he is unwilling to cross. For some it may be violence, or more specifically violence against civilians and other innocents. For others it may be negotiation with the state that is so thoroughly controlling everyone’s lives. Whatever the case your character should decide where he draws a moral line in the sand and refuses to step over. What are his limits and taboos? What will he just not do? At least for now…
I like the questions, and
Submitted by David Donachie on Mon, 18/02/2008 - 13:35.
I like the questions, and the text is nicely written, but I think it needs some examples, and a guideline on how long the answer to each question ought to be. When writing Solipsist I had to say which things were going to be answered in a sentance, and which in a paragraph and so on.
http://www.solipsist-rpg.com/
Lovely stuff, Geoff. I'm a
Submitted by Joe Murphy on Mon, 18/02/2008 - 13:48.
Lovely stuff, Geoff. I'm a sucker for games with these themes. Your writing's all fine, though I don't know how well this suits the mechanics or the tone of the overall game. I do feel character generation could be angrier.
You could change the first question to be the past tense. Everything's changed. So 'What did you do?' or 'How did you live?'
'Who is important to you?' is maybe a little... ordinary? Maybe a bit pop-pschology and touchy-feely? 'Who is in your life?' or 'Who matters?' are a bit more evocative.
Question 5 is a good one. It might make sense, both for clarity and for mechanical reasons to break it into two questions: 'How will you bring them down?' or 'How do you change the world?' and then 'What is your limit?' Limit is an interesting question.
Will your answers inform the
Submitted by Andrew Kenrick on Mon, 18/02/2008 - 14:07.
Will your answers inform the mechanics of your character, or just the background? I think as written those questions are a great jumping off point, but it might be worth thinking how to make them integral to the whole character in play, not just the concept.
Some form of response!
Submitted by Geoff Hall on Mon, 18/02/2008 - 15:47.
David:
Examples are a good call. I wasn't sure if they might make the section a little too long but they are probably more help than hindrance even if they do lengthen it a bit. I know that blank slate syndrome can be a killer for indie rpgs sometimes and examples always help to combat the phenomenon.
Joe:
Interesting ideas. I like your renaming of some of the questions, especially the suggestions for question 5. I wasn't happy with the name of it, even if it does technically convey what I want it to. It feels too long winded as a question at the moment. Splitting it down into 2 questions might work as well, I'll try rewriting it like that and see how it reads.
As to the tone of the game, there should certainly be an undercurrent of anger from the Anarchists themselves but I want to temper that with a sense of inevitability and hopelessness. Sure you're angry and you'll do whatever you can to make a difference but you know that the government will hunt you down in the end.
Andrew:
At the moment it's a bit of both. Some of it is just for background material and to provide the GM with useful information and hooks around which to frame scenes. Some of it (most specifically the first question) should inform some of your mechanical choices further down the line. Mostly it should flow into your choice of Traits, both Anarchy Traits and Order Traits, where A-Traits are talents/abilities/whatever that you have discovered or have become useful since joining the Movement and O-Traits are those that made you suited to your day job, things that the government and the system know you are good at.
~Geoff
Dread Fuzzy Blog
With Solipsist what I have
Submitted by David Donachie on Mon, 18/02/2008 - 16:15.
With Solipsist what I have done is put most of the examples in boxouts or sidebars, which makes them much less of a problem since it takes them out of the text flow. Basically I have one full example for each section and then a bunch more in the boxout
http://www.solipsist-rpg.com/
Curse you subject field! ~Shakes fist~
Submitted by Geoff Hall on Tue, 19/02/2008 - 19:31.
With Solipsist what I have done is put most of the examples in boxouts or sidebars, which makes them much less of a problem since it takes them out of the text flow. Basically I have one full example for each section and then a bunch more in the boxout
Interesting idea and something I'd need to discuss with someone who could do layout for me. The reality is that I've got zero experience there and don't have the software to do it myself. It's a skill that I'd certainly like to learn (and I read Graham recent thread on the subject with interest) but I'm not really sure how to begin. Especially as I'm too broke to afford software!
~Geoff
Dread Fuzzy Blog
Relationships
Submitted by Geoff Hall on Tue, 19/02/2008 - 19:37.
Will your answers inform the mechanics of your character, or just the background? I think as written those questions are a great jumping off point, but it might be worth thinking how to make them integral to the whole character in play, not just the concept.
I've been thinking about this one some more Andrew and wondering if I should have more mechanical ties to the questions. Specifically I've been thinking about that old hippy game standby of giving mechanical weight to relationships, something that I haven't currently got. True, I'm looking at some method of encoding the relationships with your Cell members in the mechanics but I haven't given relationships with NPCs much thought. At the very least questions 3 and 4 ought to generate some NPCs to work with so it is something I'll consider.
I'm not sure about the rest though. I don't know that I want to mechanically fix a characters moral and ethical limits. It could well be interesting as an exercise but I'm not sure if it's the correct way to move forward with Anarchy. I think that I need to analyse precisely what I'm shooting for otherwise there's a real danger of getting sidetracked with stuff like this!
~Geoff
Dread Fuzzy Blog
My two cents
Submitted by Iain McAllister on Tue, 19/02/2008 - 20:54.
The questions seem fine to me but I thought I might be able to help with some mechanic advice. Without knowing more about the setting I would say the following:
1) Maybe this could be used by the GM, I assume it is GMed?, to see when your anarchist activities are beginning to be noticed by the 'real world'. Maybe this could be an increasing point pool you need to add to everytime you do something anarchisty?
2) Maybe characters aren't immune to everything but jsut one or two particular types of subliminal message. This could tie into some resistances in character, i.e. maybe they are better at seeing through someone trying to con them, or know when someone is showing them something that is untrue.
3) These relationships are mostly with the unawakened? If so they can certainly be used as something the governement might threaten if they uncover the truth about the character. They could be a weakness for him essentially, driving him to betray his anarchist feelings.
4) This could be a common link between all the characters, they were all recruited by the same person. Maybe this is a little like a relationship in that they dont want that person to come to any harm. That one is more colour than mechanic I feel.
5) The ways your character affects change are mostly likely those he is most adept at. Therefore his chosen method may give him bonuses in doing certain things. If he likes to give speeches then he could have great persuasion, charm etc. This is the most obvious one to tie very tightly to the game mechanic.
I would endeavour to make sure that every question asked has some game impact. Hope I have been of some help, though I may have strayed off topic slightly.
Cheers
Iain
Mob Justice now available!
'The Giant Brain':Small games, big ideas.
Cheers
Submitted by Geoff Hall on Wed, 20/02/2008 - 17:03.
Thanks Iain, there's some useful stuff in there.
I'll give a very brief run down of the basic system to give some reference. Essentially there are 2 different types if dice, Anarchy Dice and Order Dice. PCs start with 10 Anarchy Dice divided up into 3 pools, 1 for each attribute. They will also have Traits, either Anarchy or Order Traits. Each Traits can add an additional die to a pool during a conflict, obviously it will either be an Anarchy Die or an Order Die, depending on which Traits you bring in. I'm thinking of limiting it to one A-Trait per conflict but as many O-Traits as you like. I'm also thinking of doing essentially the same thing with relationships.
Anyway, you roll your dice (D6's) for a conflict and it's opposed by the relevant pool of either another player or an NPC/whatever that the GM rolls for. Usually the opposing pool (assuming it's being rolled by the GM) will consist of all O-Dice although that can vary depending on the precise nature of the conflict, obviously. 4+'s are a success, most successes wins.
That's achieving victory in the conflict, however there will also be a 'Flavour Victory.' That is whichever die type scored the most successes overall in the conflict. If it's an Order Victory then your PC will have to flip one of his A-Dice to an O-Die permenantly in the pool he was using. If the whole pool has already been flipped then an A-Die in one of his remaining pools will flip instead. Once all of your A-Dice have flipped to O-Dice you're done for. You'll have to write the character out somehow as the government's agents have finally caught up with him.
When this happen all of the other Cell members gain an O-Trait relating to the character and have 1 of their A-Dice flip. So, yes, it could conceivably cause a bit of a chain reaction amongst the rest of your Cell if they are all on the verge of death/capture as well.
I'm not sure whether there will be a method of re-flipping O-Dice back to A-Dice or not, if there is it will undoubtedly involve an Anarchy Flavour Victory in some fashion but that's a bit hazy and will depend on how playtesting goes.
Now, onto your points!
1) I hope my above description shows how I'm intending the Order Pool (as it were) to increase as the game goes on. It should also tie into the creation of Order Traits quite neatly.
2) I'm actually thinking of ditching question 2) after giving it a bit of thought. I think that I'll lose it in favour of Joe's suggestion of splitting question 5) up into two questions.
3) As I say I'm considering implementing A and O Relationships with dice assigned to them in the same way as Traits, with the difference that you have a pool of dice to assign and can assign more than 1 die to a given relationship (although not 2 dice of different types, a relationship would have to be either A or O flavoured, it couldn't be both.) Obviously this question should provide O relationships but there's no reason it couldn't provide A ones too.
4) It could well work that way. At the moment it doesn't but I might change that. Whoever recruited them could certainly generate an A Relationship anyway, even if it were another Cell member (although I'm thinking of codifying the links between the Cell separately but I haven't quite figured out Cell Creation yet.)
5) I don't know how in the world I missed that this one could tie tightly into A-Trait generation, thanks for giving me a smack upside the head there! As I say I'm leaning towards Joe's suggestion of splitting this one up. If I do I'm not sure what, mechanically, I will do with the personal limits part (if anything.)
~Geoff
Dread Fuzzy Blog
gorgeous
Submitted by Joe Murphy on Wed, 20/02/2008 - 18:46.
When this happen all of the other Cell members gain an O-Trait relating to the character and have 1 of their A-Dice flip. So, yes, it could conceivably cause a bit of a chain reaction amongst the rest of your Cell if they are all on the verge of death/capture as well.
That sounds like tremendous fun! Gives everyone a reason to work together, but there's a risk to it. Brilliant.
This sort of domino effect should run right through the text and the mechanics. This sells me on your game.
Damn you subject field!
Submitted by Geoff Hall on Thu, 21/02/2008 - 17:09.
That sounds like tremendous fun! Gives everyone a reason to work together, but there's a risk to it. Brilliant.
This sort of domino effect should run right through the text and the mechanics. This sells me on your game.
Really? That's... kinda cool actually. I'll look into emphasising it more and seeing where else I can bring it into the mechanics. I think it will be best tied into the mechanics of the Cell, which covers the relationships between the PCs, among other things. Or it will when it coalesces in my brain!
~Geoff
Dread Fuzzy Blog
Heard of 44? It's Invasion
Submitted by Joe Murphy on Thu, 21/02/2008 - 18:57.
Heard of 44? It's Invasion of the Body Snatchers. And one of the mechanics turns your best friends into one of them - and they've been one of them all along! That sold me on it. Coz _obviously_, that's how the game should work.
44?
Submitted by Geoff Hall on Thu, 21/02/2008 - 22:49.
I've not heard of it, no. I shall, however, now check it out.
~Geoff
Dread Fuzzy Blog