Ok, after Andrew's reply to my old thread, I've started another one to describe Summerland, the new game I've been working on. I'll give an brief and simplified overview here of the setting, mechanics and in general what the game's about.
So, the premise of the setting is that the modern world has been overrun by an overwoldly forest called the sea of leaves. This 'event' effectively ended civilisation - cities were choked, roads and other communication routes destroyed, and buildings brought down. It's as if an ancient forest had been superimposed on the world, destroying anything that got in the way.
As a result of the event things were pretty bad, but it didn't end there. The forest wasn't a mundane wood as we would know it, but something magical. From the depths comes the call, a lure that draws people into the woods. Within a few weeks of the event large numbers of people had walked into the deeps, the dense heart of the forest, and disappeared. Only a relative few remained, huddled in tight knit groups. What's worse, some of the people that entered the forest turned wild, becoming little more than animals. There were stranger things in the forest too, unnatural animals and even some say spirits.
That's the state of the world - a ruin, doted with small groups of people forming small, tight knit communities, helping each other to resist the call especially at night when the voise of the wood invades the dreams of sleepers. All those that remain live this way, in fear of the woods. All except the nomads.
Nomads are individuals able to sleep within the forest. They are the only means of long distance communication, and the only link between communities over a day's travel apart. Many act as mercenaries, travelling from community to community, trading their unique skills for some shelter and companionship. Player characters are nomads.
Why don't nomads just settle down? In the case of player characters, it's because something from their past haunts them. Something terrible they have experienced has scarred their psyches, making them generally unwelcome in most communities for any length of time, and stopping them from forming healthy communities of their own. Ironically however, it is this mental scarring that alows them to travel the sea of leaves, the pain of their past drowning out the call.
In the game players take on the roles of a group of nomads. What they do depends on the type of game being played (a horror-based game, one focussed on bringing hope to the communities, or one that centres on the magical aspects of the setting for example). The playtest group have spent most of their time traveling from place to place and interacting with the various communities.
The mechanics are farly simple and quite narrative. Each character has four qualities - body, finesse, mind and empathy, and a number of tags associated with each quality, which are short descriptive terms covering skills, physical abilities, attitudes etc. An average quality has a value of 5 and a tag half that number.
Any action or conflict is resolved with a single roll of a number of 6 sided dice. First you generate a score by adding together a quality with two tags. This basically is a tool providing a descriptive element to how you do something. You then roll a number of dice dependent on the difficulty and have to get under your score to succeed. That's pretty much it with a few extra bells and whistles. In a conflict, both participants do the same and compare results. Combat, arguments, emotional confrontations and physical exertions all use this mechanic. The winner narrates how they won.
Two other aspects of play are stress and the call. Basically, stress is accrued in tense scenes by rolling sixes. Stress erodes a character's cool until they snap. The only way to regain cool is to relax in a safe environment - this is one of the reasons the nomads need the communities - there aren't any other safe environments. The call is related to a player character's past trauma - they can invoke the trauma in a die roll to get a pretty big bonus to their score (narrating why their past is involved, for example how the situation brings up a flashback of what happened to them, fleshing out their past as they do so). However, rolling ones acts to heal or resolve the trauma, which in turn makes the character more susceptible to the call. Again there's more to it than that, but in a nut shell that's how it works.
So there you have it.
Comments?
PS: I find the interesting thing in playtest is I end up simplifying the mechanics more often than not. I spend an age deliberating on something to include, only to find after playtest that it could be dropped with no effect on play. I uess that's the key - keeping the mechanics focussed on gameplay.
Great setting
Submitted by Graham W on Wed, 08/10/2008 - 10:33.
The setting is superb. I love settings.
What is the game about? It sounds as if it's about being a nomad, wandering from community to community. What do the nomadic PCs do when they get to a community?
The indie mantra is that the mechanics ought to reflect what the game's about. You're going solidly in that direction with Cool and Stress.
But I don't see how the central mechanics reflect what the game's about. You've got a sort of stats + descriptor system, which is common to many indie games: but, in those games, it's used with a purpose. What's your purpose for using that system? Why descriptors? Why those particular four stats?
It's a very exciting setting and I'd really like to see the ideas inherent in that setting going right through the game. There's an opportunity to reinforce almost everything with mechanics: what the nomads do in the communities, how the nomads settle in a community but must then leave...almost everything.
So I guess I'm asking the standard three questions. What's the game about, in a sentence or two, when it all comes down to it? What do the players do? What do the characters do?
(I'm also asking the Jared version of the three questions: what's the game about? How is it about that? No, seriously, how is it about that?)
Graham
Hi Graham, ok, I'll attempt
Submitted by Evil Doctor on Wed, 08/10/2008 - 11:13.
Hi Graham, ok, I'll attempt to answer those.
What's it about? In my mind the game is about survival. It's about normal people (albeit people with problems) trying to exist in an altered world. It's about that altered world and how people interact within it. I would say it's about horror, hope and survival. If you were in that world, how would you cope?
I chose the qualitiy and tag system as I wanted a game that centred on the nuts and bolts of what people can do. I see the system as a tool to say how a character is trying to do something - so if you were trying to persuade a person you met in the forest to lead you to their community you might use empathy with the tags 'talkative' and 'friendly' (assuming you had them of course!) - it's just a method of adding some colour to a dice roll if you like. The idea of tags is they encompass skills, traits, personality and attitude in a simple system without getting bogged down in skill lists and all of that stuff. Dice rolls are kept to a minimum - the old 'if the answer is yes, don't roll dice'. The reason for those four qualities? In a game about survival, it's what you can do that counts. I think when you are at the bottom line a simple description of what a person is/can do is what's needed. Hopefully this system stays very much in the background.
What do the players do? The players are exploring the setting and interacting with the communities.
What do the characters do? Depending to some extent on how you set the game up, the characters are trying to survive. To do this they need stuff - so part of the game is getting that stuff (food, equipment, basic survival stuff). But they also need a safe place to recover from the stress of the forest. Without that, they can't function properly. The stress and trauma are interlinked - healing the trauma reduces the effects of stress, but getting stressed out without finding a place to cool off increases the effect of the trauma. Having a trauma lets you move through the forest but makes your long-term proposition as a community member a problem. I guess it could be summed up like this - need trauma to survive in the woods, but trauma stops you from becoming a member of a community, need community to recover from stress, stress is cause by being in the woods. Get rid of trauma and all's well, but do it deep in the woods and you're a dead man… How do the PCs deal with this? Generally, PCs are only going to be allowed to enter communities if they do something for that community (think the man with no name in a fistfull of dollars). So the PCs and the communities need each other.
Far too wordy I know….
Dammit.
Greg
What question does your game ask of the players?
Submitted by Matt on Wed, 08/10/2008 - 11:58.
That's how I like to phrase the "what is your game about?" question. Cos asking what it's about tends to lead people to setting stuff "it's a Fantasy game!" or survival as the ubiquitous default. Seriously it's amazing how much that answer turns up!
You know, I think "If you were in that world, how would you cope?" might be that question, or it might not depending on what you want to achieve.
-Matt
Realms Publishing
To put it another way - the
Submitted by Evil Doctor on Wed, 08/10/2008 - 12:14.
To put it another way - the aim of player characters is to be accepted into a community as a member. They are nomads, stuck out in the cold. What they really want is to heal themselves of their past and become a normal person. So they travel about the place, helping communities. They have to keep moving as unless they are healed they won't be accepted and will be moved on. To emphasise, the characters do this so that they have someplace safe they can rest for a short while to recover from stress, whereas the players do this so that they can invoke their traumas in conflicts while helping communities and heal their character. Make sense?
Greg
Yes!
Submitted by Graham W on Wed, 08/10/2008 - 15:08.
Perfect sense.
Could you go through how the mechanics work for that? The whole cycle of needing communities...having to leave communities...needing communities again. I get some of it, but not all.
The argument I'll make, eventually, is that cycle (which is what the game is about, I think) should permeate all the mechanics. Like, the stats: how do they support that cycle? The freeform traits, the winner narrating: how do they support it?
See, I have sort of a feeling that you're using a "generic indie" system for skill rolls: stats, freeform traits, winner narrates. If you strip all that out...if you strip out everything that doesn't support what you're doing...things would get really interesting.
But, yes, if you could go through the mechanics, I'd be grateful. And stop me if I'm tearing your game apart too much.
Graham
Nah, that's cool
Submitted by Evil Doctor on Wed, 08/10/2008 - 15:20.
To some extent I would confess the quality + tag element is there because I like tradional rpgs…but it serves a purpose too in terms of the cycle.
You roll 2 to 4 dice in a conflict or action, and try to roll under your score. More diffcult it is, the more dice you roll. Assuming it is a stressful situation, any rolls of 6 knock off a cool point. These start equal to the mind quality, a value between say 2 and 6. If they drop below a certain value related to how stressful the scene is when you lose a point, you stress out and have to act in a certain way (called a stress reaction). That lasts a scene. Next secen you're ok unless you lose another cool point. The thing is, you can only get cool points back is by going someplace with a tension level of zero, and the only place like that in the sea of leaves is a community that has accepted you, even if only for a short while. So while you're out doing your stuff in the woods your cool gradually gets eroded until you can find a community to accept you - usually in return for doing something for them.
Traumas have values start equal to the empathy quality at a value between 2 and 6-ish again. When you are involved in an action or conflict, if you invoke your past trauma (this reminds me of what happened when I lost my sister - I can't let that happen again!) you get a +4 bonus to your score. You then narrate the link to your past an fill it in on your character sheet, fleshing out what happened to your character. However, if you roll any 1's then you knock off a trauma point, as you are confronting your past and coming to terms with it. That's how you heal a trauma. In the woods each place has a call level - the rating of your trauma against that level indicates whether you are affected by the call or not. Lose all your trauma points in the deeps (the heart of the wood) far from a community and you could be in big trouble.
If you wig out and stress, trauma goes up by one. If you heal a trauma point, cool goes up by one.
That's pretty much it.
Greg
Cool.
Submitted by Matt on Wed, 08/10/2008 - 18:32.
As Graham says, that cycle of needing communities but being forced to move on, repeat, is some great stuff.
Questions that leap out at me:
What process have you got for setting up the character / community relationships? I think if you can nail this down to be super quick and easy in prep, it'll be a big win.
Who sets a character's acceptance, what causes it to flucuate and what choices does that bring up for the player?
I kinda envision there being a choice between: do we do this favour to get acceptance that is really likely to stress us out and risk trauma, or do we risk travelling on? Is that what you're going for?
-Matt
Realms Publishing
That's the way see it too.
Submitted by Evil Doctor on Wed, 08/10/2008 - 19:06.
The relationship between characters and comunties is defined at the start of play by sketching out very loosely the trauma that affects them, and a quick note of why they were forced to leave the community they once belonged to just after the event.
Characters acceptance is set on the condition that they serve a function - if you do this for us, then sure, you can stay here a while, just not too long. The player characters have to decide if the task is worth the risk.
At the moment, the level of a character's trauma dictates how long they are accepted for on an abstract level - the lower their trauma value, the more 'normal' they are. This is basically a narrative tool for the GM (narrator in this case) to set up the game.
Is that wnat you mean?
Cheers,
Greg
Yeah, sort of
Submitted by Matt on Wed, 08/10/2008 - 20:20.
I'm just curious as to how elements fit together mechanically at this stage. I can't speak for Graham who may have other things he's interested in!
So, I get the feeling the resolution of Traumas is a big part of the game. As when you lose them all you can settle down, and you can only lose them all by chosing to use that +4. That's cool. From a satisfying story kind of angle, it'd be good if tasks set by communities are built in prep to reflect the PCs Traumas somehow.
How abstract is acceptance? If it starts off based on current Trauma, can I temporarily manipulate it based on my characters success/failure at the various tasks? Are there definite levels of consequence? Ie 5 trauma in a group means they won't sell you food, or whatever.
Given that a group's Trauma levels may vary, that could lead to some great situations. We try desperately to impress the locals so mad davy doesn't upset them too much...
-Matt
Realms Publishing
Yep, that's the plan.
Submitted by Evil Doctor on Wed, 08/10/2008 - 20:34.
Tying the traumas into the scenarios is part of the narrators job, but also something for the players. Traumas are deliberately vague at the start of play, givng players plenty of opportunity to develop them through use in the game - so if you like, the players creativity is key to the use of traumas.
At the moment aceptance into a community is very loose based on trauma levels. I could codify it a bit more - that might be an idea...
Greg
Neat
Submitted by Graham W on Thu, 09/10/2008 - 09:42.
That sounds fun. You must show me it sometime.
If I was making more suggestions, I'd talk about going through the game and making sure everything supported what you're trying to do. Have you got stuff in there that's cool, but doesn't support the game concept? Have you got stuff in there that's a legacy of other game systems? If so, question it like hell.
(Like: difficulty numbers. Who sets them? Do you need them? Or the winner narrating: why is the winner narrating? What happens if the loser does it? What happens if the players always do it?)
Anyway, I'll stop, because I'm just firing unsolicited feedback at you. Let us know if you need any specific feedback.
Graham
cheers all
Submitted by Evil Doctor on Thu, 09/10/2008 - 10:11.
Thanks folks - you've clairified a few things in my mind, I'll let you know what I might need later. If I can work out how, I'll post up some art.
Cheers,
Greg