Bah. Humbug.

Gah. I need to take a break.

Talk to y’all in the new year. Feel free to drop me a line through email or AIM if need be.

[Imp] The Conflict Matrix

So here’s what I’m thinking about how conflict-y kind of stuff gets resolved in Imp of the Perverse.

At the start of the game, the GM shuffles a standard deck of cards (no jokers) and lays out a 3×3 grid in the middle of the table. The proportion of red to black cards represents which aspect has default precedence, Human Nature (red) or the forces of the Perverse (black). In any situation where someone doesn’t want someone else to get what they want, if no-one does anything about it, the default wins.

Say black is dominant. This means that for any given character, if the GM or the player of that characters Imp doesn’t want them to do something that they’re doing, they won’t be able to do it unless they use the stuff on their character sheet.

Now, you have a number of trait-like things on your sheet (Essential, Important and Interesting Traits; Discipline, Nerve and Malocchios; and the stuff of Grim and Horrible Tales). Each of these things is linked to a card suit. Spades is reason and logic, clubs is physical action or violence, hearts is emotion and irrational passion, and diamonds is mental fortitude, quickness of the mind and strength of will. Your Traits have boxes.

When you want to change the matrix to be more favorable to you, you check off a Trait that is the same suit as one or more of the cards in the matrix. You then do something that I haven’t really decided on yet, as I still need to work out all the implications of the various options. Basically, you use the stuff on your sheet to change the composition of the matrix, and then people who don’t like it can spend their Traits to try and change it back, and so on. Doing stuff with face cards requires Malocchios (magical powers, essentially) or Lusus Naturae (creating monsters). The Grim and Horrible Tales stuff is resources that get awarded to you by other players, that you use to refresh or reinforce what you can do with your other stats.

The idea is that everything happens the the matrix. You never have a hand of cards, or anything like that, and you don’t need to track the matrix from one session to another. You just deal out a new one at the start of each session.

So, thats what I’m trying to do some work on right now.

Any Mac Wizards?

So I dropped my Powerbook G4 the other day and I thought it wasn’t broken but I think it is.

Disc repair says that my volume has an Invalid Volume Header AND an Invalid Key Length and it can’t repair it. It won’t mount my hard disk to boot - I can boot from the install CD and from my Mac Mini (via Firewire), but I can’t get to any of the stuff on my hard disk either of those ways (unless there’s a trick I don’t know).

I mean, I’ll just wipe and reinstall, except that 85% of my game stuff is on that computer, including all of the graphics and layout files for my published games, and all of my notes for Imp.

All I need is to pull off some files, if I can. So, if anyone has some guidance, I’m all ears.

Gettin’ Shifty

Blah. Haven’t had time to play anything since JiffyCon, pretty much. Maybe I’ll get a session of Burning Wheel in before christmas, but thats about it.

By the same token, having a hard time putting pen to paper for Imp Of The Perverse. I need to find some time and concentration to dedicate to it. Maybe I’ll go into the city one of these afternoons and find a coffeeshop and just write for a few hours.

Also, thinking more and more about production and less and less about procedures of play. This balance needs to tip back before too much longer, or I’m going to be trapped in this restless phase where I want it to be done but don’t want to do the work. Which is a totally lame place to be in.

Part of it is that I’m getting intimidated by the scope of the project, especially now that I generally have less free time than I have over the last couple of years. It’s going to take a huge amount of work to get it where I want it, and I have almost nothing done - it’s like staring at a mountain and realizing that you haven’t even put your shoes on yet.

The intarwebs are taking a lot of my attention, also. I feel like I need to shut myself up in a cave with a pen and some animal skins and just scratch out some product for days. Maybe the holidays will help with this - I’m pretty productive when I travel, and the change of scene will probably be good as well.

Too bad I’m not taking a train. I get a lot done on trains.

Grumble.

RPG Design Handbook: Chapter 2 (part 2)

So far:

• Table Of Contents
• Chapter 1, Part 1
• Chapter 1, Part 2
• Chapter 1, Part 3
• Chapter 2, Part 1

Chapter 2: Core Questions
Part 2: The Alternate Three

The “Alternate Three” are another set of three questions meant to help you focus on what, exactely, you want your game to do, and how you want it to do that. It’s most useful as a filter to pass your actual drafted rules through, as it is really good at picking out where a rules text is inconsistent with the stated purpose of the game. I first heard them expressed by Jared A. Sorensen (author of InSpectres, OctaNe, and Lacuna, Part 1, among others) in this fashion:

• What? What is your game about?
• How? How is your game about that?
• What? What behaviors does it reward or encourage in order to fulfill the How?

What? What is your game about?

We’ve covered this question already in the last section. However, the Alternate Three can help with turning the ad copy answer into the productive answer - so, if you are having trouble finding this answer when doing the Big Three, try doing the Alternate Three first!

Example: “My game is about a world where it’s always night and vampires are the ruling class, but now the sun is rising and the humans are fighting back.”

This isn’t a very useful answer, right now. Via the Alternate Three, we’re going to analyze it and see if we can make it more useful.

How? How is your game about that?

This question is asking what procedures of play enact or create the thing that your game is about. This applies to written rules, to expected interactions, and even to presentation and packaging of your game (if you’re already thinking about that). Basically, when someone sits down to play your game, how will they be enacting the experience that you want them to have? Do you have a resolution mechanic that creates the right kinds of outcomes that you want? Do you have pacing mechanics that structure a play session in the way you want? Do you have a character generation engine that creates the kinds of characters the game requires? When writing rules, you can come back to this question over and over again. How does rule X support premise Y? How does this procedure create that outcome?

Example: “How is my game about a world where it’s always night….(and so on)?”

Let’s say that, in this game, you can play either vampire Nobles or human Revolutionaries. The game has a GM, is structured such that the group of players can be either all Noble, all Revolutionary, or half and half. There’s some rules about player-vs-player conflict when it’s half and half, and the GM gets a different set of responsibilities in this case as well. The resolution system is a percentile roll-under system, and the scope of resolution is primarily about whether discrete tasks are successful or not. There’s also a Prestige mechanic that enables players to gain narrational authority over NPCs that know of their character, and to improve their characters abilities.

So, looking at this limited set of mechanics, how are they about the stated premise of the game? Well…they’re not, really, except for being able to play Nobles or Revolutionaries. The rest of the answer to “what is your game about?” is setting explanation and character concepts.

And here we come to the full usefulness of the Alternate Three. Once you have identified the procedures of play that you, as the designer, pick out as those that support the goal of the game, you can reverse engineer from them back to your “about.” The lesson here is that the game will be about what the procedures of play support, not the other way around.

Example: So, in this case, the game is about the conflict between Nobles and Revolutionaries, which you can explore either from one side, or from the middle (as the character generation implies). It’s about gaining the most mindshare from the general populace (as thats where the Prestige mechanics kick in) via descrete tasks and attempts (looking at the resolution mechanic).

So, we can re-conceptualize the answer to the first question as “This game is about building or squashing a revolution, as both sides act to get the general populace on their side.”

What? What behaviors does it reward or encourage in order to fulfill the How?

This question is about the nuts-and-bolts of how your game will structure the interactions of the players in order to attain your design goals. A resolution mechanic that require a caculator will probably discourge quick-moving, highly stylized play; a simple bidding mechanic will tend to make it difficult to enact deep strategic choices; and so on. This extends to all of your written procedures of play, of course. Characters should have the kinds of abilities that will allow them to interact in the way you want; players should be able to affect different parts of the fiction in different ways in the same manner. One common example of this is the “plot point” mechanic, whereby a player can spend a plot point in order to make a change to the fiction that they usually couldn’t. Depending on how the plot point economy works, this could either encourage players to bide their time and wait for the big scenes to use them (few plot points, rarely refreshed), or to be continually pushing what they want onto the stage, knowing that everyone else can do the same (many plot points, constantly refreshed).

Example: So, what behaviors does our sample game reward or encourage? The character generation encourages making a concious choice about all being in this together, or about the game being more of a personal struggle; the Prestige system rewards gaining the attention of the populace; and the resolution system rewards attempting descrete actions (say, by some kind of long-term experience point gain that happens whenever you engage in resolution, whether you succeed or fail).

Let’s trace the Prestige mechanic back up through the questions. It rewards swaying NPCs to your side; this enables you to gain their mindshare in order to help you in your fight against the other side; this is how the game is about getting the populace to back you in your struggle.

Conclusion

As you can see, the Alternate Three is an interconnected set of questions. This is a powerful tool you can use in order to identify inconsistencies in your design, and address how it all works together. You can trace your procedures of play up and down through the three levels in order to fully conceptualize them as being in line with your design goals.

Next up: The Power 19

Dreamation On The (Mental) Horizon

And here’s what I’m planning to run at Dreamation 2007:

Thursday

Event Title: A Night Of Enticing Stories

System: 1001 Nights

Blurb: 1001 Nights is the game of storytelling, courtly intrigue and self-preservation in the palace of the Sultan. “You play members of the Sultan’s Court, whiling away the sultry nights by telling pointed stories to advance your own ambitions. Navigate the social maze and you could win your heart’s desire; offend the wrong person and you suffer the Sultan’s wrath.” This rotating-GM style game gives everyone the opportunity to tell tall tales and enjoy the parables of others.

Maximum number of players: 6

Please choose an attitude rating for this game: Fun

Please choose an age rating for this game: Suitable for All Ages

Friday
Event Title: The Burdens Of War
System: carry. a game about war.

Blurb: carry. a game about war. is a short-form game that follows the story of a squad of U.S. Marines in the Vietnam war. The players take on the roles of soldiers from this squad, and create the weights and issues that they bring with them into the war. As the unit falls apart under both external attack and internal strife, how will you shape the legacy and memories that you will leave behind? This is not a convention scenario; this game is played in its entirety in one 4-hour session.

Maximum number of players: 6

Please choose an attitude rating for this game: Serious

Please choose an age rating for this game: Suitable for All Ages

Saturday

Event Title: The Burdens Of War

System: carry. a game about war.

Blurb: carry. a game about war. is a short-form game that follows the story of a squad of U.S. Marines in the Vietnam war. The players take on the roles of soldiers from this squad, and create the weights and issues that they bring with them into the war. As the unit falls apart under both external attack and internal strife, how will you shape the legacy and memories that you will leave behind? This is not a convention scenario; this game is played in its entirety in one 4-hour session.

Maximum number of players: 6

Please choose an attitude rating for this game: Serious

Please choose an age rating for this game: Suitable for All Ages

Event Title: The Guardians of Time

System: Timestream

Blurb: It’s a big responsibility, the preservation of history. And those tasked with it have started to slip. Strange events and changes are started to erupt in every era, and now you’ve been tapped as a replacement. Unfortunately, you have your own goals and interests - which may or may not match up with your new duties. Will you and your compatriots be able to stand up to the test of time itself? Or will you let your personal interests get between you? As Time Travelers, Temporal Manipulators and Thralls, the fate of the timestream itself is in your hands.

Maximum number of players: 6

Please choose an attitude rating for this game: Fun

Please choose an age rating for this game: Suitable for All Ages

Keepin’ my Sunday open, baby. I’m looking forward to this one.

The Voice

The second EVAR Voice Of The Revolution podcast contains a review of carry. a game about war. Brennan played in a playtest of it at last years Dreamation; Paul Tevis hasn’t played it yet but wants too; and they both have very thoughtful (and complimentary) things to say about the game. Check it out, yo.

I would love to hear them talk about it after they both get to  play a full game.