I know there's not a lot of you reading here, but for the few that are still here...
I'm going to be moving over to a new site soon, and quite frankly in between that, working on Unicorn and Baroque-punk and a few other little projects, I don't have time to give mediocre blog posts on a reliable basis.
So I'm cleaning up Unicorn--it is a decade old system at this point (gah!! I'm old!!), and fixing what I want to fix.
One of the big things is damage. Unicorn was a pretty simple hit point system, with an added "Critical Hit" system that I really liked, but not the Hit Point side. I mean, it worked, but...man, Hit Points. Hit Points are always a little wonky in general--I never know what they represent exactly other than "Hit Points", and they tend to make my fight feel more like a math exam than a cinematic fight. The thing is--I like me some cinematic fightin'.
Now, this has led me to a few days of really over thinking damage in general, and what I'd want in a game. And I realized that for me, it's not killing your target, but instead maneuvering them in a position to take them out. It's dueling with the other guy with a dramatic soundtrack until I finally get them weak enough/moved right in front of that cliff/whatever that I can throw a death-blow and end the fight for once and all. If I can quote a fellow gamer's PC/movie hero, the goal is to hit "the sweet spot".
The point of a fight isn't to take out a target's hit points, but instead to get them to be open for a take down, be that a swift left hook, a broadsword to a vital organ, getting behind their cover for a barrage of bullets, or whatever.
In this way, how many broadsword strokes you've takent doesn't come into play for most of a combat. Instead, it's your Stance, the way you're moving in the combat. Are you in control of the situation? Are you charging headlong into Hell, ignoring your own vittles to get at the other guy? Are you keeping to the shadows and hugging walls and keeping your shield in front of you? Are you stumbling and rolling away from the THING trying to eat you?
Basically, the Stance is how you're going to handle a fight. When you're attacking a major character--someone that's a real challenge, that is--you'll have two goals in a combat, to break through that guy's defenses while keeping your own up. So when you roll your dice, you're still saying "I'ma hit that dude with my chainsaws!!", but what you're really trying to do is get them off-balance and open enough for you to say "and then I kill him" in a way that sticks. You can decide how much attack you want to throw at a guy, or maybe burn a successful dice to change stances so you can hurt them a bit harder or maybe block a bit better. Now, there's still the issue that a really good roll can just bypass all of this and suddenly somebody's down (nothing's certain in combat), but if you're calm and controlled in the fight, odds are good you're not going to get hurt.
This gives us a few advantages in my own opinion. First, it makes combat a bit more cinematic--you're not just punching the dude over and over, you're trying to move them in a way where their blade is too slow or their just in the right spot for a roundhouse to knock them comically into a barrel of beer or through a plate glass window or down a bottomless pit. It also allows the player to be in control of their own "health" and gives us a way past the infamous "death spiral". There's going to be few negative modifiers in this--it's simply if you're open, you might get shiv'ed, so you might want to spend the successes to get yourself back in a defensive position.
Even better, the idea of Stances can work great for non-combat as well. Have you decided to forgo dungeons, instead running a game of politics and gerrymandering? Well maybe your speech is Aggressive or Defensive, and in the debate you'll Open the congressman's plan to be killed by the media...
This even works great as it's own "mana pool". Casting a spell isn't sucking up your energy, but it does make it hard to do anything else, like dodge an incoming arrow. By changing the fight from "how many hits" to "can you hit me?", it simplifies a lot of the other baggage of combat.
More later, but right now I'm slowly pulling together an alpha of Unicorn so I can get some volunteers to throw some of these ideas around in the wild. In the mean time, questions or +1's always appreciated.
Our two-year old has entered the full blossom of toddlerdom, decided that sleep and food are for mere mortals. Apparently stomping your foot is genetically recessive. Then I got her bug. Then real life, then...odds are good if you're reading this you probably know all these problems already.
But yeah, still here.
I'm still working on things, the main focus being the actual mechanics. I'd really like to be able to hand out an alpha for this. This is also drawing me away from posts.
So I've been pondering the forces you'll be fighting, and actions in general. Due to a number of motivators, I'm really trying to keep a combat round as simple as possible for the poor GM who has to handle an entire army, and for the players to be able to manage their characters quickly enough.
This has led me to Chess as a major design element.
(this has nothing to do with nothing, but man this thing will stick in my head!!)
Chess is simple, (more or less) balanced, and unless you got the special edition chess board, easy for a player to quickly figure out what's going on. Now, I can't quite off that level of simplicity with an RPG--nor would I want to. This is a hobby that does better when we can add components on top of core rules to make something special. Like Cooking--but that's another post...
What I can steal from chess is the idea of unit Ranks and Movement. Combined with the idea of Magic cards, and I got a whole lotta gas to cook with.
From a story point of view, Pawns are the henchmen, the front line guys that rarely get a hit in on the hero--but that's not their job. Their job is to slow the hero down and increase the sense of peril our heroes are in.
Then there are the "important" pieces of the back row. First, you have the "obviously important but not named" characters. These are the support bosses, the Imperial officer bossing around the storm troopers, or that guy in the old TMNT movies that barked things like "Ninja...Vanish!!" and vanish they did. By themselves, pawns are not that threatening physically to our heroes, but a good support unit can make them a much bigger threat.
Then there's the Special units. The one that your evil boss says "Unleash the Flying Monkeys/war-dogs/guys in red armor/tax attorneys!!" before sicking on you. These units probably have some special effects to back them up, and normally are just meaner and more deadly. Heroes will still probably win against them, but it might be at a cost.
Now, maybe you need more than Special--maybe you need a Big Bad Monster. Those things that are more special effects than characters, a veritable tidal wave of doom. Closer to forces of nature, something that nobody's going to be happy seeing.
Finally, there are the Named characters, the Champions--the guys who might actually get billing in the commercial for your game, or at least an action figure. These guys are at the level of the people they're going up against...if not the entire group, at least a singular hero.
These are broad and wide descriptors to be sure--but it's a place to start, and frankly I kind of enjoy the idea of building an army to stop your four PC's. Ranks help--they give the GM and the player's a glance of what they're dealing with, and how serious the situation is.
So now, back to Magic. As PbP and simple are two goals for me, I've quickly fallen to "why am I rolling to see if Thug #194 really hits you?" No, instead we're going to make sure that you can fit your villains into a simple spread sheet at least for a combat round. Quite simply, we don't care what the Skeletal Archer's social skills are like, since that's not why we brought him here.
Instead, the goal is that every NPC that you might fight will basically have a combat bar--This is their Melee, This is any ranged they have, this is how many hits they can take--basically a magic card description. Like the Magic Cards, we'll have room for special attacks or random things like "flying" or "Really scary" or "uncanny knowledge of the Dewey Decimal System", etc. Basically, we're looking for enough wiggle room for unit's to be unique to each other, but not so complicated that we all need special rules for every action other than "stab".
In general, the real trick of it is this--games should be simple enough to pick up fast, but complicated enough that you need to think about what you're doing to really get the most out of it. I know this is close to "salt is salty" when stated, but I think it's an easy thing to forget about.
I'm trying to build up an actual example of what these things might look like in case any of you are interested, so gimme a few days. This is the last crazy week for a while (until the next thing that makes me have a big crazy life), so I'm hoping to be able to really plug at a few things shortly.
Jack is friendly. He's polite. He might even show up if you try to summon him at a crossroads in the dark, or speak his name in a mirror 13 times (do not do this idly...he does not take well to those who waste his time). Jack can have a chat with you--he knows all about you. Jack wants to help you with your troubles. Jack wants to keep you from suffering what happens after you die.
So I've been thinking about devils...
A very good friend and I once talked about Catholic horror movies, like the Exorcist. He said the thing that he feared and loved about the Devil as a villain was that Satan was personally invested in watching you fail. His whole day was planning how to make you, a mere mortal, miserable and ready to fall. He knew you, studied you, learned your weaknesses, looked forward to prodding you and see how you responded. This has combined with the oh-so-90's awesombad movie, 'The Prophecy', where a youngish Aragorn gives us a memorable representation of ultimate evil, chewing on the scenery like it's made of Cadbury Creme Eggs and his father's pride;
All of this leads us to Smiling Jack, the Prince of the Restless.
The Damned are not on the same level of reality as humans. They do not understand us, and while their minions may be able to talk to us, they will never really be able to 'get' what we are, just as we are unable to really have a decent conversation with an eternally-tortured immortal anthropomorphic of an impossible concept. Well...except for Jack.
According to Jack at least, Death is broken--there is no afterlife, no blissful darkness. No, when you die you get stuck in you head, a soul bound in your skull. You're stuck there, Jack says, until the World is Made right--when Judgement comes. That could be a very long time to be alone. Then JAck comes--a skeleton dressed in ruined and moldy finery, his skull polished, his teeth too sharp and his rictus grin too wide and too big.
Jack doesn't want you to be alone. He wants you to join his Revelry, the party he hosts, at least until the universe finally wises up and kills itself. Sure, you'll be decaying and eventually turn into a cackling skeleton-thing, but hey--at least you can have fun while that lasts!
See, ol' Jack knows how to fix everything--this whole fallen reality started when mankind went and broke the rules, killing his own family in an act that Zha didn't see coming. So to get things back to normal, all we need to do is have every human kill themselves or their neighbor in pennance. Then everything will be right as rain, and Jack can get back to being whatever he's supposed to be. You want to help ol' Jack? Or does Jack need to shatter every bone in your body?
Jack, or his more proper title of the Restless Prince, is friendly like the Godfather or an abusive parent--he says he loves you, but he has no qualms about doing terrible things to you to make you follow him. His goals are hideous, his hatred for you for merely living (how dare you) is rich and full, and his drive is relentless. Jack will only be happy once every last heartbeat ceases...maybe then he can finally get some rest.
The Restless Prince has many cults--his ability to offer a way out of death (even if it does eventually mean being a husk) is a popular one, and his charm can make people forget themselves. His cults tend to move quietly and work in sabotage and destruction. They are rarely mass murderers, however--Jack wants humanity to understand how pathetic they are and end things themselves. We need to be sorry for our state of existence.
The Hellgates that lead to Jack's 'Manse' are opulent palaces, filled with dance, dining, and music. If everyone wasn't a rotting, shambling corpse, it would be almost perfect. Jack tends to rely on his "friends" to stop attackers--hordes of the Restless ready to stand up from their feast and help interlopers 'join the party', as it were. These undead are not shuffling brainless monsters--they're people with personalities and goals, just sans pulse. They are undying in every sense of the term--there are no critical hits or weak points on the Restless, and stopping one normally means disabling until they can burn the body. This can make attacking a Gauntlet a harrowing journey--it's easy for someone to cleave through a screaming monstrosity, but when your enemy is asking for you to stop and talking to you can cause an attacker pause. Jack doesn't go for giant monsters to destroy you--instead a Hellcrawl into his realms is a crushing fight designed to sap your spirit and make you decide to drop the sword, pick up a glass of black wine, and join in his eternal nightmare party.
Out of all the Sycoraphim, they say the Krakken fell the farthest. Deep in the impossible space of Antigenesis, the angel twisted and burned away, becoming something more monster than man. The Krakken was the first of the Fallen to learn how to craft their own Hells, to shape and mold the non-real fabric with their intrinsic divinity. However, it was clumsy and panicked, creating an infinite ocean. There, It became a being of impossible size, flailing in an ice-cold ocean of madness, mountain-sized tentacles stretching in every direction, trying to find something, anything, to hold onto.
The Krakken's dreams eventually forged themselves into the "Angels of the Sea", the Murr. While the Dragon-kind or the undead are terrible, at least they seem natural--beasts made by sane gods. The Murr are not a race so much as they are a bad dream of a race--beings that are a stitch-work of sealife and human. While every Murr is a unique creation, many of the "foot soliders" appear something close to the record of Doktor Maria Licta's Tome of Unnatural Visages:
"The creature was twice as tall as a man. The face was in vaguest nature a human, with six eyes of varying nature and a mouth big enough to devour a man's head, rows of needle-like teeth one after another. Skin was gray and pallid, with a slime encompassing it. The body was the most humanish part of the abomonation, but with two arms on the left side and one on the right. The right most arm ended in a claw like a gigantic crab, and the torso ending in 15 tentacles like a squid, each having a maw-like bundle of teeth at the end. The creature was not impeded by gravity, but instead appeared to float or swim through the air. It was strong enough to shatter a solid wall of the cabin, and only by the sheer luck and grace of Zha did we dispose of it."
Gauntlets that are crafted by Krakken are dispised by any Hell-crawler, as they are cold and damp and filled with sea water. Being destroyed by a demon is at least an honorable death compared to the banality of drowning. The Murr guardians are constant, and Krakken dreams many large and horrible monstrosities.
Cultists of Krakken are rare--Krakken does not bargain or deal, it merely is. Some that have fever dreams or nearly die in water will sometimes hear the Sycoraphim's call as they near death, and others may find some brokerage with the Murr on occasion. Some may even feel the desire to worship the creature simply due to its unimaginable and might. In the end, though, Krakken is a creature that is impossible to comprehend or communicate with. It simply waits for the day that the floodgates of reality can crash down, and it can come to our world and devour...
So yeah, a *smidge* of Lovecraft, I admit. The Murr are a lot of play on the Grindygriss from 'The Scar' by Mievielle, with their ability to just decide what their body should look like and ability to just shift a few body parts around and ignore gravity.
Glad to see that I still have some interest here. Hope you had a good month.
BAD NEWS Everything's the Same: So the big mighty changes I was hoping to accomplish...didn't. I'm not quite ready to move to another site. So for right now, we'll stick around a bit longer. I don't want to oversell this--this is a amateur blog site, I'm not becoming a major powerhouse in the gaming industry without some winning Power ball numbers or anything. At best, the goal is to basically make a better blog/website that might expand a bit and give me some room to put some PDF's down, and maybe brag about my far-from-professional cooking. What? I enjoy cooking and my recipes sound like they're being delivered by Dr. Doom.
GOOD NEWS Mechanics: I've got the bare bones of the mechanics pretty well settled on. I'm cleaning a few things up, but Unicorn is now a bit of a merger between the old and new, and it's rapidly becoming something that I think will work out. The nice part about this has been kicking things and seeing what sticks and what falls out of the tree, so to speak. The easiest way to describe it so far seems to be some kind of weird transporter accident between ORE, FATE, and Storyteller. This is...not at all what I was originally planning on. It's been really intriguing to see. I've never really had a game mechanic grow like this one. I don't know if I've become a better game designer in my old age or what...
Actually getting Mechanics to Work: The basic parts are down and organized, if not entirely legible to people outside my head. Now I've got to work on some of the specifics.
Bad Guys Getting Badder: A big part of what's been stalling me has been the mechanics I want the bad guys to use. I've been able to pencil some ideas down, and I'm trying to codify them into a set mechanic. I was able to expand a bit more on some of the other vague shadows I have in place of villains, and I'm starting to try to fit them into the mold of the game...if that makes sense.
More Good Guys: I've always had another character concept down, but I needed to really get how I wanted the bad guys to work before I thought I could really pull them off. I...still need to work on the bad guys, but at least I've got an idea enough for them to work. So yes--more character concepts to play with!
Oh yeah, Magic: I've got the meta...um, meta-physics fairly well organized at this point. It's not going to rattle people's paradigms of the supernatural, but it'll work and it's gameable (obviously a high priority).
So, we should have a bonus post or two to make up here this week and get back on track. But I just wanted to post something so you all knew I was still alive.
