Court d'Capitate: Mechanics Brainstorm

"Patience, my pet. Soon you will have a chance to sate your bloodlust."

I've been working on coming up with potential mechanics for this game. As a part of this effort, I've been rereading my copy of Hobby Games: The 100 Best, which consists of 100 articles by various industry veterans. Since most of these articles dedicate at least a page to the game's mechanics and the interesting/unique effects those mechanics create, it's a great source of inspiration.

At this point, the ideas are crystallizing into something that could be really elegant. The items on this list in bold are ones I've currently decided to use.

-Scheme cards in your hand can never be used directly. They always have to be played face-down during your turn, attached to a pawn or plot. (I actually came up with this back when I was writing the earlier post on this game, and revised some of the description accordingly)

-During your turn you invest some form of "currency" (points you gain and/or spend during the game) in your pawns, and regain those points at the start of your next turn- if the pawn is still alive.

-At the start of each round, a number of pawns are laid out equal to the number of players. Players bid for the pawns they want, and no one can receive more than one.

-At the end of each round, players secretly bid a currency in an attempt to gain the king's favor, which probably means you receive victory points.

-The turn order varies randomly each round.

-Combining elements of the above three: Lay out 1 pawn per player, then secretly bid Turn Points to determine turn order. At the start of your turn, pick a pawn for free.

-Scheme cards can be discarded from your hand during your turn to gain extra turn points.

-Paranoia scores come in pairs; the second, presumably lower number being used when the pawn is occupied.

-Event cards are revealed at the start of the *previous* round, giving everyone a turn to prepare.

-Assassination attempts against unoccupied pawns cause you to lose victory points equal to the amount by which their Paranoia exceeds your plot's cunning (assuming it does so).

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Trigger Discipline: The Dice Game

I had to run into town for an errand today, and swung by a local game store. I wound up recruiting a couple of the other patrons for impromptu playtests of TD's new core mechanics as a standalone dice game, sketching out the "board" on the back of a notebook page. As I'd hoped, the system proved fairly playable on its own merits, and the players in both tests commented on how simple it turned out to be once you'd played a turn or two. (In other words, it's alot easier to *show* people how this game works rather than telling them. I might try to put together a demonstration video using my webcam, if I can work around the hurdle of said webcam being builty into my laptop)

To play the Trigger Discipline dice game, both players take 3 d10s and place them how they like on the three spaces on their side of the board (the ones separated by the two dividing lines). They use one hand to cover up theirdie placements until both sides are ready to reveal them. Next, players roll the dice they allocated to Row A (i.e. Traits). Every die that comes up with a result of 8 or less is a success; if one player gets more successes, they have won that row, and place a die in the center to mark this victory (in longer-lasting matches it becomes important to place two dice when your margin of victory was greater than 1). The process is repeated for row B and row C, except that the dice have to lower to be considered a success; 5 for row B and 2 for row C. (To play the game with six-sided dice, change the values from 8-5-2 to 5-3-1).

Once all dice have been rolled, the round goes to the player who won row C. If there was a tie, it goes to the one who got row B, and then to the victor for row A. At the end of the round, both players make a side roll using a single d10; a result of 5 or less means yourdie pool's size increases by 1, up to a maximum of 7. If one of you won the round, that player instead gets an extra die if their side roll comes up as 8 or less. If a player wins a round and already has a fulldie pool, they get a bonus die on the next round that's allocated and rolled after all other die rolls have been made (giving them a chance to break a tie, or create one in a row that the enemy only won by a margin of 1).

If a player wins two rows (and neither are trumped by a row the opponent won) they've scored a Double. This earns them a Victory Point, 3 of which are needed to win the match. If they win all three rows, they score a Triple and earn both a Victory Point and a bonus match win! First player to get 3 match wins has won the game.

Several fixes were made mid-playtest; I changed the scores from 3/5/7 to 2/5/8, changed side roll win bonus from 7 to 8, added the mechanic for the post-roll bonus die to avoid prolonged stalemates. At this point, I think the numbers involved have been tweaked enough to approximately produce the results I'm after in Trigger Discipline. When the second playtest was coming to an end, I was still concerned about the length- though I didn't keep track of time, the game was certainly feeling long, and I fully expect the length of each round to double when the winner is also getting to narrate his hot-blooded mech pilot's attack. But then I weighed in a couple other factors- that this was the most involved form of the conflict rules (with two full-fledged main characters doing battle, rather than one main character fighting a weaker challenge represented by prearranged die assignments), and that I'd expanded the scope of the dice game to something that approached an entire RPG session in order for triple successes to count for something. Taken by itself, a single match now seems to allow for a full range of possibilities- from battles over in moments (He puts all 3 dice into GAR and gets nothing, I put 1 die into each row and all 3 succeed) to long, drawn-out slugfests, with both those extremes being possible but not *too* likely.

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Court d'Capitate

Lady Andrea d'Capitate, seen here shortly before her death under mysterious circumstances involving an unlocked window, a blowgun dart laced with Kroazian Happy Juice, and a greased pig that had somehow gotten loose inside the royal ballroom.

Picture a game taking place in a royal court that's practically overflowing with backstabbing and intrigue. Players start by each selecting a Mastermind character- many of these characters are members of the host family (the wealthy and influential d'Capitates), but just as many are guests (members of other noble families, a foreign ambassador, a long-lost heir to the throne). The Masterminds (each of whom has their own mechanical quirks that influence how they play) then spend the game vying for influence, until one of them finally becomes amasses enough that they can order that all their rivals be beheaded for treason. They do this in two ways: acquiring Pawns to manipulate, and carrying out increasingly convoluted murder schemes.

The game would be played via several sets of cards- first would be those Mastermind cards listing your stats and special abilities. Second would be a deck of Pawns; I imagine that players would flip over the top card of the deck once per turn, and then take turns bidding on that Pawn to determine who acquires him. Third would be the hand full of Scheme cards that each mastermind has; each will either be an Assassination cards that represents an individual element of a murder plot, or a Plan cards you play face down besides one of your Pawns, to be activated when the prerequisites are triggered and the time is right. Fourth would be event cards, with a new one each round that changes the conditions based on what's going on in the court, such as a musical performance or a toast to the king's health.

Every Pawn has a Luck score (which determines the total Lethality an assassination attempt needs to kill them), a Paranoia score (Which makes it more difficult to get away with assassination attempts), and an Influence score (which gives you points towards your eventual victory so long as the character is unoccupied, i.e. untapped, at the start of your turn).

Masterminds create new assassination plots by writing down the name of that plot's target on a slip of paper, folding it up, and then placing an Assassination card face-down on top of it. Each turn they can add more Assassination cards to the plot. Each card has a Lethality score (for successfully killing the target), a Cunning score (for not getting caught, lest you have to pin the blame on a pawn that will promptly be executed), and a Style score (the number of Victory Points you'll receive if the attempt succeeds); an attempt uses the total of each card's score in each area. And naturally, killing an opponent's pawn means they must discard any Plans attached to that pawn.

That's the gist of the idea. What do you think?

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Maelstrom Trader: Skills

You could say I've been working on this game for a week now. You could also say I've spent that time *getting ready* to work on it. I'm simultaneously learning to use Unity 3D and outlining the mechanics for the game; we'll see whether I manage to reach a point where the two aspects of the game aren't separated.

Every man on your ship, yourself included, has skills that level up over time. You have access to Captain Skills and Special Skills. Your appointed mates (which actually means anyone with a special position, such as a doctor) have Special Skills and Crew Skills. The rest of your crew has only Crew Skills.

Captain Skills can best be described as various answers to "A good captain ________", as you'll see if you read the skill descriptions below. Special Skills usually only use the highest score among your crew, though having two people who know how to do some vital job becomes very handy when one catches space dysentery. Crew Skills, by contrast, generally use the sum of every participating hand's score. A skilled hand can achieve the same results as 4 novices.

The actual scores one can have represent the following levels of proficiency:
0-Incapable
1-Novice
2-Basic
3-Capable
4-Skilled
5-Impressive
6-Top-Notch
7-Renowned
8-Legendary

CAPTAIN SKILLS
Discipline: Ensures that his crew functions as a well-organized unit.
Evaluate: Quickly picks out the best men for each task.
Negotiate: Does a good job of representing his vessel and managing its affairs.
Perception: Can easily gauge the mood and thoughts of those around him.
Presence: Commands respect from his crew.
Rally: Keeps his men motivated and in high spirits.
Training: Knows how to turn a novice crew into seasoned deckhands.

SPECIAL SKILLS
Aether Sight: Sighting objects that would normally be obscured by aetheric mists.
Cooking: Preparing healthy meals from the available supplies.
Commerce: Gauging the best time and place to buy/sell various goods.
Cultures: Understanding the beliefs and customs of the various peoples you encounter.
Engineering: Working with the ship's technologically advanced aspects.
Entertain: Helping to improve morale.
Interspace: Knowing how to survive Maelstrom's unique space ecosystem.
Medicine: Treating all manner of ailments.
Navigate: Charting a course and staying on track.
Tactics: Leading men in battle.

CREW SKILLS
Hand-to-Hand: Close combat against sentient beings.
Harvest: Gathering and processing supplies.
Hunting: Tracking and killing the various creatures in Maelstrom's interspace.
Maintenance: Keeping the ship and cargo in good condition.
Operate Vessel: Using your ship's systems to their full potential.

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So I'm considering making a video game.

I don't know if I've mentioned this before, but my interest in game design applies just as much to video games as it does to tabletop fare. The main reason I focus on non-electronic projects is that I can focus most of my efforts on the tasks that most interest me- creativity and the actual mechanics of the game, rather than matters like animating an orc's attacks or trying to hunt down bugs.

Still, I've been paying alot of attention to the freeware release of the Unity3D engine- it's gotten plenty of buzz in the local game development interest group I'm a part of. And when Rock Paper Shotgun community member James Carey announced he was going to try an experimental game-building project, my first thought was "Wait a second, I could do that!"

The question is: what sort of game could I do well? Something that had relatively few demands in terms of programming and creating assets, while drawing on my existing strengths (world-building, writing, complex systems of game mechanics). Something set in a small, well-realized game space.

And the answer is: The Oregon Trail IN SPAAAAAAACE.

The game's setting would be Maelstrom, a world (or rather, a solar system) that I've already talked about a little. You would play as the captain of a ship that's sailing along the main Aetheric Current, the setting's foremost trading route; a formidable journey that takes you by each of the 4 gas giants (the setting's equivalent of continents, since their moons are the the setting's inhabited worlds). The entire game would take place on your ship, the goal being to effectively integrate various aspects of the game into the actual first gameplay of moving around and interacting with things. To look at the map, you walk into your quarters, look at your map, and press "e" (rather than just hitting the "m" key wherever your character happens to be on the ship).

There's much more to the game's design than that, of course. I intend to take a page from the obscure gem King of Dragon's Pass, and confront players with a constant series of unique dilemmas where the crew members they've recruited will weigh in as to the best course of action.

The plan is have this be my main project for the month of December, to post development notes and weekly progress reports, and to have some kind of working prototype ready before 2010 comes along. We'll see what actually happens.

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M&M + FF7: Jenova Powers

Grisly Scene in action.

As mentioned before, I'm really proud of how these turned out. They're essentially a concrete mechanical way of adding in the elements discussed in my post on drawing on the slasher genre, while also creating some engaging gameplay. Both the powers and the associated drawbacks are designed to give a character something of a sinister bent, whether they're a well-intentioned hero or BBEG.

Jenova Powers are only available to characters tainted with Jenova cells. They can provide a notable edge, but generally come with drawbacks and require special GM permission to customize beyond the options listed in their descriptions. If a character's current corruption score is less than a power's prerequisite, that power is nullified (any drawbacks remain in effect). Characters may opt to nullify extras that increase a Jenova Power's corruption prerequisite so that they can retain the use of the power in a weakened form.

ABSORB MATERIA (1 pt per rank, Corruption 3)
You gain a materia slot as though you were a Device with the same power rank. An absorbed materia can be knocked out of your body by a strong impact, so others can still attempt to disarm them if you're helpless.
Extras
-Additional Slot (+1, +1 Corruption): Each time you take this extra, you gain another materia slot or form a link between two unlinked slots.

BACKSTAB (1 pt per rank, Corruption 2)
You add your power rank to your damage bonus for lethal attacks against surprised opponents, as well as bluff, disguise, and stealth checks made to prevent someone from recognizing you as a threat. (The limited application of this bonus might lead the GM to declare that you partially succeed at a check. For example, he might say that a target's bodyguard rolled well enough to notice you lurking in the shadows, but not well enough to defeat your stealth check for the purpose of recognizing that you pose a threat; the guard orders you to come out in the open, but he doesn't draw his weapon or sound an alarm.)
Drawback: Temper
Choose a trigger that aggravates your character towards a person, such as being treated in a disrespectful manner. This trigger should have a frequency of Very Common (meaning there's a 25% chance that you'll get through an adventure without it coming up at least once). When someone sets off the trigger, your character must make a will save (DC 10+power rank) to avoid lashing out at the person in question. If your character is in position to "lash out" by making a lethal surprise attack, the save DC increases by 5, and if they fail the save by a margin of 5 or more they must make the attack rather than lashing out in another fashion (i.e. verbally).

BOOST (1 pt per rank, Corruption 0)
Each use of this power boosts one of your physical ability scores, as normal. The modifiers from these boosts are applied after the normal limits on ability scores, skill check bonuses, damage bonuses, and so on.
Extras
-Mental (+1, Corruption +3): You can also boost your mental ability scores.

DUPLICATION (2 pts, Corruption 6)
The power's duration is continuous, but a duplicate's Power Level decreases at the rank of 1 rate per hour until it reaches 0 and dissipates. Your clones have no will of their own; you must issue them commands, which can be done as a move action.
Power Feats
-Mind-Link: As normal.
-Progression: As normal.
-Long-Lasting: Each time you take this feat, the interval of the rate at which your duplicates fade increases by 1 step along the Time and Value table.
Drawback: Degradation
You suffer a penalty on to skill checks, attack rolls and Defense equal to half your power rank, rounded up. This penalty fades at the rate of 1 point per 20 minutes. This drawback occurs with a frequency of Common; with GM approval, a player may also voluntarily choose to have the degradation's effects occur as a Complication.

FRENZIED ASSAULT (1 pt per rank, Corruption 4)
As a full action, you can make a melee attack against all opponents you can physically reach within a radius of (power rank × 5 feet). This attack can be a normal strike or a special action like Disarm or Trip. Make one attack roll and compare it against all targets in the area.
Power Feats
-Agile: After making your attack, you may move adjacent to one of the opponents you targeted.
Drawback: Bloodlust
Whenever you attempt to inflict nonlethal damage, you must make a will save (DC 10+your power rank) or attempt inflicting lethal damage instead.

GRISLY SCENE (4 pts per rank, Corruption 7)
You gain linked Mental Blast and Emotion Control [Fear] equal to your power rank. You may not use these abilities directly; instead, you use the "materials" on hand (usually fresh victims) to create grisly scenes which function like traps. Each time someone comes across one of your scenes for the first time, they must make a will save (DC 15+power rank) to resist your power's effects; if they succeed, they become immune to any other scenes you've created for the rest of the day. It takes five minutes to create a scene; you can invest additional time to increase the save DC by 1 for each rank the construction time moves up on the Time and Value Progression Table (So for example, a scene that took an hour to create will have a save DC of 18+your power rank).

MASTER OF THE ELEMENTS (1+ pts per rank, Corruption 5)
While outdoors, you can influence the atmosphere around you. This power functions identically to Environmental Control, except that instead of the ability to create light you can instead gain the Obscure [Auditory, Visual] effects.
Extras
-Improved Control (+1, Corruption 9) Your abilities also function indoors.
Flaws
-Gradual Influence (-1, Corruption -3): Any changes to the environment take an hour rather than a standard action.
Drawback: Negative Lifestream Link
You add your power rank to the DC of any attempts made to stabilize you, as well as subtracting it from your bonus on any recovery checks granted by healing effects.

MONSTROUS FORM (5 pts per rank, Corruption 7)
You have an alternate form, which you can change into or out of as a full action. While in this form, you may not use Device powers, but the limits on your Save DCs and Toughness save bonus both increase by half your power rank (rounded down). Your alternate form grants traits whose total value is equal to 5 power points per rank; these traits may include the Additional Limb, Growth, and Speed powers.
Drawback: Brute
Whenever you wish to communicate something to another person in a way that goes beyond simple gestures and body language, you must first make an intelligence check (DC 10+power rank). This DC increases by 5 if you want to use complete sentences and another 5 if the communication involves a measure of subtlety and/or detail. You may retry this check once per minute.

ONE-WINGED ANGEL (1 pt per rank, Corruption 8)
As a full action, you can grow (or retract) a single angelic wing that grants Flying at your power rank.
Power Feats
-Wingless: You can fly without growing your wing first, though this decreases your effective ranks in Flying by two.

PROFILER (2 pts per rank, Corruption 4)
You gain Emotion Control and Mind Reading equal to your power rank. You must may only use these abilities on targets you have observed for at least 5 minutes, and must speak with them in order to go beyond merely reading their surface thoughts.
Your mind-reading abilities are based more on your ability to extrapolate from behavioral cues than true psychic ability; at the GM's discretion targets may get an additional bonus of up to +10 on saves to avoid revealing information that should not be obtainable this way. For example, you could use your mind-reading power to accurately guess a security password consisting of a phrase the target selected themselves, but would have a much harder time if the password consisted of a string of random numbers the target had memorized.
Drawback: Obsessive
When given a choice between pursuing your current target and taking some other course of action, you must make a will save (DC 15+power rank) or be unable to put aside the current pursuit. You may reroll this save once per hour.

PUPPETEER (2 pts per rank, Corruption 5)
You can sense the minds of those with Jenova cells and/or Geostigma Syndrome, so long as they're within a radius equal to half your power rank on the Extended Range table, rounding down. You make a power check as a free action (DC 20-target's corruption score) and apply the result to each mind in range. You may then select one mind and continue to track it so long as you maintain concentration.
You also gain Mind Control at your power rank, usable only on targets you're tracking (meaning you can never target those who don't have Jenova cells or Geostigma Syndrome. You can purchase any of Mind Control's listed power feats, extras and flaws. Sustaining mind control also lets you continue tracking target's minds as a linked effect.
If someone else is using this power to continually track you, you automatically become aware of their mind as well and may attempt to mind control them yourself. If they're within the normal range of your own powers and have a lower corruption score, the amount by which your corruption score exceeds theirs is added to the save DC of your mind control.
Power Feats
-Accurate: You can recognize minds you've detected before, in the same way you can recognize faces.
-Corruption Sense: You know the current corruption score (if any) of each mind you can sense.
-Distance Sense: You know the rough proximity of each mind you can sense.
-Horde: Each time you take this feat, the number of of total minds you can simultaneously track and maintain control of (but not simultaneously *gain* control of) increases by one step along the time and value progression table.
-Vigilance: You may maintain concentration when a target you're tracking moves out of range, regaining your awareness of their presence if they come in range once more.
Extras
-Duration (+1): Your mind control's effects have a duration of Sustained (Lasting). You can't concentrate on subjects that are out of range or maintain any kind of mental link, but they continue to obey the commands they've been given.
Drawback: Disturbing
Your power rank applies as a penalty on all social interaction skill checks.

UNDYING (1 pt. per rank, Corruption 6)
You gain Regeneration [Resurrection] at your power rank. You can use some of these ranks to increase the bonus on the recovery checks made to resurrect yourself (these checks do not benefit from any power that boosts normal recovery checks).
Drawback: Dark Rebirth
Whenever you successfully resurrect, you permanently gain a point of corruption.

UNSTOPPABLE (3 pts per rank, Corruption 1)
You gain Impervious Protection and Regeneration at your power rank. You may only use your Regeneration ranks to improve your Recovery Bonus and Recovery Rate. Subtract your power rank from the damage bonus of enemy attacks when determining knockback distance.
Drawback: Numb to the World
Your power rank applies as a penalty to all Notice checks you make. This penalty doubles when making checks against someone who's deliberately trying to avoid being noticed by you.

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M&M + FF7: Jenova Corruption

During character creation, you may choose to have your character be tainted by Jenova cells. This neither costs nor grants power points. They could have been injected with cell samples deliberately as a test subject or member of the SOLDIER program, exposed to them by accident, or had grown them naturally because their body surrendered to Jenova's influence through the lifestream (rather than killing itself in the process of suppressing that influence, meaning they recovered from a seemingly terminal case of Geostigma Syndrome).

Characters who are tainted by Jenova can spend power points to purchase Jenova Powers. They also have a Corruption score, which starts at 1. Whenever you use Extra Effort and have a Jenova Power active at some point on the same turn, you must make a will save (DC 20+your current corruption score) or gain another point of corruption. You may ignore the fatigue Extra Effort would normally impose by giving up this saving throw. You can lose a point of corruption by refraining from using any Jenova powers for period of time equal to a rank of (10-(1/2 your Corruption score, rounding down)) on the Time and Value Progression Table. If your corruption score ever reaches 10, you permanently lose your free will and become an npc puppet under Jenova's control.

In addition, your corruption score provides drawbacks of equal total value, selected from the following list; for example, at Corruption 2 you could choose to have the basic versions of the Tainted and Puppet powers, or just the Tained power with either a moderate frequency or moderate intensity. Reducing your corruption score causes the drawbacks to diminish as well, with the most recently selected developments fading away first.

Puppet: If you fail your d20 roll against this drawback's Intensity, you fall under the effects of Mind Control with the Conscious flaw, at a power rank equal to your corruption score plus half your level. While controlled, you are compelled to take actions that will advance Jenova's agenda- this could mean damaging/corrupting the lifestream, aiding one of her more willing puppets, or just trying to kill people. You make will saves to break this control, as per the normal power rules.

Tainted: If you fail your d20 roll against this drawback's Intensity, you gain an additional point of Corruption.

Weakness (Lifestream): You suffer the standard penalties when exposed to an object (such as holy water) or location (such as sacred ground or a cave with natural materia deposits) that carries high amounts of healing lifestream energy. At higher frequencies, the penalties could also begin cropping up due to normal healing magic. Note that you still gain any normal benefits, such as holy water's improvement to your corruption score's reduction interval; you're just simultaneously weakened.

So why in the world would you want to have a corruption score? Because Jenova Powers let you do things no one else can. But that's a matter for the next post.

Image by Zetari.

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