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5 weeks to go. Rough Plan:
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Aug 1, 2014 20:08
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| # ? May 3, 2024 22:32 |
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As we enter a week of final analysis, I need to accept that there won't be enough time to thoroughly run all the numbers. A version of the game needs to get out and the goal here is to ship a version even if its not perfect. However, I am confident that we can finish something that captures most of what we set out to make. The process to this point has yielded a clear vision of the design goals. Participation in the one-page RPG contest proved that the core ideas get across with a very streamlined presentation. The playtest revealed some mismatches between the proposed implementation and the design goals that I think can be corrected. That said, there is still work to do in short time. Design ideas such as The Expected Thing, Take A Risk, quantification into Effects, Narrative and Dramatic scenes, scene and skill division by type, shifting spotlight, progression as increasing shared narrative, and non-linear point-buy are all pretty much finalized. Design that needs last-minute considerations:
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Aug 1, 2014 21:50
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Just wanted to say, been a huge fan/following this thread since its inception (and before) If there's any way in which I can lend a hand, hit me up on PMs if you got 'em (otherwise post here) Check the July Design Contest for my credentials.
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Aug 1, 2014 22:08
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Paolomania posted:I will be between jobs for the next month, and so will have a rare amount of time on my hands to work on Some Heartbreaker. In the interest of motivating production, I am setting the goal of having a completed 1st edition of the Core rules and one Genre Kit by September 7th. In addition, I will be toxxing myself on this. Okay, but I might make the toxx a new "great" avatar. 
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Aug 2, 2014 01:49
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First, revisiting action for the last time, we solidify our definition of action and resolution. I have decided to recommit to being a fiction-first game, so we put fiction ahead of mechanics and leave formal resolution mechanics as guidelines for the GM. We also recommit to being an asymmetric game where the role of TAR is more focused on moments of tension for players and not a general resolution mechanic. We also reinforce the fiction incentive of TAR by adding the "cool fiction" bonus from Some One-Page Heartbreaker. ACTION The Expected Thing: The default outcome of all character action is first defined as The Expected Thing (TES), or the genre-expected outcome as judged by the GM. The players should always be able to estimate the outcome of a character's actions if everything about a situation is readily apparent, however The Expected Thing might surprise the players when there are things that they don't know. The players may always ask the GM for an estimated outcome based on what their characters know. Assumption of Effect: In order to keep the game moving forward, we assume that any genre-appropriate action always has some effect towards the player's intentions. This might only be a "partial success" and there may be some cost involved proportional to the difficulty (e.g. the character might hurt themself or put themself at risk in some way), but we always want the action to move the game forward. This assumption of effect is part of The Expected Thing and the GM should warn the players of the severity of any costs (even if the exact nature is unknown). Take A Risk: Before the outcome of any action is resolved, a player involved in that action may Take A Risk(TAR) in an effort to shift the default outcome. To TAR, a player describes how their character acts and then rolls a d20. The GM then adds the most relevant Ability Score of the player's character to the result. If the player's description included situational detail or dramatic flair then the GM adds another +3 to the result. The GM then determines the outcome based on the result (1-4: Much worse, 5-9: Worse, 10: Mixed result, 11-14: Better, 15+ Much Better, Natural 1: extra unintended cost, Natural 20: extra unintended benefit). Conflicts and Challenges: Conflicts and Challenges remain as described, however they are demoted to a guideline that is subordinate to the fiction. The GM should go with an obvious fictional outcome first and then fall back on Challenges and Conflicts as a default. Effects: Effects remain as our way of quantifying outcomes, however they also made a guideline that is subordinate to the fiction. Action outcomes are fiction-first with Effects there for when we need to quantify things or give the players effect-based fiats.
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Aug 6, 2014 19:39
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Some quick discussion of the changes: As mentioned previously, the neutral default of TES lead to defer-to-the-expert style play and the mechanical incentives of TAR were too subtle to encourage players to opt for it. The assumption of effect shifts action towards the acting character and thus encourages active participation in a scene. The inclusion of a "description bonus" serves two purposes - further shifting TAR in the player's favor and encouraging active engagement with the fiction. The rough odds of a positive shift (ignoring degrees) for an engaged player are now 65% (8-20 on d20) for a minimal ability score and 85% (4-20 on d20) for a maximal ability score. With roughly a 2/3 chance for a min AS and a 5/6 chance for a max AS, I think we'll get players rolling TAR more often without totally eliminating the "risk" part even at the top end. You will also notice that the previous Advantage mechanic has been removed. With TAR being used as more of an asymmetric player mechanic, advantage as "who gets to TAR" did not make sense. The fiction element of gaining advantage has now been turned into the "description bonus" on TAR.
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Aug 6, 2014 23:43
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It's a minor nitpick, but I need to point out that "TES" does not actually stand for "The Expected Thing". (Also, thanks for the Titan World mention - I agree with most of your criticisms, it was a quick job and I'd do a lot different if I were to take it more seriously.)
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Aug 7, 2014 14:57
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Aha. Must be playing too many Bethesda games.
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Aug 7, 2014 16:57
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Now we will revisit some concepts that are a blend between the levels of action and scene. Turn Order: We will keep the totally free-form turn order for Narrative Scenes, however we are going to go with a slightly different concept for turn order in Dramatic Scenes, again taking a concept developed on Some One-Page Heartbreaker. Dramatic Scenes will have side turn order - i.e. all the players go (in any order) and then the GM goes. This side-based turn order accomplishes a few things: First it pushes all players to engage with the scene rather than letting the expert dominate the action economy - a turn without action is a waste of action-economy. Second, it will facilitate a nice change to status effects. Third, we will use it as the basis for a streamlined concept for assistance and combo actions. Finally, this turn order should facilitate PbP games as all the players can declare their actions, then the GM can resolve those actions all at once and then take the GM turn. Debilities/Status: Our current idea for Debilities as our only mechanical status effect remains (i.e. no true disables outside of KOs, just Ability debuffs). However, rather than making everything last per-scene, we will have several rough durations so that more mild effects can be represented: for-the-turn, until-cleared, until-rest and long-term. For-the-turn lasts for the rest of the current turn (clears when the next side goes). Until-Cleared lasts until some action is taken (i.e. a deferred lost action). Until-Rest lasts until the next Narrative Scene (i.e. cleared when stress is cleared). Long-Term is for something that requires a specific narrative action to clear. If we quantify these into effects, essentially stronger debuffs will cost more effects to apply. For-the-turn is meant to represent things such as momentarily putting an antagonist off balance. Here our notion of turn order comes into play, and you can begin to see how we will set up assistance. Since players can go in any order on the player turn, a character that goes earlier in the round can set up a temporary debuff that will help a character that goes later in the round. Until-cleared is slightly more severe and is meant for things like a trip - which are simply represented as mild debuffs that are in effect until a character takes some specific action (in this case, standing up). Until-rest is more severe as it cannot be cleared within the scene and may carry-over in sequential dramatic scenes. Long-Term is obviously the most severe and would probably only be used as a significant consequence. Assistance and Combos: With all the players acting on the same turn, assistive and combined actions are greatly simplified. We still have the same concerns as before - i.e. we don't want such actions to be clearly dominant or risk-minimizing. Just having all the players act in a block gives a natural avenue for assistance where the actions of one character set the situation up for another - this can be handled entirely in fiction or represented as things like the aforementioned per-turn debilities, as well as effect-gifting - i.e. taking an action and giving your effects to another character (perhaps with a better Ability Die) involved in the same task. The side-turn-order also enables combined actions (i.e. things like Chrono Trigger combo attacks). For Combo Actions, the fiction should rule and the players should be rewarded for creativity. As a guideline to keep things simple, I think a combo should be represented as one character's action (the focus) that must TAR, and each character gains TAR effects (positive or negative). So on the negative side we have a mandatory TAR and shared costs but on the positive side we have both cost reduction for the collaborators - i.e. they avoid paying any default costs - and a huge upside on positive TAR).
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Aug 7, 2014 22:56
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One of the big problems from the playtest was that our "GM Moves" keyed off of any cost on a character's action. The open-ended nature of costs discouraged the non-specialists from acting because they felt that their actions could be actively detrimental to the scene and goals by adding complications. This worked contrary to our goals by discouraging dramatic action and by consequently reducing scene escalation. We want default costs applied to the character - so acting when disadvantaged is more of a self-sacrifice than a net-loss. We also must admit that we want scenes to snowball and escalate and that this is a design choice and not a penalty for acting. We also want TAR to remain open-ended but keeps its potential effect-proportional. To achieve all of these, we are going to make escalation mechanics more concrete. SCENE Escalation: In Dramatic Scenes, during every GM's turn, aside from acting for NPCs and advancing timers, the GM will automatically escalate the scene in one of a few ways (essentially a GM Move such as warning of a new threat, realizing a threat, adding a stake, big bad special move, etc.). Here we openly admit the conceit of dramatic scenes - that they are intended to be situations of rising tension and we don't need to attach this to a player's action or other trigger such as a bloodied condition. This explicit escalation takes the pressure for scene complication off character action. The continuous escalation gives players an incentive to complete their goals before things get too tough, and it also helps alleviate 1st-round-nova/mop-up by saving some of the difficulties for later. It can also help with the player strategy of focus-firing an individual scene goal, as the GM can just repeatedly escalate an unattended issue. Another thing this opens up is an avenue for Feats along the lines of a player stealing some narrative power by dictating the next escalation. Held Costs: As a milder avenue for escalation and a discouragement of things like TAR-novas, we are going to allow the GM to hold TAR costs (incurred during the player's turn) and spend them on enhancing the escalation in the GM's turn. We will also say that all held costs must be spent by the GM or lost. TAR costs don't have to be held - its just a GM option that adds a bit of per-turn tension. The effect of this mechanic is to discourage "TAR novas" by letting the GM accumulate any costs and spend them on enhancing the escalation.
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Aug 8, 2014 21:55
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I have about 5K words for the draft of SH:1E. Alot is based on the "accelerated" doc, but with the new rule changes and some editing and extra explanation. Still lots left to do.
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Aug 15, 2014 19:20
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At just about 7K words on the rulebook. Behind on the Genre Kit, but it will mostly be Basic Breaker with difference magic schools split into major and minor versions so magic will max out at 5 major schools by level 10.
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Aug 27, 2014 17:35
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An update as my deadline approaches: I will be traveling on Sunday in the PST timezone, so I will officially make my finalization deadline Sunday Sept 7th at midnight PST. Also, rulebook is at 9K words and counting.
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Sep 5, 2014 20:54
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| # ? May 3, 2024 22:32 |
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Far from perfect, but somewhat ready for consumption. I present to you: Some Heartbreaker First Edition Genre Kit: Basic Breaker
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Sep 8, 2014 07:52
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