Kolat Assassin

The first playtest of Jeph's Universal Roleplaying Kit (or JURK, as all the cool kids use acronyms these days) is this Monday, so I have a lot to do to make it not totally suck by then.

Let's chat for a minute about Legend of the Five Rings. This game/CCG/storyline is a point of contention for me, mostly because I love the world but HATE most of its fanbase. I guess the same could be said for most fanbases with whom I've had dealings, though. It also doesn't help that the Schools have never been balanced against each other and that the system itself has these big blind-spots that I have to finagle around.

I love the story. I love the setting. I love introducing new people to it. So, it's only natural that my first playtest uses JURK to play L5R. I will make the world love me or DIAF. Wait, that may have been too confrontational. :S

It all comes down to having fun. Also mechanical non-suckitude.

-JL

Cards & Dice & Beans & Taters

I was told that I need to make sure to update this as frequently as possible, even if I don't have anything specific to write about. Gotta keep the creative nonsense going and all that.

Thinking about the randomization agent I mentioned in my last post has brought up a story about Ye Olde Days and an experiment I ran on my players in those times. In those days, we played D&D 3.5 primarily. I was running a Dragonlance game, because that's the beloved setting that I felt like ruining that week. I was constantly introducing new Rules Chicanery back in those days; each time a new splatbook came out, new optional rules were needlessly shoehorned into the game.

The week in question, it was Prerolling. I don't remember which book this came out in (probably Unearthed Arcana; that's where I got most of my awesomely terribad ideas), but I do remember it seeming like a fantastic idea at the time. Each session, the players would roll 20 times with a d20. They'd record each of these on a sheet and then put away their d20. Any time they'd normally have to roll a d20 for a check, they'd instead choose from their recorded results. When they chose one, they'd cross it off the sheet. When they ran out of listed rolls, they'd have to start the process over again. It was marginally successful, but several players revolted and we never used that method again after that session.

What I learned from that experience is that in a game like D&D 3.5, there are certain expectations which most players take for granted. One of which is that they'll be rolling a d20 for a lot of stuff. I'd infringed on that basic expectation without proper warning. If I'd've announced that rule at the beginning of the campaign, it probably wouldn't've been met with such resistance.

Where is this rambling leading? Well, one thought I'd had about randomization agents were a hand of cards. Each player would draw a hand of 5 cards (with values ranging from 1 to 6) and use those values in place of dice rolling. This puts some of the randomness in the hands of the players, basically allowing them to prioritize their rolls. At any point, a player could "take zero" and proceed with a roll without using a card; thus saving the good cards in their hands from being wasted on a trivial roll.

It might work, it might not. Only playtesting will tell.

-JL

The beginnings of my RPG project.

I was at GenCon Indy this summer (as I am every year) and signed up for random events (as I do every year). One of which was a game from Spartacus Publishing (http://spartacuspublishing.com/) called Luchador: Way of the Mask. The basic premise is that the characters are stereotypical Mexican Wrestlers in the vein of those ridiculous Luchador movies from the 1970s and 80s. My fiancee, Angie, really took a shining to the game ("One of us, one of us!") so we headed to the Spartacus booth and purchased it. She kept commenting on how it all "just made sense" and how the rules "weren't stupid". This brought back a tiny idea that'd been sitting in my brainmeats for many a'year.

One of the focuses of this Internets Blag'o Thing is to help me with development of that tiny idea. It doesn't yet have a name or a setting or anything; it's just a set of mechanics that I'm trying to suss out into something that isn't terrible. If I happen to make the next Fudge or d20 or Storyteller System, that'd be gravy. Right now, I just want to get something made that isn't utterly horrible so that I can feel like I'm contributing to the sum total of humanity. I'm getting tired of feeling like someone who just burns things/people down instead of trying to build them up.

The central idea of the system is the Attribute Matrix. Each character has six Attributes which determine how they're able to interact with the world around them. These Attributes are arranged into two groups; Category 1 (Mental/Physical/Social) and Category 2 (Finesse/Force/Fortitude). When resolving a challenge the player will (roll dice, use cards, some sort of randomization mechanic), multiply their Attribute Matrix Total (one from Category 1 + one from Category 2), and add their Skill/Trait/Perk/Feat/Whatever bonus.

For example; your character has (Mental 3, Physical 1, Social 2) and (Finesse 1, Force 2, and Fortitude 3). In tests which require a lot of agility/dexterity, your character would be rather un-apt (Physical Finesse score of 1); whereas in tests which require a lot of willpower, he would be rather skilled (Mental Fortitude score of 9).

Everything is contested rolls; there aren't any real static Difficulty Class/Target Number mechanics. Actually, that idea is still in flux. It may go the exact opposite way and have the Aggressor always roll and the Defender always have a static number. I'm not sure yet.

I'm still working on skills, but it's looking like a Macro-skill system. Here's an example:

You want your character to be Athletic. So you put three points into the Athletics macro skill. Since you envision your character as more of a Free-Runner than a Martial Artist, you put two points into Athletics [Affects Self] and one point into Athletics [Affects Others]. Affects Self covers things like Running, Jumping, Climbing, and Swimming; while Affects Others would cover things like Grab, Throw, Escape, and Ride.

An example of a total check. Your character is in a foot race with another entity over a short distance. The GM tells you to roll Physical Force + Athletics [Affects Self]. You get a 3 on the randomization agent, add your Physical Force score (1x2=2), and add your Athletics [Affects Self] score (2) to get a total of 7. Not a great result. Better hope that your opponent isn't a great sprinter or you'll be doomed to be enslaved by the Vespiloid Conglomerates of Sigma Mu XIX.

I hope what I'm writing down makes sense to someone other than myself. I'll eventually post more of this once I get it worked out.

As always, your thoughts or suggestions or hatefilled rants are encouraged.

-JL

Introductions always seem forced.

If you're reading this, it means you've probably read several blogs in the past and can tell by the pixels that introductory statements are forced as fuck. You hate it, I hate it, so lets just hold hands and get through the boring bit as fast as possible.

I'm Jeph. I'm horrible at writing. I play games. I'm trying to write games. You can see how this could be a problem. This is mostly a blog about gaming; past, present, and future. I guess I should probably elaborate on what I mean by that.

- Gaming Past: Posts with the gaming-past tag are stories about games I've been involved in that are now over (Games from college, games from Boy Scouts, games from now defunct groups, games from current groups which we've finished, etc.).

- Gaming Present: Posts with the gaming-present tag are either stories about games I'm playing/running currently OR games that are out and in print nowish.

- Gaming Future: Posts with the gaming-future tag are about games that either I or my friends are in the process of developing.

I'm also prone to self-aggrandizing posts about how awesome I am. These could be personal anecdotes from ages gone by, things that happened in my daily life, or stuff that's yet to happen (but will probably be awesome, simply because I'm somehow tangentially involved).

Now that I've wasted all of your time, I'll get to the business of actually creating something.

-JL