Game Idea - Need Feedback

[Steve]

Hi. I'm not certain if this is the right forum to post this to. Please move this if necessary.

Anyway, I have an idea for an RPG. Here's the idea.

You're a robot trapped in a post-apocalyptic futuristic city where all the humans have vanished. The city has been decaying for a while. As a robot, all you can really do is scavenge for energy or parts to sell or replace your own parts (you are, by no means, in pristine condition yourself). Getting to that energy or parts is the challenge - The city has decayed so the environment is a natural hazard. All the NPCs are as needy as you so to get any information out of them, you'll have to help them along the way (if you can).

I envision that part of the fun of the RPG is that you have to act like a robot: You can't lie, steal or kill another robot (which means pretty much everyone in the game). If you violate one of these rules, you receive a penalty where communicating becomes even harder (you have to start every sentence with a word that begins with the letter "K", you have to say every sentence in a sing-song fashion, you have to say every word in a sentence twice, etc.). The penalties increase until you have a meltdown (death) or can be partially repaired (at a steep price) by a merchant (if available). I'm not certain how many ways to die would be too many - I also envision the robot's engine leaking energy at irregular intervals, causing the robot to have to constantly explore new regions to find energy but sometimes pushing them off of their goal. You can also die by falling off a cliff or having a grand piano fall on top of you (you know, the classical type of death).

One aspect I'm exploring is to not have combat - I figure the difficulty of trying to act like a robot, coupled with all the other concerns would make combat counter-productive. You're already faulty living in a faulty environment; With a situation like this, do you really need enemies?

Character creation would be taking robot parts and sticking them together, creating your character. Each part would have various attributes that would determine a robot's speed, strength, skill set and so forth. Each part has advantages and disadvantages. As an example, legs are great for climbing stairs but wheels are less capable. Treads are great in loose sand and mud but lousy in stealth.

I'm not envisioning complicated mechanics in resolving unopposed actions - For attributes, you have numerical stats. For skills, you simply have the ability or you don't (you can either see in the dark or you can't, you can either speak Swahili or you can't). To resolve a challenge involving a numerical stat, it's a target number with a chance modifier if the stat is lower then the threshold needed. If you miss, you gain another penalty and if you succeed, you lose a penalty (or even gain a slight reward, like your engine leaks a little less temporarily).

For opposed action, I think the whole "acting like a robot" would be hard enough because even though you can't lie, that's not the same as telling the truth. It's more of a game to be very specific - You can tell someone that you'll give them the widget but you never specified WHEN or WHERE. You can't kill another robot but what's preventing you from simply dropping a landmine any old place because you're not killing anyone RIGHT NOW.

At any rate, I'd like to hear any feedback on this game idea... If it's been done already, if there are some obvious areas of game play concerns. Thank you.

[Chainsaw Aardvark]

Welcome to 1km1kt.net!

Thank you for sharing your idea with us, it has a lot of potential. The acting like a robot and breakdown penalties sound like a lot of fun, and certainly more amusing than real insanity in most horror games. Bending the rules in a Paranoia-Esq work around is also an impressive concept. We need more games with no direct combat and rewards for being sneaky like that.

I am aware of two games with a similar premise - is pretty much exactly what you have described. (Apparently, there still is a free version of the PDF - its worth reading) is about the trials of long range exploring a far-away planet.

Do not be discouraged. For one, I am rather odd and know of many esoteric free RPGs. Secondly, there is always room for more - a trio of games playing a three-laws compliant robot really rather pales compared to the plethora of fantasy and cyberpunk games out there. (Come to think of it, I don't think the drones of EM are Asimov compliant, so you might be just the second.) There is also a disturbing lack of games inspired by Ray Bradbury (Presumably you have read "There Will Come Soft Rains").

A big part of it might be some sort of storyline you add to the setting. Are the robots becoming self-aware or gaining souls? (Like the movie "9".) Perhaps they are still working for the remnants of humanity - read up about the old computer game "" or if you have some time on your hands - play its (its fee). I'd love to see them start a religion like Asimov's story "Reason".

If you keep with the idea, or decide to do something different, feel free to keep returning to these forums, and we will be glad to help.

Good luck with all your gaming endeavors.

[Steve]

Thank you for your prompt reply.

After having quickly scanned the PDF version of Engine Heart, I can write that although there is a similar set-up (robots occupying a world abandoned by humans), that my idea is sufficiently different and will eventually take a significantly different course. Thank you for pointing that RPG out to me.

The primary story arc for the game will be - What happened to the humans? Every adventure brings you closer to the truth, either directly or indirectly. The primary setting (Again, trying to keep it simple) will be a typical (but retro-futuristic for us) city. The robots will be sentient as much as the player is sentient; I do not envision "wisdom," "intelligence" or "charisma" attributes - Either the player is witty or they aren't, either they are smart or they aren't.

I am glad that you introduced the idea of a religion. While I had a similar situation, I did not directly call it a religion but I will definitely keep that in mind. Thank you.

Thank you for your words of encouragement. I hope that I have a more presentable form of the RPG soon for further evaluation.

[Onix]

[bender42]

Sounds like a great idea! I would say skip the combat, but only if you feel your players can make a workable story without it.

[Rob Lang]

Welcome to 1km1kt! Oh, CA's already said that. I'll say it again - welcome, Steve!

The setting premise is awesome. Reminiscent of Wall-E in a good way. I like the idea of violating rules giving some kind of play detriment but I worry that making the player do sing-song voices or start sentances with a K might not be as fun as it sounds. I would add restrictions to the character rather than the play. Such as only being able to turn right. The player can have fun dealing with issues like that without restricting their words.

Combat can be avoided by replacing it with some sort of conflict. The players must be able to make tactical choices which are time limited. That's really abstract, let's look at an example:

Conflict with the environment. Here the enemy is the environment: rotting buildings, electrical storms and high winds, nights without solar power and time. The characters step into an empty building to retrieve some power cells that are lighting up a flickering neon sign on the outside of the building. Their tactical options include using lift shafts and stairs. The floors are weak, they creak as the robots rumble onto them - do the robots continue? Are there are systems that the robots can use to avoid the floors? Take the risk? Go really quickly? A few floorboards break while they decide on what to do.

There you have the intesity of combat, with the requirement to make quick tactical decisions but no-one is doing harm to anyone.

What sort of ways will the player group be glued together? A group of friends with different abilities (systems) that work well together and have all bases covered? You would need to point out to the GM how to make the group glue.

Love the idea, this so needs to be a game. I can actually visualise how Wall-E-esque game might play.

[Steve]

Hi and thanks for all of the feedback so far.

To address some of the comments in no particular order:

* I plan on keeping the group together through a shared use of skill sets (along with storyline and the fact that the players themselves are amicable towards one another). One example would be an access code to a door - One robot has vision that notices that only 3 of the keys (5,7,1) are well worn. Another robot might have advanced electrical repair capabilities to rewire the access panel to work at all. A third robot (or, for that matter, any of the robots), could engage in conversation with a nearby NPC who tells you that the intersection that you're on is 15th west & 77th south street. I have a rather forced mechanic where no two robots can have the same skill module (skills are acquired by means of a plug-in 'module' for lack of a better word) and that the similar RFID frequencies knock each other out, rendering that skill useless on both. Since all of these thoughts are pre-alpha, that might change.

* I had separated out two types of penalty (what I'm calling "quirks" for now) - physical and mental. Violate a law of robotics and receive a mental quirk; Get physically injured and receive a physical quirk. I envisioned that part of the fun would be attempting to work around these limitations throughout the adventure (one character can now only shout, another character can't grip anything anymore, a third can only jump from space to space) which would make them rely upon each other even more - I thank you for that perspective that the mental part might need to be re-worked.

* I'm very hesitant to include combat for many reasons, one of which is that combat tends to be the overshadowing mechanic in a lot of RPGs that it is in. I know how enjoyable combat can be for players but I thought the challenge of not having people to poke each other's eyes out might be a nice change of course.

Anyway, I'm working on a first presentable draft (most likely not a playable one) that would be an overview of the entire game (a lot of it has already been previewed here). My Scribus skills are nil to none (I understand that Open/Libre Office is not well regarded for presentation purposes but I know it better then Scribus at the moment) so the first presentation will likely be a basic Libre Office presentation while I learn enough Scribus to be competent in it.

I thank everyone for their comments so far. Your comments have compelled me to move forward with this project and put a lot more time and effort behind it. Thank you.

[kylesgames]

I'd be happy to help you out with Scribus; it's one of my favorite parts of writing.

I also want to work on a series of YouTube tutorials for it, so if you can say things you need help with I'd be glad to record a quick video to show you (and the world) how to do it.

[Rob Lang]

[Steve]

Progress is slow but there is progress:

* Mental quirks no longer communication-based ("Say everything twice") but now brain-based.

* Scribus education continues - I made my first teaser poster but don't see where I can attach it to this post. To address kylegames' very generous offer of assistance - Right now, I'm just learning the basics and I'm sure that once I begin to port over material to Scribus to make it shiny and presentable, the questions will begin to emerge. For now, I'm squarely in the "Oh, OK, so that's how you link two text areas together" phase of learning.

* The big development push has been with the modules (or "skills"). The new thinking is that there are normal modules (see in the dark, smell) and then there are "Novelty Act" modules that serve two purposes - You can entertain an audience with them (tap dancing, for instance) and then they have the chance to be useful in the real world (chance of avoiding ground-based damage). I'm envisioning that the Novelty Acts fills part of the void left by the old mental quirks (no one has to actually tap dance but, after a couple of beers, I hear that role playing sessions do take on a life all their own), allows people the chance to slightly 'bypass' an NPC's demand ("Wow, that was some amazing tap dancing. Sure, you don't need to get me another arm, I'll tell you where the key is.") while also introducing chance-based skills (normal modules are "they can or they can't"-based skills).

So, that's where I'm at. A lot of minutia to wade through but it's getting there. Thanks for all the support so far.

P.S. Does anyone know of any good freeware map-making software with an output like those old D&D maps with the grid and the symbols for the door and whatnot? Thank you.