Possible Entry Idea #1: The 13 Glass Skulls of the Ancients!

[Mathias Jack]

Okay, this is my first year to contribute, but I've been a lurker on rpg forums since before Iron Chef was a tv show. I have two ideas, but can't decide between the two. The time theme kinda has screwed with my head a bit, and system mechanics have come as naturally as they do. Anyways, on to my first tentative submission:

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The 13 Glass Skulls of the Ancients!
Time Theme: 3 sessions of 3 hours
Ingredients: Package 1 - Glass, Ancient, Emotion

Pulp fiction adventure, best played with 4 players and 1 gamemaster

Fact: The cyrstal, or glass, skulls are real. There is considered to be about 13 around the world with mystical or supernatural qualities. While science discounts any of the wild claims, the legions who believe in the psychic abilities of the skulls continue to grow.

The first session consists of creating an adventurer of the late 19th century to earlier 20th century, 1880s to the 1940s, the high points of pulp adventure. The rest of the two hours are a prelude to the continuing adventures: each character stumbles upon a entioning of the skulls, then goes about discovering and reloacting the skull into his or her possesion. The important part is that the sessions ends with one of the skulls in the possesion of each character. They become aware of each other, through the mystic nature of the skulls, as well as a reason to unite: an enemy threat to the safety of the world has also gained possesion of a skull.

The gm decides who the enemy is, usually within the realms of pulp, from nazis to evil world-spanning cartels, etc. Most importantly, the reveal of the "enemy" is the cliffhanger for the first session.

The second session is learning more about the skulls themselves, why there is 13 of them, what they can do, and where the remaining ones remain. It is now a race between the characters and the "enemy", to see how many skulls each side can find. Each skull possessed by a character gives the character an emotion to wield. They don't need to find them all, it is a fine line between how much research is done, and how far along they get - but whatever happens, the session ends in another cliffhanger.

Each skull is tied to an ancient civilization as well as to an emotion. So I have ot create a list of 13 emotions. The skull of, say, hate, then allows the character to manipulate the emotion of hate. I am thinking that each emotion has a different mechanical effect on the stats of characters besides the emotion itself, or that the emotions ARE the stats of the characters. The skull one finds is random, unless the character has done enough research to decide which one to choose.

The civilizations are (as of right now): the mound-builders of North America, Aztecs, Incas, Tibet, China, India, Egypt, Mesopotamia, Celts of British Isles, Zimbabwe, Australian Aboriginal, Crete, and at least one other. I wanted the civilizations that have history spanning back to mystery for anthropolgy and archaeology, that due to this mystery they have been used in pulp adventure and other things, like ties to ancient society such as "Atlantis." The gm has already made certain the the characters found one skull each in one of these locations the first session. They travel as a team to the rest - splitting up would weaken them too much against the wiles of the "enemy."

The third session is the finale. The cliffhanger is resolved. If they haven't found all the skulls, they should only have one or two left. The important part is that the third session is when they face off against the "enemy," skull against skull, to save the world once and for all.

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Additional Thoughts

So I've made this fit the 3x3 structure, but I am really tempted by the 10x1 structure as well. The first session gives character creation, which includes each one of the 4 players already having one of the 13 Glass Skulls. Since the "enemy" has one of the skulls as well, that leaves 8 skulls. Each following session is tracking down the next skull at the next locale, with the tenth session being the final face-off. I believe I like that better.

I am possibly thinking of using cards for the mechanic. Each suit has 13 cards = one of the skulls, emotion, and civilation. Randomly pulling a card allows for what Glass Skull lies in which civilization (rather than assinging an emotion to a particular civilization). You can randomly pull a card to generate places for when the characters are searching for clues. I like where this possible could go, just need to expand it. I guess cards work better then whittling 13 sided dice...

Which skulls you might start off with as well as other players and the "enemy" can change how the game plays out as far as resources and mechanics.

Hmmm....well, this has allowed me to think a bit more deeply about this idea. It's late, but I want to make a quick post about my other idea...

[Rossum]

Pulp is always cool. 3x3 would serve more of the classic three-act story structure, whereas the 10x1 might work better for a newsreel-style serial adventure that I, at least, associate with pulp action.

Just something to consider.

MDK

[darwin]

[adgboss]

[Joshua BishopRoby]

[Mathias Jack]

It is funny, I feel like I have a stronger setting with the Glasslands but have more mechanical ideas for The 13 Glass Skulls of the Ancients! Not necessarily completed or finished mechanics, but more ideas.

The two reasons I was going with a provided list of emotions and civilizations:
1) To get the game up and going fast
2) To provide a mechanic using playing cards from Ace through to the King

I definitely like the idea of the troupe creating the list of emotions and civilizations though. It wouldn’t be hard to provide a means via a blank table for the group to fill out with emotions and civilizations of their choice, the table then helping outline the mechanics with the cards without further downtime. Maybe this is the advanced method? The basic method would use maybe a provided list?

Onwards – I am visualizing each character representing an attribute. With four characters, that means four attributes, each one corresponding to a suit within the deck. The player creates a character that personifies the attribute. They can spend points between the attribute, the skills, equipment, and the powers of the skull they possess. Due to the mystic nature of the skulls, the group then shares the attributes and skills among the characters but at a resource cost. The player of the character with the specific attribute wanting to be used has a greater say in the use of that attribute, even if it is another character using it.

Skills are made up based on the profession and background of the character. A bonus is applied to any situation that the skill is related. The skills can be loaned as a limited bonus to another character.

Equipment is something the character always seems to have, be it a gun or camera or plane. If a character has equipment, they know how to use it, but has trouble using other items of the same nature.

The skull the character possesses can have various powers. Depending on the power, some can be shared between characters, some cannot. Basic powers of any skull is the sharing of attributes, the loaning of skills, telepathic powers that allows the characters to communicate among themselves at any time over any distance, and manipulation of the skull’s particular emotion.

A cliffhanger mechanic is essential. And I agree that the 10x1 fits the game much better. I have some shades of ideas flittering at the edges of my mind, but still need to shape 'em more before I can type them. Something along the lines asthe more points the characters use to win against the "enemy," gives more points for the gamemaster to create a dire cliffhanger at the end of each episode. I also want something where the final episode, the climatic finale, is escalated by mechanics in earlier episodes.

Okay, the above is very rough and probably not coherent to any one else but me, but it is a great exercise simply to type one’s ideas out on the screen. I am not certain what I am doing between the two games, it feels like I have two half games.

[chiefprimate]

[Mathias Jack]

Okay -

While I love this game's intitial idea, I do not feel I am fitting the emotion ingredient correctly into this setting.

My favorite bit is the game's title, and the ideas I had for session escalation towards cliffhanger endings.

I might come back to this game as some aspects are appealing.

I don't know if this thread just ends or gets killed, but thanks for all input and suggestions, it was greatly appreciated. You can check out my other idea, the Glasslands.

Jack