Final Draft: Ancient Dreams, Glass Towers

[palaskar]

Ancient Dreams, Glass Towers
By Michael Mendoza

Time Constraint: 1 Game of 2 Hours

Ingredients:
Glass (The Glass Towers of the Humans)
Committee (The Committee Phase)
Ancient (Takes place in ancient times)
Emotion (Dragonlords’ Dark Sorcery is strengthened by emotion)
Law (The Committee puts into law how history will remember the Yu-Men and Dragonlords)
Actor (Actors will portray the Yu-Men and Dragonlords in a way determined by the Committee)
Steel (Each side is rated for Steel)
Team (The players are divided into two teams of two players each)

Blurb: Ancient Dreams, Glass Towers is a team game where four players and a GM re-enact the war between Humans and Dragonlords in the prehistory of The Fifth Hour to determine how history will remember them. It’s up to you to decide who will be the hero and who will be the villain!

Ancient Dreams, Glass Towers is broken down into 3 Phases.
In the first Phase, Character Generation, players decide their role in their game. Character Generation takes 10 minutes.

There is one GM, plus one General and one Sorceror for each side. This makes four players (Dragonlord General, Dragonlord Sorceror, Human General, Human Sorceror) and one GM.

In the second Phase, War, the Human and the Dragonlord sides fight a series of five battles, each lasting 10 hours, or one day, at a different Glass Tower. Each battle takes 20 minutes, with each hour of battle lasting two minutes.

In the third and final Phase, Committee, the score for each side (Human and Dragonlord) is calculated and it is determined how history will officially remember them. The committee phase lasts 10 minutes.

The Resolution method of Ancient Dreams, Glass Towers is a Base-5 scale variant of the Signature RPG core mechanic.

1) have the side (Dragonlord/Human) describe the action he wishes to take
3) take the highest of [Dragonlord/Human, bonuses] subtract the.highest of [opposing trait, penalties]
4) determine the degree of success -- 0 or less is a failure, 1 to 2 is a minor success, 3 to 4 is a major success, 5 or higher is a complete success.
6) have the GM describe the results according to the degree of success

The teams of General and Sorceror co-operate in a kind of “group rock-paper-scissors.”

Options:
Generals: Loose the Fury!/Stand Fast!/Treachery of Steel
Sorcerors: Sorceror’s Treachery/Uncanny Strength/Eldritch Blast

Generals choose between Loose the Fury!/Stand Fast!/Treachery of Steel, while Sorcerers choose between Sorceror’s Treachery/Uncanny Strength/Eldritch Blast. If the matching between two opponents is good (frex, Stand Fast! Beats Loose the Fury!) the winning side gets +1 Success. This is the same for both sides. Frex, Unncany Strength beats Eldritch Blast.

Stand Fast! beats Loose the Fury! Beats Treachery of Steel! Beats Loose the Fury!

Uncanny Strength beats Eldritch Blast beats Sorceror’s Treachery beats Uncanny Strength.

If, however, the General and Sorceror co-orperate, the Success gets kicked up to +3. Frex, Loose the Fury! And Sorceror’s Treachery combine for a +3.

Combinations:
Loose the Fury! + Sorceror’s Treachery
Stand Fast! + Uncanny Strength
Treachery of Steel + Eldritch Blast

This is all written down on cards beforehand. Each player is given 3 cards. He shuffles them secretly, then plays them at the beginning of each Hour of battle. Player-to-player communication is not allowed.

Furthermore, there is an additional +1 Success for each interesting and evocative description of a move from each player.

Humans try to protect the Glass Tower. Dragonlords try to kill all the Humans and destroy the Glass Tower. If the Humans kill all the Dragonlords, the Humans win. If the Dragonlords kill all the Humans, the Dragonlords win. If the Dragonlords destroy the Glass Tower, but do not kill all the Humans, it is a “draw.”

Destroying a Glass Tower gives 10 points to the Dragonlord side. Saving a Glass Tower gives 10 Points to the Human side. A “draw” gives 5 points to both sides.

The winning side (the one with the most points) is lionized by history, the losing side is demonized. In the event of a tie, the war is recorded as a tragedy.

If the Humans wish to directly attack the Dragonlords, instead of waiting for them to attack a Glass Tower, the Humans may do so. However, doing so leaves a Glass Tower unprotected. At the cost of the automatic destruction of a Glass Tower, the Human Team may launch a “surprise attack” on the Dragonlord side.
This automatically destroys one Dragonlord Army.

Dragonlord and Human Sorcery and Steel starts at:
Dragonlord: Steel 5, Sorcery 3
Human: Steel 3, Sorcery 5

Each point means one base Success. For example, normally Dragonlord Steel causes 5 base Success – enough to destroy one Army. However, each point on the opposing side acts as an opposing trait. This means that, for example, Human Steel resisting Dragonlord Steel normally results in only 2 Success.

Normally, the sum of Steel and Sorcery are added together to determine the base Successes of each side. Thus, only the cards played by the players, the descriptions used by the players, and the growing bonus to Dragonlord Sorcery matter.

You see, Dragonlords can use Sorcery to directly inflict Wounds on the Glass Tower. Humans can use Sorcery to shield the Glass Tower. This is why Steel and Sorcery are rated separately.

Additonally, with each new Battle after the first, Dragonlord Sorcery gains a +1 to reflect the growing power of Dark Sorcery, which is fueled by the Human’s emotions.

If the Dragonlords use Sorcery to attack a Glass Tower, only their Steel rating is used to calculate their base Successes. Similarly, if the Humans use their Sorcery to defend a Glass Tower from the Dragonlords, only the Humans’ Steel rating is used to calculate their base successes.

Successes translates into Wounds on Armies. 1 or 2 Success means the Army is shocked and cannot attack the next Hour of battle; 3 or 4 Successes mean the Army is wounded and cannot fight for the next of the battle, but will survive; 5 or more Successes means the Army is destroyed.

Glass Towers can be attacked directly by Dragonlords, but only a 5 Success or more result will affect them, by destroying the Tower. Furthermore, Human Sorcery Successes can be used to directly subtract from the Successes of a Dragonlord attack on a Glass Tower

Each side begins with 20 Armies. The players must then divide them between the 5 Towers.

Before each major segment of play, the GM makes a speech.

Speeches:
Before Chargen Phase: In olden days, before Time began, there came into the world two races, the Yu-Men and the Dragonlords.

Before the War Phase: And the Yu-Men and the Dragonlords did quarrel, and make war, with terrible implements unknown to people of this day.

Before each Battle, the GM introduces it like so:
“And the Yu-men and the Dragonlords did battle at The Tower…”

After each Battle, the GM sums it up like so:
Humans win: “And the Yu-men did slay the Dragonlords, so that the Tower did remain whole.”

Dragonlords win: “And the Dragonlords did slay the Yu-men, and Shatter their Tower; and the Yu-men were much aggrieved.”

Tie, Glass Tower destroyed: “And the Dragonlords did Shatter the Tower.”

Tie, both sides destroyed: “And the battle was bloody, and hard-fought, and there was much weeping and gnashing of teeth.”

The Battles are fought in this order:

The Tower in the Blue Ocean
The Tower Amidst the High Trees
The Tower at the Great River
The Tower in the Wide Plains
The Tower Under the Clear Sky

At the Battle of The Tower at the Great River, the following extra line is appended by the GM after the introductory line:

“And the emotions of the Yu-Men did make the Dragonlords’ sorceries wax strong, and Dragonlords were well pleased.”

At the beginning of the Committee Phase, the group (players and GM) say the following):

So let it be put into Law, by the word of this Committee, that whatever Actors portray the Yu-Men and Dragonlords, they shall do so in the following manner:

If the Humans win: That the Dragonlords were a scourge upon the World, and the Yu-Men did clease it of their monstrosity. To them, let History give thanks.

If the Dragonlords win: That Yu-Men did oppress the World, and the Dragonlords did free themselves, and the World thereof. To them, let History give thanks.

If it was a tie: That war is a terrible thing; that neither Yu-Men nor Dragonlord did survive; for blood is paid for in blood, until the end of time.