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I'm warning you all ahead of time, this is going to be pretty incoherent. But it's not so much a post for everybody is it as a way to get my thoughts on virtual paper...and make sure I don't get overlooked by accident.


Ancient Dreams: Glass Towers

Timescale #2: 1 session of 2 Hours
Ingredients: Glass, Ancient, Emotion

Simulates 1st Hour of 5th Hour Setting: Half the players are Humans, half are Dragonlords. Odd numbers go to Dragonlords. Of these, Half are Thinkers, half are Fighters. The session is broken down into “phases,” similar to Pendragon’s “winter phases,” where the Dragonlord’s Dark Sorcery slowly gain power -- +1 per phase, say, due to the effect of the growing Dark Sorcery Id. The Humans strive to preserve their culture in face of the onslaught by “archiving” if they defeated, or scoring “points” if they fight the Dragonlords to a standstill, or (amazingly) win.

What do the aforementioned Glass Towers do? Serve as “point” markers. The more glass towers that remain, the higher the Humans’ score, because the more of their technology and culture preserved.

How do we differentiate between Humans and Dragonlords? Humans start out with a much higher tech level (Signature: +8, GURPS TL 16) to their “Light Sorcery”, but Dragonlords get a growing bonus to the Dark Sorcery because of the side of effects of Human tech -- +1 per phase, say. Also, Dragonlords are much better fighters than Humans, while Humans are much better Thinkers.

How many Phases are there? Probably 10. It suits the setting…but how do we make it work, exactly? There should be 5 hours of ascendance (to Noon) and 5 hours of descendance (to sunset). Maybe Dragonlord Tech equals Human tech levels in bonuses at Noon (phase 5) and overwhelms it at Sunset (phase 10). Sounds good.

How do we reward players for playing different character types? Why would Humans ever want to play Fighters, or Dragonlords Thinkers? Fighters are mandatory to command armies – one per Fighter. Hmm, maybe call them Generals. Thinkers are mandatory to use an item of Sorcery – one per Thinker. I should probably call them Sorcerors.

During each Phase, players are put at a key event, such as fighting a battle, or guarding a tower. Should they all be guarding a tower, considering their importance? Maybe. Ok, sounds good. I’ll keep it until I get a better reason not. By guarding a tower, of course I mean, fighting a battle guarding a tower.

How much are the bonuses for Human Thinkers? For Dragonlord Fighters? For Human Tech? For Dragonlord Tech? For Dark Sorcery’s Time Bonus?
Still working on that.

Where do the ingredients come in? The glass comes in the form of the Glass Towers the Human PC have to protect. The Emotions come in in the form of the rising Dark Sorcery (“monsters from the Id”) that strengthen the Dragonlords’ magic. The Ancient comes in because this is all played at the beginning of the setting, and the point award is based on how history views them. Yeah, ***keep this history part*** note to myself. Humans get points if history remembers them well (protection of Glass Towers), Dragonlords get points if history remembers them well (obliteration of glass towers, painting of humans as “demons,” etc.)

I'm liking the game name with the comma more now.

More of my "train of consciousness" thoughts:

How does the Timescale break down? Have say, 10 mins for chargen, 10 min for each of the Phases, plus 10 for calculating points. That’s 10 + (10 x 10 == 100) + 10 == 120. Two Hours exactly. COOL!

How do I keep each Phase to 10 Minutes? 1 minute == 1 Hour of battle time == 1 round. ***I should probably fix the number of players, in order to keep the round under 1 minute. Or perhaps the highest ranked simply go first, and if anyone gets left out, too bad.***

How do I calculate points for winning/losing? Say there are 10 Glass Towers. 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.

How do battles resolve? Especially, how do I come up with a “draw?” 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.” ***Here, of course, I refer to the NPCs the PCs command. The PCs always escape unharmed.***

How can the Dragonlords affect the Glass Tower? Through Dark Sorcery. Each item of Dark Sorcery can inflict (1 point of damage to a Glass Tower or an Army. A Glass Tower begins with 10 structural damage points. When the Glass Tower reaches 0 points, it is destroyed.) Still thinking about precise mechanics.

***How do I make this a ROLE playing game?*** I.e., how do I make the individual character important? Perhaps a Passion for each character a la Pendragon? Or a Theme for each Army/Item of Power (new name for item of Sorcery)? Themes sound good. I’ll go with that, at the very least. So each PC could be the leader of the “Blazing Sun Legion” and get a bonus for using fir as a theme in their actions (think Exalted’s Stunts), while a Sorceror might have an Orb of Geoforce that could create minivolcanoes, etc, but with essentially the same mechanical effect. Actually, I should probably ***1) emphasize that the theme of Army/Item of Sorcery is subordinate to that of the PC and 2) have a “menu” of choices ready to keep chargen under 10 minutes.***

Game background: It would really be neat if I had a selection of names to choose from for the Human and Dragonlord sides. Possibly also some other descriptors, like height, weight, eye color, hair color/scars, etc. a la Pendragon. Although I don’t see the practical bonus. Hmm, probably none, it’s just neat. It’s also probably better to do this via random roll, or draw – d10s! – as people would probably spend too much time picking all this stuff. Also, people should all roll this at once to keep it under 10 mins.

How does history remember your character? This would be neat. Keeping sort of an “individual score” for each PC. Perhaps 1 point for each enemy Army destroyed, +10 for a victorious battle, -10 for a loss. Positive is heroice, Negatve is villainous.

Team rock-paper-scissors is a lovely idea! Plus, you can make pre-throw communication somehow privileged - like an excellent commander can telegraph his intentions to one of his team, or an excellent spy can force an enemy to relay his throw in advance.

Ok, it's starting to come together...

How does the Timescale break down? Have say, 10 mins for chargen, 20 min for each of the Phases, plus 10 for calculating points. That’s 10 + (20 x 5 == 100) + 10 == 120. Two Hours exactly. COOL!

Resolution method:
Ok, Base-5 scale, to allow for rock-paper-scissors.
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 is a minor success, 3 is a major success, 5 or higher is a complete success.
6) have the GM describe the results according to the degree of success

For battles, I’m leaning towards a “team-effort” rock-paper-scissors thing. For example:
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

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

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.

With each new Battle after the first, Dragonlord Sorcery gains a +1 to reflect the growing power of Dark Sorcery Id.

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.

One GM, plus one General and one Sorceror for each side. That’s five, very thematic, plus it keeps resolution times down.

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 batlle.
Player-to-player communication is not allowed.

Why can’t the Humans directly attack the Dragonlords? 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.

What is the starting value for Dragonlord and Human Sorcery and Steel?
Dragonlord: Steel 5, Sorcery 3
Human: Steel 3, Sorcery 5

Wounds subtract from Steel or Sorcery? NO.
Wounds affect Armies. 1 Success means the Army is shocked and cannot attack the next Hour of battle; 3 Successes mean the Army is wounded and cannot fight for the next of the battle, but will survive; 5 Successes means the Army is destroyed.\

Glass Towers can be attacked directly by Dragonlords, but only a 5 Success 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 10?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: In olden days, before Time began, there came into the world two races, the Yu-Men and the Dragonlords.
Before War: And the Yu-Men and the Dragonlords did quarrel, and make war, with terrible implements unknown to people of this day.
Before “Committee”: 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: