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Have idea, want collaboration

PostPosted: Tue May 29, 2012 3:46 pm
by Rubbermancer
So. I have this nasty habit of thinking of cool ideas and never following through on them. I've got what I think is a good idea for a gritty little rpg in which characters are members of a knife-fighter's guild in some bizarre, dystopic low-fantasy world. I know you guys are awesome at really clean, edgy mechanics, so I'd like, if not a full-blown partner-in-crime for this project, at least some preliminary thoughts from you lot of hardened criminals. (If I don't get a partner-in-crime, this will be in the wrong section, I suppose.) Here goes...

The goal is fast and tense fighting. I'm borrowing the 5-second rule from Fabula to that end. I also would like to encourage a lot of note-passing to the GM, because the players should be constantly trying to out-maneuver each other.

You would have 3 pools of 4-sided dice, probably on 3 handy medium-sized squares on your character sheet. You start with 5d4 Core dice of one colour, which will always be in one of these pools. There is also a pile of "Edge" dice, which are used for bonuses etc. Dice would be used for bullet-time action, as well as for lying through your teeth, stealing swag, and generally being a bastard, because a guilded knife-fighter approaches human relationships the same way he approaches an opponent in an alley or in the ring. Namely, with Footwork, Foresight, and the occasional Fault.

Footwork: Your action points. Keep the majority of your dice here, and spend them when you want to do something. You'll be trying for a 1, 2, 3, or 4, depending on what you want to do. Spend as many dice as you want, but the more power you put into this roll, the easier it will be for an opponent to anticipate your moves, read your exaggerations and imperfections, and use them against you.

1) is a Cheap Shot. Try to roll 1s when going for a Cheap Shot. You might kick sand in your opponent's eyes, trip them up, or knee them in the groin. Performing figurative cheap shots will give you free 1s, which you can use in combat later. You tell a Guild higher-up that Wutherly has an opium habit, and then plant an opium pipe in Wutherly's chambers. You're riding a sneaky-high, and get an Edge die, a free 1, which you place in your Vault for later. During the fight that night, you coat your blade in that special debilitating poison you've been saving, and manage to nick Wutherly with it by spending the Edge 1, adding injury to insult.

2) is a Duress. You're putting the pressure on, but hedging your bets and staying careful. This can take the form of circling an opponent into a corner, intimidation, extortion, and general posturing and bluster. If you roll less than 2 2s on a Duress attempt, and fail the attempt, you have to move one of the 2s to your Fault pool. You're psyched out, outmaneuvered, or your ego is bruised. Either way, it backfired, and your nerves aren't totally solid anymore.

3) is a Swipe, which can mean either a standard, effective, and straightforward blade offense like an outward slash or a rushing stab, or an act of thieving, (which happens to be a standard, effective, and straightforward way of getting by in the Guild). If you roll 1-3 3s, you have to put one of those 3s in your Fault pool, regardless of whether or not the Swipe was successful. If you roll 0 3s, you have to move all rolled dice to your Fault pool, with the 3 side up. You might have pulled off a hit, but you're off-balance if only for a split-second. You might have managed to yank some jewels from the shop, but you didn't notice the flour on the floor...

4) is a Snuff. When your opponent has at least 4 points in his Fault pool, you can go for a Snuff in the Guild ring to finish off a fight. But never to kill! Roll one 4 more than necessary, and you go too far and take the knife-fighter's life. The Guild doesn't look kindly on members killing members.

You can also go for a Snuff in the world outside the Guild to assassinate a Plebe (non-Guild citizen) on the sly. Both kinds of Snuff get you Guild status, and you can add 4 Sovereigns to your Vault. This reward is multiplied by the number of other players or NPCs who want a certain Plebe taken care of, or a certain Guild member cut down to size. But if you roll less than 4 4s on a Snuff, you've made enemies in Town or in the Guild equal to the difference. This might be another player, in which case the player will pass a note to the GM to that effect, or it might be an NPC.


Foresight: Your ability to anticipate your enemy. You can have as many dice in this pool as you want, but the more you have, the more you stand to lose. Place dice from your Footwork pool here as desired. The side facing up will give you a measure of defence against that particular number.

Having a 1 face-up in your Foresight pool means you're anticipating an opponent trying to fight dirty by tripping you up, having a buddy stab you while he distracts you, or something in that vein. The caution represented by having a 1 face-up means you're possibly crouching, maneuvering rapidly, watching your back with a sliver of mirror, or something like that. Somebody has to roll more 1s than you have in your Foresight pool in order to score a Cheap Shot on you, and anyone that rolls just a single 1 has to move that 1 to their Fault pile.

Having a 2 face-up in your Foresight pool means you're keeping your composure, exercising your poker-face muscles. It's more effective outside the ring than inside. It'll be really hard for people to intimidate you or back you up against the wall. People in Town cross the street when they see you coming, or are eager to please. You get better store prices, and you can pull a bare-faced lie on NPCs without batting an eye.

Having a 3 face-up means you're guarding your core, anticipating some kind of brawler move, or keeping your door locked while you're out, or your pockets close to your body in anticipation of some smug bastard trying to charm your coat. Somebody has to roll more 3s than you have in your Foresight pool in order to score a Swipe on you, and anyone that rolls 1-3 3s has to move one of those 3s to their Fault pool, regardless of the success or failure of their Swipe. If no 3s are rolled, all rolled dice are moved to the Fault pool, with 3 face up.

Having a 4 face-up means you're expecting some sort of endgame move, and you've got one last trick up your sleeve. When they go for the choke hold, the boot jack clicks out. When you're surrounded by the Town Wardens, you still have that smoke bomb...

Fault: Dice in your Fault pool can be removed by virtue of roleplaying them away, or using a combat round to gather yourself. You can use dice in an opponent's Fault pool to add to your total successes. Example: If you're going for a Cheap Shot, and your opponent has a 1 in his Fault pool, you can use that 1 when counting the 1s you roll against him. If you succeed, you put the 1 into your Footwork pool.


And that's about it so far. Sound intriguing, anyone? Too involved/complex?

Re: Have idea, want collaboration

PostPosted: Wed May 30, 2012 2:28 pm
by Onix
I think there's a lot there to digest. It might need a bit of story to make the process more palatable. Might I suggest each step be given a one or two paragraph example of how things might go?

Another thought, maybe I'm just reading a lot of text and thinking that the process is complex. Start with the basic concept of how a turn should go. Lay it out in a series of steps. Don't get into the edge cases. Add them individually later and make them digestible by themselves.

If the idea is fast combat, you need to reduce the number of steps and all the operations the players need to go through in a turn. Be ruthless. Get the average turn down to a single die roll for all players. As an example, when played by people that know what options they want to use, is extraordinarily fast. New players tend to take far longer but that's because they have all the mental steps of figuring out what options they want.

Re: Have idea, want collaboration

PostPosted: Wed May 30, 2012 3:08 pm
by Rubbermancer
Yeah, I realize now that this post was pretty much a big, ugly splat of mechanics. I kinda have the fluff in my head, and the way the mechanics will interact with them. If I was a little crazier, I could just play against myself and have a blast. :twisted:

I can refine this and come back with something better, I just thought I'd see if the idea grabbed anyone by the throat immediately. In which case, we could work on it together, from its inception, as it were, before it becomes solely MY convoluted, mutant spawn, grarrr.

Re: Have idea, want collaboration

PostPosted: Wed May 30, 2012 3:38 pm
by Onix
Well, no, I didn't mean to change the system, just the presentation. I'm burned out from doing the 24 hour challenge so my brain is mush.

Re: Have idea, want collaboration

PostPosted: Sun Jun 10, 2012 6:38 am
by Onix

Re: Have idea, want collaboration

PostPosted: Sun Jun 24, 2012 5:41 pm
by PeckishGamer

Re: Have idea, want collaboration

PostPosted: Thu Jun 28, 2012 11:59 am
by Rubbermancer

Re: Have idea, want collaboration

PostPosted: Thu Jun 28, 2012 7:35 pm
by Onix
Okay, It took me some time and I think PeckishGamer's summery helped but I'm starting to understand. I think it also didn't dawn on me what this was all about because I was expecting something totally different.

So my question is, am I rolling the d4s or am I selecting their values and placing them? I think the part that's a little weird to me is that the dice chose what kind of action I'm going to take. I get that I could pick the value most appealing to me but in some circumstances I might really want to sneak but all I get are 4s. I think that would bug me. I guess I could understand that I just couldn't figure any way to sneak through so I had to be more aggressive, but I think I'd want an option to pass up a roll.

Also what if I want my character to be especially skilled at sneaking (or finish moves or whatever)? Is there any option to weight my actions in that direction?

Edit: So again, not trying to be difficult. My goal is to work out things that are unclear (to me) and flesh them out.

Re: Have idea, want collaboration

PostPosted: Fri Jun 29, 2012 3:27 pm
by Rubbermancer

Re: Have idea, want collaboration

PostPosted: Sat Jun 30, 2012 7:56 am
by Onix