Orchestra- Cyberpunk Action

[kylesgames]

[Onix]

You might be on the right track with just removing the scene types. Since there is a mechanical reason to keep the scenes themselves. Maybe instead of combat or social scenes, you could have high energy or low energy scenes. The more energy in a scene the more stamina points the players have. This would make some sense seeing how people feel social pressure to act in a specific way in specific settings. It makes even more sense if the purpose of the game is to simulate book or film of cyberpunk settings.

In that context, the scenes could be very useful. The high or low energy scenes could be optional also. If the GM doesn't want to deal with it, just leave Stamina as is.

Extra stamina could also be used to reward the players for working with the GM's story. Not explicitly, just that a GM prepared scene may have some extra to up the energy. If the players define a scene, they don't get any extra.

You don't have to do it that way, that's just a way of making the scenes variable and functional.

[kylesgames]

[Chainsaw Aardvark]

I'm about half way through reading the document and writing up a detailed review of your format, system, and setting. I'll try to start a new thread for it tonight or tomorrow. So, try to hold off on fully cutting anything just yet. However, I will generally say - people play the game for the fluff. If it was only about chance and die rolls, you might as well play Craps or Roulette and get some money out of it.

One idea I had about scenes though - perhaps use them as either a group resource or a way to manage session length. As a metaphor - the director has only so much film stock or running time to work with. Players would have to balance how much time they want to spend investigating versus fighting if they want to complete the movie properly. Furthermore, the benchmark can be set as to it it is a two hour movie, and eight hour mini series, or a number of seasons for a show and thus how many scenes are allocated to the problem.

As a quick reference to psychic precognition - look at the 1km1kt.net game "".

[kylesgames]

I'm not really looking at cuts of stuff yet, though I have revamped the scene system with Onix's suggestions.

Part if the scene system is to manage scenario length, though that has yet to be fully implemented.

I'll look at that suggestion once I get from my phone to a real computer.

EDIT: Yeah, I was thinking the psychic system would work a little like that, though I haven't actually worked it out. The reason it doesn't right now is to balance the three aspects while I come up with a diversified method of handling it that isn't too complex (though I'm not doing that well right now) and looks graceful.

The character sheet is still coming, but may be on hold for at least a while due to happy fun stuff with moving into my dorm tomorrow (it's about 10 PM here, so that means issues).

EDIT 2: My Scribus just crashed, taking the starting bit of the character sheet with it, which means it'll probably be a tomorrow or later thing.

[kylesgames]

Ok, guys, the site's now updated with the documents. If you wanna get to them straight from the forum, try this:

http://kylesgamestabletop.yolasite.com/ ... tDraft.pdf
http://kylesgamestabletop.yolasite.com/ ... rSheet.pdf

Also, you can sorta see that I know roughly how to typeset with the character sheet, though I really wish I'd made some stuff up first to import (Scribus is probably the slowest program to do that stuff in). It's 0.5 for a reason: It's full featured but really ugly.

EDIT: Oh yeah, I don't have it yet, but should I put a thing on the character sheet to show maximums for health/stamina? Or do you think people would just assume to mark above/below the appropriate bubbles?

[BubbaBrown]

Haven't played around with InDesign for awhile and read the woes you were having with the character sheet. So, I produced something based off the design you produced. Needs to be tweaked to flavor, but might demonstrate a route to or to not explore. It's up to you, do with it what you will.

http://www.bestwithstuff.com/GameStuff/Orchestra/

There's a PDF, EPS, and InDesign file there. The EPS can be imported into Scribus to a limited extent. (Turns everything to shapes, but can serve as a layout.)

To be honest, I've always had a thing for cyberpunk and dystopian themes. I'll take a look at what you've got more closely, later. Looks interesting from the initial skimming.

[kylesgames]

Yeah, that's sort of what I was planning on going for. I was thinking I'd do the work in raster or vector standalone files before importing them- Scribus has more or less 100% compatibility with Inkscape files, so I can doodle stuff there and move it over. I also need a font, but since I've transitioned between computers I've lost them all.

I'm hoping for a more angular look for the final design, something like how the health and stamina is set up now. I'll doodle some stuff in Inkscape and find a font to use.

EDIT: I have to run to a Teacher's College thing, but here's the rough draft of a future category spot:


It's nowhere near done, and it'll need modification (removal of the strokes, a little expansion and "unboringfication" in the empty space, I'm contemplating pulling attribute 2 back a lot to make use of it, then having attribute 1's skills have more vertical space).

[BubbaBrown]

If anything, I'd suggest using Inkscape to produce SVG files. SVG is pretty standard these days and it'll be easier to truck them around in the future. I'd avoid doing raster stuff unless it is something that firmly sits in that realm (background images, logos, etc...)

The font name for the Windows console font is Lucida Console. I think any monospaced font will fit the theme as most terminal and consoles stick with monospaced fonts.

For in the individual color sections, you might try playing off of PCB boards and use a dark background with lighter shade traces. (Avoid using black lines) The solder mask for PCB boards comes in a variety of colors, just do a Google search on, "PCB solder mask color". May fit the theme you are going for.

If possible, a slight white outline around black text on darker color backgrounds helps to make the text more legible. Black text on dark color backgrounds can get lost pretty easy and white text looks strange, so... you do both and problem solved.

[Evil Scientist]

Also, keep in mind that a character sheet is something people print and copy a lot - so keeping it grayscale and photocopy-friendly (e.g. no big solid dark backgrounds) is generally a good idea.