Entry?: Cage of Reason

[redivider]

I have a few ideas and rather than spend time figuring out the best I'll jump into one of them as a placeholder.

Cage of Reason is an enlightenment era game of piledriving philosophes and eye-gouging essayists.

Characters are intellectuals and agitators struggling to bring the light of reason to societies weighed down by despotism, superstition, and stultifying custom. The Characters' battles against censors, priests, and aristocratic twits are played out as tag-team wrestling matches.

Character creation and intellectual combat rules are roughly based on the Superstar Pro Wrestling Game that I used to play in the mid 1980s.

Time constraint: 4 X 2 hour sessions. One session creating characters and opponents. Three steel cage matches against increasingly dangerous foes.

Ingredients:
Laws
Steel
Team

Structure of play: players create their characters and a roster of enemies (or use pre-made villains). They then collectively decide on three intellectual battles (matches) they will engage in. Each of the last three sessions of play is the build up to and resolution of a match. Sample matches could be: proving that a famous relic in the local church is a fraud; convincing the King to sponsor a scientific expedition; mustering votes in the academy to replace the ancient, reactionary chairman; guiding the inaugural issue of a new journal past the censor's prying eyes. Matches can be fought as a series of individual bouts or as a tag-team battle.

Character creation:

The heart of each character is the list of eleven moves that they deploy when in the cage. Moves can be rhetorical tricks, appeals to powerful patrons, recitation of core beliefs, etc. For example:

Cite Aristotle
Write scathing review
Flee to Geneva
Reference the customs of the noble savages of the Americas
Retreat behind pseudonym

Moves are each associated with a number from 2 to 12, the possible results of a roll of two die six. Moves are ranked at different damage levels. It cost points to buy damage levels and costs more points to place moves at numbers that have a higher probability of being rolled (so the move located at number 7 will cost a lot more than the moves located at 2 or 12.)

Game Mechanic:

Each round, players roll on their moves chart and inflict damage, reverses, and other results. A Match ends when one side submits or is knocked out. Narration of each round of the match fleshes out the twists & turns of the intelectual struggle than is being waged.

Issues: how to keep a balance between ssilly & serious? Player defined moves, choose from a list, or combination?

[adgboss]

Ugh ok suddenly I do not feel so creative. I think this is another very neat idea. I mean everyone has an opinion on Wrestling (like or dislike). So I think that it would galvanize some interest.

As for silly vs. serious, I would write it with a straight face and let people find their own "sillyness" factor. Absurdity can be an excellent means of converying serious ideas.

For the moves, make it a combination. Maybe define five or six standard moves and then allow each player their own Signature move.

Sean

[Joshua BishopRoby]

God damn, Mark, if you didn't already have kids I'd want to have your babies. :)

[redivider]

[Doug Ruff]

[redivider]

Here's a character creation section, along with step-by-step design of a sample character. Since chracter design is multi-step and point buy, I need to remember to include several playable sample characters (and more importantly, sample villains) in the final draft.

oh- by the way, on Doug's point, I should probably encourage players to discuss the silly/serious scale before they start.



Create characters

Each player creates one character. Characters are advocates of the enlightenment in 18th century Europe. They can be philosophers, writers, politicians, artists, scientists and others engaged in public debate about the laws of men and laws of nature: what sort of government is best suited to human progress and happiness etc.

Character creation has six steps:
1. Choose Concept
2. Determine Biography
3. Pick eleven Moves
4. Choose Signature Move from among eleven Moves and determine six sub-moves
5. Distribute 250 points to Moves and Traits:
• Set levels of Conviction, Fame, Principles, and Reputation
• Place and set levels of ten ordinary Moves
• Set levels of Signature Move sub-moves
• Buy submissions and reverses
6. Choose Wrestling Name

Step 1. Choose character concept

A character concept summarizes who your character is and what contributions they are trying to make to the cause of enlightenment.

If you are having a difficult time coming up with a satisfying concept, answer four questions. What is your character’s profession? What area(s) of knowledge are they interested in? What ideas or policies are they trying to advance? What accepted ideas or practices are they seeking to change?

Our sample character will be a doctor who is conducting research in anatomy. He is seeking to promote a mechanistic view of the human body and improve access of all sick individuals to the latest surgical techniques. He views the concept of the ‘soul’ as at best superstitious and harmful nonsense when it interferes with scientific advances. He also wants to eliminate all religion-based restrictions on the dissection of human cadavers.

Step 2. Determine Biography

A character’s biography is a list or short paragraph setting down a few facts about their life. Include the character’s name, age, gender, profession, nationality (nation of origin or current citizenship), and current place of residence. Feel free to add a few additional details on family or close friends, habits, etc.

Our sample doctor character will be named Pietr van Gosse, a 44 year old male surgeon and lecturer in anatomy. He is Dutch, born in Amsterdam and currently residing in Leiden. Pietr is married with two young daughters, and tries to pull himself away from the dissecting table one or two evenings every week to spend time with his family. He has a wide correspondence with learned anatomists throughout Europe.

Step 3. Pick eleven moves.

At the heart of each character is a list of eleven moves that define how they wrestle in the world of ideas. Each move is an action a character makes during a match to outmaneuver an opponent and contribute to victory in the match. Moves can be rhetorical techniques, appeals to powerful patrons, statements of core beliefs, personal attacks on your opponent, citation of authorities in the field, manifestations of personal characteristics or national stereotypes, etc. Moves can be expressed through publishing written works, writing letters, speaking in confidence or in public, or taking physical actions.

Players can choose eleven Moves from the list provided in this section (altering them slightly if you wish to fit your character concept), create eleven Moves, or pick some from the list and create the rest. Your list of eleven moves should contain some that represent your specific character concept and biography as well as some more general Moves that will be applicable in any intellectual debate.

At least four of your character’s eleven moves must be Defensive. These moves are actions taken to avoid giving in to the opponent’s position rather than actions that advance your position. They can represent temporary retreats, deflections, concessions on minor points, feigned surrender, protective postures, pauses to gather energy and allies, etc.

Write down the eleven Moves you have chosen in any order on a scrap piece of paper. Note down the letter (D) next to the defensive moves you have chosen.

Our sample anatomist character has the following eleven moves:

• speculate on opponent’s illnesses based on their posture, appearance, and habits
• Admit that the body still holds many mysteries (D)
• recite long sections of Galen’s On the Usefulness of the Parts of the Human Body.
• Donate to local religious charity to deflect accusations of atheism (D)
• Accuse opponent of willful ignorance.
• Boast of the awards received from scientific associations.
• Visit aging mentor to seek advice (D)
• Brandish real human skull
• Analogize the circulatory system to the uncensored flow of ideas.
• Circulate satirical poem among friends and allies
• Revise scholarly paper to fix a mistake (D)


Step 4. Choose signature move.

Each character has one Signature Move chosen from among their list of eleven moves. A signature Move helps define the character’s persuasive style and demeanor in the wrestling cage. The Move you choose as your Signature must be general enough to be divided into six sub-moves, or specific types of the Signature Move.

Doctor van Gosse’s Signature Move will be “speculate on opponent’s illnesses based on their posture, appearance, and writing style.” This fits with his medical background, plus six specific illnesses will work nicely as sub-moves.

The six sub-moves associated with the Doctor’s Signature move will be:
• Speculatively diagnose a venereal disease, likely Pox
• Speculatively diagnose Melancholy
• Speculatively diagnose Consumption
• Speculatively diagnose Dementia
• Speculatively diagnose Worms
• Speculatively diagnose Hysteric Affection

Step 5. Distribute 250 Points to Moves and Traits

Players have 250 points to set the placement and damage of their Moves, set the levels of four additional traits that impact wrestling, and buy special features (submission attempts and reverses) for some of your moves. Your choices in distributing points will determine how your character functions mechanically during wrestling matches.

The following sections explain how to spend points on Traits, Moves, and Special Features. Read through all three sections before you decide how to distribute your points. As a general guide, you’ll want to allocate approximately 50 to 100 points on your traits, 150 to 200 points on your moves, and 0 to 50 points on Special features. Keep track of how many points you’ve spent on a piece of scrap paper.

Traits

Characters have four Traits that each measure effectiveness in an aspect of wrestling: Conviction, Expedience, Fame, and Reputation.

Conviction measures the strength of your commitment to Enlightenment ideals. During matches, if your opponent rolls a move with the special feature of Submission, you will have to roll to see if your character immediately gives up. The higher your character’s Conviction trait, the less likely it is that your character will submit to the pressure.

Expedience measures a character’s willingness to abandon their principles for a strategic advantage. Characters with a high level of Expedience are better at cheating during matches to help themselves or one of their teammates.

Fame measures how well known your character is (primarily to his or her peers and secondarily to the public at large.) During tag-team matches, Fame determines how easily a character outside the ring can ‘tag in’ to relieve a team member who is in trouble. Fame measures tagging-in because the better known a character is, the more readily they can insert their opinions into ongoing ideological disputes. For example, if a small French village is embroiled over a debate on freedom of religion and Voltaire writes a letter in support of the local freethinking school teacher, it will likely impact the local controversy. Reverse the situation and the missive of support from a no-name rural tutor might give inward solace to Voltaire but it wouldn’t help him in his high-stakes international debates.

Reputation measures whether a character is viewed positively or negatively by his or her peers and the public at large. Characters with a high Reputation level are more likely to get inspired by a cheering crowd during a match, and be able to regain energy or make a more effective Move.

All traits are given numerical levels from 3 to 11. When a Trait is being used during a match, roll two six-sided dice, add the results, and compare to your character’s Trait level. If the roll is equal to or lower than Trait level, your character succeeded in the action. High Trait levels are therefore desirable and cost more points:

3: 0
4: 3
5: 7
6: 12
7: 18
8: 23
9: 27
10: 30
11: 32


Dr. van Gosse will have an average conviction since he mainly focuses on medical scientific issues rather than the full range of enlightenment causes. His expedience will be high (those who dissect human cadavers must often skirt the laws to obtain needed corpses). His Fame will be low since he is mainly known to fellow anatomists and his Reputation will be low to middling since he pushes the envelope of his profession beyond what many anatomists find acceptable. His four traits cost a total of 58 points, leaving 192 for moves and special features.

Conviction: 7 (18 pts.)
Expedience: 9 (27 pts)
Fame: 5 (7 pts)
Reputation: 6 (12 pts)


Moves

A character’s eleven Moves are written down on the Moves Chart on the character sheet, each assigned to one of the positions from 2 to 12. Remember that at least four of your Moves must be defensive. At least two of defensive Moves must be placed between positions 5 and 9 on the chart. Moves are also given damage levels. Damage ranges from 1 to 10. Offensive Moves must be rated between damage levels 4 and 10. Defensive Moves can range from level 1 to 3.

It cost points to buy damage levels and to place moves at positions on the Moves Chart. One point buys one level of damage. It costs more to place a Move at a position that has a higher probability of being rolled during a match. Each position on the Moves Chart has a multiplier that range from x1 to x6 . The cost of moves = damage level x position multiplier:

2: x1
3: x2
4: x3
5: x4
6: x5
7: x6
8: x5
9: x4
10: x3
11: x2
12: x1


For example, a Move that inflicts 5 damage points placed at the 4 position would cost 5x3 = 15 points. It costs 30 points to place the same move at the 7 position.


Van Gosse’s player arranges the character’s 11 moves on the Moves Chart and tries to give prominent placement and high damage ratings to medical-related traits. The moves cost 169 points. Van Gosse’s Moves and Traits cost a total of 227 points, leaving 23 points for special features.

2: Boast of the awards received from scientific associations = 9 damage (9 pts)
3: Revise scholarly paper to fix a mistake (D) = 3 damage (6 pts)
4: Analogize the circulatory system to the uncensored flow of ideas = 5 damage (15 pts)
5: Recite long sections of Galen’s On the Usefulness of the Parts of the Human Body = 7 damage (28 pts)
6: Visit aging mentor to seek advice (D) = 1 damage (5 pts)
7: speculate on opponent’s illnesses based on their posture, appearance, and habits (SM) = 8 damage (48 pts)
8: Brandish real human skull (to make point about mortality, anatomy, etc) = 4 damage (20 points)
9: Admit that the body still holds many mysteries (D) = 1 damage (5 pts)
10: Accuse opponent of willful ignorance = 7 damage (21 pts)
11: Donate to local religious charity to deflect accusations of atheism (D) = 2 damage (4 pts)
12: Circulate satirical poem among friends and allies = 8 damage (8 pts)


Signature Moves

While placing and setting damage levels for your Moves, do the same for your Signature Move. It costs the same as ordinary Moves do. During a match, when you roll a character’s Signature Move, you do not inflict the damage level you set for your Signature, Instead, you’ll roll on your character’s Signature Move chart. Go ahead and write the six sub-moves of your Signature on the chart. It doesn’t matter where you position them because there is an equal chance of rolling between 1 and 6. Now assign damage levels to the sub-moves. The six different damage levels you distribute among the the sub moves are:
• Signature Moves’ damage level –3
• SM’s damage -1
• SM’s damage
• SM’s damage +1
• Sm’s damage + 3
• SM’s damage +5

Dr. Van Gosse’s Signature Move was set at 8 damage, so his six sub-moves will inflict 5,7,8,9,11, and 13 damage. The player designing the doctor arranges and assigns damage to the sub-moves:

1: Speculatively diagnose a venereal disease, likely Pox = 11 damage
2: Speculatively diagnose Melancholy = 8 damage
3: Speculatively diagnose Consumption = 9 damage
4: Speculatively diagnose Dementia = 13 damage
5: Speculatively diagnose Worms = 5 damage
6: Speculatively diagnose Hysteric Affection = 7 damage



Special Features

Once you have set your Moves, you can decide whether to buy Special Features to enhance any of Moves or sub-moves. The two kinds of special features are Submission and Reversal.

Submission means that the move has such a painful or humiliating impact on an opponent that the opponent must immediately roll to see if they concede the match. Submissions can be added to any one offensive move (except the Signature Move) and up to two sub-moves of the Signature. Submissions on a normal offensive move cost ten points or half the total cost of the move (whichever is higher). Submissions on sub-moves cost half the damage level of the sub-move (round down). Write an (S) next to any moves that have the Submission feature.

Reversal means that when an opponent rolls an offensive move and you roll a defensive move with the Reversal feature, an opportunity arises for your character to reverse the situation, avoid the blow, and seize the initiative. Both players will roll two six-sided dice and if the defending player rolls higher, then the move results for the round are erased and both players roll again on the Moves chart. The Reversal feature can be added to one defensive move. It costs ten points or the total cost of the Move, whichever is higher.

Van Gosse gets a Reversal on the “Visit aging mentor” defensive move. This costs ten points. The player designing the doctor pays ten points for a Submission on the “Brandish real human skulls” offensive move, which seems dramatic and creepy enough to cause a submission check. With just three points remaining, there are exactly enough to pay for a submission on the sub-move “Hysteric affection.”

Step 6. Choose Wrestling Name

Give your character a nickname that he or she will use in the ring. The wrestling name can signify the character's profession, key belief, signature move, or other identifying feature.

[i]Dr. van Gosse will be known as The Vivisector (with The Corpse-stealer and Dr. Skull as close runners-up).

Van Gosse is complete and ready to enter the ring.

[MikeSands]

That is some glorious madness there.

I am looking forward to seeing how the matches play out.

[Brand_Robins]

This. Is. Made. Of. Awesome.

More comments on the actual mechanics and such to follow. Just had to note my immediate approval of the concept.

[redivider]

Thanks Mike and Brand for the kind words.

I'm adding a few more draft pieces. The first is a short ramble on keeping the focus on the enlightenment and wrestling at the same time, which I'll need to expand with some game-related advice. The second is a longer section on the staging of each wrestling session, focusing on pre-match rituals like interviews, press events that devolve into trash talking chaos, and intro anthems -- that all have a mechanical impact on the rules.

Another chef who I talked to about the game last night suggested I emphasize the silly side of the enlightenment and the serious side of wrestling. I think I fall short of that standard but it's an interesting goal.




Cage of Reason will test your ability to hold two frames of reference in your head simultaneously. It’s the enlightenment. Intellectual debates shape modernity for good or ill. Paradigms shift in a maze of salons and courts. Intellectuals test the limits of free thought in continent of autocratic polity. Documents penned in drafty garret apartment shake the palaces of Europe. And it’s also professional wrestling. Brawny, oiled dudes bearing ridiculous monikers grapple in a battle as old as the classical Olympiad and as now as 21 century digital communication. Ringside Linnaeuses name and codify a taxum of strategic, homoerotic maneuvers. Entertainment collides with athletics. A spectacle grows in popularity even as it crystallizes as a metaphor for everything inauthentic & needlessly aggressive about our society.

Because it’s a game, holding these two frames simultaneously will hopefully result in more double your pleasure, less doublethink.

...


Two jam packed hours of entertainment

One or two players have been named as the promoters of each wrestling session. They will act as stage managers of the session. Promoters have two duties. First, they assign which players will play which villain during the matches. Write up a roster before you meet or at the beginning of the session. Second, they are in charge of time management. They will plan out a schedule for the session, including some pre-match rituals that impact the game mechanically.

Think of each two hour wrestling sessions as a major public event. A big time, pay-per-view, blockbuster show. Crowds are streaming into the stadium. Outside, scalpers are selling tickets for jacked up prices. Concession stands are packed with fans stocking up on pricey beer and black t-shirts bearing the images of philosophers, clergy, and nobles flexing, strutting, and putting the hurt on. There’s a buzz of anticipation in the air. The arena seats are filling rapidly. Fans are unfurling banners inscribed with the witty bon mots of their favorite thinkers. That pasty kid with the mullet sitting two rows from the ring you has written – classily – on a day-glow orange poster: “A thing is not proved just because no one has ever questioned it. What has never been gone into impartially has never been properly gone into. Hence skepticism is the first step toward truth. It must be applied generally, because it is the touchstone” – Denis Diderot. Young Mr. mullet tries to get a chant started. ‘Di-de-rot, Di-de-rot’ … but it dies out. The energy in the vast arena hasn’t focused quite yet.

You’re sweating as you scan the crowd over a closed circuit feed – and not just because of all the lights blazing in the control room. As the promoter and producer of today’s event, you’re excited to have sold out the house, but also a little bit nervous. There are 20,000 fans in there – paid fans – not to mention the millions watching live on TV, and every one of them is expecting two jam packed hours of entertainment.

All three wrestling session have to last two hours. Any more, and you’ll run past your pay per view slot and incur penalties on your stadium lease. Any less, and the fans go home pissed. With the way they’re drinking, maybe they’ll even trash the place, and the last thing you need is more bad publicity and another lawsuit.

As promoter, it’s your job to come up with a two-hour slate of entertainment. Before you meet the other players for the session, write down a time line of activities: the program for your session. The wrestling matches that you and the other players have scheduled will be the main events and will hopefully take up much of the two-hour time slot. But promoters should build up to these matches with a set of pre-match activities and rituals to help frame the main events.

Be creative. You can schedule mini-concerts or other live entertainment in the ring to fire up the crowd, replays of earlier matches on the stadium jumbotron, amateur bouts as undercards. For game purposes, there are six pre-match rituals that you will probably want to include. These rituals can help fill the two-hour session. They also impact the mechanics of the main wrestling events by temporarily boosting wrestlers’ traits or granting dice-rolling advantages.

Pre-match Interviews. This is a interview with one wrestler or one team of wrestlers. Role-play out a couple of questions and answers, which can be about the upcoming bout, the wrestlers’ personal lives, whatever. The promoter can act as interviewer and other players can answer in character. The promoter decides whether to interview both sides of the upcoming match or just talk to the player characters. Characters (and villains) who get interviewed receive their player’s choice of +1 on Fame or +1 on Reputation for the duration of the day’s matches.

Hidden-camera scenes. A camera crew zeroes in on a wrestler or team of wrestlers unaware that they are being filmed. The wrestler’s true nature is revealed by these candid scenes of pre-match preparation. Role-play the scene: perhaps a lone wrestler quietly meditating, or looking at photographs of his wife and kids, or hiding a foreign object in his costume. You can also have a group of wrestlers, managers etc. planning out strategy or conniving to trick the referee. The promoter decides which wrestlers to feature. Each wrestler shown in a hidden camera scene gets their player’s choice of +1 Reputation (for honorable behavior) or +1 Expedience (for sneaky, underhanded behavior) for the duration of the session.

Trash-talking at press event. During the pre-match weigh in, the opposing wrestlers and their entourages show up in the same room to answer media questions. There’s no love lost between these athletes. Fueled by the frenetic click of cameras, the session inevitably spirals out of control into trash-talking, finger pointing, wild swing-and-a-miss chaos. You can role-play this scene, starting with Q & A (like the interview) then unleashing players to boast and talk smack. All characters and villains involved in a trash talk session get extra motivation in the form of +1 on their conviction trait for the duration of the session.

Announcer Commentary. The camera focuses on the announcer and color commentators, who preview the match and discuss each side’s strengths and vulnerabilities. Role-play this conversation with two or three characters providing the analysis. Comment on each wrestler, noting one of their offensive moves that is a particular strength and one of their defensive moves that is a particular weakness. Mark down a + next to the named offensive move and a – next to the named defensive move. Use a pencil because the ‘+’ represents a temporary bonus of +3 damage that is added to the move every time it is rolled for the duration of this session. The temporary ‘–‘ means that the defensive move has a damage rating of zero during the session.

Signature Songs. Almost as important as your signature move is your signature song, the rocking anthem that heralds you as you strut down to the ring, setting the tone for your wrestling persona. [Need to tie this back into character creation.] Player choose a song that is played while their wrestlers enter the arena. You can pick a classical piece (17th or 18th century) or a contemporary song. A wrestler with a contemporary song whips up the emotions of the crowd and gets a +1 on Reputation for the duration of the match. A wrestler with a classical music intro focuses on the upcoming battle and gets one re-roll of dice anytime during the match.

Introductions. “Ladies and Gentleman, in this corner, in the crimson and white vestments and the medallion of St. Peter, Chastiser of Impiety and past Ambassador of the Vatican to the Strasbourg Court, his Excellencyyyyyyyyy Bishop Emanuel of Saaaaaaaaalzburg!” You get the idea. Players’ whose wrestler receives a formal introduction get to shift the result of a dice roll twice during the match. Shifting the result means that you can alter the result of a dice roll up or down by one number. For example, a roll of 5 can be shifted to a 4 or a 6.

[Mark Bravura]

Brutal Mayhem At Its Structured Finest [and no stone left unturned]...

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
The second is a longer section on the staging of each wrestling session, focusing on pre-match rituals like interviews, press events that devolve into trash talking chaos, and intro anthems -- that all have a mechanical impact on the rules.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Itchin' to see this hottie in final form!

M.B.