Rewards for Roleplaying

There's something deeply satisfying about moments of peak roleplaying. We all have a go at it when we're at the table, in one wway or another. Sometimes it comes out as pure narrative, sometimes as pantomime, and then sometimes as a believable improvised performance.

My Burning Wheel game continues to deliver on these performances. Each game tends to be a different player who shines. The circumstances of the story might be perfect to draw that out of the player. When it happens, it's wonderful. Sly, Peter, and Scott have all brought their A-game.

I especially like when games include a benny of some kind of that. I say that because I think that roleplaying is a skill that can be practiced and also because I want roleplaying games to encourage that kind of immersion. On the one hand it rewards players for getting into the game. On the other hand it also encourages other players to join in the game to the same level.

Also, it's fun! 'nuff said.

Balls In The Air

Gail Simone has some of the best content on twitter. Snarky, witty, and wise.

Here's a wise one.

Here is my advice to writers.

If you throw a ball into the air, SOMEBODY better catch that mother******.

And that inspired me to make a list at the end of each of my game sessions. It's a list of unresolved plot items and it accumulates more with each game session. It's a list of ideas that I can drop back into the game as I need to. It helps to keep the game tight and meaningful, as well as ensuring that good ideas (or characters) aren't lost.

Here's the current Balls In The Air list for O Mortal.

• Hector Long (guilty? who else? what was he doing?)
• Stablehand
• The water spirit - You're not the one I'm looking for. Who is it looking for?
• Artis Chapter (what contacts can be made here?)
• What did Qualthorn see in Robus?
• People know that Alain Fitzroy was looking for someone who knows how to destroy Dwarven artifacts
• Who wrote the unclaimed note?
• Forest, three days in the future, one bell after nightfall.
• Qualthorn is disappointed in Malasil for turning away from elven traditions.
• The Hunter is still in the prison
• Martha has high astrology skills, making observations about the dates and times

None of that will mean much to you within the context of my own game, but any of it is enough to trigger a scene for almost anyone in any game. For my game, I want all of these to get caught sometime. It might be in the next game or in a few sessions after that. And if no one catches any of them, we just get more balls in the air.

Paper Craft Games

Our house has become something of a paper craft design centre.

My kids have started making board games full of 3D elements. I think they like making the games more than playing the games. 

This is a recent example. It's a roll-and-move game with no title. The goal is to get home (the little house in the corner) and it's full of exception rules that aren't known when we start playing. 

"You need the sword to do that."

"If you land here you pick up a card."

"You have to roll the exact number to land on the house."

Like I said, I didn't know any of these rules when we started playing. They just come up in play.

That's what it feels like playing some games with adults too. Some games have a few core rules that are easy to convey to new players, and then are followed up with truckloads of exceptions and addenda.

"But if you have the gem card and your team mate is in the blue sector, then you can't launch the missiles."

Honestly, I feel like I've played that game before. It's probably some nine hour board game with dice, cards, and a cult following. 

What's all this about? Why am I talking about the games that junior school children make? I'm making a plea to game developers. Don't make your game opaque. People want to play your game. If it's complex, fine, but find a way to communicate the exceptional nature of the rules to players. 

I guess there's also a responsibility for people explaining games to new players. Don't surprise them with rules exceptions. It's bewildering. I accept it from my kids because they're in junior school and still figuring things out. I don't want to accept it from adults. 

Ok, enough preaching. The other outcome from all this was my kids' first dungeon crawl. They seemed keen on playing something with a dragon and swords so I hastily cobbled something together.

I sketched a map, made some quick rules, and they made the scenery. Ok, so it was just the cage for the dragon. 

Anyway, they were two heroes - a wizard and a warrior - who were going to rescue their friend the dragon. I geared it around the typical crescendo model. First encounters are small with a reward that can be used later. Later encounters are tough boss fights. 

All the rules were written (fairly sparsely) on two pages, with a map on the third. See, I'm taking my own medicine about rules clarity.

And after all that, they enjoyed it! One of them tried hard not to smile. The other one asked to play it again straight away. 

"It's better than all the other games we made today, dad!"

Achievement unlocked. 

Design idea

So I had an idea the other day. It's an idea for a game mechanism and it goes like this.

1. The GM sets a difficulty number (challenge ranking, whatever...) from 1 to 5.
2. The player makes a pool of dice which is based on the relevant stat and niche applications.
3. The player rolls the dice, counting 4-6 as successes. For each success they get a plot point to their overall pool (it might already have points in it).
4. The player spends as many points as they wish to tackle the challenge, and keep the rest. At least 1 point must be spent. Spend the challenge number to pass the challenge. Spend more than the challenge number to succeed wildly.
5. Points can be used later to improve the character.

So, an example.

My character, Gus, is going to sneak past a guard.
1. The GM sets a difficulty of 3.
2. Gus has a Sneaky stat of 2, with a bonus around military installations, taking it up to 3 dice.
3. I roll and get 2, 4, 4; adding 2 points to my character's tally of 5 (now up to 7).
4. I could pay 3 points and get Gus past this guard, but I decide to pay 4 points so that Gus gets past the guard and the guard is about to start a really long patrol circuit so Gus has more time for the next actions.
5. I'm left with 3 points that I can either save for character improvement or for the next challenge.

That's the raw version of it. I think there's a bit of polish I could make to it (spending points to help other characters, refining the rate of spend and earning, and so on).

I can't help feeling that it's been done before. Have you seen a system like this? Which game was it and how did it work in that game?

Hidden rules are the worst

You've probably noticed that I've been toying around with Mobile Frame Zero a little lately, especially with my two children. They're both young so they're into whatever I'm into. We kludge together a few mechs and then set them up on the floor to play.

The older one sometimes plays War! Showdown or Pirates! Showdown on my iPad so he grasps the point of a wargame. The abundance of dice around the house probably also helps him along a bit.

But as you might imagine, young children don't usually have an interest in understanding the rules before starting play. Instead, they like to make up rules as they go along. It's like play-storming but without anyone writing anything down. For my eldest, every turn is an opportunity to make up a new rule about something.

"I rolled a 3. If I roll another 3 now then that makes 6 and I get to capture that weapon tower."

"How many 6s did you roll in the game? If you rolled enough then you get to repair your robot without having to go back to the start."

"If you capture that tower, you can put it on your robot and move seven spaces instead."

You get the idea. It made me realise something I don't especially like in gameplay: the hidden rule. I played a game of Warhammer 40K with a more knowledgeable friend one day. Everything was going just fine until I made a move and he said, "And now I get to… " Follow this with the total destruction of my Tau army.

Oh. Do you think I would have made my move the way I did if I knew that?

You might say that I should have known the rules before I started playing. True! I should have absorbed that massive fifth edition of the WH40K rulebook before I even considered playing. OK, so I kid a bit. The point is that there were surprise rules. I didn't know them all and suddenly there were more of them.

In game design I think this requires a special audience, or perhaps a better game design. When I think of a game that avoids this neatly, I'm immediately drawn to Lady Blackbird. All the rules are on the character sheets. It's great because it's simple enough to fit on a single sheet without being crowded. It even has exception based rules on each sheet, but they're also few in number.

With all that I've just written, perhaps you think I'd hate the mother of all exception based games: Munchkin. But it's just the opposite. I like that game because the exceptions are the expectations. The game is specifically about those exceptions. Players don't have to memorise them all, just be able to play them as they come up. In games with hidden rules you have to memorise them all and that drains the fun out of the game for me.

So in short:
- Games with easily presented rules are good.
- Games that include exception-based rules are good.
- Games that punish players for not memorising the encyclopaedia of rules are bad.

gamewithnonameyet Play Test Report

The play test went well. I managed to test all the things I wanted to test.

But what's the result? Well, the basic rules work nicely. Characters can interact with the world and with each other and an uncertainty is introduced. Some challenges weren't actually challenging, so I need to work the maths to make it harder. Some consequences weren't threatening (in fact, that was the word one of the players used… such good feedback).

I call that a successful play test. I went in with specific things to test and I came out with answers.

Now, back to the lab.

Also, I've almost settled on a name for the game. Won't take long to finalise that now.

newgamemumbletitlenothingyet Playtest!

It's time to test the basic rules. My usual design process has that first step of bullets. Almost as many bullets as the NRA. What's the game about? When do you roll dice? What are key elements in the setting?

Besides all that, this playtest is likely to be disjointed. I have some specific targets in mind.

1. Character creation.
Seems like an easy one. I'm trying to find out how easy it is to create a character. I want to know how easy it is to present an interesting character - especially one which can be created in a short enough time for a convention. I adore convention gaming but it needs rapid character creation. The information has to be simple, meaningful, and quickly understood so that the players can decide without delay.

2. Individual conflicts.
At first this will be just some simple tests between characters, probably between PCs and GMCs. If things go well, I might even try some PvP. It'll be important to test all the attributes so that I can see how each one drives story. Fighting is easy (punch! success! broken nose!). Let's see how the rest go.

3. Team conflicts.
This is a game that takes team efforts into consideration. Just like the individual conflicts, I'm hoping to run several team conflicts.

4. Gaps in the setting.
The players will undoubtedly want to do things in the setting. They might decide to visit the shaman, or skulk about on the docks. But are there any shaman? What kind of sailing vessels are used? It's hard to see what's missing until someone pokes at it. Let them poke, I say!

Looking forward to it.

What's another name for magic?

I have a game in the works that is about warriors who must share their mystical energies while fighting the forces of tyranny and darkness. I'm drawing inspiration from a few places, mostly from console games and anime. As you can imagine, I'm at the early stage where I'm working through key concepts in the setting as well as some core rules. My head is running over with statistical models and dice!

Also high on the agenda is the setting itself. Although it sounds like a minor detail, one part of the puzzle is what to call the magic of this setting. I could call it magic and be done with it, but I want more flavour. It should be something evocative, something memorable. It's at the heart of the world, so it'll be something that the characters will talk about. I want my players to be able to say the word and feel the importance of it. That means it also can't be clumsy, unpronounceable, or cheesy.

I started brainstorming and put this list together. It's a list of all the magic-esque words I could remember from other settings and stories. Magic, magik, chi, qi, mana, focus, power, spirit, psyche, charm, the force, glamour.

I thought about using Scrabble tiles of these words and pulling them out of a bag to see what words came out. When I did this, I ended up with the most ridiculous options. Really, you don't want to know. So… scratch that.

This time I went to German (as you do). There's a word that the German philosopher GWF Hegel used: weltgeist. It means "world spirit." I like the "geist" part, as a word for spirit. I also like the word uber, meaning "over." The ubergeist would be the overspirit, the power that a team of mystic warriors could share, in addition to their individual heists.

And then back to English. Perhaps there's nothing wrong with merely using "spirit" or "ghost" for this. By imagining the table talk, the answer becomes clear.

"I take a die from the ubergeist pool to boost the spell."
"I need something from the overspirit to succeed this roll."
"I use one from my geist, one from the ubergeist, and two from my ability."
"I cast the spell, using two from my ghost and one from my ability."
"I boost the spell with another die from the spirit pool."

Ghost has a nice ring to it.

How about you? What's your favourite word for magical power and which game or story is it from?



Image credit: Magic, by Cruenta

Another game idea in the works

Things have been quiet on the blog but not in the creative engine room. 

Another game is in the works. I plan to release it as a crappy PDF by the end of November. But it ought to be fun to play!

Inspiration is coming from RWBY and games like Final Fantasy. Make of that what you will. 

Getting ideas for your games

My five year old son said to be the other day, "dad, imagine if there was a prison that was made by bad guys and in every room was treasure and the bad guys were guarding all the rooms in the prison."

Apparently you can invent dungeon crawling when you are five.

Making it fun

I'm turning ideas for Gettin' Away With It over and over. There's a system and a flow for it all but I'm stuck with a key hurdle. 

Is it fun?

Is every part of the game fun or do I have components which exist only as support for the parts which are fun? The game itself should produce stories like Breaking Bad, either with a serious flavour or a fiasco-esque flavour. At the moment, however, there are parts which seem like a drag to play through just to reach the fun parts. 

Every part of this game has to be fun or engaging, otherwise it's getting the chop. 

Wild Game Design

I had a voluminous design session for Gettin' Away With It on the weekend, although I'm not sure how productive it was. It felt like a solo game-storming effort and I've probably created half a dozen subsystems within the larger game. Thankfully, I think I'll be able to chop them out of the rules without remorse when the time comes.

The Benefits of Game Design with Kids

I posted a couple of weeks ago that my kindergarten-aged son wanted to make a tank game with me. I enthusiastically started making it in my head with a view to guiding him along a path to a game that had toy tanks, a tabletop, some obstacles for the tanks to hide behind, dice, and the goal to shoot each other's tank/s.

Thankfully when he and I started on the game I asked him some important questions.

1. What do the tanks do?
1. Move
2. Shoot
2. What do the tanks shoot at?
1. Cars
2. Trucks
3. Aeroplanes
4. Helicopters

Now imagine the sound of me slapping my forehead at the mistake I narrowly avoided making. He didn't want a game that set players against each other; he wanted to be on the same side as me. We made an ambush game. Two tanks were going to ambush a convoy that was protected by aeroplanes and helicopters.

The game itself wasn't innovative. Move vehicle, choose target, keep a tally of the number of hits required to destroy a vehicle, remove destroyed vehicles. We had to find a mechanical way to represent the convoy and die rolls substituted nicely for those decisions: which vehicle enters the table next, what does it shoot at if it can shoot, how far does it move, and so on.

Most importantly for me was the initial exercise of defining the game. His idea of fun wasn't tainted by his expectations of what a game should be. My son has reminded me of the value of not accepting the methods and mechanisms of other games as the only way to design, as well as the value of accepting those same mechanisms as part of the toolkit.

Making a Tank Game

One of my kids spotted my copy of Car Wars Tanks on the shelf. Unfortunately he's only four and Tanks is a little too complex for that age group. Well, actually that's good thing because now he and I are going to make a tank game.

Here are the parameters, though.
1. Playable by a four year old.
2. Uses tank miniatures or toys.
3. Quick setup.
4. Short games.

Seems easy, right? Yep. Sure is. I'm resisting the urge to design it now because what I really want to do is design a game with my son. And that's the last parameter.