Ch-ch-ch-changes.... (part 1)
So we grabbed the bull by the horns today and Rich ran a session of Fallen for me. The report is also over on the Collective Endeavour site, but I'm posting it here too, under the cut and in two parts again so you don't get too crashingly bored by the whole thing (because as all gamers know, someone else's game stories are rarely as interesting as your own).
More tomorrow!
Rules Modifications:
After reading the feedback, I had a go at the central mechanic. I talked this over with Rich to get it clear in my own mind and had intended to be rather radical and ditch the original one altogether and go for a three dice (2 good, 1 bad) system, no points in sight. In the end, Rich talked me round to a hybrid system.
Original system: roll two dice, look at the table to see how you’ve done, spend Brass to lift failures to successes. Non-Focus Characters (NFCs) can spend Brass to alter rolls and in contested rolls you would spend points to tussle over the result. Hope was spent only to activate Special Talents and Solitude really didn’t do much.
Hybrid system: You still have Hope, Brass and Solitude points. The table has gone; if a dice roll is needed you roll a Hope (+ve) die and a Solitude (-ve) die. The idea is to represent the positive effect of your Hope being challenged by your fear of failure. If the difference between the two dice is one, it’s a minor success/fail. Pretty much anything else is just a success/fail. But if you roll a 6 on your Hope die and a 1 on your Solitude die, that’s a critical success (fireworks etc.); a 1 on your Hope and a 6 on your Solitude is your fear getting the better of you and you’re really cocking it up big time, getting a point of Solitude in the process. For the moment, we decided to go with rerolling any ties, but that might get changed.
So what does Brass do now if we’ve ditched the bidding bit? It buys you an extra die to roll (only one, mind). If you really want your roll to succeed, spend a point of Brass to get an extra positive die (representing your determination to succeed; you have to declare you’re spending it before you roll the other two dice though, no adding it later ‘cos you’ve failed), and you add the Brass and Hope dice rolls together. Critical fails now demand a 1H, 1B and 6S roll. Critical success is a 6 on either positive dice and a 1 on the Solitude dice.
Contested rolls work as a straight versus thing (both roll their dice and see who wins/fails; ties roll again). If you want to assist, spend your Brass to add another die (?Ending up with 3 positive dice; this needs work).
Brass points: Goons/grunts have zero Brass (so you can wade through them with little trouble); a normal NFC would have 7 Brass, a fairly determined one would have 14 and a Boss-level NFC would have 21 (so they could at least be a bit of a challenge).
Character Creation:
It was my turn creating a character this week and I was a bit unsure what direction to go in; should I try and create/use one of the example characters from the draft game, or go for a new one. In the end, I sort of went for a third option - attempt to recreate a character from a different game that would actually fit into Fallen.
The character in question is Isabelle Montgomery, my Victorian big game hunter from the Company of Crimson LRP. The Fallen version isn’t exactly the same as the Company one; they’re more cousins J
So, once again we started with a period and an idea and worked backwards to the Fall. Issy fell because of her fascination with exploration, discovery and adventure. The setting would be Pulp Victorian Africa (late 19th Century, but not specifying too much). She was found in the bush by tribesmen, alone and confused, in her mid-teens. They took her to the local white missionaries (brother and spinster sister), who adopted her and raised her as a foundling. She lived with them for many years, but was always sneaking off to be with the tribe because their life was far more exciting. When her adopted parents died of malaria, the tribe took her in.
In terms of Ties, I decided on Loyalty (to those she regards as friends and family) and Africa. In terms of Talents, we discussed this a bit and came up with a Unique Talent called “Spirit of Africa” (not completely happy with that name, but it will do for now). This gives her a real feel for the land and the creatures in it, quite literally; she knows before the weather changes, when something bad is coming, above and beyond the normal awareness. In terms of normal talents, we went with Lie of the Land (tribal hunting, tracking and survival skills suitable for the bush; importantly no guns) and Accomplished Young Lady (reading, writing, singing, piano, embroidery; a reflection of her tutelage by the missionaries). At the beginning of the game, she’d be in her early twenties.
…
Rich asked for twenty minutes to come up with a few ideas for the game. We’d already discussed that I was going to bring Issy into the game that morning so he had some ideas, but she’d developed into a somewhat different beast to the one from the Company and he wanted time to rethink. He could see two potential pathways the game could take, so he jotted down a few guiding sentences for himself and sketched a few NFCs. This is what he wrote down:
Scenes:
Awakening - Shamanic ritual.
Scene 1 - Visitors. Explorers retracing steps of previous expedition.
Explorer: Victor Talbot, expedition leader. Brass:14, Explorer. Has maps, notes and an article on what was discovered previously (crystal skull, in the British Museum, discovered in the lost city of Kalukima in 1857 by Thomas Leslie; and he wonders why we tease him constantly about an Indiana Jones obsession).
Scene 2a - Return to the past - old missionary house.
Scene 3a - Camp: Explorers off to find city
Scene 4a - Stampede?
Scene 5a - Jungle perils. Dinosaurs in the jungles?
Scene 6a - The city: traps, perils, crystal skull. Can take the skull or just touching will give starlight.
Alternative path:
Scene 2b - Journey to Britain across Africa
Scene 3b - The sea voyage. Pick pockets, pirates
Scene 4b - London
Scene 5b - The museum
…
Awakening:
Rich asked me what I wanted from the Awakening. I mentioned that some sort of coming of age ritual might spark it (yes, we watch too much Bruce Parry). This was narrated from a very traditional viewpoint, with Rich talking me through what was happening and asking for my reactions. This wasn’t exactly how I’d envisioned Awakenings working, but as Rich was in charge, I went with it. It mostly matched what I would have done (comes of nearly eleven years of marriage, I suspect), but it did feel a little passive.
We talked about this afterwards and it became clear this needed clarification in the written game - the GM (if there is one) and the other players are there to ask questions as the focus character describes what happened, to flesh out the background and give everyone a sense of what is important to the player’s view of their game. That concept was in my head, but not on the paper and that’s exactly why games need to be run by other people.
Issy had her coming of age ritual (a rather mundane affair where she ate some roots from the tree that had been there as long as the tribe, completely non-hallucinogenic, but interestingly had a star painted on her forehead by the tribal shaman as her totem). Having brought some shards of mirror from her previous home (the missionaries house, shut up after they died), she had her Awakening when she saw the star on her forehead. She saw her fall and scatter, but couldn’t see where the bits landed. Then everything went black in the mirror and she went back to partying.
Again, we were going to diverge from the game as written as there was only the two of us and go straight from the Awakening to the game proper. However, the initiation ritual would be a good place to move on to someone else.
More tomorrow!
Rules Modifications:
After reading the feedback, I had a go at the central mechanic. I talked this over with Rich to get it clear in my own mind and had intended to be rather radical and ditch the original one altogether and go for a three dice (2 good, 1 bad) system, no points in sight. In the end, Rich talked me round to a hybrid system.
Original system: roll two dice, look at the table to see how you’ve done, spend Brass to lift failures to successes. Non-Focus Characters (NFCs) can spend Brass to alter rolls and in contested rolls you would spend points to tussle over the result. Hope was spent only to activate Special Talents and Solitude really didn’t do much.
Hybrid system: You still have Hope, Brass and Solitude points. The table has gone; if a dice roll is needed you roll a Hope (+ve) die and a Solitude (-ve) die. The idea is to represent the positive effect of your Hope being challenged by your fear of failure. If the difference between the two dice is one, it’s a minor success/fail. Pretty much anything else is just a success/fail. But if you roll a 6 on your Hope die and a 1 on your Solitude die, that’s a critical success (fireworks etc.); a 1 on your Hope and a 6 on your Solitude is your fear getting the better of you and you’re really cocking it up big time, getting a point of Solitude in the process. For the moment, we decided to go with rerolling any ties, but that might get changed.
So what does Brass do now if we’ve ditched the bidding bit? It buys you an extra die to roll (only one, mind). If you really want your roll to succeed, spend a point of Brass to get an extra positive die (representing your determination to succeed; you have to declare you’re spending it before you roll the other two dice though, no adding it later ‘cos you’ve failed), and you add the Brass and Hope dice rolls together. Critical fails now demand a 1H, 1B and 6S roll. Critical success is a 6 on either positive dice and a 1 on the Solitude dice.
Contested rolls work as a straight versus thing (both roll their dice and see who wins/fails; ties roll again). If you want to assist, spend your Brass to add another die (?Ending up with 3 positive dice; this needs work).
Brass points: Goons/grunts have zero Brass (so you can wade through them with little trouble); a normal NFC would have 7 Brass, a fairly determined one would have 14 and a Boss-level NFC would have 21 (so they could at least be a bit of a challenge).
Character Creation:
It was my turn creating a character this week and I was a bit unsure what direction to go in; should I try and create/use one of the example characters from the draft game, or go for a new one. In the end, I sort of went for a third option - attempt to recreate a character from a different game that would actually fit into Fallen.
The character in question is Isabelle Montgomery, my Victorian big game hunter from the Company of Crimson LRP. The Fallen version isn’t exactly the same as the Company one; they’re more cousins J
So, once again we started with a period and an idea and worked backwards to the Fall. Issy fell because of her fascination with exploration, discovery and adventure. The setting would be Pulp Victorian Africa (late 19th Century, but not specifying too much). She was found in the bush by tribesmen, alone and confused, in her mid-teens. They took her to the local white missionaries (brother and spinster sister), who adopted her and raised her as a foundling. She lived with them for many years, but was always sneaking off to be with the tribe because their life was far more exciting. When her adopted parents died of malaria, the tribe took her in.
In terms of Ties, I decided on Loyalty (to those she regards as friends and family) and Africa. In terms of Talents, we discussed this a bit and came up with a Unique Talent called “Spirit of Africa” (not completely happy with that name, but it will do for now). This gives her a real feel for the land and the creatures in it, quite literally; she knows before the weather changes, when something bad is coming, above and beyond the normal awareness. In terms of normal talents, we went with Lie of the Land (tribal hunting, tracking and survival skills suitable for the bush; importantly no guns) and Accomplished Young Lady (reading, writing, singing, piano, embroidery; a reflection of her tutelage by the missionaries). At the beginning of the game, she’d be in her early twenties.
…
Rich asked for twenty minutes to come up with a few ideas for the game. We’d already discussed that I was going to bring Issy into the game that morning so he had some ideas, but she’d developed into a somewhat different beast to the one from the Company and he wanted time to rethink. He could see two potential pathways the game could take, so he jotted down a few guiding sentences for himself and sketched a few NFCs. This is what he wrote down:
Scenes:
Awakening - Shamanic ritual.
Scene 1 - Visitors. Explorers retracing steps of previous expedition.
Explorer: Victor Talbot, expedition leader. Brass:14, Explorer. Has maps, notes and an article on what was discovered previously (crystal skull, in the British Museum, discovered in the lost city of Kalukima in 1857 by Thomas Leslie; and he wonders why we tease him constantly about an Indiana Jones obsession).
Scene 2a - Return to the past - old missionary house.
Scene 3a - Camp: Explorers off to find city
Scene 4a - Stampede?
Scene 5a - Jungle perils. Dinosaurs in the jungles?
Scene 6a - The city: traps, perils, crystal skull. Can take the skull or just touching will give starlight.
Alternative path:
Scene 2b - Journey to Britain across Africa
Scene 3b - The sea voyage. Pick pockets, pirates
Scene 4b - London
Scene 5b - The museum
…
Awakening:
Rich asked me what I wanted from the Awakening. I mentioned that some sort of coming of age ritual might spark it (yes, we watch too much Bruce Parry). This was narrated from a very traditional viewpoint, with Rich talking me through what was happening and asking for my reactions. This wasn’t exactly how I’d envisioned Awakenings working, but as Rich was in charge, I went with it. It mostly matched what I would have done (comes of nearly eleven years of marriage, I suspect), but it did feel a little passive.
We talked about this afterwards and it became clear this needed clarification in the written game - the GM (if there is one) and the other players are there to ask questions as the focus character describes what happened, to flesh out the background and give everyone a sense of what is important to the player’s view of their game. That concept was in my head, but not on the paper and that’s exactly why games need to be run by other people.
Issy had her coming of age ritual (a rather mundane affair where she ate some roots from the tree that had been there as long as the tribe, completely non-hallucinogenic, but interestingly had a star painted on her forehead by the tribal shaman as her totem). Having brought some shards of mirror from her previous home (the missionaries house, shut up after they died), she had her Awakening when she saw the star on her forehead. She saw her fall and scatter, but couldn’t see where the bits landed. Then everything went black in the mirror and she went back to partying.
Again, we were going to diverge from the game as written as there was only the two of us and go straight from the Awakening to the game proper. However, the initiation ritual would be a good place to move on to someone else.