Factions 2nd Edition: Motivations, Character Creation
The project for the next version of the RPG is moving along. I've temporarily put the Ritual Magic revamp on hold to attack two other, interrelated areas: Motivations, and Character Creation.
I'm very excited about Motivations. Integrating the new Motivations suite of rules will lead the way to both slimming the game down and, in GNS game theory terms, make it more "pervy"... that is, make it more of a hybrid of Simulation and Narrativist in game play. Instead of discussing the theorycraft, I think it's easier to simply explain what I want to do with Motivations.
Each character will have 3 Motivations. They aren't ranked or anything. Everyone gets 3. Motivations are things like:
Acceptance: Wants a group (family, co-workers, peers) to accept him as one of them.
(Activation):Act in accordance with what the present group expects of the character.
Achievement: Wants to advance professionally or make a significant accomplishment.
(Activation): Work to improve career standing, satisfy professional ambition, or expand achievements.
Curiosity: Wants to discover more about the world.
(Activation): Indulge in intellectual exploration, or dig in to secrets or mysteries.
Duty: Wants to live up to a sense of responsibility to family or career.
(Activation): Act in accordance with commitment regardless of personal cost.
Gratification: Wants to enjoy the physical or social pleasures of life.
(Activation): Delve into personal pleasures of sensuality or socialization.
Greed: Wants to accumulate material wealth.
(Activation): Act to acquire greater financial well-being.
Honor: Wants to live up to a higher ideal.
(Activation): Act within the accepted code of ethics.
Justice: Wants to right the social or criminal wrongs of the world.
(Activation): Work to reduce corruption, punish the guilty, or protect the innocent.
Loyalty: Wants to protect or provide for family or friends.
(Activation): Act to help those the character has devoted himself to, within bounds of friendship or bonds of blood.
Lust: Wants to enjoy the sexual pleasures of life.
(Activation): Indulge in carnal, sexual adventures.
Pride: Wants to protect or expand one’s reputation and sense of self-worth.
(Activation): Act to defend social status, expand sense of esteem, or indulge in vanity.
Power: Wants to accumulate worldly influence or personal power.
(Activation): Act to attain more social, political, physical, technological, or supernatural power.
Revenge: Wants to get vengeance on those who are perceived to have wronged him.
(Activation): Punish those in response to grievance, either real or imagined, for both personal and abstract wrongs.
So, Motivations are broad explanations of what drives a character. Not only is this a nice, handy way to keep a handle on what your character is moved by, but it has a narrativist, meta-mechanic associated with it. Works like this:
You acquire Motivation Points through many ways. They are all meant to be a reward for essentially doing something interesting, and within character, that forwards character growth. You can only acquire 1 Motivation Point per game Session, however. See, Motivation Points are meant to be a way to regulate "spotlight time" within the Session. When you have a Motivation Point, you can chose to reroll on any check that is driven by one of your Motivations. Alternatively, you can keep your Motivation Point until the end of the Session, where it turns into an additional Development Point.
You get a Motivation Point when:
1): Ultimately Failing in the Scene
2): Creating New Significant Relationship
3): Existing Relationship Significantly Changes
4): The Ref Activating a Motivation
5): The Ref Activating a Disadvantage
6): The Player Activating a Disadvantage
7): Revelation Scene
Explanations for:
4): The Ref Activating a Motivation: The Ref can turn to you and essentially remind you if you have a Motivation that would be especially fitting to bring to the fore right now, more-or-less forcing your hand in play for a Scene. You can resist this if you chose. This requires you make a Concentration check, vs. varying Difficulty.
5): The Ref Activating a Disadvantage
and
6): The Player Activating a Disadvantage
Any Disadvantage at Value 10 or higher can be "Activated" for a Motivation Point. This decision making/negotiation process will replace the random rolls up to this point. Instead of waiting for your Nightmares to go off (for example), either the Ref or the player can just decide that the Disadvantage comes to the foreground, and the full penalty or issue of that Disadvantage comes to bear. Either way, the player will earn the Motivation point.
7): Revelation Scene
A Revelation Scene is one where a character explores either the cause of one of their Motivations, or explores the depth of a Motivation (his Duty is tested against the pleadings of a friend in need, for example).
This entire idea has me very jazzed.
Not only does it really bring the game into a new realm, but it will help simplify Character Creation. Many of these ideas were approached through various individual Advantages and Disadvantages, which had the flaw of requiring a great deal of nitpicky rules for each, and meant a lot more record keeping and distraction for the Ref.
It also really makes Motivations into the the meta-mechanic of spotlight time I wanted it to be. Getting a Motivation Point is a recognition that the player is making attempts to make play/storytelling more rewarding for everyone at the table, and gives them the opportunity to call the spotlight to them by spending the Point.
Character Creation is also being simplified in that Attributes can now be directly purchased to 7, Talents to 8, and Skill bases bumped up by +2/4/6/8. The costs are now directly rolled in to the purchase of these stats. See, the old way of doing things, these mechanical boosts could be found, but required you dig through the very long list of Advantages to find them. It made Character Creation take longer, and really gave an advantage to the resident munchkin mentality, for those who had memorized exactly which Advantages they needed to get the bonuses they wanted.
No more.
This also closes up some balance gaps caused by having Advantages that directly gave you a +1 to an Attribute, for example, regardless of how high your Attribute was before the bonus.
In all, these changes are going to make Factions much more interesting of a play experience, and will slim down the mechanical baggage.
All for now,
-a-
I'm very excited about Motivations. Integrating the new Motivations suite of rules will lead the way to both slimming the game down and, in GNS game theory terms, make it more "pervy"... that is, make it more of a hybrid of Simulation and Narrativist in game play. Instead of discussing the theorycraft, I think it's easier to simply explain what I want to do with Motivations.
Each character will have 3 Motivations. They aren't ranked or anything. Everyone gets 3. Motivations are things like:
Acceptance: Wants a group (family, co-workers, peers) to accept him as one of them.
(Activation):Act in accordance with what the present group expects of the character.
Achievement: Wants to advance professionally or make a significant accomplishment.
(Activation): Work to improve career standing, satisfy professional ambition, or expand achievements.
Curiosity: Wants to discover more about the world.
(Activation): Indulge in intellectual exploration, or dig in to secrets or mysteries.
Duty: Wants to live up to a sense of responsibility to family or career.
(Activation): Act in accordance with commitment regardless of personal cost.
Gratification: Wants to enjoy the physical or social pleasures of life.
(Activation): Delve into personal pleasures of sensuality or socialization.
Greed: Wants to accumulate material wealth.
(Activation): Act to acquire greater financial well-being.
Honor: Wants to live up to a higher ideal.
(Activation): Act within the accepted code of ethics.
Justice: Wants to right the social or criminal wrongs of the world.
(Activation): Work to reduce corruption, punish the guilty, or protect the innocent.
Loyalty: Wants to protect or provide for family or friends.
(Activation): Act to help those the character has devoted himself to, within bounds of friendship or bonds of blood.
Lust: Wants to enjoy the sexual pleasures of life.
(Activation): Indulge in carnal, sexual adventures.
Pride: Wants to protect or expand one’s reputation and sense of self-worth.
(Activation): Act to defend social status, expand sense of esteem, or indulge in vanity.
Power: Wants to accumulate worldly influence or personal power.
(Activation): Act to attain more social, political, physical, technological, or supernatural power.
Revenge: Wants to get vengeance on those who are perceived to have wronged him.
(Activation): Punish those in response to grievance, either real or imagined, for both personal and abstract wrongs.
So, Motivations are broad explanations of what drives a character. Not only is this a nice, handy way to keep a handle on what your character is moved by, but it has a narrativist, meta-mechanic associated with it. Works like this:
You acquire Motivation Points through many ways. They are all meant to be a reward for essentially doing something interesting, and within character, that forwards character growth. You can only acquire 1 Motivation Point per game Session, however. See, Motivation Points are meant to be a way to regulate "spotlight time" within the Session. When you have a Motivation Point, you can chose to reroll on any check that is driven by one of your Motivations. Alternatively, you can keep your Motivation Point until the end of the Session, where it turns into an additional Development Point.
You get a Motivation Point when:
1): Ultimately Failing in the Scene
2): Creating New Significant Relationship
3): Existing Relationship Significantly Changes
4): The Ref Activating a Motivation
5): The Ref Activating a Disadvantage
6): The Player Activating a Disadvantage
7): Revelation Scene
Explanations for:
4): The Ref Activating a Motivation: The Ref can turn to you and essentially remind you if you have a Motivation that would be especially fitting to bring to the fore right now, more-or-less forcing your hand in play for a Scene. You can resist this if you chose. This requires you make a Concentration check, vs. varying Difficulty.
5): The Ref Activating a Disadvantage
and
6): The Player Activating a Disadvantage
Any Disadvantage at Value 10 or higher can be "Activated" for a Motivation Point. This decision making/negotiation process will replace the random rolls up to this point. Instead of waiting for your Nightmares to go off (for example), either the Ref or the player can just decide that the Disadvantage comes to the foreground, and the full penalty or issue of that Disadvantage comes to bear. Either way, the player will earn the Motivation point.
7): Revelation Scene
A Revelation Scene is one where a character explores either the cause of one of their Motivations, or explores the depth of a Motivation (his Duty is tested against the pleadings of a friend in need, for example).
This entire idea has me very jazzed.
Not only does it really bring the game into a new realm, but it will help simplify Character Creation. Many of these ideas were approached through various individual Advantages and Disadvantages, which had the flaw of requiring a great deal of nitpicky rules for each, and meant a lot more record keeping and distraction for the Ref.
It also really makes Motivations into the the meta-mechanic of spotlight time I wanted it to be. Getting a Motivation Point is a recognition that the player is making attempts to make play/storytelling more rewarding for everyone at the table, and gives them the opportunity to call the spotlight to them by spending the Point.
Character Creation is also being simplified in that Attributes can now be directly purchased to 7, Talents to 8, and Skill bases bumped up by +2/4/6/8. The costs are now directly rolled in to the purchase of these stats. See, the old way of doing things, these mechanical boosts could be found, but required you dig through the very long list of Advantages to find them. It made Character Creation take longer, and really gave an advantage to the resident munchkin mentality, for those who had memorized exactly which Advantages they needed to get the bonuses they wanted.
No more.
This also closes up some balance gaps caused by having Advantages that directly gave you a +1 to an Attribute, for example, regardless of how high your Attribute was before the bonus.
In all, these changes are going to make Factions much more interesting of a play experience, and will slim down the mechanical baggage.
All for now,
-a-