Killer Snowflake

I haven't done a lot with my writing lately that wasn't connected to game design, and I'm starting to feel the weight of neglect. I've come across a few bloggers who are publishing their use of the snowflake method of story design, and I figure, I can do this at my own slow pace as well and see where it goes. I have a number of stories in mind, all set in the world of Epic Dawn, and given that the game associated with that setting has stalled out, I thought I'd turn to some of the stories that have been swimming around in my head for years now.

The story I have in mind is the back-story for one of the pivotal characters in the setting. In brief, he's an imperial killer sent across the uncharted ocean to a new world who has a change of heart. The world where he arrives is the core world of the setting, but I have some vivid ideas of how he got to be...the way he is that have the advantage of being good short story fodder, rather than big novel-length stories.

So I'll start with the snowflake method for the story that begins when he is an orphan purchased by the Emperor and ending when his first love is murdered and its his fault. A nice happy story arc.

Spirit of the Century: Eberron Adventures 3

Continuing with my notes for running an Eberron game using Spirit of the Century's rules...

Aspects

Aspects are the core of your character in Spirit of the Century. The are colorful descriptors that let you do extraordinary things and also get you into trouble, which earns you Fate Points. And you want Fate Points. So the best Aspects are Aspects that will be descriptive, interesting, useful at times, and will also get you in trouble at times. They don't all have to be that good - some can just be trouble (Raging Alcoholic) or can just be advantages (Legendary Elven Accuracy). Its up to you. But if you have none that are trouble, you won't get nearly as many Fate Points, and that means you won't get to use those advantageous Aspects nearly as often.

Race or Racial ability: Dwarven Stonecunning, Luck of the Halfling, Warforged Don't Breathe, "I am Most Certainly Not a Changeling", "My! What Big Claws You Have",

Class or class ability: Faith in the Silver Flame, Monastic Training, Animal Companion, Cleave!, Lay on Hands, Extreme! Explorer, Eldeen Ranger, "I'm an Inquisitive Sort of Girl", "I'm the Warforged Juggernaut, Bitch!", Secrets of Elemental Binding, Servitor of the Blood of Vol, Exorcist of the Silver Flame

Dragonmarked House: Mark of Detection, Mark of Finding, Mark of Handling, Mark of Healing, Mark of Hospitality, Mark of Making, Mark of Passage, Mark of Scribing, Mark of Sentinel, Mark of Shadow, Mark of Storm, Mark of Warding, Dragonmark Heir (requires Mark Aspect)

Dragonmark Aspects will allow you to gain the magical benefit that is basically the equivalent of a couple related spells of lower power. You also gain the social connections that the Mark implies - marked members of Dragonmarked Houses get priviliges because of their birthright. So it isn't as powerful as, say, Spellcraft with the Necromancy Stunt, and it isn't as influential as other Aspects might be socially, but its a very strong hybrid, and will probably be useful with Fate Points pretty often in Eberron.

Magic item: Boots of Striding and Springing, "Look at My Rod of Wonders", Clunky Magical Armor, The Sword of my Fathers, Bag of Holding

Ally: I Know a Guy Who Knows a Guy,

Relationship to the world: "I Serve the Brelish Crown", Dread Lord of Karrnath, Blooded Elf of Valenar, Gatekeeper Initiate, Member of the Wayfinder Foundation, Fellow of Morgrave University, "What Emerald Claw Tatoo?"

Personality/RP: Fly off the Handle, "Oh, is that My Blood?", Don't Ruin it by Thinking, Barbarian Rage!

Some Character Creation Suggestions
Its a good idea to include at least one skill that you can use in combat. In pulp, fights come fast and furious. With SotC they aren't deadly that often, but they do carry consequences (some are listed below). Athletics is used to dodge attacks, Fists and Weaponry are used to block and parry attacks, Spellcraft and Religion and Art with their connected Aspects are obviously useful, Bows is an obvious choice as well, and so on.

You can also try to use social skills to defend yourself - though this isn't a sure way to avoid getting your ass kicked, it might save you. Deceit, Intimidation and Leadership might all be useful in a fight. Endurance and Resolve will also come up often against things you don't get a chance to try to block or avoid.

You might want to think of our character's approximate "class". The top one should be what your "class" and character do best. What's their core competency, the thing you want to use a lot during the course of the game? Put that there.

***

And that's what I think is useful to copy - most of the rest of what I had was taken directly from the book and pretty obvious.

For me, the key points are the changes in the Skill list and how I handled Stunts to encapsulate Arcane and Divine magic for caster types, including some of the musical abilities of Bards, and the unique Dragonmarks. The stuff about Aspects and so on is pretty obvious, really - just something you need to work out.

I found that SotC was well-suited to Eberron (which one would expect) - it definitely broke away from that D&D "feel", but you can keep the feel in a limited way if you want to by limiting the choices you make with the system.

Obviously, if you really want that D&D "feel", then, you know, play D&D.

Spirit of the Century: Eberron Adventures 2

And we continue with my notes for using Spirit of the Century to run a game in Eberron...

Stunts
Choose three stunts. Remember that spells that are anything beyond basic Cantrips or Orisons need to be represented by Stunts for the school/category of spell being used. So, for example, the Spellcraft skill lets you roll to use Cantrips, but you will need to take the Stunt: Evocation in order to fling elemental damage or Stunt: Divination to scry on someone. Similarly, you will need to take not only the Religion skill but also a Stunt: Curing Wounds or Stunt: Turn Undead in order to do classic Cleric stuff like magical healing. (You can also take a Domain as a Stunt with similar effects)

Feel free to create your own Stunts and propose them. If they seem equivalent to Stunts found in the SotC book, they'll probably be fine.

New Stunts (D&D Style Arcane magic): Rooted in Spellcraft: Abjuration, Conjuration, Divination, Enchantment, Evocation, Illusion, Necromancy, Transmutation
--> Arcane Stunts require an arcane Aspect of some kind, chosen to represent your special training
--> Spells that have an area of effect require the expenditure of a Fate Point - otherwise, they have one target or target a discreet area

Abjuration: used to negate spells or Aspects created by spells and to defend against offensive spells. Might also enable you to add Aspects to yourself that will help you defend yourself from mundane threats.

Conjuration: used to place Aspects on a scene or on a character, including allies. These Apsects are related to ongoing, summoned effects of some kind - they might be Minions of various kinds or ongoing effects. Minions summoned with Conjuration have a Quality one lower than the Conjuror's Spellcraft skill and no Grit.

Divination: used to answer questions, possibly to reveal Aspects at a distance, and also to perceive at a distance.

Enchantment: used to socially manipulate people, possibly place Aspects on them for others to call on, and to deal Composure stress in a conflict. Can be used as a stand-in for social skills, but it will be obvious you've used a spell once the spell has worn off.

Evocation: used to attack at a distance, or to attack groups, with elemental-Apsected damage - Acid, Cold, Electricity, Fire, Force. Deals straight health stress.

Illusion: used to place more powerful Aspects on a scene or person which can then be resisted by Alertness or Resolve, can deal Composure stress. Resisted by Alertness or Resolve or possibly even Empathy. Maybe must risk a Fate point to "disbelieve" without evidence that the Illusion is such?

Necromancy: used to place unfavorable Aspects on others, to damage living targets and heal undead targets. Deals direct damage like Evocation, but with the Necrotic descriptor, and can also inflict things like disease and poison.

Transmutation: used to place Aspects on objects and willing characters which improve or change them physically. These Aspects are related to physical changes in the object or person.


More New Stunts (D&D Style Artificer Magic, Cleric Magic and Bardic Magic)
Artifice: rooted in Crafting, the Stunt that enables a PC to create magical items (that is, to create a permanent Aspect). Can also be used to stick a temporary bonus on an item-Aspect someone already has, so that when they call on that item Aspect they get a +3 instead of a +2. Lastly, this Stunt can be used to strengthen or weaken objects, bind them together, break them apart, and so on.

Cure Wounds: rooted in Religion, enables a Cleric to magically remove Aspects inflicted in combat which represent wounds - consequences and so on
-->Curative/Turning Stunts require a divine Aspect of some kind - "Faith" of some kind

Remove Disease and Poison: rooted in Religion, enables a Cleric to magically remove Aspects or consequences related to disease and poison

Turn Undead: rooted in Religion, allows damage or Aspects to be put on Undead (essentially, an AoE maneuver)

Inspire Courage: rooted in Art, enables everyone to call on the Aspect "Courage" once in a scene. Can also be used to "cure" social/composure stress and remove consequences early
-->Requires the Aspect "Bardic Lore"

Inspire Greatness: requires Inspire Courage, calling on "Greatness" grants +3 instead of +2 and enables mass healing of stress consequences and hits

Countersong: requires Inspire Courage, can be used as a defence on anyone's behalf against spells with verbal components or sound-based effects

Even More New Stunts: Feats

If there is a D&D Feat that you love, write it up as a Stunt and propose it! If I get a chance, I'll write up some of my own; we'll see.

Spirit of the Century: Eberron Adventures 1

I thought it might be worthwhile to write up some adaptations that I did so that I could use Spirit of the Century's rules to run a game set in Eberron. This isn't my original idea, but some of the things I did to solve the obvious design problems might be helpful to someone else wanting to run a similar game. This is taken verbatim from my Google Document that I used for the game as a reasource for myself and the players. I'll probably have to split it up into parts for posting. Some of it is just re-printed from SotC itself, with some Eberron tweaks.

Character Creation

Background
Think about your character's family, culture, race and upbringing. Where did your character grow up? What is her family like? What nation does she come from?
Write down a summary of what you come up with.
Write down two Aspects that relate to your character's background, race, culture, nationality, and family.

The Last War
What did your character do during the Last War? Who did she fight for? What did she lose? Who did she kill, and how does she feel about it? Who tried to kill her, and why did they fail, and how does she feel about that? How and where was she trained?
Write down a summary of what your character did during the Last War. This could include her class, special abilities, and so on, as well as relationships.
Write down two Aspects relating to the answer to that question.

Novel
What great adventure has your character had in the past? Write it down in the form of a novel with a title like: Character Name in...Exciting Thing! Here is where you want to mention your class, special abilities, magical items you might have found, allies and so on.
Write down the title and back cover blurb for your character's novel.
Write down two Aspects related to her exciting adventures.

Guest Star
Each player chooses one other character who made an appearance in their novel as a guest star (or they're chosen for them randomly). That player then writes a blurb about what that character did in their novel, and the player whose character is being described has to write an Aspect based on what happened that connects you to one of the other characters. Featuring...Other Character's Name! is added to your novel title.

-->Alternately, a second Aspect can be derived from the first Guest Star story

Guest Star
Do the above again, this time with a different character, and write an Aspect that connects you to that character. Add And Introducing...Third Character's Name! to your novel title.

Don't worry about the last two Aspects, those are blank for now. We'll fill them in later.

If you find that you have two Aspects that you want to add to your list now, feel free, but you don't have to. The normal total is 10 Aspects, but I thought starting with 8 might be better. Also, after each session, you'll be able to switch out an Aspect if you want, so there will be a way to change ones that you don't like or aren't working for your concept anymore.

Skills
Choose one Great skill, two Good skills, three Fair skills and four Average skills. This is a pyramid that is one step down compared to the one that the SotC book recommends, and this is intentional - so that we can advance characers over the course of multiple sessions (something SotC isn't quite built for, but which it supports with a little creativity)

New Skills: Alchemy, Arcana, Bows, Crafting, Healing, Religion (the skill used for divine magic), Spellcraft (enables identification of magical effects and Cantrips)

Complete Skill List (Book with the Added and Cut Skills): Academics, Alchemy, Alertness, Arcana, Art, Athletics, Bows, Burglary, Contacting, Crafting, Deceit, Empathy, Endurance, Engineering, Fists, Gambling, Healing, Intimidation, Investigation, Leadership, Might, Rapport, Religion, Resolve, Resources, Sleight of Hand, Spellcraft, Stealth, Survival, Weaponry

Cut Skills: Drive, Guns, Mysteries, Pilot, Science
-->Things like airships or sailing ships can be piloted, but not with the Pilot skill. Piloting an airship is a social conflict between you and the elemental powering it. A Lyrandar/Storm Dragonmark can obviously be used to make your roll higher - with a Fate Point. Otherwise, the Lyranadar Mark only lets you attempt to control the bound elemental.

Neil Gaiman Makes My New Year Bright

One of the things that I got from my wife for Christmas was The Graveyard Book by Neil Gaiman in audiobook form, read by the author himself. It is kind of like Gaiman's take on a Harry Potter-type coming-of-age story, but it is, as one would expect, better than Harry Potter in every way.

I'm sure that some of its impact is due to hearing the author read it himself. I didn't know this, but Gaiman is a superb dramatic reader - downright mesmerizing. I wonder if he also excels in kendo, or racecar driving, or perhaps landscape painting? My looming green jealousy aside, I think that the impact of the story is increased by Gaiman's rendering. It is coming alive, and I must admit, sometimes makes it difficult to concentrate on my commute. I'm not done with the book yet, but I already recommend it to everyone without any reservations.

I am also deep into reading Monsters and Other Childish Things as well as the long-awaited Magic Burner for Burning Wheel. I also picked up a copy of Artesia: Adventures in the Known World and a copy of Mutants and Masterminds, which I'll talk about more later.

Reading Monsters has been a real pleasure. It is laugh-out-loud funny, and well written, and an elegant system. It is an interesting contrast with the Magic Burner - Burning Wheel in general is a very complex system, and while others describe it as elegant, I don't agree. It is an excellent system, and it is fun to play, but it is not elegant in the way that Monsters is elegant. It does not solve problems with the simplicity and grace that I look for in anything I would call elegant.

I'll have more to say on what elegance in game design means to me once I finish Parsec at long last. Which should be soon. Or I will explode.