On Sunday It Begins

Sunday is the beginning of November which, as everyone knows is National Novel Writing Month. This year I don't plan on writing a novel because I have too much other work to do, but I am going to try to set a NaNoWriMo pace, which is about 1,667 words a day for 30 days.

The first project I have before me is to finish the playtest document and rough draft for Horror!. I've made some progress already, but it isn't ready to be sent out to playtesters yet.

The second project I have in front of me is working on a full draft and playtest document for Heroes of Karia. I've run 3 playtests of Karia so far and it is going well, but I need to have something that is more put-together to send out.

The third project is in case I finish the first two (which is plausible with that kind of writing pace - game books take more work but contain fewer words than comparable novels). Right now I'm calling this project Succubus: A Love Story. The idea I have is for a genre-buster that is about 2/3 sexy high school love story and 1/3 existential horror. I think I can get it out in a short story form, and the idea has been with me for a while. I can tell it's the kind of thing I need to use NaNoWriMo to get out of my system (and find out if it is worth putting real work into aside from a rough draft.

Anyone else working on something for NaNoWriMo?

Horror RPG Module Challenge!

What we have at the core of Horror! is a really, really simple system of comparing numbers. The higher number wins. The lower number loses, and then the character with that number gets some kind of penalty for losing - Fear, Pain, a setback, or just lost time against the ever-looming Countdown.

This is why I think it is easy to make modules for Horror!, even when they will require a lot of improvisation and quick thinking, and even when what you're mostly interested in is coming up with background and fluff and story.

Attributes range from 1 to 5, and Traits, on average, will add +1 or +2 in rarer cases to that number. Y ou can assume that a given character, after the beginning of the game, will have at least a little Fear and Pain, meaning the penalties from those (-1 or -2) will often cancel out the Trait bonus the player might be able to come up with, leaving the 1-5 range again.

Basically, just create a flow-chart of how hard you want the session to be based on that range. So...

Don't do anything that is a target of 1

A target of 2 is a throwaway, should be the minimum you'd ever set for anything that's worth calling a test

A target of 3 should be standard for someone doing what they do for a living, but still isn't much of a challenge

A target of 4 is a bit of a challenge

A target of 5 will require that most characters go looking for help, either in the environment or from another character

A target of 6 is a way of saying "don't do this" - any character will need to call on help, Adrenaline or Virtue, a Trait, something to even the score, especially if they have already gotten some Fear and/or Pain. The 6 is "big bad" territory, because on average, characters will go down unless very well prepared.

A target of 7 is a good maximum. That's what a healthy character using their Attribute of 5 and doubling a Feat or Influence with an Adrenaline or Virtue respectively can hit

As always, feel free to just say "you can't do that, try something else". Horror! is not a game about "say yes or roll the dice" - and not just because there are no dice.

So what did I do?
I used the target numbers as a pacing mechanic. Like the countdown, they should escalate as the game progresses, so things become harder and more threatening as time goes on.

The scenario I'd sketched out in my mind placed the PCs in a secret installation beneath Tibet, a huge particle accelerator built by the Chinese government, designed to crack open quantum theory and prove or disprove string theory. What happens is that the first experiment is a success - and the PCs are part of a group splintered off into an alternate mini-dimension, forever disconnected from the "real" world - set adrift.

Everything begins to become unhinged - mechanical and digital systems, the characters' memory and sanity, even gravity near the end, as this splinter dimension 'forgets' how it is supposed to function and spins down rapidly to entropy. Others on the station have figured this out and are overcome with despair and begin killing each other and themselves. Each of the PCs comes to, suddenly having a moment of clarity in the midst of either committing suicide or killing someone else. They briefly 'reset', forgetting some of what has happened but also being able to think clearly. So each of the characters start in the midst of something awful and then go on to figure out what is going on from there, while the clock is ticking and everything is going apeshit around them.

In the beginning the targets are around 2. One PC comes to locked in mortal combat with a crazed old man trying to drive a syringe into his eye; another in the midst of hanging himself, a third locked in her room being suffocated in her bed. They get out pretty easily, begin to get a handle on the system, etc. This is kind of like the Prelude.

Act One has mostly target numbers of 3 or 4. This includes seeing the first dead bodies, or people dying, in horrible but relatively 'mundane' ways, as well as changing locks and that kind of thing. Stuff that a skilled professional can do, or someone with a strong stomach can tolerate (humorously, two player characters had Conviction as their dump-stat of 1 and got Fear from everything).

Act Two, in my mind, starts involving the really messed up shit that is at the heart of everything - they find out much more about the awful situation they're all in, they see the piles of bodies, etc. This is where targets of 5 and even 6 come into play, where everything starts to hit the fan. The Countdown should be low at this point, and ideally everyone is sweating bullets.

Act Three is when the Ace of Spades comes off the table and things escalate before the inevitable end. These target 5 and 6 tests come at you one after another, and even a 7 here and there to push people in the right direction and let them know that even if they work together and have some Traits, they can still fail.

For each of the Acts, I had what I called a Pressure Menu (yeah, I know, I need a better name). On this menu, I just listed bad things that I can have happen to push things forward. A guy jumps out of a doorway screaming and leaps on one of the PCs. They find out X scary information. They find a trail of blood leading to a person who is in the last moments of suicide - someone they know, care about. Etc. Then, if I feel myself getting bored, or antsy, I have one of these things happen and slap a couple of numbers on it appropriate to the approximate "Act" I'm in .

What if the players skip ahead in my story?
Take off a card and escalate things to the next Act. Do the exact things you'd already planned, but increase the target number by 1 or 2. Presto! Drama and fear ensue.

What if it takes too long?
Same answer as above. When in doubt, escalate.

What if I set the Countdown wrong?
It only has to be as regular as you want it to be.

What if they go off the rails entirely?
Take a moment to look at the obstacles you've set up to put in their path. Which ones can just be moved to the new location? Zombies and security doors and so on can come up whenever, frankly.

Then find the things that won't fit and change the fluff, leaving the obstacle there and about as bad as it was. If it was one named NPC, make it another named NPC. If it was a physical threat, make it another kind of physical threat.

Plan everything so that the PCs die horribly.
Put enough tests in there to wear them down entirely. Balance things against them. Make the Countdown account for about 1/2 to 2/3 of the expected length of the session. Escalate things early and capriciously.

The players are signing up to see their characters die and go insane in delicious ways. That's what this is all about. It is not about triumph (though sometimes the PCs may do just that). It is about doing terrible things to each other's characters and enjoying every minute of it. By the time the last card comes up off the Countdown and the game ends, the players should be on the verge of getting out alive, or have some hope still glimmering, and then you stifle it forever.

That's horror.

Fear Rating
Most psychological tests, involving Conviction, will occur when a PC encounters something awful. Just set a number for these tests like you would any other - and make sure to include some 5s and 6s to that everyone can enjoy the fun...
2 Seeing something very frightening but within your normal experience - like watching a car accident
3 Something possibly a little traumatizing, like seeing a car accident when someone is thrown through their windshield
4 This is bad, bad stuff, like seeing someone killed and their severed head falls in your lap, staring up at you, and blinks at you before all of the blood drains out
5 Heinous crimes at the limits of what you can imagine a person doing - like being caught in the The Cell or seeing the Wolf Creek guy at work on a loved one or two
6 You really are a sick fuck. Nice job.

Horror RPG Feedback

As I mentioned before, I recently ran a playtest of our Horror! rpg, and I wanted to go through the feedback I got from the players and then talk a bit about what I'm going to do with it. Hopefully my previous post about the basics of the system will help a reader follow along, but this is also just a chance for me to put my thoughts out there (and maybe get some discussion if there are interested readers).

I'm focusing on negative and critical feedback here. The vast majority of what I heard was "this game is awesome!", but the critical stuff is what will be most helpful going forward, as anyone could expect.

Notes from looking at the character sheets

One thing I was sure to do was save the character sheets, and to look at what parts the players used most, what they wrote on them as notes to themselves, that kind of thing.

Overall, the character sheets, though basic, were used the way I intended. The Traits section wasn't used very much or very well detailed out, but that I connect with the fact that we're not so clear on it either. One player drew arrows between the descriptions of Adrenaline and Virtue connecting them to Feats and Influences, respectively. So these need to be closer together (and there need to be headings on the character sheet for each section that coincide with the headings on a book). I also notice that when a lot of Traits are chosen in one category, people run out of space to write quickly.

My notes as GM

I also took notes for my own use. The first thing I did was flip over my typed up scenario notes and sketch out a mini character sheet for each of the players on the back. I realized I'd need to know their Attributes, and also added their characer names and archetypes with player names at the bottom.

Under each of these mini character sheets, I also listed NPCs connected to each character - just name and a couple of words were all I needed. At the bottom of this while page (which was what I most often looked at during the game as I recall) I wrote "needs to be a reward for awesome!" There were cool things that one player expeciall did that didn't really fit under Adrenaline or Virtue. Maybe a random card dealt to them? But I'd like there to be some kind of reward, and what we have didn't quite fit.

I made a note to myself that every card on the countdown should represent about 15 minutes of game-time. The way it turned out, by the way, was about 150% of that estimate, and this might be a normal thing - we'll have to find out with more playtests.

Player feedback during character creation

One player used a Feat to resist things like intimidation, since it made sense to them...and it sort of made sense to me, since Adrenaline would help you resist being bullied. So maybe Feats should be broader than just physical...

There was confusion about the main attribute for each archetype, and I'm ok with dropping it, or just having it as a suggestion. Everyone expected it to have an in-game effect, and when it didn't, it seemed like a wasted idea.

Player feedback during the game

The players reacted strongly every time a card was taken away from the Countdown. I think I should draw more attention to the event, though, and the phrase I saw to help escalate things, since a couple of times it was actually missed, and a player said "Wait, we lost a card when I wasn't looking!" I want it to be a "gulp" moment, not a "huh" moment.

One player had the cool idea to give their own character a level of Fear in exchange for some kind of temporary benefit. This came up when a player was frightened and sickened and wanted their character to be frightened as well. Wow! I want to reward that kind of thinking! So maybe an Adrenaline when you give yourself a level of Fear and a Virtue when you give yourself a level of Pain. Actually...nice.

Player feedback at the end debriefing

Organized by the questions that I asked:

Were you ever scared? Anxious? Nervous? When?

FUCK YES! Player creepiness helped, th GM's vivid descriptions of creepy things, and when there was no solution or no way out in a tight situation

Were you entertained?

Yes!

What was the coolest thing a player did?

One player had his character throw down his gun when he finally found one. Another player was totally nonplussed by most of the horrors going on around her (this creeped me out a bit as well). Lastly, players physically role-played some of their characers' actions - and this is something else I want to reward somehow.

What do you wish your character could have done?

It was hard for some to figure out how to use the Traits in-game. I hope this won't be the case when we work them out more clearly in the future.

Where were you most bored or disinterested?

Some people got caught up in cross-talk, and missed details. They didn't like something that is my personal style, which is getting one scene running along via player interaction and then turning to another scene to engage the other players. The vote seemed like the players in this game would prefer a clearer situation where if the group splits (and in a horror game they should) and some of the players become the audience, and then the focus returns to them. That way, no one misses anything.

What was your favorite aspect of the system?

Everyone loved the Countdown mechanic and the cards for character creation. They also liked the open-ended definition for Traits and having physical cards on the table and in their hands representing their Adrenaline and Virtue.

What on your character did you never use?

Feats, Contacts and NPCs that they were connected to in character creation (my fault, honestly), and Hopes - which guided the players' idea of their character and how to play them, but didn't come directly into the game system-wise.

Anything else?

Some of the players said that this game needs a good GM to go well, that it relies too much on improvisation and wouldn't be possible to run from a module. (This led to the challenge I took on that I'll sketch out in a future post)

The players also felt there wasn't enough use of Virtue - the idea came up to have rules written in small print on the character sheet, which really helped when I ran Mouse Guard (thanks Luke Crane for creating a game that can almost fit on two pages!) so I think it is definitely worth a try.

Lastly, the players wanted it to be clear whether they would be basically collaborative or basically antagonistic. It wasn't clear at the beginning, and it led to some confusion with some players assume they should be suspicious of the others and other players trying to work together to get out alive. This might need to be something that is laid o ut clearly at the beginning of the session, since Horror! can definitely handle PvP.

The Basics of Our Horror RPG

Before I start talking about this thing, I need to give the basics of the system, which is pretty easy to do. The system has no dice. You just compare the number representing your character's salient ability to the number assigned to how difficult the thing you're trying to do is, and if you're over, you win. If you're under, you lose. If you tie, then there is either a stalemate, or you both win and lose, whichever is more interesting.

You start by choosing your Archetype and your Subtype. The archetypes are taken from our thinking about horror as a genre - what kinds of people get caught up in a horror story? we came up with the Innocent, the Foolhardy, the Jaded and the Victim. Your archetype is important because it determines how many Hopes and Scars you start off with, as well as how much Virtue and Adrenaline one starting Virtue per Hope that you have, one starting Adrenaline per Scar you have. Hopes are things you Hope for, Scars are bad things that happened to you that still hurt you.

There are four subtypes under each archetype, and each subtype has one once-a-session ability that only they can use. This ability will hurt a PC in some way but benefit your character or your player agenda in some way. They are all different, and are still in rough form, but that's the idea behind them.

There are four Attributes in this game - Might, Precision, Appeal and Conviction. Might helps you pass physical tests; Precision helps you pass technical tests; Appeal helps you pass social tests; Conviction helps you pass psychological tests. Physical tests are usually about avoiding or inflicting Pain. Technical tests are about overcoming obstacles in the fiction. Social tests are about getting NPCs (and PCs if you go PvP) to do what you want. Conviction is about resisting social influences from others and about resisting Fear.

Fear and Pain are what destroy your character. If you accumulate 4 of either, you go for a side talk with the GM and your character is subsumed by the horror, whatever it happens to be - or possibly just insane or dead.

Adrenaline, mentioned above, helps you resist your own Fear and Pain (which impose penalties). Virtue lets one character remove another character's Fear or Pain - nothing else in the game does that. You get Adrenaline for kicking ass and Virtue for putting yourself in danger on behalf of others and that kind of thing.

Lastly, there are Traits. You have six kinds of traits, and they modify your Attributes in a test, usually by +1. Feats are physical abilities that you have, ways you can push your body to do amazing things. Influences are social abilities you have, as well as friends or allies or contacts you have that you want to be part of the game. Items are things you have with you when the game starts - they are a contract with the GM, because if it isn't on your character sheet, there is no guarantee that you'll be able to use it in the game. Knowledges are areas of expertise. Once per scene, you can ask the GM a question in your area of experties (if in the game you have the opportunity to sit and reflect, do a little research, use a lab, etc.) and the GM has to give you an honest answer. Mysteries are the wild card Traits in the game that we are still working out - things like ESP or telekinesis, knowledge of alien abductions and conspiracy theories, or occult abilities. Mysteries are very versatile, but when you call upon one, you risk increasing your own Fear. Last are Skills, which are just like skills in every other rpg.

Each Trait functions differently, but they're all pretty simple. They either let you do something, let you introduce something into the game, or give you about a +1 on specific kinds of tests. That's about it.

What drives this all is the Countdown. The Countdown is represented by some cards on the table (right now) and it functions to keep the pressure on the PCs. As cards are taken away from the center, they know that death and disaster is looming closer, but they don't necessarily know why. The Countdown can represent anything - time until the full moon, how much air is left to breathe, cultists completing a ritual to summon a dread deity, how many campers the slasher goes through before he gets to the PCs - anything. It is the screws that you put to the player's thumbs. The only ways to buy time are 1. take a risk once you've figured out what the Countdown represents or 2. do something awful to someone else - push another camper in front of the slasher, suffocate someone so they don't breathe your air anymore, kill one of the cultists in cold blood, etc.

That's the basics. Now some analysis.

Horror!: Fantastic Playtest

I am so happy and giddy right now. I just finished a playtest of Horror! including character creation and then about a two-hour scenario sketched out ahead of time and then improvised. I went in with a premise but not knowing what kinds of characters the players would create.

Character creation went really well - a little slow in parts, but I didn't print enough rules handouts for the group, and that didn't help at all. I want to write a post in a few days about what went well, and some feedback I got in the character creation department.

The session also went well. They were actually frightened, disgusted, and felt despair. Hooray! That is exactly what this game is shooting for, and it delivered.

The big challenges now:

Integrating the feedback (which was wonderful and very helpful) on character creation, the game system, and how I the GM applied the game system. I'll sketch this out in the next post.

Writing into the game what I do, what another GM might do - particularly my friend Arnold's challenge - how to make a scenario like this into a module, when so much of it hinged on improvisation? I think that the Horror! system works specifically well at doing just that, but now I have to prove it. So at least one post will posit this idea of a meta-module for horror games using our system. We'll see if it works...

Work in Progress: Horror! Alpha Playtest Document

Putting this up here in case anyone sees it and wants to comment on it so far.  Its a work in progress and not done yet, but it is getting closer to what we can use to playtest the system.  Note: placing this document on this blog does not constitute publication.  All rights reserved.

Horror! Alpha Playtest Document

Style Bible

Always Capitalize: Adrenaline, Appeal, Attributes, Fear, Hopes, Might, Occult, Pain, Precision, Scars, Traits, Virtue

Use numerals rather than written numbers - so, 3 rather than three.

Capitalize with first mention: types of Traits, character types - victim, jaded, etc.  Afterwards, it isn't a big deal to capitalize and can just be a descriptor with a rules effect

Italicize important sentences - one or two from each section at the very most - that people need to see and understand, or that hold a key bit of rules or system in them

Italicize whenever you want to draw specific attention to something - a word, phrase, sentence, etc., that isn't already specifically handled in some way

Embolden the first instance of a new key word or term that doesn't occur in a heading but in the body of the text

What you have
Attributes: Might, Precision, Appeal, Occult
-->Note on other Attribute systems, since this is one of the weakest parts of the game at the moment (to me at least)
Traits/Items: 
Virtue
Adrenaline
Dreams

What will take it from you
Scars
Fear
Pain

How it will happen
Conflict System
Tabletop
Live Action
Rewards

For example...


WHAT YOU HAVE

First, you figure out what kind of character you're going to play.  There are a few ways to do this.  The first way is to choose 3 Hopes or Scars or some mixture of the two adding up to 3.  So you can have 3 Scars, 2 Scars and 1 Hope, 1 Scar and 2 Hopes, or 3 Hopes.  These will correspond to your starting Adrenaline (Scars) and Virtue (Hopes).

You can determine your Scars and Hopes one by one, thinking them through and sketching out what they represent in  your character's past or the future she wants - or you can determine them semi-randomly with a deck of cards.  Each player who wants semi-random Scars and Hopes is dealt 3 cards from a shuffled deck.  The red cards are Scars and the black cards are Hopes.  A spade is a Scar having to do with violence or suffering.  A club is a Scar having to do with disempowerment - perhaps poverty or oppression or emotional abuse.  A heart is a Hope having to do with relationships.  A diamond is a Hope having to do with achievement.

Each Scar is a time in your life when you were crushed by suffering and wanted to give up.  Each Hope is something that you desperately want for your life to give it meaning and make it worthwhile.

Someone with 3 Scars is a Victim.  A Victim has been beaten down by life again and again, and is often mostly concerned with survival.  The Victim might accept horror for what it is and respond directly to it.  The Victim has learned not to mess around if she wants to get through this.

Someone with 2 Scars and 1 Hope is Jaded.  Jaded characters will tend to be competent, professional types.  They believe the horror can be kept at bay, but you've got to break some eggs in the process.  The Jaded character still holds onto some hope for the future, but her feet are also firmly on the ground.

Someone with 1 Scar and 2 Hopes is Foolhardy.  The Foolhardy character believes that the horror can be overcome in the end.  They tend to be idealistic visionary types who might be entrepeneurs or artists.  The Foohardy character has been burned before, but believes that in the end, things work out for the best if they can keep believing.

Someone with 3 Hopes is an Innocent.  The Innocent never really comes to believe that true horror is real, and an Innocent character might hold onto her ideals even when giving them up might serve the "greater good".  The Innocent is fragile and powerful at the same time because there is something about them that the horror has a hard time reaching.

Attributes
Attributes are measured from 0 to 5.  0 is handicapped, 2-3 is average, and 5 is the maximum for normal human beings.  Attributes are also the base for all tests - the Attribute provides the base number, which is then modified by Traits, Fear and Pain.  For Attributes, you distribute a 2, two 3's and a 4 between your four scores.

Might is a measure of your physical power, athletic ability, and toughness.  It could also be Muscle or Force or Power, maybe, but the name is just the place-holder for physical badassery.

Precision is your mental acumen, fine motor skills and ability to think clearly.

Appeal is your social grace, charm, good looks and general likeability.  It is how you get what you want from NPCs.

Occult is your knowledge of dread secrets humankind was not meant to know, psychic abilitites, supernatural sensitivity and so on.  High Occult will also make you more susceptible to the supernatural abilities of other creatures. [CAN PERHAPS REMOVE ENTIRELY]

/Spirit/Mysteries

Alternate Attribute Systems
The Idea is that the Attribute system is brief, tightly designed, and covers the categories of conflicts that you might be able to resolve or 'win'.  Right now, Might corresponds to a lot of physical combat; Precision corresponds to shooting people and skill or thinking-based conflicts; Appeal pertains to social conflicts and interactions, and Occult is sort of a catch-all for the weird, creepy, supernatural stuff.

Traits/Items
Traits and items modify your attributes when you're involved in a conflict.  Basically, having a trait that applies to a certain situation grants a bonus in that situation.  Traits should be specific and descriptive - there will never be a catch-all Trait that is useful for everything, or anything close to it.

There are six kinds of Traits: Feats, Influences, Items, Knowledge, Mysteries and Skills.

Feats are specific ways to call on physical prowess, particularly when beating ass or doing things you'd do when playing a sport - throwing, running, swimming, jumping and so on.  Influences are ways to influence other characters socially and psychologically, as well as a way to measure who you know who can help you - contacts, allies and the like.  Items are just that - a catch-all of useful objects.  For a lot of things, like shooting someone or driving, you'll need an item at bare minimum to even do it. Knowledge just says in what area or areas you are an expert.   You can expect to have your questions answered in that area of knowledge during the course of the game - maybe in forensics or biology or even conspiracy theories or art history.  Mysteries are weird shit, and they overlap with some of the other categories of Traits.   You can have special items or objects, a special occult ability, a magical ritual or a way that you are resistant to the attacks of alien mind-rays.  Finally, Skill are pretty self-explanatory - they are a main way that you get concrete things done in the shared imaginary space of the game.

You can stack one Item with one Skill for one test when applicable.  Otherwise, Traits can only be called on one at a time.  Traits can stack with themselves, however.  For example, at a basic level, you could have a handgun.  You could also have a Desert Eagle with a laser sight (+1).  Lastly, you might have a hand-machined .50 caliber handgun with extra chambers, armor-piercing rounds, a laser sight, recoil suppression and a scope attachment.  That's a +2, and would take the place of 3 Items.

Examples of Traits
Traits include skills and talents as well as particular pieces of equipment that make tasks easier.  They should be a lot more specific than an attribute, but still grant an advantage in a conflict.

Feats: 

(You can spend an Adrenaline to double the effect of a feat)

Influences: 

(You can spend a Virtue to double the effect of an influence)

Items: 

(One item can "stack" effect with one skill)

Knowledge: 

(You don't test knowledge - you just know things in a given area)

Mysteries: 

(When you fail a test in which you use a mystery Trait, you gain one level of Fear or Pain)

Skills: 

(One skill can "stack" effect with one item)

Adrenaline
Adrenaline is a pool of points that you can use to modify conflicts.  Understandably, Adrenaline helps you kick the shit out of things - doors, objects, and opponents.

You earn Adrenaline back by being aggressive, by leading with your chin, fists, knife, fire-axe, shotgun and so on.  Adrenaline creates a cycle where you paint the walls, then earn some more, then paint the walls again.

The amount of Adrenaline that you can spend at one time is equal to your Fear level +1.

Virtue
Virtue is a pool of points, a reasource that you can use to further modify rolls, among other things.  Virtue is the only thing that might enable you to deal with Fear and Pain, and one character can use their Virtue to help others.

Virtue is earned - you begin a game with a little bit, but if things are going right, you should be spending it pretty often.

The way you earn Virtue is by taking risks on behalf of others, by doing self-sacrificing things to preserve others in the face of horror.

Virtue represents one of the two ways you can survive horror - by being someone who should survive in the first place.

If you RP talking someone down or soothing them or encouraging them and spend a Virtue point in a scene, you reduce their Fear level by one step.  If you RP caring for someone, binding their wounds and so on in a scene and spend a Virtue, you reduce their Pain level by one.  You can only do one or the other in a given scene - for 2 Virtue you can do both at once in a scene.

Hopes
Your Hopes are what give you life.  They inspire you, they make you who you are.  

They give you something to lose.

Your hopes are what give you your starting Virtue in a Horror! game.  You can  have up to three hopes which will function this way.

Also, whenever a Hope comes into play in a conflict specifically (GM's discretion) you get a +1 to directly-related tests.   Your Hopes inspire you to greater effort and at times, true brilliance.

Of course, in situations like this, when things go terribly wrong, it is possible for a Hope to transform into a Scar.  This should be a story event that takes place - and a character can never have fewer or more than a total of 3 Hopes and Scars unless they have received a Scar for being taken out of a game or incapacitated and then returning later.


WHAT WILL TAKE IT FROM YOU

Scars
Scars are the counter-balance of Dreams.  A scar is a memory of something terrible that happened to you.  It often resulted in a particular fear or weakness.

It also pisses you the fuck off.  Your scars give you Adrenaline.  You draw on what has hurt you - and use it to hurt other stuff.

Every time you're in a situation where a Scar specifically comes into play (GM's discretion), you are at -1 to all tests, but you also get a point of Adrenaline as soon as the penalty comes into effect.

Fear
Fear exists on a scale that is right there on your character sheet.  The more Fear you have, the weaker you'll become, the more ineffectual.  The accumulation of Fear is automatic over the course of a game.  Whenever how bad things are escalates from where they were before, everyone's Fear increases.  The only way to mitigate this effect is for someone to spend Virtue and talk someone else down.  This has to be roleplayed out, and then the Virtue is actually spent, and the person who was talked down can reduce their Fear by one step.  Your level of Fear is subtracted from your score in all social or mental conflicts.

You can spend Adrenaline on any one test equal to 1+your level of Fear, so being afraid can actually empower you...sort of.  Really, what it does is let you blow even more Adrenaline to negate the penalty to your tests, thus encoraging you to go out there and get more Adrenaline faster - and that just makes everyone's night more fun.

Pain
Like Fear, Pain is right there on your character sheet.  Whenever you lose a physical conflict where someone or something is trying to injure you, you gain one level of Pain.  Each level of Pain progressively incapacitates you more and more until  you are took broken to continue.  Your level of Pain is subtracted from your score in all physical conflicts.


HOW IT WILL HAPPEN

Conflict System
Conflicts in Horror! are simple, designed to be resolved in the midst of panic and shouting and running for your life.  The higher total number wins.  Two equal totals cancel out, and both sides take consequnces from the conflict.  Most physical conflicts will have Pain as a consequence.  Some social or mental conflicts will have Fear as a consequence, but genrally Fear just escalates as the story escalates.  The conseuqnces of a conflict might also be something simply related to the story - will the car start?  Will the locked door open?  Can you weld razor-wire to the sides of the schoolbus for the run through the mob of zombies?  In these cases, the GM just sets a target number.  If you get the target number exactly, you get what you wanted - barely, and not as thoroughly as you'd want.  If you get lower than the target number, something bad happens.  If you get something hither than the target number, you get what you want in the conflict.

Target Numbers
1-2 Easy
3-4 Normal; relatively challenging
5-6 Very challenging
7+ Probably impossible

Otherwise, the conflicts are character vs. character.  You compare each character's Attribute + Trait + Adrenaline or Virtue spent - again, the higher total wins.

In all cases, the player-character makes the first move - the PC is the first to take the risk, even if they are being attacked.  This adds to the feel or Horror! - you don't know what you're facing.  You might over-estimate and burn Adrenaline when you didn't need to, and you might under-estimate and get hurt for your trouble.  What this means is, the GM might say "Ok, the zombie is trying to grab you and bite you.  What are you doing?"  Then the player says what her character is trying to do to resist this - say, struggle and get out of the zombie's grasp using Power + a Feat + 1 Adrenaline to help make sure.  Her character's total is 5.  The GM knows that this is a very strong zombie, with a 6 in Power, but what happens is that the GM narrates what happens, ending with the zombie getting a grip on the PC and sinking its bloodstained teeth into her shoulder.  She takes 1 Pain.  Now, what does she do next?

This should always keep the PCs off-balance, making them guess how bad a thing they are facing is.  There is a way to try to figure out this ahead of time - we'll get to that in the Traits section.

A tie goes to the status-quo - often the "defender".  In combat, a tie means that both sides take a level of Pain and continue as they were, wounded and panting.  Note that ties will be pretty common, so things can get bloody for both sides quick.

Table-Top
The table-top game of Horror! doesn't involve any dice.  There is no chance that will come to save you, no high roll that will get you out of a tight spot.  In fact, we're doing what we can to keep you in the dark, make you waste resources, make you over-react to small threats and underestimate large ones.  Every player should say "oh shit", or something like it, during the course of every Horror! game at minimum.

Live-Action
Live Action is exactly like table-top, except that Adrenaline and Virtue should probably be playing cards or something so that they are harder to lose when  you're walking around.

It might be interesting that when you spend one or the other, you just throw your card to the ground, leaving indications that some kind of serious conflict took place here for others to find and/or intuit when they come by later.  That is, a pile of Adrenaline cards on the floor would mark the site of some combat, and you'd expect to find spent shell casings and blood splattered all over the place.

Otherwise, your character sheet easily fits on a single 4x6 card, and items can be cards you carry on you or can just be recorded on your sheet.

Appeal of 3 could be one gold star on your nametag; Appeal 4 is 2 stars and Appeal 5 is 3 - to indicate how hot, influential, menacing, or inspiring you are.

For a test, both sides get out their character card and any item card or Trait card they hope to use, as well as any cards they're willing to risk in the test.  Both sides reveal at once and compare.  All spent Adrenaline or Virtue cards are scattered on the floor.

Rewards
At the beginning of a game, there is a pool of Adrenaline and a pool of Virtue, set by the GM for that session.  Players award each other Adrenaline and Virtue during the course of the game when they see fit - the another player is baddass or virtuous, basically.  Once the pools are spent, there can be no more awards.  Unawarded points go away at the end of the session.  The PCs should probably work out some kind of shorthand for saying "I think we should award a point for what you just did"

Adrenaline:  "Holy shit", "Baddass", "Hardcore", "Oh my God", "You're a sick bastard" - or you could pound the table in appreciation

Virtue: "Nice one", "Awww", ::Cheering::, "Wow, that was amazing", "Saved!" - or you could raise your hand in blessing or make the sign of the cross or a peace sign toward the player in question

The Road to GenCon 2008

That's how I'm thinking about my progress toward self-publication. I've decided that I will be published by next year's GenCon - either through the game proposal going through (I'm still waiting to hear about that) or by going with one of the projects I've been posting about here.

Right now, the front-runner seems to be the Horror! system. The first reason for this is that it is simple overall, but is a strong concept. The second reason is that a friend of mine seems interested in helping me with the process, so that tips things in its favor as well. Its a lot easier to work on something with someone else.

So, in light of these decisions, and assuming that the game proposal does not go through (I give myself a 20% chance I'd say), I want to have an idea of what is ahead of me and how I need to proceed.

General Production Tasks
(these are in rough chronological order)

1. Finish writing a full playtest draft of the game. This will be a rough copy that includes all of the major rules that I'll hopefully be able to playtest myself and also farm out to any other interested groups.

2. Recruit people. This includes people in the categories of art, web design, graphic design, and editing. Ideally, these will be people who are in the project for the fun or are friends who will help me out for free, but I'm also willing to pay if necessary to get quality help.

3. Playtest. And then do it again. And again. As I do this, and as I get reviews (if I'm lucky) from other groups running the game, I'll continuously modify the playtest draft and then send it back out for more testing.

4. Research technical details of self-publication. Formatting. Costs. Setting up a system to sell the book online (I'm looking at pdf/print-on-demand with online sales to start). Getting a POS of some kind to run credit cards for when I go to Origins and GenCon with the game. Etc.

5. Complete a rough draft of the game. This will be post playtesting with rules I'm happy with and everything else I think the game needs. At this point, graphic design will have to be together and art will basically have to be together.

6. Get the rough draft copy-edited and content-edited. I can't do these things myself for my own game. I'll be blind to the problems, as will most who have worked on it with me. So I'll need to find at least one copy-editor and at least one content editor who will almost certainly have to be people I don't know personally.

7. Publish the final copy. This will also involve setting up all of the details of how I am going to sell it and deciding on a price (I'll err on the side of cheap in the hope that it will get the game out there faster, but will still seem like it is significant. It's hard to respect a $2 game.) Right now I'm looking at having two options - a cheaper pdf option for download with light art, maybe pared down in general, and then a somewhat more robust option for purchase on a print-on-demand basis.

8. Go to Origins and GenCon 2008 to pimp the thing.

Thankfully, I spent a lot of time at Origins this year at seminars in the area of game design and publishing, and I've done a bunch of research on both and will continue to do so. I've got a general idea of how all of these things will work, as well as some specifics, and some people I might be able to turn to for help in the future.

As always, any comments are welcome.

Horror! System 1.2 - more additions

On reflection, we like there being two kinds of Tokens, with the more evocative names of Adrenaline and Virtue. The idea is for them to be different colors, be awarded for different kinds of roleplaying, and to have different functions in the game.

Both Adrenaline and Virtue represent different ways that one might survive Horror. Adrenaline is the first way - by fighting it and winning, something like becoming a bit of a horror yourself to overcome it directly. Virtue is the second way, by remaining idealistic and not letting the Horror overwhelm you. In horror movies in particular, you see a lot of these kinds of survivors. Some survive because they are baddass, and some survive because they are good people deep down. In all cases, they survive because they are interesting, because they drive the story and they help the audience identify with the horrific situation.


Adrenaline (red or maybe green tokens)

Adrenaline is awarded for energetic, violent, aggressive, proactive roleplaying in the face of Horror. If you are playing a character who stalks through the zombie-infested mall wielding a gore-spattered fire-ax and spouting one-liners, you'll start to accumulate Adrenaline quickly. Adrenaline can be spent on any Might test and on most Precision tests as well as some Occult tests. You can spend Adrenaline up to your current Fear rating +1, so in theory it can negate penalties due to Fear (if you have enough Tokens!) and also let you win ties when your Traits aren't enough. If you're bashing, kicking, chopping, climbing, running, yelling, jumping or stabbing, Adrenaline can be used to the test in question.

In awarding Adrenaline, everything is relative. With a group of superb rolelpayers, the bar should be appropriately high. No one should have twelve tokens in front of them unless they're hoarding them. What you want to reward is roleplaying that you think adds to the game experience overall, helps increase player buy-in into the events of the story, and whenever possible reflects thought that has gone into character design in the first place.

With a group of less enthusiastic roleplayers, or perhaps in a convention game or a one-shot with players you don't know well yet, the bar can be lower. Just describing what your character is doing physically to overcome the Horror in the situation can be enough because it adds to the overall immersion. In play, I've found that tokens are an excellent reward system if they are used subtly - just slide them across the table to someone who's roleplaying well. Its an excellent motivator when done without too much fanfare, and you'll find that the behavior you reward gets repeated in most cases. As the game continues, the players will get a better idea of what you want - which means you have to have a clear idea of what you are looking for from them beforehand for this reward system to work.


Virtue (blue or maybe yellow tokens)

Virtue is a little trickier, but it is crucial. First, Virtue is the kind of token you spend when you are talking someone down out of Fear - it is the only way that Fear is reduced in-game. A group with all Adrenaline will tear itself apart as everyone in the group becomes a screaming hysteric - if you're doing your job as GM that is.

It also isn't just the stereotypical "healer" of the "party" because this "healer" can't heal herself. You can't use Virtue to talk yourself down, so if you need more than one character who is accumulating Virtue.

Virtue tokens are probably harder to get than Adrenaline ones. You get Virtue tokens by roleplaying a genuinely good person who tries to remain at least a little optimistic about the Horror around her. You get them for risking yourself to help others, especially those who are weaker than you or those who are in danger. If you convince the ones at the front of the line with the shotguns and machetes to slow down so the child you've found can catch up, that's worth Virtue. If you're pacifying, exhorting, soothing, encouraging, nurturing, risking yourself for others - especially people you don't know, praying, etc., that could be worth Virtue.

What Virtue helps add to a Horror game is the sense that there are things that are important that could be lost. If no one values anything, there isn't much Horror. But if players are always being reminded of their humanity, it makes the Horror all the more horrific. What could have been a splattery gore-fest approaches true tragedy.

Virtue is also used to reduce Pain penalties from injury. If a person is able to tend to a wounded character, at last applying first aid to them, and spends a Virtue, that character can function as if one step lower on the Pain scale. Their wounds don't disappear, but they are mitigated, and are no longer as severe for the duration of the session in question.

This can be done a lot if necessary and if time allows (the GM can always control Fear and Pain escalation by how much time she allows for things like talking down and first aid). For every new wound received, first aid can be applied and a Virtue can be spent - but the maximum is reduction by one level for any given Wound.

Finally, Virtue can be used on Appeal tests and some Occult tests. Any Appeal test where you are attempting to appear trustworthy can be bolstered by Virtue. In all cases where Virtue is spent on tests, you can spend up to your Fear rating +1 in Virtue - just like Adrenaline.

Horror! 1.1 - Some Additions and Notes

Adrenaline: this principle makes it possible to spend Tokens equal to your current level of Fear. This is a mechanic to represent the power lent by desperation.

Tokens represent, in part, how interesting your character is. It is a common horror trope for characters to survive not because they are particularly intelligent or capable, but because they are interesting.

It is possible for player-characters to mutually talk each other down. They roleplay this interaction, and the GM determines when they can each spend a Token to reduce their fear.

Penalties from Fear and Pain are reduced to -1, -1, -2, -3, -4. In both cases, tests using Might and Might-related Traits have no penalty for the first level.

Single Traits can be taken more than once, but no more than 2 Traits can apply in any given situation. To help GMs manage this, when each character attempts something, the player should probably announce two Traits that they think applies so the GM has a chance to say "no, not this time", etc. The GM may or may not announce Situational modifiers in return so the player knows what they are dealing with. For example:

Player: "Ok, I'm going to try to shoot the Zombie in the head to drop it. Sharpshooter 2, Clear-headed." This means that the PC has a +3 to her Precision for this test.

GM: "Gotcha. But the zombie is surrounded by others, so its got Cover, and you're Calling a Shot." So this would be -2 to the PC's Precision test, for a total of +1. Shooting a zombie is pretty easy most of the time - they tend to have a low Precision score.

In response, the PC can wait or move so the zombie is out in the open, shoot at another zombie not surrounded by others, or get closer to negate the problem of Calling a Shot (which is only really a problem when you're some distance away.)

The goal here is for the rules to be fast, loose, interpretive and narrative. For groups that want more complexity in the rules for tests, they are free to have as many Traits apply as they wish, as well as any other modifiers, but bear in mind that this can really slow down the game.

The Big Three Questions of Game Design: Horror!

The people over at The Forge have developed a lot of ideas around game design that I'm only beginning to get into, but one of the foundational ideas they have is the "big three" questions of game design. Any designer should be able to offer compelling answers to these. So, I thought I'd post them and then give the answers that I would have for both Horror! and Epic.

The Big Three are:

1. What is your game about?

2. What do the characters do?

3. What do the players do?

Obviously, very simple, but an excellent way to concretise your thinking about your game. And, honestly, I didn't start either of these games with answers to these questions in mind. So, here we go.

First, regarding Horror!, because it is simpler in almost every way.

1. What is your game about?

Horror! is about the escalation of fear over the course of a storyline that is rooted in the basic elements of the horror genre - buildup of tension, progressive revelation, immediate threats, existential threats, survival, etc. It is about living out a situation where characters encounter the horrific and how they respond.

2. What do the characters do?

The characters encounter the horrific and respond in some way, whether it is panic, denial, violence, flight, attempting to comprehend, or becoming part of it themselves. The interact with the horror and their own experience of it through their Attributes and Traits and the way they are roleplayed, particularly the mounting effects of escalating fear and of violence.

3. What do the players do?

The players role-play their characters' fear and responses to the horrific. Through roleplaying they gain Tokens which they use to help decide the outcome of interactions with the horror, the game world and the other player-characters. As much as it is possible, they experience what their characters experience in the horror storyline, leading to an immersive experience of fear and, potentially, triumph or absolute loss.

The Horror! System

The Horror! system is intended to be rules-lite and diceless, fast-paced and yet still "crunchy" enough to allow for unique characters. All you need to run it is some paper, pens or pencils and some tokens, which we'll get into later.

The heart of the Horror system is the escalation of fear. Over the course of a horror game, fear should grow, scene by scene, until terror overwhelms the player-characters (or, perhaps, they triumph, but that isn't really what we have in mind for this system).

In the Horror system, pretty much everything is on a scale of 1-5. The mechanic is diceless, meaning that scores are simply compared, taking into account situational modifiers and special Traits (which we'll also get into later). Whoever's score is higher is the winner. In the case of ties, nothing happens unless one party spends a Token, which is the tie-breaking mechanic for Horror. In a situation where the test is against a set obstacle and there is a tie, then given enough time the obstacle can be overcome, but it will often be a slow process - and in a good horror game, there shouldn't be a lot of waiting around.

Whenever something frightening happens, there is a chance that the characters will escalate on the fear scale, which ranges from Calm to Hysterical, at which point the character has likely lost her mind and is screaming, raving, running frantically, or gibbering senselessly on the floor. The Fear scale is as follows:

Calm
Nervous -1
Shaken -2
Frightened -3
Terrified -4
Hysterical -6

Listed after each level is the number of points you lose from any given test. So, if you're Shaken and trying to hack a computer, you're at -2 because your hands are shaking and you can't concentrate. The one exception is tests involving Might, which suffer only half the penalty. You don't lose strength as quickly, but you do lose effectiveness, flailing around for example instead of remaining composed and effective.

Each character keeps track of their level of Fear, and they need to roleplay their character's state - not just because this is a roleplaying game, but because it is through roleplaying that you get more Tokens.

The only way to reduce your level of fear is to roleplay the fear well, then spend a Token and either take time to talk yourself down or have another player roleplay talking you down. Obviously, this takes time, and can't be done during a firefight or something.

A character has six Attributes. They are Might, Precision, Knowledge, Appeal, Occult and Luck.

Might: size, muscle, endurance, toughness

Precision: dexterity, agility, quickness of wit, perception, and many skills

Knowledge: education, training, etc.

Appeal: looks, dress, charisma, sex appeal, social status

Occult: weird knowledge, psychic powers, religious faith, resistance to unnatural powers

Luck: plain, dumb luck

As mentioned above, all Attributes are rated from 1 to 5 (for humans), with 1 being pretty poor, sad, or maybe handicapped, and 5 being the human maximum. 2 represents someone who is untrained but average, and 3 is the average for someone who is trained.

A character has a given number of Traits that are like Attributes but are more specific. These can be anything, including skills, natural talents, or specific aspects of an attribute. Your rating in an Attribute is the number of Traits you start with from that category (except Occult, which gives you Attribute -2 in Traits to start). Each Trait that applies to a given situation gives you a +1 on a test, up to +2 at the maximum. Here are some example Traits for each Attribute to give you an idea of what we're getting at:

Might: Tough as Nails, Hulking, Brutal, Fit, Weapon Training (specific weapon), Martial Artist (specify style), Body Armor, Tireless

Precision: Driver, Elusive, Quick, Acrobatic, Cautious, Sharpshooter, Juggler, Puzzle Solver, Archer, Calligrapher, Painter, Woodworker

Knowledge: Literature, Music, Trivia, Engineering, History, Biology, Chemistry, Demolitions, Extra Languages, Local Knowledge, Auto Repair, Tactics

Appeal: Wealthy, Sexy, Commanding, Scary, Innocent, Trustworthy, Deceptive, Famous

Occult: (each actual use of an Occult power costs one Token - otherwise it helps you resist supernatural powers and influences) Iron Will, Divine Protection, Healing Hands, Psychometry, Clairvoyance, Telepathy, Telekinesis, Pyrokinesis, Exorcism, Warding, Arcane Sight

Luck: (Luck also determines how many Tokens you start the game with - otherwise, these are things you are lucky enough to have with you when the Horror begins) Reliable Vehicle, Pistol, Quality Knife, Sword, Body Armor, Automatic Weapon, Wad of Cash, Laptop, Art Supplies, Megaphone, Power Tools

For each of these Attributes, there are also negative traits, or Flaws, that a player can take. Each Flaw is more severe than the average Trait, but for each Flaw taken the character gains another Trait in any category. For each applicable Flaw, a character is at a -1 (no limit) to a given test. Here are some examples:

Might: Asthmatic, Fat, Sensitive, Scrawny, Hemophiliac, Pacifist, Squeamish

Precision: Clumsy, Shaky, Bad Vision, Unbalanced, All Thumbs, Absent-Minded, Oblivious

Knowledge: Uneducated, Slow, Dense, Common Sensical

Appeal: Ugly, Stinky, Clearly Foreign, Filthy, Easy to Read, Shy, Poor, Laughable, Obnoxious

Occult: EnThralled, Skeptical, Addicted, Weak Willed, Faithless, Reductionist

Luck: Cursed, Jinxed

In all cases, the GM must approve all Traits, and is encouraged to keep the Traits specific and the Flaws general.

A final modifier of a given Test is the Situation. This is always up to the GM, and is sometimes determined by things like fear or injury. Again, the max bonus is +2 and the maximum penalty is -2.

In Combat, it is usually a test of Might or Precision. Might covers things like hand combat, fighting with weapons, wrestling and the like. Precision covers things like shooting, throwing objects or leaping behind cover. Combat situations assume one-on-one combat. For mass combat, resolve each test individually, remembering that a character can only have one Quick action (attack, defend, run, jump, shout, etc.) in a combat round.

If one is attacking and one is defending, a tie means no damage is dealt. If both are attacking, then the winner deals damage, and in a tie both deal damage.

Weapons deal three types of damage: Bruise, Injury, Wound. The third Bruise turns into an Injury, the third Injury turns into a Wound, the third Wound is Crippling, and beyond that things become Deadly. Each player keeps track of their character's health, checking each level off as the damage they take accumulates. Again, each level has a penalty listed after it that results from pain, blood loss, trauma, shock, etc.

Healthy
Bruised (-1 to Appeal tests - it shows you've been in a fight)
Injured -1
Wounded -2
Crippled -4
Dying

It should be clear that if you are both frightened and injured, you're pretty screwed. In Horror, it gets really bad really quickly.