Proper organization

11. December 2009 by admin.

… needed on several accounts, it seems!

The site was down Dec. 10 due to a miscommunication with our new provider. It’s up and running again, though, nothing lost. We do not expect it to happen again.

The other kind of organization is Organizations, large structured groups that characters in a game may be involved with somehow. They may be allies, enemies, bystanders, victims, interests, power factions, or anything else one might imagine them for. And I want creation tools for them, just like we have for characters, equipment and exotic powers! Why? Because with such a system in place, it becomes possible to distribute fully designed Organizations for game worlds and adventures, or modular ones that can be assembled for any campaign. Like a collection of monsters or a set of premade characters for use in adventures (as people encountered by player characters, presumably), such Organization collections would allow immensely detailed game worlds to be set up in minutes.

But also, because proper structure allows quicker and more versatile use in adventures! If an Organization is described well, and there are meaningful rules and guidelines in place, the Narrator can quickly assess what it means when the characters blow up a secret lab, recruits a key expert, affects a vital operation, etc. It makes the Organization a vibrant, dynamic part of the adventure, instead of some nebulous background explanation for where the ninjas come from!

Sadly, the Organiation rules that were ready were made for the Relations rules that were voted out as ‘bland’ during playtest. The new Relation rules are much, much better, thanks to extensive player feedback, but they do not fit into the old Organization rules. So they need rewriting! When they are done, players can deliberately assess how to cripple giant Organizations by cutting out vital operations, they can build and recruit their own, they can join up, infiltrate, sabotage, have dramatic stand-offs with and generally have fun with Organizations, from the local mercenary outfit to the intergalactic alien religion or the secret conspiracy of the Elves! I have an old character, made for a different game, in which house rules were used to design an agent who could call in orbital strikes, if and when he could explain why the act would be absolutely vital to his Organization. Of course, they more or less owned him in return, but tense situations are where adventures are born! I want characters like that to be modelled with the basic rules in GEARS; the advanced rules will take it much, much further…

Posted in Aliens, Relations, Design kits, Game worlds, Dammit!, Monsters, Equipment/Gear, Narrator, Superpowers, Character creation, Playtests | No Comments »

Monsters!

2. December 2009 by admin.

The equipment chapter is coming along nicely, so it was time to branch out a little. Just to toy with childhood fears, I thought putting some resources into the monster section of the Creatures chapter would be a good idea. I thought it would be an easy ride; a few combat thingies, some stuff on realistic ecology. Was I ever wrong!

Games today cannot get away with the same monster-methods use din days of old. Twenty years ago, a monster was something that waited in a room or closet or chest to jump out and do damage. Rookies can get away with that today, but veterans will laugh their heads off. Monsters need unique traits, believability where it is hard to find, natural interactions with their habitats, and even relations to other monsters around! Researching monster design methods is like taking a college class on biological ecosystems, and then adding the whole magic/alien/hypertech ecologies aspect into the mix! What are the natural predators of a semi-sentien, wriggling thing the size of a human foot that feeds on fusion core radiation and breeds by dropping regrowable bodyparts? It most certainly is not a large, steam-breathing, violently defensive herbivore that uses its chameleon-like abilities to hide in shallow caves…

Ironically, this sudden overflow of information is turning out to be a force, not a problem. GEARS goes for detail, and a whole field of detail just dropped into our laps, somewhat unexpectedly. Some work needs doing, but it is worth it, and will hopefully make it not only possible to create some of the most amazing monsters ever with the system, but to create them easily. And spliced with the flexible Ability system used for characters, the tricks that a creature uses can be incorporated into sentient race concepts with laughable ease, and vice versa.

Now if you would excuse me, the fusion-feeder has nested under my sink, and I need to get the alien-repellant…!

Posted in Aliens, Races, Pets, Genre, Monsters, Combat, Third Draft, Playtests | No Comments »

Advanced placement

26. November 2009 by admin.

Still sifting through playtest feedback. It’s incredible how much players have to say about a fairly simple run through a game/adventure. Most of it is suggestions and wild ideas, thank God, and quite a lot of it looks pretty good. With yesterday’s crash almost mended (still a few Medical Abilities that are not back to their yesterday sizes), it looks like the advanced phase is ahead.

I really should explain that a bit better: The current GEARS is the core system. It is set up to provide a fully playable game, but it does not, by itself, fulfill many of the goals put forth on the main site. Most of all, it lacks the level of detail truly desired; yes, the use of Specifics makes its Abilities more nuanced than most similar skill systems, but it is a small push. The combat system does not even live up to the main comparison, GURPS, at all. The current book sets the core of the game, butthere is a whole other level of detail that is still waiting in the wing to be constructed and/or implemented.

Some of it has been put together, however. Detached tests (only scenes, not entire adventures) have been run with a vastly more detailed combat system, for one. Hacking is being researched, another of my main-interest conflict types, and magic is being given a lot of thought and several designs already. The problem is two-fold, at the moment: The advanced detail systems are not very systematic yet (you cannot easily apply the ideas of combat to other things), and the ties back to the standard core are fuzzy. The goal is to integrate the advanced detail systems so well into the game that, say, a big fight could contain characters fighting according to one system, and others fighting according to the other. After all, real fighters are the ones who need the detail, not combat rookies! And when a fight has both types in it..

The stuff already in the works deals with a broader view of damage, both in form (did the character get cut and start bleeding, break a rib, get the wind knocked out, or what?) and placement (ever wanted your character to have arms even tougher than his/her legs, or a thick skull?, armor (my favorite remains using rivet-studded armor to provide something light, flexible and cheap that can still keep the edge of a blade from cutting the flesh, even if the blunt impact of a sword still hits its mark), weapons (design and maintenance of blades, the mechanics of tips meant to shred upon removal, etc.), combat techniques (splitting a blow between opponents, aggressive defenses, etc.), monster physiologies as applied to battle, and so on. With the options for advanced Ability structures being written into Third Draft, there should already be a tentative foundation for it!

Anyway, a good system is forming, but the full goal is going to loom ahead for a little while longer. Third Draft will still be focused on the standard rules, and how much of the advanced detail rules are going to actually be put in it, as opposed to in separate books, has yet to be determined. But the core of the advanced detail systems is being constructed already, including guides and rules to producing new content material independently. Hopefully, Fourth Draft will show the first clear signs of this/these system(s) in use.

Posted in Hacking, Shopping, Third Draft, Monsters, Fourth Draft, Armor, Swords, Weapons, Combat, Conflict, Magic, Playtests | 1 Comment »

Solutions, solutions, solutions!

25. November 2009 by admin.

The first real round of playtesting has ended. Five different groups, three different countries. My gratitudes to you all, and looking forward to the next round, hopefully soon.

With that one adventure (a CoC/X-files-style monster rump) played by little over twenty fantastic people, under five equally fantastic Narrators (for those new to GEARS, that’s the term for GM or DM or Referee or whathaveyou being used), there is enough feedback to put me to work for the next year or so. Not that I will let it take that long, of course; there are problems needing my immediate attention, and suggestions (a lot!) that need digesting quickly, to include them before the next tests! And since the next tests will be re-blind (in that it will be roughly the same groups (hence re-) but without any influence from me at all (hence blind)), I need to get this stuff down, hard and good!

A lot of the feedback has been on suggested tools for creating content. Many games either provide little but premade content (monsters, especially), while others provide demanding systems for creating even simple content (vehicles and monsters, especially!). GEARS needs to provide a flexible system that is easy to use and can provide any content imaginable. It is a big goal to have, but with a pile of suggested ways to do it that is about knee height, there is not a lack of options

Thought has also been given a lot to the goal of ‘assisted learning’. Not to removing it; the games of today need an easy way in! But a lot of the things that were simplified during Second Draft seem to have been too much so. The rules that were considerd ‘not simple’ are apparently easier to handle than originally thought. So the GEARS Quick line will not be simplified as much as originally intended, but will simply streamline many choices, Specifics will not be included, nor will Automatic Growth, and some of the more advanced options will be toned down or removed, as well. And on the subject, the matter of Automatic Growth and low-life characters still needs attention.

In any case, there are already 6000 added words (circa 8 pages) in the Third Draft rules section. The Alice setting is still unchanged, but what is to be written there is pretty well known, since it has been used before, long before the now finished playtests. Also, Third Draft will be available as both free PDF and low-cost (circa US$6) paperback, probably at around 50 pages.

Things look good. Things look real good.

Posted in Third Draft, Monsters, GEARS Quick, Character creation, Narrator, Second Draft, Alice, Playtests | No Comments »

Entry 14: Pets, Beasts & Monsters

28. October 2009 by admin.

.::: Entry 14, 2009/10/28 :::.
Back when I was writing about gear, my thought was that animals were basically gear. They serve a purpose, helping a character get somewhere or, in more advanced cases, fight by the character’s side or helps do things the character would not be able to or want to do. They were tools to be used by the character.When I started writing about social issues, my thoughts jumped to animals again, every now and then, remembering the close bonds between many notable animals and their masters in stories I know, from the lovable sidekick to the faithful steed. Animals were companions to characters, not tools. They were able to act on their own and in the master’s interests.

And then as locations became the topic, I started to see animals as part of places, as the beasts living in the wild, the guardians of places, the monsters in the dungeon. These were a different type of beasts altogether, the kind that were obstacles and dangers to the characters, not the ones trusted by their sides.

The only conclusion I can draw is that, deep down, I view animals as all of that, and yet neither.

:: The Mind of the Beast ::

What puts animals in such an odd place, adventure- and story-wise, is probably the way they are living beings but not persons in the sense that a character is. At times, the distinction between primitive characters and smart beasts gets blurred for that very reason, and in many fairytales, creatures that we would today interpret as primitive or unintelligent people were actually seen as little more than beasts. Trolls, gremlins, goblins, orcs, all of them seem to be only ‘people’ based on their ability to walk on two legs and handle tools.

The best distinction I can offer up for what is an animal and what is not has to be that: Behavior built around using tools. True, a clever animal can learn to push some clumsy buttons or open doors, but they are not built for it, and it is not their typical way. They do not understand tools as ‘real people’ do. They also do not speak, at least not in a complex language that allows anyone to explain the tools to them. Some will accept basic commands, but conversations are going to be rather one-sided!

And that is where the tool comparison comes into play, the fact that animals cannot be communed with on a peron-to-person level. But they are still independent, and can decide for themselves what they do. That is what is companions in them, the ability to act on their own and, to some extend, understand their surroundings and even place in them. The tie to places comes when they are not tied to a master, but pick a place to dwell. The traditional dungeon inhabitant is a bit far fetched for my taste, but creatures living in caves or alleys are nothing out of the plausible, and supernatural beasts may live in the oddest of places.

For a game that takes animals serious on any level (humor can still take them more seriously than old school dungeon adventures do!), the instincts that guide them must be a fundamental piece in their roles. And if it is so important, I feel it is what should be explored, more than how long their claws or how thick their hides are!

In the most basic sense, animals are survival machines: They do whatever they do as a way to ensure the survival of themselves and, sometimes, their offspring. Animals doing someone’s bidding do it from being used to rewards or punishments, or some combination thereof. The old advice that animals in the wild attack only to defend themselves (most animals attack only smaller prey for food) is not entirely untrue, the problem is only what they see as threats! A single person might not seem threatening, while a group would. Someone walking around an area far from the animal’s den might seem harmless, while some poor fool walking to the wrong cave would be an instant enemy.

But in a RPG, it can be taken even further! A deathhound might not pay much attention to the group of people walking through its woods, until they use magic. Then, it will kill anyone displaying signs of magic, the idea being that its nature is to fear magic! In a similar manner, feral dogs in a ruin city might only growl at strangers, until they try to pick up a dead body (presumably for examination, plunder, or something in that vein). Seeing the intruders as rivals for their food, the dogs attack!

On the other hand, animals do not know the world as intelligent people do, or see it in the same way. A loud noise can scare a dangerous beast away, after all. Different animals have different reactions like that, some running away from rumbling engines or puffing hydraulics, others possessed by a strange interest. Pack rats and certain birds are attracted to shiny things, and cats will sleep on anything warm (like computers. Or engine hoods). Animals may seek out the strangest things, to the annoyance or benefit of those who actually know what it is.

The basics of using animals thus becomes an idea of what they fear, defend, seek and in other instinctive ways react to. That alone can make an animal immensely interesting, a pain, a running gag, or a useful observation. And it goes for monsters and wildlife as much as it goes for companions! The mighty wolf that a character has at his side might be a feared creature, and nobody would approach the character without the animal’s consent. But a place with certain smells, perhaps not even notable to humans, would keep it away, even if its master enters. Meanwhile, the demon bunny that can smell ghosts has a bad habit of darting off whenever it gets a scent of spicy cooking. Not that it fears it. It loves it! Which causes great problems at Cajun cook-offs the characters visit…

:: What Nature Gave Them ::

One result of being without the ability to use tools is that animals are greatly defined by their natural abilities. Most games fixate heavily on fighting abilities, which in their own right can be both impressive and exotic, from spikes and spitting darts or venoms to sending out horrific smells or whipping up small dust clouds. And that’s just what real animals can do!

But animals are so much more. Bloodhounds are a common idea in the real world, and having animals track other things (pigs finding troffels, for example, or insects actually being trained to find and eat drug-producing plants!) can give some interesting results, especially in more esoteric game worlds.

Combining this with animal behavior can make them part of an arms race, either side trying to make the animals of the other useless, no matter what the central conflict is; drug-sniffing dogs are one example of a fearful arms race! But when things are less controlled, it also makes for some interesting adventure opportunities, when animals run off to do what they are basically trained to do, at the most inopportune moment. A fierce steed and companion might suddenly tear through a small town to hunt down some other beast that it is used to protect its master against, or happily scare everybody just because it has caught the scent of something it likes! This lets animals take an interesting part in adventures, becoming the somewhat unpredictable assets that have useful abilities, but are impossible to get a clear fox on the mind of. They can be seen as highly capable characters with (possibly unique) abilities but no ability to simply inform people of what the hell they are doing!

But just as much, animal abilities can creep out, surprise, amuse or confuse people. Certain real-world birds, for example, survive by mimicking the sounds of things in their environment. This lets them attract food or scare predators. It also lets them confuse tourists, when a bird suddenly and perfectly mimics a cell phone or the sounds it caught by a lumber camp! This minor incident might be good for only a short laugh, but if the animal starts following the characters, and suddenly gives off sounds that are of a more sinister nature, it turns into a living and very hard-to-handle clue, or even an omen! Other animals may attract attention by how they react to the characters themselves, to their gear, or any animals traveling with them. Of course, the most disturbing case is when players begin to suspect that what seems like a dumb beast is capable of some level of plotting, and is not playing their game. Some animals survive by luring the inattentive into an ambush, or worse…

:: Proper Usage ::

No, I am not insinuating that animals have one specific way they should be used in games. But animals do require an understanding by the characters, or they will be more trouble than good. Even a horse takes some knowledge to handle properly, or it will kick you and run off. More complex animals may require more complex handling, and being the kind of character capable of handling them can be a great boon!

This might be one of the few places where rules specifically needed for animals come into play. The abilities animals have need not be any different from character abilities, whether they be for fighting, tracking, avoiding or otherwise handling things. But for a character to make use of an animal, or be able to solve whatever problems the animal might cause, that character will need abilities. And animal handling can quickly become complex; a beast that is by your side might need attention, or its loyalty will fade. It could even end up turning against you! In a sense, a beast’s loyalty, calm, restraint or any other factor in its behavior could be measured as closely as its hit points, and when a factor drops low enough, the beast becomes a burden or a danger. Riders know this just as much as lion tamers. The proper skills and resources can keep that from happening, be it feeding, petting, or keeping things around the animal from getting outside its comfort zone. Add to that the idea of training an animal, teaching it to not act on its instincts (not chase smaller animals or run from loud noises, for example) becomes another factor. Animals that are hard to train can become continued projects for characters who want them for the good they can do anyway. And knowing how to trick animals (and how not to!) is always practical.

Having the idea of animal complexity enter a game will not only make it interesting to have a lot of variation in the abilities that characters use to handle the animals, it will also make it more important for players themselves to understand how animals work. A player expecting any animal to either flee or fight a character would be very confused when small animals start trying to eat through the character’s backpack, spit smelly fluids in his face, or bring him strange fruits to eat that make him sick. Knowing how to act around such beings will be a little like handling a strange culture, and the characters may end up trying to actually trade things with playful monkeys or convince wildlife to lead them places. The animals are not intelligent in the way people are, but knowing how to interact with them can give just as interesting results.

:: Bonds ::

The idea that an animal is a living being can be a powerful element, even in a completely fictional game. Again, animals fall somewhere between tools and characters, in that they can feel both practical and friendly at the same time. The big, dumb beast that nonetheless protected you from bandits can become a trusted ally.

This opens the possibility of string ties between animals and their masters, companions or whatever the characters can be seen as. This means a character can be designed to care about the animal, protecting it in return, having an almost personal relationship to it, as much as to any other traveling companion. An animal like that which gets hurt can become a priority for the character, important enough to abandon other tasks or even threaten people for. And someone who threatens the animal, even when it is unhurt, can become a mortal enemy. Perhaps in part because they are not fully sentient and self-aware people, animals can become powerful extensions of a character, a friend that is loyal to the character without needing to have a full life and social circles of its own. A ’simple friend’, so to speak, and perhaps that much more pure for it.

Having animal companions become vulnerable parts of a character is an important thought to consider hen they become greater elements of a game. This is not to mean that animals become the way that a strong character can be humbled, but rather a way in which the character can be tied to the world. If the animal has certain feelings about people and places, the character (and thus, the player) suddenly has to take them serious. This could mean avoiding or sticking to places, doing or not doing certain things, even interacting more or less with certain other people in the world. And animals with a past that the character doe snot know can be mysteries walking right by their side, the signs of which can be many. It might even culminate at some point, as whoever tormented or loved the animal appears, or some event in its past becomes clear.

:: The Other Beasts ::

In all of the above, the idea of an ‘animal’ has been a typical, flesh-and-bone creature, not unlike the animals we know from our own world. But the idea of animals can be extended beyond that, to things we would not typically think of as animals, but which can act and mean just about the same. A simple example is robots, which at some point in the future may become advanced enough to behave almost like a separate breed of animals. In the right setting, a character might rely on intelligent drones with simplistic minds and odd operational protocols of their own. they are not animals, but when they start doing things they are not asked to and both care for their owner and cause trouble, the distinction can become blurred. Artificial intelligences living inside computers and computerized equipment could become the parrot on the pirate’s shoulder or the dog at the wanderer’s side. Faulty intelligences, in particular, could develop some funny mentalities, and some of those may actually be marketed as regular gear!

Some of them might even speak, the limited intelligence making conversations as disturbing as they are practical, or perhaps even more so…

And there are plenty of other possibilities, such as intangible spirits following a character around, dealing with magical events and things in their surroundings, or lesser divinities that are primitive enough to act like animals might. Ghosts may deteriorate, becoming more animalistic over time, or humans may take that path after disastrous diseases are unleashed on the world. Alien or very futuristic gear might actually be organic, with the animal mentality being simply an inescapable or somehow even practical part of the design. Some important elements of society can be naturally animalistic; the first natural portals between the stars (’jumpgates’) may seem oddly alive, and be best handled as if animals. If such effects can function on a personal level, important people may be followed around by little jumpgates or the like with minds of their own! Depending on what is found around the cosmos, how things develop, or how a completely different world is designed, the idea of ‘animal’ could permeate everything that characters deal with, from the smallest gadget to the greatest city.

Posted in Pets, Monsters, Superpowers, Old blog, Combat | 1 Comment »