game design

May

Hanukkah World

Posted by Daniel at 1:59 pm

The below is a hack of Apocalypse World I did in one night. I want to play it during Hanukkah one year. It’ll probably only make sense if you’ve read Apocalypse World itself. This is copy+pasted from the forum I posted it in.

In Hanukkah World, it’s 167 BC. Antiochus Epiphanes the IV is the ruler of the Seleucid empire. He’s just outlawed the worship of YHWH. You’re a devout and violent Jew. You’re there in the middle of town when his 2-harm gang small 2-armor rolls up to Modiin and orders the priest to sacrifice a pig to Zeus on YHWH’s altar. You know some Hebrews about to get buckwild all up in this history. Hanukkah’s about to exist. Time to purify the Land.

This is basically a few rules variants, a few rules additions, a little character and gear reskinning, one big overall countdown, and one front. It’s a holiday one-shot or a mini-campaign for whenever. (You can even use 3 dreidels instead of 2d6 if you want.) There’s no “first session” since we’ve already established what’s going on and who’s who.

Pardon the sketchy presentation below, but my goal was to think it up and write it out sufficient for a playthrough in one day. And that’s what’s in my next post.

In general, though, you keep most of the playbooks and reskin them all. You make all tech and weapons and armor appropriate to the period. The world’s psychic maelstrom becomes the spirit world.

The big thing is that there’s an overall countdown. When it gets to midnight, the temple is purified, no matter what. It’s happening. This last segment of the countdown is triggered EITHER when the PCs defeat the five divisions of Antiochus Ephiphanes IV’s (hereafter “IV”) armies and retake Jerusalem OR when all the PCs are martyrs.

Here’s the flow. The goal of the game is to defeat five armies and retake Jerusalem. To have any chance to win a straight up battle with an army, especially in the beginning when your army is 12 people with crap gear, you’ve got to go around “satisfying the needs of the Land.” This part of the game is pretty DitV-y. You roll in, see what’s wrong, and deal with it by your lights.

Each time you satisfy one of the Land’s needs, your army gets +1 holy. Holy is the stat you roll to fight an army battle. Holy rolls ignore the opponent’s size, armor, etc. You rank up Holy like Hx, and your advances let you get a bigger, better equipped army. Repeat.

If people are interested in this idea, I’ll be inclined to flesh it out a bit more. But, from the next post alone, after a couple reads, you should be able to run the game.

HANUKKAH WORLD

The Apocalypse is Antiochus Epiphanes IV’s oppression of Israel.

Hence, barf forth apocalyptica also means to show the misery and oppression of the people

New open your brain question: why are you with the Hammers (the insurgent cell)?

Mark XP when you meet a need of the people or the land.
The needs of the people are vengeance, judgment, and comfort.

When you get to 12:00 harm, you’re at the gates of Sheol. Choose one:
Pass through and die (becoming a martyr if you died fighting Israel’s enemies)
Ask the GM what the thing looks like that saves you, where it carries you, and what it tells you to do. When you wake up, you still show all the marks of the violence that killed(?) you, and some part of you is weird now: your face shines (you have to veil it out of politeness), you’ve got horns, your feet are cloven, your eyes are pieces of coal, your skin is 729 degrees Fahrenheit to the touch, etc.

When you open your brain, you open it to the spirit world.
To open your brain, you must fast and/or meditate for an extended time, make a sacrifice, be at the gates of Sheol, or use divination, forbidden or otherwise. Casting lots and consulting with the high priest are not forbidden.
Using forbidden divination puts you under the curse but is really quick. Just find a witch. I hear there’s one in the wilderness that was Jerusalem. It will work, but whoever or whatever shows up will not be happy with you.

Angels are not babies or hot chicks. They either look like normal people or freaky fire-beings.
When you see an angel’s true form, choose one: fall on your face, run away.

You get a new basic move: take an oath/make a vow: get +1 ongoing to all rolls in pursuance of the object of the oath/vow. Only one oath/vow active at a time. If you do not fulfill it in reasonable time, you suffer a curse: -2 ongoing to all rolls; Heaven rolls a 10+ to interfere with you every time. Persists until atonement is made.

The characters all live in Modiin. They all know each other.

Front: The Oppression of the Land
Expresses: Hunger (for power)
Agenda/Dark Future: to martyr the Hammers and all their people
Stakes: Will the players be revenged upon Alexander? Will IV die a dog’s death? Will the PCs retake IV’s fortress? Will the Hellenizers be purged from Modiin?
Cast: Antiochus Epiphanes IV, Apollonius & Seron (IV’s first two generals, each with a division), Jason (Hellenizer leader), Alexander (commander of the fortress), Lysias (chancellor of IV) and Gorgias and Ptolemy and Nicanor (his generals, each with a division), Menelaus (apostate high priest)
Threats:
Antiochus Epiphanes IV (Warlord: Dictator).
When IV makes a show of force, he has his subordinates:
Hang uncircumcised babies around their parents necks
Set up a Greek idol on an altar and sacrifices swine to it
Burn the scriptures
Execute Jews for keeping the sabbath, keeping the scriptures, circumcising children
Force Jews to strip naked and wash in the gymnasium
Swoop in to steal supplies to restock his fortress in the City of David
Whatever other destruction-demanding depravity you can imagine
The Five Divisions of IV’s Army (Brutes: Enforcers)
The Hellenizers (Brutes: Cult)
IV’s Fortress (Landscape: Fortress) in the City of David

There’s a countdown to Hanukkah. Increase it by one each time the PCs defeat a general’s army. There are five generals: Apollonius, Seron, Nicanor, Gorgias, and Ptolemy. Apollonius and Seron are the only ones active at first. When they are destroyed, Lysias sends out the remaining three. Increase it the last tick when they take the fortress at Jerusalem. So, it’s like all the segments say “the Hammers defeat a general” except the last one, which says “the Hammers take the City of David.”

The characters are:

The Priest (Hocus)
Your cult is the most faithful (or at least zealous) where you minister

The Seer (Brainer)
All brainer equipment is implanted, not worn. You can gain one piece of new brainer equipment as an advance. It’s not equipment. It’s a supernatural ability.

The Horseman (Driver)
Your car is a horse. Your other car is also a horse (or donkey or camel or wolf).

The Nazir (Gunlugger)
You have vowed not to drink alcohol, touch the human dead, or cut your hair.
Your vow does not count as broken until you violate all three elements.
If you break your vow, you lose all Nazir moves. You can regain them for one fight, after/during which you will die. But your fight will accomplish your intent.
You do 3-harm unarmed. If you pick up an improvised weapon, it does 4-harm; but, at the end of the fight, it reverts to its normal harm.

The Avenger of Blood (Battlebabe)
You are furious, not sexy
You are after someone who killed someone related to you; who?

The Elder (Hardholder)
You are a de facto, popular leader and judge, not a government official.
Your gang is the people who respect you.

The Patriarch (Chopper)
Your gang is your sons, brothers, nephews, cousins, and servants.
You hate at least one of them, and at least one of them hates you.

Your army gains +1 holy when you: satisfy a need of the land

The land needs:
all male Jews to be circumcised (and, if not, exiled or killed)
the execution of rapists, murderers, sabbath-breakers, idolaters, adulterers, sexual deviants, abusers of parents, blasphemers, and kidnappers
idols destroyed and desecrated altars purified
the razing of gymnasia
the expulsion/slaughter of a town’s occupiers

Your army loses -1 holy when:
your army gets out of control
you miss a holy roll

When your army gets out of control, there is sin in the camp.

While there is sin in the camp, you cannot win a battle vs a general’s army.

To remove sin in the camp, atonement must be made. This usually involves the execution of the involved parties, maybe even their whole family. Open your brain to see what you’ll have to do. On a miss, someone you really don’t want to be involved is involved and/or you have to go way further than you would want.

When you army gains +4 holy, immediately reset to +1 holy and advance the army:
They gain souls
They get better equipment (weapons or armor, pick one, up to 2-armor and 2-harm max)
You get +1 ongoing to restrain them from a particular vulnerability

When you fight one of the general’s armies straight up, once the battle starts and there’s no going back, roll +holy:
10+: You rout the enemies of Israel. Trade harm for harm, giving your gang +2 harm and +2 armor for this battle only. You may pursue them and inflict harm, taking none yourself. This counts as the same battle; so the +2s still apply.
7-9: You rout the enemies of Israel. Trade harm for harm, giving your gang +1 harm and +1 armor for this battle only. You cannot pursue them effectively.
Miss: There is sin in the camp. You are routed by the enemies of Israel. You cannot succeed in battle until the sin is atoned for.

Gain +1 ongoing for a battle if the whole people have sanctified themselves for it.

Weak harm means that it is -1 harm versus armor but normal vs unarmored folks.

You start with 12 people in your army, including the PCs (2-weak-harm gang small 0-armor). Cousin Jeroboam has an oxgoad. Your little sister Deborah has a scythe.

Apr

Dungeons and Dark Souls

Posted by Daniel at 2:36 am

So you know about D&D, and you should know about Dark Souls. Let’s put them together.

The GM determines what a bonfire is and what activating it looks like and where they are. Normal rest and healing rules are still in play.
When you die, you respawn at your last bonfire naked. This activates the bonfire.
The gear you had is still where your corpse was. Your corpse is gone.
When a bonfire activates, you regain full hp immediately if you’re basking in its glow. You get your spells back as well. Non permanent spell effects cast by you, however, end.
Monsters never respawn. They regain all hp if they survive the encounter. Bonfires don’t reset traps.
Optionally, when you die, you lose some XP, depending on how punishing you want it. Lose at least (your level * 100) XP, optionally times 1d10, to a minimum of zero. You retain your level; you only lose accumulated XP.

This should work for any edition of D&D and for other simmy combat + exploration focused tabletop games.

Dec

4e Combat Reform: Violence != Combat

Posted by Daniel at 12:56 am

Until an actual fight against fit opposition breaks out, don’t use the combat system.

Instead, if you’re doing violence to someone, just make an appropriate attack roll against the appropriate defense, modified per circumstances as appropriate.

On a hit, things go your way.

On a miss, things get out of control. Like this:

You accidentally hurt/kill someone (e.g., I only meant to knock him out!)

They get away

They sound the alarm

They hit the deck/dig in/dive for cover

They attack you

RAW 4e (and #e as well) is pretty much are not going to let you do the “knock the guard out” thing. Unless all your guards are minions. That’s a possibility.

Because, lookit: if this were a movie, or any kind of media really, it would be possible to one shot snipe that big huge hobgoblin across the way. But, RAW, it’s not possible. (Unless maybe, maybe, you critted on two dailies, but why would you be doing that against a sentry?)

So above is how you fix it.

Dec

4e Combat Reform: Concretize the Abstract

Posted by Daniel at 12:55 am

When a character suffers damage and (after the damage is applied) is not bloodied, say how that character (choose one most appropriate to the fiction):

Stumbles back

Gets shoved down

Drops his weapon

Drops his guard

Exposes a weakness in his armor

Screams out in pain

Backs off, breathing heavily

Has something he carries break/shatter/fall off

Loses track of something/someone

Gets grappled/trapped/cornered

When a character suffers damage and (after the damage is applied) is bloodied, say how that character (choose one most appropriate to the fiction):

Has something happen off the unbloodied list

Retreats post haste

Screams out in pain

Crumples to his knees

Clutches his wound

Eyes you like an animal (or, if an animal, a human)

Has blood:

Trickle down

Stain clothes

Get in eyes

Flow down hair

Spurt like a geyser

Seep like molasses

Spurt like water from a garden hose with your thumb stuck in the end

Has bits fall off

Cries for mercy

Cries for mommy

Crawls away from/toward source of pain

Thousand yard stare

Yammer/stammer/gibber

Suicidal rage mode: activate

When a character suffers damage and (after the damage is applied) is at or below 0 hp, say how that character (choose one most appropriate to the fiction):

Suffers a grievous wound

Gets knocked unconscious

Passes out from blood loss

Dies immediately and horrifically on the spot

Does whatever the player says he does

Surrenders and offers the PCs something he thinks will save him

Retreats post haste

Starts to die, not quickly

Confesses to you

(I have no idea why WordPress is making my bullet points not align correctly.)

Anyway, this is intended to tie the mechanics more securely to the fiction. Some but not necessarily all of these selections could be accompanied by a +2/-2 circumstantial penalty to make them stick. Like, “he staggers back; he can’t take an opportunity attack against you.” Or “you bang his shield so hard, he can’t hold it in place; he’s got -2 AC if anyone attacks him right now.”

These choices also cover morale. Many of the bloodied choices imply giving up or otherwise becoming a non-present threat.

These should apply to PCs and NPCs alike, although, to maintain a heroic feel, you should use the softer bloodied and 0 hp options.

Dec

4e Combat Reform: Spotlight Initiative

Posted by Daniel at 11:29 pm

When you begin an encounter, do not roll initiative.

Instead, describe the scene: say what the characters see the monsters doing:

Charging

Cooking supper

Cooking humans for supper

Taking cover

Readying the big bad thing

Booking it

Displaying destruction-demanding depravity

Advancing in ranks

Setting up sniper fire to cover the dudes just rushing in

Ask the players what their characters do. Don’t worry about order. You will see a natural sequence emerge. If there is a question of order, roll off initiative between the relevant parties to settle it.

Resolve the actions. If they just want to move, okay. If they want to shoot, okay. If they want to wade into melee, okay. Handle each situation one at a time. It’s okay if it’s a little chaotic. Embrace interruptions: “Oh, before he does that, I want to do this.” Great.

When a PC succeeds at what he’s doing (hitting with an attack, moving, taking full defense, whatever), that’s it: move on to spotlight the next player.

When PC fails at what he’s doing (missing with an attack, generally), hold the spotlight on that character a while longer.
Something went wrong. Think what it was (losing footing, being overwhelmed by numbers, sipping on ichor, clanging into the chitin at the wrong angle). Whatever it was, it presents an opportunity for the monsters to nail him.

Say what went wrong, and let that leads you into saying how it let the monsters mess with him.

Think: earlier, before you asked the players what they were doing, when you said what the monsters were doing, were any of those monsters threatening the PC that just missed? (I mean threatening conceptually, not just being in melee range.)

If not, think: does it makes sense for a monster to now threaten that PC? If so, say how. If not, lucky for him.

If so, follow through on that threat: the arrow being aimed at him gets fired; the swords being raised at him give him a shave. Roll the relevant attacks versus him now. If he was surrounded by three minions, and the shaman was in back tossing lightning bolts to him like candy at a parade, make attack rolls for all four now.

Move on to the next player.

When you’ve spotlighted every player like this, the round ends. It’s now the next round.

Repeat.

This is intended to make misses feel less like whiffs and more like “Oh snap I’m done for now.”

It’s also intended to keep you from having to track initiative.

It’s also intended to keep the fictional action less predictable.

Dec

4e Combat Reform: Never Do Nothing

Posted by Daniel at 10:58 pm

When you miss with an attack, you still do damage: roll its damage expression.

When you hit with an attack, you do its full damage expression, no need to roll damage.

When you crit an unbloodied enemy, do your attack’s full damage expression. If this does not bloody him, bloody him now.

When you crit a bloodied enemy, do your attack’s full damage expression. If this does not take the enemy to 0 hp or below, immediately take him to 0 hp.

D&D combats (not just 4e) are possibly infinitely long. Say we have a PC fighter and a goblin. They both have, say, a 50% chance to hit. Every round, it’s possible that both miss. The sun could burn out before that goblin buys it.

In practice, it means that combats take longer than they should because, on likely a third of turns, nothing happens. Whiff. If you spent any time selecting powers, that time was wasted. That’s what these rules address. (And, if you want to be more severe, have crits mean insta-zero-hp period, skipping the bloodied step. Whether you apply this to the PCs or not depends on the aesthetic you’re wanting to evoke.)

And we should understand, in fiction, these changes don’t mean that the fighter cuts the goblin’s head off every time he hits. Hit points are abstract. One “attack” takes six seconds. Losing hp doesn’t even represent taking a hit. (I’d even have an informal understanding where “bloodied” means bloodied—for the first time. Before then, everybody’s dodging, blocking, getting flesh wounds and bruises. Then someone gets bloodied, and things get real.) It represents being pressured and wearied always and only sometimes suffering actual violence.

Revised: hp loss represents assault (usually with a deadly & magic weapon) and only sometimes battery.

All that to say: here, I think this will produce more engaging play.

Sep

2 Principles for the D&D GM

Posted by Daniel at 12:59 am

d&d
traps

With a hat tip to Apocalypse World:

Give every NPC a name.

I don’t mean, necessarily, a personal name. That goblin over there might not even have himself a Christian name. But don’t refer to him as “goblin 1.” If not personal names, give them descriptive names. Make them up on the spot. Maybe you think, “Oh, man, this goblin, right? He’s just got one arm! And this other one’s only wearing half a leather cuirass like it’s some chick’s half-shirt or something.”

Don’t worry about making them memorable; just try to make them distinct. If you come up with “sword goblin,” that’s fine! It’s the goblin with a sword. But you’ll have to think of something in case he’s disarmed. Maybe “the goblin formerly known as sword goblin.”

Don’t say the label.

If the players are searching for the trap and find it, for goodness’ sake don’t say, “You find a trap.” Instead, say, “When you rip through the pelt, there’s nothing underneath, just mud and rock about 20 feet down, with a bunch of skulls littered around and femurs stuck into the ground pointy end up.”

Yes, it’s a pit trap, but isn’t this a better thing to say than “pit trap?”

The reason you do this

is to keep the players grounded in the fiction as imagined. The more I hear about “bandit 1,” the more I think “this is a game.” The more I hear about the “guy with the mismatched boots,” the more I’m thinking about the fiction as such—what things look like, smell like, feel like.