The Attribute Game

When I was asked to become a GM for my friends, I immediatly became aware that I wouldn't be running an existing system or campaign world. Now, don't get me wrong, I turn to them for inspiration all the time, but on a fundamental level I knew (and still know) that it would be very hard for me to accommodate and become familiar with someone else's world and all its implications. I believe that devising a campaign is a highly intimate act, as all act of creations are, and I wasn't sure I would be able to grasp and keep in my silly head all the concepts and nuissances of pre-existing worlds. Also, I'm horribly lazy, so that's that.

Definitely not me.

With that realization, however, came another: if I wasn't going to be running an existing system or campaign, I needed to create my own (Mission "Avoid Hard Work" Not succeeded). Although I was aware of the humongous task ahead, I was also somewhat relieved and infinitely more comfortable, because in the act of creating something new (or at least something that I could call my own) I would also be learning it and interiorising it. The usual questions, fluffly and mechanical, arose: What kind of setting? What tone? Fantasy? Sci-fi? Hard-magic? What are swords? Can we find true happiness?What are the gods? (Never mind, they're dead). And then THE question came: what attributes are the PCs going to have? While the classic six are always there to lend you a hand, I knew they wouldn't suffice. I seem to always be moving between the philosophical standpoints of "EVERYTHING MEANS SOMETHING" and "WORDS ARE JUST WORDS AND I HATE THEM", and hell were these attributes going to mean some shit! They are the characters's access door to the world! How are they going to experience true MISERY if I don't give them an attribute for that? Eventually, I ended up settling for some fairly mundane attributes that I was very proud of at the time because look at me I'm not mainstream! (For what it's worth, the attributes are: Skill, Vitality, Intuition, Knowledge, Presence and Ruin).

TL;DR: Everything means something, attributes are no exception and they should tell something about the world (or not, you do you, man).

SO

What if the process was reversed? I mean, instead of thinking about your campaign and coming up with a Carapace attribute because you are a turtle and keeping your shell in good shape is paramount to avoid dying (I'm not sure how turtles work to be honest), what if you were given a set of attributes and you had to infer the world from them?

Well, I present to you...

THE ATTRIBUTE GAME!

Not this one.

How to play?
Choose attributes from each list, explain their function and write your setting! Or, if you, like me, suffer from choice anxiety, pick one of the following editions and simply start rolling!

Simple edition: roll once for Physical, Mental and Special.

Slightly less simple edition: roll TWICE in each table.

D&D edition: roll THRICE for Physical and Mental.

Bloated Edition: roll THRICE!!! for each table.
WTF IS THIS???: ROLL SIX TIMES ON THE SPECIAL TABLE.

Galaxy Brain edition: man, I don't think I can stop you at this point, proceed at your own discretion!

Physical

1.      Skill

2.      Vitality

3.      Strength

4.      Fortitude

5.      Dexterity

6.      Reflexes

7.      Agility

8.      Finesse

9.      Vigor

10.  Might

11.  Stamina

12.  Brawl

13.  Toughness

14.  Speed

15.  Constitution

16.  Size

17.  Accuracy

18.  Brutality

19.  Endurance

20.  Mobility

      

Mental

1.      Intuition

2.      Knowledge

3.      Presence

4.      Intellect

5.      Will

6.      Empathy

7.      Awareness

8.      Logic

9.      Cunning

10.  Memory

11.  Perception

12.  Courage

13.  Guile

14.  Insight

15.  Wits

16.  Psyche

17.  Senses

18.  Patience

19.  Communication

20.  Focus

Special

1.      Power

2.      Warmth

3.      Violence

4.      Mind

5.      Heart

6.      Blasphemy

7.      Craft

8.      Leadership

9.      Hunt

10.  Resilience

11.  Desire

12.  Motivation

13.  Judgement

14.  Lore

15.  Drive

16.  Instinct

17.  Focus

18.  Psyche

19.  Cunning

20.  Faith

21.  Primal

22.  Kick

23.  Charm

24.  Void

25.  Magic

26.  Ruin

27.  Potency

28.  Weird

29.  Talent

30.  Gift

31.  Glory

32.  Taint

33.  Legacy

34.  Influence

35.  Breath

36.  Corruption

37.  Edge

38.  Appearance

39.  Conduit

40.  Luck

41.  Quickness

42.  Resolution

43.  Discretion

44.  Vigilance

45.  Witchcraft

46.  Erudition

47.  Tech

48.  Imagination

49.  Focus

50.  Time

51.  Understanding

52.  Culture

53.  Awe

54.  Valour

55.  Misery

56.  Song

57.  Social

58.  Synthesis

59.  Wound

60.  Dread

So I played the Simple Edition and this is the result:

Skill - Your hands and overall bodily proficiency.

Guile - How good you are at deceiving, persuading and charming people. Enables and enhances Battlespeech.

Wound - A measure of your closeness to the Carnifex. It widens and bleeds with your suffering as you become closer to the Penitent One. The bigger your wound, the more powerful your Afflictions grow and the more prone to violence you are. It also measures your ability to withstand and inflict pain.

Pretty neat. Skill is your typical yet relatable stuff to do things with your hands, probably roll to hit and perhaps defend. Boring yet familiar, it keeps things grounded. Guile speaks of a setting of intrigue in which raw intellect might be important but the ability to twist words and bend meanings is far more impactful. Perhaps intrigue abounds, a rigid hierarchical structure in which your ability to turn the rules in your favor is more important than actually following them. We can call it The Hierachy for simplicity's sake. Wound gives me extremely religious vibes. The Hierarchy is based on suffering and repentance, there is some original sin that everyone shares in that must be expiated. Those who suffer become closer to this ideal, gaining in power both social and literal, but also losing their sanity in the process as their Wound deepens and violent urges take over them. There are laws and doctrines that regulate pain and suffering and a lot of pompous ceremony around these. Bodily punishment must be sanctioned by the Hierarchy, as only those who are closer to the Carnifex can truly comprehend the meaning of suffering. Verbal and psychological abuse is another matter entirely (that's where Guile comes in).

Some possible classes:
Brutalus -  (high Skill and Wound, low Guile) Also known as the Fists of the Hierarchy, they are trained from childhood to withstand all kinds of pain and bodily torment. As a result, they become extremely close to the Carnifex in a primal, atavistic way that allows them to enter bloody rages of wanton destruction. They tend to self-harm, and their blood-annointed armors cover only their vital spots, as they relish the pain they suffer as much as the one they inflict.

Blood Speakers - (high Guile and Wound, low Skill) Ministers of Pain, Ambassadors of Agony, they interpret the laments of the Carnifex and enact his will. They know the true name of suffering and all its epithets and can invoke them to inflict torment upon others or tame their pain into an obedient servant. They tend to occupy the upper echelons of The Hierarchy and most of them are held in high esteem by the general population.

Servitor - (high Skill and Guile, low Wound) Not everyone is fit to understand the designs of the Carnifex. The Hierarchy understands that and is not foolish enough to disregard those Whose Wound Does Not Bleed So Profusely. They tend to occupy administrative positions and are often in charge of devising and implementing compliance doctrines in the worlds the Hierarchy assimilates (this is now SciFi apparently). Those who show true talent for craftsmanship work in conjunction with the Blood Speakers to build monuments of suffering and astonishing beauty that are employed as places of worship, social gathering and torture chambers (because there is truly no difference between the three).

The Taking, by Kay Tang

Some thoughts for closure and a note on categorization

While not the best generator ever, I think this can be some food for thought, especially if one wants to experiment or imagine how a new setting might look like but dosn't want to make all the effort of actually creating one. It just occurred to me that the Special attributes could be made even more defining if they acted as character classes or something unique to each character. So that when rolling a PC, you would have some shared attributes (Intellect, Agility, Strenght, etc.) and an exclusive one for your character (All hail the Carnifex!).

As I writing the list, I realised that many of the items I list as Special could very well be mental and viceversa, which goes to show how fickle boundaries are and how weak they actually reveal themselves to be when tested. It would also be an interesting experiment to just roll for attributes randomly and then assign them the Physical, Mental or Special quality and try to ratiolanise that within the world's logic. I leave that exercise to minds more capabla than mine.

Anyway, if you do play the Attribute Game, please share your creations in the comments. I'll be eager to read them! (and probably steal them for my games! hehehe)

Amongst the Ruins - First Online Session and an Attempt at HUNTING MECHANICS

A few days ago I ran my first online session ever. The result was... unexpectedly positive? Normally, I would've taken the train to their place (they are a couple), eaten lunch/dinner (or both) and spent an awesome time rolling dice. With the current situation, however, we thought about postponing the campaign until we could meet in person again, but things as they are, all of us seem to more hooked on to this thing than we initially thought, and so the session ensued.

Behold!

The game was short (a couple of hours long, when it usually takes between for and six) and consisted mostly of an almost gone wrong and totally avoidable encounter with a crimson serpent and character development. Overall the experience was enjoyable, if only to keep us going. When the game ended, though, I realized that I was as drained (or perhaps more) as I usually would be from our common sessions. See, when I interpret NPCs I tend to emphasize their actions and emotions by trying to "play" the character. I may hit the table with my fist, get closer to the players, whisper, SHOUT, stand up and pace, anything that may help bring the character a little bit closer to life. Given the circunstances and my shitty camera, I believe all that may have accrued as tension.

And now for something completely different.

HUNTING MECHANICS

At some point during the session, one of the players told me she wanted to scout for prey. Although everyone in the table knew that wasn't the smartest move, she simply went for it as A) the group was in need of food and B) she tends to play her character according to her stats and background (low Knowledge score, low Presence score, weird thought patterns).

So far so good, right?

Well, yes, except for the fact that the game doesn't support hunting at this point. "Oh shut up, not everything needs a subsystem or its own mechanic, just roll some dice and stuff will happen." While I would normally agree with that statement, the truth is that two of my three players chose Hunt as either their Nature or their Tendency on character creation, and the three of them belong to an organization the whole point of which is, among other things, trailblazing and, you guessed it, HUNTING.

Andreas Rocha

HUNTING MECHANICS (now for real)

If you chose Hunt as your Nature, you can both lead or participate in a hunt whenever you find yourself in the wilderness. If you chose Hunt as your Tendency, you can participate in a Hunt initiated by another hunter.

A hunt lasts for one watch (around 6 hours) unless stated otherwise. 

When leading a hunt, Roll Intuition or Knowdlege (3d6) to scout the area and check your result in the following table. You can roll an additional d6 for every other hunter participating in the hunt. Then, discard that same amount of dice.

• Success. You found a trail! Get 1 Omen. You can follow it to trigger the corresponding Encounter.
• Doubles. ...and it's fresh! As Success, but the Hunt lasts for half a watch instead. If you experiment with the trail in any way (smell it, lick it, touch it, whatever really as long as you describe it), you can ask a Yes/No question about the creature. All hunters participating in the Hunt can do this.
• Triples. ...and the creature is unawares! As Doubles, and you can try to slay your prey before it notices you. Roll Hunt (1d6 roll under). You can roll an additional die for every other hunter but can only keep one of the results. If you pass, your prey is slain. Go ahead, describe the kill for everyone in the table! If you fail, the creature suffers 1d6+Hunt damage and it becomes aware of your presence. (GM note: if the creature is too powerful to be brought down in one shot, like a dragon or a troll or something, a success could disable one of its special skills or simple deal a lot of damage).
• Failure. You found a trail, but it's old. Get 1 Omen. The trail is too faint to follow.
• Doubles. You found something else entirely. Random Encounter.
• Triples. Hunter becomes prey. Ambush.

Greg Rutkowski

Some Comments

The ranger/hunter has always been one of the most difficult classes/approaches to the game to conceptualice for me. Since the beginning I knew that I wanted hunters to be able to manipulate or havee access to the random encounter table, but I wasn't sure how to achieve that in an engaging way. Before I came up with this, I thought of something called the exploration die (1d6) that the hunters would roll whenever I rolled the encounter die. If any of exploration dice matched the encounter one, then something cool happened depending on the number rolled. I dropped the idea after one session. While the concept has some merits (having a hunter in the party can alter play in unique ways, having many increases the chances), it has a fatal flaw that revealed itself too quickly: the level of engagement is non-existent. It is simply too passive and there are no choices to be made.

I believe the current system addreses this by giving the players both the choice to actively engage in a hunt and access to the random encounter table. Usually, encounters are something that the players suffer or randomly stumble upon, as there they are dictated by the encounter die. With this system, the players can choose to seek the creatures and scout the area for clues of what may lie ahead. At the same time, a group of hunters has a higher chance of finding their prey unaware and a lesser chance of being ambushed, which I think is neat and reinforces the idea of teamwork (I'm a sucker for dice pools, what can I say?).

Of course, when you create a system/mechanic, there must be ways for the players to interact with it through their choices and abilities. Like with any other ability test, I would give them an extra d6 to roll/drop if they come up with sensible explanations as to why they should get and edge on the test: hunting dogs, favourable weather, familiar terrain, etc... Likewise, there are some skills that characters with Hunt as either their Nature or Tendency can train in order to become better hunters.

Brandon Liao

1. Hunter's Mark

You can use one Action to focus your attention on a beast within sight, taking in its scent, motion patterns and overall demeanor. Your attacks deal additional damage equal to half your Hunt, rounded down (minimum 1). When you lead or participate in a hunt, you can declare that you are scouting for your marked prey. If you do, replace all the Omens and Encounters with those of the marked beast (this only works if the creature is in the surrounding area). You can only have one prey marked at any given time.

Note: I'm not convinced about the damage bit, it strikes me as flat and dull, but it could be a way to make the hunters at the table feel more hunterlike and all, as this skill doesn't work with people. Common sense should always prevail though, if you marked a prey five days ago and you are now in a completely different area, you are not going to find what you are looking for. Should I add a clause like "You lose the scent/trail/mark if you fail to actively chase your prey for one day" or something like that, to clarify? This matter must be further investigated.

7. Experienced Scout

When you lead or participate in a hunt, roll an additional 1d6 and drop any of the results. If the roll is successful, you get 1 additional Omen.

Note: simple and to the point, this allows hunters to cover more terrain in the same amount of time, hence the additional omen.

CONCLUSIONS

As usual, I have the feeling I might've gone a bit too overboard with the mechanics and such. I won't be able to really tell until this is tested at the table. Given the emphasis of the setting on wilderness exploration (yes, I still have to write a post about it and the system), I may end up tweaking this further or abandoning it completely. Time (and my players) will tell.

In the meantime, take care, good hunter.

Why are Monsters and a BOSS FIGHT

All of my players are new to the game. Understandably, I conceived a simple tutorial mission that would take a couple of sessions, three at most, so that they would become familiar with the mechanics and the underlying processes to decision making in RPGs etc, etc... you know the song. As usual, things escalated very quickly and one of them has already blown herself up to save the team from almost certain death. In the meantime, I am taking my time carefully designing creatures by giving them a reason to be, both in narrative and mechanical terms, so that they can learn to ask the right questions and adapt their strategies to different opponents.  Up until now they have faced: 

Session 0.5
-Twin Beasts (some kind of wolves born at the very exact second, visibly wounded, right outside the walls of the colony)

Session 1

-Possessed scarecrow/corpsepeople (no, not undead)

 -The former governor of the colony (who possessed the corpsepeople and was in turn possessed by a Ruinous entity) 

Session 2
Their inner fears? I think they spent most of the session barricading the Governor's House due to paranoia and the events from the previous night.

Session 3

-Charred animal corpses with tar instead of blood in a smoking, perfectly round crop circle  (that didn't belong inside the walls of the colony at all)

-30 Lost (people infected by an unknown disease a la I am Legend, only they also bleed tar and try to infect you by pinning you down through sheer numbers and vomiting on your face)

-1 Returnee (one of the Lost, kept in the dark, allowed to evolve, fast, cunning and furious, huge claw dripping tar and all)

Session 4
-Overgrown crimson serpent (long as three men, thick as an ancient tree, pale red scales stab bloated flesh, leaving a purulent trail behind, a third eye, blood red, opens in its forehead, you better not look)

Kimmo Hautalahti

As I mentioned earlier, everything must serve a purpose, otherwise I would be forced to face the purposelessness of my own existince and no one wants to do that, right? And so...

WHY ARE MONSTERS?

-Twin Beasts: don't fucking shout in the middle of the wilderness or the baddies will come for you, also well done for sharing your supplies with the guy that stayed behind so that you could make it to the colony, now the monster is weakened. Meaningful choices, yay!

-Possessed governor and scarecorpsepeople: the scarecrows were visible from the house, perched atop a stick, utterly still, sitting in the midle of the dry cornfield. When they animated and attacked during the night, the players cursed their own luck and their lack of judgement. Had they burnt/destroyed the scarecorpsepeople during the day, the night battle would've been much easier.

-Charred animal corpses: mmm... I'm not sure about this one, I think it was something like risk/reward? One of the players is a Cinis and felt an attraction towards a cinder shard encrusted on the side of one of the creatures. When his character touched it, the creatures awoke, but she gained the ability to shoot the shard with her awesome smokey powers.

-30 Lost and 1 Returnee: if the GM says "the floor is littered with discarded clothes as if they had rained from somewhere far above" and you are indoors, you better fucking look up... which of course they didn't and so they missed the naked bodies slumbering on the beams above their heads. They only noticed when someone fell down the stairs and some of the creatures awoke, this time raining for good on their oblivious heads. The Returnee was kept behing a door with the words "DON'T OPEN" written on it. They went in because they had to, in fact they needed the creature's heart to try and brew a cure for the disease (side-quest stuff), but this time they were clever enough as to drink a bottle of L'Oscurità, an alcoholic beverage that also allows you to see in the dark (there are no potions in my game, all some such drinks have an alcoholic base). When they did look up (thank god!) they saw the dormant creature hanging from the ceiling perfectly sill... and then one of the players proceeded to shoot the thing... which didn't kill it. Lesson not learnt: coordinate your attacks, they could've made the encounter trivial if they had told me that they were aiming at the head or something like that.

-Overgrown crimson serpent: shoot the obvious weak point. The creature had to open its third eye to use its hypnotic powers. By firing arrows and flinging javelins at it they made the encounter much easier (they had some help though).

Todd Ulrich

So, after all these tutorial like encounters, I want to give my players another kind of challenge. More action oriented, more puzzle-like, more rewarding but at the same time more stakes raising. Hence...

BOSS FIGHT!

Astra, Daughter of the Mind
HD 5          Attack 5           Defense 5
Endurance 60 (yes, this is basically HP and only NPCs have it, I use a different system for the PCs)
Kinetic Shield 20 (frontal, absorbs damage from projectiles)

The battle takes place in a crystal cavern with geometric pillars that grow from the ground and hang from the ceiling. Astra is currently trying to synchronize  with Silo, a newborn Numen, via an arm-thick link in order to extract information from the infant mechanical intelligence (which is basically a two part huge ass machine at the far end of the cavern with a beam of electric blue light connecting the top and bottom part).

Joshua James Shaw

The PCs are supposed to explore the cavern a little, see that there are some suspicious, non-harmonious growths coming from the crystals and find Astra connected to the thing, after which some expositional dialogue will ensue, and the music will change from this to this.

Phase 1 - 60-31 Endurance
In this phase, Astra will activate her Kinetic Shield, which will produce a visible effect like the air shimmering in front of her or something like that, so that the PCs know that something fishy's going on. Each turn, Astra will perform one of the following actions:

Call Crystal: Astra calls a glass fragment from the cave walls, which violently dislodges itself and flies towards her in a straight line. Everyone in its path must make a Skill test (or Reflex, or Dexterity, whatever your game uses) or suffer 1d6 damage. The crystal will attach to her body like a piece of broken armor, providing her with +1 Defense. The crystal breaks if she suffers 6 or more damage. This power can also be used to topple pillars and have them fall on the PCs.
Teleport: when Astra uses this power, the ground below a PCs character will start to glow ominously with cackling electric blue light. This charges the link cable. Next turn, she will then teleport to that position, stunning everyone dealing 1d6 damage and stunning anyone in the vicinity for one turn unless they pass a Vitality test (or Constitution/Fortitude).
Synapse (vs Skill): Astra grabs the face of one of the PCs, overloading their little brains with information while she scries their minds, stunning dealing 1d6 damage each turn. A Presence test or shoving/damaging/disrupting Ana in any way will break the link. When this happens, roll 1d6. If the result is equal to or less than the number of ALL the turns that PC has been stunned by Synapse, they gain one of Astra's powers. The PC becomes aware of this as soon as she starts probing their minds.

Astra's goal in this phase is using Synapse on as many of the PCs as possible while avoiding to expose herself too much. When she uses Teleport, the PCs have one turn to hit the charged link cable, which will interrupt the power and have her focus on the PC that hit the cable.

Phase 2 - 30 to 10 Endurance (shit gets real)

Astra realises that the PCs may actually pose a threat and tries to stun them with a psychic scream (Presence negates) before flying into the air and recharging her Kinetic Shield. During this phase, Astra can act twice per round and gains the following abilities:

Simulacrum: a copy of one of the PCs affected by Synapse emerges from one of the remaining pillars. The crystal copies have the same stats and equipment but cannot use any esoteric powers. They will try to disrupt the PCs with basic attacks, shoving, grabbing etc... They crumble to dust with one hit, no matter the source.
Arch Lightning (charges the link cable): Astra draws energy from Silo, shooting a lightning bolt at  a PC (1d6 lightning damge, Skill negates). If the first opponent is hit, the lightning jumps to a nearby opponent which must pass a Skill test or suffer 1d6 and so on and so on.
Kinetic Blast (requires charged cable): shoves for 1d6 damage and knocks prone all the targets in the cavern (Vitality for half damage). The PCs can use the pillars to shield themselves from the blast.

So, Astra is now flying around, descending only if she chooses to Synapse someone again. Hitting the carged cable dissipate its energy, preventing her from using Kinetic Blast and forcing her to descend for one round, which will give the melee players a chance to smack her with their weapon of choice.

Phase 3 - 9 to 0 Endurance
Astra descends, her body pulstaing with barely contained energy. In this phase, Astra can act thrice per round and the cable is constantly charged. If she cannot annihilate her opponents in one round, she will turn into a bolt of  lightning and escape the cavern by tearing a whole in the ceiling and try to rejoin her sisters at the Threshold of the colony.

Alex Rommel

How to beat Astra?
Positioning, positioning, positioning. The most dangerous attacks are telegraphed one way or another and can be predicted with some observation, which makes them easy to avoid. Besides, they will learn that weird stuff happens when the cable becomes charged, so they will at least have one turn to prepare if not interrupt her attacks. In addition, they can use the pillars to their advantage by trying to have them fall on Astra's head right before she teleports if they position themselves carefully.

Afterthought
After writing this, I realise I might've gone a little overboard with the powers and mechanics, and I am sure a similar effect could be achieved with a much simpler approach. Initially, this was meant to be something like Skerples's Stone Cobra Guardian or the Wolf of Rhen, the first of which features in his introductory dungeon Tomb of the Serpent Kings. Upon closer inspection, it becomes apparent that some of Astra's skills are based on the one's of the guardian and the wolf but, as it happens, I don't seem to be able to keep things simple. I only hope that my players don't die to Astra and if they do, I hope they have a blast facing her anyway.