[Decommissioned] System
May 4, 2007
I received a great deal of feedback on the mechanics I created for my Game Chef entry. Rather than plod through the dice and how they worked then, I want to tackle my design goals with D-Com (the robots dying version). Once I have that hammered out, it might be a more effective system.
1. I want the PCs to be completely bada$$ at character generation. This will illustrate the fall from power as a system.
2. I want a system where the PCs degenerate over time. I like the idea of the system enforcing an endgame, pushing the players to act boldly and stay focused towards their stated goals.
3. I like the idea of a Sacred or touchstone. I want something defined within the rules that acts as a measure of the dedication and spirit of the PC. The “why they decided to die” should be a stat. This “stat” should be something the player can swap for a physical stat. The idea behind this is I want something showing how the will of the robot carries them through the degeneration.
More to come later, work is getting hectic.
May 4, 2007 at 10:56 pm
This is just a random thought, but maybe when you use Sacred in place of a physical stat, you accelerate the degeneration? That’s a nasty little hook, but it seems like it would fit in quite well.
May 6, 2007 at 8:17 pm
I think you need to put the players in a bind in order to get the idea of “swapping your beliefs for your life or vice versa” across. Maybe if you lose all your Sacred, you end the game one way - you lose what you were fighting for and you lose the will to keep fighting, so you just shut down. But if you lose all your stats, that’s when you die because you get destroyed or whatever. Then you can make players choose between losing Sacred to gain (or keep) stats, or losing stats to gain (or keep) their Sacred. That way anytime you get into a conflict, you risk losing something, or even you could say “when you get into a conflict that you can’t win with your base abilities.” It’s nice because you’re opposing the resources of a whole corporation so you can really make players and characters face tough choices!
–Jess