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Anders Gabrielsson
Sweden
Uppsala
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We did a second playtest today with some new rules. We tried to incorporate aspects on the various geographical areas in a meaningful way and the end result was... well, so-so. It's something I want to continue working on, but I need to think a bit more on how to do it well.
I've also restarted work on a boardgame I've tried to get off the ground several times. I keep getting stuck in wanting enough detail to represent the game world without making things overwhelmingly complicated. It's an interesting problem, though frustrating: Had it been a computer games, things would have been much simpler, but currently there's just too many combinations that need to be found for each move so you can choose a good action for it to be playable.
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Anders Gabrielsson
Sweden
Uppsala
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I ran a playtest session with two of the players in my regular RPG group today, and things went very well. The game performed pretty much as expected, and while there are many areas that need work I'm convinced the foundation is solid. We all had a good time and there was nothing that didn't work.
The full session report should show up in the forums shortly.
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Anders Gabrielsson
Sweden
Uppsala
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This week I've added an appendix with notes on how to use the rules for Hero, Captain, King for other genres than fantasy. Nothing major, and nothing someone couldn't come up with by themselves - but then the point of doing this is that "someone" can get it without having to make it for themselves.
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Anders Gabrielsson
Sweden
Uppsala
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I have finally been prodded into doing the revisions to my 24-Hour RPG Design Contest entry Hero, Captain, King that I have been thinking of since... well, since I sent it in. I'm planning on adding or revising one section per week the next few weeks. This week I've made a change to how the character stats work, but more importantly I've added two more adventure structures:
Quote: Free Structure
Player who would prefer a less strict adventure structure can try this variant:
Instead of setting up a series of challenges as above, an adventure contains four unordered challenges which the player whose character is going through the adventure can undertake in any order. For each successfully completed challenge the player gets to choose one result from the following list:
* The adventure is successfully completed.
* The character survives the adventure.
* The character's actions doesn't have uninteded negative consequences.
* The character's actions have unexpected positive consequences.
When using this adventure structure the players should decide at the start of the game whether choices from the list are made at the end of the adventure, after all rolls are made, or after each successful roll.
Consequences
Another variant is to have a linear advanture with four different challenges faced in order. To successfully complete the adventure the character has to succeed at every challenge, but two times during the adventure the player can change a failure to a success by choosing one of the consequences from the following list:
* The character is mortally wounded and will die when the adventure is over.
* The character's actions have unintended negative consequences.
* The character's reputation is tarnished and he is remembered as a great villain.
* The character's highest die rating is reduced to a d4 for the rest of the adventure.
Note that changing the roll to a success doesn't change the actual number roll. Specifically, this has no effect on whether a tragedy is triggered.
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Anders Gabrielsson
Sweden
Uppsala
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I ran a second skill challenge (preparing a feast and setting up a play for a friendly goblin village) using a revised version of the system for my group a couple of weeks back, and while it worked reasonably well there were some problems.
* Hindrances were too dangerous. The risk of additional setback was too great and the setback generated too great in magnitude. In the next version hindrances will generally not create setback but only add conditions and other secondary problems.
* Progress and setback rolls were too variable. Rolling 1d6+1, 2d6+3 or 3d6+5 works fine if you're making a lot of those rolls before assessing final success or a failure to achieve the roll at all doesn't have serious consequences, but as things stand in my system this is not the case. I will reduce randomness in this part of the game severely, though not to all the way back to the 4E default of "one success or one failure".
There were other minor issues that need to be worked on as well, but these are the main ones. However, my own experience and the evaluations of the players afterwards make me confident that I'm on the right path. Everyone had a lot of fun, and got quite involved with the admittedly slightly silly premise.
Next session will be combat-heavy as the party enters an abandoned dwarf hold, which gives me some more time to work on the next version.
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Anders Gabrielsson
Sweden
Uppsala
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And I dare say it was a great success. All the players had fun while we were playing (as did I), and were very enthusiastic afterwards - both about what worked well, and what could be tweaked.
The thing that mostly needs to change is to increase the DCs. Now I was using DC 10/15/20 which turned out to be too low when my players' lvl 11 characters had many possible skills to choose from. My plan had been that the conditions they got (which limit which skills can be used and how) would be a big enough restriction that they would reasonably often have to use sub-optimal skills, but that turned out not to be the case so I will up the standard DCs by 3-5 points. There will also be hindrances that prevent the use of certain skills, and more hindrances in general. They make the situation more dynamic and prevent the players from falling into steady patterns.
Right now I'm thinking that having failures or successes trigger hindrances could also be an interesting approach.
If I have time I will post a full description of the skill challenge I ran today. Either way, I should have a more full description of the framework done within the next few weeks.
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Anders Gabrielsson
Sweden
Uppsala
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Work on the skill challenge system for 4E sketched out in previous posts is progressing, though more slowly than I'd like. Actual gaming (primarily Rift, The Lord of the Rings LCGand Dominion on Isotropic) has distracted me... a pleasant distraction, but a distraction nonetheless. I have started committing my ideas to paper and the structure and terminiology is pretty much settled though some things are still in flux. Playtesting is still needed - I had hoped to do a test run with my regular 4E group during the weekend but the session got canceled due to outside influences in the form of birthdays and moving woes.
In the meantime I'm going to present a sample skill challenge. Hopefully a concrete example will help anyone interested in this see what I'm getting at. Note that some numbers haven't been set - I need to do more playtesting before I know where they end up. Also note that this post does not contain explanations for how everything works or what the terms mean. This is meant to give an impression of what kind of things the structure I'm working on will allow you to create.
Sample Skill Challenge: The War
A war is brewing and the characters have been put in charge of raising an army and marching it to the Evil Nation to defeat the Big Bad's legions.
This challenge consists of a sequence of three scenes: Raising the Army, The March and The Final Battle.
Scene 1: Raising the Army
The characters have to raise an army for the Good Nation. This will involve recruiting and training troops as well as negotiating alliances with bordering nations and the mountain tribes. Note that this is a no-fail scene, but if the players take too long to complete it they will have a harder time later on.
Main Track: Raise and Organize Troops
Medium
When this track is completed, the scene is over. Failures generate setback.
Primary skills: Diplomacy, History (easy)
Secondary skills: Bluff (risky), Insight, Intimidate (volatile)
Hindrance: Enemy spies
Medium aggressor
Primary skills: Bluff, Stealth, Streetwise
Secondary skills: Insight (hard), Intimidate (risky)
Targets: Bluff, Insight, Streetwise
Side Track: Forge Alliances With Border Nations
Short
When this track has been completed all rolls on the primary track gain a +3 effect bonus. From turn four onwards all skill rolls suffer a -2 penalty if this track has not been completed. The penalty is increased to -3 if this track is failed.
Primary skills: Diplomacy, History, Insight (hard)
Secondary skills: Bluff (risky), Intimidate (volatile)
Side Track: Ally With Mountain Clans
Short
Until this track is completed all skill rolls on the primary track suffer a -2 penalty. (It's hard to raise troops for a foreign war while the clansmen are raiding.) Completion also gives bonuses in later scenes as noted below.
Primary skills: Diplomacy (hard), Insight, Intimidate
Secondary skills: History, Religion
Hindrance: Clan Customs
Minor barrier
Primary skills: Athletics, History (hard, risky), Insight
Secondary skills: Acrobatics, Bluff, Endurance
Targets: Athletics, Endurance, Insight
Side Track: Training the Troops
Medium
Successfully completing this track gives bonuses in later scenes as noted below. Failure generates setback.
Primary skills: Athletics, History, Intimidate
Secondary skills: Endurance, Insight
Hindrance: Limited Equipment
Medium barrier
Primary skills: Bluff (risky), Diplomacy (easy), History
Secondary skills: Athletics, Insight, Intimidate (volatile)
Targets: Athletics, History, Intimidate
Hindrance: Language Difficulties
This hindrance activates when the Forge Alliances side track is completed.
Minor distraction
Primary skills: History (easy), Insight
Secondary skills: Bluff, Diplomacy
Targets: Diplomacy, History, Insight
Hindrance: Old Enmities
This hindrance activates when the Ally With Mountain Clans side track is completed.
Minor aggressor
Primary skills: Insight, Intimidate
Secondary skills: Athletics, Diplomacy, History
Targets: Diplomacy, Insight, Intimidate
Scene 2: The March
The army is now on the move, forcing its way into the Evil Nation.
Main Track: Maneuvering for Battle
Medium
When this track is completed the scene is over. Failures generate setback. If the Training the Troops secondary track was successfully completed, all success rolls on this track receive a +1 bonus.
Primary skills: History, Intimidate, Insight, Bluff (risky)
Secondary skills: Diplomacy, Endurance
Hindrance: Unfamiliar Terrain
Minor distraction
Primary skills: History (hard), Nature
Secondary skills: Endurance, Perception
Targets: History, Nature, Perception
Hindrance: Minor Battle
Medium barrier
This hindrance activates when half the main track has been completed.
Primary skills: History, Insight, Intimidate
Secondary skills: Arcana, Athletics, Endurance, Heal, Religion
Targets: Athletics, Endurance, Insight
Side Track: Lead Scouting Parties
Short
All checks on this track gain a +2 bonus to success and progress rolls if the Ally With Mountain Clans track was successfully completed. Successfully completing this track removes the Unfamiliar Terrain hindrance from the main track and gives a +2 bonus on skill and effect rolls for the Supplies secondary track.
Primary skills: Nature, Perception, Stealth
Secondary skills: Athletics, Endurance, Insight
Hindrance: Hostile Patrols
Medium guardian
Primary skills: Bluff, Perception, Stealth
Secondary skills: Athletics, Insight, Nature
Targets: Bluff, Percpetion, Stealth
Side Track: Supplies
Medium balance
This track suffers a minor setback each turn. While it is negative all rolls on the primary track suffer a -2 penalty to skill and effect rolls.
Primary skills: History, Intimidate, Nature (hard)
Secondary skills: Bluff, Diplomacy, Insight
Scene 3: The Battle
The characters' army joins battle with the forces of evil.
If the party took more than five turns to complete the main track in the first scene they have a -1 penalty to all success rolls in this scene.
Main Track: Directing the Battle
Successfully completing this track leads to the Final Confrontation combat encounter, while failure leads to the Fleeing the Battle combat encounter.
Medium
Primary skills: History, Insight, Intimidate
Secondary skills: Bluff, Endurance
Hindrance: Enemy Maneuver
This hindrance starts in play and is renewed after one third of the main track has been completed and again after two thirds.
Medium puzzle
Primary skills: History, Insight, Perception
Secondary skills: Bluff (risky), Intimidate
Targets: Bluff, History, Insight
Hindrance: Undead Legions
Medium distraction
Primary skills: Intimidate, Religion
Secondary skills: Arcana, Insight
Targets: Insight, Intimidate, Religion
Hindrance: Enemy Charge
This hindrance enters play after half the main track has been completed.
Major aggressor
Primary skills: Athletics, Endurance, Intimidate
Secondary skills: Bluff, Insight
Targets: Athletics, Endurance, Insight
Side Track: Neutralize Enemy Spellcasters
Until this track is completed all rolls on the main track suffer a -2 penalty to success and effect rolls.
Short
Primary skills: Arcana, Stealth
Secondary skills: Bluff, Insight, Perception
Hindrance: Illusions
Minor barrier
Primary skills: Arcana, Insight
Secondary skills: Perception
Targets: Arcana, Insight, Perception
Side Track: Lead Counter-Charge
This track activates when the Enemy Charge hindrance on the main track has been defeated. If it is successfully completed all success rolls on the primary track gain a +2 bonus. All success rolls on this track gain a +2 bonus for each of the Ally With Mountain Clans and Training the Troops tracks that were successfully completed.
Medium
Primary skills: Athletics, Endurance, Intimidate
Secondary skills: Nature
Side Track: Maintain Morale
Balance
While this track is negative, all success and effect rolls on other tracks suffer a -2 penalty. This track suffers a minor setback each turn, or a major setback while the Undead Legions hindrance is in play. If the Training the Troops track was successfully completed all checks on this track receive a +2 bonus to success and effect rolls.
Primary skills: Bluff (risky), Intimidate (risky), Religion
Secondary skills: Insight
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Anders Gabrielsson
Sweden
Uppsala
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I'm continuing work on the skill challenge system sketched out above. So far I'm sticking quite closely to those ideas; playtesting (which should commence soon) will tell if the result works and is enjoyable.
Other than that there's not much going on, design-wise. I've been playing a lot of City of Heroes and Blood Bowl on the computer lately, and continue to be impressed with the design of both.
City of Heroes offers a tremendous variability in character design: 14 classes with dozens of builds each, and all of them play differently. I've played at least half a dozen of each of the base classes (Warshades and Peacebringers don't really interest me, and while I've tried an Arachnos Soldier and a Widow they haven't been all that fun yet), and all of them have their own quirks while still filling similar roles. (And that's without getting into the literally billions of costume variants. That's something other MMO's could really learn from, IMO.)
Blood Bowl is the only highly random confrontational game I enjoy, and I'm not sure why. About half the matches I play against players of approximately equal skill are decided by the dice, and many of those are just no fun for either player, but the other half are usually extremely tense affairs with non-stop action, audacious plays and unexpected reversals.
It's too bad the AI is so crappy. It makes mistakes a human player spots after playing less than a dozen games, and I can't help but think that if they had put the time they spent on the cheerleaders on the AI instead the game would have been much more enjoyable.
I'd like to see a combat skirmish game that worked similarly to Blood Bowl, in that fighting is a means to an end rather than the point of the game. (I've played some Necromunda and tried Mordheim, and while they have their charm neither has the elegance or balance of Blood Bowl.) The combination of fighting with a goal that isn't directly related to that (in Blood Bowl's case, getting the ball into the opposing team's end zone) is quite interesting and something that's not done nearly enough.
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Anders Gabrielsson
Sweden
Uppsala
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Work continues on the framework for skill challenges in D&D 4E that I've discussed previously. I think the ideas I've presented in my earlier posts are solid and can be developed into something quite snazzy. I thought I'd make an update here to give myself a chance to talk it through, as it were - I often find I think better (and discover more mistakes) when I present an idea to someone else, in this case you who are reading this.
1. Progress Tracks and Effect Rolls
Each skill challenge will have at least one main progress track measuring the party's success (corresponding to counting successes in the RAW version) and a single main setback track counting the effects of failures (corresponding to counting failures). In addition there may be one or more side progress tracks, each of which may or may not have a setback track. If a main progress track fills up the party succeeds, and if the main setback track fills up they fail. The sidetracks represent supporting strategies: a filled side progress track gives some kind of bonus for the actions on another track, while a filled side setback track gives a penalty. Side tracks that don't have a setback track cannot fail, only be delayed in success.
Each track has a set of associated skills, some primary and some secondary, with primary skills having greater effects on the tracks.
Effect rolls come in three grades: major, moderate and minor. Progress rolls are made for successful skill checks and have their results added to the Progress Track, while setback rolls are made for failed skill checks and have their results added to the setback track or deducted from the progress track if there is no setback track.
A major progress roll is 2d6 plus the ability modifier corresponding to the skill used.
A moderate progress roll is 1d6 plus half the associated ability modifier.
A minor progress roll is 1d3.
A major setback roll is 2d6+4 (with an additional +2 in Paragon and another +2 in Epic).
A moderate setback roll is 1d6+2 (+1 per tier above Heroic).
A minor setback roll is 1d3.
How long should the progress tracks be? My current thinking is that the players should get through the skill challenge in about five rounds if they can consistently succeed on the primary skills with moderate progress. That's about 5-6 points of progress per player per round in Heroic, so for a party of five that's 5*5*5 or 125 points. Side tracks should be much shorter, requiring no more than a couple of rolls, say about 10-15 points. (A longer progress track will give a longer encounter, and if the setback track is kept at the same length then it will also be more difficult.) Assuming about one failed roll per round is compatible with success the setback track should have a base length of about 15-20 points, but that I think about double that will be better since there will be more ways to add to it as presented later under Complications.
A skill associated with a progress track can also belong to one of the following categories:
* Safe: The negative effects of failure are reduced.
* Risky: The negative effects of failure are increased.
* Volatile: There will be some negative effects even on a successful roll.
2. Postures
Skills are always used with a posture. Postures give modifiers to the chance of success, progress rolls and setback rolls, for the character making the check or others.
The postures and their effects are:
* Direct: Success gives a moderate progress roll, failure gives a moderate setback roll.
* Forceful: Success gives a major progress roll, failure gives a major setback roll.
* Cautious: Success gives a minor progress roll and the character gains information on which skills are safe, risky and volatile (which is otherwise only revealed once they are used). Failure gives a minor setback roll. Risky or volatile skills have their special effects negates when used with this posture.
* Supporting: The character chooses another character to support. On a success, the acting character makes a minor progress roll and the supported character gains a +2 bonus to their skill check and their progress roll is increased one category. On a failure, the acting character makes a moderate setback roll and the supported character suffers a -2 penalty to their skill check and their progress roll is decreased one category. You can only benefit from support if you are using the Direct, Forceful or Cautious postures.
* Defensive: A success gives a minor progress roll, and the character makes a moderate progress check without adding the results to the progress track. Instead these points can be used to cancel an equivalent amount of points from a setback roll later in the turn. A failure generates a moderate setback roll.
(I wanted to have an Indirect posture, but I'm not sure what the effects should be. Perhaps to avoid some types of Complications?)
When a secondary skill is used both progres and setback rolls are reduced one category.
If a progress roll or setback roll is shifted outside the existing categories, add +1d6 of effect for each step increased over major, and each step below minor reduces the effect by one point (to a minimum of zero).
3. Complications (formerly Hindrances)
Complications are things that make skill challenges more interesting by actively acting against the characters, or otherwise making their use of skills less straight-forward.
Each complication has two components: an aspect and a behavior. The aspect determines which skills it will target and which skills can be used against it, while the behavior decides how it acts against the characters.
Each aspect has three sets of skills asociated with it. The first is the skills it targets: when the complication makes an attack, it will roll against the median of the passive values of these skills (i.e., the middle value). The second and third group are the primary and secondary skills used to deal with the complication, with primary skills having greater effect.
Some rough samples:
* Social (Targets: Bluff, Diplomacy, Insight; Primary: Bluff, Diplomacy, Intimidate; Secondary: Insight, Streetwise)
* Nature (Targets: Athletics, Endurance, Nature; Primary: Athletics, Endurance, Nature; Secondary: Dungeoneering, Heal, Perception)
* Urban (Targets: Dungeoneering, Stealth, Streetwise; Primary: Dungeoneering, Streetwise; Secondary: Acrobatics, History, Stealth, Thievery)
* Physical (Targets: Acrobatics, Athletics, Endurance; Primary: Acrobatics, Athletics, Endurance; Secondary: Heal, Perception)
* Violent (Targets: Athletics, Endurance, Intimidate; Primary: Athletics, Endurance, Intimidate; Secondary: Acrobatics, Bluff, Heal, Insight, Stealth)
* Intrigue (Targets: Bluff, Insight, Stealth; Primary: Bluff, Insight, Streetwise; Secondary; Diplomacy, Intimidate, Perception, Stealth, Thievery)
(It's possible I should just use one group to define the Target and Primary skills; they're nearly the same anyway.)
Each complication is associated with a particular progress track.
The complication's behavior determins what it does, as follows:
* Barrier: As long as this complication remains, the primary skills for the track it occupies cannot be used. Any character using a Direct or Forceful posture with a secondary skill will be attacked by the barrier, with a successful attack giving the target the Checked status (see below for status effects).
* Puzzle: As long as this complication remains any progress rolls receive a -2 penalty. Anyone using a primary skill will be attacked and receives the Isolated status.
* Agressor: Attacks anyone acting on the progress track, giving one of the following statuses: Checked, Isolated, Sidelined or On the Spot.
* Guard: Skill checks with primary skills suffer a -5 penalty. The guard attacks anyone attacking a complication (including itself), giving one of the following statuses: Checked, Isolated or Sidelined.
* Booster: All skill checks for progress suffer a -2 penalty. All attacks against complications (including this one) also suffer a -2 penalty. All attacks by complications gain a +2 bonus.
Complications have a hit point-equivalent that is reduced by successful use of skills against, with a major progress roll for primary skills and a minor roll for secondary. Hit points should probably vary from 1 for a trivial complication to something like 25 for a serious one. Their attack and defense values should be balanced around hitting and being hit by someone of average skill about 50% of the time.
Here follow some sample complications to (perhaps) make the categories a bit more clear.
For a skill challenge where the characters are trying to negotiate a treaty with the local duke:
* Social Barrier: A councilor blocking access to the duke
* Social Puzzle: An influential baron with unknown motives
* Social Agressor: A hostile courtier
* Social Guard: The duke's jester
* Social Booster: The court gossip
For a journey through wild lands:
* Nature Barrier: A mountain range
* Nature Puzzle: An area of unknown terrain with strange animals
* Nature Agressor: A violent storm
* Nature Guard: Dangerous wildlife
* Nature Booster: A hostile climate or generally inclement weather
Of course, it's more interesting if the complications don't match the skill challenge they belong to too closely, so to these we could add:
* Urban Puzzle: Secret meetings in the labyrinthine alleys of the city slum
* Intrigue Barrier: A hostile group of courtiers who have the ear of the king
* Violent Agressor: An assassination attempt
and
* Social Puzzle: Local tribes with strange customs
* Physical Barrier: A chasm that must be traversed
* Violent Booster: Hostile wildlife
respectively.
How many complications should there be? No idea - playtesting will give some answers.
4. Status Effects
As noted above, some complications will give the characters status effects. These should probably all be save ends.
* Checked: Can't use the Direct, Forceful or Supporting postures.
* Isolated: Can't use or benefit from the Defensive or Supporting postures.
* Sidelined: Can't use primary skills on progress tracks.
* On the Spot: Must use a primary skill in the Direct, Forceful or Cautious posture.
Closing Comments
That's the whole thing. There's still a lot of work to be done, but I think I'm getting to the point where some playtesting is due.
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Anders Gabrielsson
Sweden
Uppsala
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That thing that I felt was missing? Found it.
Idea the Fourth: Hindrances
(I got enough thinking done on status effects that they in combination with this have grown into a full-scale idea, just in case anyone's wondering what happened to the last .5 idea.)
Hindrances are a bit like monsters: they have a hit point-equivalent reduced through effect rolls and they attack the characters' passive skill values, giving them status effects and reducing their progress, but also - perhaps primarily - increasing the failure track.
Hindrances are created by combining two parts: category and behavior. Category is something like Social, Geographical, Mechanical or Knowledge and determines which skills are used to combat it. Behavior is something like Barrier, Puzzle or Aggressor and controls what effects or abilities the hindrance has.
By adding a behavior to a category you can get a seneschal you need to convince to let you see the king (Social Barrier), a swamp with odd phenomena like flame spurts and R.U.S.'s (Geographical Puzzle) or a trap that's shooting bolts at you while you're trying to pass over a narrow bridge (Mechanical Aggressor).
You may be able to ignore some of the hindrances depending on their abilities, but some will have to be dealt with and this introduces a further level of choice: do I use my topped-out Acrobatics on balancing across the bridge, or do I use my middling Thievery to deal with that bolt-shooting trap?
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