So I really like the idea that the “exciting core” of play might be something besides violence. There needs to be something there, because d20 is set up with traditional task/conflict resolution as the center of play, and there’s this pacing thing where you want the resolution to come fast and furious in the exciting parts and then scale back for the slower parts.
I was thinking that “chase scenes” might make sense, with the focus on travel at the core of play, but I’m not exactly sure how that works yet. It’s so hard to find people in space that the idea of chasing them seems like it would be really slow, unless we do like Continuum and make “combat” a montage of various events that could be months apart. You spend one “combat action” spending three weeks searching a particular area for signs of your quarry and only describe the moment when you found a trace of them. I don’t know if that’s quite the best idea then.
Thoughts?
I just designed a video game that doesn’t have combat, but it does have action.
The main thing you do is project, reflect, and absorb energy in various ways — all with split second timing and maneuver like you might do in a shooter or action game. So you get the action but not the violence and killing.
That’s what I would probably call Color draped over an RPG battle mechanic. We could play straight up D&D combat, but instead of hitting you with a sword and causing a wound, I could be telling you how smart you are and tearing down your insecurity.
Maybe a drape of color will do the trick for Firmament.
By: John Harper on November 6, 2007
at 1:29 am
This is one of the things I’m striving for with Bullseye, i.e., alternative foci to combat.
We almost certainly won’t be using BAB — at least not in its existing incarnation. Maybe we won’t even use hit points. Just like any other, i.e., non-d20, game, we can show what the game is about by what the mechanics focus on.
By: Justin D. Jacobson on November 7, 2007
at 7:44 pm
John, I want the mechanics of Firmament to be more than just a color drape, I think. Social Combat in something like Exalted or Burning Wheel is cool, but it’s not all that different from combat. Even Time Combat in Continuum, which is closer to what I’m thinking about, it’s still too violence-oriented. I want to get my Step On Up in a somewhat different way, by surmounting challenges or solving puzzles, but. y’know, solving puzzles in the midst of a car chase! Something like that.
By: Jonathan Walton on November 8, 2007
at 5:30 pm
I dunno if you’ve resolved this dilemma yet, but I’d highly recommend looking up some racing board games if you want to pursue (heh) a chase-based system.
* Formula Dé has a clever bit of tension in which you choose which gear to set your engine during the race, which is represented by the size of your die. The larger the die, the more spaces you can move. However, it’s possible that you’ll go too fast and crash into a wall or another driver.
* Unknown Armies, Second Edition has some fairly decent car chase mechanics, in which the quarry is a certain number of “lengths” ahead of the hunter. The hunter wants to narrow that head start and the quarry wants to widen it. (Naturally.) The twist is a variety of obstacles like vegetable carts, baby carriages, traffic, bystanders, and newspaper stands that can augment that gap.
* Dangit, I thought I had posted this idea on my blog a while back, but I can’t find it. Anyway: I thought of a racing game mechanic in which the goal of the game was to reach the finish line with the most Resource X. The only way to harvest Resource X was to sit yo’ ass down. The only way to trigger endgame was to be the first person across the finish line. Therein lies the tension: Get to the finish line first and risk having less stuff or get more stuff and risk not reaching the finish line first? Note: I never tested this idea, so there may be some unforeseen problematic emergent behavior.
* Heck, you might even want to take a look at the basic mechanics of roller derby. In derby, there are five players per team on the track. One of these players in each team is the Jammer, who scores points for her team. She scores one point for each person of the opposing team that she passes. The elegant bit of game design here is that both Jammers are playing at the same time. At first, you might think the trick is to just pack up your roster with the fastest players so the opposing Jammer can’t score. However, that leaves _your_ Jammer defenseless as she tries to pass the opposing team’s players. There is a delicate balance as you try to create a tight enough formation to clear the path for your Jammer without being so tight that it’s easy for the opposing Jammer to swing right past your carefully constructed phalanx.
Racing games are probably the oldest board games around, so there’s a lot of elegant little tricks you could incorporate. Again, apologies if this is coming way too late to be of any use, I’m just bumbling through some older posts. :)
By: Daniel Solis on July 19, 2008
at 3:29 pm
Thanks for the racing games advice. I’ll check those out.
Honestly, I think once the core mechanics of the game come together, it’ll be clear what the main purpose of play is. But, yeah, bumble through old posts all you like.
By: Jonathan Walton on July 20, 2008
at 12:08 am