What is a System?

From Dictionary.com - Specific jargon usage deleted:

sys·tem   /ˈsɪstəm/ [sis-tuhm] –noun

1. an assemblage or combination of things or parts forming a complex or unitary whole: a mountain system; a railroad system.

2. any assemblage or set of correlated members: a system of currency; a system of shorthand characters.

3. an ordered and comprehensive assemblage of facts, principles, doctrines, or the like in a particular field of knowledge or thought: a system of philosophy.

4. a coordinated body of methods or a scheme or plan of procedure; organizational scheme: a system of government.

5. any formulated, regular, or special method or plan of procedure: a system of marking, numbering, or measuring; a winning system at bridge.

6. due method or orderly manner of arrangement or procedure: There is no system in his work.

12. ( sometimes initial capital letter ) the prevailing structure or organization of society, business, or politics or of society in general; establishment (usually prec. by the ): to work within the system instead of trying to change it.

All of these definitions work to help comprehend what a roleplaying game system is. Many games use system as a synonym for resolution mechanic. This is wrong. A mechanic is a component of a system. in all the meanings of the word above, System refers to a coordinated assemblage of working parts. The resolution mechanic is one of those parts.

Some components of a roleplaying game system are systems themselves - most magic in games is set up as a system rather than a monolithic entity. Character generation is another typically systematized component. These do not have to be systems in themselves, but typically this is so.

Here are the typical component parts of roleplaying games:

Character Generation - creating a character ex nihilo. Point allocation, random rolling, lifepaths either random or determined, choosing descriptors, templates either simple or overlain, and variations from the norm. These techniques can be used either individually or in combinations to create characters. For example in StarCluster 3 I am using all of the above in one form or another.

Character Advancement - the growth of the generated character in ability from experience in play. gain abilities in levels, purchase single abilities with XP, gain in ability by accumulating items or components, gain in ability purely over time, undergo special training. These techniques are used to model the character's increasing mastery over his environment.

Powers/Magic/PSI - the ability of the charater to use exceptions to influence the setting. Vancian fire-and-forget, using Magic Points, burning attributes or lifepoints, ad-hoc casting, rituals, spell components, preparation, refreshing resources, spell lists, combinng spells/powers, combining power from several characters. These techniques codify exceptions - the ways the character can influence the setting which violate the physics of the setting.

Resolution Mechanics - the way the system adjudicates conflict. Task resolution, scene resolution, conflict resolution, dice pools, bell curves, straight curves, exploding dice, roll and keep, roll over, roll under, Chance of Success/Failuer, Quality of Success/Failure, unified mechanics, diversified mechanics, karma, fallout, bennies, resource allocation, playing cards. These techniques are used for resolution of conflicts - task resolution is after all conflict resolution by accumulated tasks. Who wins, who loses, and what is the price paid are answered by these techniques. These things are sometimes operated through the character, but generally they are operated by the player directly.

Initiative - the method of determining when the various characters act within the structure of the conflict. Roll high, roll low, stat determined, resource allocation, rounds both short and long, ticks, cycles, maneuvers, simulaneity. These techniques structure time in conflict to determine when actions happen, and may be rolled into the Resolution mechanic, or may be entirely separate.

Resources - the things the character owns or controls which can be used to aid in mastering the environement or aid in conflict. Equipment, tools, magic items, technological items, animals, vehicles, shelter, weapons, slaves/servants, money, favors both owed and granted. These resources are controlled by the player through the medium of the character, and exist in the game setting separately from the character.

Abilities - the qualities inherent in the character which can be used to aid in mastering the environement or aid in conflict. Skills, level abilities, masteries, attributes, stats, power reserves, point pools, refresh rates, Life points, Hit points, life levels, traits, edges, specializations. These are the direct means by which the character directly manipulates the world, and thus the ways the player manipulates the game world through the character.

By combining the various compenents together - coordinating them, they become a system. The system is the structure and coordination of these components, not just the components themselves. Every system has its own flavor, and like anything with flavor, some people are particular while others are broadly accepting, and tastes vary. That's there are a so many systems out there. :D

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StarCluster 3 - Alpha Test Session 2.5 - Angels of Mercy

We had a short session, because James had to leave early, and decided to use it to create an entirely new company. This company is a sort of interstellar Doctors Without Borders, called Angels of Mercy. It's a non-profit corporation, sustained by donations from the public and from companies.

The HQ is at a rural retreat on the beautiful world of Tranquility in the Klaxon System. The group decided on 40 standard security, with ten mercs as elites. They purchaces 6 ground cars for use as ambulances, and 6 air trucks for mobility. They have a Mobile Clinic, a Mobile Surgical Unit, 4 orderlies, 4 nurses, 2 Physician's Assistants, and the PC doctors/surgeons. They also purchased Rare and Uncommon Sociology and Medical Databases.

The PCs they created were done troupe style. Each player has a Doctor or Surgeon on one hand, and a Mercenary elite guard on the other. The Security forces are expected to double us unskilled labor if needed, but the mercs are not. Local doctors may be recruited to help, and local nurses and orderlies will almost certainly be recruited, but they will not be a permanent part of the organization.

They don't know this, but their first mission will be an epidemic on the densely populated but backward (Tech Level 6 - about equivalent to 1900-1950 on earth) world of Demarcadia. Demarcadia is an earth-sized moon of a gas giant called Calhoun. Demarcadia is populated by billions of Uplifts, with no humans. It is wet and earthlike, with extensive forests and farmland, and huge oceans.

We'll be using the StarRisk mechanic initially, later switching to StarKarma and StarNova. starRisk is a 1d10 roll over mechanic with the unique feature of rolls being entirely optional. The PC can always just choose to succeed at the lowest possible success, or gamble, and roll with the possibility of failure and of much higher success. Should be interesting!

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StarCluster 3 - Alpha Test Changes

Klax is gone to Florida for his Masters program, and I miss him terribly already. We may thus end up changing the playtest parameters tomorrow. The group really enjoyed the Detectives, but they may want to do something new. The Detectives was entirely Klaxon's idea - they let him make the decision as he was going away so soon. Whatever happens we will be changing resolution systems. Klax chose the StarPerc percentile system, because it is so very well tested. He didn't want to introduce too many variables at once.

Klax and James are continuing work on Look, Up in the Sky! at long distance. There is nothing restricting such an endeavor. I do it all the time. I have never met many of my collaborators, like John Snead, Pat Brady, and others. James is working on the setting, and Klax is working on the system. He's already entirely re-written the skill system so as to de-emphasize it, and expanded Blood Games/OHMAS' Paths of Power into an entire Powers system.

-clash

StarCluster 3: Necklace

StarCluster 3 is almost ready for beta test. I have to create more example space ships and vehicles, but I think everything else is covered. If anyone readig this blog is interested in beta-testing, please reply or email me!

I thought I would pass along one of the most interesting StarCluster 3 worlds. This one was created by Klaxon. He rolled a result of "really physically bizarre" when creating his home system worlds. He thought for a bit, then created Necklace. Necklace is partially an artifact and partially a natural phenomenon. It's a life bearing gas torus around a neutron star which orbits close in around the primary star - see Niven's Smoke Ring. The torus is a million km think, but only the center has enouh air to sustain life. Unlike the Smoke Ring, however, Necklace has been modified by either the Ancients or the Etvar.

Using artificial gravity and rocks from an asteroid belt, clump worlds were constructed in the torus, with varying amounts of artificial gravity, but all with far more gravity than their mass would indicate. They also created a sort of gravity ribbon which is intrinsicly sloped down. This ribbon is The River, which carries water endlessly around the torus, it's course meandering randomly. The total length of The River is about 1.5 times the diameter of the torus around it's centerline.

Most people live on the clumpworlds of the torus, but there are more clumpworlds than there are settlements. The volume of habitable space is enormous. The rest of the volume is in free fall. There are free-fall plants, animals, even whole jungles. Water assumes a spherical form, and most everything can fly, even a little.

Hope you enjoyed this!

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Outremer - The Emirate of Aleppo

The Enirate of Aleppo is a Muslim state on the semiarid edge of the desert. It is a fragment of Saladin's empire, which once stretched unbroken from Aleppo to Aqaba. The capital and largest city is Aleppo, and the land encompasses a rough equilateral triangle with one point at Aleppo, one at the city of Harran, and one at city of Tadmor/Palmyra, with a fourth city at al-Raqqah, midway between Tadmor and Harran.

The wealth of the Emirate lies in trade, along the Euphrates from Mesopotamia to Edessa, across the desert in grest caravans through al-Raqqah and Tadmor, and between Edessa and Homs. The silk trade, though, which once passed through Aleppo on it's way to Antioch and Alexandrette now routes through Damascus and Acre. This is due to the great enmity and continual low-grade warfare between Antioch and Aleppo.

Harran is an agricultural center, well watered by the rivers Cullab and Deysan, and cotton is grown on the flat plain. Harran is only 24 miles from Edessa, and trading ties are close between the two cities. It also boasts the oldest University in the Islamic world. Al-Raqqah on the Euphratesis a bustling trade city, though the area is well irrigated and intsensively farmed. Tadmur, the ancient Palmyra, is an oasis city far to the south, which flourishes with trade caravans coming from Mesopotamia and terminating in Tripoli. Aleppo itself is built on fertile ground, and has many farming towns and villages nearby. The capital is famed throughout the Muslim world as the greatest center of Islamic music.

The north and east get the most rainfal, mostly in the winter, while Tadmor/Palmyra is an oasis in the desert. There are qanats - underground water channels - carved under the desert and accessed through deep wells, which supply the desert towns which would otherwise be too dry. The desert stretches all the way to Persia, and is only habitable in oases or where the Tigris and Euphrates pass through.

The Christians of Aleppo are mostly Assyrian and Aramean Catholics of the Eastern Syrian Rite, neither Orthodox nor Schismatic, but in full communion with Rome. There are many Jews spread throughout the area, concentrating in the four great cities. There were once a great number of Mandeans centered in Harran, but most were massacred just before the Crusades, and the remnants have scattered to villages and small towns throughout the Emirate.

The area near the border with Antioch is dangerous, with sudden raids and attacks occurring with a fair frequency in both directions. The Emir keeps up a guard of Turkoman cavalry stationed in the border towns, where they are disliked by the townspeople for their arrogant ways.

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Why Edges Work

I have gotten quite a bit of email from folks who don't grasp Edges. Not mechanically, but understanding what Edges are suppsed to represent. They are continually confused with Traits, which are fundamentally different, both mechanically and conceptually. Here's another try:

Who would you trust to guide you through an arctic blizzard - an guy from Point Barrow Alaska, or a guy from Vero Beach Florida? Why? Does the Alaskan have a skill called "Blizzarding?" Is there such a skill? Should there be such a skill?

I don't think it's a matter of skill at all - it's a matter of experience with a specific condition. The Floridian is very unlikely to have a lot of experience with snow storms. The Alaskan, on the other hand, probably has been through a few. They know what it's like, what dangers to avoid, what clothing to wear, what foods to eat. This is an Edge.

Edges can be a result of Repeated or Prolonged Exposure to that Condition, or of Intensive Training in that Condition. An example of a Training Edge is a US Navy SEAL. Intensive training drives home the value of Teamwork. SEALs always operate as members of a Team. A SEAL always operates with a "swim buddy" - the basic Seal unit is two, not one. In training, prospective SEALs are given tasks they can only perform as members of a team. Individualists are flushed out of the program. The Teamwork Edge is trained into them.

So - Edges are bonuses that are due to experience working while exposed to a Condition. When a Condition matches the Edge, that person has a bonus while that Condition is affecting things. If a character has the Snowstorm Edge and it is indeed snowing, but the characters are inside a heated, lit building, then the Condition is not affecting anything, and the character's Edge is not operating.

Hopefully, this explanation works! :D

-clash

StarCluster 3 - Second playtest!

The second playtest game, finishing up the situation established in the first game, concluded on a very high note! The players were detectives of the Valiant Detective Agency, on call to a number of worlds in the Lemur Loop for difficult cases. We had two "new" players, both long time group members who had missed the initial session. Their characters were Weller-Sai, a SaHu from an enlightened police state, and Kholi, an uplifted Snow Leopard from a cold, mountainous world.

Their case was a puzzler, a small city mayor on the world of Texas was found nailed to his office wall by iron spikes. The initial suspects were the wife, the deputy mayor, and the no-good son. Another suspect cropped up as they delved deeper into the situation - the wife's other husband who was also the next door neighbor. So far things looked boringly normal - then things went off the rails! The husband and wife had no history in any database before settling in the town 21 years before, the son had disappeared after appearing to go straight, there were millions of credits worth of stocks and bonds in the Mayor's hidden office safe, and dozens of identities began appearing as they searched out hidden caches in the couples' house - then the wife, on her way home from her mother's home in another city died in an airbus accident.

Before the end of the evening, though, they had pulled together a working theory, fingered the killers, and knew what was going on enough to stop another murder at the wife's mother's home in a climactic shootout. It was fucking brilliant. It worked exactly like a good detective story - they hit the databases, they modeled solution, they used a crime board and timeline. After it was over, the players and I were just immensely pumped! I had never run anything like this before - and it all worked so beautifully!

The players loved the new chargen, especially the new education rules. None of them were masters in firearms, and none felt the lack of it. They extensively used the company's collective resources, particularly the forensic lab, the medical examiner, and the various databases they had purchased. In spite of what initially seemed to be a low tech murder on a backwoods world, the game involved bio-engineered organisms, cloning, datamining, facial recognition, black ops, and deadly secrets. Pure, pure awesome!

-clash