Game playability is a vital concept which most current game designers understand and practice. Unfortunately, Most focus on system playability - making the systems easy to understand, appropriate for the game and setting, and flexible enough to cover anticipated play. This is a laudable goal, and one not always a goal to the previous generation of designer. A different goal, and one I see met far less frequently, is Setting Playability.
Settings designed without keeping the goal of Setting Playability in mind can fall into what I call End Traps. End Traps are where the concepts behind the setting are pushed to a logical conclusion and become metastable. The settings cannot be affected by the PCs in any meaningful way. This frustrates groups who may like the setting otherwise. Settings need to be dynamic - stable enough to last, but not so stable as to be eternally unchanging.
Another potential trap is Setting Paralysis, where the setting is so different in every way from anything the group has seen before that GMs and players are mentally stunned - they have no handle to grasp, nothing familiar to ease their way into the setting. It's always good to have some familiar bits as well as some far out stuff in a setting. That way those unfamiliar with the basic tropes can have an opening into the setting.
Of course a huge problem with established setting is Setting Buy-in. This is where there is so much to learn about in order to get going that it all becomes more like work than play. This one is difficult to get around, because older setting just accumulate cruft. Even settings which are new to games may have been around a long while as TV shows or books. The difficult trick is to find the right balance between Too Much Information for newbies and Not Enough Information for existing fans.
Just some thoughts
-clash
Tuesday, August 31, 2010
Monday, August 30, 2010
Some Relicts and Randomness
I am running a StarCluster 3 game on Thursday nights with Tim Kirk (Silverlion), his wife, and John, both of whom comment here on this blog. Last Thursday we created our company, a combination of the A-Team, Leverage, and Burn Notice. We also created our Sector - the play area. We each took three stars and created systems for them.
My three systems were Honeybee, Toddler, and Caliban. We created the systems randomly, like the sector, with the tables in the game.
The Honeybee System
What I liked about the Honeybee System was Queen Bee, the big gas giant, which was populated by hundreds of millions of mostly Vantor living in the clouds. Yet it was not a State, but only an Affiliate. What occurs to me is that it is probably a fractured rather than a unified, society - unable to solidify into a world government necessary to become a State. Another bit I liked was Caesar. Caesar is normally uninhabitable, but has a single, large inhabited feature. There are a lot of possibilities for this, but what intrigued me was an oasys on a desert planet, one area with enough water to support life.
The Toddler System
The most interesting thing about the Toddler system to me is the two space stations. One is inhabited, with 10s of millions of mostly Humans. The other is uninhabited, strangely. I posited that the people of the habitat outgrew the old station and built a new one. It has drifted, derelict, into the trailing trojan point of the world Barrelhouse. There is also a large asteroid in the leading trojan, Kabinda, inhabited by millions of humans, but at a Tech level of 5 - Steam technology. This was, I determined, a rock hollowed out by the robot brain of a Diaspora ship from earth. Something had gone wrong with the passengers, and their culture had collapsed. The robot brain of the ship, doing its best to find them a home, had heated the asteroid and filled it with breathable gasses, creating a safe place for the broken society, after seeding the interior, it let the people out into their new home, where slowly they had built up a new, more stable society. As TL 5 is the minimum tech level allowing contact, the asteroid has probably only recently been contacted.
The Chandrasekar System
The most intriguing thing about the Chandrasekar System is the concourse of four inhabited moons orbiting the gas giant Einstein. The intricate social dance of these varied worlds - one independent, one Diasporan community, and two SaVaHuTa - all States and Colonizers, must be fascinating. I'd love to look at the development of their interdependence.
Random creation forces us to come up with non-standard solutions to the problems they present. Why is one station uninhabited? Why are these steam-tech humans living on a big asteroid? What possible combination of strange coincidences must have happened here to create this anomaly? This is why I love random generation - it forces me to think out of the box.
-clash
My three systems were Honeybee, Toddler, and Caliban. We created the systems randomly, like the sector, with the tables in the game.
The Honeybee System
What I liked about the Honeybee System was Queen Bee, the big gas giant, which was populated by hundreds of millions of mostly Vantor living in the clouds. Yet it was not a State, but only an Affiliate. What occurs to me is that it is probably a fractured rather than a unified, society - unable to solidify into a world government necessary to become a State. Another bit I liked was Caesar. Caesar is normally uninhabitable, but has a single, large inhabited feature. There are a lot of possibilities for this, but what intrigued me was an oasys on a desert planet, one area with enough water to support life.
The Toddler System
The most interesting thing about the Toddler system to me is the two space stations. One is inhabited, with 10s of millions of mostly Humans. The other is uninhabited, strangely. I posited that the people of the habitat outgrew the old station and built a new one. It has drifted, derelict, into the trailing trojan point of the world Barrelhouse. There is also a large asteroid in the leading trojan, Kabinda, inhabited by millions of humans, but at a Tech level of 5 - Steam technology. This was, I determined, a rock hollowed out by the robot brain of a Diaspora ship from earth. Something had gone wrong with the passengers, and their culture had collapsed. The robot brain of the ship, doing its best to find them a home, had heated the asteroid and filled it with breathable gasses, creating a safe place for the broken society, after seeding the interior, it let the people out into their new home, where slowly they had built up a new, more stable society. As TL 5 is the minimum tech level allowing contact, the asteroid has probably only recently been contacted.
The Chandrasekar System
The most intriguing thing about the Chandrasekar System is the concourse of four inhabited moons orbiting the gas giant Einstein. The intricate social dance of these varied worlds - one independent, one Diasporan community, and two SaVaHuTa - all States and Colonizers, must be fascinating. I'd love to look at the development of their interdependence.
Random creation forces us to come up with non-standard solutions to the problems they present. Why is one station uninhabited? Why are these steam-tech humans living on a big asteroid? What possible combination of strange coincidences must have happened here to create this anomaly? This is why I love random generation - it forces me to think out of the box.
-clash
Thursday, August 26, 2010
Metaskills and Edges
In StarCluster 2E, and carryed forward in no other game I ever designed, I introduced a concept called metaskills. Metaskills were an attempt to create a class of skills which could modify other skills when used in conjunction. For example Design (Metaskill) + Engineering (Skill) would be designing ship's drives and power, While Design + Electronics would design gadgets, and Design + Construction would design houses and other structures. Nifty idea, no? No. it was complicated to use - they boosted the Skill Check in an awkward way - and most people could never figure out how or when to use them. I bulled it through the playtesters' confusion, convinced it would work. I learned my lesson, and never used them again.
With In Harm's Way: Wild Blue, I came up with another concept - Edges. Edges are bonuses which would apply to any skill test when the matching condition was in effect. For example, the Edge Split Second - favored by fighter pilots - would be in effect whenever absolutely precise timing was critical. This worked nicely, and I've incorporated Edges into many games since, including In Harm's Way: StarCluster and StarCluster 3.
A couple of days ago, I realized what should be apparent by my juxtaposition of these two concepts - Edges are Metaskills.
Conceptually, they are both ways to treat a broad competence combined with narrower skills. If you are good at designing things, you will be better at designing electronic gadgets than someone with equal Electronics skills and no design training. Metaskills were just awkward to use, and badly named. Edges are simpler to comprehend - it's plain, standard English to say someone has an edge in a particular circumstance, whereas metaskill is a made up word - and simpler to execute - Edges are a straight Small Bonus, whereas Metaskill application needed a formula.
So now I am going to revisit SC 3's Skills and Edges with this in mind. I have a feeling there will be some changes!
-clash
With In Harm's Way: Wild Blue, I came up with another concept - Edges. Edges are bonuses which would apply to any skill test when the matching condition was in effect. For example, the Edge Split Second - favored by fighter pilots - would be in effect whenever absolutely precise timing was critical. This worked nicely, and I've incorporated Edges into many games since, including In Harm's Way: StarCluster and StarCluster 3.
A couple of days ago, I realized what should be apparent by my juxtaposition of these two concepts - Edges are Metaskills.
Conceptually, they are both ways to treat a broad competence combined with narrower skills. If you are good at designing things, you will be better at designing electronic gadgets than someone with equal Electronics skills and no design training. Metaskills were just awkward to use, and badly named. Edges are simpler to comprehend - it's plain, standard English to say someone has an edge in a particular circumstance, whereas metaskill is a made up word - and simpler to execute - Edges are a straight Small Bonus, whereas Metaskill application needed a formula.
So now I am going to revisit SC 3's Skills and Edges with this in mind. I have a feeling there will be some changes!
-clash
Monday, August 23, 2010
Saturday's Game
Had our first full-on playtest of StarNova Sunday. By that I mean creating characters intended for StarNova and playing exclusively with it, rather than swapping it in on the fly to test it out. It was a hellova good game! StarNova is both extremely gritty and explosively high powered, due to the exploding 6. My players loved it, ranking it just behind StarPerc and on a par with StarPool in their favorite mechanics! Their closest comparison was to Pendragon, where life can be tenuous and death fast. My players do not care at all for StarKarma, the randomless mechanic, BTW, though they all say it works fine. They just prefer some random action - any random action.
Their characters are fun! Most are performers of some type who work in acts in the Casino - an extremely dumb exotic dancer (stripper) named Candi, a stage magician named the Great Marvello and his equally gifted assistant, and a knife thrower/actor/dancer. There's also the scions of the Castella Family - the grandson of the Don, Fabrizzio, who has led the life of a playboy, but now must shoulder the burden of running the family now that his father is dead, his half-sister, daughter of the ex-playboy's father and his father's lifelong mistress who was killed with him, and the ex-playboy's driver-bodyguard. The young man is intelligent, but utterly untrained for this, and his most trusted companions are not the made men around his father, but the lounge acts from the Casino. The first session was extraordinarily funny, and wonderfully in character for all. The group find out that his father and mistress were murdered, most likely by a member of the family, which only serves to drive them closer together.
The Casino is on an "island" - a chunk of rock floating in the Necklace, a breathable gas torus (a la Niven's Smoke Ring) around a neutron star, with an artificial River - created by gravitic technology - endlessly writhing through the torus. These chunks of rock, covered with vegitation, orbit the neutron star and many are inhabited. This island is fairly small. Many are huge. I have painted a view of the island:
-clash
Their characters are fun! Most are performers of some type who work in acts in the Casino - an extremely dumb exotic dancer (stripper) named Candi, a stage magician named the Great Marvello and his equally gifted assistant, and a knife thrower/actor/dancer. There's also the scions of the Castella Family - the grandson of the Don, Fabrizzio, who has led the life of a playboy, but now must shoulder the burden of running the family now that his father is dead, his half-sister, daughter of the ex-playboy's father and his father's lifelong mistress who was killed with him, and the ex-playboy's driver-bodyguard. The young man is intelligent, but utterly untrained for this, and his most trusted companions are not the made men around his father, but the lounge acts from the Casino. The first session was extraordinarily funny, and wonderfully in character for all. The group find out that his father and mistress were murdered, most likely by a member of the family, which only serves to drive them closer together.
The Casino is on an "island" - a chunk of rock floating in the Necklace, a breathable gas torus (a la Niven's Smoke Ring) around a neutron star, with an artificial River - created by gravitic technology - endlessly writhing through the torus. These chunks of rock, covered with vegitation, orbit the neutron star and many are inhabited. This island is fairly small. Many are huge. I have painted a view of the island:
-clash
Friday, August 20, 2010
StarCluster 3 - Playtest Status Report
I just sent out Beta version 3 of StarCluster 3. It adds a number of new things, fixes some small problem areas in chargen, clarifies some things better, and includes the beginnings of the Developers Support for the Developer's Edition. I still have to word the license and add some more stuff in the Developer's Notes. Aside from that, fixing the Index is the biggest task left before proofing.
I'm still planning on releasing SC 3 at the end of September/Beginning of October. Barring some catastrophe, I should be able to make that deadline.
-clash
I'm still planning on releasing SC 3 at the end of September/Beginning of October. Barring some catastrophe, I should be able to make that deadline.
-clash
Tuesday, August 17, 2010
Echolocator Implant
An Implant for StarCluster 3.
Echolocator
Lifestyle: Rich
Time Cost: 1 month - to get used to the slight unavoidable delay in data capture and image processing, which initially causes dizziness.
TL: 9
Benefits: Passively, the Echolocator allows personal navigation in complete darkness by mapping the surroundings by tracking sonic echoes off of surfaces. The sensor data is processed into a three dimenional model, with the resulting construct fed into the optic nerves and processed by the visual centers of the brain. In this mode, the construct is dim and ghostly, pulsing with transient sound, with only the most solid objects - stone, metal, and the like - reflecting images with any solidity. The Passive mode range is 3 meters. In Active mode, the ultrasonic emitter sends out a regular pinging pulse, rendering the surroundings with far greater detail. The denser the substance of the object, the more solid they appear in either mode. the Active mode range is 10 meters. People tend to look like ghosts, even in Active mode, though in that mode they are rendered in much greater detail, and without irregular pulsing. In Active mode, if the forehead is placed in direct contact with solid surfaces, it is possible to detect voids and differing meterials placed within the surface within one meter. The field of view mimics the visual field of view of the person, but placed slightly higher.
Drawbacks: Active Pinging can be heard by creatures with hearing rated 3 or higher. Non-dense objects and surfaces can appear transparent.
Description: An ultrasound emitter and sensor is placed in the middle of the forehead, replacing part of the skull. The device is interconnected to the optic nerves, allowing the construct to be perceived as if it were vision. The skin is replaced over the device, and it is normally invisible.
Enjoy!
-clash
Echolocator
Lifestyle: Rich
Time Cost: 1 month - to get used to the slight unavoidable delay in data capture and image processing, which initially causes dizziness.
TL: 9
Benefits: Passively, the Echolocator allows personal navigation in complete darkness by mapping the surroundings by tracking sonic echoes off of surfaces. The sensor data is processed into a three dimenional model, with the resulting construct fed into the optic nerves and processed by the visual centers of the brain. In this mode, the construct is dim and ghostly, pulsing with transient sound, with only the most solid objects - stone, metal, and the like - reflecting images with any solidity. The Passive mode range is 3 meters. In Active mode, the ultrasonic emitter sends out a regular pinging pulse, rendering the surroundings with far greater detail. The denser the substance of the object, the more solid they appear in either mode. the Active mode range is 10 meters. People tend to look like ghosts, even in Active mode, though in that mode they are rendered in much greater detail, and without irregular pulsing. In Active mode, if the forehead is placed in direct contact with solid surfaces, it is possible to detect voids and differing meterials placed within the surface within one meter. The field of view mimics the visual field of view of the person, but placed slightly higher.
Drawbacks: Active Pinging can be heard by creatures with hearing rated 3 or higher. Non-dense objects and surfaces can appear transparent.
Description: An ultrasound emitter and sensor is placed in the middle of the forehead, replacing part of the skull. The device is interconnected to the optic nerves, allowing the construct to be perceived as if it were vision. The skin is replaced over the device, and it is normally invisible.
Enjoy!
-clash
Monday, August 16, 2010
StarCluster 3 - IRC game #1
I started the first of my IRC StarCluster 3 games Sunday. It was a building session, deciding all kinds of things. The players decided they wanted to play in the StarCluster 2 Cluster, Gloria system, continuing our Glorianna-Warren war scenario from SC 2. They all are creating new characters, two each, who have no connection with our old characters. They created a Company called Delivery Services, based on Fiske in the Gloria system. Fiske is a neutral world, unaffiliated with -actually competing with - both Glorianna and Warren. Fiske was settled by a group with 19th century American Cultural Emulation, so we defined its Cultural Traits as Friendly 2, Corrupt 2, Can Do 2, and Freewheeling 1. We figured it should be a hotbed of spying, like Casablanca in WWII, or Berlin in the Cold War.
Delivery Services was, until recently, a delivery service, employing couriers to deliver important packages and papers. just recently, it was bought out by a group of investors. These people are intelligence operatives, and they have begun to change Delivery Services into an intelligence gathering outfit, retaining the old Courier service as a front. Players may choose one of three levels for their two characters:
Partner. These are the ex-ops who bought the company. They are skilled but for various reasons - being wanted for espionage, persona non grata, illegal immigration - are not going to go out on the actual op much. They control the company, its resources, and its operatives.
Op. These are the seasoned operatives brought in to the Company who are *not* Partners, and are intended for fieldwork.
Trainees. These are likely-looking couriers who are being trained as operatives, sometimes without their knowledge. Some of them are in on the change, and some aren't.
The company purchased the following assets:
A Warehouse. This is the home of the front company, the Courier service. It's got some offices, some repair facilities for vehicles, and a front counter for cutomers. The legit couriers work out of this warehouse.
Six Air Trucks. These are 5 ton grav vehicles, which can go into orbit or move packages anywhere on Fiske. Some of these have been tricked out for intelligence work.
Six Air Bikes. Also mainly for the couriers, these are for papers and small package delivery. Also grav vehicles, these can go to orbit, but being open, you would need a vacuum suit to do so. They are small, fast, and inconspicuous.
2 Local Sympathizers. These are locals working for the Warren and Gloriannan Embassies who have been bribed into passing things concerning Fiske along to the Company.
Common and Unclommon Legal Databases. This is to let them know the law so they can sidestep it. One of the PCs is a lawyer as well as a partner.
Secret Base. Located under the warehouse, and accessible only to those in the know and trusted by the company. The entrance is hidden, and won't show on scans, being made from Active Plasteel which looks solid.
Four Trainees. These are not the PCs, but may become PCs if needed. They are couriers being trained in intelligence techniques. Rookies.
Maintenance and Logistics. This eats up a ton of capital, but is necessary for both the front and the real Company to function.
Working Capital. The Company has 84 points in liquid capital to spend on emergency assistance (bribes), aquisition of humint talent (suborning people to work for them), and other needful expenditures.
The players are creating their characters this week. We have some wierd ones so far! An uplifted octopus, an escaped android Warrenese Second Wife, and a bioengineered human-wolf hybrid top the list. :D
I'm really looking forward to this! This game runs Sunday afternoons. IRC Game #2 will be running Thurday nights.
-clash
-clash
Delivery Services was, until recently, a delivery service, employing couriers to deliver important packages and papers. just recently, it was bought out by a group of investors. These people are intelligence operatives, and they have begun to change Delivery Services into an intelligence gathering outfit, retaining the old Courier service as a front. Players may choose one of three levels for their two characters:
Partner. These are the ex-ops who bought the company. They are skilled but for various reasons - being wanted for espionage, persona non grata, illegal immigration - are not going to go out on the actual op much. They control the company, its resources, and its operatives.
Op. These are the seasoned operatives brought in to the Company who are *not* Partners, and are intended for fieldwork.
Trainees. These are likely-looking couriers who are being trained as operatives, sometimes without their knowledge. Some of them are in on the change, and some aren't.
The company purchased the following assets:
A Warehouse. This is the home of the front company, the Courier service. It's got some offices, some repair facilities for vehicles, and a front counter for cutomers. The legit couriers work out of this warehouse.
Six Air Trucks. These are 5 ton grav vehicles, which can go into orbit or move packages anywhere on Fiske. Some of these have been tricked out for intelligence work.
Six Air Bikes. Also mainly for the couriers, these are for papers and small package delivery. Also grav vehicles, these can go to orbit, but being open, you would need a vacuum suit to do so. They are small, fast, and inconspicuous.
2 Local Sympathizers. These are locals working for the Warren and Gloriannan Embassies who have been bribed into passing things concerning Fiske along to the Company.
Common and Unclommon Legal Databases. This is to let them know the law so they can sidestep it. One of the PCs is a lawyer as well as a partner.
Secret Base. Located under the warehouse, and accessible only to those in the know and trusted by the company. The entrance is hidden, and won't show on scans, being made from Active Plasteel which looks solid.
Four Trainees. These are not the PCs, but may become PCs if needed. They are couriers being trained in intelligence techniques. Rookies.
Maintenance and Logistics. This eats up a ton of capital, but is necessary for both the front and the real Company to function.
Working Capital. The Company has 84 points in liquid capital to spend on emergency assistance (bribes), aquisition of humint talent (suborning people to work for them), and other needful expenditures.
The players are creating their characters this week. We have some wierd ones so far! An uplifted octopus, an escaped android Warrenese Second Wife, and a bioengineered human-wolf hybrid top the list. :D
I'm really looking forward to this! This game runs Sunday afternoons. IRC Game #2 will be running Thurday nights.
-clash
-clash
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)