The Wizard Exploded Cookbook

Here's the latest three classes from MADCorp: the Hustler, Stringman, and Arko.

Don't mind the formatting quirks; I blame LiveJournal.
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Physique
Hustlers are either wiry, scrawny, or fat. Roll a d10 to determine which: 1-3 wiry, 4-7 scrawny, 8-10 fat.

Skills
Appraise stuff.
With a THINK check, you can appraise the worth (in cash) of anything saleable on the streets or in retail. If it’s oldTech, you get -1. If you succeed on a 1-4, the Ref skews the real value by up to 100%. If you succeed on a 5-10, the Ref skews the real value by up to 50%. If you succeed on an 11 or higher, the Ref tells you the exact value of the item.
            This normally takes a moderate time, but you can do it carefully (in extended time) at +1.

Just hear me out.
When you give a spiel, people will stop and listen to you until you finish. You’re just so damn charismatic that they can’t help themselves. This is great for creating a diversion. Now, if they have a reason to suspect that you’re up to something (for instance, if they just noticed that one of your partners has a gun and has moved to an advantageous shooting position), they get to make a THINK check to break free of your hold. Otherwise, they’re yours until you stop talking, or until some violence or danger starts happening.
            If you intend to deceive or manipulate someone through this, both of you must make a THINK check. Your mark's check counts as blocking. If you still succeed, he falls for it. If you use this skill more than once against the same person, he gets a bonus to his THINK rolls for each repeat attempt.
 

 Taunt.
Growing up in a bad neighborhood also means that you’re an adept player of the Dozens. You know lots of good insults, as well as plenty of lousy ones that, for some reason, really get people’s balls in a twist. When you taunt someone, they must make a THINK check or else they come after you (with intent to do you violence) to the point of ignoring everything else. As long as they’re under the influence of your taunt, they get to keep making THINK checks each turn to break free of it. 

Haggling.
When selling loot after a job, you can jack up the selling prices of some of it. Make a THINK check; if you succeed on a 1-4, pick one item; on a 5-10, three items; on an 11 or better, five items. The items that you picked sell for 150% of their actual worth.

 Blame shift.
When you piss of management and are about to get written up, you can shift the blame onto one of your partners with a THINK check.

Concealed weapons.
You have the ability to conceal pocket-sized weapons about your person such that people don’t know you’re packed. When you produce a concealed weapon, it’s very surprising: the person you use it on must THINK or else hesitate.

Proficiencies
Weapons:
*            Knives
*            Blackjacks
*            Handguns
Armor: Light street.
Holsters: 1.

Traits

Hustlin’: +1 to deceive management
Resourceful: +1 when looking for a hiding place or finding something to use as a weapon

When You Crack

 Starting Gear

*            Casual, sharp, or hip clothes

*            One of the following:

o       a switchblade (edged shortest pocket)

o       a blackjack (blunt shortest pocket)

o       a derringer (gun-1 shortest pocket ammo:1) & a handful of shells (reload x3)

o       brass knuckles (brawl+1 shortest pocket worn)

 Buddy Score Mods
+2 with everybody, except Yeggs, Hardcases, and other Hustlers: they’re wise to you.

STRINGMAN
A quirk in this guy’s hearing gives him a unique experience of sound. So, naturally, he took up music. His wild improvisations exist in the spaces between notes, through convoluted microtonal passages that unlock mystic secrets. That’s right, he does magic by making a racket. They call him a Stringman because his preference runs to stringed instruments – it’s easy to tune them in strange ways, and microtones are easily achievable through bends and slides, or “incorrect” fingerings on fretless instruments.

Physique
Stringmen are either beefy, wiry, scrawny, or fat. Roll a d10 to determine which: 1 beefy, 2-4 wiry, 5-8 scrawny, 9-10 fat.

Skills
Sideways hearing.
You have a special way of experiencing sound, which enables you to hear the strange interactions of sounds that allow you to use your Stringman powers. There’s a few side effects, however. One is that it’s difficult for you to tell what direction noises are coming from – you have to make a SEE check to properly identify the source of sound. Another is that loud, sudden noises Spook you. Finally, you are incapable of filtering out noises, making it very difficult for you to understand speech when things are noisy – you have to make a THINK check to reconstruct what was said from context and the snatches you did understand. That last one has a bright side, however, in that you hear noises that other people would ignore. Sometimes they’re just noises that people ignore for a reason (like the barely audible buzzing sound of operating electronics), but sometimes it pays off (like when it’s the barely audible buzzing sound of an operating gadget weapon about to be used on you from the shadows).

 Wall of sound.
Make an ENDURE check to create a wall of sound across or around any point. You can span the whole room with it. It’s literally like a solid wall; nothing can pass through it. It can, however, be broken; if an attack for +2 damage or better hits it, you must ENDURE or else the wall falls immediately afterward. Damage over +2 gives you a penalty on this (so, if it’s damage +3, you’d be rolling ENDURE -1). Otherwise, the wall lasts until you stop playing it.

 Red note.
Make a HIT check to play a short passage culminating in a sharp or piercing dissonant note at a single target. It’s literally sharp or piercing, doing +0 damage on the Edged or Piercing table, your choice. Alternatively, you can start playing early to charge it up; each round you spend charging up for the red note increases its damage by +1.

 Haunting melody.
Use this skill to play a creepy, haunting melody. It’s so creepy that it will Spook your enemies. If they can’t tell where it’s coming from, it Harrows them. You can’t use it against the same people more than once in the same action sequence.

 Soothing melody.
Make a THINK check to play a melody that, while it doesn’t sound soothing, has a physically soothing effect on the target. This enables the target to ignore any pain penalties they are currently suffering from. This effect lasts as long as you continue playing the melody.

 Lullaby.
Make a THINK check to play a lullaby against a target. If successful, he falls sound asleep. And I mean sound asleep – no noise will wake him up. Being hurt will, though. If you stop playing the lullaby, the victim can make ENDURE checks each turn to wake up.

 Adagio.
Make a THINK check to play an adagio against a group of enemies. Any enemy in the room who can hear you is affected. The adagio slows them down, causing them to lose precedence against all of your allies. The only exceptions are people who had higher precedence than you did; they keep their precedence this round, but they lose it next round if you keep playing. This slowing effect lasts as long as you continue to play the adagio.

 Bending.
When you bend notes, you can bend matter. You can make an object move or distort its shape by making a MOVE check. If it’s heavy, you get -1. If it’s double-heavy, you get -2. You can’t damage your target object in this way. The effect is very brief, lasting only a quick time.

 Maintain instruments.
By taking an extended time and spending materials from your maintenance kit, you can remove all Wear from your instruments. This takes 1 point of materials per Wear box cleared.

 Appraise instruments.
With a THINK check, you can appraise the worth (in cash) of musical instruments. If you succeed on a 1-4, the Ref skews the real value by up to 100%. If you succeed on a 5-10, the Ref skews the real value by up to 50%. If you succeed on an 11 or higher, the Ref tells you the exact value of the item.
            This normally takes a moderate time, but you can do it carefully (in extended time) at +1.

 Proficiencies
Weapons: none.
Armor: none.
Holsters: 2.

 Traits

 When You Crack
When a Stringman cracks it, his hearing quirk gets even worse. Noises may randomly send him into a fit of rage or a nervous breakdown. While he’s not freaking out from noises, he’s freaking out on his instrument, playing notes that Man Was Not Meant to Play. The result is anyone else who hears them being hit for -1 damage on the Weird Magic table.

 Starting Gear

*            Casual, hip, weird, or spooky clothes

*            One of the following:

o       an acoustic stringed instrument

o       an electric stringed instrument with a battery-powered amplifier on a belt clip for +1 effect (loud battery:10)

*            a maintenance kit for your instrument (materials:20 refill:5cash)

 Buddy Score Mods
+1 with other Stringmen. +1 with Trippers, ‘cause they really groove out on your tunes.

 

ARKO
“Arko” is dungeoneer slang for “archaeologist,” because most dungeoneers can’t spell “archaeologist.” Although some mean-spirited types call them antiquers. Basically, an Arko is up on the old shit. Hell, he’s obsessed with it. He probably doesn’t even have a degree, but that’s okay, ‘cause he really does know his old shit. 

Physique
Arkos are either wiry, scrawny, or fat. Roll a d10 to determine which: 1-3 wiry, 4-7 scrawny, 8-10 fat. 

Skills
Identify oldTech.
With a THINK check, you can identify the functions of oldTech machines and gadgets, allowing you to operate them and instruct others in their operation.
            This normally takes an extended time, but you can do it carefully (in double-extended time) at +1.

 Operate oldTech.
You can operate any oldTech that you know the functions of. If it’s something really complex, the Ref may call for a THINK check to see if you operate it properly. 

Instruct others in the use of oldTech.
To instruct a partner in the use of a piece of oldTech that you know how to operate, you must make a THINK check. If successful, that partner can now attempt to use it, although, for complicated stuff, the Ref may require the partner to make a THINK check when using it.
            This normally takes a moderate time, but you can do it hastily (in quick time) at -1, or carefully (in extended time) at +1.

Appraise old shit.
With a THINK check, you can appraise the worth (in cash) of oldTech and other artifacts. If you succeed on a 1-4, the Ref skews the real value by up to 100%. If you succeed on a 5-10, the Ref skews the real value by up to 50%. If you succeed on an 11 or higher, the Ref tells you the exact value of the item.
            This normally takes a moderate time, but you can do it carefully (in extended time) at +1.

 Cartography.
Taking an extended time, you can double-check maps of indoor locations. Make a THINK check; if successful, you can ask the Ref if any particular thing on your map is accurate and receive a true answer. If you succeeded on a 1-4, you can ask one question, two questions on a 5-10, and three questions on an 11 or better.

Knowledge of old architecture.
You've studied enough  blueprints and floorplans of old buildings that you've got a sense for how they work. Once per job, on a successful THINK check, you can peek at the Ref’s map for a number of seconds equal to the margin of your THINK roll.

 Maintain oldTech.
You can spend an extended time to take care of oldTech items and remove all Wear from them. This uses 1 material from your maintenance kit per Wear box unchecked. 

Proficiencies
Weapons: any oldTech weapons.
Armor: none.
Holsters: 1.

 Traits
Dungeon expert: +1 when examining structural features of dungeons for irregularities, damage, or other special features.
Resourceful: +1 when looking for a hiding place or finding something to use as a weapon

 When You Crack
When an Arko cracks it, he finally gets to go where he’s always wanted to: the past. Except, he doesn’t, of course. He only thinks he does. Everything around him will appear the way it did years ago, complete with people, and he’ll act accordingly. Of course, in the past, there weren’t rival dungeoneers or, y’know, monsters, so he won’t see those.

Starting Gear

*            Casual or rugged clothes

*            An oldTech version of any weapon available to other classes

*            A maintenance kit for old shit (materials:20 refill:20cash)

 Buddy Score Mods
+1 with other Arkos. -3 with Crashers, Junk Knights, and Helter-Skelters (the morons are too destructive).

I’m working on a thing that grabbed me by my throat and demanded that I work on it (I get that a lot. It’s becoming a problem). It’s a System design, independent of Setting, which is something I thought I’d never ever do, but I’m doing it, and I’ve already got two Settings in mind to apply it to (in case you’re wondering, one is the Dread Age of Sail that I blogged about, and the other is the Neverwood setting that I posted on Story Games about once). The working title is “the GRIEF System,” which is a backronym for “Gothic-Romantic Intense Emotional Fantasy” (but don’t hold me to that name). It’s the kind of fantasy where the emotions that motivate the characters are more powerful than their abilities, and are the gateway to the fantastic elements. The kind of fantasy where a character’s rage fans extant flames into explosive blazes, where a gun passed from father to son for generations is more deadly because of the heritage it represents, where a man’s sin against something he loves can spawn an unspeakable horror in an otherwise beautiful landscape.

I’ve got the basic mechanics in mind already, and there’s nothing in them that I haven’t seen in other games, so I’ll go ahead and credit them: The Burning Wheel by Luke Crane, The Shadow of Yesterday by Clinton R. Nixon, and Poison’d by Vincent Baker already contain all the pieces I’m using at the moment. Special mention should go to John Harper’s Lady Blackbird, which uses most of the same pieces in almost the same way (ok, so I’m given to understand that his Conditions are cribbed from Mouse Guard, which I haven’t had the pleasure to look at, but they’re really the same thing as the Cruel Fortunes and other Positioning+Resource mechanics found in Poison’d, which I have). I wanted a slightly different accent, though.

Here’s what I know so far:

1. Characters have a set of 4 “standard attributes” that are common to all. Presently their names are Vigor, Attention, Craft, and Persona. That’s strength/endurance/agility, awareness/perception, cunning/applied knowledge, and charisma/will, respectively. All ordinary, mundane actions are handled by 1 of these attributes. I’m not sure how these will be derived; it will probably be some sort of point-buy method.

2. Characters have one or more “special attributes,” and this is where the emotional and fantastical elements come in. These are chosen from a fixed list, and include such things as Rage, Heritage, Faith, Guilt, and Despair. All magical, supernatural, and fantastical actions must involve a special attribute. The starting values of these will probably be set arbitrarily by the player, based on his view of the attribute’s intensity in his PC. This is okay because these are both a source of power and a liability – they’ve got a bit of a life of their own. In play, I see the values as subject to change, but mostly in an upward direction, with the threat of peaking out in a manner that takes the PC out of play (similarly to Emotional Attributes in BW, or Transcendence in TSOY). Lowering the values will be difficult, and removing an attribute entirely even moreso.

Note that a PC without, say, the Grief attribute can still grieve; it just won’t have the special effects contingent on the Grief attribute.

3. Characters have one or more specific personal goals and motivations. These should of course be tied to their special attributes somehow, and, to start with, can be thought of as fleshing out the character’s special attributes – how did they get that way, and why. Think BW Belief-style writeups. I keep coming back to the terms Concerns, Convictions, and Commitments to describe these, but I don’t know if those’ll stick.

I don’t think these have any actual mechanical impact. They’re really just flags and roleplaying reminders. They’re subject to change at any time, and their changes should be tracked so you can see the change in your characters. But the changes should be in line with the character’s special attributes and traits (below).

4. The basic resolution mechanic is like this. When you endeavor to do something and something bad might happen as a result of the attempt and/or someone takes action against you, that’s when you roll dice. The dicing mechanic is basically BW. You roll the dice of one of your standard attributes, plus the dice of any special attributes that apply, looking to roll “hits” (4s or higher on d6s). You “spend” hits to address obstacles and dangers on a 1:1 basis. Obstacles are things that must be overcome in order to succeed, and dangers are unpleasant outcomes that might occur regardless of success or failure. You must address all obstacles in order to succeed in your endeavor (thus the number of obstacles is actually the same thing as the Obstacle in BW), and you must address any dangers that you do not wish to come to pass. It may sometimes be necessary to fail in order to address dangers, or to allow dangers to come true in order to succeed. (Ok, so there’s some Otherkind in there too, I forgot). Dice over the obstacle that aren’t spent to address dangers can be spent on special effects related to the action (for instance, damage if you’re trying to hurt someone, or quality if you’re making something), or else become a metagame resource called Edge that you can call on for help later.

Dice that come from special attributes will have special “fallout” effects when certain values are rolled; probably 1s or 6s, or maybe both. This is where the special attributes take on a life of their own, leak into the environment, and cause things to happen unbidden. This fallout works apart from dangers, and can’t be blocked by spending hits like dangers can.

Minor NPCs don’t roll dice; they only impose obstacles and dangers. When acting against someone, you can likewise spend hits in excess of your own obstacles to impose dangers and obstacles. The added bite there is that you can double up on them; if you commit 3 hits to imposing a single danger, then it’s going to take 3 hits to address.

5. There will be special subsystems for: highlighting conflicts (at a level of intricacy somewhere between BW’s combat systems and TSOY’s Bringing Down the Pain), sorcery (i.e. deliberate magic), binding oaths and vows, bearing personal animus, and perhaps a few other things. I’m still vague on these.

6. Characters have a number of “trait slots,” into which they put traits. These traits come primarily from fixed lists, and it’s these lists of traits that will primarily define and differentiate Settings using this System. These traits are basically BW’s skills & traits and TSOY’s Secrets & Keys consolidated into one mechanic.

Each trait functions in one or more of the following ways:

* Allowing you to use your attributes in special ways. For instance, someone with some sort of “Thief” trait would be able to roll Craft to pick locks – something which an ordinary person can’t do.
* Opening up constraints on declared actions. For instance, if your guy had a trait that said he was able to fly, then you can now include flying in your descriptions of your character’s actions.
* Rewarding you with “Growth” points for focusing on stipulated character qualities & motivations in your roleplaying & decisions, especially to the detriment of your character and others. Growth is spent to fill empty trait slots, and to get additional slots.
* Applying bonuses in stipulated circumstances.

All, or nearly all, traits can be “bought off” similarly to TSOY Keys. Unlike Keys, however, you don’t earn points for this. The only reward is making room for new traits.

Your traits should, of course, have some connection to your special attributes and motivations. Perhaps some traits will require that you take on certain special attributes. You can think of traits as the way to give your motivations mechanical effect, if you wish.

7. Characters can suffer conditions, which are the evil twins of traits. A number of conditions that are likely to come up frequently, such as injury, illness, madness, and exhaustion, will be prescribed by the rules. Others may need to be ruled on the spot by the GM. Any compromising position is a candidate for a “condition,” and can be applied as a condition if a.) it was a danger and you allowed it to come to pass, b.) it was stipulated as being contingent to failure in an endeavor, and/or c.) you acquiesced to it. For an example of that last one, that’s where someone says, “I sneak up behind you and knock you out,” and you decline to say, “Like hell you do!”

Each condition functions in one or more of the following ways:

* Constraining declared actions. For instance, if your guy is suffering from the condition “mute,” you can’t describe your guy speaking.
* Allowing the GM to dictate that unpleasant things are true. For instance, if your guy has been trapped by the royal guard and it’s applied as a condition, the GM can say, “Ok, so they clap you in irons and take you to the Tower.”
* Imposing obstacles and/or dangers (i.e. penalties) in certain circumstances.

Conditions aren’t exactly “bought off” so much as they are “overcome.” Unlike traits, this does earn you points (i.e. Growth). In case you were wondering why anyone would ever acquiesce to a condition.

TRIPPER

You think you experimented in college? This guy opened the doors of perception, and then the windows of perception, and finally tore up the floorboards of perception and went abseiling through. He came back, sorta, with the knowledge of how to achieve superhuman and supernatural states through the use of hard drugs. Yes, kids, drugs are the answer.

Physique

Trippers are either wiry or scrawny. It’s a 50-50 shot, so roll even/odd to determine which.

Skills

Drug tolerance.

You can self-administer one dose of hard drugs without overdosing. However, if you have more than one active dose at a time without successful supervision or instruction from a Croaker, you overdose.

Phase trip.

When normal people take a hit of phase, they feel insubstantial, like they’re made of air. When you take a hit of phase, you actually become insubstantial. You can’t be harmed physically while phase-tripping, but you can’t affect anything physically either. You can, however, pass through walls and other solid barriers. Just make sure you’re not in the midst of a solid object when it wears off.

            Phase trips last for 1 turn or a single action sequence. When you come down, you feel really heavy, and are treated as if burdened until you take a break.

Rainbo trip.

Ordinary people take rainbo and just get a pretty lightshow for half an hour. When you take it, you see pretty colors too, but what you’re actually seeing is magic. You gain the ability to see any and all magic energies in the area – ambient ones, those contingent on spells, energies emanating from artifacts, and so on. Big, potent ones you can actually see through walls. With a THINK check, you can identify the function of the magic.

            Rainbo trips last for 10 turns. When you come down, you’re dazed.

Z-ray trip.

When normal people drop z-ray, their vision just gets all weird for a second, then they get a body high. When you take a hit of z-ray, you can, with a SEE check, see through solid objects: through walls, into crates, and, yes, through clothing.

            Z-ray trips last for 10 turns. When you come down, you’re dazed.

Rush trip.

Rush makes normal people talk fast and move in quick, jittery motions. It gives you the ability to run really fast, as fast as a motor vehicle (fast+1).

            Rush trips last for an extended time or a single action sequence. When you come down, you’re exhausted.

Smash trip.

They call it smash because it makes people want to, well, smash things. When you take it, you not only want to smash things, but are extremely capable at it: with a successful HIT check, you can demolish any non-living thing beyond repair.

            Smash trips last for an extended time or a single action sequence. When you come down, you’re exhausted.

Atlas trip.

Atlas is normally used by body builders to maximize their pump. It is abnormally used by you to gain the ability to lift and carry anything on your shoulders, without it slowing you down. Just make sure you’re not carrying, like, a bus when it wears off.

            Also, for all uses of the Comparative Physique table, treat yourself as if massive, then add 1 to the modifier. (So, if you were shoving someone scrawny, you’d get +3; if you were arm-wrestling someone massive, you’d get +1.)

            Atlas trips last for 10 turns. When you come down, you’re exhausted.

Chill trip.

Most people take a chill pill to calm down and cool off. You take them to gain the ability to drop the temperature in localized areas, even to the extent of freezing water and the moisture in the air into ice at will. Make a HIT check to attack someone with it, with damage on the Blunt table for chunks of ice or the Piercing table for wicked icicles. Reach doesn’t apply. You can also make the floor slippery, requiring MOVE checks for people to get across it without falling. Finally, you’re immune to the detrimental effects of cold while chill tripping.

            Chill trips last for 10 turns. When you come down, you’re treated as if suffering from extreme heat until you take a break.

I’ll show you performance enhancers.

When you take any of the performance enhancing drugs (krush, perk, slide, flash, or hero), their effect is doubled for you.

Connection for Tripper drugs.

You have a connection to score your special drugs on your own time. Your supply of 20 hits refills between jobs. They don’t carry over between jobs because you used them all to get high in the downtime.

Proficiencies

Weapons: none.

Armor: none.

Holsters: 1.

Traits

Fried: -1 to THINK and SEE outside the scope of your tripping powers.

When You Crack

When a Tripper cracks it, all the drug remnants that have piled up in his brain break loose and send him on the worst flashback ever. Everyone appears to him as horrible monsters, and they all think he sucks. At this point, he’s apt to be very unpredictable and violent. He’ll also have unlimited access to the powers granted by the most recent drug he took.

Starting Gear

*            Weird clothes

*            Twenty hits of hard drugs in any combination of the following:

o       Phase

o       Rainbo

o       Z-ray

o       Rush

o       Smash

o       Atlas

o       Chill

Buddy Score Mods

+1 with anyone who has drugs, extra +1 with Croakers. -1 with anyone not in weird clothes.

Just helpless Pieces of the Game He plays
Upon this chequer-board of Nights and Days;
Hither and thither He moves, and checks, and slays,
And one by one back in the closet lays.
            – Omar Khayyam, The Rubaiyat

I’ve read various analyses of the political content of KILLER7, and, while I don’t disagree much with the points made, I don’t find it a satisfying take on the story. The topical content is heavy-handed, dated, and lacking in resonance. This is some rambling analysis on parts of it that resonated with me.

I initially rented the game and played up through Sunset Part 2 before returning it. I bought it a couple years later, because, while the gameplay itself had its flaws, the game presented a one-of-a-kind experience that I wanted to see through to the end. I mean, if Guy Ritchie and William S. Burroughs got together to make a movie, it might be something like this, if they were lucky. I love the way it forces you to take things in stride – or, as William S. Burroughs would say, “take a broad, general view of things” – just to be able to even play. Its form, with its fucked up structure, rampant symbolism, and dream logic, is what draws me to it.

A MAGICAL VIEW

The novelist William S. Burroughs is famed for his use of the Cut-Up Method, which, in its most basic form, consists of taking a block of text, cutting it into pieces, and rearranging the pieces such that new words and phrases would be formed. You end up with run-on sentences and fragments, and little punctuation where it is needed, but you also end up with a lot of evocative, amusing, and occasionally astounding results. Burroughs applied this principle in other ways as well, including shotgun paintings and tape recordings over which he would record new material at random intervals, rewinding and fast-forwarding to dub new recordings at whim.

The operating principle here is the same one that fuels most divination, from I Ching to Tarot to tasseomancy. This is the ability of the human mind to make sense from chaos. By the same token, we see pictures in the clouds or even in random assortments of dots. Cut-up takes this further than divination, however, because divination techniques come with commentary and advice for interpreting. Cut-up does not pretend to offer a new kind of sense. What it does is face you with something incomprehensible, occupying the rational mind to give you a moment of silence in which the intuitive mind and the dreaming mind are free to create sense. Through this dynamic, the reader of cut-up fiction takes on just as much of a creative role as the author does.

 Through a slightly different method, KILLER7 also does this. While it doesn’t cut-up and rearrange things (beyond a bit of chronological mixing that isn’t anything weirder than you’d see in a Tarantino flick), it confronts you with situations and juxtapositions that you can’t make sense of rationally. It requires a different view, one that is closely tied with symbol and dream-logic: a magical view.

 I don’t mean that the explanation for everything in the game is, “Oh, it’s magic.” I’m also not talking about what modern psychology dubs “magical thinking” (which is merely a misguided branch of rational thought). I’m talking about a worldview by which the universe is abstract and incomprehensible, causality is synchronous, and the symbol IS the thing. This is the same thought-model necessary to make sense of Buddhism (especially the Apocalyptic Vehicle), most paganism, and any occult philosophy worth the paper it is written on.

WHO IS THE PROTAGONIST?

A good starting point for analyzing dramatic narratives is to identify who the protagonist is, and what he wants. Going from there, you look at what he does to try to get what he wants, and what happens as a result.

Another side note. I don’t know what it’s like in other countries, but schools in the U.S. are notoriously bad at teaching this (as well as all other literary theory). The protagonist is not necessarily “the good guy,” and he’s not necessarily “the main character.” A protagonist is a character who wants something, and who drives the plot by proactively trying to accomplish his goals, facing adversity and antagonism along the way. Some stories have multiple protagonists, and some don’t have any at all, merely having characters that we like.

So, who is the protagonist of KILLER7? At first glance, it seems to be Garcian. After all, he’s the guy you play as. But a bit of thought reveals that he’s not it. Through the majority of the plot, Garcian is an instrument, following orders with no will of his own. It is not until the final scene that he is even presented a choice in what he does. Garcian is Harman’s instrument, which is what has led me to conclude that Harman Smith is the protagonist.

Who is Harman Smith? One thing that seems unavoidably clear is that he is a being of power. After all, in the stuff we’re shown, he lives for well over 150 years. Whether he’s a god, a sorcerer, an anthropomorphic representation of a concept, or whatever is unclear, but also not necessary to understand. But who is he, as a character? Well, the way he’s depicted, he’s pretty inscrutable, but there’s a trick here, in that protagonists can be defined by their antagonists. So, what do we know about Kun Lan, his antagonist?

Kun Lan is also a being of power. His appearance is bizarre and flamboyant, his speech and bearing theatrically exaggerated, and his laughter maniacal. His methods are terror and disorder, revolving around the en masse creation and proliferation of walking, laughing bombs. Contrasting this with Harman, certain aspects of his character come to light. His appearance is neat and stately, his speech and bearing grave, and his laughter usually restrained. His methods are tactical – surgical, even – revolving around the manipulation of established systems and infrastructures, and the careful, focused use of a single assassin.

It’s tempting to try to assign roles of good and evil to protagonists and antagonists, but it’s pretty clear that neither of these are particularly good or evil. Their ethics are far more ambiguous. But one thing that does work in this case is roles of Order and Chaos. Harman represents Order, and Kun represents Chaos. This actually ties into the political content a bit, since Order offers security at the cost of freedom, while Chaos offers freedom at the cost of security. Which is right? Well, that’s the question, innit.

What does Harman Smith Want? Harman Smith wants to prove Kun Lan wrong. This is what their chess games are all about, and the contest between the Killer7 and the Heaven Smile is itself just another chess game. It seems pretty clear that Harman and Kun have been arguing about this for a long time, and will probably be arguing about it for a long time to come (they’re still going at it 100 years later, after all).

One thing I’d like to point out is that not only are Garcian and the Smiles pawns in this chess game, but Japan and the U.S. themselves are pawns. The topical content is present only in an over-arcing conflict about the difficulty (and perhaps futility) of finding a compromise between security and freedom. It isn’t The Point, but merely a cultural hook to point us toward the perennial issue at the heart of it all.

SOME FUN LITTLE DETAILS

Notice that it is in the presence of SECURITY cameras that Garcian is able to unleash the power of the Killer7. Also note that the Killer7’s movements are confined to predetermined paths, while the Heaven Smile are FREE to run all over the map.

THE PREVIOUS MATCH

It seems to me that Emir was a pawn of Kun’s in a previous chess match. He was used to kill Harman’s original band of assassins, and then Harman’s incarnation (thoughtform, sending, fetch, tulpa, whatever you wanna call it). Note that it is just before Harman’s incarnation is shot to death that Kun declares checkmate. (Sure, Kun gets shot up too, but he doesn’t care; he’s Chaos.)

What Kun didn’t anticipate was that Harman would infiltrate the people who trained Emir, mentor Emir himself, and then claim Emir as his own at the end of the game. Harman not only thinks several moves ahead, but he also thinks games ahead. He is Order, and Order requires forethought.

What is the deal with Emir’s third eye? Is it literally there? I don’t think so. It is only apparent on the symbolic, dream-like plane that Harman and Kun operate on. That third eye is a quality of Emir that enables him to intersect with and act on this plane. Specifically, I think that Emir is a schizophrenic [according to Merriam-Webster: “a psychotic disorder characterized by loss of contact with the environment, by noticeable deterioration in the level of functioning in everyday life, and by disintegration of personality expressed as disorder of feeling, thought (as delusions), perception (as hallucinations), and behavior”]. His training enables him to use what would ordinarily be a debilitating psychosis as a window (or eye) into Kun and Harman’s scale of operations.

Another fun little detail: the Third Eye is a chakra (one of many nodes of energy according to yogic philosophy), specifically the one through which insight, intuition, and premonition enter. Chakra literally means wheel. Wheels and rings aren’t much different. Suppose that Garcian’s Vision Ring that enables him to see the Heaven Smile is Emir’s third eye? Consider that the Vision Ring is necessary to gain access to Emir’s computer.

What is the deal with Harman’s original band of assassins who are killed by Emir? It’s clear that upon the completion of that mission, Harman incorporated the six of them with Emir to form Garcian Smith. Why were they so much weaker then they are as part of Garcian?

• You choose a rough age, which determines how many lifepaths you may choose, and might also modify stats; f’rinstance, the really young have to add a certain amount to Soul, while the really old have to subtract a certain amount from Body
• Each lifepath is an occupation, vocation, or other means of getting along.
• When a lifepath is taken, it will:
  • instruct you to modify attributes; f’rinstance, “Pirates are superstitious; +1 Fear. Pirates lead dirty, sinful lives; -2 Soul.”
  • make trait slots available
  • make traits available; you will choose from your available traits, up to a number equal to the trait slots you have
  • if it’s the last lifepath you took, it may impose a condition

The Reader, Root Doctor, and Yegg are now up. The Reader is a psychic with psychic powers. The Root Doctor is a mash-up of folk magic stuff. The Yegg is a master thief.

I'm not happy with the Root Doctor's poppet skill. I don't really like the effect, and thus I don't really like having it in there at all. But I gotta think about audience a little, and I know that people would be disappointed with there being a class like this without the ability to make voodoo dolls. I don't know what to do about it.

 

I've been working on the Employee Handbooks for MADCorp: the game of corporate dungeoncrawling horror. These are pamphlets handed out to the players that explain the powers and special rules pertaining to their character's class. They're kinda fun, so I'd like to share the first batch, the Bruiser, Carver, and Crasher. All three of these are specialized towards direct physical conflict, but in different ways.

I want to invite discussion, comments, feedback, and questions! Even questions about what some of the system talk means. I'm not secretive about my design, and, in fact, the core rules would already be available if I had them all together in a readable form.

This is a play contest. It sounded like a good idea. Partially because I don’t know of any having been done before, and partially because I’ve been wanting someone to play this scenario for a while.

THIS IS WHAT YOU MUST DO

Play at least one roleplaying session using the scenario provided below, and post an AP for it. You don’t have to go overboard on the fiction; major plot points will suffice. However, I do want considerable detail on how you use the system!

You may use any system you wish.

You are not required to play the scenario to completion (although you’re likely to get a higher score if you do).

SCORING

Entries will be scored based mostly on how well you choose and utilize a system for maximum relevance and effectiveness re: the scenario. Hacks have a special advantage here, but also a disadvantage in that they might be broken. Also, the more detailed and well-written your AP is, the bigger the advantage you will have.

A smaller portion of the score will be based on the awesomeness quotient of the fiction produced during play.

 
THE DEADLINE

August 1st, 'cause Lord knows it can take a while to get everyone together to play, especially something weird.
 

THE PRIZE

…uh, glory?

(Sorry, I don’t have anything to put up for a prize.)

THE SCENARIO: REBELLION IN THE MUSHROOM KINGDOM

This is based on the Super Mario Bros. series of video games, but altered. Imagine, if you will:

Inspired by John Harper's GHOST/ECHO and Lady Blackbird, I made Lunar Notes last night:





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I'm not as hot as John Harper with the layout, but I'm actually fairly pleased with how this looks visually. I surprised myself.

The bulleted lists in GHOST/ECHO were what jazzed me the most, so I emulated that. I actually had longer lists than what's in here, but decided to cut them down.

To elaborate on the gaming-related influences:
John Harper:  getting this party started
Vincent Baker: dice mechanic in Otherkind, and Cruel Fortunes in Poison'd (which you can kinda see in the way that one Condition can lead to another)
Luke Crane: Shades and Tests in Burning Wheel; if you squint, you can see that the number of Complications in this is actually the same as the Obstacle in BW
Ron Edwards: Binding rules in Sorcerer
David Berg: a conversation about another project of mine (American Wizards) that led directly to the Complication/Interference/Danger schema.

All of the pictures in this are Captain Beefheart stuff. That's the Captain himself with the trout (Spirit?) coming out of his saxophone on P1. On the left of P1, we have The Mascara Snake, who played guest bass clarinet on the Trout Mask Replica album. Low left on P1 we have a photo of Captain Beefheart's Magic Band in scary costumes, from the album Strictly Personal. On P2, we have guitarist Zoot Horn Rollo, from a picture from TMR.

The name "Lunar Notes" comes from the Captain Beefheart song "Big Eyed Beans From Venus," in which the Captain commands Zoot Horn Rollo to "hit that long, lunar note, and let it float."

Whaddya think?

WHAT ABOUT A GAME ABOUT CRAZY MADCAP ANIME BICYCLE RACING?

They race everywhere: deserts, mountains, jungles, tundra, haunted castles, volcanoes, everywhere.

Every environment would have a set of Hazards that are drawn from a deck at intervals and placed onto the track. Sand storms, avalanches, anaconda attacks, abominable snowmen, ghosts, lava flows, etc.

Racers’ positions would be tracked relative to each other on a grid. At the beginning of each turn, you can move one “space” forward, backward, left, or right, in order to position yourself against Hazards and into optimal position for Special Moves. Do this one person at a time, in turn from first place to last (you can’t see what people behind you are doing very well, so you don’t get to react to their choices).

DID I JUST SAY SPECIAL MOVES?

Make ‘em up, write ‘em on index cards. That’s your Special Move Deck. You should totally give them crazy names and descriptions. You also should totally strike poses and/or say catch-phrases when using them.

You get, say, 20 points worth of special moves. That is, the point-values of their effects must total up to 20. You can take negative effects to buy down the point value of a move.

You can play one special move per turn (or use an item instead; see below). Everyone reveals their special moves at the same time. All effects are simultaneous – if your move changes your position and mine hits you, they both happen (even if you get knocked down by the hit). In other words, there’s no initiative. After moves are resolved, all used moves go face-down on the table. Only you can look at your Used Moves Pile. When all your moves are used, you get them all back again.

Special moves have:

a CONDITION: when the move can be used. Allowed conditions are:

            When behind a racer

            When in front of a racer

            When neck-and-neck with a racer

            When your front is clear

            When your rear is clear

            When your flank is clear

            After charging up (place your move card face-down in front of you; you do nothing this turn; next turn, instead of playing a new move, flip this one over)

Distances are irrelevant for conditions (although not necessarily for the move itself! See Range below). First condition is free. Extra conditions are 2 points each.

SPEED: how far you advance on the track when using this move. 0 Speed means no change, and is free. +X Speed means you move X spaces ahead. –X Speed means you move X spaces backward. Cost is 1 per Speed

HIT & POWER: this move hits someone. Power is the likelihood of knocking someone down. 0 Power means you roll one die. +X Power means you roll 1+X dice and take the best. –X Power means you roll 1+X dice and take the worst. Each Hit effect can only hit one racer; if you want to hit more than one, you have to purchase multiple Hit effects (and also Range, below). Cost 1 for Hit plus 1 per Power (so, Hit: Power -1 is free!).

RANGE: the effective range of a Hit. Define the affected area relative to your racer. You get one space free; additional spaces cost 1 each. They don’t have to be contiguous! You could have a super blast attack that skips ahead two spaces, then affects a 3x3 block; or a spinning blade attack that affects the area around you.

DEFENSE: guards against being knocked down by Hits. 0 Defense means you roll one die. +X Defense means you roll 1+X dice and take the best. –X Defense means you roll 1+X dice and take the worst. Cost is 1 per Defense.

EVADE: guards against being knocked down by a Hazard. Works just like Defense, except it only works on Hazards (Defense only works on Hits).

BEING KNOCKED DOWN

When faced with a Hazard, roll your Evade vs. the Hazard’s score. If your roll is higher, you stay on your bike. If the Hazard’s roll is higher, you get knocked down.

When Hit, roll your Defense vs. the attacker’s Power. If your roll is higher, you stay on your bike. If the attacker’s roll is higher, you get knocked down.

If you ride into the same space as another racer, you both get knocked down automatically.

When knocked down, your position stays where it was at the end of that turn until you get on your bike again. So, you’ll probably drop behind.

Keep track of how many times you get knocked down in a single race. The number of times you get knocked down is how many turns you lose before you can get on your bike again. So, if this is the third time you’ve been knocked down, you do nothing for the next three turns but sit there. If you get knocked down ten times, you’re out of the race! You get knocked into the stratosphere and vanish with a twinkle, or your bicycle explodes, or something else appropriate.

YOU GOTTA HAVE HEART!

Racers start the game with 5 Heart. You get 5 back at the beginning of each race, plus whatever you had left over from the last one.

Choose what condition you gain Heart in:

            When in last place: +1 per turn, to a max of 5 per race

            When reaching first place: +5, once per race

            When in second place: +1 per turn, to a max of 5 per race

            When Hit: +1, to a max of 5 per race

            When Hitting someone: +1, to a max of 5 per race

            When knocking someone down: +5, once per race

            When knocked down: +5, once per race

            When passed: +1, to a max of 5 per race

            When passing someone: +1, to a max of 5 per race

            When Hazards appear: +1, to a max of 5 per race

Spend 1 Heart to:

            Add 1 to any effect on an item or move, for 1 turn; do this before rolling. You may do this as much as you like as long as you have enough Heart to spend.

            Re-roll any of your dice; this includes dice granted by the above. You may do this as much as you like as long as you have enough Heart to spend.

            Reduce the time it takes to get back on your bike by 1 turn, to a minimum of 1

            Reclaim a used move from your pile; you get to look through it and pick the one you want. You can even use it this turn if you want!

ITEM PICKUPS

Items are drawn from the same deck as Hazards (they’re mixed in; one card per turn is drawn). When an item is drawn, it is placed on the track in a random square. Whoever reaches that square first gets the item.

Items can have all the same effects that special moves do. They can also have other effects, like temporary invincibility, swapping places with another racer, homing attacks, Heart restoration, temporary boosts to effects, creating Hazards (e.g. landmines, spikes, banana peels).

All items may be used once, then they’re gone. You can carry only 1 item at a time. If you’re already carrying an item when you reach an item pickup, you can swap them or leave the pickup behind. Dropping an unused item means that other people can pick it up!

TO BE DONE

Crazy track concepts with Hazards to match

Crazy items