Shields, or why I need to change my whole damn system

A thought on how to do shields. I have been working on the armor problem for a few months now and it just keeps getting deeper. Basically Fate is not designed to deal with equipment, More to the point it does not deal with equipment in a directly mechanical way. It approaches equipment obliquely. This is due to part of the conceit of the game, that skill is more important than equipment. In general I agree with that sentiment, and there are a bunch of ways to get around that. the problem comes in when you are dealing with two opposing pieces of equipment, in my case weapons and armor. They have a tendency to cancel each other out. and if they do that, why bother using them. So I started to look at all the moving parts of the game. If weapons affect moving part A(say the stress done after the roll) then the Armor cannot directly affect that same moving part. Instead Armor must alter a different but related moving part(say the defense roll, or the maximum amount of stress).

I have altered my shield rules about four times in the last month, as I never felt they dealt with damage in a new or interesting way. After reading some old posts over on Spirit of the Blank and thinking about how I handle ship combat, I think I have come up with a new way of looking at the problem. I need to alter the entire framework for how equipment works.

I think the game needs to become a stress track free version of Fate. This actually will give me more option in conflict rather than less. Stress tracks will now become an option in combat rather than a standard. This will allow me to use a stress track as a piece of armor or a shield. also this will allow me to control the amount of stress a person can take. All they have is consequences, unless they have a shield.

Recovery will also have to change. I was playing mass effect the other day and it occurred to me that, healing is just not done much in Fate. their is no emergency first aid or the like. I think that I would like there to be something like battlefield healing in Shadow Legion. I would like there to be something like megigel or stim packs or whatever you call it. i don't see this healing as actually getting rid of a consequence, I see it as removing the free use an opponent has on a consequence, or maybe reducing teh severity(if the player's character has a free consequence slot open). I will work on this, but it does lead me to one of my larger ideas I had.

Equipment gives permission to do things the skill could not do on its own. I am aware that this has always sort of been the rule in Fate games. However it never really struck home  until I was thinking about my problems with shields. Both my shield solution and my battlefield recovery idea have this one thing in common. They are adding a new rule to the game, but only related to very specific cercumstances. The shield only provides a stress trackin a specific instance. Medigel allows for removal of a free use, but only if you have it. So I see equipment as a discrete rule and consequence that applies to a specific instance. I have already done a bit of that with the monofilament whip and teh slick sword. I will try this out and see how it works.

There are some problems inherent in this. The rules set becomes persnickety, and could get bogged down with exception based mechanics. Look at late 3.x edition D20 for a fine example of how that can go. Also there is the hierarchy of rules. When two pieces of equipment with similar rules interact, how does that work? Which one is the prime rule and which is being overruled? I think I can avoid this by being very careful and selective with which rules I apply. I will keep working on the idea.

Game Chef 2013: Dreams of Dice

I had an issue. An issue with dice. A dice issue, if you will. I knew what I wanted, but I was unsure on how to do it. Then I was on walkabout for a bit and was struck with a fairly simple idea. I hope it will work.

I have two kinds of dice Light dice and Dark dice(formerly white and black dice, I will probably rename them as I go along). I new that I wanted there to be a mechanical and thematic difference between teh two kinds of dice, but I was uncertain how to implement that. Here is the solution I have.

Your Light dice are for the target number. They are always additive. If you roll two Light dice you would add them together and come up with a positive number. Your Dark dice are how well you do at something. These dice are always subtractive. If you have all Light dice and no Dark dice you succeed at a cost. If you have all Dark dice you might not succeed at all, but if you do you effect will be more/bigger/greater. The goal is to have enough Light dice to succeed(positive numbers) and enough Dark dice to have the effect you want without damaging your chances at success.

So what do you think? You think it will work? i am interested in your thoughts on the matter.

Game Chef 2013: Hollow Relm

Above is the Bitter Realm,ordered,uncluttered, constant, and crystalline. Below lies the Realm of Filth, hungry, dynamic, ugly, and incomprehensible. We live in the realm between. Neither one nor the other. Both realms are at war, we are the weapons they use. Our deaths are the tally they keep. All sickness, all death, all evil, is external to man. In the beginning Man was innocent and without sin. Somehow you must bring humanity back to that state.

In this game you play paper lanterns(need a better name, but one that still evokes that same fragility), the fragile human forms that wield a power called the light. The rest of humanity is lost in the dark or actively making the world darker. It is your task to push that darkness back and show them the truth.

Mechanics Thoughts: you have two pools of dice. A white pool and a black pool. when you take dice from one it affects your action. when you take dice from both it also affects your action. the pools must mean something. you can set aside dice before hand to have a greater effect, or you can trust to luck. normally you must have a roll higher than a target number yet also save a die that has a one on it(effect). the more dice with ones the greater the effect. you can spend an Illumination point to increase your pool, increase the number you can keep, or raise the numbers that count towards effect.

The pools are a finite supply of dice. You use them up as a conflict goes on. there needs to be a way to gain more dice mid conflict. it should be relatively easy, but also have a down side(and it should be pretty big). the same goes for Illumination. of course if you run out of Illumination then it becomes easier to fall to Shadow(don't know what this means yet).

You have a list of traits, you have your hollow traits and your light traits. your hollow traits are the stuff from before you knew what the world was really like. These are things like your name and your occupation and the like. Your light traits are traits you acquired after your enlightenment. these are traits that represent your understanding of the realms and how to manipulate your dual nature, basically these give you powers. In any given conflict you can normally use two traits, one hollow and one light. you can spend Illumination to increase the number of light traits you use, and you can gain shadow to use more hollow traits. the traits you use are the number of dice you can keep after a roll.

Bad guys:
The Worm: from the Realm of Filth, it eats people from the inside then lays its larvae inside. There they grow and devour each other until only one remains. this then grows and uses the human like a suit until it is ready to tear its way out and begin the cycle all over again. This is all psychic, you understand. most people can't see them. when they leave their host it just looks like a stroke or an aneurism, or something. The Worm is about self. It starts with hunger, wanting more. It moves to wanting what others have. And it becomes a belief in the primacy of self. The Worm spreads hubris and selfishness. It tears down empathy, sympathy, and charity. The Worm seek to make this realm the new Realm of Filth.

The Snowflake: It is order. It is purity. The Snowflake becomes apart of the victims unconscious. It is unique, and yet it is the same. it places those need within its host's minds. The need to belong, and the need for superficial individualism. The victims slowly are hollowed out by these needs. becoming more infatuated with trends and fitting in within a faction, clique, or group. This causes The Storm. When these Same Individuals attack another group. The victims of The Snowflake can no longer see people outside of their group as human beings. The snowflake is the birth of war, violence, and murder.

Game Chef 2013: Ingredients and Initial Thoughts

So the ingredients for this year's Game Chef have been released. This year's theme is a picture. I am allowed to interpret it however I like. It just must influence me as I design.

Now looking at the picture I think of these things: traversal, transport, movement, ascension, bilocality(is that even a word?), Alien, falling, midgard, midland, middle. I guess I will let that simmer for a while.

I thin had to take 2-3 of the ingredients and incorporate them into my design. Again these ingredients are pictures. I chose three of them. here they are, as well as my thoughts on each one:

Apple turns, corruption, decay, madness, depression, Lovecraft, whispers of temptation, trap, poison, poison apple, white queen, fairest, endless sleep...

Paper lantern, illumination, will o' the wisp, prayer in the dark, alone, searching, enchanting, looking, hope, falsity, walking in the dark(heh), blindness, back is turned, seeking, truth








Snow on the mind, geometric shape, fractal mind, fractal universe, eternal snowflake of the minds eye, madness, crystallized, OCD, blank, hollow, falling, mindscape, astral snowstorm, wilderness of the mind.







So that is my first go at brainstorming ideas. I have a few themes that are recuring and I think I have a few ideas on the mechanics and teh type of game I will be making. I think I am looking at a game about alien gods who treat earth as their playground(the idea of the middle realm), they use their fantastic mental powers to control the minds of most humans. they are great worms that seek to control mankind, hollow them out for food. perhaps the characters play the roles of people who have been hollowed out, but did not die, instead they replaced their minds with something else. perhaps they are the lamp lighters, those who seek to take humanity back from the horrors that stole the minds of humanity oh so long ago.


In the beginning there was Man and Woman. They lived in a garden. that garden was Earth. Into that garden came the Worm. Crawling and slithering and oozing into the garden. where it passed plants withered and fruit rotted o the vine. It came to Man and Woman and seeing them grew envious. It wanted what they had. The Worm slithered into the minds of Man and Woman. Since that day, Man and Woman have been slaves. Only we few, the hollow and the empty, see the Worm. We fight as we can, as long as we can. We fight for our lives, we fight for our freedom. We fight for the future.

Shadow Legion: Legeonaires Lost

I got together with +Ron Frazier +Frank Falkenberg +Sharif Abed and +Brian Boring  to play some Fate this week. Their ship had jumped into an unknown system. The only way out of the system was locked down. There was a space battle with a Deija frigate. the heroes win the battle, but the Deija are still there. They find some clues at the gate and head toward the two suns and a strange object orbiting one of the suns. There is some discussion as to what to do about the Deija. Nothing is decided before they enter the giant station. It is a great cube the size of Earth's moon. Upon entering they discover it is hollow all the way through. Hollow and nearly empty, save for the servers, this place is a repository for exiled AI from the Marddeth civil war. And that is where we left it this week.

The space combat system went relatively smoothly. My only problem was in making everyone able to contribute. It is far easier to do than in previous games I have run(Star Wars being a prime example). I would like to work on this a bit more. I think my rules could be a lot smoother. So I will work on that.

Here is a recording of the session if you want to see:

Space Opera v1.1(now called Shadow Legion)

I have been working on a finalized version of my Space Opera setting. One of the first big changes is a name change. I am now calling the setting Shadow Legion. I do this for a couple of reasons. First it is a much better name, and a bit obvious once I thought about it for a second(OK a week or so, really). The second reason is that, apparently there is already a game called Space Opera that I am unaware of. I would like to avoid any confusion going forward.  so there you are.

I have also altered some of the equipment rules a bit. In particular the shield rules. the shield rules have been the biggest issue in my game thus far. I have gone back and forth on the issue. I am now on my third iteration of the rules. I hope these work. If I am going to have equipment in the game and use the weapon rules that I like, then I need to work out a way to have stress mitigation without weapon negation. I am going to try the new rules out and we will see how they work.

I have also added a few new planets and alien races. as well as a few new stunts. I also put together some of the things the players have said and written about the universe into the setting document. I would love to hear your thoughts on how it looks and I welcome you  to play it, if you like it.

Her is the document if you would like to peruse it

Roll/Keep Fate II: the revenge of the Vinyard

A lot of people told me that Roll/keep with Fate Dice was a poor choice, that it was broken, and that it wasn't worth pursuing. I will probably end up agreeing with them in the long run, but for now I will continue to play with this idea. On the surface, I agree with the sentiment that straight up roll keep breaks down rather quickly. In the previous post I mentioned some writing that had been done by other people. I am also rereading Marvel Heroic Roleplaying and Dogs in the Vineyard. all of these ideas have been congealing into a couple of ideas.

Idea the first, keeping dice should be about more than just gaining the highest number on a roll. I will do this with effects. Basically your roll encompasses both the number rolled and the effect of the dice roll. In a normal situation you gain effect by counting the minuses present in the kept dice. each minus adds to the effect. no minuses is equal to a tie in effect. In a more heroic situation minuses and blanks add to the effect. Finally in an epic situation all the kept dice count toward effect. I am uncertain what will cause each level of effect at this point, but I think this will mitigate some of the weirdness that would come with a straight Roll/Keep system.

Idea the second, there needs to be a way to manipulate the pool of dice on both the roll and the keep ends. I also think that one should be able to manipulate the dice before and after the roll. I think that Fate Points are where it is at here. You can invoke an aspect to gain a die in the roll phase or keep an extra die in the keep phase. You can also invoke an aspect to set one of your dice aside before the roll. this die will act as an effect, as though you had rolled the correct symbol, but it will not count toward or against your roll total. As I think this covers using Fate Points in this system I am going to say you cannot use Fate Points to re-roll the dice.

this does put a lot of moving parts into the game. This was part of my intent. To start with a relatively simple idea and make it more complicated. However, despite its complexity I think it will be fairly easy to get. you have a two pools of variable tactile elements, fate points and dice. you add to them and take away from them manually. everything is visible right in front of you. This also means that the dice pools will have to be pretty high. I am thinking a minimum of four in the least dice pool with a minimum keep of two. I would like to max out at ten dice as more than that can get unwieldy. I think that if you advance past ten dice to roll, you gain something like a mastery from Heroquest. I will definitely need to think on this in the future. I would also like to have some numerical modifier to a roll(the way skills currently work in Fate), though I am uncertain where those will come in. I have a lot of ideas churning in this old noggin, and trying to get them to lay out flat and file in line is a bit difficult. Thank you everyone who responded to my first post on this silly idea. I hope to keep tinkering with this until it starts making a bit more sense.