Slime Story: Playtest Document 1

Illustration of Rita by Sue-chan (www.sue-chan.com)

Here’s (mostly) what I have so far of Slime Story:

Download Slime Story Playtest 1 PDF

If you’ve been following this blog or if you’ve let me talk to you in person much lately, you more or less know the drill. A world like ours, only teenagers hunt cute monsters for spending money. I’m working on a novel or two, and this is the RPG version, which is a strange hybrid of traditional, indie, and Japanese game design sensibilities. In A Wicked Prime Time 4th Edition Mouse Kingdom Koyake. Or something. To play you will need some friends, some six-sided dice, and some character sheets that don’t exist yet.

It’s rough all around, but I have the core rules in place how I want them, which means that it’s theoretically playable. There’s some other stuff (experimental alchemy, random events, achievements, etc.) that I haven’t yet put in, not to mention I’ve left out most of the monster write-ups. Some things I’m not yet sure how to implement, and for others I just don’t want to put all the work in, especially since there’s a good chance I’ll have to radically rewrite them later.

Aside from the really basic stuff (“Do the conflict rules actually work?”), the things on my mind are:

• Are the Feats reasonably balanced against each other? What new and better ones could I put in?
• Could the combat system do more to drive role-playing?
• Does the game’s economy of Resources actually work?

UPDATE (2/3/09): Ideas from talking a bit about the game with friends:

• Replace “Resources” with “Influence”, indicating both your character’s cash and his or her ability to call in favors and such from the local monster hunting community. Spending a certain amount of Influence on a healing potion could represent buying one from Monster Mart, or wheedling one from your NPC alchemist friend.
• Weapons can be customized/upgraded in various ways, some of which require monster parts. Hunters prefer weapons that are modular to varying degrees, and look down on people with “stock” gear.
• Achievements, kind of like in video games, are how the game represents gaining renown in the monster hunting community. Everyone participating gets to make up new achievements.
• Combat probably needs to be a little simpler. I’m thinking of a range map, a lot like 3:16, but you use dice to show how many hits the monsters have left. Still not sure how to work more social stuff into it though.
• OTOH the stuff with Tactical Actions may need to go, as it potentially makes combat considerably more complicated. Which would in turn require taking a closer look at the selection of attributes, especially since right now the main use of Athletics is tactical actions.
• The rules assume hunters are trying to stack the deck in their favor by researching portals, spawns, monster types, tactics, etc. (kind of like how the Exalted combat rules don’t have called shots because when you’re fighting you’re always going after the vulnerable bits).

Once More, Into the Random Thoughs

I haven’t been very productive. I’m still stressing over various things and some nothings too. On the plus side, the changes in my work situation are making it easier for me to get more gaming in, and will hopefully let my gaming group do more and more productive gaming. Schedule clashes have been making our game sessions way too short to get to much of anything meaty, and in D&D in particular we’ve been having trouble getting through more than one encounter per session.

Liberty
The other day I ran the “Liberty: The Final Maid Maiden” scenario from Maid RPG. It was… mixed. There were two essential problems.

First, the players were in some cases drastically at odds with each other as to the tone the game should take. Two were pushing to make it exceedingly dark, one wanted love and justice to prevail over all, one was shooting for Maid RPG insanity more suitable for a random event driven game, and one was somewhere in the middle. The pre-created character backgrounds were partly at fault, as they range from a naive girl who misses her maid friends to a death row inmate who wonders why she was being punished for murdering some maids. It’s basically meant to be heroic anime cheese with an absurd premise, somewhere around Love Hina or Project A-ko, and having a GRIMDARK Alternative Black didn’t quite work with the adventure as written.

Second, it’s basically a mini-campaign worth of material. We tried to cram everything into three hours, and it felt much too rushed, railroaded, and deus ex machina-y. I could have easily expanded it into three or more sessions worth, and having the Alternative Maids journeying from the falling Osaka Geofront to Tokyo Central for the final confrontation has room for all kinds of interesting subplots which would help give the whole thing the epic feel it’s intended for.

Endgame
I’m going to Endgame Oakland’s minicon this Saturday. I’m looking forward to playing Mouse Guard and In A Wicked Age, especially since I’ve been getting all kinds of ideas from both for Slime Story.

Carnage
I’ll be playing 3:16 with my regular gaming group on Sunday. A friend of mine is doing up space marine miniatures for us to use, and most everyone seems pretty enthusiastic about the whole thing. I already have the first session planned out, insofar as the GM needs to plan stuff out for the game.

We may finally try out The Mountain Witch some time after that.

Slime Story
I’m starting to really love this game, even thought it’s not even playable yet. It’s got my favorite bits of my favorite games, plus some nifty new stuff, plus a setting I find fascinating in its possibilities.

This thread has me wanting to add rules for “achievements“; it would certainly fit the MMO parody angle. I have to think about this more. It could be really awesome as something integral to the game, if I can make it work right.

Even More Slime Story

I was originally planning to patch up Slime Story enough to throw a playtest document up the site for people to look at and possibly play. Then my brain got to storming, and I wound up starting on another overhaul of the system. The overhauls are getting smaller each time, but they’re still not tiny.

This time, I made a major change to how consequences work, which in turn means I have to fiddle with a bunch of other things, since some of the ways in which I was using consequences in the rules are no longer feasible. There are still Tired and Upset status effects, but there are only four levels of such, and each gives a -3 penalty on related actions. This solves the problem of sometimes getting close rolls resulting in consequences that aren’t that consequential (no reason to care about taking a mere -1 penalty), but it also means I can no longer do things like have a Fighter feat that lets you do a big hit in exchange for taking one little rank of Tired status. As a result, I’m resorting to a bit of D&D4e stuff, with special abilities having At-Will, Scene, or Episode timing.

I also realized that concessions (basically the thing in IAWA where instead of taking mechanical consequences the loser can take story consequences devised by the winner) are the key to making the combat more interesting while simultaneously avoiding having characters get taken out. I didn’t want to rip off the flashback mechanics from 3:16, both for originality’s sake and because it doesn’t fit with the setting, and using something already in the system is probably the best way to go about things anyway.

That still leaves me with a few things to work out, notably how to make statuses more mechanically interesting, and how to make combat/encounters drive role-playing a bit more. I have an idea for “checks” on connections, which would make your next check to raise a connection’s a bit easier. I also have an idea for “Strain”, which (perhaps) would be points you have that others can tap to give you a penalty to a check. So far Strain is the only thing I’ve come up with to put some granularity into the rules.

And… that’s about where I’m at right now. Presently, the games that are influencing Slime Story are as follows:

Aitsu wa Classmate
Arianrhod
Bliss Stage
Dungeons & Dragons 4th Edition
In A Wicked Age
Meikyuu Kingdom
Mouse Guard
Primetime Adventures
Tunnels & Trolls

D&D Race: The Wild Folk

Update: I’ve got a revised and expanded version of the wild folk done now.

The Wild Folk are a race for D&D, based on the Varna from Arianrhod, the various tribes you meet in the Grandia games, Fam from Ruin Explorers (pictured above), the Mithra and Viera from Final Fantasy, etc. I’ll also probably use it for the Kurumi Project Part 2. This is my first attempt ever at creating D&D material of any kind, so I have no idea if I’ve created anything remotely worthwhile; feedback would be appreciated. Also, I need to write up some racial feats for them.

01/16/09: I’ve made a few updates based on feedback and random ideas I’ve had.

Wild Folk
A primitive, animalistic people, but strong of heart, self-possessed, and very much at home with nature.

RACIAL TRAITS
Average Height: 4′10”-6′0”
Average Weight: 90-200 lb.
Ability Scores: +2 Constitution, +2 Dexterity
Size: Medium
Speed: 6 squares
Vision: Low-light

Languages: Common
Skill Bonuses: +2 Athletics, +2 Nature
Born of the Wild: Regardless of your class, you can select Nature as a class skill. You may re-roll a Nature check once, but you must keep the new result, even if it is lower.
Cornered Animal: Add a +1 racial bonus to attack rolls when bloodied.
Wild Speed: You can use wild speed as an encounter power.

Wild Speed (Wild Folk Racial Power)
Calling up a burst of adrenaline, you surge forward with reckless abandon.
Encounter
Minor Action Personal
Effect: Add a power bonus of +3 to your move and of +2 to your AC against opportunity attacks until the beginning of your next turn.

Born from harsh wilderness, the Wild Folk are a primitive but hardy, spiritual people.

Play one of the Wild Folk if you want…

• to be an anime-style fantasy character.
• to see the world through fresh, bright eyes.
• to play an agile, tricky warrior who reveres nature.
  to be a member of a race that favors the druid, ranger, and rogue classes.

Physical Qualities
Wild Folk basically resemble humans, but with other traits that make them resemble animals in some way. Some have the ears and/or tails of a particular animal (cats, wolves, and rabbits are especially common), some have long, pointed ears, some have horns, and so on. These traits vary from one tribe to the next, but since they can interbreed freely if they so wish, it’s not unknown for there to be at least some variation within a tribe. The table below gives some examples you can use, but you’re free to make up new ones if you wish.

Roll	Tribe	Description	Suggested Feat
1	Alric	Ears and tail of a cat	Animal Senses
2	Auril	Ears and tail of a wolf	Alertness
3	Auria	Ears and tail of a rabbit	High Jump
4	Falm	Extra-long elf ears and a cat-tail	Improved Initiative
5	Garn	Gazelle horns	Fast Runner
6	Farus	Ram horns	Sure Climber

Wild Folk tend to be a bit shorter than humans, but there are some larger ones around, particularly among the males. Their skin tone varies depending on their native environment, anywhere from the pale folk of the northern reaches to the deep brown people of the hot savannas, but most are of a tan color. They often have yellow or green eyes, and among some tribes these are slitted like a cat. Regardless of their skin tone, Wild Folk often have fair hair, though nearly any color in possible.

The Wild Folk mature more quickly than humans, reaching adulthood around the age of 14, and they are relatively short-lived, seldom reaching more than 50 years, even given the benefits of civilization. However, their elders remain active and vigorous as long as they can, right up until they’re too weak to lift a spear.

Playing one of the Wild Folk
The Wild Folk are a tribal people who inhabit untamed lands. Members of the more civilized races sometimes dismiss them as mongrels or savages, but they thrive because they are a vital, ambitious race. Some have suggested that the Wild Folk are descended from humans or elves and magically mixed with various kinds of animals, they themselves believe that their bodies are as they were shortly after the world was made by the Creator.

Left to their own devices, some tribes of Wild Folk have developed villages and small towns, and given enough time they would have likely built a respectable civilization on their own. Contact with other races came a century or two too early for that, and the results of their mixing with the outside world have been mixed. In some places the Wild Folk have carved their own place in the greater world, while in others they are treated as slaves or animals. They normally hate seeing their fellows—or anyone else—in such a state, but their sense of justice is sometimes held back by lingering tribal divisions.

Some expect the Wild Folk to disdain the trappings of civilization, but this is simply untrue. On the whole, they are pragmatic enough to take full advantage of anything beneficial that they can lay their hands on. More than one elven wizard, genasi swordmage, or dwarven artificer has found an enthusiastic and insistent would-be student in one of the Wild Folk. These ambitions don’t always pan out, of course, but it is seldom for lack of trying.

In contrast, the Wild Folk are a very spiritual people. Although they have been known to take up the worship of the gods of other lands—and even other races!—the Wild Folk are more typically animists, giving praise and thanks to the natural world. There is the Creator who made the world, and the Dark Lady, who watches over the world and brings the embrace of death when the time comes. To them, each day and everything in it are treasures to be savored, gifts that we are allowed to claim if the whimsical Dark Lady allows. Most Wild Folk find the more typical forms of worship—building temples and anointing clerics and paladins—a bit silly. After all, everything is holy, and one need only listen closely to be anointed. When Wild Folk do adopt more common gods, they often gravitate towards the likes of Avandra, Corellon, and Melora, who also revel in freedom and natural beauty. On the other hand, when they do, they sometimes surprise fellow members of those temples by doggedly retaining their original notions of the Creator and the Dark Lady.

Wild Folk adventurers are seeking to “sing loudly,” as they are fond of saying. Whatever they do, they want to have fun and touch the world. Where dragonborn want to become legends and dwarves hope to become a part of their clans’ litanies of heroes, the Wild Folk simply want to experience all there is to experience, and help others do the same. So, they sing.

Wild Folk Characteristics: Clever, curious, fearless, feral, honest, simple, playful, practical, spiritual, unrelenting

Male Names: Api, Bahut, Dawa, Gilan, Ku, Kurnu, Mayu, Mor, Paku, Panya, Uaku, Wira

Female Names: Awa, Aysay, Haa, Lia, Kari, Maki, Maya, Melia, Miki, Oa, Riti, Tia

Wild Folk Adventurers
Three sample Wild Folk adventurers are described below.

Shyla is a Wild Folk druid, formerly of the Klathu tribe of wolf-people. Formerly, because the tribe fell to a band of orcs. She watched her entire tribe slain or enslaved, the forests razed. She escaped with a handful of children. Now that she’s found a home for those children, it is time for revenge. She has joined with others wronged by the Gargen orcs, and together they will set out on a mission of vengeance.

Mao is a Wild Folk ranger who must complete a long quest before he can succeed his father a chieftain. Like all the men of his particular tribe, he underwent an initiation process to prove that he could build canoes, hunt for food, use the bow and knives and spear, and so on. However, a chieftain must undergo a second initiation, to become something more than a man. The task the elders have set for him is a difficult one, but he faces it because he must. He has made friends from outside his tribe who are teaching him about the world, but he is sure that the final test is one he will have to face alone.

Zola is a Wild Folk rogue, abandoned in a human city when she was young. She grew up on the streets, and while she knows little of her own people, she knows the back streets of the city like the back of her hand. While she does make sure to keep her own purse full, she also steals food for orphan children, despite the fact that they’ve become convinced that pulling on her tail is good luck. She’d been dodging the city watch for ages, but when she tried to steal from a wizard, she finally overextended herself. With the city watch and some bounty hunters after the crystal she’s carrying, she talked a band of adventurers into letting her join them, and is well on her way out of the kingdom entirely.

Wild Folk Racial Feats (Heroic Tier)
Animal Senses [Wild Folk]
Prerequisite: Wild Folk
Benefit: You gain a +2 feat bonus to Perception checks where your senses of hearing or smell come into play.

High Jump [Wild Folk]
Prerequisite: Wild Folk
Benefit: Add a +4 feat bonus to Athletics checks made for jumping (see PHB pp. 182-3).

Wild Weapon Training [Wild Folk]
Prerequisite: Wild Folk
Benefit: You gain proficiency and a +2 feat bonus to damage with spears and short bows.

Kurumi Project: Part 1

(Artwork by vmat on DeviantArt)

You may or may not be aware that I have this mascot character named Kurumi. She’s a 19-year-old bunny girl with pink hair. I’m that much of an otaku. Anyway, I’ve decided to do a series of posts where I try to do write-ups of her in as many different game systems as possible. This time around I’m starting with the obvious stuff, though it will get steadily more strange and contrived as I go along.

Risus
Kurumi
Cute Bunny Girl (3)
Warm and Caring (3)
Mysterious Power (3)
Lucky Shots [][][]

Maid RPG
Kurumi Hayashi (Age 19)
Maid Types: Sexy Heroine
Maid Colors: Uniform: Blue, Eyes: Purple, Hair: Pink, Ears: White
Attributes: Athletics 2, Affection 3, Skill 1, Cunning 2, Luck 2, Will 2
Maid Special Qualities: Bunny Girl, Nymphomaniac
Maid Weapon: Broom
Maid Roots: Love
Stress Explosion: Spoiled Child
Maid Power: Windows of the Soul

Yuuyake Koyake
Kurumi Hayashi
True Form: Rabbit
Attributes: Animal 1, Henge 3, Adult 2, Child 2
Base Powers: Cute, Mochi Pounding, Lop-Eared, Help Me, I Dunno, Moonlight
Additional Powers: Friendship
Weaknesses: Loneliness

Seasons
I have pink hair –> I like pink things in general –> Especially strawberry ice cream

I’m a bunny girl –> I have some kind of special power –> A scientist in the future altered my DNA before I was born –> Someone has to save the future

Raspberry Heaven
Quirks: Busty, Cute, Softy

Changeling: The Dreaming
Court: Seelie
Legacies: Panderer/Pandora
Seeming: Wilder
Kith: Pooka (Rabbit)

Attributes:
Physical: Strength 1, Dexterity 4, Stamina 3
Social: Charisma 4, Manipulation 2, Appearance 4
Mental: Perception 2, Intelligence 2, Wits 2

Abilities:
Talents: Alertness 2, Athletics 1, Dodge 2, Empathy 4, Persuasion 3
Skills: Crafts 2, Drive 2, Etiquette 1, Leadership 1, Performance 3, Stealth 3, Survival 1
Knowledges: Computer 1, Enigmas 2, Greymayre 1, Linguistics 1

Backgrounds: Dreamers 3, Remembrance 2
Arts: Chicanery 1, Primal 1, Wayfare 1
Realms: Actor 2, Prop 2, Scene 1
Merits and Flaws: Acute Sense (Hearing), Changeling’s Eyes
Tempers: Glamour 5, Willpower 5, Banality 3
Ravaging/Musing Threshold: Create Hope

Divine Machine: Campaign Postmortem

For a while now, something like a year and a half (including the occasional hiatus) I was running an OVA campaign for my friends called “Divine Machine.” It had some issues throughout, and towards the end I was less than happy with it. On the other hand, it was fun more often than not, and I’d like to think last night’s conclusion ended things on a high note.

1. I never really liked any of the PCs. I feel kind of bad for saying it, but it is the truth. This is partly just a matter of taste on my part, of course, but somehow I just didn’t care all that much for any of them. I never outright hated any of them, and they all grew on me to some degree, but still. It didn’t help that none of them tied into the existing setting I had created in any meaningful way (except for the two amnesiacs in the group, but only because I spent hours figuring out their forgotten backstories). The only PC who was truly heroic was also the one who created the most friction in the group, and generally created lots of headaches for me.

2. I got burned out on running a semi-traditional fiat-y game week after week. It’s a style of GM-ing that demands a lot out of me psychologically, and I’m pretty much abandoning it from now on. I’ll occasionally do a Maid RPG session for sheer zaniness and awesome, but otherwise I want to concentrate on games that spread the work around some. After a session of Divine Machine, I would always be drained and irritable, in a way that just wasn’t the case for games like The Shab-al-Hiri Roach or Peerless Food Fighters. The one time I ran DM two nights in a row was absolute murder, and something I never want to experience ever again.

3. The game wound up encompassing too many NPCs and too big of a plot. No matter what the medium, I deal better with more personal stories. In Yuuyake Koyake, for example, you only have one or two, maybe three NPCs in a session, and I can handle them just fine. In Divine Machine it got to the point where we would outright forget someone who was supposed to be present, and I had a hard time giving them all adequate motivations and personality.

4. OVA is good for what it is. I tell people it’s what BESM’s original edition (the little gray book) wanted to be and never quite pulled off. But one thing it shares with BESM: it’s easy to break it with just a little bit of powergaming. In theory a result of 12 on a die roll is unbelievably good, but we wound up having combats where the combat-oriented characters were throwing around results of 20+ regularly, and I had to give NPCs 8+ dice to roll at once just for them to have a fighting chance. If I were to ever use it again (or PDQ for that matter), I would SEVERELY limit the ability to stack traits into one roll. Also, the magic system is pretty much broken as far as I’m concerned. Its balancing factors (a check to make sure the spell works, and an Endurance cost) are much too easy to circumvent.

5. Creatively, I always have more ideas than I know what to do with. One of the nice things about running a game like Divine Machine was that pretty much anything I thought up I could throw into the game in some form. I got to use practically every odd little scrap of an idea for something to put into an RPG I had laying around. That, combined with regularly being the GM, is why unlike some of my friends, I’m not as attracted to being tethered to one player character for a long time, and I don’t personally regard immersion as a priority. It also means that switching games more frequently appeals to me. I’m hoping that in the future we can have a bit of both, with the D&D4e game my friend is running, and a succession of indie games and other experiments and mini-campaigns on the side.

In summary: Divine Machine was a fun ride, but it had all kinds of issues, and I’m glad it’s finally over. I learned a lot from it, albeit sometimes more with regard to what not to do in the future. OVA is neat, but don’t let players who are even remotely interested in gaming the system near the thing.

Slime Story: Continuing

Slime Story is really coming together, though it seems like the game is determined to require me to tear out and replace chunks of it to the very end. Yesterday I wrote a combat system, this morning I decided I hated it, and today I started writing a new one. Basically, I’d devised a hybrid of Tunnels & Trolls and Slime Story’s conflict rules, which made combat too abstract for my tastes. The system I’m working on now is more like a mixture of D&D4e and Meikyuu Kingdom, with (IMO) some neat flourishes.

On the other hand I’m pretty happy with the conflict system, though it’s going to definitely need playtesting to get everything just right. It’s kind of like a cross between In a Wicked Age and Truth & Justice. Each side makes a check (2d6 plus an attribute). The winner can either spend their margin of success (Victory Points) on status effects (Tired, Upset, Injured, or Shaken) or ask the loser for a concession. I’m very glad I listened to Paul Tevis’ podcasts on “Stakes and Sticks.” Anyway, if you don’t like the way a conflict turns out for you, you can escalate, which means both sides have to switch to different attributes and roll again, but the consequences roll over, so the stick becomes more menacing.

What I like about this is that it lets you make an argument or asking a girl out on a date mechanically interesting without taking away any freedom to role-play how you want. If I best your character in an argument, I can hold several ranks of Upset status over your head, giving you an incentive to do what I want, but you don’t have to. That’s just awesome.

The major thing I need to get into playtesting to figure out is whether the rate at which you can exchange victory points for status ranks is right. Right now I have it so you can give someone a -1 to either social or physical stuff per point of margin of success.

The combat system uses a “Footing” mechanic where you declare whether your character is in a Forward (high offense), Middle (neutral), or Rear (high defense) position. Certain classes can get feats that let them get into “Ambush” footing, and enemies and screw-ups can force you into “Off-Balance” footing. A basic attack is just a check against a static defense rating, but if someone’s attacking you, you can do a “Clash” action and resolve it as a conflict instead. I’m also working on some neat stuff with “tactical actions” that can weaken or otherwise inconvenience an opponent.

I’m happy with the basic outline of the combat rules now, though I want to work in some stuff that will help push you into role-playing during battle, because as it stands now it’s like 4e in that combat won’t afford many opportunities for role-play unless you force free-form in by yourself. The way battles propel you into role-playing is IMO one of the coolest things about 3:16.

There are some things that I’m contemplating putting in, like mechanics for characters’ relationships with their parents and their overall social standing, but I’m not sure these are necessary per se.

And… that’s about all I’ve gotten done lately.