The Art of Game Creation

[Arrae]

8 minutes ago, Aonar Faileas said:

1. Possible, with the right build up. However, note that this build up is rather public. If someone doesn't want it to happen, there's no reason they can't interfere. Also, if you do manage it, it might not turn out the way you expect.

2. Again, build up. Maybe. The Heroic sacrifice angle doesn't work for everyone.

3. Not quite right for a pattern of three. Rule of Three gets involved for more of a contest or confrontation, tending to involve a nemesis or rival of some sort. If that happened and then they found themselves in opposition, and they were both Named, then sure. (Pattern of Three tends not to be invoked by people without Roles.)

So for the Rule of Three, what about two warrior-type characters who were in a battle to prove that they were the best at general warfare?

Does the Rule of Three need three people?

[Aonar he/him]

13 hours ago, Arraenae said:

So for the Rule of Three, what about two warrior-type characters who were in a battle to prove that they were the best at general warfare?

Does the Rule of Three need three people?

:shrug: Sure? They have to both be Named, and they have to be directly in conflict. (Essentially, they must either be of opposing alignments or have opposing goals or win conditions.) Everything has to tie back to solid mechanics somehow. While this mechanic adds a fair bit of freedom if you're willing to work for it, it's not something you can generate from nothing.

[Sparkrunner he/him]

Roadwalker's COLORFUL EXPLODING Game!

Tell me how this will work. (not Sanderson set for now, but I could probably configure it into Warbreaker setting.) It will probably be a short QF.

There are five teams. Red, Green, Blue, Factionless, and Yellow. The color teams win by having the most players of their color. The factionless win by (TBD) All factions except the Factionless get a doc.

Each color team begins with one person on the team. (The Originators) The factionless are all the remaining players. 

The cycles are one long cycle, followed by a rollover, actions must be submitted before rollover.

Each cycle, an Originator may choose to convert someone. This succeeds if the target is Factionless and is not exploding on that turn. If the target is part of another color faction, they are not notified that someone attempted to convert them, and the Originator is not informed why their conversion failed.

If the Originator succeeds in converting the person, they gain the win con of the Originator's color faction.

EXPLODING

All players in the game are assigned a number, and as a player dies, all other players move up one number spot. At any time during a cycle, but before rollover, a player may choose to EXPLODE. They send in their order in the GM PM. The player immediately loses the game, regardless of whether their faction wins. If the player chooses to EXPLODE, they may choose a grouping of five players from the number list. They will explode, and a random player from that grouping of five (Determined by RNG) will be EXPLODED. Starting the beginning of the next cycle, they will be dead. They may still win if their faction wins. 

If an Originator is EXPLODED all the members of the Originator's faction will go into shock. (Role-blocked one turn.) A new Originator will then be voted into place by the members of that faction. Every turn, the members of a faction (Not including the Factionless) may vote. This vote determines who has to explode on that turn, and what grouping of five they will explode in. The faction may choose not to vote.

If a member of a faction EXPLODES and RNG chooses a person from their faction, the target is only roleblocked for one turn, and not EXPLODED. 

___

This is a very rough draft. I just wanted to write out a game with explosions.

[little wilson she/her]

Why would someone choose to explode if they insta-lose?

[Sparkrunner he/him]

To stop someone from winning, or have their team win, sacrifice themselves for their team, etc. Should I add more motivation for exploding? remove the insta-lose if you are in a color faction?

[Jondesu he/him]

1 hour ago, Roadwalker said:

To stop someone from winning, or have their team win, sacrifice themselves for their team, etc. Should I add more motivation for exploding? remove the insta-lose if you are in a color faction?

Yeah, removing the insta-lose factor would make it actually something people might do.  With that in there, there's absolutely no incentive to doing it.

[Alvron he/him]

2 hours ago, Jondesu said:

Yeah, removing the insta-lose factor would make it actually something people might do.  With that in there, there's absolutely no incentive to doing it.

Apart from the fun of blowing up that is.  I mean who doesn't want to explode?  As long as we explode with glitter that is.

[Sparkrunner he/him]

44 minutes ago, Alvron said:

Apart from the fun of blowing up that is.  I mean who doesn't want to explode?  As long as we explode with glitter that is.

Is colored paint alright? 

Edited October 7, 2017 by Roadwalker

[Darkness Ascendant he/him]

On 08/10/2017 at 8:11 AM, Roadwalker said:

Is colored paint alright? 

Does it have led in it?

[Sparkrunner he/him]

Spoiler

On 7/9/2017 at 7:25 PM, Roadwalker said:

Basic Setup

There are two teams, the Drakeface Villagers and the Dawnface Sorcerers. The sorcerers have infiltrated the town, but the hardy villagers have struck a deal with the dragons to rid themselves of the Sorcerers. The sorcerers can communicate telepathically (Faction Doc) and can use their magic to "Get rid of" a villager each night turn. They win when they outnumber the villagers. The day turn is 24 hours and the night is 12. (For now) Rollover TBD. During the day turn, everyone votes on who to throw to the dragons. You may open a PM during the night turn, and it it will last until the next night turn.

 

Knacks

Knacks! Before the game starts, there will be an extra large rollover, where you will receive your GM PM. You may tell the GM what knack you want, ie. "I want to be able to hear gossip about myself!" And the GM will decide a role that goes with your knack, and give it back to you, ie. "You know one person who has mentioned you in a PM." Sorcerers do not get a knack.

 

Food

You need food to live. Every day turn, you will consume one food. If you run out of food, you die. You will receive a food every day turn, as long as you use dialogue in all of your posts, and roleplay a bit in every post.

 

Sell Your Soul

At any point during the game, you may sell me your soul. I will purchase your soul. Your soul is worth three foods. You may only sell your soul once. I accept hemalurgically modified souls. You may not make the excuse that you do not have a soul. If you try, I will take your soul and one of your limbs.

 

Sorcery

Sorcerers have a kill every night turn. They may, once during the game, revive one of their members with sorcery. They may only do this once one of their members has been killed. (A random person will be converted to the elim team, and the dead elim will stay dead, but Shh.)

LOOKING FOR GM'S!

[DrakeMarshall he/him]

1 hour ago, Roadwalker said:

  Hide contents

You may not make the excuse that you do not have a soul.

 

Objection! I'm a ginger and therefore soulless.

[Steeldancer he/him]

So I'm trying to balance a Dream engineer role for the inception game im working on (it's pretty cool). Essentially it's the main elim role, and is an appointed position. They can do anything that does not contradict the rules, change what has already happened, and i have final approval powers. The bigger the change, the bigger the information the village is given in the write up. (If they create one gun, it might not show up. If they make 10 guns, it'll be mentioned in the write up that 10 guns were found). If they make a big enough change, a guard  (the main village power roles) will get a more powerful role (probably with an unblockable kill). The engineer is only able to do this for the dream scape they are voted to do by their team, and if they die, only one more turn can take place in that dreamscape. The elim team also has no kill. Just the appointed different engineers, for each dream scape (essentially it's a Dreamscape 1 engineer, dreamscape 2 engineer, ect). 

I'm just trying to figure out if the role needs any more checks. The lynch is unblockable, and each person may only have one life... ive gone through a lot of scenarios, but I dont know if I'm missing something that will allow the role to break the game. 

[Elenion he/him]

13 hours ago, Drake Marshall said:

Objection! I'm a ginger and therefore soulless.

*is actually a ginger* Are you really?

[DrakeMarshall he/him]

Okay so I just wanted to float an idea for a game that I've considered several times. Not sure if it would be a good fit or not.

The game would be based on The Lies of Locke Lamora by Scott Lynch. I will note that it is solely based on the first book. This is because 1) Camorr is an excellent setting for elimination and 2) personally I thought the first book was vastly better than any of the ones that came after.

This would probably be an LG, but that isn't set in stone.

So here goes, for everybody's consideration.

To clarify, this is an outline for a non-Sanderson game.

 

Welcome to the city-state of Camorr, famous for its astromically high crime rates and excellent cuisine. In Camorr, the Secret Peace reigns. The Secret Peace is a pact between two groups: the City of Camorr (the government) and the Right People of Camorr (the underworld). Everything was going splendidly. Trouble is, there's some folks who call themselves the Order of the Crooked Warden who keep walking all over the Secret Peace, stealing from the nobility and what not. This simply will not do.

 

The City of Camorr (the government) and the Right People of Camorr (the underworld) both make up "the village." The primary objective for both factions is to kill all the eliminators (the Order of the Crooked Warden).

However, they each have a secondary objective to end the game with a higher per-capita wealth than the other faction.

If a faction meets their primary objective and secondary objective, this will result in a major victory.

If a faction meets only their primary objective, this will result in a minor victory.

If a faction fails their primary objective, they lose.

 

If it wasn't clear earlier, the  Order of the Crooked Warden only has a primary objective, and that is to outnumber everybody else.

 

Cycles are divided into 3 parts.

Daylight lasts 24 hours. During daylight, members of the City of Camorr can speak in-thread and take actions.

Falselight lasts 24 hours. During falselight, all players may post in-thread, no actions may be taken, and there is a lynch vote.

Night lasts 24 hours. During night, members of the Right People of Camorr can speak in-thread and take actions.

 

The Order of the Crooked Warden will be particularly gifted in the act of disinformation. Most notably, they will be able to appear as various roles, and whether they may act/post by day or night will be determined by what role they are impersonating.

Note that the specifics of this mechanic will depend a great deal on whether anonymous accounts would be available for this game or not.

Yes, I am aware that disguises with anonymous accounts has the potential to be very powerful, and I have in mind certain things that would mitigate this.

 

Players will all have a role. Most roles have a day and night counterpart.

For example, the  City of Camorr might have a physicker as a doctor role. The Right People of Camorr would in turn have a dog-leech (the underworld counterpart of a physicker), which would serve a similar function.

Other examples include:

Alchemist / Black Alchemist (can create a variety of 1-shot items)

Don / Garrista (vote manipulator, starts out with a fair amount of money)

Merchant / Fence (can anonymously buy/sell things, has a secondary win condition to earn a certain amount of money)

Bruiser / Yellowjacket (roleblock, becomes fatally wounded instead of dying if attacked at night, and thus takes an extra cycle to die)

Thief / Tax Collector (steals items and money, respectively)

This is not a completely exhaustive description of all the roles and what they do, but it gives a pretty good outline of how it would work.

 

Most of the game mechanics would be centered on money (specifically White Iron) and items. Most power roles get their powers through certain items they start the game with.

 

Here are some items that would probably occur in the game:

A chest item that will let you lock items away. In this state you can pass multiple items as a single item (the chest). Furthermore the items can't be stolen while in a chest, unless the thief has a "lockpick" item. The downside is that it takes an action to lock items up (but not to unlock them).

Contact poison is one of the things an alchemist can create. Contact poison can be applied to most other items, using up the contact poison. The next time anybody attempts to use that item normally, they will become poisoned. They will be notified that they have been poisoned, and will have 1 full cycle (day/falselight/night) before they die. Unless they get an antidote, anyways.

Contact antidote would be the corresponding antidote to the above poison. It would be a 1-shot item that passively protects against contact poison for whoever holds it. If you pass contact antidote to somebody who is already poisoned, it will passively cure them of the poison and be used up.

Virulent poison is another of the many things an alchemist can create. It can be applied to any item capable of performing an attack. The next attack said item performs will bypass protection.

A yellow jacket is an item that passively makes attacks on the holder result in fatal wounds instead of instant death. A fatally wounded player will die after one cycle. As you may have guessed, this item would be characteristic of the yellowjacket role.

A stilletto is an item that may be used to attack other players. In most cases, an attack attempted by a stilletto will be a failed attack (and the writeup will state that the target was attacked, but survived). However, it will sucessfully perform a kill if 1) it is poisoned with virulent poison or 2) the target is roleblocked on the same cycle that the stiletto is used on them.

An alley piece is an item that takes one cycle to load, and one cycle to fire. Firing it will let you attack another player. Since it's a crossbow, it can only hold one round at a time.

Again, this is not an exhaustive list, because the game isn't finished. But it is a handful of ideas I have for this game.

 

So yeah. These are some random ideas I've had. The game isn't polished, completed, or probably very balanced. But do these ideas have any potential? Is it worth building this into a game, and is there any chance that this would be approved as one of our non-Sanderson games sometime?

Edited October 12, 2017 by Drake Marshall

[DrakeMarshall he/him]

6 minutes ago, Elenion said:

*is actually a ginger* Are you really?

Curses, why can't you quote somebody while editing a post.

Ah well.

Yes, I am actually a ginger.

Well, it gets closer to blond if I spend a lot of time in the sun, but definitely if I've cut my hair recently it will be red.

So basically, I slowly gain a soul over time when I spend time exposed to sunlight? 

Edited October 12, 2017 by Drake Marshall

[A Joe in the Bush]

11 minutes ago, Drake Marshall said:

The City of Camorr (the government) and the Right People of Camorr (the underworld) both make up "the village." The primary objective for both factions is to kill all the eliminators (the Order of the Crooked Warden).

However, they each have a secondary objective to end the game with a higher per-capita wealth than the other faction.

If a faction meets their primary objective and secondary objective, this will result in a major victory.

If a faction meets only their primary objective, this will result in a minor victory.

If a faction fails their primary objective, they lose.

 

If it wasn't clear earlier, the  Order of the Crooked Warden only has a primary objective, and that is to outnumber everybody else.

 

Cycles are divided into 3 parts.

Daylight lasts 24 hours. During daylight, members of the City of Camorr can speak in-thread and take actions.

Falselight lasts 24 hours. During falselight, all players may post in-thread, no actions may be taken, and there is a lynch vote.

Night lasts 24 hours. During night, members of the Right People of Camorr can speak in-thread and take actions.

Since this seems to be the "Twist" of the game, I will focus on this stuff.

First off, the actions divide as it applies to technically warring factions. Because only Right People can take actions at Night, and only City People can take actions at day, it seems that both factions can rob the other with relative impunity, assuming they can target their 'rivals'. Right people aren't going to rob eachother, they'll rob the City People, and the city people can't protect themself during that action period.

A similar problem; If the Crooked Wardens have a faction kill, can they use it durinf either night or day? Either choice means they only have to worry about that Factions doctors, effectively halving the Villages protection.

And minor note, how will the role manipulation roles work if they cannot act during the lynch?

Then there is the Not Talking for a third of the game. Will there at least be open PM's?

PS: You are right about the first book being the best.

[DrakeMarshall he/him]

8 minutes ago, A Joe in the Bush said:

Since this seems to be the "Twist" of the game, I will focus on this stuff.

First off, the actions divide as it applies to technically warring factions. Because only Right People can take actions at Night, and only City People can take actions at day, it seems that both factions can rob the other with relative impunity, assuming they can target their 'rivals'. Right people aren't going to rob eachother, they'll rob the City People, and the city people can't protect themself during that action period.

A similar problem; If the Crooked Wardens have a faction kill, can they use it durinf either night or day? Either choice means they only have to worry about that Factions doctors, effectively halving the Villages protection.

And minor note, how will the role manipulation roles work if they cannot act during the lynch?

Then there is the Not Talking for a third of the game. Will there at least be open PM's?

PS: You are right about the first book being the best.

To clarify. Protection from stealing / killing will extend over an entire cycle, not just the division of the cycle that it occurs in.

Vote manipulation will take place during the lynch cycle, yes  Perhaps I should have said most actions can't be taken during falselight.

And yes there will be open PMs at all times. I should have said that in the initial post.

[A Joe in the Bush]

When do the Wardens kill? Do they have a kill?

[DeTess she/her]

@Drake Marshall, I am a bit worried about only having a 24 hour lynch in an LG, as well as the 'no talking for a third cycle'. I was wondering if it would be possible to rearrange the cycles for a 48 hour false-light, and then the day and night hapoening in different threads in the same 24 hour slot. This might not fit the fluff quite as well, but it might help keeping everyone involved.

[DrakeMarshall he/him]

1 hour ago, A Joe in the Bush said:

When do the Wardens kill? Do they have a kill?

Aha! Good question.

Although thematically it makes very little sense, yes, they have a kill. A single faction kill, once per cycle.

Whether it is at day or night depends some on who makes it.

Some members only have a single identity, and thus can only take actions (including their faction kill) at day, or at night, depending on the identity.

Some members specialize in having multiple identities. When using the identity of a daytime character, they could take actions by day. When using the identity of a nighttime character, they could take actions by night.

In general, they will have the option to make the kill by either day or by night. But this influences who specifically is making the kill.

2 hours ago, A Joe in the Bush said:

Then there is the Not Talking for a third of the game. Will there at least be open PM's?

Also, a slight change to this.

PMs are indeed open, but you can only create 1 PM per cycle and they can only be between 2 people.

However, certain roles will start out in contact with certain other roles.

[DrakeMarshall he/him]

22 minutes ago, randuir said:

@Drake Marshall, I am a bit worried about only having a 24 hour lynch in an LG, as well as the 'no talking for a third cycle'. I was wondering if it would be possible to rearrange the cycles for a 48 hour false-light, and then the day and night hapoening in different threads in the same 24 hour slot. This might not fit the fluff quite as well, but it might help keeping everyone involved.

Hmmm...

Proposed amendment.

A day player can cast lynch votes during the day, and a night player may cast lynch votes during the night. As such, the order for a cycle will technically be:

night / day / falselight

Where the lynch takes place at the end of falselight.

In terms of flavor though what's actually happening is day / falselight / night, except the game would start on a night cycle.

Additionally, all day players have a group PM, and all night players have a group PM. The factions are free to use this during the time that they can't post, as well as communicating in any other PMs that they have. They are also free to conduct any trade during this time, as trade does not use up an action slot.

 

Either that or your suggestion of superpositioning day and night. In terms of gameplay, this might be a good pick, but I'm not going to give up my tripartite cycle structure just this yet if I can find an acceptable solution.

[Steeldancer he/him]

I just had an idea. I have no idea what I'll do with it,  but the premise is this: The Great Nalthian Abakening Show. 

Yes. As in awakener/bakers. 

[DeTess she/her]

If anyone's still looking, I'm interested in co-GMing an upcoming game.

[Darkness Ascendant he/him]

15 hours ago, randuir said:

If anyone's still looking, I'm interested in co-GMing an upcoming game.

Wait, do you have a game you want a Co-Gm for? or do you want to Co-Gm for someone's game?

If the former, I'm available.

[DeTess she/her]

4 hours ago, Darkness_ said:

Wait, do you have a game you want a Co-Gm for? or do you want to Co-Gm for someone's game?

If the former, I'm available.

Sorry for not being clear. I'm looking to co-gm for someone's game.