The Great Conjunction (RPG DESIGN CONTEST)

[Khuxan]

I've been thinking about this for a few days, but haven't come up with anything substantial. I'll share with you some of the ideas that have been floating around in my head:

• Magic is only magic when the player characters don't have it. A sword & sorcery setting where the PCs only have swords presents itself, as does a more medieval setting where the PCs are witch hunters and dragon slayers equipped only with steel and fire.
• The city of Heaven collapses into an Eden-like world. In a sudden end to their innocent lives, the hunter-gatherer natives realise that their own "morally pure" unclothed and nomadic existence was a simple ploy to keep them powerless by treacherous and decadent gods. They proceed to loot the city and remark the world in their own image.
• In a magic-less ancient setting, the PCs are armed with bronze weapons and flaming torches. They face linnorms - giant centipedes - and dragons - crocodiles - and are pursued by the fey - primitive humans dwelling in the universe. But at some moments during the story, the world shifts and heroes become mythic heroes equipped with mighty blades twice their height, slaying fire-spitting wyverns and illusionist fairy princes.
• A patchwork city on the edge of time, built from cities that are no more. Wayward travellers here find themselves blessed with sorcerous powers - but these wizards are closer to superheroes in terms of form and ability.
• Children slip into the realm of the fey, become transformed by an encounter with the fairy folk, and then must return to their own lives and make sense of their capricious blessing.

As you see, there are a few ideas floating about in my head but I haven't been able to tame them into something workable. I think the biggest problem I'm running into is how to make magic seem magical, instead of another tool for an adventuring party.

[Wik]

Originally Posted by Khuxan

Children slip into the realm of the fey, become transformed by an encounter with the fairy folk, and then must return to their own lives and make sense of their capricious blessing

I like this one. It's different from what's already detailed, yet not so "gonzo" that it wouldn't work.

[EP]

What the hell, I'll chime in with mine. The mechanics haven't been worked out yet (too much Christmas stuff to do and I promised the little woman I would wait until the January 1st start date to get writing), but the setting and concept have been.

It's called Ignition and involves the discovery of a new form of radiation 40 years from now that is harnessed to create magic. Casters wear a biomechanical suit to process the surrounding radiation and convert it to radiant energy. The idea is that magic will be new and free-formed, so it will be presented as individual groups which can be used in any way imaginable to the player. Characters can use a certain number of spells based on their suits and can learn to create their own unique spells and master them for easier use as time goes on.

And now that I've said it out loud, I have to work on it. No choice.

[pawsplay]

My entry (no title yet):

Dreamers, each wielding a special magic Sceptre, do battle with the King of Nothing and his shadow things in a ruined city that seems to have doors to everywhere. The King of Nothing will stop at nothing to find and capture them, for it has been foretold that one from the waking world will one day cast him down.

[Aeolius]

My campaign already utilizes standard D&D magics, psionics, warlocks, the Dreamscape (Heroes of Horror + Manual of the Planes), incarnum, and Tome of Magic.

I have given some thought to adding ley line magic, "sponsored" hag rituals (similar to the Fiend of Blasphemy in Fiend Folio), and adding a bard variant that accesses a "universal song" in a manner similar to the game Loom .

[Jack7]

It's called Ignition and involves the discovery of a new form of radiation 40 years from now that is harnessed to create magic...

That kinda reminds me of the book, the Light Ages.

Dreamers, each wielding a special magic Sceptre, do battle with the King of Nothing and his shadow things in a ruined city that seems to have doors to everywhere. The King of Nothing will stop at nothing to find and capture them, for it has been foretold that one from the waking world will one day cast him down.

I don't know how exactly you'd make a game out of it, but it sounds like it would make one helluvah good short story too. You should write that up.

I have given some thought to adding ley line magic, "sponsored" hag rituals (similar to the Fiend of Blasphemy in Fiend Folio), and adding a bard variant that accesses a "universal song" in a manner similar to the game Loom .

That Loom game sounds really fascinating. I did a paper not long ago about encryption techniques using environmental encoding as a method for transmission of covert data. Sub-encoded music was one avenue I was exploring. Never heard of that game before but it sounds worth looking into. Be interested in seeing how you translate it to play as an RPG technique.

Well, now that I've eaten I'm heading out.
Sounds like an interesting set of projects.

[Wik]

Well, I for one am really excited about everything going on. Personally, I've got many of the kinks in my system figured out, and I've got a baseline mechanics system written up on paper - I'm really looking forward to the 1st so I can get stuff done.

I like seeing that someone else has touched on a "Dreamlands" idea, though Pawsplay has taken it much further than I have. I'm still trying to find a way to allow characters to explore the dream realms as a group, so I don't have to split the party.

(The other option would be to have dreaming come up as a skill check or some minor point of play that could have in-game benefits, or maybe make it like the Astral in Shadowrun

Actually getting started on writing is going to be fun.

[Jack7]

I went to see two old buddies of mine and their families tonight.

We did and discussed a lot of things together, in general, literature, the war, Intel matters, science, history, the RBN and Georgia, Lovecraft, Lost, etc. but one thing we discussed was in relation to games and so forth. (Both of them - they're brothers - and I used to play D&D together when we were kids. Now their kids also play as does one of mine.)

Anywho our conversation eventually ranged over matters of design and we discussed analogical thinking, digital thinking, human behavior, mechanics, psychological bio-mechanics, playability, rules, simulations (I sometimes design training simulations and scenarios as part of my work) and what I call game-devised genre-based "Counter-Realism."

Anyways it made me really rethink some of the things I was already thinking about doing, and now I'm seriously considering incorporating some of the things we discussed tonight into my design.

[fuindordm]

I hope you all had an enjoyable holiday! I spent time in a tiny village in the southwest of France, where 42 church bells woke me up every morning at 8am sharp. We were even lucky enough to get snow on the day after Christmas, something we don't see a lot of in Paris.

Anyway...

Here is a Word document summarizing the rules and openly declared contestants to the Great Conjunction. If a setting description was too long, I took what seemed to be the most representative paragraph.

Enjoy the contest, and keep thinking!

Ben

[Jack7]

Some of the things I'm working on thus far: Developmental Proceedings

[Halivar]

Eh, the sucky thing about having to declare before Jan 15th is this: I wouldn't know if I would have a game ready by the Feb 28th deadline until it was almost finished. I like the OP's idea of a more casual "send it in when it's finished" contest. The Interactive Fiction contest has been run this way for quite some time, and it's worked fantastically.

[Wik]

Originally Posted by Halivar

Eh, the sucky thing about having to declare before Jan 15th is this: I wouldn't know if I would have a game ready by the Feb 28th deadline until it was almost finished. I like the OP's idea of a more casual "send it in when it's finished" contest. The Interactive Fiction contest has been run this way for quite some time, and it's worked fantastically.

You don't need to declare... it's just something that was kindly put together to give people an idea what's going on. Feel free to start - there's as much pressure as you wish.

Thanks for doing this, Fuin - I'm really looking forward to seeing what comes out of this. I already have my basic mechanic map put together.

[Talath]

As I've said in another thread, I'd like to throw my hat in the ring. And since we are tossing around summaries:

Children of a Crimson Dawn

How does one rule the world? Fear and power. For the Order of the Crimson Sunburst, their closely guarded secrets of magic have kept enemies and rivals at bay for thousands of years. However, when a little known prophecy by one of their own fortells the coming of many years of disaster followed by the destruction of the order, horror is felt when suddenly, people who could not use magic, now find themselves able to. Political unrest turns the unfriendly into the hostile, and suddenly war seems to be on the horizon, with those who can wield the power of magic cast at the front of the line in an arms race to claim those who wield the power.

I have a few monthes to work on it, so this suits me for now.

[fuindordm]

Originally Posted by Talath

Children of a Crimson Dawn

How does one rule the world? Fear and power. For the Order of the Crimson Sunburst, their closely guarded secrets of magic have kept enemies and rivals at bay for thousands of years. However, when a little known prophecy by one of their own foretells the coming of many years of disaster followed by the destruction of the order, horror is felt when suddenly, people who could not use magic, now find themselves able to. Political unrest turns the unfriendly into the hostile, and suddenly war seems to be on the horizon, with those who can wield the power of magic cast at the front of the line in an arms race to claim those who wield the power.

I have a few months to work on it, so this suits me for now.

The interesting thing about this setting is that I could see it working equally well whether the PCs are 'old guard' or 'new guard'. The two campaigns would have very different flavors.

Anyway, the entry is duly noted.

Halivar: The main reason for the list is to encourage those people working on the contest. Feel free to work in the background if you're more comfortable.

Ben

[Halivar]

Ok, I'm thinking of breaking out of the traditional RPG party-level paradigm for macro-level competitive play. Each player is a wizard of great power. As such, they are also factional leaders. PC's have personal stats and factional stats. Gameplay is a mix of party-level skirmish and macro-level diplomacy. The DM controls an antogonist agent against which the players can choose to ally their factions. Or, the players can play each other off against the antagonist for their own gains.

[Wik]

Originally Posted by Halivar

Ok, I'm thinking of breaking out of the traditional RPG party-level paradigm for macro-level competitive play. Each player is a wizard of great power. As such, they are also factional leaders. PC's have personal stats and factional stats. Gameplay is a mix of party-level skirmish and macro-level diplomacy. The DM controls an antogonist agent against which the players can choose to ally their factions. Or, the players can play each other off against the antagonist for their own gains.

That sounds really cool. Sort of like a better version of TSR's old BIRTHRIGHT, or maybe the Age of Wonders computer game. I think it'd be neat to have magical power tie into lands (sort of like both those games), to encourage the wizards to acquire lands or power. A sort of "agenda" could be randomly dealt to each player, so they could conspire to accomplish their own gains...

...in any case, it sounds like the type of game I'd love to play. Looking forward to it!

[Halivar]

Originally Posted by Wik

I think it'd be neat to have magical power tie into lands (sort of like both those games), to encourage the wizards to acquire lands or power.

Hah! "D&D: The Gathering"

I'm actually thinking about having it where wizards can choose from a variety of power bases, including lands, guilds, colleges, or churches. But yeah, land acquisition will be a part of the game.

[Wik]

Well, folks - it's 2009 now, and we can officially begin work on our respective games. Best of luck to all of you, and here's hoping we get a good yield of fine indy games.

[Lord Xtheth]

Originally Posted by Wik

Well, folks - it's 2009 now, and we can officially begin work on our respective games. Best of luck to all of you, and here's hoping we get a good yield of fine indy games.

Officially started!

I hope what I've been coming up with is as good on paper as it seems in my head.


Oh yeah

HAPPY NEW YEAR!!!

[fuindordm]

Well, I started writing today. As the ideas came pouring out, I realized I have a lot of work to do to cram a complete RPG into 30 pages. Font size and formatting can only take you so far...and I doubt there will be any art to speak of!

Still, for entertainment purposes only, I thought I'd share the outline. Is anything missing?

I. Setting and Themes
A. A spiritual world, a different kind of magic
B. Parallel prehistory, an ancient worldview
C. Creating the world through play: stories within stories
D. The Jewel of Virtue
II. The Player Character
A. Attributes
B. Skills
C. Races
D. Heroic Archetypes
E. Equipment
III. Skills and Exploits
A. Prowess skills: athletics and weapons
B. Gnosis skills: lore and analysis
C. Charisma skills: manipulation, negotiation and performance
D. Heroic exploits (mundane powers with skill prerequisites)
IV. Forms of Magic
A. True Speech, the enigma of lost grace
B. Miracles of Virtue
C. Consorting with spiritual beings
1. Angels
2. Djinn
3. Demons
D. Artifacts, relics, and other remnants
E. Gates
V. Playing the Game
A. Before you begin
B. Conflict and task resolution
C. Frameworks and stories
D. Exchanging roles
E. Character advancement
F. Example of play
VI. Hazards and obstacles
A. Beasts and monsters
B. Unique and spiritual creatures
C. Environmental hazards
D. Conspiracies
VII. Advanced options
A. Parallel frameworks
B. Multiple incarnations
C. Ahriman’s tempation