Rel
Liquid Awesome
Crossposted from CM...
So Piratecat's Dread game and the Jenga tower resolution system got me thinking about other possible ways to run a game without using dice. It also occurs to me that the Jenga thing, while very cool, could be a strong negative for people who because of disability or plain old lack of skill would always come out on the bad end of such a system. Anyway I've had this idea rattling around in my head for a few days and I thought I'd better type it out before I forget it entirely. I will allow that it's an idea that is perhaps better forgotten.
So I think I'll call it "d52" because it uses standard decks of playing cards. The GM needs one and you need one for the players. The rules I'm presenting below are designed for a one-shot game that is more of a horror/thriller where PC death is likely if not assured and a TPK is a very real possibility. It works like this:
The GM shuffles one of the decks and places it near him. He then draws his "hand" off the top of the deck, which is equivalent to one card for each player in the game.
The Player Deck is shuffled and dealt out as evenly as possible to the players at the table. Anybody who brought snacks to the game preferentially gets any "remainder" cards. If all players brought snacks then the GM loudly and rudely proclaims which snacks are the inferior ones and those players don't get an extra card. (We'll call this snack thing "Optional") In any event, these are the player's hands and they'll play these cards to resolve actions throughout the game.
So the game starts and I'm envisioning a system similar to Dread where if an action is something that is clearly within the PC's capabilities as described then no resolution is required, they just succeed. If the action is clearly outside the PC's capabilities then it can't be done. If the action is within the PC's capabilities but has a chance of failure then the player plays a card of their choice from their hand.
In turn, the GM plays a card, either from the top of the deck or from his hand (his choice). If the player's card is higher then they succeed at what they were doing, to a degree based on how much the value of their card exceeded the GM's. If the GM's card is higher than the player's then the PC failed at what they were doing, to a degree based on how much the value of the GM's card exceeded the player's.
(Here's the fun part)
IF the cards are the same value however then the PC succeeds (barely) at what they were doing AND all the players draw a card from the person to their left. This includes the GM.
Also, if you ever play the Queen of Spades, your character dies. Obviously you'd most likely only play this card if it was your last one. Or possibly, since the Queen is a fairly high card, if you wanted to go out in a "blaze of glory" and held no other high cards then you may want to play it then. Once the Queen is played it is passed to the person sitting to the left of the player who played it.
That's it. Those are the rules.
Implications:
- Because the cards are dealt out evenly, each player has a fairly even stake in the game. Spotlight hogs will quickly find themselves out of cards or holding a few low cards that are unlikely to succeed at anything.
- Because players have a limited number of cards they will need to choose carefully when to play them. Generally they should try and do things that are well within the confines of their PC and save the cards for when it really matters.
- Because the play of the cards isn't random, the player gets to choose when they are likely to succeed at something and when they are likely to fail. If something is important to the PC then they have some control over whether it succeeds or not (this renders it similar to an Action Point mechanic). Likewise if the PC wants to try something that would be nice but isn't critical then they can play a low card and hope they get lucky.
- The rub is that you can't necessarily count on saving those high cards for the really important stuff because when cards get swapped from hand to hand during a tie then you might lose them.
- The swapping of the cards also ensures that if you started the game with a crappy hand that you can improve it as time goes on. Likewise if your hand is strong, you can't count on it staying that way. And of course if you drew the Old Maid at the outset then you know that you may not be stuck with her until the end.
- Speaking of which, the Queen of Spaces as a "death mark" sort of emulates the movies and stories when early on you say, "That dude is so gonna die!" But sometimes there is a plot twist and that can change and even characters you thought were safe get killed.
- It's virtually guaranteed that nobody is going to die in this game early on. I think this is a big plus for Game Day and Con games because you want people to get to enjoy the entire session and not get killed by some random roll in the first half hour. This way, even if somebody dies, it'll happen at the end.
- The GM has some plot control by virtue of his hand too. He can choose to play a high or low card from his hand instead of relying upon the randomness of his deck in order to ensure a lesser or greater chance for a PC to succeed in a given action.
- By having the GM in the rotation when cards get swapped, it means that it's possible for him to remove the Queen of Spades from play for some portion of the game. It also means that if he drew the Queen from HIS deck during the opening draw, the players might have TWO Queens floating around.
- The way the players "win" the game is to bring it to a resolution before their last couple cards come into play. Chances are that once the Queen gets played, things are going to go downhill FAST for the PC's. I think this also emulates movies in the genre.
Refinements and Options:
- If you want the game to be a little more grim then you could make ties go against the players.
- If you want more randomness and having the cards getting swapped around the table then have them swap every time a face card gets played.
- If you want a slightly greater sense that death is assured then remove the GM from the card swap rotation to make sure that the Queen is in a player's hand at all times.
- If you want a game where a TPK isn't going to happen then simply remove the Queen from play after she's played such that only one person can get killed.
Thoughts? If this idea pans out then I might run a game or two of it at GenCon.
So Piratecat's Dread game and the Jenga tower resolution system got me thinking about other possible ways to run a game without using dice. It also occurs to me that the Jenga thing, while very cool, could be a strong negative for people who because of disability or plain old lack of skill would always come out on the bad end of such a system. Anyway I've had this idea rattling around in my head for a few days and I thought I'd better type it out before I forget it entirely. I will allow that it's an idea that is perhaps better forgotten.
So I think I'll call it "d52" because it uses standard decks of playing cards. The GM needs one and you need one for the players. The rules I'm presenting below are designed for a one-shot game that is more of a horror/thriller where PC death is likely if not assured and a TPK is a very real possibility. It works like this:
The GM shuffles one of the decks and places it near him. He then draws his "hand" off the top of the deck, which is equivalent to one card for each player in the game.
The Player Deck is shuffled and dealt out as evenly as possible to the players at the table. Anybody who brought snacks to the game preferentially gets any "remainder" cards. If all players brought snacks then the GM loudly and rudely proclaims which snacks are the inferior ones and those players don't get an extra card. (We'll call this snack thing "Optional"
) In any event, these are the player's hands and they'll play these cards to resolve actions throughout the game.So the game starts and I'm envisioning a system similar to Dread where if an action is something that is clearly within the PC's capabilities as described then no resolution is required, they just succeed. If the action is clearly outside the PC's capabilities then it can't be done. If the action is within the PC's capabilities but has a chance of failure then the player plays a card of their choice from their hand.
In turn, the GM plays a card, either from the top of the deck or from his hand (his choice). If the player's card is higher then they succeed at what they were doing, to a degree based on how much the value of their card exceeded the GM's. If the GM's card is higher than the player's then the PC failed at what they were doing, to a degree based on how much the value of the GM's card exceeded the player's.
(Here's the fun part)
IF the cards are the same value however then the PC succeeds (barely) at what they were doing AND all the players draw a card from the person to their left. This includes the GM.
Also, if you ever play the Queen of Spades, your character dies. Obviously you'd most likely only play this card if it was your last one. Or possibly, since the Queen is a fairly high card, if you wanted to go out in a "blaze of glory" and held no other high cards then you may want to play it then. Once the Queen is played it is passed to the person sitting to the left of the player who played it.
That's it. Those are the rules.
Implications:
- Because the cards are dealt out evenly, each player has a fairly even stake in the game. Spotlight hogs will quickly find themselves out of cards or holding a few low cards that are unlikely to succeed at anything.
- Because players have a limited number of cards they will need to choose carefully when to play them. Generally they should try and do things that are well within the confines of their PC and save the cards for when it really matters.
- Because the play of the cards isn't random, the player gets to choose when they are likely to succeed at something and when they are likely to fail. If something is important to the PC then they have some control over whether it succeeds or not (this renders it similar to an Action Point mechanic). Likewise if the PC wants to try something that would be nice but isn't critical then they can play a low card and hope they get lucky.
- The rub is that you can't necessarily count on saving those high cards for the really important stuff because when cards get swapped from hand to hand during a tie then you might lose them.
- The swapping of the cards also ensures that if you started the game with a crappy hand that you can improve it as time goes on. Likewise if your hand is strong, you can't count on it staying that way. And of course if you drew the Old Maid at the outset then you know that you may not be stuck with her until the end.
- Speaking of which, the Queen of Spaces as a "death mark" sort of emulates the movies and stories when early on you say, "That dude is so gonna die!" But sometimes there is a plot twist and that can change and even characters you thought were safe get killed.
- It's virtually guaranteed that nobody is going to die in this game early on. I think this is a big plus for Game Day and Con games because you want people to get to enjoy the entire session and not get killed by some random roll in the first half hour. This way, even if somebody dies, it'll happen at the end.
- The GM has some plot control by virtue of his hand too. He can choose to play a high or low card from his hand instead of relying upon the randomness of his deck in order to ensure a lesser or greater chance for a PC to succeed in a given action.
- By having the GM in the rotation when cards get swapped, it means that it's possible for him to remove the Queen of Spades from play for some portion of the game. It also means that if he drew the Queen from HIS deck during the opening draw, the players might have TWO Queens floating around.
- The way the players "win" the game is to bring it to a resolution before their last couple cards come into play. Chances are that once the Queen gets played, things are going to go downhill FAST for the PC's. I think this also emulates movies in the genre.
Refinements and Options:
- If you want the game to be a little more grim then you could make ties go against the players.
- If you want more randomness and having the cards getting swapped around the table then have them swap every time a face card gets played.
- If you want a slightly greater sense that death is assured then remove the GM from the card swap rotation to make sure that the Queen is in a player's hand at all times.
- If you want a game where a TPK isn't going to happen then simply remove the Queen from play after she's played such that only one person can get killed.
Thoughts? If this idea pans out then I might run a game or two of it at GenCon.
