BANQUO AT THE FEAST is a party game for 3+ people in the vein of Mafia and Werewolf, with a heavier focus placed on storytelling and character relationships. You and your friends play as attendees at a party, telling stories to one another while the ghost of a dead friend comes back to haunt you. Will you be found accountable for your friend's murder, or will you and your fellow attendees have someone else executed for the crime?
This is an expanded version of a game written for the 200 Word RPG challenge in May 2018. You can download it (free, with optional donation) here!
so i wrote this 200 Word RPG Contest entry, but i am not really a contest entering type of guy. and the chances of me forgetting to submit this when the submissions open are pretty high. so here it is, for everyone to check out, ‘Old Timers Are Liars’
Last we spoke, I’d been dipping my toes into GM-ing using the Fate Accelerated RPG. It went okay, but the system was a little unintuitive to me. And it didn’t seem to even touch upon what makes a character them--their personality, their inner motives, etc. But it stirred within me... allusions of grandeur!!!!
Well, okay. Maybe not that. But it did leave me with some ideas of how I might structure a game of my own.
Creative Urges
As I’ve mentioned before, I’ve been board gaming for some time now. And with that hobby, it wasn’t long before I started adding house rules, and even designing my own games!
The same has happened with role playing games--though the process has seemed to be sped up quite a bit in comparison. It had only been a couple of months into trying RPGs that I started to work on ideas of my own. Here, I’d like to talk about a few of them.
First, I’ll go over the 200-word-RPGs I’ve made. Note that I haven’t played any of them as yet; my group don’t really go for these more experimental story games as a rule. But I think as I’ve written new ones, they’ve gotten better and more interesting.
Trials
This was the first of these “micro games” I put out for feedback. It uses the core mechanic of an early version of my full-blown RPG (it’s had many names, though for now I’ll refer to it as “Gifted”)--and a mechanic that’s actually remained the core of the design.
Here, I tried to set up a situation in which its usefulness--for both the players and the GM--could be explored. The players work together to create the setting, some limited space that they cannot or will not walk away from.
They set up their characters by creating Motives (again--not the terms used at the time, but the more clear ones used in the latest iteration of Gifted). These tie up:
A life-changing experience, a turning point in their lives.
A belief stemming from that experience. Something about that event made them see the world/themselves/“the way things are” differently.
A frame of mind (later changed to motive)--a one-word description of how they think when the belief and/or experience is affecting them in the present moment. eg. A past trauma coming back to haunt you. A life-long mission given you by someone you respect moving you to take action.
These single-word frames of mind were jotted down on a sheet of paper. The PCs would discuss their lives, trying to ferret out details they could use against each other. The “current” player (which would change each “round”) would simply pick one of those words, and introduce something to the scene that might challenge or test that frame of mind--using what they learned from the players to try to hit a nerve. eg. A vision of a long-dead father. One of the PCs turns out to be that school bully.
I’m not sure how well the gameplay of this would work, but it got some good responses from people regarding the core mechanic of defining a character by what makes them tick--so that was pretty much goal achieved!
The Master’s Gambit
This is a fairly simple game inspired by a cheesy karate kid style film where the nerdy teenager gets sucked into a Japanese game world and so on and so forth. Wasn’t great, but had some funny moments peppered in ^^
One scene got me thinking, though. You know the one--karate kid gets taught how to wax-on wax-off by Miyagi-sensei. And eventually it becomes relevant to his training as a Jedi Knight. Or whatever...
Anyway, this game focuses on that aspect, but kind of runs with it. The rules are addressed in-character to the Master (GM), explaining how task resolution works (a basic dice pool system), how to train their padawan (without ever breaking character to discuss the rules outright), and what general storyline the game will cover as it goes.
I don’t want to discuss the particulars here, in case anyone reading this would ever like to play the game as the Apprentice (it’s a two-player game only). But it’s got some interesting things going on behind the scenes. I’d like to try it someday, if I can ever rope someone into giving it an honest try. XD
It didn’t have anything to do with Gifted, but it was certainly an interesting exercise nonetheless.
Out of the Shadows
This game tested out something I was playing with in connection with Gifted. It uses a similar system, though focusses on freeform stats you write as you go instead of the Motives of the characters.
The setting is... “It’s dark.” That’s about it--though there are some hints throughout of a maze-like underground complex of tunnels, corridors, stairways, and castle walls. There are monsters in the dark. If you can find them before they find you.
The interesting part is, though, is that the PCs have no memory whatsoever. They don’t know who they are, or what they’re capable of. But they find out as they play. They try to run away from the sounds of a grunting monster, and roll to do so. If they succeeded, they’ll have a generally higher stat for “Running.” If they failed, they’ll have a generally lower stat. (Check out the rules for the particulars of how this works; I’m kind of proud of how simple it is.)
So they’ll slowly accrue more stats when they try to do new things, gaining a better understanding of what kind of person they are as they go. But also, they have room for 1 Gift and 1 Weakness. If they fail with a stat twice in a row, they find they have a weakness--an old sports injury, on top of them generally running like a Romero zombie. Succeed twice in a row with a stat, and it has a Gift. They just make something up and write it down. But now, if a Gift is relevant to a roll, they can roll twice and choose the higher number (ala advantage in D&D). Similar for weaknesses, but they use the lower number.
And the GM will only allow them to actually escape after they’ve figured out who they are. A very simple idea, but I think it would be interesting to play for a little bit.
I’ve included this in Gifted to generate one kind of stat for obstacles (NPCs, etc. within the world).
Next post, I’ll talk about the development of Gifted--its core concepts and how they’ve evolved over the past few months.
200 Word RPG Challenge 2017 - My Favorite Finalists
For those of you who are unaware of what this is, every year since 2015 my friend David has orchestrated a “small” contest where people write and submit role playing systems consisting of only 200 words. This follows the principle of “constraints breed creativity” and has resulted in some beautiful nuggets of gameplay and design.
The 2017 challenge finalists have just been announced, and I thought I’d take time to talk about my favorites, in alphabetical order.
1. Memoriam Ignis
I have come across the idea before of madness as a limiting factor in a magical world - an explanation of why everyone doesn’t do everything with magic. However, I don’t think I’ve ever seen it so well encapsulated in mechanics as in this game.
2. Might Makes Right
A fantastic original idea for resolving conflicts. The only thing that’s more hilarious than arm wrestling your MM to decide the outcome of a conflict is doing it in order to “rescue a space gym from the Evil Beancounter Alliance.” The only problem I can see is that the MM might tire of arm wrestling much more quickly than the players, given that the MM has to take them all on.
3. Nightblind
Oh. My. Goodness. I must confess a penchant for games that let you lie to the other players, even if I may not be that good at them. Somehow, Nightblind manages to flawlessly put that mechanic next to some rich theming and storytelling hooks, all in 200 words. This is the game I want to play IRL the most.
4. The Human World
One player is a child exploring the (post-apocalyptic) world for the first time, the others are obsessive androids tasked with teaching the child about the world, but limited by their own personality traits, which eclipse all else for them. A powerful way to look at reductio ad absurdum in the context of a game. Also would be great to play on a road trip with friends.
5. VOICE
I disagree with the judge’s reading on this. To me it doesn’t look so focused on privilege. True, It can only experience the things the gods allow It to, but the gods themselves can only experience the world through Its sensations. The gods, though the ones in control of gifts, are as dependent on It as It is on them. Regardless of interpretation, however, VOICE is a masterclass of storytelling.
...oh, yeah, and I’m a finalist as well. Check it out!
So, my supplement in the #200WordRPG Challenge, Soluble Sahuagin, didn't make the cut. :(
That said, I really like the comments about it from +Jacqueline Bryk... I guess it says something about me that I didn't think of any of those creatures as something for a horror game. :)
In any case, check out the winners, and the runner-ups, including mine! Each game or supplement is FREE and 200 words long, so what do you have to lose?
#uft
David Schirduan originally shared:
The #200WordRPG Results are now available! Go see who the winners were, and look at all of these incredible games!
Oh, awesome! My 200-word RPG supplement, "Soluble Sahuagin," is a finalist in the #200WordRPG Challenge! I didn't expect my actual RPG to make it, so I'm particularly pleased to be in the finalists for the Supplement category.
#OSR peeps will particularly want to check it out, as Soluble Sahuagin is a list of surreal monsters, with a B/X conversion guide, though it is intended for any RPG. (The B/X conversion is an example.)
You'll need to scroll down to see my entry. Be sure to read the other ones, tho, as they're all only 200 words each. :)
I am very excited! #uft
David Schirduan originally shared:
The Finalists for the #200WordRPG Challenge have been selected and can be read below! Early May the winners will be announced, and the PDF will be made available for sale. The PDF will feature: Pay What You Want Pricing The final winners ALL the entries…
Sometimes I can be creative while depressed, I guess.
So, this time around the #200WordRPG challenge includes supplements as well as full RPGs. I decided to write something with a bit of an #OSR flavor, a list of twelve surreal monsters for any system, but with a B/X conversion as an example.
Please provide comments! This one should be pretty accessible to most gamers. It's called Soluble Sahuagin, and is exactly 200 words, not including the title.
