Scattershot Design Continuum

2008-05-02T15:18:00.000-07:00

On the Move!

Well, I've finally taken the plunge. I've been spreading myself far too thinly for a long time, so I'm bringing all my points of access into one location.

If you want to read the kinda blogs you read here, then you'll have to turn your RSS feeds and bookmarks to: this link.

If you want it all, aim at my blog.

You will find all parts of my efforts combined into a big mixed blog. The categories will separate it into the old familiar content streams, so take your pick.

This is one of my first php-based web design efforts, so expect a little rough on the edges. I've integrated a blog, a forum and a wiki (as well as I could) to allow a better place for feedback rather than blog comments and to have a place where explanations can grow and evolve as my understandings of the world do.

I hope you like it and humbly invite you to join in the fun!

Fang

2007-12-03T14:45:00.000-08:00

Yes, it has been quite a while....

I've been sunk deep in the outline (mine are VERY detailed), working the new 'gamemaster sheet' into it. It's so similar to the idea of a chara sheet, it partly writes itself; however, there are some crucial differences. That's what makes this go so slow.

As a writing diversion (on no-less crucial components), I've been sifting through TV Tropes for comic book tropes (it has expanded beyond the original mission). I can start from there and built out to a simple start-list for playtesting Universe 6. Having those will also spur work on the 'gamemaster design sheet'.

Signing Off,
F

2007-11-07T16:26:00.000-08:00

Well, it’s begun.

I finally solved the unfinished part of Scattershot. It’s all in my head now. I can write it.

I am writing it.

Here are the parts I’m using in the recipe so far:

Structure of the piece
http://scattershotunseen.blogspot.com/2005/12/appendix.html

Chapter arrangement
http://www.indie-rpgs.com/forum/index.php?topic=673.msg5708#msg5708

The new Challenge mechanics
http://scattershotunseen.blogspot.com/2006/02/list-of-illustrations.html

Game flow, gamemastering, scenic breakdown, playering and for the connoisseur
http://scattershotunseen.blogspot.com/2006/01/chapter-three.html

Original mechanics
http://scattershotunseen.blogspot.com/2006/02/table-of-contents.html

Glossary
http://scattershotunseen.blogspot.com/2005/12/glossary.html

I’ll keep you updated as I work on the piece. I’ll announce the first draft here!

Fang

2007-10-16T10:21:00.000-07:00

For a long time now, I've been rebelling against the current trend in role-playing game design theory to look at the act as a conflict of competing directions to take the game with dice as the arbitrary adjudicator. It all seems so 'you versus me'.

I'm learned the craft of gamemastering by playing in women's groups. You don't interrupt, you embellish; you don't contest, you compliment; dice don't decide; they enhance.

This is how I play and how I want to design. As the Game Design Heretic, I also have to subvert the typical tropes of gaming at the same time. This is why Scattershot seems so traditional with dice-offs and point-bases. Where I subvert is the use of experience dice to formulate the experience I want the players to have. (This is an idea I sorta stole from The Riddle of Steel and it's spiritual aspects.)

Now I'm a very big fan of Moyra Turkington and her thoughts on 'Pull' play. I've been sore attempting to recreate the essence of Scattershot around this idea. I can't do that without abandoning the subversion. However, I do see a place where it beautifully applies.

The Gamemaster

Gone is the role of referee; gone too the work of 'crafting the story'; a gamemaster will function on one level to smooth out pacing issues, keep everyone appropriately involved and keep an eye on dramatic tension. Where does pull come in? Instead of introducing elements of story, the gamemaster will 'Pull' players to create them themselves out of their expectations. As it happens, this is a terrific description of how I do it. (Remember "What Would Fang Do?")

I'll be developing this more in the future; just wanted to keep you in the loop!

Fang

2007-09-14T15:59:00.000-07:00

What's Next?

I'm going to start eliminating the cruft from the 'chapters' in my TheUnseen.blogspot.com blog. I've just changed all of them to originating in February, if I remove the cruft, I can send people to the February batch as an example of a rough draft (and give me something to port over to The Unseen Wiki).

I'm also going to start putting a list of my blogs on some of my posts to introduce people to my blog cloud. In case you're wondering why I post so slowly, check it out! I'm posting on all ten of my blogs.

Scattershot presents: Universe 6 - The super-hero product for Scattershot
Scattershot presents: The Unseen - An ARG LARP for Scattershot
The Scattershot Design Continuum - This weblog
Fish or Sofa Magazine - For all things Scattershot
Costumentality - A Webcomik I aspire to do based in Universe 6
Impswitch Development Thinking - An isometric turn-based strategy MMORPG I tinker with
Azeroth Gazette - I do have other hobbies (World of Warcraft: email me for the server)
Cerebrum Abusive Ideas - Just ideas to hurt your brain, that's all

And I have a short article on Role-Play Gateway.

Outside of that, it's been a quiet fortnight.

See you in 14,

Fang

2007-09-04T14:34:00.000-07:00

I'm going to begin building out The Unseen wiki using Tikiwiki. In there I will be bringing in all the old material I can (for archives) and fleshing out the game as I can. By some deadline, I hope to make 'the rules' pages print out nicely (like book pages). Other 'live' gaming materials will be formatted as downloadables or web-supplements.

I'll be doing the same for Universe 6 (although not with Tikiwiki). Both will allow me to write out more detailed explanations or descriptions for things than I could ever do in print. A full 'how-to' section will give me a starting place to write the final chapter of the same material for print. I'll be able to really flesh out NPCs and Extras on these wikis. I'd also like to link them to a shared chara design engine that prints out to PDFs.

In the distant future, The Unseen wiki will also host the playtest for the ARG and the LARP of it. Hopefully developing into The Unseen social networking site.

All of my development blogs will become just that, nothing more. I may even set up a archival section of all the notes I've ever taken for Scattershot. I AM planning on typing those all up (and having my home go paperless).

In more Scattershotish news, I've been strongly pondering how each games' metaphors and symbolism will integrate and support their Fruitful Voids.

We've finally decided that 'Safe Word' terminology belongs in all supplements, not just the mature 'romance novel' book.

See you in about a fortnight.

F

2007-08-15T15:37:00.000-07:00

So here are a few updates I've been considering for the mechanix of Scattershot.

Mode Switching
Instead of everything stopping when the dice come out, I'm toying with the idea of converting the current mechanix to a 'silent mode' mechanic. For example, someone is narrating along on their merry way and another player at the table decides that the situation needs some complication. Rather than stopping the discourse, he simply tosses an experience die on the table, a challenge if you will. I need to think out the resolution / application though.

Pull Mechanix
I sorry to say, but I'm really attracted to these kinds of rules. One thought was to prompt players to team up their chara by urging a Pull technique using only people actively involved in the scene. I'm also trying to wrap my mind around the idea of Pull as a form of setting stakes. Mostly I want to get far away from letting dice override a player's choices. (I'd like resource management do that.)

Positive Failure Stakes
I'd also like to get away from one-sided stakes; that is, either you do some complicated thing or nothing happens. The olde gaming false dichotomy. For example (I don't know if it will work like this), when the dice say you don't pick the lock, the result isn't 'the lock stays locked', it would be 'when working on the lock fails, you notice an open second story window.' A positive failure, if you will.

Danger
Some types of gaming allow you to face permanent character death in order to create tension. This only escalates the false dichotomy problem. One bad die roll and you're back to making yet another chara. What is really needed are some kind of mechanix of tension. Instead of failure results, I've been pushing more towards furthering complications. In a way, making a new chara is quite a complication, but it's a bit of an extreme. I'm thinking that a type of clearer stakes might make for a better tension mechanic. If you know that it all comes down to one die throw, the pressure is certainly on. (But often doesn't fit many genre expectations.)

Spotlighting
I'm also playing on the idea I just posted on my Heretic Blog, spotlight time might be a better way of mediating resolution. Perhaps, rather than failing a simple action and thwarting an entire movement, perhaps a dramatic increase in complication is what 'failure' means. Thus, 1) you succeed and do the thing you wanted to varying levels of quality or 2) something goes wrong and dumps you into a hell of complications (the intensity of which would be based on a running tension level). In 1) you get what you wanted and in 2) you get a lot more spotlight time dealing with the new complications. Both are rewards, but I can hide #2 cleverly in the mechanix. (Actually, thinking back, this is how I frequently run.)

Suggesting Complications
While I haven't had many ideas about prompting or the rationale, I have had some ideas about player-introduced complication. So far I've been trying to figure out where it would feel most like a typical game. Interrupting a narrative (as above) is pretty far out there. Creating the complication replacing the typical game's failure is closer. I also considered scene staging might be interesting; the gamemaster asks why your chara is in a certain situation and another player comes up with an interesting story 'hook' you might have been following. (This is also Pullish, right?) I'm not sure that would work; I still need to work out how much 'power' I can steal from the gamemaster before people realize that this isn't your daddy's role-playing game.

Still thinking. More in 14!

Fang Langford

2007-07-16T13:54:00.000-07:00

After a long time....

I know it's been quite a while, but I'm finally getting my life organized. (Thanks to GTD and RtM.) So I should be able to post regularly on this blog again.

Okay, where are we?

Well, I finally got a chance to buy Push Magazine. The articles don't say anything I haven't already sensed (although they make good crystallizations), but one of the games included really rocked my world. Mridangam by Shreyas Sampat is a great look at providing complications in a game without everything being based on resolution mechanics. Also, it allows as much room for Push play as it does Pull play. (Thank you Moyra Turkington.)

Wow...oh wow!

Pondering it is giving me the right frame of mind to finally make Scattershot a game not about conflicts between players or disputing rights over who can control play. I want to open it wide open for a playful approach to...well, play. Nothing controlled, nothing apportioned and no disputes foisted by the game itself.

Tall order, I know, but I feel I'm getting closer to it.

In other news, I'm going to open wikis for both The Unseen and Universe 6. Look for them soon!

Fang

2006-08-07T12:09:00.000-07:00

Where We Aren't

Hi, long time no see!

This is a brief update on what I haven't been doing.

After grokking Lumpley's Fruitful Void, I had an epiphany. This was exactly what genre-expectation-specific experience dice rules are supposed to aim for. (Vincent Baker based this post on some of Ron Edwards comments.)

What I've been struggling with is how I can 1) make the genre expectation mechanix aim everything at each games' fruitful void, but also 2) how to offer how to construct your own genre expectation that does so. Furthermore, I want to do it so that the consumer doesn't even know that they're doing it (or what a fruitful void is).

I'm also struggling with how much being a LARP is central to the Unseen's sine qua non. I can't seem to bring myself to work on it unless it is a LARP and I couldn't possibly run a LARP right now. Maybe I'll look into a different Scattershot Game. Dunno.

I really like what I believe is the central concept of The Unseen. "That which makes us human." Because the game will quietly push you to make characters who are either monsters with consciences or humans that are inhumane. Further the way I see it, in the process of seeking your chara's goals, you are forced to contend with your dichotomy; but instead of creating a 'death spiral' towards one extreme or the other, forces will pressure you back onto the fence.

In order to make this a 'fruitful void' I will need to complete avoid mentioning or mechanizing 'humanity.' And yet I will need to coerce you into constantly thinking about it. One of the waste concepts in Vampire the Masquerade first edition was the inability to 'act human' all the time. (They ruin it by mechanizing 'humanity' and turning it into a death spiral; the more inhuman you are the harder to act human it is and the more likely you are to cause yourself to lose even more 'humanity.') I think something like that could be used here.

On the 'act like a human' side, there could be mechanical consequences for 'behaving badly,' but no mention of what is specifically 'bad.' Thus the players are at once mechanically compelled to 'act badly' and want to avoid it through role-playing.

On the 'avoid becoming a monster' side, there would be mechanical benefits of behaving 'monstrously,' but I can't think of what to pressure the players to act humanely.

Let's see. If you give 'monster players' tangible human-world assets that can degrade due to the behaviour problems forced by the dice, it might work. The mirror-darkly of that would be giving the human players tangible objectives to be had by 'monstrous behaviour' that degrade when not being human? An example of that might be someone employing black magic to gain a political position, but losing credibility in it due to further 'bad behaviour.' Hmm....

It does seem properly symmetrical. Both sides can have these 'human world'-based rewards which are degraded by naughtiness. The difference is that one group, the 'monsters,' would start off with them and the other, the 'humans,' would start off with the powers to get them. For a 'human' player, you would gain these prizes by becoming a monster; for the 'monster' players you could keep these rewards by ignoring your monstrousness. The ultimate fruition would be a human becoming a monster (like vampirism) and a monster being 'cured.' If you make both conditions non-permanent, it would become a pendulum.

A human, striving for temporal power, would employ darker and darker means to the point of becoming a monster. Then this monster would likely regret these choices because they take these 'prizes' away from them, prompting them to overcoming their monstrousness. And vice versa.

If I focus all the rules on power structures and collecting resources, people will strive for that. The pendulum effect would constantly face them with the question of 'what is it to be human?' without having a humanity stat.

I could create recursive mechanics that link power / resource gain to parallel 'monstrousness' gain. With them there would be mechanics that force the revelation of 'monstrousness' and subsequent loss of power / resources. In character generation, you are either choosing temporal powers or innate (monstrous) powers, never getting either.

There should be some kind of gain over the course of the feedback loop, though. If you swing back and forth and don't get anything for it, why keep playing? Such rewards would have to follow two principles, 1) they would be something other than power / resources and 2) they drive home the point of the game: it is better to be human. What I don't want is the opposite of the death spiral; I don't want to put all players on a treadmill towards rewarded humanity. For it to be a fruitful void, they must be pressed towards the middle all the time, forced to sit on the fence, so that they will subconsciously compare that life to their own real lives.

But how to reward that? Experience Dice alone aren't enough. It should also have a social significance as LARPs are social games. Further, it might be a good idea to make the most tragic flip-flops spotlight time for the who audience. The 'brighter lights' would therefore teach by example.

Finally, the most important point in this presentation is the 'hidden agenda.' The fact that tension must always increase. Each chara must rise up epically perched on their fence until the point where they have a tragic, highly dramatic and very public fall. If that doesn't satisfy them enough to make another chara, they will be able to 'start over.'

Now, I know that Scattershot is capable of this without any additional rules. I could probably write it up in just a few months (plus the results of playtesting). But that isn't good enough for me. Each core book must 1) allow its major feature (in one case here, LARPing) must be modular enough to pull out and stick into a game with a different core book, 2) must contain brief explanations of how to bring in elements from other core books, 3) stand as exemplars of how to pull the knobs and dials into a fine gaming structure and 4) be simple and easy for a novice to pick up and play.

I certainly don't set the bar low, do I?

Fang Langford

2006-03-02T07:53:00.000-08:00

Gamemastering

I thought I'd let you know what I'm working on right now. This is the rough draft for the outline for the first time I've written Gamemastering instructions. Bowing to my fans, I am incorporating as much as I can from the 'Time for Another Woe,' 'Star Wars' and 'No Myth Gamemastering' articles on the Forge.

The 'Master of the Game' Does What?

What Goes Into Gaming
Socializing
Attraction to This Game
'The Right Way to Play'
'The Right Thing to Play'
Group Preferences
Genre Expectations
Consistency, Verisimilitude, Suspension of Disbelief
These are what are actually foremost in the Gamemaster's technique, not 'What Happens' in the game.

What Everyone Does:
Genre Expectations | Mechanix -> Players -> Personae -> Sets 'What They Get to Do'
Genre Expectations | Mechanix -> Gamemaster -> 'The Big Idea'
What Personae Do -> Play Starts
That's right, the Players go first. Though they can ask for:
'The Big Idea' -> Gamemaster -> Complication
Personae Background -> Gamemaster -> Complication
Genre Expectations -> Gamemaster -> Complication

Keys to GMing
Gamemastering is Reactive.
The (flow of the) make-believe is created and controlled entirely by the players.
This frees the gamemaster to emphasize the Group Preferences, instead of attempting to control or 'believe in' the shared make-believe.

GMing Basics
Gaming is about 'the journey' not 'the destination.'
Not Gamemastering -> Players Short Circuit to their Goals
Gamemastering -> Complications -> Play
No Stakes -> Gamemaster -> 'The Big Idea' Perspective
Group Preferences -> Genre Expectations -> Characterization
Genre Expectations -> Gamemaster -> Complications | Characterization
Personae Sine Qua Non | 'The Big Idea' -> Gamemastering

The Actual Practice
Personae Sine Qua Non | Pacing -> Push Play in Any Direction (Not 'Forward')
The Gamemaster should spend more attention on Pacing and Tension and get all his ideas from the players.
None of it is a matter of planning but simply responding to Player choices and continually turning up the Tension level and the Pacing.
That's really all there is to it.

Complications Are?
Gamemaster -> Mainly Single Complication -> Scene
Scenes -//-> People | Places | Things
Scenes | Complications -> In-Game [Relationships (Individuals | Organizations) | Plans | Needs]
Complication (Success | Failure) -> Future Complications | Closer to 'The Big Idea'
Complication Failure -//-> Block 'The Big Idea'
Gamemaster -//-> Relevance | Stakes | Complication Outcomes
Past Personae Actions | Genre Expectations | Player Choices -> Next Complication | Future Complications
Conflict -//-> Complication
Complication -> Conflict -> Resolved Conflict -> Complication Outcome
Complication Outcome -> Escalated | Altered | Converted
Complication -//-> Resolved | Decreased | Uninteresting | Dead End

Preparations
Group Preferences | Group Inspirations -> Personae Sine Qua Non | Genre Expectations -> Gamemastering Prep
Personae Sine Qua Non | Genre Expecations -> Play Focus (see Flag Framing)
'Do less prep for Play than Players do on any one Persona.'
Start Playing -> Warm-Ups

Always Do the Expected
When You Don't -> Player Interest

How to Progress
'The Big Idea' -//-> Specific | 'Concrete'
Group Preferences | Genre Expectations -> Characterization | 'The Big Idea' (ONLY when it finally happens)
Genre Expectations -> Play | Scene to Scene -> Complications -> Closer to 'The Big Idea'
Nothing 'At Stake' -> Gamemastering -> Changing the Unspecified -> Into Play -> Closer to 'The Big Idea'
Ya gotta have 'bad stuff' or the game is boring; better yet just have the false impression of bad stuff 'decorate' the 'Dynamic Setting.' A 'Dynamic Setting' is the place in the Genre Expectations where just about anything you can imagine happens but is made cool by 'the odds.'
Just turn to them and say, "Okay, who wants to get captured so we can have a 'daring escape?'" I mean it. Literally ask them.

GM Sources
Gamemaster -//-> 'What happens' | 'How it turns out'
Group Preferences -> Characterization -> Gamemastering | Complications
Personae Actions | 'The Big Idea' -> Gamemastering

Just Let Them Do It
Group Preferences -> Genre Expectations
Unexpected Personae Actions -> Gamemastering | Channeling -> 'The Big Idea'
It causes this magical sensation that the players' actions are realizing a game just like they wanted.
There really isn't any reason to block a direction the players want to go, simply move 'The Big Idea' so that it is 'in their way.'
If the players seem to do something impractical or stupid, help them find a way out.

Players are stuck?
Use bait. Parade whatever seems appropriate to either the Players, their Personae or the Genre Expectations, around in front of them. Make it valuable to the point of being irresistible and just barely out of reach. Make it seem so close they can taste it, but seemingly just a tiny bit of work to get. Don't pounce when they go for it, just keep stringing them along. They'll come out; you can bet they will, just try it. Then, when it just about loses their interest / gets boring, just give it too them. (See The Secret.)
Or honesty might work; "Hey guys, I don't have anything planned here, you mind if we move it along?" Not feeling creative? You do have a bunch of other human beings there with you just brimming with imagination; leave it to them.
Mystiques -> Bait -> Player Interest
Spare the rod; this is role-playing gaming.

Trompe le Joueur
The only consistency necessary is that within the minds of the players.
Fully Realized Setting -//-> Consistency
'All Consistency is Pretend;' that's right, it is only as consistent as it seems.
Players' minds are fickle, it's much easier to fool them than to 'fully realize' anything.
The real trick is to make it look like their personae are 'trapped' and let them improvise a way out; it gives the game that Tense 'will we make it or not' feel without actually taking the game away from the players.
Always let the players make up something on the spot, let them squirm a while and then just let them go; trust me, it works.

The Secret - 'Give Them Enough Rope'
A big problem is the idea that if the players 'get their hands on' something great, it'll ruin everything.
What about 'power' abuse? Don't give them time for it. If you give them something they like because it is so powerful, I expect they're not the only ones who think so. Somebody else's gonna want it. 'Isn't that illegal?' Or maybe it needs batteries; batteries are bait, not 'the rod;' spoil the players.

The Trick
If anything, what you do as the gamemaster is 'uncreate' things; you blow up the farm.
When you do, you aren't 'hurting' the Persona because the Player is 'avoiding the plot,' because there isn't any plot. The farm wasn't technically in the Persona's Sine Qua Non, it was only implied; Its destruction does not rob the player of anything except an excuse to impede play.
You can even blow up planets on the fly, you're the gamemaster.

Relevance
Players -> Personae Actions -> Game History
Group Preferences -> Genre Expectations -> Relevance | Player 'Buy In' | Emotional Attachment/Gratification
Cycle -> Player Choices -> Personae Actions -> (Gamemastering ->) Further Complications -> Increased Relevance - Repeat
Players -//-> Relevance
Relevance -> Gamemastering
Tension Peaks -> Resolve Game -> Cool Down -> Sort Out the Outcomes ==>> Discuss ('What is Next' | 'What Should be Next')

Hard-to-Swallow
You can add more, but you don't need to:
Maps
Setting
Fixtures
Plots
Frontloading ==>> 'On the Table'
Frontloading -//-> Mystiques | Intrigue
Personae -> Further Complications -> Plenty of Mystiques | Approaches 'The Big Idea'

That's all for now, ciao!

Fang Langford

2006-02-23T10:20:00.000-08:00

I've completely rewritten the Challenge and MIB system to incorporate Solomon's Auction inherently. I think this is the first step towards revamping Scattershot to run on Experience Dice (Ex-Dice here).

Challenge

Self-Applied is Modifier

Improves Chances

Increases Potential Result

Complicates Detail

Based on Ads, yields Gimmes

Based on Disads, yields Keepers

Instead of 'Whiff,' close results are as unmodified; misses are like minor Catastrophic Miss

Offering an Ex-Die, another player may Challenge

Makes an Roll More Difficult

Lessens Potential Result

Complicates the Detail

Can Specify the Alternate Result

Take the Challenge as a Keeper and roll or....
Offer more Ex-Dice to ignore the Challenge

Take turns raising the 'pot' until....

The highest bidder is the winner, Challenge is thus blocked or enforced

Loser takes the 'pot' as Keepers from the winner

No double jeopardy: roll continues without further Challenge (by Mike Holmes)

Anyone may take Loaners or receive aid from another players at any time

For Rules Disputes

Negotiate stakes to be clear to all present

The Non-contenders must suggest at least two compromises,an accepted compromise ends the Auction

Winner's stakes take effect

In the Beginning

2006-01-20T17:28:00.001-08:00

I'm going to start a stream of consciousness blog on what I am doing with Scattershot's design here.