[Supers Chess] story elements in a mechaically focused game
FetusCommander:
Supers Chess has seen about 6 playtesting sessions now, and I have some concerns about how it's shaping up.
The chess mechanics, central to the conflict resolution of the game, have been performing... interestingly, and I'm seeing a lot of the creativity and gamist competitive trickery that I want to see. I decided on chess originally because I wanted conflicts between PC supers to be strategic and scheming- the mechanics have definitely facilitated that in play.
Let me just try and give a brief example of what I mean by "scheming."
Just a brief on the setting: it's a depressed, nearly deserted agrarian community in a country that might be Communist China. Most of the supers are government agents working for the regime.
One of the first resolutions of the game involved one of these agents, "The Boogey Man" (my character- an invisble-stalker/abortionist upholder of the country's One Child Policy), being sent after a girl who was suspected of conceiving illegally. After a little gumshoeing, he tracked her down at one of the local schools and made an attempt at taking her into custody. He was thwarted by The Redactor, H's character, a government (?) spook who specializes in time and space manipulation.
The Redactor's powers involve "redacting" people and things from reality and sticking them into a parallel universe. Long (about 30 minutes of board resolution time) story short, The Redactor wound up poofing the girl out of existence during a fight with Boogey Man, causing him to wonder just why the hell he had come to the school in the first place. The effect at the table was very surreal, to say the least.
It's a little difficult to explain how this was accomplished on the chess board. Basically, The Redactor's trademark power is attached to a Queen, and when he captures a piece with it, the entire board resets to its initial set up without the piece that was captured. In the game, H used this to redact the piece representing the girl before I could get to it.
Anyway, this is the type of scheming that I mean. The whole resolution really smacked of deviousness, and everyone was left with that feeling without feeling like anyone really got fucked in an out of game sense. It also didn't feel (and indeed wasn't) "set up" in any way.
Something that's been bothering me, however, is the lack of two things: "meaningful" roleplay, and "long term" story structure.
On the "meaningful" roleplay end, I'm not quite sure what I mean by that- maybe tension in non-combat character interactions, maybe characters that feel like they develop... maybe a little of both? There's definitely been in character banter in the sessions I've run, but I'd like to introduce mechanics that add something more; something where characters' goals and personalities are explored in more depth. On the long term story front, I think what the game is missing is the feeling of a narrative that arcs. Now granted, the game has a rotating GM, but I know there must be other RPGs that use "pass the stick" narrative structures.
These are the two biggest problems I've had with the game so far. Without knowing much about the game, what are some of the techniques you've seen in other games that might help deal with this? Am I being unrealistic by considering trying to integrate these things into a game with such a strong mechanical focus?
Callan S.:
Hi,
On the first, an idea is for players to list things that would hurt or upset their character if it happened. Doesn't have to be big things - could just be plain old pain. Or as complex as doesn't like to see fine art broken.
Then when it comes to the battle, as GM simply attach some moves they can currently make as having one of these things happen. Other moves it doesn't.
This adds a quick layer of 'what are you prepared to lose?' onto the battle you ran.
And no, none of the things above have a currency value/tactical value if they happen. It's merely the narrations effect and the characters apparent choice to let it happen anyway, for whatever reasons the character has.
SamuelRiv:
I thought (reading the other thread) that that (meaning deep in-character conflict) was the point of the King - that losing the King is a meaningful character change depending on the intensity of the situation.
One thing that may help speed up superpower conflicts is using restricted board size, fewer pieces, and a short timer, especially for critical events. Just do as much damage as possible in the limited time you have before your enemy speeds away. Maybe with short timing, the conflict resolution stays short and pre- and post- game narration dominates. I'm not sure how one can keep narration up in a thought-intensive game. Our first and so-far-only session of Freemarket was severely hindered due to stumbling over the conflict-resolution rules.
Now I'm definitely not a chess player, but I really like the concept here, and think it can be best for someone like me if you can limit the major chess players' advantage as much as possible, save for a full-board game. Thus exotic board shapes, "special" pieces with odd moves, and small other oddities would be interesting.
Callan S.:
Quote from: SamuelRiv on October 19, 2010, 12:05:47 PM
I thought (reading the other thread) that that (meaning deep in-character conflict) was the point of the King - that losing the King is a meaningful character change depending on the intensity of the situation.
Good question - what piece represented the girl? The king, or some other piece?
FetusCommander:
First off, thanks for the replies. I like the idea of adding a "what are you prepared to lose" type of deal to the game, Callan.
To answer your question though, the girl was represented by a pawn (I believe). She wasn't a major character, and she was played by the GM of the area (in the game, GM rights are divided up by "properties" representing parts of the city, which are purchased in an auction during the first session). The situation was major largely due to the strategic commitment of the player (myself), which was largely thwarted by player H.
To touch on something you mentioned Samuel- the game does allow for different board sizes (there's the standard 64 space board, which can be bisected with push pins and a larger one for big resolutions). In play, I've found that Chess-knowledge isn't really too much of a factor because of the ability to customize and add new moves, but that was initially a concern of mine as well.
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