[Doctor Chaos] World peace, my way
SamuelRiv:
I just discovered that this idea has already been done. Is this just a simple case of naive ignorance, or is there a darker side of Ron that we haven't seen yet?
He does seem to know an awful lot about computers... and organic chemistry...
Ron Edwards:
Ignorance! I'd never heard of the guy until two minutes ago.
Also, in the interest of clarity, I rate about a 2 out of 25 when it comes to computer expertise.
Best, Ron
Troy_Costisick:
Heya Ron,
Quote
The Plan has four Conditions - (i) Distribute war-bots as servant droids throughout target nations; (ii) Steal the Statue of Liberty and put it in Baghdad (here Sam showed that his instincts were right on - he rightly stated that Doctor Chaos needed some kind of quirky Goal, not all practical and no-nonsense); (iii) Infiltrate and control NATO (whose headquarters we mistakenly placed in London instead of Brussels); and (iv) Remake the middle east with non-retarded national borders this time.
The two rules-bits that concern this question are (1) how the transfer is effected, and (2) how many Conditions a given Plan has. Right now, the latter rule is set at four, period. Should that be different? Sam did a little graph on some scratch paper to show that for everyone to get to play Doctor Chaos, given a turn-based predictable method of transfer, the number of Conditions would be 2N-3 where N = the number of players.
I have some feedback. I’ve read over the older threads (I remember them well). I couldn’t find exactly what the procedure is for creating the plan. Does someone just toss out an idea and the group votes on it somehow? Is there a step-by-step procedure for it? I might have glanced over the rules for it, so if I did, I appologize.
The reason I ask, though, is that I don’t care for oddball math like the formula you suggest above in games where there really isn’t a real need for it. It looks like Dr. Chaos tries to fulfill one condition per play session (or cycle). I looked, but I didn’t see if that was specifically stated somewhere. I may have just missed it. But if that’s basically the rule of thumb, then I have a couple suggests for your #2 in the second paragraph I quoted above.
One way to do it, rather than use a formula, is to charge each player with coming up with a Condition. Then you would have a number of sessions equal to the number of players. With five players (your ideal group), you’d have seven sessions according to the formula above. Do you think the characters of Dr. Chaos and the other villain would be stale at that point? Peter noted that it was fun for a new person to get Dr. Chaos each session and fun for everyone else to watch that new person get him. So one session per player makes sense to me.
A second way to do it is to allow the group just to choose the number of Conditions. The rules could explain that one Condition will be attempted per session. So, it if they want a short game, give him 3 conditions. If they want a longer game, give him 8 or 9.
Either option seems preferable to me than a formula- especially since there is next to no mathematical calculations in the rest of the game. The formula just seems out of place.
Peace,
-Troy
Ron Edwards:
Hi Troy,
The current rule is simply that Doctor Chaos' Plan has four Conditions. That's all. There isn't any formula; the formula was an idea Sam raised during our post-game discussion and has no particular traction at this point.
The Conditions are invented during initial character creation. Both Doctor Chaos and the lesser villain have a Plan and each Plan has Conditions. Remember that superheroes are not made up prior to play.
The Conditions are listed in order, and a given Episode starts with whatever Condition is at the top. Here's what can happen to it.
1. Doctor Chaos beats the heroes. The Condition is checked off and goes to the bottom of the list. (The latter bit may seem nonsensical at this point, but you'll see how it applies in a minute.) When and if it gets to the top again, it immediately goes to the bottom, so the top of the list always has an un-checked Condition.
2. Doctor Chaos is beaten by one or more heroes, but not by Gin. The Condition is not checked off and goes to the bottom of the list.
3. Doctor Chaos is beaten by one or more heroes by Gin. The Condition has a line drawn through it and is removed from play. Furthermore, any other Conditions with checks become un-checked.
(Doctor Chaos is a genius, meaning that his Plan will not be scuttled just because a couple of its parts get delayed or fulfilled out of order. Or even removed. If his Plan is simpler than when he first conceived it, no matter - it will still work.)
The rules for finishing the game are a bit subtle. If Doctor Chaos checks off all his existing Conditions, then he wins. If the number of defeated Conditions outnumbers the others, then he loses. So in the fiction, the heroes are trying to defeat (not merely delay) three Conditions. Doctor Chaos is trying to fulfill all of the ones he has left (four, three, or two). As I see it, the game gets most interesting if the heroes manage to defeat two Conditions, because at this point, delaying one doesn' t accomplish much, defeating one wins the game for the heroes, and Doctor Chaos need only check two things to win. And that's why the lesser villain's Plan, incidentally, starts at two Conditions; it's already at the make-or-break point.
I should remind the reader at this point that these are not fixed sides. The ownership of Doctor Chaos changes with every Episode.
I hope that clarifies things a little. There are several intersecting dynamics that I expect would make every play session/story very different from any other, including heroes' development (making Gin victories possible for them) and the unpredictable, problematizing role of the lesser villain.
Our discussion about formulas and similar issues began with the question of whether this fixed number of Conditions was a good idea, relative to the number of players. I'm currently thinking that it is, and not varying the number of Conditions, again, rendering the formula question irrelevant, or any other technique toward the end of determining how many Conditions.
Also, in re-reading my rules, I realized that we'd screwed one thing up - we'd played as if Doctor Chaos won by achieving a majority of his Conditions, not all them, which is the actual rule. So we ended our session prematurely - and considering that the developed heroes' math was beginning to work together - what I initially thought was a stomping victory actually was more iffy, which is good news.
Finally, and in combination with the above, I've decided that the lesser villain's battle to resist or escape control does count as a means of challenging Doctor Chaos' Condition as well. And if that had been the case in our game, Doctor Chaos would not have fulfilled his first Condition, due to the Red Architect's interference.
Best, Ron
Phil K.:
Ron,
I loved this Doctor Chaos game. It was a lot of fun for me. I'm a (largely lapsed) comics fan who grew up in the 90s when universe altering mini-series were all the rage. The key element of many of those is that an ultra-villain has succeeded and some sort of time travelling hero has to go back and save the future. Part of the thrill of Doctor Chaos was definitely getting a chance to experience what would, effectively, be the unprinted issues of Age of Apocalypse whereby Apocalypse comes to power.
Creating the superheroes on the fly was a ton of fun. The sheer creativity players were using was phenomenal. I actually felt a bit lackluster, my first hero was fairly run of the mill and (by superhero standards) conservative. One thing to remember with superheroes is that they are all outlandish. The ones that seem cool are no less absurd than the failures. All in all, it means I just have to get over myself and go for broke.
If Doctor Chaos has to actually succeed at all of his goals, it would make the game go a bit longer and introduce more chances for the heroes to get the upper hand. The developed heroes were starting to come into their own as the players got comfortable with the game and I would like to see how another playtest would go.
Taking control of Doctor Chaos is nothing sort of pure comic nerd joy. The ability to casually dismiss heroes is amazing. It gives everyone a chance to put on their evil hat and go nuts. Since Doctor Chaos is so powerful, we all had a ton of fun pulling forth interesting supertech to counter and smash the heroes. That level of narrative control was a blast. It seemed like the trickiest thing about it was not narrating outcomes... that had to wait until someone knocked and card play stopped. You can't go completely broke but you need to step things up a notch from a traditional game. Collateral damage, cosmic-level powers and things that seem impossible to overcome are par for the course. I can see that being a lot of fun with people who are really into comics. It challenges us to out do one another. The escalation would be epic.
On a historical note, Fireballs (actually, Air Commander Fireballs by the time I got to him) met his fate when his superpower-enhancing superjet was supercharged by the holy light emanating from The Star of David's super Torah... and was subsequently just absorbed entirely by Doctor Chaos.
-Phil
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