[Nevercast] - Truth through Mastery
Ar Kayon:
“The world was destroyed without dropping a single bomb.
It's been centuries since the cataclysmic economic collapse, and the world still has not recovered. It may never recover. As strip malls, cubicles, and consumer culture were erased from the minds of men, so too was the mentality that perpetuated these standards of living. Our daily struggles were no longer that of paying bills. We no longer stressed about the holidays. No longer do we fret about our weight, or our cars or lawns.
Today, our struggles are against annihilation.
There is still water to drink. Medicine still keeps up with disease. But there are things our predecessors left underneath the sand that have the power to reshape everything around us. In our lifetimes, we will create a new singularity: a point in time where all of our endeavors and discoveries will converge and remove the need to restore the old model; a holistic future where we embrace technology and have limitless resources, and yet a place where we will walk in our primordial skin.
Unfortunately, we will have to kill each other for it.
This is the era of the Nevercast.”
- Meh Kada, Discourses of the Final Age of Man
Aesthetic
Nevercast is intended to be a cyberpunk game without the “punk” element, i.e. style-over-substance or dystopian corporation-run setting. Therefore, it would be more accurate to say it is a post-modern science fiction. In order to steer play towards the direction of discovery and adventure without delving into the realm of fantasy, I’ve decided to remove elements of familiarity (e.g. “As strip malls, cubicles, and consumer culture were erased from the minds of men, so too was the mentality that perpetuated these standards of living.”). Discovery and adventure are further enhanced by focusing in on a particular region of the setting, the Des Xiac nations, a dangerous cultural plexus where experimental pre-Nevercast technology is hidden (much of it is literally underneath the sand).
Major Setting Concepts
- The Nevercast: refers to the systematic collapse of world powers due to widespread interdependence and economic calamity.
- Racial, ethnic, ideological and political strife in Des Xi creates an extremely tense and unstable atmosphere.
- Way of life parallels the Wild West; anything-goes firefights.
- Pre-Nevercast technology: hyper-advanced schemata, materials, programs, and scientific theories that did not reach maturity by the time the Nevercast occurred.
- Technology cults and the bizarre “Outworlder” culture.
- Post-modern dungeon crawling; labyrinthine subterranean research complexes.
Player Roles
Both player-characters and non-player characters typically coalesce into bands of technology hunters, although this is not a forced aspect of play. Player roles, however, are designed particularly to make that aspect extremely dynamic.
Of particular importance to players is the fact that your character is expected to die. Thus, an emergent design concept will be utilized - the creation process will be swift and simple, and your character will gradually develop in complexity as you play.
- Role for the power-gamer archetype*: Master of Martial Arts - a native Des Xiac or Outworlder who has dedicated their life to attaining truth through mastery, a concept known as “Te Kayon Din”. They are typically associated with technology cults.
- Role for the tactician archetype: Soldier / Mercenary - a special operations veteran. Since the Des Xiac nations are relatively lawless (especially in what is called the Vanaq Ir region), these characters have a great deal of freedom to engage their opposition or otherwise accomplish their tasks.
- Role for the dungeon-crawler archetype: Technology Hunter - a euphemism for a typically unscrupulous opportunist who steals technology. Technology cults frequently use these freelancers to engage in proxy wars with other cults in order to disavow their own participation.
- Role #1 for the role-player archetype: Mastermind - specializes in systems and security. They have the ability to compromise neural networks, hence their moniker.
- Role #2 for the role-player archetype: Emissary - a silver-tongued social engineer. Granted with various legal powers and immunities, they are used as either antagonists or sympathizers (sometimes both) to the various power sects within the region.
*When I say “role for x archetype”, I mean that I’ve designed player roles to be compatible with arbitrary player types that I’ve observed in actual play and in discourse. I’ve categorized these archetypes for the sole purpose of focusing my design efforts to appeal to a varied range of players. No player role is compelled to act in accordance with these archetypical gaming patterns, whatever they may be. Furthermore, subdivisions of each role will be available to expand the range of supported play styles.
Core Mechanic
Resolution utilizes the Graduated Dice Method. The system is composed of dice ranks (notation for dice rank: DR 1, DR 2, etc.). Each rank has a corresponding dice roll.
Example 1:
DR 5 - 1d12
DR 4 - 1d10
DR 3 - 1d8
DR 2 - 1d6
DR 1 - 1d4
DR 0 - 1d4-1
To achieve a success, you must roll a 1 (critical), 2 (moderate) or 3 (minor). Therefore, a lower dice rank is more desirable. To determine your dice rank, start at a pre-defined base (most conflicts use DR 3 as a base). Then, compare a relevant skill level vs. the opposing number or skill. For every point of skill you have above your opposition’s, lower your dice rank by 1. For every point you have lower than your opposition’s, raise your dice rank by 1.
Example 2:
The base is DR 3. You have a skill of 4. Your opponent has a skill of 2. Since your skill is greater by 2 points, you subtract 2 from the base to get DR 1 (1d4) for the conflict. Your opponent adds 2 to the base to get DR 5 (1d12) for the conflict. Since you must roll within the range of 1-3, this translates to a 75% rate of success for you and 25% rate of success for your opponent.
An opposing roll is only made for an opposing action made against the initial action (e.g. you assault someone who fights back). Against a non-opposing subject (e.g. you shoot at someone running for cover), you merely use the skill level (or difficulty) of the opposition as a means of determining your success roll.
Modifiers also affect your dice rank, but they are always applied after the skill comparison is made.
Links
1. Technology
2. General Setting Information
Ron Edwards:
Hiya,
Can you provide some leadership regarding the discussion? Right now, what I mainly see here and in the links is a big draft for a game text. What would you like to discuss? "General impressions," "any holes," isn't enough - at this point, since you have a clear vision for your setting and apparently a fair amount of the mechanics ... what do you want from posting about it in this forum?
Best, Ron
Ar Kayon:
I have a few things I am looking for specifically. The responses to these questions will directly influence my mechanics work.
1. If you were to play this game, what player role would you most likely choose and why?
2. How do you feel about a game that expects your character to die, but gives you the opportunity to swiftly create a new one?
Naturally, any inquiries on actual mechanics would be welcome, as it would make no sense for me to dump all of that information into a thread all at once; all inquiries are welcome, including criticism. I particularly would like a few ideas on how to model hacking in an rpg, as it pertains heavily to one of the player roles. I did a wiki search on the subject, watched the Girl with the Dragon Tattoo, heh heh...still don't get it. Any help on the subject would be appreciated.
Callan S.:
It kind of comes to my mind now that perhaps games which are not gamist should give up the terms 'success' & 'failure', and simply have two results to resolution, which aren't defined by success and failure, but by simply being very different from each other. I mean in real life, you don't 'suceed' or 'fail' with a bullet hitting someone. Physics simply happen. The universe is indifferent - simulationist worlds where you can 'succeed' at the very level of physics and yet are not for gamist play, are quite odd.
In terms of your question #1, I'd ask what would I be playing for? A gamist, play to win something or other type game? You might say "Well you could play it that way", but if it's not actually designed for it - well, for myself I've done enough trying to push gamist square shaped peg through a simulationist round shaped hole, so "could play it that way" isn't enough, it needs to be specialised toward G (or I dunno, maybe alot of gamist inclined people out there are still keen to push the square peg through the round hole).
In terms of #2, again, what would someone be playing the game for? Let's say character death is a negative to some degree. If the game delivers a certain fun, then that negative subtracts from the fun. But that can be okay - it can be like bitterness in beer. Gives it an adult edge, instead of being another sugery drink.
But right now your just talking the bitters/negative/character death. I don't know what fun it'd subtract from?
Ar Kayon:
Callan,
#1. Nevercast is designed to suit a simulationist agenda; the point is to be immersed in the setting and explore it. In my opinion, "play-to-win" as the concept for mortal combat is a reliable simulation.
#2. You are on the mark. When I design systems to suit the simulationist agenda, I firmly believe that the overall level of fun attained through total suspension of disbelief is greater than the amount of fun that is lost when a player is temporarily taken out of the game.
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