A card game to make stories... to train players to become GMs

Started by Warrior Monk, May 13, 2011, 11:54:43 AM

Previous topic - Next topic

Warrior Monk

Ok, here's the alpha version of the rules, finally in english this time:
https://docs.google.com/document/d/18iXnAIDMtaPpZX375EJbDcGvtxJ29Rh4l7BlFd-6FwU/edit?hl=en&authkey=CJ6IgOoI

The idea started from another game I was thinking of here:
http://www.indie-rpgs.com/forge/index.php?topic=31500.0

Ok, my goal is to get people in my country interested in tabletop RPGs.
-Potential players here aren't used to create content so just giving them a setting, a few examples and guidelines to create a campaign won't work, at least not right now.
-System has to be minimalistic and on top of that only d6 are available here.
-Preparation shoud be minimal so sessions can start while the players are interested. And most seem to have a short attention span nowadays.

So I ended hacking the Whimsy Cards and throwing a few rules to make it into a GMfull nar card game. I hope this helps as a creative aid to make stories, to get people interested in RPGs later. It should give them skills to improvise content and keep an story from stalling.

I'm already playtesting this, looks good so far. The only reason I'm still not posting this in Actual Play is because I'm still concerned about the notions in this game, about how it could influence players in a positive or negative way about RPGs. So if you can make any comment by just looking at the rules, If you know of a game like this and liked or hated it, or if you have any question please let me know, it would certainly help a lot.

John H

If you haven't done so, you might want to check out the free quickstart copy of The Dying Earth.  It has a 1d6 conflict resolution system but it has a breakdown of each value on the die and what sort of success / failure it corresponds to.  The rules can be found here:
http://www.dyingearth.com/qsrules.htm

The resolution mechanic I'm talking about is on page 15.  The PDF is secured or I would have copied and pasted those paragraphs out.

Anyway, I don't think the mechanics in DE are perfectly applicable in your game, but the idea of 1d6 with each value representing a different level of success could be cool for adding some extra flavor to the conflicts.

-John

Warrior Monk

The resolution looks interesting as you say, it gives me ideas for another resolution system. Perhaps playing a long GMfull campaign with some of this elements might work. Many thanks!

nuverian

I like your game and I might run a session as well. It seems to me like an advanced "Once upon a time" kind of game. The 1d6 resolution is simple yet effective for this kind of storytelling game. As far as if it affects players in a positive or negative regard about playing a full roleplaying game, I believe it has to do with what type of RPGs you want to introduce them. Nevertheless it is still an introduction. What I would possibly add is some kind of introduction to character creation. Just a simple one like when the player decides on his/her character to also point out one thing (broadly speaking) he or she is good at. That would give them a small bonus to the roll when there is risk, if the situation is relative to what the character is good at. Just an idea to introduce character creation.

Ar Kayon

Usually when I read "cards" my eyes glaze over.  But I took a look at the document and this game looks like fun.  And I know you don't call it an RPG but it sure as hell looks like one to me on paper.  My question is: does this game really need dice at all?  What if you kept things consistent, like you had a deck of cards instead of dice that qualitatively - yet in a broadly defined manner - direct the player on how the fiction must play out for that challenge?  When I was perusing over the document, for some reason I immediately thought of monopoly and remembered how fun it was to pick up one of those random cards.

mozartprado

Monk, you brasilian?

This idea sound so like a buddy o mine Violentina, he is actually making a deck for his system, his idea is not really like yours but quite close...

http://garagemrpg.com.br/violentina

Its in Portuguese but since your file start with Aventuras Epicas I thought you might know Portuguese, if you don't I can direct to his contact since he do speak English also just didn't translated the material yet.

Ron Edwards

Hello!

I strongly recommend checking out the Story Cards game by Carl Klutzke. I think he did some very fine work on that project.

Best, ron