Looking for suggestions on "against the odds" style game
Shimera9:
Hello, all. I've been planning on running a really rules light game. However, I noticed some of the top candidates like Risus has limited room to expand after the first session. Since then I've cobbled together a few posts about what I'm looking for, including:
Requirements: rules light, easily extensible, fast start with detail added in play.Flow: build up to a final confrontation by taking on lesser challengesBig Three: The game is about character overcoming something more powerful than themselves through determination, cooperation, and luck. Character actions determined by role (extra, main character, adversary, supporting character). Player actions guided by side (nemesis, neutral, heroic).There are also some posts up about character progression and plot drivers, but those are more design musings than firm requirements.
My questions to your fine folks are:What systems already handle this? If there's already a really strong match out there, I may just use that instead. Otherwise, I'll be designing a new system.If this were made into a new game, what name might fit? I've been thinking of a few different names, but nothing's gelling yet. Current ideas include things like: Lurking Menace, Perilous Paths, Nemesis Mine, and My One Weakness.
Let me know if you'd like any more detail on any of this. I tried to keep this post as light as possible to avoid walls of text.
happysmellyfish:
I'm curious about how you'd define "against the odds" sort of play. Do you actually want players to pursue mechanically unlikely outcomes? Or simply have characters that can perform seemingly unlikely outcomes?
The first would be something like: "Wow, I've only got one hit point left, so I need a super unlikely roll in order to beat this guy - screw it, I'm gonna give it a shot!"
The first would be unlikely fiction, but mechanical aspects that actually make these "unlikely" events quite common.
happysmellyfish:
*Obviously that should read "The second..."
Shimera9:
It's more like "No one can defeat the overlord!", then discovering what makes then unbeatable and finding a way around it. I suppose that makes it more like the second instance. After despite the obstacles seeming insurmountable in fiction, the mechanics should support the eventual triumph of the heroes. That being said, I have been thinking of scaling rewards up with risk. There is definitely some appeal to giving long shots an even larger payoff to encourage risk taking.
David Berg:
I dig those player roles!
If you want "against the odds" leading up, through skillful play, to eventual success, here's an idea:
The Nemesis side starts with a ton of resources that give them power to effect the fiction and the fate of the Main Character. The various Nemesis players get to strategize with each other about the best way to spend these resources. Perhaps the mechanics should prevent them from killing the Main Character, but their goal within that constraint could be to make his/her life as hard as possible.
The Heroic side starts with very few resources. Initial build-up is slow. If resources are tokens, you (the Heroic players) get one token at a time for each small achievement you make. At any time, you can try for a bigger achievement called a Coup, but before you've scored any Coups, your odds are very bad, as the Nemesis side will have way more tokens. When you lose a Coup attempt, you're either back where you started, or almost, or maybe even worse (if you like the arc of the hero being beaten down before rising). But when you win a Coup, your number of tokens multiplies. So each Coup dramatically shifts the odds going forward. If you want an arc of "struggle, struggle, struggle, struggle, turning point, victory" then you plan one Coup that suddenly flips the balance of power. If you want an arc of gradual progress, then you have multiple Coups required.
So that covers determination and luck. As for cooperation, maybe a Help mechanic where you can give a token to someone else's attempt, and if the attempt fails, you lose your token, but if it succeeds, you get extra tokens back.
As for the Neutrals, maybe they shift the Heroic-Nemesis token balance based on some other criteria of play, like which side is judged to be better hitting aesthetic or narrative targets the Neutrals establish.
I apologize for doing the "I'll design your game for you!" thing, but all that blather was really meant as illustration rather than advice. I just hope it gives you some ideas you can use.
Ps,
-David
P.S. I know plenty of games that do bits of what you're after, but nothing that does even close to all of them.
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