[Caterpillar] A Space Game of Space Pirates in Space
Josh Porter:
Hi David,
At the moment, I think the magic-button level of this game is about 7. That's making Space Cowboys of Independence a 1, and making Apocalypse World a 10. Here is my reasoning. Rolling dice is a bit of a resource investment in the game because of how the Skull Boxes work. Once you use a die, you might not get it back for a while, depending on the play speed of the other players. Because of that, I feel that it's important to make every roll matter in the fiction. To me, that means that pirates doing things that will make a potential impact on the story at large will roll dice. But whatever they roll, the outcome is usually fictionally consistent.
The only time it won't be is when a pirate has an accident and chooses either a new and ominous NPC, or gives the RA the choice, at which point the RA chooses the arrival of enemies that threaten the crew. Those choices introduce something completely unexpected. They still make sense within the fiction, they just aren't caused by the fiction. They're caused by the mechanics that were rolled because of the fiction. At least that's what I've noticed so far in playtesting. It's really quite fun.
I have to say, the way your friends roll in AW, that's me. Or rather, that's me in D&D, Shadowrun, Mutants & Masterminds, etc. That's actually the whole reason I got into indie games: they made me break my min-max habits, or rather, they just don't let me min-max at all. If I can finally get someone to run Apocalypse World for me, I guess I'll find out if I've broken that habit, but I think I have.
Now as far as rolling to produce color goes: hell yes. You're rolling to write in a new detail and you're going to make that detail important later on (if not, why did you roll in the first place?). It's great!
Josh Porter:
I've been thinking on some of the advice here on this thread for a while, specifically about making the rolls in the game count. So I decided to use some of Ron's advice to give the game a little more oomph in the consequence department. Specifically, I changed the way a pirate chooses his Kitchen Sink when the game begins, with the hope that it will a) create actions that have more inherent consequence, and b) leave a pirate interesting options when he has just one die left to roll. I didn't want to limit the Skulls a pirate can roll by making a comprehensive list, as making up names for one's own Skulls is a fun part of the experience. I did, however, want to limit the starting sink options to drive play forward from the outset.Here's the new list of basic Skulls that a pirate can choose from to pick a Sink at character creation.
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1. Asshattery: being an asshat
2. Avoidery: getting out of bad situations
3. Ballsery: jumping head-first into dangerous situations
4. Bombery: blowing stuff up with explosives and the like
5. Chancery: having more luck than the average human (my personal favorite)
6. Clevery: outsmarting other humans
7. Impactery: creating a lasting impression with other humans
8. Mockery: making fun of other humans
9. Patchery: applying a quick-and-dirty fix to a bad situation
10. Persistery: never giving up, no matter what
11. Punchery: hitting things (not limited to punching)
12. Riggery: jury-rigging broken or malfunctioning gizmos
13. Shootery: shooting things (not limited to guns)
14. Sneakery: sneaking around and hiding without being seen
15. Thievery: stealing things
16. Trickery: fooling other humans
17. Traitery: backstabbing the humans who trust you
18. Vackery: doing things out in a vacuum (usually in a space suit.)
19. Wackery: being utterly unpredictable
When a pirate has received sufficient promotions, he can rename his Sink, or even choose a second one, but I think this will drive play in interesting directions if the pirates start with one of these. Are there any of these that stand out as weak in the consequence department? Or are there some that are confusing? Or are there any I just haven't though of? I'd love to hear some feedback. Thanks!
David Berg:
It could just be the phrasing, but some of these sound like outcomes witch certain impact, while others sound like attempts that could succeed or fail. Like, unless the game is forcing other characters to give up, Persistery sounds merely like a descriptive character trait. Whereas Avoidery sounds like, well, every character gets in bad situations, and mine is particularly good at getting out, and I'll expect that to manifest mechanically at some point.
I hope I'm not nit-picking and missing the point here. If I am, please ignore me.
Josh Porter:
Not nit-picky at all! I see what you're saying with Persistery. It does seem a little more trait-like upon a second look. Are there any others that jump out at you? Since I wrote them, I see them in my head a little differently than the way they probably appear to the reader. But the other ones that seem similar are Chancery, Wackery, and perhaps Impactery and Ballsery to a lesser extent. Are you seeing a similar disconnect? Thanks for the feedback!
Josh Porter:
I think I'm getting close to a complete draft of this game. In the spirit of stealing from the best, I snagged the "end of the game" concept from Poison'd. I really like how Vincent laid out a distinct ending for his game based on certain conditions, so I adapted the same concept to fit this one.
The end conditions I've come up with are a bit different from Poison'd, and come in two different parts of the book: the more complicated rules for pirates, and the end of the RA's section, concerning pirate death. Here they are in that order.
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7. The Pirate King Rule: If you are the first pirate to achieve the rank of Pirate King, your pirate gets to engineer the end of the game. First, you will be given your own pirate ship (not a submarine, like the Caterpillar) by the pirate council. Second, you are tasked with striking the final blow against the Royal Empire, to take care of them once and for all. You will be given your choice of crew, and all the resources at the pirate council's disposal. Whatever plan your pirate comes up with, that plan is the last mission of the game. Whether it succeeds or fails, the game will end once the mission is completed, and it will be amazing. No pressure.
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The Death of a Pirate
It is a sad and tragic day when a player's pirate goes the way of the dodo. It is not a thing to be taken lightly. It is kind of hard for a pirate to die in this game, but it very well might happen. When the pirate's player has run out of Pieces of Eight and the pirate is caught in a cannon broadside, sometimes he dies. What follows is the grieving process that a pirate's death requires, outlined for your solemn perusal. Any number of the following stages of grief may be called for upon the death of one of The Terrible Butterflies.
1. The dead pirate can be resuscitated postmortem. If there is a living pirate that can use Medicinery (the Earthling or the ship's surgeon, if there is one), that pirate can try some postmortem resuscitation. It must be done quickly in order to succeed. If the roll succeeds, the dead pirate comes back to life with his BoneTrack still full. He cannot be resuscitated again if he dies a second time unless he has completely emptied his BoneTrack first.
2. The dead pirate's player can demand a funeral. If a funeral is called for, it must take place. The pirate's body is loaded into an empty torpedo and placed into a torpedo tube. The other pirates must then, one at a time, share their most cherished memories of the dead pirate. The dead pirate's player may request any one of the memories be written on his death torpedo. Captain Swallowtail, through the RA, gets the last word in the memory sharing. The captain vows that the dead pirate's torpedo will be the first to be fired at the next enemy ship they find. And so the Caterpillar casts off again to hunt for their next plunder.
3. The dead pirate's player can swap places with the RA. If everyone is in agreement, the dead pirate's player can step up and be the RA starting with the next game session, and the current RA can choose to create a pirate of her own. This new pirate will start as a swabbie, and, as her player wishes, she may be a pre-existing member of the crew or a new recruit.
4. The dead pirate's player can call for the end of the game. If the dead pirate's player is too sad to continue without his beloved pirate, he can declare the game to be over at the conclusion of the current session. This puts some pressure on the crew to finish the game in style. In order to properly end the game, all the pirates are required to take the biggest risks they can possibly take. If all the pirates are dead by the end of the session, then the game was a good one. If they succeed against all odds, then the game was a good one. There can be no half measures taken at the end of the game. The game must end boldly and proudly so the players can hold their heads high.
I have yet to see these play out in the game, as no pirates have died so far in playtesting, but I'd love some feedback on them. Do they put too much pressure on the players? Will they throw the game's balance out of whack? I really wanted to make the death of a pirate something of an event, as it is pretty hard to do, and also allow it to change the game up when it happens. Do these rules convey that well, or do they need some more tweaking?
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