Looking for feedback on my new game - Low Fantasy Detectives
SamSlayde:
Dungeon City Blues Low Fantasy Detective Procedural is the new game I've designed. It took a few months to get the ideas down and now I'd like some feedback on it.
It's not exactly a story or narrative game, so I'm sorry if I'm in the wrong place. It's fairly traditional take on the mystery genre, where I've focused the game design around the things I think are important to solving them. It's in a very rough stage right now, just text no formatting or images, if you get a chance to look and tell me where it feels lacking in content or focus, and what it could use more of, I'd be very appreciative.
Thanks,
S
SamSlayde:
Also, I realized a ways into this that there is another investigation focused game called Mutant City Blues out there. The names are rather similar so I'm thinking of changing mine to Dungeon Street Blues, what do you think?
Paul Czege:
Mutant City Blues is a very interesting game design. With Dungeon City Blues you've captured what you want from an investigation game, so there's no reason now to be cautious that your inspiration will be tainted by how another game does forensic mystery solving. You should really check out Mutant City Blues.
There's nothing really "Dungeony" about the game you've created. It's not set in a dungeon, just a sprawling D&D style fantasy city. You want "Dungeon" in the title just to suggest the assocation with D&D style fantasy?
I think Dungeon City Blues would be a lot of fun to play with you running it. I suspect it would be troubled by all of the problems of traditional mystery scenarios in roleplaying games when other people run it: missed clues (which never happens in the TV shows), bizarre theorizing and pursuit of bizarre theories, amoral and hardcore treatment of prisoners and suspects in the pursuit of answers (which taints the player characters, making them unlikable), killings of key NPCs (who were planned sources of information and assistance) resulting in no solvable path to the real perpetrators.
I really like your nonhuman races. I really like your focus on two detective partnerships. And I really like the concept of forensic alchemists.
One of the things Mutant City Blues does to make mysteries solvable is make sure each of the forensic skills is had (at a mastery level basically, where they don't fail if they use it) by at least one of the player characters. You could do something interesting with your focus on two detective partnerships and supporting NPCs like the forensic alchemists if you divide the forensic skills the player characters don't have across a cast of NPCs, and then create difficulties the players have to deal with in getting those other characters to produce information (strange personality, strange work hours, low motivation, distractability, bizarre theorizing :).
Paul
SamSlayde:
Quote from: Paul Czege on December 04, 2011, 09:26:18 AM
Mutant City Blues is a very interesting game design. With Dungeon City Blues you've captured what you want from an investigation game, so there's no reason now to be cautious that your inspiration will be tainted by how another game does forensic mystery solving. You should really check out Mutant City Blues.
Sorry, I didn't mean to give the impression I was unfamiliar with Mutant City Blues. I have read it, though not comprehensively, and it was just a brain fart on my part that I forgot about it. It's just the similarity in the names I'm concerned about.
Quote from: Paul Czege on December 04, 2011, 09:26:18 AM
There's nothing really "Dungeony" about the game you've created. It's not set in a dungeon, just a sprawling D&D style fantasy city. You want "Dungeon" in the title just to suggest the assocation with D&D style fantasy?
You're absolutely right, Dungeon is in there solely to re-enforce the Fantasy theme.
Quote from: Paul Czege on December 04, 2011, 09:26:18 AM
I think Dungeon City Blues would be a lot of fun to play with you running it. I suspect it would be troubled by all of the problems of traditional mystery scenarios in roleplaying games when other people run it: missed clues (which never happens in the TV shows), bizarre theorizing and pursuit of bizarre theories, amoral and hardcore treatment of prisoners and suspects in the pursuit of answers (which taints the player characters, making them unlikable), killings of key NPCs (who were planned sources of information and assistance) resulting in no solvable path to the real perpetrators.
I definitely agree that this can be a problem. This system is in no way like Gumshoe where clues are assured, you're correct that clues can be missed. This is likely going to be a serious hurdle for me. When I ran the Gumshoe system I was unsatisfied by the lack of interaction needed to find clues (maybe this was just me doing it wrong, totally possible). Because the "problem" that Gumshoe fixed, players missing vital clues, was never a problematic issue for me in investigation games. If that happened I just moved the clue, or created a new one that made sense to place where the players where going next. It was all about going with the flow.
Because of this it's a hard problem for me to try and tackle mechanically when all my experience is to tackle it through GM style/prep/flexibility. So instead I tried to put my ideas into the Running the Game advice section to help people handle this issue in the same way I have, if there is not enough there to go off of, please tell me your thoughts.
Quote from: Paul Czege on December 04, 2011, 09:26:18 AM
I really like your nonhuman races. I really like your focus on two detective partnerships. And I really like the concept of forensic alchemists.
Thank you :)
Quote from: Paul Czege on December 04, 2011, 09:26:18 AM
One of the things Mutant City Blues does to make mysteries solvable is make sure each of the forensic skills is had (at a mastery level basically, where they don't fail if they use it) by at least one of the player characters. You could do something interesting with your focus on two detective partnerships and supporting NPCs like the forensic alchemists if you divide the forensic skills the player characters don't have across a cast of NPCs, and then create difficulties the players have to deal with in getting those other characters to produce information (strange personality, strange work hours, low motivation, distractability, bizarre theorizing :).
This is very interesting, I missed this tasty little nugget in Mutant City Blues. I didn't realize covering all bases was mandatory in the rules, very clever, I also really like the suggestion about having NPCs in the Precinct that are hard to work with/find when you need them. Very cool stuff, thanks for your thoughts!
Paul Czege:
Have you read Mark Charan Newton's Nights of Villjamur?
Paul
Navigation
[0] Message Index
[#] Next page