[rant] Snake_Eyes Game Chef 2012
Snake_Eyes:
**Please excuse the poor presentation, I think I am going to bed, but wanted to get this out, it is based on Native American myths, and is about a contraband ship leaving Earth during the last days of humanity**
Myths are from http://firstpeople.us
They have the dialogue I am using for the scene framing.
And some cool clip art.
Each of the characters will get some dialogue, and there will be additional quotation to frame the scenes, each character will have scene objectives, and individual goals.
It is based on domino tiles and through a gambling mechanic, and a tally at the end one of four individual endings can be reached. There is only the basic rules here they take about 500 words currently, and then there is some examples of the myth quotation relevant to stars, or the four animals etc..
START (PARAPHRASE)
The world is going to end...
And you are going to get off this planet,
It is the year 2532. 520 years in the future, 1040 years after the discovery of the Americas.
The world was dying a thousand years ago, and died already,nothing can save the mother earth, though through fear or love there is hope for her children to reach the stars.
The Slaver Coyote; The Doctor Snake; Spider a Lantern of Hope; and Raven a Mimic; are ready to board one of the last craft off a doomed world, and their only hope last chance at escape.
Coyote has the connections, he is a rutheless criminal with the ability to commandeer a flight. A scavenger of the lowest kind.
Snake, a valued Doctor and medical scientist has a curiousness and heart of a child, with the mind of a genius, with the gift of healing and leadership.
Spider, a psychic medium and fated to to bring great karma and weight, a luck charm of unkown quality, seen by others as possibly both mean and bright. A Lantern to light the future either a dark or pale hue.
Raven, the Mimic a sexual predator, and messanger of death, and penultimate symbol of flight into the stars.
There are different opinions about the stars. Some say they are balls of light, others say they are human, but most people say they are living creatures covered with luminous fur or feathers.
A FOUR/ FIVE PLAYER GAME. (Not sure yet)
“”Earth is floating on the waters like a big island, hanging from four rawhide ropes fastened at the top of the sacred four directions. The ropes are tied to the ceiling of the sky, which is made of hard rock crystal. When the ropes break, this world will come tumbling down, and all living things will fall with it and die. Then everything will be as if the earth had never existed, for water will cover it. Maybe the white man will bring this about. Well, in the beginning also, water covered everything. Though living creatures existed, their home was up there, above the rainbow, and it was crowded.””
“”They would tell them of how the world today has turned away from the Great Spirit and that is why our Earth is "Sick". The "Warriors of the Rainbow" would show the peoples that this "Ancient Being" (the Great Spirit), is full of love and understanding, and teach them how to make the Earth (Elohi) beautiful again. These Warriors would give the people principles or rules to follow to make their path right with the world. These principles would be those of the Ancient Tribes. The Warriors of the Rainbow would teach the people of the ancient practices of Unity, Love and Understanding.””
“”They saw Sun die, sinking into the water. They passed over the water and entered Sun's house with him. Sun's house was the great dome of the sky. All around the brothers were stars and Moon. Moon was a woman, Sun's wife. Moon said to the brothers, "How have you come here, so far from home?" "We have followed Sun on his daily journey since we were boys." Then Sun said, "Why have you followed me? It is not time for you to come here." "We wanted to see where you went when you died," the brothers answered.””
“”One day in the long ago, two young girls were lying on the grass outside their tipi on a warm summer evening. They were looking up into the sky, describing star-pictures formed by their imaginations. "That is a pretty star. I like that one," said First Girl. "I like that one best of all--over there," Second Girl pointed.””
“”There are different opinions about the stars. Some say they are balls of light, others say they are human, but most people say they are living creatures covered with luminous fur or feathers.””
“”The animals then decided that it was too dark, so they made the sun and put it on the path in which it still runs today. The animals could then admire the newly created Earth around them.””
“”At first there was darkness and cold, vast and endless, stretching out in all directions. Beneath the great stone arch of the sky there was a dizzying drop. One by one tiny creatures began to awake and one by one they realized that they were cold, thirsty and very crowded.””
GAME PIECES 28 TILE 6 POINT DOMINOES
You are going to need a 6 point 28 bag of dominos.
EACH IS ASSIGNED AT THE START OF THE GAME
00D
01S 11M 21M 31L 41D 51S 61S
02M 22M 32 42M 52L 62M
03L 33L 43D 53M 63D
04D 44D 54S 64D
05L 55S 65S
06L 66L
(COYOTE) SLAVER
01 15 16 23 45 55 56
Swap any exhausted tiled of yours for an unexausted tile at random.
“”While everyone including Our Mother was gathered to gaze at the luminous Morning Star, Coyote tiptoed over to the jar of stars to see for himself what the man was doing. As he lifted the jar's lid just a little, the stars rose to the occasion, pushed the lid away and raced for the sky. This is the reason so many twinkle without order or pattern, and why so many are not named. Our Mother was angry with Coyote, and said that because of his mischief with the stars Coyote would forever be a wanderer and bring trouble with him wherever he may go. That some days he could be happy and abundant, but other days he would see unhappiness and hunger.””
(SNAKE) DOCTOR
00 04 14 44 46 34 36
Swap two exhausted tiles, one which must be your own, at random.
Some myths.
(SPIDER) LANTERN
03 05 06 13 33 25 66
You may swap any two un-exhausted tiles, one which must be your own, at random.
“”He smiled his special spider smile and moved away, spinning as he went. Soon the moon glistened on a magical silvery web moving gently in the window. "See how I spin?" he said. "See and learn, for each web will snare bad dreams. Only good dreams will go through the small hole. This is my gift to you. Use it so that only good dreams will be remembered. The bad dreams will become hopelessly entangled in the web." Sleep well sweet child Don't worry your head Your Dream Catcher is humming Above your bed Listen so softly I know you can hear The tone of beyond Close to your ear Love is alive And living in you Beyond all your troubles Where good dreams are true””
“”Then Grandmother Spider said, "Let me try." First, she made a very thick clay pot, big enough to put the Sun in. Then, she spun a web which reached all the way to the other side of the world. She was so small and quiet that these people did not notice her at all. When she was ready, she quickly snatched up the Sun in her big clay pot, and hurried back home along her web. Now her side of the world had light, and warmth. Everyone rejoiced at Grandmother Spider's gift.””
(RAVEN) MIMIC
02 11 12 22 24 26 35
You may swap any exhausted tile for any other un-exhausted tile at random.
Some more myths.
PREPARATION
6 ICY TOUCH (Command someone)
5 COLD BLOODED (Hurt someone)
4 COOL HEADED (Avoid stress)
3 WARM HEART (Influence someone)
2 HOT BODY (Seduce someone)
1 BOILING POINT (you are Angry)
0 FIERY SPIRIT (you are Passionate)
MECHANISM
Each time you perform an action you may use any expend the use of exactly two of your remaining dominos for the scene.
Take your dominos from your hand.
You do this by putting them face down.
Describe your action, and opponent describes their response. Citing the skill you wish to use, and the skill your opponents wish to use.
Flip the tiles.
Compare the skills to the numbers shown on the tiles.
Count the number of successes in your chosen action skill.
and of the chosen defense skill.
Compare them to the opposing players.
Whoever has the most successes wins the resolution.
If it is tied the scene is decided by the highest tile.
Put them into the exausted pile face down.
SCENE CHANGE
Change scene whenever any player has performed three actions or contests.
ABILITY
Once each scene you may use your special ability.
USE ABILITY
You pick a random appropriate tile, and then the player you picked from picks any other random tile of yours. (Do this with the tiles face down)
Thanks all for your time.
OrionCanning:
I really like the idea of Sci-Fi influenced by Native American myth, It's a juxtaposition I haven't really seen before but definitely works. I'm just a little wary of one of the characters being a pre-defined sexual predator, though that's not to say it doesn't seem like an interesting character. Just that it might end up with situations where no one wants to play the creepy guy. Maybe it would be good to have a fifth option, or a short list of character traits that the players can pick from for each character to help inform them but give a little customization. Otherwise I think the characters are awesome and an interesting take off of the associated spirit animals and Native American Mythology.
The Domino system feels simple and quick and dominoes also have a nice tactile feel as playing pieces. I'm at a loss as to which tiles the numbers correspond to so I can't comment on how balanced the different sets are. Looking at the special powers though it does seem to me that Raven and Coyote's are competitively the best, since they would allow you to give someone else an exhausted tile of yours in exchange for an un-exhausted tile of theirs, making them lose power while you gain power. I'm also wondering how tile refresh. At the start of each scene maybe?
jackson_tegu:
Wait, so, depending on which role i start with, i get a different set of dominoes, right?
And then those dominoes are tied to two or one (in the case of like 2:2 or 3:3 dominoes) powers; so each role gets different powers in different distributions? That's really cool. Or maybe i don't get it, that's also possible.
You're doing great so far, Snake_Eyes! I read on story-games that this is your first year, welcome! I'm excited to see where you go with this!
Snake_Eyes:
Thank you OrionCanning,
Cheers for props regarding Native America myths, to be honest I posted it before going to bed because I thought I was going to get blasted for misusing another culture, and poorly.
It is also not unique there is a finished game with exactly the same elements,
http://parenthesispress.files.wordpress.com/2012/04/anansis-children-the-rules1.pdf
I remember being asked to play V:tM at a reservation in NSW, and a few of the players were indigenous, and really loved any kind of chance to play aspects of their culture. But the elders were quite upset (rightfully so), about anything written by a non-black person. I did not write the game, but was able to have a few conversations with the same elders over the next ten or so years. It was agreed that it probably should be either a snakes and ladders game (yes, they knew exactly what RPG were,) or that it would be better written by a specific person about a very specific cultural idea. There is a published game about black-slavery, that is playable in the classroom, that is the kind of thing they wanted.
**If anyone is concerned regarding the (possible?) misuse of another culture (I am a Euro-Australian), please, please contact me before submission and I will happily edit, remove, or withdraw the submission following our conversation**
Yeah I think each scene will end when any player has performed three actions, or a preset time or when a condition is met.
Though through the gamble mechanism, the tiles swap, and the end-game it determines a set of four outcomes.
I did not want to post the acts last night, but I will over the next day or two.
Thank you very much for giving the game a quick look over, it was very hastily written. I will make a few changes today based on your suggestions and input.
Thanks,
\o/ Snake_Eyes
Thank you jackson_tengu
Yeah, each of the four players (I thought it was easier to have four players than seven) gets pre set abilities.
You deciphered my poorly written notes!
Thanks very much for the warm welcome I just joined theRPGsite, and being a lifelong D&D player was called "Swine" and wanting WotC to make 5E fail, the were not happy campers to say the least.
I just woke up, so Ill re-post made on some changes, and the the acts and outcomes involved. Though it might take another few days to be 100% finished. Just wanted to stake my claim (another person has published a finished version already, and I did not want to directly copy another persons)
Cheers,
\o/ Snake_Eyes
jackson_tegu:
Though I don't have any personal thoughts on this, i think that it's really lovely of you to be open to input from people from the cultural backgrounds that you're drawing from. That kind of respect has been rare on the internets, but now you're making it an acceptable thing to do! Thank you!
In addition, thanks for telling a bit about your experiences playing V:tM with that specific group - i've felt a bit weird with some of White Wolf's use of terms in the past for those same sorts of reasons; and i've certainly never played in a group similar to the one you did in NSW. I think that the sharing of your experiences will make it easier for people who might otherwise have been critical to listen more openly and see what you're trying to do - make a game out of elements that draw you in, and not hurt anybody.
Cool.
-jackson
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