[tVoS] Okay, it's time to refine!
Feb. 12th, 2011 09:44 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
sarah_tvOkay, so I am starting to get some feedback on the game, The Volume of Secrets, and I have had some time to think about the character creation for the game, and here is the thoughts I have so far.
Volume
- It is really unfair that the Owl Faction has no 'win' condition. We're fixing that right now. The Owls win when the Volume is 10 decibels or less. The Raven Faction wins when the Volume is 60 to 70. The definitive starting point for Volume moves up to 35 decibels, as a midpoint. The GM can off course, set the volume differently
Competitive Aspect
- Part of me wonders if I really want to include the Cooperative mode of play, as that seems that things end up being more arbitrary by the GM when you have done enough to win. I think it can still work, but maybe taking it out would make a stronger game. I'll add an appendix covering Cooperative play.
Characters
- Oy. Okay, I know what I was thinking when I put them together the first time, but I am now upon reflection going "No, this doesn't work, per say." Right now, I want to keep factions, and Association (The HP of the game), and the Affinities, and the Wing mechanics. Those are good, and work for me. All the rest of it needs to go. I think I am going to replace all skills with abilities, and expand as a general category somewhere what Angels can and can't know.
Explain Demons
- I know that the setting talks about demons and beoming a demon in it, but they are there for two reasons.
1) The game needs a lose lose condition. Since there is no such thing as real death in the game, I wanted there to be a threat about possibly losing a invested character. Losing all your wings and becoming 'something else' seemed like a really good "Dead Dead" mechanic.
2) I didn't have time to talk about more complex plots in the 24 hour period. Basically, Demons end up being traps and adversaries in the game. Basically, you as a GM can set up a group of interconnected secrets, and when one gets deeply hidden, some other secrets can't be accessed, and when some become loud, then the silent ones are threatened to be exposed. This also applies to the Super Loud Revealed secrets, who by removal of other secrets or voice level secrets, become threatened to be debunked and lose their volume.
So mainly Demons are story plot devices that lets the GM have a reasonable reason to interact in a competitive game beyond just having normal every day life happen.
Provide opportunity for heroism
- A friend of mine brought up the point that he felt that the characters were part of cogs in a great machine and that they didn't matter so much. In a way, he's right, and my personal interest is more in watching and participating in the struggle rather then some end goal of the struggle itself. However, it is reasonable that a greater choice needs to be offered as a standard mechanic for the game.
It should be noted that I am not sure this is a valid concern, nor am I sure players will be feeling this need as such. More feedback would be required before I dedicate myself to working on this aspect.
Dice Mechanic
- I know, it's weird, but I worry about really wild swings if I leave everything as a D6. I am seriously considering having the first two dice of any pool be D6's, and the rest of the dice pool be D4's. This allows for smaller averages and tigher max rolls, and will slow down the movement of volume. I mean, when you are rolling maybe 4 or 5 D6, you can suddenly see wide swings of 20+ points, and when you add in the factor of weight, that could be shredding people for a quite innocent and appropriate roll. I'll have to play with it to really see, but that was my thought for today.
And those are my current thoughts for today. I won't actually start any rewrites until I get Ron's Feedback, but I want to send a shout out to the Mom's Basement Podcast, for giving me a generally positive review, and I look forward to cleaning up the game so that it's more enjoyable.
http://momsbasementpodcast.blogspot.com/
Volume
- It is really unfair that the Owl Faction has no 'win' condition. We're fixing that right now. The Owls win when the Volume is 10 decibels or less. The Raven Faction wins when the Volume is 60 to 70. The definitive starting point for Volume moves up to 35 decibels, as a midpoint. The GM can off course, set the volume differently
Competitive Aspect
- Part of me wonders if I really want to include the Cooperative mode of play, as that seems that things end up being more arbitrary by the GM when you have done enough to win. I think it can still work, but maybe taking it out would make a stronger game. I'll add an appendix covering Cooperative play.
Characters
- Oy. Okay, I know what I was thinking when I put them together the first time, but I am now upon reflection going "No, this doesn't work, per say." Right now, I want to keep factions, and Association (The HP of the game), and the Affinities, and the Wing mechanics. Those are good, and work for me. All the rest of it needs to go. I think I am going to replace all skills with abilities, and expand as a general category somewhere what Angels can and can't know.
Explain Demons
- I know that the setting talks about demons and beoming a demon in it, but they are there for two reasons.
1) The game needs a lose lose condition. Since there is no such thing as real death in the game, I wanted there to be a threat about possibly losing a invested character. Losing all your wings and becoming 'something else' seemed like a really good "Dead Dead" mechanic.
2) I didn't have time to talk about more complex plots in the 24 hour period. Basically, Demons end up being traps and adversaries in the game. Basically, you as a GM can set up a group of interconnected secrets, and when one gets deeply hidden, some other secrets can't be accessed, and when some become loud, then the silent ones are threatened to be exposed. This also applies to the Super Loud Revealed secrets, who by removal of other secrets or voice level secrets, become threatened to be debunked and lose their volume.
So mainly Demons are story plot devices that lets the GM have a reasonable reason to interact in a competitive game beyond just having normal every day life happen.
Provide opportunity for heroism
- A friend of mine brought up the point that he felt that the characters were part of cogs in a great machine and that they didn't matter so much. In a way, he's right, and my personal interest is more in watching and participating in the struggle rather then some end goal of the struggle itself. However, it is reasonable that a greater choice needs to be offered as a standard mechanic for the game.
It should be noted that I am not sure this is a valid concern, nor am I sure players will be feeling this need as such. More feedback would be required before I dedicate myself to working on this aspect.
Dice Mechanic
- I know, it's weird, but I worry about really wild swings if I leave everything as a D6. I am seriously considering having the first two dice of any pool be D6's, and the rest of the dice pool be D4's. This allows for smaller averages and tigher max rolls, and will slow down the movement of volume. I mean, when you are rolling maybe 4 or 5 D6, you can suddenly see wide swings of 20+ points, and when you add in the factor of weight, that could be shredding people for a quite innocent and appropriate roll. I'll have to play with it to really see, but that was my thought for today.
And those are my current thoughts for today. I won't actually start any rewrites until I get Ron's Feedback, but I want to send a shout out to the Mom's Basement Podcast, for giving me a generally positive review, and I look forward to cleaning up the game so that it's more enjoyable.
http://momsbasementpodcast.blogspot.com/
