Do you want to appear in an RPG?

As I draw more images for the new incarnation of Walkabout, I'm wondering if there are any people in my circles who might be interested in having their likenesses immortalised as illustrations of post apocalyptic survivors...

 For those who are interested in being depicted in a post apocalyptic light, find a suitable picture for me to work off and send it my way. The pictures I'll find most appropriate are at least 300x300px (preferably 600x600 or more), with an interesting lighting.

For everyone who has responded so far, I've been going through your profiles trying to find suitable photos. But a few of you have no photos at all.

When, or if, you have an appropriate photo fopr me to base a picture on. Either privately send it to me here, or direct it to my regular email address (vulpinoid (at) mail (dot) com).

I'm not necessarily looking for headshots, but you do want a headshot please be looking in some direction away from the camera. I'm not planning to create White-Wolf style, angsty portraits of dour looking tragically hip individuals.

If you want to be doing something in particular (writing, working on something, in a pose fighting and imaginary something that I can add in later...be creative) I can certainly work with that.

If you've got a picture you'd like me to use (or if you want to take a particular picture for me to use)...I'll use that.

If I don't get something from people over the next weeks or so, I'll try to find something suitable from their Facebook/Google+/Other profiles. Remembering that a close up picture will give me a better chance of depicting you...a distant shot could be an image of anyone (what's the point of appearing in an RPG if we can't tell it's you?).

If I don't get anything, and don't find anything suitable on a profile, then sorry...opportunity lost.


So, how about it?

Two More Walkabout Images

Some more images I've created for the Walkabout game revision.

There are plenty more on the way. I'm hoping to have at least two dozen of these illustrated over the next couple of weeks.

Monsterhearts

This has got me excited.

A chance to use all my old White Wolf books again with a gamer system that might actually do them justice.

Have a look.


Monsterhearts pitch video - IndieGoGo from Joe Mcdaldno on Vimeo.

Hell on Eight Wheels: Nine – Fouls

With this new structure in place, a simple rule for fouls becomes apparent. A skater may risk a foul by replacing their played card with the next random card from the deck. If the new card is more successful than the replaced card, it takes effect (altering the hit location or causing extra damage) but the skater’s foul risks being seen by a referee. If the new card is less successful, it must be used anyway.

Some skaters known for playing dirty might gain access to skills/traits that make fouls less visible to referees or more effective.  

I'll throw together some play examples with the next post.

Walkabout Atmospheric Image

My other project for the year was the revision for my post apocalyptic "Walkabout"...

...here's the first atmospheric shot for it.

Hell on Eight Wheels: Eight – A Unified Core Rule

Before we go much further, a new blanket rule will be instituted to help pull the various mechanisms into a more unified concept.

The highest card wins, as long as it is below the relevant attribute for the action. If two skaters are comparing cards and one skater plays a card higher than their relevant attribute, the other skater wins; but if two cards are played higher than their respective skater’s attributes, the higher card wins.

On the negative side, this means I’ll need to reconfigure some of the rules that we’ve looked at so far. On the positive side this mean that once a player understands one part of the game, they’ll have a general understanding of all parts of the game. It also simplifies a few things, and makes them quicker to play through without needing to add figures together to determine results.

When we apply this rule to the concept of skater speed and distance moved, the mechanism now changes to…

Skaters have “Speed” and “Strategy” attributes, and they have a “thrust” (name subject to change). A player should aim to place as high a card as possible in the “speed” and “strategy” categories without exceeding the relevant attribute values. As long as they place a lower card in their speed, they gain a number of forward movement actions equal to the card rank (each forward movement action pushes the skater a number of sections equal to their thrust [walk = 1, run = 2, sprint = 3]). As long as they place a lower card in their strategy, they gain a number of strategic movement actions equal to the card rank. If the speed category is allocated a card with a higher rank, the skater overexerts themselves and risks suffering a penalty to their speed attribute for the remainder of the jam. If the strategy category is allocated a card with higher rank, the skater becomes confused with the potential options available (and risks suffering a penalty to their strategy attribute for the remainder of the jam). If both categories are allocated cards with higher rank, the skater risks immediately falling over (and possibly causing a cascade of falling skaters).

When we apply this rule to the concept of conflict between skaters, the mechanism remains basically intact because the fundamentals of the hit mechanism are based on the targeted combat model. But the notion of conflict results and damage can be applied to the strength statistic…

1)      Active skater moves. If the active skater moves into the threat zone of another skater, a block opportunity arises. At this point, the active skater becomes the defender, while the skater whose threat zone has been invaded becomes the attacker. 

2)      Attacker and Defender compare their respective strategy scores to determine how many cards they may draw and play. If the active skater has entered the threat zone of two opposing skaters, the opponents add together their strategy scores against the active skater. If the active skater has entered the threat zones of skaters from both teams, they must resolve the conflict sequence before any opportunity for an assist or whip.

Respective Strategy Scores	Adjacent Track Section	Gap of 1 Track Section
Defender more than 3 Higher	Attacker 1 Card Defender 3 Cards	Attacker 1 Card Defender 3 Cards
Defender Higher	Attacker 1 Card Defender 2 Cards	Attacker 1 Card Defender 3 Cards
Attacker Equal or Higher	Attacker 1 Card Defender 1 Card	Attacker 1 Card Defender 2 Cards
Attacker more than 2 Higher	Attacker 2 Cards Defender 1 Card	Attacker 1 Card Defender 1 Card

3)      Cards are played for the assault and the defence. Both players may play cards from their hand instead of the cards dealt at this time to the skaters (this gives the players a stronger element of strategic play).

4)      Once cards are revealed, each skater involved in the block/conflict may draw an extra card by risking a foul. When an attacker does this, they exchange their attack card with a random card from the top of their deck. When a defender does this, they discard one of their defence cards and replace it with a random card from the top of their deck. In either case, if the new card has a higher rank than the replaced card, a foul is performed.

5)      If (once cards have been finalised) the attacker plays a card with a suit unmatched by the defender, then the attack gets through. Comparison of card ranks determines how savage this attack is. The attacker uses the rank of their successful card (if they are lucky enough to have two successful cards they may choose the card used), the defender uses the highest card rank below their strength attribute.

6)      If the attacker’s card is higher than their strength, they risk a fall (and possibly starting a fall cascade).

7)      If the attacker’s card is higher than the defender’s, they inflict an injury to the victim’s targeted attribute. If the victim has already suffered an injury to this attribute, it becomes more permanent. A victim suffering permanent injuries to two attributes is rendered too injured to continue play.

8)      If a fall is risked, the skater must draw a card with a value lower than their strategy attribute to avoid falling. If a fall occurs, anyone in the threat zone of the falling skater now risks a fall.

9)      If the active skater still has moves remaining, they may continue their movement around the track.

Any more complicated rules come in the form of special abilities available only to skaters who possess the relevant skills or traits.

For example, one trait might provide the ability to cause a fall risk rather than applying damage to an opposing skater. One trait might provide the ability to adjust a card’s rank up or down by a single point when involved in a specific type of action. Another trait might allow an extra card to be drawn when a specific action type is being performed.

Traits such as these would be limited throughout the game, mainly possessed by veteran skaters who have developed their own special skating techniques, or available under certain circumstances if members of the team engage in a specific play formation.

Hell On Eight Wheels: Seven – Targeted Combat

If you’ve been reading through this series of game development blog posts, you’ll have seen many references to Freebooter’s Fate. This is a great miniatures game released by Freebooter Miniature last year. I don’t think it will catch on with the likes of Games Workshop and other bigger companies dominating the market…but I’d love to hope that it gets a good, dedicated fan base.

In this game, combat stats are rated on a scale from 1 to 5 while there are six possible hit locations on the body (Head, Torso, Right Arm, Left Arm, Abdomen, Legs). The elegance of the system is the way in which the combat stats mesh with the hit locations…it’s so simple I have to wonder why no one had considered it earlier (maybe it has been used earlier and I’m just not aware of it).

When a figure goes into combat they select a number of body locations to assault equal to their attack score, the defender selects a number of body locations to protect equal to their defence score. If the attacker has picked a body part that the defender hasn’t protected, the defender is hit and takes damage. If the attacker hits two or more parts that the defender hasn’t protected, then a critical hit is scored.

In the case of a regular hit, damage is marked off from a pool of vitality. In the case of a critical hit, each body part has a corresponding figure attribute (the attacker must choose one of the body parts successfully assaulted), then the relevant attribute is weakened until healing can occur (or until the end of the game).

When playing the game you actually get a feeling for swordplay as you sweep at certain parts of your opponent with a flurry of blows, only to see whether or not your attacks for the round have been successful. Attacks are strategic (you can choose to disable certain attributes of your opponent), combat feels like your decisions have weight (rather than the arbitrary whim of a die result), and the action is played out fast (faster than most other miniatures games anyway).

But how could you run a style of combat like this in a roller derby game?

If we’re looking at four attributes linked to the four suits in a deck, then we can simply say that a blocking skater plays one or more cards representing the target’s body locations when they block, while the defending skater plays one or more cards representing the parts of their body being covered by defensive actions.

  

Head	Spades	Strategy
Torso/Arms	Hearts	Soul
Abdomen	Clubs	Strength
Legs	Diamonds	Speed

The location/suit correspondences seem to sit fairly well, an appropriate diagram should reinforce this notion.

The attacker assaults one or more locations, and the victim tries to block the location(s) hit.

But how do we determine how many cards the attacker gets to use for their assault, and how many cards the victim gets to use for their defence. It would be nice to keep this relevant to the unfolding strategies on the board (taking into account closeness of skaters and relative speeds), and since this game is incorporating variability of skater skill, it makes sense to connect these to the sequence.

Respective Strategy Scores	Adjacent Track Section	Gap of 1 Track Section
Defender more than 3 Higher	Attacker 1 Card Defender 3 Cards	Attacker 1 Card Defender 3 Cards (-1 damage card flip)
Defender Higher	Attacker 1 Card Defender 2 Cards	Attacker 1 Card Defender 3 Cards
Attacker Equal or Higher	Attacker 1 Card Defender 1 Card	Attacker 1 Card Defender 2 Cards
Attacker more than 2 Higher	Attacker 1 Card Defender 1 Card (+1 damage card flip)	Attacker 1 Card Defender 1 Card

Idea: Perhaps a team member can be involved in an assist. If someone is assisting the attacker (or defender), do they add a card to one side of the conflict or do they add their strategy score to the attacker’s value before determining how many cards to apply to the situation.

Cards have the ability to rank as well as suit, and a game mechanism that has variable degrees of readability can streamline the output. In light of this, we can read the suit to determine the location of the strike, while we use the rank to determine the intensity of the hit.

As an example: Attacker’s Card Value plus Strength vs Defender’s Card Value plus Strength

If the assault is successful, the attacker compares their strength plus their card value to that of the victim. If their value is less than the victims, movement is impeded and the victim has to spend a bit more energy finding another way around. If the attacker’s strength plus card is higher, then the defender risks falling down and/or injury.

…and this is where the damage flips (mentioned in the table above) comes in.

This is a mechanism I like from the Malifaux miniatures game. Basically, if things are going your way, you draw an extra card or two and keep the best one for your result; conversely, if things are going against you, you draw an extra card and keep the worst of the two results.  

I’ll write up a few examples of play, if things aren’t making sense at this stage, hopefully they’ll clarify matters.

I seem to be heading in a few directions at once with the game, and one of my pet hates in games of this type is disjointed mechanisms. I should be able to pull the ideas together into a streamlined and coherent whole, but you'll have to bear with me for a bit while I'll brainstorm through the specific elements.