Creating a Game (Part 7) - The Powers

Logical thread 1.

Point 1.

I've decided to use cards for this game due to the potential for linking the four suits to the four seasons.

Point 2.

I'm linking the supernatural powers of the scarecrows to the four sesons.

Corollary.

I should link the powers of the scarecrows to the suits somehow.

(Adjunct: There were 4 members of Led Zeppelin, and the lyrics of Led Zeppelin songs were one of the driving inspirations for the game... but sometimes tying to many thngs in just looks forced and trite, so I'm not going to try and push too far in that direction...yet)

Logical thread 2.

Point 1.

For magical powers to feel magical, they need to create effects that are either more powerful than mundane actions, or capable of things that regular people just can't do.

Point 2.

If the world looks like our world, then there must be something making sure that people with access to magical pwers  

Corollary.

Magical powers must have a cost associated with them, or have unexpected and random effects, maybe even both.

(Adjunct: This is meant to be an easy game to play, wthout too many things to cross reference, books to dig through, or distractions pushing away from the flow of the story. So there won't be massive lists of spells)

There are a few ways that powers can work in a roleplaying game, and each of those ways informs the way the designer views the setting, or how they want the players of their game to see the setting. If the setting has already established that magical energy is dying, then having magical powers activated by a limited resource is appropriately tragic. On the other hand, if the governing forces that stabilise magic are gone, then a random factor also works. I'm still really inclined to do both.

Let's consider things a bit deeper.

Fey magic traditinally comes at a price. Often a price that is either unexpected, or unprepared for. This is traditionally the case in various folk stories and faerie tales. No matter how prepared someone thinks they are when dealing this type of power, there's always a chance that something else will go wrong.    

Here's where I'm going at the moment. 

Scarecrow characters have an energy essence that fuels them. The fey magic that awakens them gives them the "Enchanted" trait at the start of every night, it also gives them a basic obligation to the fey who awakened them. A character who chooses not to fulfil this obligation at some stage during the night risks not being reawakened on future nights. While "Enchanted" they may attempt mystical feats, but this risks draining their essence. When a players describes their character using a mystical ability, they use a sentence to describe a regular action they are doing, then they desribe which mystical effect they are invoking and how they intend it to benefit the situation. That covers the "story" side of things, after which there is a shift to the "game" side of things. 

The player draws 3 cards (plus any from their core traits) [face up], to cover the mundane side of the action. They then draw the extra cards for the non-core traits (whether positive or negative) [face down] and finally draw two cards for the mystical effect [face down and put to one side]. All cards are distributed as normal. Core traits distributed first, non-core traits flipped up than distributed second, and finally mystic cards. Everything basically works as normal except for the drawing of the mystic cards. One of the two mystic cards determines the effectiveness of drawing mysical energy from the enchantment that empowers the scarecrow (temporarily "Power" unless I think of something better), while the other card determines how well the energy is focused (temporarily "Precision").

Power

2,3,4,5 - If you have an active "Enchanted" trait, it is lost. If you don't (or if it's exhausted), you gain a "Drained" Trait. 

6,7,8,9,10 - If you have an active "Enchanted" trait, is is exhausted. If you have an exhausted "Enchanted" trait, it is lost. :If you don't have any "Enchanted" trait, you gain a "Drained" trait. 

J,Q,K,A - No traits are lost or exhausted in the activation. 

(This basically lines up with the way non-core traits affect outcomes for standard mundane tasks, so there's nothing too revolutionary here. It also echoes back to the hunger mechanism in Vampire: the Masquerade, where using blood disciplines has a tendency to make you hungry for more blood. In this case, using the fey magic to empower other effects means you often need to find another source of energy to overcome your "drained" trait. he more you use it, the more chance you'll get drained... and the more drained you get, the harder it is to use new mystic effects). 

Precision    

2,3,4,5 - Mystical effect occurs with two "but" factors (one chosen by the GM/Narrator).

6,7,8,9,10 - Mystical effect occurs with an "and" factor and a "but" factor (one chosen by the GM/Narrator).

J,Q,K,A - Mystical effect occurs with two "and" factors (one chosen by the GM/Narrator). 

(This starts to line up with that old FUBAR magic system I found. The main difference being that this magic is an addition to mundane activities rather than spells being cast differently to other action types.) 

I don't really want complications (and I've made this prety clear), but we have already suggested that mystic effects work with seasons and suits of cards. It's time to tie those factors in. When activating the mystical part of the task, look at all the other cards revealed during the task.

Here's one set of card correspondences I've found...

That basically says that we can mix and match the signs to the seasons in a variety of different ways, and that kind of suggests that magic is what you make of it. If we were doing a meaphysical exploration of high concept esotericism, like my favourite all time magic system in "Mage: the Ascension", that'd be nice, but I'm after something definitive, something to anchor the magic, since so many other elements are potentially in flux. 

Let's find another with a quick Google search...

Upon thinking about it some more, here's another association that you could use.

The Spring Equinox marks the beginning of the Astrological year with the sign of Aries (a fire sign).
Summer Solstice begins with Cancer (water).
Autumnal Equinox with Libra (air)
And finally Winter Solstice with Capricorn (earth).

That would give you:
Spring - fire - wands - clubs
Summer - water - cups - hearts
Autumn - air - swords - spades
Winter - earth - coins - diamonds

found here 

That matches up with the first line of the coloured table, while I was half execting to find something competely different again. Also, there's a logic to it, so I'll go with that.

Look at all the cards used in the task resolution (both mundane and mystical, core and non-core). Every card with a suit matching the season of the increases the impact of the mystical effect, the forces underscoring reality shift and change, working in mysterious ways that sometimes seem ambivalent to you and sometimes align to cause massively dramatic effects.

It would be tempting here to say each card of an aligned suit provides a non-core trait that then needs to get redrawn to determine final outcome... but thats starting to get too fiddly, too slow. Screw that, we're going metal AF, scarecrow magic is wild, unpredictable and dangerous. If you're not careful, it WILL kill you. Instead, every card of the right suit simply increases the effect of the mystic power by a degree. If you haven't harnessed the magic right, it will still flow, just not in the way you expect.

But there's a few immediate issues to consider. 

• We still haven't actually identified what the specific powers are. (That's where the Led Zeppelin Lyrics come in)
• There doesn't seem to be any nuance to the power structure. (Can you be better at a power than someone else who has the same ability, or is it a simple binary where you either have a power or you don't? Which of these is actually better for the game concept moving forward?)
• Are there any standard powers that every Scarecrow should have by default? (Like shapeshifting for werewolves, vampires using blood to heal, or changelings being able to interact with the dreams underpinning reality... I think there probably sould be a couple of intrinsic abilities for the scarecrows)

Let's look at them one-by-one.

Powers

But now it's time for me to go
The autumn moon lights my way

-from "Ramble On"

Here might be an example of a power clearly related to Autumn, it's basic effect seems to be a movement one, and my first feeling is one where the character using it is escaping from a difficult situation. It could be used in fleeing combat, but could just as easily indicate quickly moving to a time sensitive event somewhere else in the story. Failure here might drag the character away from their situation, but into a new one that's even worse.  

Think I see my friends coming
Riding a many mile

-from "Gallows Pole"

Here's an example of a summoning effect. We don't necessarily have a season in the lyrics, and we don't know who these potential allies are, but we know they're coming in from a distance. Building strength tends to be a "spring" type of this, maximising the effectiveness of allies already here woud be more of a "summer" thing. Failure here might bring the wrong allies, or it might even bring allies to the opposition.

It is the summer of my smiles
Flee from me, keepers of the gloom

-from "The Rain Song"

This lyric is about throwing off the darkness and negative effects in life, and will probably work best to symbolise a mystical effect that eliminates penalties in the game. It's clearly a summer power, and is about strength and resilience. The question is whether the penalties are eliminated from the scarecrow casting the effect, their allies, or in the case of a failure their opponents. 

Hey, I felt the coldness of my winter

I never thought it would ever go

I cursed the gloom that set upon us, 'pon us, 'pon us

-from "The Rain Song"

...and here we have a winter power, which inflict penalties and gloom, unlike the summer power that removes them. Again, we don't know to whom the penalties are applied, so there's some fun scope for storyline effects to occur.

Ah, ah, child, way you shake that thing

Gonna make you burn, gonna make you sting.

-from "Black Dog"

Burning, fire, pain. This feels like a summer power, and most of our correspondnes from that nice coloed chart suggest summer hould be assocated with fire, but the path we've chosen suggests summer should have a water affiliation. Here's where we dig further into the occultism and symbolism... not by much though. The summer suit is hearts, hearts related to social connections and passion, and this is a line about sex (like much of Led Zeppelin's lyrics). So it's less about causing pain and damage, and more about primal inspiration. Sending a target into frenzy... that instantly has positive and negative connotations.  

I'm a traveler of both time and space

To be where I have been

- from "Kashmir" 

Winter is traditonally a time of introspection, in the folk tales you couldn't do much when the cold winds howled, so you'd hiernate, take stock,and contemplate. Physically, this is a slow process, but new mental vistas are opened. I'm seeing this power reflect a physical stagnation, but entering a dreamlike state, perhaps like astral projetion. Positives to this might involve gathering psychic clues about how to proceed, or communing with spirit beings, while the negatives might see a charater trapped in a desert nightmare realm, or daw new visitors and probems into the mundane physical plane.  

I didn't want a list of spells, certainly not a book with hundreds of them. Instead I'm aiming for vague magical concepts linked to lyrics. Players should be able to mix-and-match these concepts to the situations their scarecrows find themselves in, and where the magic is flexible enough to be viable in a range of scene types. I like index cards for quick accessibility of rules. If I can't fit the guidelines for a magical effect onto a quarter page index card, then it's probably gettig too complicated.

• Name
• Led Zeppelin inspiration lyric
• Basic effect
• Possible "and" results
• Possible "but" results
• Benefits from extra magical energy pulsing through the effect 

I'm only aiming at a dozen or so powers, equally spread across the seasons. So that basically means 12 (three powers per season) or 16  (four powers per season)... let's go with 12. Not necessarily a season per month of the year, that feels too trite again, but if we narrow down the mystical effects to specific categories, then we can get a better idea of where we can take the stories, and what kinds of actions will have dramatic effects. 

Nuance to the power structure

The same job, but some people are better at it than others.

I like drawing inspiration from various systems when designing something new. So, it's less a case of re-inventing the wheel, and more a case of making a mix tape of greatest hits and combining them into a concept album (or taking a bunch of favoured ingredients and mixing them into a recipe to create something new and interesting).

One of the magic systems I really like is the one found in Ars Magica, and even thoug the ideas of magic in this game are very different to the ideas of magic found in that game, there are still eleents that can be drawn from one to inspire mechanisms in another.

Here I'm thinking of a ideas of balancing focus and versatlity, and the idea that knowing similar powers will have a synergy effect. We've established that a starting character may have up to 4 powers, or less if they've chosen extra levels in the one power. That basically suggests that a scarecrow with two levels in the one power have a better understanding of that power than a scarecrow who only has it once.    

In Ars Magica, everyone has understanding of magical words (with corresponding sores attached to them), and magi combine those words into spell effects. The higher the combnation of words, the more powerful the effects. The word for make creates small and simple things if the magi only has a low value, and makes bigger (or more complex and nuanced) things if it has a higher value. The word for water will only associate with basic elemental water if it has a low score, but will associate with sea water, blood, and more complex liquids as it's scores go up. Combining the two words might seem simple, but the possibilities are endless (while remaining in the same theme of effect) as you get more understanding of the component words. Your numbers often go up by learning specific effects and combinations of word that previos schlars have spent their lives developing, and entire campaigns can revolve around a single character writing a new spell that will be studied by future generations. 

Of course that's a very regimented and structred game about academic magi in he middle ages who spend years honing their craft amd control over magic. It's a game with a very specific frame of referece, and the idea of numbers and words adding together into reality manipulation is a strong part of the whole set-up. 

"Bustle in Your Hedgerow" is quite a bit more freeform.

So I'm thinking of a system where as soon as you've got the "advanced" version of a power, you can summon a bit of it's effect into other abilities you might have. If you have the advanced version of the mystical power from "Gallows Pole" lyrics, you might be able to summon specific types of allies that bring healing effects when combined with the power derived from the "Rain Song" summer lyrics, or maybe immortal creatures of myth, dreams and legend when combined with the poer derived from the "Kashmir" lyrics. If you have the advanced version of the power from the "Ramble On" lyrics, it might take you directly to the nearest source of healers, cryptids, or specific energies, depending on what other power it is combined with. 

Such combined powers rein in the magic a bit more tightly as well. A bit like the overlapping circle in a Venn diagram.

Still thinking through the best way to handle this... but the best thig I'm thinking is adding a single extra line to the power description indicating how it's mastery modifies other powers.

Standard Abilities

What are the common things that a scarecrow typically has in popular culture and folklore?

Firstly, the stuffing can usually be knocked out of a scarecrow and even though it takes a little bit of effort to get re-stuffed, the scarecrow doesn't take long to get back on their feet.

(Scarecrows don't need to spend time naturally healing wounds. Another scarecrow can make a repair action, and make it mystical to remove one or more of the scarecrow's injuries. If they have spare material of the appropriate stuffing type, they gain bonus card draws on this action. I'll write this up properly later.)

Secondly, puncturing weapons don't really cause the stuffing to fall out, nor do blunt bashing effects. Suc attacks can be seriously damaging to regular mundane citizen of the world, but not to the scarecrows.

(The first injury deat by any gunshots, arrows, or stabbing weapons is igored when it is aimed at a scarecrow. It takes a second injury to actually deal damage to them.)

Thirdly, and here's the first negative, fire is almost always deadly to scarecrows and one of the few ways to permanently destroy them.

(The exact opposite of the puncturing weapon bonus. If a scarecrow is hit by at least one single level of injury from a source of fire, they take an automatic extra level of damage. In Vampire or Werewolf, this would be called aggravated damage, and it cannot be healed by a reguar mundane action at all. Healing any wound from fire requires stuffing and mystical energy, otherwise it lasts all night.)

Next, Scarecrows aren't alive. They don't show up on Infra-red cameras because they aren't warm blooded, this could be a positive or negative feature depending on the situation, but mostly something interesting for story purposes.

(This is generally a flexible trait that could be beneficial in some situatins and detrimental in others. It's up to the players to work out how to best make use of this ability, and it will tend to be more of a story effect.) 

Next, Scarecrws are protectors. This probably means they are either bound to a teritory. which has the follow on meaning that:

a. They gain a bnus while they are on their own territory

b. They gan a penalty while they aren't on their territory

or c. they can't even leave ther own territory.

("a" seems like the best option here) 

Finally,  (there may be more, but that's all I can think of at the moment), 

Final note here: There's a few powers I'd like to see added into the game, I just need to find some appropriate lyrics to work them in.

I'd like some kind of illusion magic, which might be used to temporarily masquerade the scarecrows as humans. This will probably be a winter power, since this is a time of sleeping/dreams and shadows.

Some kind of magic that deals damage, perhaps a spring power relating to fire, or an autumn power realting to the harvest (notably, the harvesting of souls).

Some kind of magic that talks to animals, which could be spring or summer related.

Some kind of fertility magic that causes plants to grown quickly and spontaneously. This would certainly be a spring power.