Experiments in Progress (Part 2 of 5)

I've said any times that I love the idea of one-on-one GM-to-Player sessions, but the only game that I've really read through which is specifically built to facilitate this sort of play is the Ghost Dog RPG... I know that there are other "duet" games out there, but I haven't really had much chance to play with them. 

 

Tonight's session of the unnamed "Warhammer 40K/Sceletus" remix gave me the chance to see if this game would work in that format, and it actually worked pretty well. However, I had actually been told that there would be more players for tonight's session, so running a solo game wasn't expected. 

The last week has seen me researching the various WH40K Tabletop games further, ad I did find something which I thought was interesting in the various games. So I adapted it.

I'm pretty sure it's the Cubicle 7 games that build characters using a combination of their planetary homeworld, their cultural upbringing, and their role in the team. I'm going with the same idea, but each of these aspects provides a similar range of upgrade choices. 

6 Basic Upgrades

2 Attribute Upgrades that are common to the group

4 Abilities that are common to the group

3 Intermediate Upgrades

1 ability that is uncommon for the group

2 edges that are found among those who are veterans in the group 

2 Advanced Upgrades 

2 edges that are found among heroes of the group 

Next, I make sure the higher level upgrades actually take longer to access, so I'm running with the idea that when a character purchases upgrades within a group, they need more basic upgrades than intermediate, and more intermediate than advanced. This means that a character will need two basic upgrades before they can purchase their first intermediate...and a total of three basic and two intermediate before they can acquire their first advanced upgrade. Some upgrades appear on different aspects, which gives them a synergy, and allows characters who follow certain stereotypical paths to access the high level benefits quicker, at the expense of character diversity and unpredictability.

I'm actually thinking that this might be a good way to address mortal antagonists in the Necropolis of Sceletus, and I'll be proposing this to Erin shortly. Perhaps "Blood" (Elf, Dwarf, Goblin, Human, etc.), "Culture" (Street, Forest, Nobility, Wasteland, Nomad), "Role" (Warrior, Wizard, Scholar, Thief, Cleric). For Sceletus, it makes sense to stick to the stereotypes, but it's quite a different method of generating and upgrading the mortals... so that works. 

The next interesting observation was what happens when characters in a Sceletus-type system get extra hit dice. I'd seen the 2d6 Hit Dice option many times, and even the 3d6...but having characters with 4d6 Hit Dice really makes the characters far more robust. The 10 damage dealt by a grenade which almost guarantees a kill on a "2d6" starting character only has a minor chance of killing a "4d6" veteran character, this renderig them far more heroic than you might expect in a lot of games...but there's still the chance of a quick death, so players do need to think before engaging in combat. It was interesting to see one player's tactical take on the chances of surviving conflict with varying degrees of damage. I'm not tempted to change the system in any way yet. It seems to do what I had intended. Besides, it will be even more interesting when players with different gaming styles are examined interacting with the systems.