MY MISSION: I have 24 hours to make a game fitting for my niece and nephew who want to play a pokemon-like game, and two friends that want to play something like Ni No Kuni (a Playstation game of a similar vein). This is both because I like ’em, and as a game design bet with one of the guys playing.
In one hour, having stolen basic moves from Apocalypse World and Dungeon World, and tweaked them to say: “When you command your curio…” rather than “When you…” and having created a weird system where the monster and the character that owns them share the same stats, I have “Curio World”, version 0. Not much else.
Oh, also: Sorry about the fonts and well, every design choice here, it was just for my benefit- If I have a chance after tomorrow I’ll copy and paste it onto something fresh.
I could use some critic.
I have a feeling writing it across several documents wouldn’t go amiss.
sub
/sub
Sub
Old fart here, what does /sub mean or imply?
sub
Fr. Tom : it’s short for “subscribe”, basically your comment is only there so you get updates when others also comment.
I can reliably make a level 1 monster using my rules, they’re all similar on paper, but it should do for this game:
Level 1
Grimmass
12 HP; (D6) DMG, 5 E
watery, beastie, grumpy
Special Move: Water Cannon
Level 1
Tattlesnake
17 HP; (D6) DMG; 3 E
common, adorable, nervous, scout
Special Move: Venom Fang
Level 1
Magnaload
17 HP; (D6+1) DMG, 5 E
metallic, gemini, serious
Alexander Davis thank you helping me with some Google+ netiquette
A monster can eventually have a stat boosted up to +3, while a character begins with one stat at +2.
At that point you can roll when using this monster at +5, might be a big deal, but
A. It only matters in battle, plus you’ll have to switch when the monster gets beat up, losing it’s bonuses.
B. Choosing to boost a stat every level means no +5 HP, no +1 armor or Special Move. Super competent no frills glass cannon could be a valid tactic.
Might still drop max stat down to +2…
This steps a little outside the general *world design structure, but (assuming Curios are like Pokemon) maybe some kind of random table (or more) would work for monster creation?
It seems to me that there are a lot of moves, a lot to keep track of (7 stats that do different things in battle, in an adventure and generally), but I think you divide it up pretty well. You might find after playtesting that you might want things more general.
The curio make me think of the AW class, I think Malacusio? It’s a hive mind, and controls three or four people. You might want to look into it.
When two curio are dueling, what do you have the other players do? Are they just stuck watching, or simultaneously doing their own thing?
You have it so outside of battle, a curio can help. Would you consider a Favourite Curio, like Ash’s Pikachu? That could be the one that helps outside battle and is usually outside the bottle. You could switch between them with a temporary penalty to Kindness, or if it makes sense fictionally.
I think this is great for less than a day of work, I’m looking forward to seeing more!
Jay Vee I know, its just the wrong side of *World.
If I keep the rules I’ve got at the moment, it doesn’t take much of anything to make a monster; but yeah, I will make a bunch of random tables for tomorrow for when the go searching for curio and beat up everything they meet.
Thank you for the comment Jay, random tables for monster making is a great idea.
Kevin Farnworth I think there are only 5 stats, unless I’ve written something wrong? And 18 Moves, with no classes. So it should be alright, I think?
Yeah, all will become clear tomorrow I suspect. Hope.
I’ve never seen the Malacusio, I’ll have to have a look! Thanks.
Haha, its not clear but I realised in the middle of writing about duels that all the players vs some npcs might be more common than one on one.
I guess when one on one happens they’d be doing there own thing, they’d have to right? Apocalypse World can do it, don’t know about this half-baked mess.
Ah, the first one could be a favourite. Might look into that.
Thanks for the support, tomorrow after the game I will add a list of items and some sense to dueling I reckon.
Tony Ferron Sorry, I was counting moves not realizing there were a couple per stat.
Macaluso is the AW skin, you can find it here: http://apocalypse-world.com/le-contents.pdf
This is all I’ve made up today: https://docs.google.com/document/d/19ro_vcAcYB4NibBI3zti-LZ4HZm-vRzN9VV9KjmnXvk/edit?usp=sharing
Time to play.
Edit: Slight update as of 20/2
/sub
No time to stop, I might have time to write a longer post later today.
The game works! Mainly by virtue of the systems it’s hacked from. Also, I don’t have a camera worth a damn, but we ended up drawing bottles, drawing their starting curio (I let them make them, which might be a rule) inside them as well as their stats. Looked great.
As long as you’re having fun and the players realise they can describe what they’re doing you don’t really need Special Moves.
Bye for now.
The concept looks great, I’ve been looking over it during the past few hours and I’m really into the idea. We are looking at playing a game or two of it and seeing how it goes.
A quick thought, you mentioned wishing to add Drives, what about just each character has a set of goals. Finding a Rare Curio, Capturing as many Aquatic Curio, Fighting the Boss of a Specific Gym etc. each Goal helps build the world.
I noticed there weren’t any bonds or relationships between characters. Did you feel this was missing when you played it?
Slightly updated curio tags are here:
https://docs.google.com/document/d/1HaW92YXNXOFj74MYaafrfrgF8XJatYqmnsIo4_lMc6Q/edit
Rob Cain Thanks for the comments mate! I’m glad you like the game, such as it is. I’d be really interested in how it goes if you do play a quick session.
Yeah, and this will link into to my reply to Kevin, I’m thinking of adding Bonds, the Help/Hinder moves and Drives/Goals into the game at some stage. It just makes sense.
Kevin Farnworth The only reason bonds aren’t in at the moment is I haven’t written them down. In the time I had to make it I knew the players were a good enough bunch that they’d work together and create a fun story. If it was a complete product, it would certainly feel missing.
So, in brief, the first game went like this:
I made a quick Front called Trouble on Grand Mountain.
The set up was some treasure hunters had hiked up the mountain after hearing an old tale that a gold making curio lived at the peak. The treasure hunters had not been seen for a week. Add to that, the weather can gotten just awful since they went up the mountain, sheer cold blows down into the surrounding areas.
The we ad libbed where they were from, why they were going up the mountain too and some other general information. Turned out they were all from Junebug Town. Some wanted the gold-maker too, some were “rescuers”, a sub-set of battlers that save people from places they shouldn’t dare go. Awesome.
They each made a curio- It takes seconds, and explained how they were chosen by it/came across it/saved it when it was hurt. Again, this backstory stuff is a must and needs to get written down by me.
Damn, I think I’m writing too much here already, so…
– Fighting works just like a classless DW. If every character had two or more monsters each though who knows if it’d get too messy… Me, in time.
– I’m actually enjoying the lack of rules when it comes to tags. It means the players can talk their way out of a problem, but so what if it’s an easy game?
– Kid’s heads will nearly explode with joy when they find out they can ride a “rocky, big, mount” monster.
– When you take away HP for a human character, players will leap from the roof of a crumbling shrine to a monster made of granite while taking a photograph.
using this post as a note to myself while on the phone. Pokemon Gym = Battlelord Fortress = Place of Power = Rituals using curio
Idle thoughts –
Physical Tags –
Swarm – A small multitude of curios that form one entity? Think Exeggcute or just a hivemind. Might fit under Gemini but hey.
Incorporeal – A floating fire ghost, a stream of strangely active sand.
Skill Tags –
An extra Skill tag for being able to Talk?
Diver – +1 to Explore for rivers or lakes.
Protection Bond – +1 to Defend a specified trainer/curio.
Crafty – +1 to Work when making specific items.
If you were looking for suggestions at all, there’s a couple.
I’ll add them, you can never have too many tags!
For the few people keeping tabs on this, it’s going to be a slow burn for at least another week. The best thing I can do now is play it.
Oh, just a final note before I go, if this gets anywhere near completion it will be free and without copyright. Its no big deal.
If it’s god enough, you could totally do a Creative Commons license like all *World games and still sell it, FYI.
Jay Vee Thats okay Jay Vee, thank you for taking the time to mention that though!
Had a couple of sessions since (a haunted mansion tea party and a reenactment of Enter the Dragon, with a dragon) and again, it works, all it really needs is polish.
I’ll update tomorrow with a couple of google docs worth of things, like a list of curio that have been in play and some special moves. Gotta write them up first, woe I, for not having a scanner.
I’m actually still on this, I just haven’t written anything new down! Sorry about that.
Today I had five whole players play this unfinished kid’s game. It was awesome! After stopping a gang of thieves (not at all like a certain team), they want to convert said gang’s warehouse into a hideout of justice.
As much as this deviates from DW, I don’t think having a home is such a bad thing in this game. Not since they decided there are trains that run on curio provided electricity.
Rob Cain Did you ever get around to a game mate?
sub