Tag: Matrix Forby

Success!  I finally got through, at least a little, to a friend on how the system should work.   A very tactical gamer and a game designer that is used to having minis, maps, and other toys finally understands DW a little bit better.

This is after 2 gaming sessions, The first one was a bit of a flop.  Because of a few issues.  With no Initiative and no clear order, and 6 players, things got a bit messy as I was following the action..Players didn’t know if they should just jump in and go or wait.  Mostly for fear of jumping on someone’s roleplaying.  Also, their is that word, “failure” and in the actual rules on the 7-9: the GM offer’s a worse situation.  While failure doesn’t mean the same thing it is hard to get someone past it, especially if they are used to designing games that are not of a narrative sort.  He understood it, at least a little with Feng Shui 2 and Prowlers’s and Paragons (P&P, a superhero narrative game) but with little to no structure, there were some obstacles.

First, I invented an initiative system of sorts.  I call it the Spotlight system.  I first printed out a card for each player.  On one side there is Spotlight, on the back “Sharing Spotlight”.  The idea is that everyone needs to have some equal chance in the spotlight.  So I started them all with “Spotlight” Side up.  When I ask, “What do you do?” I have them flip it over.  If a player helps another out with an assist, Aid, or Defend, something similar that is just helping, I had them tilt the card on the side.  If they tilted on Spotlight side they could assist one other time or have their own “Spotlight Moment”, once on the “Sharing spotlight” side they could tilt it once, then they are too busy and need for everyone else time in the spotlight.  When everyone is on “Sharing Spotlight”  we flip the card back over and I pick someone according to the narrative to “go” and ask, “What do you do?” outlining the situation.

Sounds complicated but it is simple.  It worked out great while keeping everyone involved and making it so that I don’t forget someone and pass them over in the action.  With a big group of 6 it was necessary to have some sort of order.

So, I did  a flashback and had them attack some Frozen North Orcs and Ice Wolves, with an Ice Shaman that summoned an Ice Elemental after a bit.  They  did fine.  I showed the game designer that a 6 or less isn’t the “failure” that he thought and that as a GM I had options rather than to damage them to death.  Story options.  On a 7-9 it is even a success but with a cost.  When he was aiding someone in a battle with Stone Golem, he rolled a 7-9 and I asked him what happened, he said that he got hit as he was defending and failed and took 10 points of damage.  So, I believe that I showed him how it worked.

He told me later that he was considering giving up and quitting but because of this session he isn’t going to and that he “hates the system less, now.  And that was accomplishing a lot.”  I also tried to point out to him that most of the fun things that happened were not because he succeeded all the time but because of the 6 or less or 7-9 results.

So, win on my end.  I look forward to our next game, but it will be in October.  Sigh.

I need a more standard scenero.  I have a tendency of getting exotic or unusual situations for the PCs to overcome.  I need a more classic scene for the group to send them through.  A bit of background:

I have 6 players (might be 5), A Paladin, 2 Clerics, a Wizard, a Bard, and a Fighter that may drop.  The group has had some adventures together and I plan on running a sort of flashback encounter where I want them to try out different things and really get a feel for the system and a feel for the way things should go.  The group are good roleplayers but more used to games like Savage Worlds, D&D, Star Wars d6 and other classic but tactical based games.  One player really wants a sort of inititiave system so that he doesn’t dominate the game and so that each person gets an equal time in the spotlight.  With so many people it is easy to miss people and occasionally skip people due to trying to follow the action.  Also, I have one or two players that are a bit shy.  Combine this with nearly all the players have been taught to be polite and not jump in when they really want to, but to give other people the spot light.  So I have developed a spot light system.  But that is beside the point.  I need a scene, a situation, where players can try out anything, anything can happen, and a set up to encourage them to try anything, with out reguard to playing to their strong suits and playing toward their stat advantages.

Any Ideas?

I was thinking maybe a bandit attack that could lead to hunting down some bandits.  But I want it short enough to have in one session of a few hours.

I have been having trouble keeping control at the table with out an Initiative system.   One player has trouble as he wants to jump in on everything, one player is shy and doesn’t speak much, and many are waiting for me to que them to jump in.  So I am considering an Initiative System to be implemented.

Ok, tested out the Spotlight system I mentioned on another Thread.  Failure as I kept forgetting to collect the tokens or have the players do so.  I believe that I have a new system.  I just had a 6 player game and skipped a person several times.  Unfortunately it was my wife.  Some players noticed and one player said that he was restraining himself from jumping in because he constantly wants to jump in on stuff.  I also had nearly every player wanting to jump in on something and some already had.  Bless Spell, Aid Another, and an action was attempted by someone before anyone else could go.  So, updated suggestion (not tested yet, if anyone wants to test great, I would love to hear it)

Spotlight System 2.0

Each player gets a Card or a Token that can be Flipped over.  On one side is “Spotlight” on the other is “Sharing the Spotlight”

The beginning of the game all Cards are on “Spotlight”.  When the GM goes to a person and asks “What do you do?” they have the spotlight and flip the card over.  Then the action moves on to someone else, they flip it over when they “Have their Spotlight Moment ” or their little mini-scene.  At any time with an Aid Another, Defend or other passive action they may use it in the manner of “Sharing the Spotlight” then they ‘Tap’ or turn the card on it’s side.  If the PC still has their “Spotlight” side up and they wish to aid or defend or what not, they ‘Tap’ the card as well.

By visually looking the GM can tell who has had a “Spotlight Moment” and who hasn’t.  The cards don’t get flipped over to the “Spotlight Moment” until all PCs are on “Sharing Spotlight” is up. (this is for big Player groups)

Optional: If there is a lull, sleep, or otherwise major pause in the conversation then all cards are on “Spotlight Moment” waiting for the first player to jump in. 

What do you think?  Keeping with the feeling of the game, limiting it a little but for the sake of keeping track of people and making sure that the less forceful personalities get equal spotlight or time on camera.  It may need some tweaking.  Let me know what you all think?

Add a comment…

Ok, a bit of confusion here.  Player Hit Points. 

Is it Con the Stat +class bonus for a total?

Or Con the bonus +class bonus for a total?

Not sure how to calculate it.

Ok my first attempt of my Shadowrun Hack has failed (I call it Shadow*World a mix of 4 different Hacks that I found out there and were incomplete or not correct for me, like to my working document at bottom)

It failed because of some elemental issues dealing with the players.

Player 1: He had a huge prejudice to the setting and the style of DW.  More of a tactical type system gammer rather than a narrative type.  He hates being “The Bad Guy” or playing a game where there are some gritty realities.  More of the 4 color Super Hero or Silver Age Supers games is what he likes.  “I just hate having a character bathed in the blood of innocents before being able to make a difference in the world.”  He has had many bad experiences of Shadowrun and the backstabbing and PvP nature that SR can divulge into.  It was impossible to get past that prejudice.  He also hates (as a game designer even) any game where the GM doesn’t have a turn and doesn’t roll.  So AW or DW types of games were not for him.  He also rolled a snake eyes on a contact roll, rolling Presence (his worst stat) and because the contact wouldn’t talk to him he decided then and there that he would never do legwork and deal with contacts.  He hated the Complication point system for legwork.  I tried to explain that it allows for interesting twists to happen but he seemed adamant that any time he rolled he was invited to “Screw Himself” when he got anything less than a 10.  Again, difficult to get past his iron wall of dislike of the system and setting.

Player 2: had problems with the XP system, if you failed a lot you would advance greater than others and quicker.  Also, he had problems with his concept of viewing the game, “If I fail, you automatically hit.” definitely not getting the narrative nature.  He also had roleplayed well so didn’t need to roll as often.  This was seen as being given less opportunity to fail and less xp for him.  Again, failed.

Player 3: Had bad luck, got lots of 6 and belows (racked up 6 xp in one session).  He also had problems with the narrative nature of the system.  Big SR fan but with poor dice luck and not role playing much, it was a combo for failure. 

All Players didn’t get the resolving Bonds situation for more XP.

Player 4: Was Passive and tried and was willing to give it a further go but didn’t want to rock the boat. Could have continued but was destracted by work (has a at the computer job that pulled her away from full concentration of the game. Very new to the SR setting.

Player 5: new character that game, was not very enthused on playing but went with it.  Could have continued.

All in All, a failure.  This in part is my fault on not portraying stuff enough, relying too much on the system for rolls and not describing the system enough, accidentally allowing the players to see a lot of stuff that I was working with.  A failure on the Players part in inflexibility for the system or setting or combinations.

So over all failure.  I try again with a different group on Thursday 7/7.  Hope that they get it.  Any recommendations on portraying the nature of AW/DW systems?  I am tempted to not explain Moves to them after an example and just let them role play, figuring out the rules mostly myself.

System:

https://drive.google.com/open?id=0B9OfugTvN6OvSW1JcE03RFBUTzA

Character Sheets:

https://drive.google.com/open?id=0B9OfugTvN6OvS2Yta2pBMVhGMzQ

https://drive.google.com/open?id=0B9OfugTvN6OvSW1JcE03RFBUTzA