Monday, July 6, 2015

Draft of Scene Mechanics

I'm re-writing scene mechanics for a game I'm working on. I've reached that stage where I need someone else to tell me whether they are comprehensible. Assume by this point that you already know about your character, his attributes, his weaknesses, and his goals. You already know who is playing as your Thorn and you know where your token is on the Wheel. Can you follow these steps?

Scene Order
1.       Active Player chooses which 1 to 3 other PCs will be in the scene. He may not choose the PC of the player who controls his Thorn (character flaw or internal struggle.)
2.       Active Player chooses whether to focus on active character’s Need (external, measurable goal) or Thorn. If he chooses Need, he describes the location of the scene.
3.       The player controlling the active character’s Thorn (NOT the active player) describes the location of the scene if the Active Player hasn’t already. The Thorn Player then introduces Stakes to the scene by describing: an internal conflict that the active character is wrestling with OR how other players’ characters in the scene are interfering with the active character’s Need.
4.       All the players in the scene describe what their characters are doing. The Thorn Player stands in for any non-player characters and narrates the active character’s internal doubts.
Remember that the position of your token on the Wheel determines restrictions for your character’s outward behavior. For example, whether or not you are the active player, if your character is in a scene and your token is in Distraction on the Wheel, your character cannot outwardly acknowledge any of his own weaknesses or problems.
5.       When the active character attempts any action governed by one of the four Personas (attributes), the Active Player rolls dice equal to that Persona. If a player has 0 in that Persona, he fails. If he rolls any fives or sixes, the Stakes resolve in his favor. If the highest number on any die is a four, he achieves a partial success. Otherwise, he fails. The Thorn Player narrates the results and the scene ends. The Active Player then rolls all his dice to determine his new position on the Wheel.

6.       The player to the left becomes the Active Player.