RP Facility Draft 2
You can use this thread as a signup thread.
Scenario - "I Can Do It in 2!"
You are a Pokemon. Your Trainer left you home alone for the day to go to work, or school, or wherever it is humans go for the day. Since they've been feeling down lately, you want to surprise your Trainer by doing one of their chores for them while they’re gone. You've never done it before (nor have you been taught how to) but it shouldn't be that hard, right?
You're a Pokemon. You know 2 moves. Their relevance is dubious, and some might be destructive or dangerous. Success is unlikely. We can only pray that in your earnestness, you keep collateral damage to a minimum.
Rules:
This is a 2-player storytelling game.
The players take different roles in the game: a Quester and a Judge.
The Quester’s job is to play the role of the Pokemon, as laid out by the Scenario.
The Judge’s job is to decide the results of the Quester’s actions. They also create and control non-player game elements and characters.
There is no winner in this game, unless the Judge decides there is one.
Game Flow: Signup
The Judge posts a challenge. They may choose to specify the Goal and/or Setting, or they may let the Quester decide.
The Quester accepts the challenge by posting their Pokemon, background info, and 2 moves (plus the Goal/Setting, if left unspecified by the Judge).
Game Flow: Match
The Judge creates the thread.
*** Gameplay loop ***
The Judge establishes the scene.
The Quester attempts 1 of their 2 moves.
The Judge decides the result of the attempted move, then advances the Chaos Clock if necessary.
Repeat from the top until the Chaos Clock reaches 4.
*** End loop ***
*** End Game ***
Once the Chaos Clock reaches 4, the Trainer arrives at the scene. The Quester then chooses 1 of 2 ways to end the game:
. As the Trainer, in 3 words or fewer, describe how you attempt to fix all the problems your Pokemon caused thus far. The Judge decides the result of your attempt, and then the game ends.
. Skip ahead to the future. Describe how the setting has changed so that your Pokemon is able to achieve their goal without any of the problems you encountered this game.
Quester's Guide
Quester’s Mechanical Guide
Each turn, pick exactly 1 move to use.
You may additionally Aim towards something – meaning, you intend to shift your focus to it next turn after you use your move.
Always phrase your actions as attempts to do something: “I try to X,” etc.
If you end up in a situation where neither of your moves help you, don’t freeze up or overthink – just pick the one that sounds more interesting or reasonable at the moment, and move on.
You’re not expected to succeed, nor do you stand to gain anything from winning, so just take it loose and easy.
Quester’s Writing Guide
During signup, give your Pokemon 2 moves that contrast one another in as many ways as possible.
Each turn, act out how your character might react to the situation. Make sure to consider how they would feel about things.
Whatever their personality, the game works best if your character has a big heart.
Judge's Guide
Judge’s Mechanical Guide
Your main job is to figure out the outcomes of the Quester’s moves.
If the outcome of the Quester’s attempted action is obvious, you may apply that outcome. Otherwise, you will use the Judgment Chart (provided at the bottom of this post).
Either way, if the result of the Quester's action caused an increase in chaos, advance the Chaos Clock by 1. (starts at 0, max. 4.) Once it reaches 4, the game ends.
Judgment: Whenever you need the answer to something non-obvious (for example: the Quester attempts an action that could either succeed or fail, or you’re not sure how an NPC reacts to something, or you just don’t know what happens next in the story), you can perform Judgment using the Judgment Chart.
Here is how to do Judgment:
. Ask yourself a question.
. Answer your question twice with the 2 most likely outcomes.
. Decide which outcome would be more chaotic.
. Decide how likely that outcome is.
. Check the corresponding row on the Judgment Chart, but shift up 1 row for each tick on the Chaos Clock.
. Roll a d100. Each cell in your row tells you the roll values less than or equal to which trigger that column’s result.
Here is an example:
The Quester’s Charizard tries to use Fire Punch on an enemy Blaziken. The Judge notes that Charizard and Blaziken are both competent, equally-skilled fighters, and neither has a clear situational advantage. So, the Judge concludes that the outcome of the move being attempted is unclear.
The Judge decides that the most likely outcome is for the Blaziken to get hit by Charizard's punch for a minor amount of damage, but probably not enough to end the fight. The Judge then decides that if that doesn’t happen, it probably means the punch got blocked and Blaziken is going to retaliate with a counterattack.
Of these two options, the more chaotic outcome would be for Charizard to get blocked and counterattacked. As for how likely that outcome is, it’s slightly unlikely. The Judge finds the "Slightly Unlikely" row on the Chaos Chart. But, the Chaos Clock is currently at 1, so the Judge shifts up 1 row to the “Even Odds” row.
Finally, the Judge rolls a d100 (1-100). Surprisingly, they roll a 4 out of 100! According to the Judgment Chart, anything under 30 is an “Exceptionally Yes” outcome – “Yes” as in, “Yes, the more chaotic outcome happens.” As for the “Exceptionally” part: what does it mean for the Blaziken to “exceptionally” block and counterattack? In this case, the Judge decides that the counterattack is exceptionally technical. Instead of striking back with an ordinary punch or kick, the Blaziken uses their opening to duck in on the Charizard and grapple him to the ground, ensnaring his arm in a twisting lock.
The Quester's Charizard is now in a much worse (more chaotic) position than they were before, and if they don't do something soon the Blaziken might seriously injure their arm. The Judge advances the Chaos Clock by 1.
Question: “As a Judge, how am I supposed to know to come up with those specific answers? That took a lot of logical jumps.”
Answer: As Judge, there is no “correct” way to apply this process. Every single step is up to your discretion. The Judge in our example decided that Blaziken blocking the punch was “slightly unlikely,” but a different Judge in the same situation might decide Charizard’s small arms make it “very likely” that the Blaziken blocks the punch. The Judge in our example decided that “Exceptionally Yes” means the Blaziken uses an exceptionally skilled technique, but a different Judge might interpret the outcome as Blaziken using an exceptionally strong block that bruises or injures the Charizard’s striking arm. When you are the Judge, you can come up with whatever answers to your questions you like, so long as the answers you come up with are the ones that make the most sense to you.
Judge’s Writing Guide
You should root for the Quester’s Pokemon even when they make bad decisions or fail.
The Quester’s actions should always have consequences. Their actions should always end up changing something in this world.
Don’t post your Judgment process, only the outcomes.
You should never have to do Judgment more than twice in a round. If it comes to that, you should try to trust yourself more instead.
Whenever you introduce something to the story (an object or character, for instance), give it meaning.
You don’t need to try to trap the Quester with a trick, or force the Quester to fail. Simply putting things in front of the Quester, then watching them fail as a natural matter of course, should suffice.
At the end of the game, if the Quester tries to defuse the situation as their Trainer: Everything the Trainer attempts in those 3 words succeeds (within reason), but every problem that they neglected to address blows up on them.
If the Quester skipped to the future, usually the Judge does not need to post anything afterwards.
Judgment Chart:
Ask the chart: Between the 2 most likely outcomes, does the more chaotic one happen?
Roll a d100 (1-100). Shift up 1 row for each tick of the Chaos Clock.
Read each cell as, "Rolled less than or equal to."
You can use this thread as a signup thread.
Scenario - "I Can Do It in 2!"
You are a Pokemon. Your Trainer left you home alone for the day to go to work, or school, or wherever it is humans go for the day. Since they've been feeling down lately, you want to surprise your Trainer by doing one of their chores for them while they’re gone. You've never done it before (nor have you been taught how to) but it shouldn't be that hard, right?
You're a Pokemon. You know 2 moves. Their relevance is dubious, and some might be destructive or dangerous. Success is unlikely. We can only pray that in your earnestness, you keep collateral damage to a minimum.
Response I collected to the previous playtest design was mostly negative. I think I tried to introduce too many new things at once, too many mechanics intertwined and co-dependent, and as a result it's very difficult for me to identify which exact parts of that design were problematic. For this playtest, I'm taking things way, way simpler and giving a more traditional RPG-like experience.
Think of this as, me marking a sketch and guidelines at the start of a drawing. At this stage, the feedback will be most important. Please give this a shot -- it's intended to be as approachable as possible. Particularly: with the Judge side, I think there are transferable skills you can hone from playing which you will be hard-pressed to find a lower-stakes opportunity to practice.
Think of this as, me marking a sketch and guidelines at the start of a drawing. At this stage, the feedback will be most important. Please give this a shot -- it's intended to be as approachable as possible. Particularly: with the Judge side, I think there are transferable skills you can hone from playing which you will be hard-pressed to find a lower-stakes opportunity to practice.
Rules:
This is a 2-player storytelling game.
The players take different roles in the game: a Quester and a Judge.
The Quester’s job is to play the role of the Pokemon, as laid out by the Scenario.
The Judge’s job is to decide the results of the Quester’s actions. They also create and control non-player game elements and characters.
There is no winner in this game, unless the Judge decides there is one.
Game Flow: Signup
The Judge posts a challenge. They may choose to specify the Goal and/or Setting, or they may let the Quester decide.
The Quester accepts the challenge by posting their Pokemon, background info, and 2 moves (plus the Goal/Setting, if left unspecified by the Judge).
Game Flow: Match
The Judge creates the thread.
*** Gameplay loop ***
The Judge establishes the scene.
The Quester attempts 1 of their 2 moves.
The Judge decides the result of the attempted move, then advances the Chaos Clock if necessary.
Repeat from the top until the Chaos Clock reaches 4.
*** End loop ***
*** End Game ***
Once the Chaos Clock reaches 4, the Trainer arrives at the scene. The Quester then chooses 1 of 2 ways to end the game:
. As the Trainer, in 3 words or fewer, describe how you attempt to fix all the problems your Pokemon caused thus far. The Judge decides the result of your attempt, and then the game ends.
. Skip ahead to the future. Describe how the setting has changed so that your Pokemon is able to achieve their goal without any of the problems you encountered this game.
Quester's Guide
Quester’s Mechanical Guide
Each turn, pick exactly 1 move to use.
You may additionally Aim towards something – meaning, you intend to shift your focus to it next turn after you use your move.
Always phrase your actions as attempts to do something: “I try to X,” etc.
If you end up in a situation where neither of your moves help you, don’t freeze up or overthink – just pick the one that sounds more interesting or reasonable at the moment, and move on.
You’re not expected to succeed, nor do you stand to gain anything from winning, so just take it loose and easy.
Quester’s Writing Guide
During signup, give your Pokemon 2 moves that contrast one another in as many ways as possible.
If one is an attack, maybe the other is a non-combat action? One is subtle, the other is extreme? One is pretty, the other is ugly? etc.
Specific moves are more fun than vague ones.(Instead of “Talk,” which is very general, try something more specific and evocative, like: Beg, Threaten, Flirt, Whisper, Lie, Joke, Flatter, etc…)
Your character isn’t a robot or a game piece! They should have limits to what they are willing to do in pursuit of their goal. Keep this in mind when coming up with your Pokemon, and also when playing them.Each turn, act out how your character might react to the situation. Make sure to consider how they would feel about things.
Whatever their personality, the game works best if your character has a big heart.
Judge's Guide
Judge’s Mechanical Guide
Your main job is to figure out the outcomes of the Quester’s moves.
If the outcome of the Quester’s attempted action is obvious, you may apply that outcome. Otherwise, you will use the Judgment Chart (provided at the bottom of this post).
Either way, if the result of the Quester's action caused an increase in chaos, advance the Chaos Clock by 1. (starts at 0, max. 4.) Once it reaches 4, the game ends.
Judgment: Whenever you need the answer to something non-obvious (for example: the Quester attempts an action that could either succeed or fail, or you’re not sure how an NPC reacts to something, or you just don’t know what happens next in the story), you can perform Judgment using the Judgment Chart.
Here is how to do Judgment:
. Ask yourself a question.
. Answer your question twice with the 2 most likely outcomes.
. Decide which outcome would be more chaotic.
. Decide how likely that outcome is.
. Check the corresponding row on the Judgment Chart, but shift up 1 row for each tick on the Chaos Clock.
. Roll a d100. Each cell in your row tells you the roll values less than or equal to which trigger that column’s result.
Here is an example:
The Quester’s Charizard tries to use Fire Punch on an enemy Blaziken. The Judge notes that Charizard and Blaziken are both competent, equally-skilled fighters, and neither has a clear situational advantage. So, the Judge concludes that the outcome of the move being attempted is unclear.
The Judge decides that the most likely outcome is for the Blaziken to get hit by Charizard's punch for a minor amount of damage, but probably not enough to end the fight. The Judge then decides that if that doesn’t happen, it probably means the punch got blocked and Blaziken is going to retaliate with a counterattack.
Of these two options, the more chaotic outcome would be for Charizard to get blocked and counterattacked. As for how likely that outcome is, it’s slightly unlikely. The Judge finds the "Slightly Unlikely" row on the Chaos Chart. But, the Chaos Clock is currently at 1, so the Judge shifts up 1 row to the “Even Odds” row.
Finally, the Judge rolls a d100 (1-100). Surprisingly, they roll a 4 out of 100! According to the Judgment Chart, anything under 30 is an “Exceptionally Yes” outcome – “Yes” as in, “Yes, the more chaotic outcome happens.” As for the “Exceptionally” part: what does it mean for the Blaziken to “exceptionally” block and counterattack? In this case, the Judge decides that the counterattack is exceptionally technical. Instead of striking back with an ordinary punch or kick, the Blaziken uses their opening to duck in on the Charizard and grapple him to the ground, ensnaring his arm in a twisting lock.
The Quester's Charizard is now in a much worse (more chaotic) position than they were before, and if they don't do something soon the Blaziken might seriously injure their arm. The Judge advances the Chaos Clock by 1.
Question: “As a Judge, how am I supposed to know to come up with those specific answers? That took a lot of logical jumps.”
Answer: As Judge, there is no “correct” way to apply this process. Every single step is up to your discretion. The Judge in our example decided that Blaziken blocking the punch was “slightly unlikely,” but a different Judge in the same situation might decide Charizard’s small arms make it “very likely” that the Blaziken blocks the punch. The Judge in our example decided that “Exceptionally Yes” means the Blaziken uses an exceptionally skilled technique, but a different Judge might interpret the outcome as Blaziken using an exceptionally strong block that bruises or injures the Charizard’s striking arm. When you are the Judge, you can come up with whatever answers to your questions you like, so long as the answers you come up with are the ones that make the most sense to you.
Judge’s Writing Guide
You should root for the Quester’s Pokemon even when they make bad decisions or fail.
The Quester’s actions should always have consequences. Their actions should always end up changing something in this world.
Don’t post your Judgment process, only the outcomes.
You should never have to do Judgment more than twice in a round. If it comes to that, you should try to trust yourself more instead.
The ideal would be 1 Judgment per round at most.
Whenever you introduce something to the story (an object or character, for instance), give it meaning.
Suppose at a point in the story, the Quester’s character needs to use their home computer. As you introduce the existence of the computer, give it meaning. If it belongs to the Trainer, what does it mean to them? Is it expensive? Old? Does the data it contains have personal or emotional value?
Bad or chaotic things should come in pairs. If the Quester’s action causes one bad/chaotic thing to happen, pile on a second.Extrapolate: Not only X, but also Y.
Intensify an ongoing problem: X, and also Y problem from earlier progresses into Z.
For prodding the Quester, you have 2 moves: Present an obstacle, and Present a distraction.Present an obstacle: You want to X, but Y is there to prevent your motion.
Present a distraction: You want to X, and you encounter Y because of your motion.
Because the Quester is obligated to use a move each turn, any distraction you put in front of them quickly becomes a problem by virtue of existing.You don’t need to try to trap the Quester with a trick, or force the Quester to fail. Simply putting things in front of the Quester, then watching them fail as a natural matter of course, should suffice.
At the end of the game, if the Quester tries to defuse the situation as their Trainer: Everything the Trainer attempts in those 3 words succeeds (within reason), but every problem that they neglected to address blows up on them.
If the Quester skipped to the future, usually the Judge does not need to post anything afterwards.
Judgment Chart:
Ask the chart: Between the 2 most likely outcomes, does the more chaotic one happen?
Roll a d100 (1-100). Shift up 1 row for each tick of the Chaos Clock.
Read each cell as, "Rolled less than or equal to."
| How likely is the more chaotic outcome? ↓ ↓ Does the more chaotic outcome happen? →→ | Exceptionally Yes | Yes | No | Exceptionally No |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| +2 | 75 | 100 | ||
| +1 | 50 | 100 | ||
| Almost Certain | 45 | 90 | 95 | 100 |
| Very Likely | 40 | 80 | 90 | 100 |
| Slightly Likely | 37 | 75 | 82 | 100 |
| Even Odds | 30 | 60 | 80 | 100 |
| Slightly Unlikely | 25 | 50 | 75 | 100 |
| Very Unlikely | 12 | 25 | 62 | 100 |
| Almost Impossible | 7 | 15 | 57 | 100 |
HyHy