Episode 26: Cutting the Fat

Imagine James Wallis, my wife and I sitting in a little Chinese restaurant eating really good noodle soup. Imagine that same James Wallis talking to me about game systems. The guy who created The Adventures of Baron Munchausen and 7th Sea.

We'd just gotten done with Orkworld and James had some reservations about the game system. After running it a few dozen times, I shared his concerns. We both agreed it was too complicated. Not in that it had too many numbers, it just demanded a whole lot more than what it gave.

And so, I simplified it. Twice.

Actually, I came up with two different solutions. I'm not quite sure which one I like yet, but I'm leaning toward one of them (I'll let you guess which one). Here's how they go:

Option #1

The first solution is to turn the system into something everyone will recognize. After all, I'm only putting in the game system as an afterthought. So, we get the classic formula:

Step One: The Game Master assigns a Target Number from 3 (Easy) to 6 (Hard).

Step Two: Roll a number of 6-sided dice equal to your Virtue+Skill, keeping only the highest. If you roll any doubles (two 6's, for example), add one to the Success Value for each double rolled.

That's it. The whole game system. On the other hand, there's this trickier one…

Option #2

Step One: The Game Master assigns a Target Number from 1 (Easy) to 4 (Hard).

Step Two: Roll a number of 6-sided dice equal to your Virtue+Skill. Now in this instance, you're looking for a "trick". That is, a set of dice that all rolled a single number. Three 2's is a trick. Two 4's is a trick. The number you rolled isn't important, but the number of duplicate rolls is.

You see what's going on? You're rolling for sets. A set of 4's, a set of 3's a set of 2's. The number of dice in your set is the Target Number. If the GM sets a TN of 1, you only need one double. If the TN is 3, three of your dice need to be identical.

Like I said, it's kind of tricky, but also kind of neat. Again, I'm a little short on the language of it (I'm not sure what I like better: "tricks" or "sets"), but I'll get there. Besides, I'm sure a whole list of names will pop up on the Article Comments board the day this gets posted. (And I'm not complaining; the comments you guys make are always useful.)

So that's the two sets of rules I'm looking at. Not sure which one I want to go with just yet.

In the meantime, I'm finishing up the writing. I have to finish the opening fiction, the STORIES chapter (which contains all the pantheon myths, hero stories and a few other things) and the MONSTERS chapter (I've got Elves, just need to detail humans, dwarves and the Death of the Halfling Race - sorry SJ).

All of this came out of that other conversation James and I had about the book's size. I was stuck on the 300 page count. He asked me why. I didn't have a good answer. The book will be as big as it needs to be and no more.

On Friday, I'll have a homework assignment for you all. I'll be putting up the rules for character creation here at the good ol' G.O. and I'll be asking folks to make characters, play the game and send me their comments. Yes, this means - if you like - you get to be an honest to goodness playtester. Those who don't care don't have to participate. And, of course, I'll only be accepting comments from folks who are REGISTERED G.O. users. Those who do choose to help me out will have their names on the credits page as well as their character on the web page.

Well, gotta go now. I'm a bit short this week, but next week will be long. About 9,000 words long, if you get my drift. So, take care of yourselves. Watch out for dentists, Templars and food poisoning and I'll see you on Friday.