Episode 9: Asking for Trouble

I’ve been trying to think of a cute and clever way to do this, and it just ain’t happening. So, this week, you get it quick and dirty.

After all, we are talking about Trouble.

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See, it all came out of some private e-mail I got when I first started writing this column. Someone asked me if I quit AEG because of the bad reviews 7th Sea got and all the public flack I was taking on the internet.

I said, "No. That’s part of the job. After all, if you create and display your creation in public, you’re asking for trouble."

That phrase hit me like an ice cube ricocheting around inside my head.

Asking for trouble.

I had to fit that somehow into ORKWORLD. I just had to.

And those three little words changed the direction of the game in more ways than you can imagine. Here’s how it works.

Orks believe that everyone is born with a certain amount of "Trouble". That is, folks who are born with only a little trouble, they lead pretty mundane, boring lives. Nobody remembers them, but they don’t have to make a lot of hard decisions, either.

On the other hand, Orks who are born with a lot of Trouble, now these are the folks that we remember. These are the folks that live the lives we wish we could lead. Or perhaps, if we knew better, we wouldn’t want anything to do with that kind of life. After all, a life of trouble is a life of pain, suffering, loss and strife. Granted, it’s also a life of challenge, victory and glory. But in the end, you have to measure the pain with the pleasure, right? Right?

That’s the Big Question for Orks. How much Trouble is too much Trouble? How should an Ork deal with Trouble? Is Trouble from the Gods or do we bring Trouble onto ourselves? Big Questions. Character defining questions. I bet the standard gamers could sit around a table "in character" and argue for hours about Trouble.

And that’s the point.

Trouble fills a whole lot of holes for me as a game designer.

1) It lets a player answer questions in his character’s voice.

2) It gives characters something to argue about.

3) It gives me a unique character creation system.

"What character creation system?" you ask.

"Ah ha!" I answer. "This character creation system."

* * *

I mentioned in last week’s column that the game system had changed. I mentioned that the magic system I talked about last week had something to do with that. It did. But then again, so did Trouble.

Here’s how it changed since last week. And remember, nothing is in stone yet. If you don’t like the change, don’t worry. I still haven’t made up my mind which of these two systems I like better. Hell, maybe I’ll use both.

Remember "Training" and "Skills"? Remember that an Ork can have Warrior Training of 5 and an assortment of Skills under that Training? So, he’d look something like this:

 

5 Warrior

3 Spear

4 Dodge

2 Knife

3 Wrestling

2 Jumping

 

What you do is roll a number of ten sided dice equal to your Training, trying to roll under your Skill. And every die that rolled under your Skill was a Success.

Now, I like that system. But here’s a slight change on it.

Take out the numbers for Training. Instead, only your Skills have numbers. However, whenever you make a roll, your rolling against a Target Number. In this case, the TNs go up to 5.

1 = Easy

2 = Hard (Default TN)

3 = Very Hard

4 = Extremely Difficult

5 = Wow! How the heck did you do that?

The TN is the number of Difficulty Dice the GM throws against your roll. Both you and the GM pick your highest die. If the GM’s die is higher than yours, your action failed.

Got it? Well, here’s how magic works in there.

You got yourself a magic spear. It’s got a Magic Trait. That Magic Trait is "elves". In other words, a thousand years ago, your ancestor killed "one elf for every day he was alive" with that spear. Whenever you face an elf with that spear, your Magic Trait gives you one extra die to roll.

Now, I was thinking about that this week, and realized that Ork characters can have all kinds of Traits, not just Magic ones.

For instance, an Ork could have a Stubborn Trait that gives him an extra die when folks are trying to talk him out of something. Or, conversely, the GM could use it against him. It’s a double-edged sword.

Any

Trait a player picks for his Ork has to be that way. Or, maybe some are double-edged (costing less) and some are just good (costing more) or some are just bad (giving you points back).

This way, an Ork character can have a whole bunch of different Traits without resorting to the very well-used Trait+Skill system that everyone is so familiar with.

But wait! Here comes Trouble.

When you create your Ork, you tell the GM how much Trouble he’s born with. You can have 1-5 Trouble Points per character. Every point of Trouble you take gives you 5 character points to spend on your Ork.

In other words, the more Trouble you take, the more heroic your character is. The less Trouble you take, the less heroic he is.

Now, for every Trouble Point you take, you also get a Trouble Die that the GM keeps behind his screen. Take five points of Trouble, you get yourself five Trouble Dice. The GM can use a number of those Trouble Dice against you every game session. How does he do it?

He he. This is the fun part.

1) After any successful die roll, the GM may choose to roll any number of Trouble Dice (up to your session allotment) and compare the highest roll to your roll. If his roll is higher, your action failed.

2) You know those "default actions" you always get away with? You know, the ones you don’t have to roll for, like chewing bubble gum and walking at the same time? Well, the GM can spend a Trouble Die to screw up any one default action.

3) The GM can spend a Trouble Die to "activate" one of your bad Traits (like "Stubborn").

Those are the first thoughts off the top of my head. Right now, Trouble Dice look a lot like Drama Dice from 7th Sea, and I’d like them to be a bit different. We’ll have to see where it goes.

However, I do like my buddy Rich’s suggestion that players can "earn Trouble" by arguing about rules, quoting Monty Python, all that kind of disruptive stuff. Disrupt the game, you earn yourself some Trouble.

Oh, and a quick thought just went through my head. What if, when the GM spends a Trouble Die, it goes to the player and he can use it in the opposite way (adding more dice to his roll)? Hm. That could be dangerous, but it’s kinda cool. It does reflect the idea that Trouble works both ways.

So, anyway, that’s Trouble. Jennifer’s eyes lit up when I told her the idea, so I know I’m on the right path. I may be wandering around a bit, but I think I’m moving in the right direction.

Short, dirty and to-the-point this week. That ought to make a few people happy. It’ll disappoint others. Oh well. Trying to make everybody happy is… well, as foolish as trying to make everybody happy.

* * *

Oh! And one last note.

A lot of people wrote to me and commented on the lists about "ritual magic". A few people asked me if I considered it. A few people assumed I’d dismissed it. Some others assumed I didn’t know what it was. One fellow (or lady) said something very nice (paraphrasing):

"I think John’s message is that ritual is missing the forest for the trees. The power lies in the event, not the recreation of the event."

That’s pretty close to the mark. I do see the power in ritual, but the problem with so many modern rituals is that we don’t remember what they’re for anymore. I mean, do you know why you stand/sit/kneel at the right time in a Catholic mass?

When people lose the meaning of the ritual, the power is lost. My main point last week was saying that it was the recognition of "Hey! Something’s going on here!" that’s important. It’s the ability to see that, to perceive it that’s important. People perform rituals to remind themselves of events that they’ve witnessed. Performing your great-grandfather’s rituals isn’t the same. You’ve got to have your own moments and perform your own rituals to invoke that power you touched on before. Invoking your parent’s power is difficult because you weren’t there for the initial event. You’re linked to the event in a certain way, but not by default of blood. There has to be some reverence for the ritual, otherwise, the cross is just two pieces of wood and a nail and the blood and body are just wine and bread.

At least, that’s from the Ork point of view.

Thanks for all the questions and feedback, folks. Even if I don’t answer, I do listen.

Oh boy, do I listen.

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Post Script.

(Readers who don’t like to listen to me ramble and can’t believe that mundane events in my life could have anything to do with my state of mind when I design games should stop reading now so they don’t have anything to complain about tomorrow.)

I’m listening to RUSH’s Hold Your Fire album and remembering the concert.

The chorus of the song Prime Mover has the phrase "Anything can happen" chanted over and over. During the concert, the first time Geddy Lee sang that line, the video screen behind the band lit up and the cover of the very first RUSH album swung up into view, all fifty feet wide and fifty feet tall.

Anything can happen.

I was breathless.

Anything can happen.

At that moment, I knew that I could do anything. Anything at all.

One of those moments. Listening to the song again, remembering the moment.

It’s true, folks. Anything can happen.

What does all of this have to do with ORKWORLD?

Its the thought that Trouble ain’t all bad. It’s what drives us, what keeps us going. The desire to be alive. The desire to dream. But to catch those dreams, you gotta chase ‘em. It’s an uphill run, a marathon. More than just a dotted line, more than just a dash.

But that’s a another RUSH song for a another time.

It’s 2 am. Why are you still up? Go to bed.