Hong Kong Action Theater: Preferred Styles and Other Teahouse Rules

My role-playing group has made its voice heard and HKAT will be this summer role-playing project. Of course, I can't leave well enough alone, and though I like the various Attributes in the game and how they simulate Hong Kong movies, there's really a piece of the puzzle missing. While I agree that the game's contention that mechanically, a punch is a punch is a punch (they at least include a variety is the strength of those punches), reducing martial arts to generic punches and kicks robs the game of important flavor. After all, how many classic martial arts films were about specific styles, often developed to defeat the dominant style of the day? To model that aspect of kung fu movies, I'm introducing the concept of Preferred Styles to the game.

Preferred Styles are an Attribute which can be taken by an Actor (Jet Li has Wushu, for example, while Donnie Yen certainly has mixed martial arts) or, more commonly, a Role. If taken as an Actor Attribute, it looks like this:
Preferred Style (Actor Only)
Cost: 1 Point/Level
Relevant Stat: None
When Attributes and Skills from the Preferred Style are purchased for a Role, their TOTAL cost is reduced by the number of Levels in this Attribute. The extra points may always be spent on other Attributes and Skills or to raise the ones the Role already has. The total cost may not be lowered by more than was spent for the Attributes and Skills from the Preferred Style. Once per film, regadless of whether or not the Actor's Role has any of the Preferred Style's Attributes, the GM may allow him or her to pay 1-5 Star Points (GM's discretion) to use an Attribute,Skill, special ability or punch/kick/grabble bonus associated with the Style. An Actor may only have one Preferred Style, but may change it over the course of his or her career by purchasing it again (through the Character Advancement rules), voiding the original Style.

Preferred Styles come into their own as Role Attributes, and in part act as Attribute/Skill packages related to a particular Style. GameMasters may hand out these bundles wholesale to Actors when they successfully bid for a Role, or use them as options an Actor must choose from, and may of course limit which options are actually available based on game genre (wire fu options, for example). When Actors can pick their own Attributes more freely, they may use these suggestions to create a more coherent Style. In addition to the Attribute packages, Styles will often have certain special abilities, including their own distinctive bonuses and penalties on punches, kicks and/or wrestling maneuvers. Many Styles come with a built-in weakness as well. (GMs should not forget to award Actors with Preferred Styles extra points to spend when their Styles are represented.) Here are a few examples, though most Styles will be created on demand (players' or GM's).

So for example, say you wanted to recreate the plot and feel of the famous Chang Cheh movie The Five Deadly Venoms, you'd need to create Centipede, Snake, Scorpion, Gecko and Toad styles. Let's do three of them right now (keep in mind that on skill checks, bonuses are minuses[-] and penalties are pluses[+] in HKAT):

Preferred Style: Centipede
Wriggly and quick, Centipede's strikes are so fast that it is almost as if he has a hundred arms and legs. The weakness of this style is to attack both the opponent's upper and lower body in a simultaneous assault.
Package: Extra Attacks Level 4-6, Extra Defenses Level 4-6, Swift Reactions Level 1; Wire Fu: Fists of Fury, Whirlwind Attack, Whirlwind Dodge
Special: Centipede Punch [Damage -2, Initiative +2, Hit -1 from second punch on in the same round, Defense +1]. Animal Totem bonus: -2 to Hit and Defense against Mantis Style.
Weakness: +3 Defense against simultaneous attacks to upper and lower body.

Preferred Style: Snake
One hand is the venomous fangs and precise finger motor control. The other is the stinging whip of a rattling tail. Masters of this ability can also fight extremely well from a prone position. The weakness of this style is to prevent the Snake from using both hands in combination.
Package: Focused Damage Level 2; Wire Fu (choose 3): Be Like Water, Block Fu Power, Counterstrike, Nerve Strike, Precise Strike, Speed of the Cobra, Slithering (the Snake can move at normal speeds while lying on his stomach, and half speed while on his back)
Special: Snake Fang Finger [Damage +1, Initiative -2, Hit -1, Defense +1], -1 bonus to all Wrestling maneuvers. Prone fighting: Snake gets no penalties for fighting from a prone position.
Weakness: If one of his arms is immobilized, all combat actions suffer a +1 penalty.
Preferred Style: Toad
Toads are nearly invulnerable to weapons. The style, sometimes called Qigong, is a primarily defensive pose, but makes the practitioner invincible to just about any form of attack, including blades and puncture. They can even bend solid metal. The weakness of this style is that any master of the Toad style has a "weak spot" that when punctured, drains the user's Toad style benefits (most notably the iron skin.)
Package: Damn Healthy!; Sword Fu: Shatter Weapon (may be done bare-handed); Wire Fu: Iron Skin (skin counts as full-body armor that stops 10 points of damage), Superhuman Lunge, Unyielding Stance
Special: -2 bonus to all Wrestling maneuvers. Toads can make Grab maneuvers against weapons with their bare skin, gaining a -3 bonus to do so if just hit by that weapon. The attempt to grab is made as a Defense action. Animal Totem bonus: -1 to Hit and Defense against Centipede Style.
Weakness: At the start of the film, the Toad should select a part of the body that is his or her only weakness (examples: Ears, eyes, armpits, navel), write it down on a piece of paper and not show it to anyone (not even the GM). If the Toad is ever hit on that part of the body by a Called Shot, he or she must fess up to it (showing the paper), take unarmored damage and accept that all his or her Wire Fu abilities have been drained (until healing has taken place). Honor is important in Kung Fu films - an Actor must reveal his weakness at the end of the film and if he or she cheated, he or she loses all Star Points (at the start of the next film, will get whatever role the other actors don't want).

For variety's sake, here's a Style not based on an animal totem:
Preferred Style: Wushu
Wushu is actually a very generic term for Chinese martial arts, but in kung fu films, the word is most often associated with the performance-based, quick and fluid, acrobatic style of Jet Li.
Package: Art of Distraction Level 3 (using a martial arts demonstration), Extra Defenses Level 2, Signature/Graceful, Swift Reactions Level 2, Acrobatics Skill Level 3; Wire Fu: Be Like Water, Feather Foot, Rapid Strike
Special: Tumbling fist [Damage -3, Initiative +2, Hit -2], Eight trigram palm [Damage +1, Hit -1, Defense +1], Supreme ultimate fist [Damage +4, Initiative -1, Defense +2], Shape intent kick [Damage -1, Initiative +1, Hit -1]. The Wushu artist also gains a -1 Hit bonus when using one of the twelve weapons of Shaolin.
Weakness: Wire Fu Disability - Slow Motion. If the Wushu artist has performed for his opponent (with Art of Distraction), that opponent may spend a Star Point to use Judge Opponent on him or her.

Hey players! Any style you absolutely want to see stated-up?

Other House Rules
Description bonuses: Flavor is all-important. When players describe their actions in a particularly colorful and exciting way, the GM shall give him or her a -1 bonus to succeed at that action. Conversely, the GM may is allowed to give players a +1 penalty for particularly boring descriptions (you know what I mean, "I hit him"), in particular at climactic moments.
Training montages: The training montage, often covering an entire year or more, is a beloved tradition of the kung fu film. When the plot demands it, a Role may enter into a training montage, learning a new Preferred Style in a matter of only a few scenes that show the character's progress and the new techniques learned. The GM may give the character a package, replace the Role's Attributes with the new package, require the Actor to spend Star Points to acquire the new package, or even ask that Skill tests are made in each montage scene to learn (or not) each part of the Style package.

The Tony Jaa Variant: HKAT features a number of fun variants that simulate versions types of action films. In Guerrilla Filming, for example, the GM improvises the whole game and rolling a natural 12 creates major accidents for the Actors/Roles. One special event variant I'd like to try is one based on Thai action superstar Tony Jaa's films. His trademark is that the action is more real than movie magic, with crazy stunts and fights with real physical contact. To simulate that contact, I'd be tempted to try the new approach to martial arts (of a version of it) I've tried to design on this very blog. I'll let the article speak for itself.

I admit to having other ideas, but they'll keep for later. Hopefully, you weren't bored by my thoughts on an obscure (but fun!) little game.

Oh No! It's My Annual RPGs I'd Like to Play Post!

It's that time of year again when I muse about what game I might run for the summer. Last year turned out to be a bust, and it was completely my fault. We wound up choosing Savage Worlds/Slipstream and one player even made a character, and then I withdrew from society for personal reasons (exhaustion, really). Other players didn't really push me, so it was probably a general feeling. So this year, we have to make up for it! Of course now I've got different things to worry about. One of these is a larger pool of players, not all of which I trust to attend regular role-playing sessions. I want to be there for everyone who's asked to play (including those I've promised to initiate into the mysteries), but anything above 5 players around the table isn't practical. I used to run the perfect game for ins and outs - Dream Park - but ran it for so long that I just want to do something different now, preferably something that doesn't involve multi-genring which I've done to death. Another factor is tone, because I have players who definitely prefer comedy over drama. Any hopes of seriously running something like Call of Cthulhu goes out the window.

Now, I've done these kinds of posts before, mostly notably in 2011 and 2007, and there are some good ideas in there I could be convinced to run (if I haven't already). Taking a look at my collection, what do I have ideas for?

Hong Kong Action Theater! Most of my group is into Hong Kong cinema and watches an Asian film with me once a week, on Kung Fu Friday. HKAT plays on that, has reasonably light rules, I have copies of both the core rules (mostly for modern day gun play) and Blue Dragon, White Tiger (the historical and wuxia stuff). I might run this Dream Park style, with continuing characters in a "franchise" that sometimes skip movie tracks to tell stories in other eras (like the famous Venoms). That might be a way to "Dream Park" it and involve different players from session to session, even newbies. I've got to go to bed with the rules tonight because on paper, it's the front runner.

Doctor Who: Adventures in Time and Space. With all the work I'm doing on Doctor Who reviews and Doctor Who RPG elements, you KNEW this game was going to make an appearance. Maybe it could be a little side-game, 70s-style with only a Time Lord and a companion, with occasional guest stars. Might allow me to get my feet wet without necessarily taking the plunge (and dragging many people in the pool with me). Or will that be too much Doctor Who for one summer?

Savage Worlds: Slipstream. It was all ready to go last summer and then petered out. The materials are there. One character's already made. And it's nice to have a finite campaign you know can drive the schedule all for an entire season and end just when vacations are over and it's time to crank work up to 11 again (which for me is September). Slipstream is one option among several Savage World campaigns, of course, but since my group singled it out last year, still a contender.

Trekjammer. Someone in my group recently said he'd be up for some Star Trek RPG. I am too, but then again I'm not. Trek's given me problems in the past because there are too many deus ex machinae built in, from large crews under players' command to the various technologies available. What I'd be inspired to do, though, is take AD&D 2nd's Spelljammer and turn it into Trek. Make it all sword & sorcery, but give it the political set-up of the show. The good races are the Federation, the Romulans are dark elves, the Klingons are orcs or something. And the ships have magical equivalents of transporters, holodecks, et al. I think this would be a hoot, and replacing the Spelljammer setting, which was never that interesting beyond the premise, will actually make it more familiar. At least, to Trekkies.

Top Secret. I still have never run an espionage game of any length above the one-shot, and I'd like to give it a go. On my shelf, I've got the original Top Secret, James Bond 007, GURPS Espionage, and Mercenaries, Spies and Private Eyes. Pretty old school, so I'm willing to grab another system, so long as I get to run some cool impossible missions. This would me the biggest challenge, because it's a genre I've barely dabbled with, but the mission set-up creates an easy motivation for players to get in the game, and M:I in particular is friendly to guest players.

Ultimately, not all of these will be everyone's cup of tea. I've just got to make my peace with the fact that whatever choice I make, it make lock a few players out for the summer.

The 1st Doctor: The Character Sheet

If you've been following my posts that turn the original seasons of Doctor Who into role-playing sessions, then you know what has to come next: Billy's left us his character sheet before taking his final bow. (Click to enlarge for legibility.)Stuff that didn't fit on the sheet (Billy kept it on the back)...

GOOD TRAITS
Boffin (Major)
Charming (Minor)
Gadget (Minor) - Time Lord Ring (the ring can activate TARDIS systems when the power is down and adds a +2 bonus to attempts at Hypnosis; the gadget also holds 1 Story Point, which was once used to unfuse the TARDIS lock using a particular sky's light after a visit from the Meddling Monk)
Hypnosis (Minor)
Indomitable (Major)
Keen Senses (Major)
Psychic Training (Minor)
Resourceful Pockets (Minor) - Sample items include a torch, small binoculars, a handkerchief and a piece of string
Time Traveler (Major) - The Doctor is familiar with the technology of all Tech Levels, unless in cases where the GM has decided some technology is strange even to him
Tough (Minor) - Though frail-looking, the Doctor was able to resist his
Voice of Authority (Minor)

BAD TRAITS
Adversary (Major) - Daleks, The Meddling Monk
Argumentative (Minor)
Eccentric/Cantankerousness (Minor) - The Doctor is quite volatile and may turn on his own companions
Eccentric/Grandfatherliness (Minor) - The Doctor bonds easily with teenage girls who remind him of Susan
Eccentric/Vanity (Minor) - The Doctor is uncommonly vulnerable to flattery, and will also take credit for others' work
Forgetful (Minor) - This also manifests in his speech patterns, making him tongue-tied or get names wrong
Insatiable Curiosity (Minor)
Weakness (Minor) - -2 penalty to Athletics when he doesn't have his walking stick in situations where it would be useful

SPECIAL TRAITS
Experienced
Time Lord - The first Doctor does not get the Traits Feel the Turn of the Universe or Vortex, making this Trait cost only 3 Story Points

FAVORITE METHOD FOR ACCUMULATING STORY POINTS
Losing access to the TARDIS was a big one at first, the Doctor even going so far as to sabotage his own ship for points (the group came to call it Fluid Linking). Over the course of three seasons, his favored trick became using his Forgetful Trait to get himself into hot water, refusing to acknowledge what his player could obviously see.

Hey Pat! Here the sheet. It's all you get to build your own version of the Doctor!

Doctor Who RPG: Season 3

On the occasion of completing reviews on the 1965-6 season of Doctor Who, I should like to re-imagine it as a role-playing game campaign using Cubicle 7's DWAITAS RPG. (Go back one, to Season 2)

GMs
Though Donald had agreed to GM Season 3, second semester commitments and difficulty in getting players to stick around made him give up the reigns to Gerry mid-way through. Though our fictional Doctor Who RPG club has a healthy roster of capable DWAITAS GMs on tap, that doesn't mean they're all on the same wavelength (in fact, they hardly ever are). While Donald's half of the season is more or less business as usual and marked by the search for replacement companions, Gerry's imposes an important change of campaign focus that did not necessarily sit well with Billy and his Doctor. Gerry figures that the Time Lord in his games should have left his mark on the universe, and he introduces characters who already know the Doctor, alluding to some unrevealed backstory.

The Characters
-Billy has up to this point evolved his Doctor organically, starting as a unlikable old man who warms to his human companions and eventually adopts their attitude towards helping people. Perhaps that's why he's starting to feel disconnected from the game after Gerry takes over. Relationships he would have liked to earn are simply thrust upon him. Consequently, he starts to miss an important number of sessions, and gets needled for it by the GM who seems keen to replace him if he can't give the game his all.
-Maureen's Vicki starts the season, but almost immediately realizes she won't have the time for it. She asks Donald to give her an out in the second story.
-Peter's really only started to play, so he's in for the long haul with Steven, but as the year progresses, he gets more and more frustrated with the opportunities given his character and the endless parade of potential companions. For the players, it feels like the campaign may be dying, even if their new GameMaster is full of ideas.
-Replacing Maureen proves to be difficult, as the campaign notes below will show, eventually settling on Jackie (not the same Jackie who played Barbara) and her hastily assembled character Dodo. Even she wouldn't last until the end of the season before GM Gerry brings in two of his friends, Anneke and Michael.

Galaxy Four. Donald's first adventure scenario isn't quite as clever as he meant it to be, and his use of sound effects to make his robot Chumblies express themselves is more annoying than anything. Beautiful deadly Amazons vs. kind-hearted ugly monsters, why did it go wrong?

TYPICAL DRAHVIN
Attributes: Awareness 3, Coordination 3, Ingenuity 1, Presence 2, Resolve 3, Strength 4
Skills: Athletics 3, Fighting 3, Marksman 3, Subterfuge 1, Survival 1, Technology 1, Transport 2
Traits: Attractive; By the Book, Code of Conduct (They have a strict class system and are contemptuous of males), Distinctive. Story Points: 2-4
Home Tech Level: 6 (Equipment: Laser Rifle 7[3/7/10], Steel mesh [anything ensnared is cut off from communicating via radio or other bandwidths])

Mission to the Unknown. Eager to make up for his previous game's lack of luster, the GM attempt something new - a Cutaway. For a single session, the players take on the roles of disposable Space Secret Service agents who run afoul of Dalek activity. To make it even more intriguing, he sets it up as a teaser not for the next game, but for the one after that. The players have a ball getting their asses handed to them by Varga plants and Daleks, like the Suicide Squad, and can't wait for the TARDIS to land on Kembel. Well, except for Maureen who's already asked to be written out in the next adventure.

The Myth Makers. That adventure takes place in the Trojan War, and Donald decides to play the reality rather than the myth to humorous effect. Not only that, but making the Greeks and Trojans less resourceful or noble than Homer's artistic license would have them allows the players to take a more active hand in MAKING the myths happen. When Donald's characters rename Vicki "Cressida", it doesn't fall on deaf ears. Maureen relishes the chance to go out on a romantic subplot and become a figure from History. Because of her departure, Donald recruits a new player, Adrienne, and asks her to generate a character from Troy. She embraces the challenge and creates Katarina, a handmaiden introduced in the scenario's last session.

The Daleks' Master Plan. At this point, Donald decides to start running his game like he would Dungeons & Dragons, as a long continuous story rather than shorter episodic scenarios. Apparently, no one told him "The Chase" wasn't the most satisfying of role-playing experiences. And yet, he gives it a valiant effort, with the help of the Daleks (always a good enemy) and Mavic Chen, betrayer to the human race. Over the course of the story arc, he'll use a prison planet, Steven's piloting skills, old Hollywood (in a Christmas day session with quite a bit of alcohol involved), the Meddling Monk in Ancient Egypt, and he'll go through three players in the process. First is Adrienne, who quickly discovers that her character's low Tech Level is a real pain to get around. She bows out by sacrificing herself at the first possible opportunity. Second is Nick, playing SSS man Brett Vyon (a link to the Cutaway), who wanted to find out what this game was all about and asked to join the group for a few sessions. He, too, allows himself to be killed when his time is done (but he'll be back when he has the time...). And then there's Jean and her Barbarella of a character, super sexy agent Sara Kingdom. She's cold-hearted and driven to action, but her character is perhaps to at odds with what the campaign is trying to do, so cue a third sacrifice, making this one of the most gloomy scenarios ever played, but not by design.

MAVIC CHEN
Attributes: Awareness 3, Coordination 2, Ingenuity 4, Presence 4, Resolve 4, Strength 3
Skills: Athletics 1, Convince 4, Knowledge 3, Marksman 2, Science 3, Subterfuge 3, Technology 2, Transport 2
Traits: Brave, Charming, Friends (Major/He has people loyal to him in every service of the Solar System), Technically Adept, Voice of Authority; Distinctive, Eccentric/Megalomaniac, Selfish. Story Points: 12
Home Tech Level: 6 (Equipment: As Guardian of the Solar System, Mavic Chen has access to almost anything he needs, including ships and weapons)

The Massacre. The gloom both in the game world and in reality (finding new players can be stressful) is starting to get to everyone. Billy wants to take a little time off, and Peter is annoyed that he's had to share his particular niche with other players lately (Brett's and Sara's). So Donald decides to play his 16th-century France scenario regardless, giving the Doctor an out for a couple weeks, while he focuses on Steven. It gets Peter enthusiastic about playing again, but they just gloss over what the Doctor was doing in the meantime. The use of a double for the Doctor likewise goes nowhere because there just aren't enough players to investigate every little wrinkle, and the historical era chosen by the GM is hard to grasp in the first place. A friend of the group, Jackie-but-not-Barbara-Jackie, terribly inexperienced when it comes to role-playing games, asks to play and Donald offers her a ready-made character from his last setting called Anne Chaplet, but she declines and wants to create her own. Besides, she doesn't know that she can play a character from another time. All these headaches cause Donald to give over the reigns to another GM, Gerry, when the latter expresses interest in taking over.

The Ark. Gerry starts out strong, unless you count his monster design abilities. The players snicker at his drawings of the Monoids, but do like his ideas. A vast generational ship, a mystery unfolding over the course of hundreds of years as the TARDIS revisits the same spot twice, and the Monoids aren't half bad when mimed and voiced ("Gerry, can you take that drawing off the GM screen, please?"). The way Donald left, there wasn't much in the way of a transition, so Gerry doesn't really know all that's gone before, and he's not one to read the Club's game files. He's apparently the first one who's thought of having the TARDIS spread a plague, even if it never was a concern before. Jackie is finding her footing and has already dropped the Manchester accent she introduced herself with.

MONOIDS
Attributes: Awareness 2, Coordination 2, Ingenuity 3, Presence 1, Resolve 3, Strength 3
Skills: Athletics 2, Convince 1, Craft 3, Fighting 2, Knowledge 2, Marksman 2, Medicine 1, Science 1, Subterfuge 4, Survival 1, Technology 2, Transport 2
Traits: Alien, Alien Appearance, Mute. Then choose from Animal Friendship, Argumentative, Clumsy, Selfish. Story Points: 2-4
Home Tech Level: 6 (Equipment: Heat prod 7 [3/7/10], Voice box [allows them to overcome Mute])

The Celestial Toymaker. In the Toymaker, Gerry creates a surreal dimension and a god-like villain that's already met the Doctor. Billy isn't keen on creating past relationships via Knowledge rolls, so finds a way to skip out on a few sessions while Dodo and Steven are made to play strange and deadly children's games against the Toymaker's pawns. To compensate for Billy's unplanned absence, Gerry turns him invisible and mute and gives him a long task to do, if only to explain why the other characters can't access the Doctor's wisdom. Towards the end of the story, Gerry point blank asks Billy if he's still into, because if not, he might as well recruit a new Doctor for when he turns visible again. Billy feels less committed than he used to, but he still has a sense of ownership about the character he's nursed for almost three years. He'll come back.

The Gunfighters. Having heard that The Myth Makers was a fun lark, Gerry tries to do the same with the Old West. It's an era that's been mentioned by both Peter and Jackie in conversation, though it's not clear they wanted to play in a SEND-UP of the fight at the O.K. Corral. In fact, while Jackie has a lot of fun playing opposite Doc Holliday, Peter feels like the GM is being unfair with him, giving him all sorts of Tech Level penalties and such. The use of a particular song is an interesting twist on the more frequent use of score to create a mood, but it gets a little ridiculous. Fun idea to have the players sing it though. It's at the end of this one that Peter gives his four-session notice. Gerry's disappointed, but vows to give him a good last adventure.

TYPICAL COWBOY
Attributes: Awareness 3, Coordination 3, Ingenuity 2, Presence 2, Resolve 3, Strength 3
Skills: Athletics 3, Convince 1 (+2 Intimidation), Craft 1, Fighting 3, Marksman 3, Subterfuge 1, Survival 3, Transport 1
Traits: Choose from Animal Friendship, Brave, Lucky, Quick Reflexes, Sense of Direction; Cowardly, Impulsive, Selfish, Unattractive, Unlucky. Story Points: 3-6
Home Tech Level: 4 (Equipment: Pistols 5[2/5/7])

The Savages. Gerry presents his vision that the Doctor should have left his mark on the universe by now with a far future tale where a Utopian society exploits a primitive population. The ensuing call to revolution is a good vehicle for Steven's skills, so Peter need not have thrown in, almost illogically, with the utopians minutes after landing. Bit forceful on his preparations for leaving, there. Once again, Billy misses a session, and Gerry threatens to turn him into an NPC. Truth be told, when Billy's present, he's really present and is by now the best role-player around the table, turning the GM's solutions to his absence into ways of resolving the plot. Peter leaves on a high note.

The War Machines. And after two more sessions, Jackie stops coming round. Maybe playing with Peter was part of the attraction for her, or maybe she doesn't feel she fits in with Gerry's two new recruits. These are Anneke, playing the sassy, mod secretary Polly, and Michael, playing a sailor on leave, fretting for excitement, called Ben. They created their characters with the GM, so they could be introduced as an integral part of the plot, and take over with their strong personalities. Gerry was keen to start setting stories in the present day as well, so while his self-drawn monsters still look terrible, he introduces here the things that interest him - menaces to present-day London, an ineffective military, the Doctor having credentials with British authorities, and a season finale that actually feels like a finale (other GMs have simply stopped wherever they ran out of stories before summer vacation). So when Jackie sends word that she's not playing anymore, it's easy to say she's home and that's that.

WAR MACHINES
Attributes: Awareness 1, Coordination 3, Ingenuity 1, Presence 2, Resolve 3, Strength 7
Skills: Fighting 2, Marksman 4
Traits: Robot; Armor (10), Fear Factor (1), Natural Weapon: Gas gun L(4/L/L), Special: Conventional weapons (guns, grenades) do not work in a War Machine's presence), Slow, Weakness (electromagnetic fields disrupt its nervous system). Story Points: 0
Home Tech Level: 6 (War Machines are ahead of their time thanks to WOTAN's mysteriously advanced store of knowledge)

Billy is getting tired after three years, and isn't getting on as well with the current GM as he was earlier ones, but he'll be back for a couple scenarios next season. The hunt begins for his replacement!

Steven and Dodo: The Character Sheets

Our fictional Doctor Who RPG club has lost two players in the past few days, and Peter and Jackie were nice enough to leave us their characters sheet before they left. (Click to enlarge for legibility.)Stuff that didn't fit on the sheet (Peter kept it on the back)...

SKILLS
*Steven has +2 Craft Expertise bonuses in Carpentry and Music, and a +2 Transport Expertise bonus in Spacecraft.

GOOD TRAITS
Attractive (Minor)
Brave (Minor)
Sense of Direction (Minor) - He did get around Paris with relative ease.
Tough (Minor)
Voice of Authority (Minor)

BAD TRAITS
Argumentative (Minor)
Eccentric/Impatient (Major) - Steven tends to get really frustrated when things don't go his way.
Eccentric/Skeptical (Major) - Steven questions absolutely everything.
Impulsive (Minor)
Unlucky (Minor)

FAVORITE METHOD FOR ACCUMULATING STORY POINTS
Inspired by his choice of Bad Traits, Steven likes to play as if he actively disbelieved the other characters or even the proposed setting, getting himself into trouble for it.

And leaving two days later...
BACKGROUND
*Ok, ok, that's not what Jackie actually had on her character sheet. In reality, it said:
"Dodo is an orphan quite content to leave her great-aunt's care to go gallivanting around the universe with the Doctor."

SKILLS
*Dodo has a +2 Craft Expertise bonus in Music, and a +2 Knowledge Expertise bonus in her favorite era, the Wild West.

GOOD TRAITS
Charming (Minor)
Face in the Crowd (Minor) - Only if she succeeds at ignoring her Eccentric/Fashion Nightmare Bad Trait.
Lucky (Minor)
Screamer! (Minor)

BAD TRAITS
Distinctive (Minor) - Only if she fails to ignore her Eccentric/Fashion Nightmare Bad Trait.
Eccentric/Careless and Over-Enthusiastic (Major) - Dodo thinks of every situation in terms of being safe and fun.
Eccentric/Fashion Nightmare (Minor) - Dodo tends to wear the most outlandish outfits from the TARDIS wardrobe.
Eccentric/Innocent (Minor) - Dodo is easily tricked because of a trusting nature and kindness she tends to show even to enemies.
Impulsive (Minor)
Insatiable Curiosity (Minor)

FAVORITE METHOD FOR ACCUMULATING STORY POINTS
She puts herself in danger as often as possible, allowing herself to be duped or walking into traps, knowing she'll use her Story Points and innate luck to get out of it. For a GM looking for a PC to activate plot points and showcase the villains' or setting's capacity for danger, Dodo's a dream.

One played the equivalent of a full season, the other in only a few stories. Check back in a couple days for the Season 3 wrap-up!

$#*! my Sea Devil Says

Vicki: The Character Sheet

In the spirit of each successive season seen as a role-playing campaign in the Doctor Who RPG, we've asked Maureen to surrender her character sheet before leaving. (Click to enlarge for legibility.)Stuff that didn't fit on the sheet (Maureen kept it on the back)...

SKILLS
*Vicki has a +2 Knowledge Expertise bonus in History

GOOD TRAITS
Animal Friendship (Minor) - Vicki can use this Trait on simple-minded machines as well, but with a +0 modifier only. As prologue to using this Trait, Vicki gives the target creature a pet name.
Brave (Minor)
Charming (Minor)
Run for Your Life! (Minor)
Technically Adept (Minor)
Time Traveller - Tech Level 2 (Minor) - that month in Ancient Rome prepared her for the life of a Trojan princess

BAD TRAITS
Eccentric/Easily bored (Minor)
Eccentric/Enthusiasm (Minor)
Impulsive (Minor)
Insatiable Curiousity (Minor)
Phobia (Major) - Heights

(FORMER) SPECIAL TRAITS
Inexperienced (Minor) - Vicki lost this Trait after her first few adventures

FAVORITE METHOD FOR ACCUMULATING STORY POINTS
Though she used a number of tricks throughout her adventures - from taking what people said at face value no matter how much the GM implied they were lying to ye olde ankle sprain - her favorite was to do things that could potentially change history, meddling blindly in events and opening the door for the GM to create complications.

Hers was a character I'll miss. She was a veritable ray of sunshine in the TARDIS.

Doctor Who RPG: Season 2

On the occasion of completing reviews on the 1964-5 season of Doctor Who, I should like to re-imagine it as a role-playing game campaign using Cubicle 7's DWAITAS RPG. (See Season 1)
GMs: Passing the torch and passing the torch again
At the end of the previous season, GameMaster David had announced to his group that while he was willing and able to start a new season with them, he was moving after Christmas and would give the GM's reigns to his friend Dennis. One of the players, Carole Ann, who was thinking about leaving, was convinced to stay until then so David could give her a proper farewell. It would be up to Dennis, the new guy, to find a replacement for her, which he did (see The Characters), but other commitments would make early success give way to less stellar efforts on his part and he, too, would leave the group before the end of the proposed season (along with two other players). He ropes Donald into acting as GM for the season finale - he's accepted to take over from Season 3 anyway.

The Characters
-Billy's had his fun playing with his Doctor as foil for the rest of the group, but for this season, he wants to mellow the character a bit and get into the action more. Consequently, when the GM gives him story points to put in his stats, he puts them in Fighting and Coordination.
-Carole Ann's Susan is on her last legs, well, ankle, so she makes no adjustment to the character.
-William continues to play Ian Chesterton, and puts his points in a Time Traveler Trait (Tech Level 2), so he can better use swords and other antique weapons.
-Jackie does the same with Barbara (though not for weapons' sake). These two players embrace the new group dynamic of having a gentler Doctor, and decide they'll alternate between a certain irritability themselves (at still being lost in time) and an acceptance of their situation, resulting in heroism.
-Two other players would join the group this season, Maureen and Peter. See The Rescue and The Chase below for more.

Planet of Giants.
Before David leaves as GM, he's got a couple ideas to work through. One of these is a "sideways" story in which the TARDIS materializes in shrunken form and the characters have to interact with a giant garden. But not interact with giant humans, as it turns out. Because the size difference between the PCs and the NPCs is so great, he plays the giants almost as a separate thread, letting the players take on the roles of evil businessmen, blind scientists, doomed government evaluators and nosy operators for the "larger" scenes. Whenever they make those characters do something that puts their main characters in danger, they earn Story Points. For fun, David helps the players visualize their environment by leading them to places around the house and yard, tiny miniatures in tow.

The Dalek Invasion of Earth.
David wants to make his last game (and Carole Ann's) special so he brings back everyone's favorite monsters from the first season - the Daleks! To raise the stakes, he makes them invade Earth in a sort of Nazis-win-WWII scenario. Landing the Daleks in London makes the story more personal, and Carole Ann prepares for her departure in those last 6 sessions by making Susan fall in love with a Resistance member called (coincidentally?) David (the sexual politics of the gaming group may not be the same as the ones on the show, you understand). Billy quite liked the relationship between his character and Carole Ann's (and regrets having missed one of these final sessions), so he writes a speech just for her, to great acclaim from everyone at the table.

A guest player called Ann came in to play Jenny, a resistance member who's hard a hard life, but she declined the invitation to become a regular player. And though the Daleks are soundly defeated, everyone hopes to see them again (as long as Dennis can also do The Voice), even if their pet Slyther was something of a failure:

SLYTHER
Attributes:Awareness 3, Coordination 1, Ingenuity 1, Presence 1, Resolve 2, Strength 6
Skills: Athletics 2, Fighting 2, Survival 2
Traits: Additional Limbs (2 extra arm/tentacles), Alien, Alien Appearance (Major), Enslaved (Black Dalek), Fear Factor (1), Natural Weapons (teeth, +2 to Strength), Slow, Tough. Story Points: 2
Home Tech Level: N/A (the Slyther cannot use tools)

The Rescue.
Dennis takes over as GM, and his first order of business is a couple of short sessions just to introduce a new player to the group. Maureen's been told about Susan and understand the niche that needs filling. She'll create a teenage girl whom the Doctor can take under his wing to keep his grandfatherliness alive (important to Billy). Like Susan, VICKI will be from a high-tech culture and know more history and science than the average bear, but unlike Susan, she'll be peppy and enthusiastic, even impulsive. The background she develops with the GM sets the stage for those introductory sessions, making Vicki an orphan primed to board the TARDIS. Her first story is a mystery with a faux-alien and some Indiana Jones-type traps, and Maureen is quickly accepted into the group, though disappointed Jackie shot her pet sand beast. As it turns out, Dennis didn't really want Vicki to have a pet monster so steered her away from making it an eternally-available Gadget.

The Romans.
Dennis is as new and enthusiastic about running the game as Maureen is about playing in it. He's not above toying with the premise. His first historical makes good use of the Roman Empire and all its trappings, but he decides to play the Court intrigue as comedy. It's a success because the players throw themselves into it as well. Barbara's in a bedroom farce, and Vicki switches poisons around, and the Doctor plays on Nero's ego. Barbara and Ian delight in a hedonist shtick. And together, they all choose to avoid walking in on each other and pretend they weren't all in Rome together. There's a certain pleasure in that.

NERO
Attributes: Awareness 3, Coordination 2, Ingenuity 4, Presence 4, Resolve 2, Strength 3
Skills: Athletics 1, Convince 2, Craft 3 (+2 Music), Fighting 1, Knowledge 3, Subterfuge 3, Technology 1
Traits: Charming, Friends (Roman Empire), Lucky, Sense of Direction; Distinctive, Eccentric/Jealous of other musicians, Eccentric/Acts like a little boy, Eccentric/Supreme egotist, Selfish. Story Points: 12
Home Tech Level: 2 (Equipment: Lyre)

The Web Planet.
Another experiment on Dennis' part, he plays world-builder to create an environment completely alien to the players and their characters. Not only is it an odd insect world and the TARDIS is acting strangely, but he's set up blinding bright lights around the room, makes everyone talk into paper towel tubes, and uses strange gestures, intonations and vocabulary on all his aliens. An interesting experiment, though the players are glad to get out of there. Perhaps more fun for the GM, this one.

ZARBI
Attributes: Awareness 3, Coordination 2, Ingenuity 1, Presence 2, Resolve 2, Strength 5
Skills: Athletics 2, Fighting 2, Marksman 1, Medicine 1, Survival 2
Traits: Alien, Alien Appearance (Major), Additional Limbs (6 in all, +1 fine manipulation action per turn with no penalty), Enslaved (Animus; if the Animus is destroyed, the Zarbi lose the ability to manipulate tools, including their Marksman and Medicine Skills, as well as the Networked Trait), Fear Factor (1), Natural Weapons (Mandibles, +2 to Strength), Networked, Tough, Weakness/Sound and movement (Minor; apparently, Menoptra singing "Zarbiiiiiiii" and making large gestures is enough to confuse a Zarbi, make a Resolve check if this, or something similar, happens); Special: Zarbi speech cannot be translated by the TARDIS. Story Points: 2-4
Home Tech Level: 5 (Equipment: Larvae Gun [4/L/L])

MENOPTRA
Attributes: Awareness 4, Coordination 4, Ingenuity 3, Presence 3, Resolve 3, Strength 2
Skills: Athletics 2, Convince 1, Fighting 1, Knowledge 2, Marksman 1, Survival 1, Technology 1, Transport 1
Traits: Alien, Alien Appearance (Major), Eccentric/Alien behaviour (Menoptran language has strange tonal and gestural elements); Flight (unlikely to work in Earth-to-higher gravities). Story Points: 3-5
Home Tech Level: 5 (Equipment: Isop-Tope Device [only on Animus: 4/L/L], Communication Array)

The Crusade.
After the bizarre Web Planet, it's back to History. Dennis does his research and gives the Saracen as much respect and character as he does the English knights. William's character gets knighted, which he finds awesome, and has to rescue Barbara from a harem, while the Doctor and Vicki deal with King Richard and his sister's intrigues. By the 4th session though, something changes in the GM's life and he'll have trouble making things come together. The Crusade's finale lacks the research and characters from the first three and from now on, it'll really feel like he's improvising more than preparing.

The Space Museum.
Case in point, this SF story. There's some weird temporal shenanigans, which creates a potentially interesting "prevent our own future" plot, but it gets a bit lost when the GM invokes the rebels vs. overlords cliché, and fails to make any of those guest characters live. At some point, he decides to make this a comedy, but it's tepid, and based on the idea that everyone but the PCs is incompetent. Though the players generally have fun with it, it doesn't create a memorable world or adventure (in this case, Billy doesn't mind he missed a session). Ah well...

The Chase.
Dennis has run out of ideas, so he continues to phone it in. The Daleks! They're favorites! That should work! Let's give them time travel too, and have them chase the TARDIS across time and space! Under-developed locations and plots are the result, as every story is aborted by the Daleks rushing in and forcing the characters to leave. Dennis also plays the Daleks as a bit silly, which is disappointing to the players. Dennis has to admit that he's not doing right by the players and corrals another GM in their gaming club, Donald, to finish the series for him and tells the players the last chapter of The Chase will be his last. Unrelated to this, Jackie and William will also be leaving the group after this season, maybe they should just quit with Dennis, seeing as there's a Dalek time machine in the story that might be used to get the characters home, hm?

Turns out Dennis had brought in his friend Peter at one of the Chase sessions so he could try out the game, giving him scenes with the players and Daleks as a clownish hick from Alabama. A quick call is made, and Peter accepts the invitation to join the group, but not as "Morton Dill". He makes another character, a stranded astronaut from the future who can take Ian's place as action hero with a minimum of fuss. The last chapter of The Chase introduces this new character, Steven Taylor, as a prisoner of the Mechonoids, Dennis' own version of the Daleks. He, Jackie and William all leave on a high note after all.

MECHONOID
Attributes: Awareness 3, Coordination 2, Ingenuity 3, Presence 1, Resolve 5, Strength 6
Skills: Craft 3, Fighting 3, Knowledge 2, Marksman 1, Science 2, Survival 2, Technology 2
Traits: Armour (Major; 10 points of damage reduction), Natural Weapons (Flamethrower S[4/L/L]), Natural Weapons (Cutting Saw, +4 to Strength), Networked, Robot (Scan, Weld); By the Book, Special/Small vocabulary (Mechonoids can use few words, and even those are distorted to the point of making them difficult to understand), Weakness/Control codes (Major; if someone has the control codes, they may take control of any Mechonoid), Weakness/No legs (run up those stairs to escape them!). Story Points: 2-4
Home Tech Level: 6

The Time Meddler.
New GM Donald is keen to make his mark, so he introduces a new Time Lord in the form of the Meddling Monk and things will never be the same... With Ian and Barbara gone, he strikes an agreement with the players that the next season won't be in the "Lost in Time" mold, allowing the characters to act as heroes wherever they go (as opposed to principally wanting to explore or escape), even if they won't really be in control of the TARDIS.

MEDDLING MONK
Attributes: Awareness 4, Coordination 3, Ingenuity 7, Presence 4, Resolve 2, Strength 3
Skills: Convince 4, Fighting 1, Knowledge 4 (+2 History), Medicine 2, Science 3, Subterfuge 3, Technology 3
Traits: Technically Adept, Time Lord (Feel the Turn of the Universe, Vortex), Time Traveller/Tech Level 2 (Minor); Cowardly, Distinctive, Obsession/Meddling with history (Minor), Selfish. Story Points: 8
Home Tech Level: 10 (Equipment: Type IV TARDIS; The Monk should always have at least 3 anachronistic items available wherever he goes)

Billy, Maureen and Peter have a good dynamic going already, and agree to follow Donald on to a third season (though Billy's really got to stop missing one session out of every four). Coming your way in about 40 days!

Ian and Barbara: The Character Sheets

In the spirit of each successive season seen as a role-playing campaign, we've asked Jackie and William to surrender their sheets to us before they depart. (Click to enlarge for legibility.)We start with Barbara, and though she ISN'T a Time Lord, there's still not enough room in the Traits box to do her justice (a flaw of the sheet, surely).

But first: SKILLS
*Barbara has +2 Knowledge Expertise bonuses in the following subjects: History, Aztecs, and Tactics

GOOD TRAITS
Attractive (Minor) - always getting hit on
Charming (Minor)
Keen Senses (Major)
Run for Your Life! (Minor)
Screamer! (Minor)
Time Traveller - Tech Level 2 (Minor) - picked up quite a few things in those historical stories
Voice of Authority (Minor) - she's the conscience of the group

BAD TRAITS
Eccentric/Mumsy (Minor)
Eccentric/Passionate about History and her moral beliefs (Major)
Insatiable Curiosity (Minor) - in historical adventures only

FAVORITE METHOD FOR ACCUMULATING STORY POINTS
Allowing herself to become the object of everyone's affections has fueled both personal relationship subplots and jeopardy scenarios. And kept her rolling in Story Points.

And the other half of the partnership:
GOOD TRAITS
Attractive (Minor)
Brave (Minor)
Indomitable (Minor)
Resourceful Pockets (Minor)
Time Traveller - Tech Level 2 (Minor) - Ian was quite good at picking up Tech Level 2 weapon skills, for example
Tough (Minor)

BAD TRAITS
Eccentric/Dandy (Minor) - Hey girls, how am I looking?
Eccentric /Skeptical (Major) - always has to question everything and is slow to believe the prood before his eyes
Insatiable Curiosity (Minor) - asks a lot of questions of the Doctor in particular
Phobia (Minor) - Ants (all sizes)

FAVORITE METHOD FOR ACCUMULATING STORY POINTS
Letting himself get conked on the head and falling unconscious. Extra Story Points for engineering a way for one of his allies to do it.

Great players who'll be missed. Don't miss next week's Season 2 campaign round-up for their greatest hits!

The Problem with Story Points

...and a possible house rule solution.

In many of my latest role-playing endeavors, the games have used some kind of Story Points mechanic (I even imposed optional Cinematic Points to a high-octane, John Woo-ish GURPS series). I think they work very well, especially when you're trying to emulate a cinematic genre (something I went into in the above linked post). However, I did hit a snag in my use of Story Points in the Doctor Who: Adventures in Time and Space (DWAITAS for intimates), one I'd like to fix before attempting a second series (which I really, really want to do).Here's the problem:
DWAITAS characters just have too many of them! Time Lords have 8 and Companions have 12. That's 20 in a 70s Doctor Who set-up, but groups are usually larger. In my own group, we eventually had some 52 Story Points (not counting Gadgets) floating in each game session, from the start! DWAITAS also allows you to score Story Points from the GM by allowing bad things to happen to you. It's just like the show. In traditional RPGs, characters seldom get captured, except maybe by the dreaded GameMaster's fiat. Most players prefer to stand and fight. In more cinematic games (or perhaps, in narrativist ones), players might be more willing to get caught so they can get some quality time with a gloating, secret-spilling villain. Doctor Who is very much that kind of story, and characters on the show often get captured, taken over or separated from each other just so the plot can happen.

But here's the thing. Though DWAITAS encourages tactics that allow you to score Story Points mid-game, there's really very little call for them. I'm quite happy with the powers it gives player characters - they lead to some epic moments of triumph, crazy improvised gadgets and lucky shots worthy of the program - but the players have so many Story Points, they never need to accumulate more. And so we're back to narrativist impulses that don't require the game's encouragement. DWAITAS provides the "powers" seen on the show, but not the "sacrifices" characters have to make in the course of the plot. In spirit, yes. In execution, I've had trouble making it work.

Even before the end of my first series, I tried various things, but I think I went in the opposite direction of what was required. Basically, I denied the players the start of game "refill" by claiming certain adventures were actually continuances from the previous week. They still started out with lots of Story Points and just didn't spend as many in the opening chapters. No incentive to score more. I've rethought my position.
My solution:
I propose to start each session with NO or FEW banked Story Points. As the story progresses, the players are encouraged to let bad things happen to them (even suggest those things) so they can score the Story Points they know they'll need to get out of the climax and other moments of jeopardy. I further propose the GM should negotiate certain Story Point awards with players who have just succeeded at something to turn that success into a failure, in particular when such a success would derail the adventure. For example, say the plot hinged on a recurring NPC being taken over by Cybermen. Using Story Points, or with a lucky roll, a player might break the Cyber-hold, stopping the plot cold. The GM might then offer X amount of Story Points in exchange for a reversal (clever GMs won't erase what happened, but will throw a twist that really means the players have failed, cue end sting on the episode). The player spent points to get his success, so he wants to recoup them all, PLUS a bonus. Does the GM care enough to sweeten the pot? This technique might eventually turn into a poker game where players and GMs bluff their way into more or less Story Points, but how is that different from a meeting with the Black and White Guardians? Because I believe Story Points are the edge Companions have over the Time Lord, they would probably start with a few points to the Time Lord's zero, and possibly score them at a faster rate.

I strikes me that I had the solution right under my nose, because the aforementioned GURPS game's cinematic points had more or less this set-up (none or few to start, though no negotiated reversals). In that game, you scored points for doing badass things that fit the genre/mood we wanted to achieve. In DWAITAS, the conditions would be different to emulate THAT genre and mood. And so it goes for whatever genre/mood you wanted to achieve. If I were to run a Torchwood game with DWAITAS, for example, absent any official rule set for this rather different corner of the Whoniverse, the major house rule I would implement is that Story Point scoring would depend on things integral to THAT show. Making bad moral decisions, for example.

Anyway, those are my role-playing musings for the week. I hope they're useful to someone. Or perhaps have you never had this problem or else handled it some other way?

So What Do I Want D&D 5th Edition to Be Like?

Easy:Kits, Priests with actual faiths, and wonderful, imaginative settings like Planescape, Spelljammer and Ravenloft (to name only a few). Yeah... I never converted to 3e. OLD SCHOOL BABY! (Well, Old But Not So Old That I Mean Original D&D or Advanced 1st School.)

Sure, there are things in 2nd that need some fixing. It wasn't perfect. I'd do away with the loose leaf Monstrous Compendiums, for example, and give the Forgotten Realms better adventure modules, but otherwise... It had just the right level of complexity and customization, and never felt like a video game to me, which later editions always sounded like from descriptions.

Here's to the 5th going back 3 steps before going forward again!

Points to Comments section where readers may unsuccessfully try to convince me that other editions are better and/or vent their empty frustrations about the unworthiness of AD&D 2nd.

Susan: The Character Sheet

If I'm going to convert each season into a role-playing campaign, I thought I might as well do the "players'" character sheets. We lose Susan today, so perhaps it's time for Carole Ann to surrender her sheet to us. (Click to enlarge.)Time Lords have tons of Traits. They hardly fit in that little box. Here are Susan's:

GOOD TRAITS
-Attractive (Minor) - strange but cute
-Fast Healing (Minor) - sprained ankles never stay sprained very long
-Lucky (Minor)
-Run For Your Life! (Minor)
-Screamer! (Minor)
-Time Traveller/Tech Level 2 (Minor) - the stuff she learned in that Aztec school
-Time Traveller/Tech Level 5 (Minor) - the stuff she learned at Coal Hill

BAD TRAITS
-Clumsy (Minor)
-Eccentric/Fiercely loyal to her grandfather (Minor) - she won't easily disobey him
-Eccentric/Perpetually "wet" (Minor) - Susan's first reflex will usually be to scream, run or freeze, and she'll even interfere with companions who want to stand and fight
-Eccentric/Quick to love (Minor) - Susan swiftly becomes enamored of the people she meets on her travels and is quick to trust them, even with her life (ex.: Ian, Barbara, Ping-Cho, the Sensorites, David)
-Impulsive (Minor)
-Outcast (Minor) - exiled from Gallifrey for stealing a TARDIS with you know who

SPECIAL TRAITS
-Inexperienced (+3 Story Points)
-Psychic
-Telepathy - limited to when telepathic fields are available (such as in The Sensorites). In other words, she's got to spend Story Points to make things happen
-Time Lord - no Feel the Turn of the Universe, factored into her higher Story Points
-Vortex - only a +1 bonus, because she can't pilot the TARDIS alone, but can help service it

FAVORITE METHOD FOR ACCUMULATING STORY POINTS
Putting herself out of action through falls, sprains, fear, scholastic opportunities, or her grandfather's over-protectiveness.

That's my take using the Doctor Who: Adventures in Time and Space system, anyway. Do you like this? Should I do them for every character as they take their last bows?

RPGs for Losers: The Outsiders Campaign

You know, we poke a lot of fun at the Outsiders here at Siskoid's Blog of Geekery, but no matter how lame the comic book has pretty much always been, we have to acknowledge its real appeal to tabletop role-players. Because the truth is, the Outsiders are a lot like "Your Own Heroes(TM)". Some players took some real DC heroes out of mothballs - Black Lightning and Metamorpho - but most made their own. Vague concepts (Katana, Geo-Force), powers that don't really go together (GF, Halo), terrible costumes (Looker!)... even their names sound like they came from generic RPG settings. Subsequent iterations of the team didn't fare much better. The proof is in the pudding: Mayfair's DCHeroes published a number of adventure scenarios starring teams that could easily be substituted with Your Own Heroes(TM) - New Teen Titans, Infinity Inc., and yes, the Outsiders. So "typical super-team" that you can plug them into anything.

But I want to take that idea one step further. If the Outsiders are losers, never quite able to hold their own against C-list villains, they somehow still take Batman away from the true equals of the Justice League. Losers can make good eventually (it just hasn't happened in B&TO, as it slowly gets critiques in these pages). Making losers on purpose can be an interesting challenge for a Supers RPG that trades on epic victories, but it can least to an interesting experience. It could be played for comedy, but that's not really what I'm talking about here. Having heroes, played straight, who hover just above mediocrity has a lot of role-playing potential and built-in angst. The Outsiders format even provides a reason for villains to still be stopped: The Batman. You could theoretically have a GM-run hero who consistently has to bail them out of trouble, trouble often caused by their own mistakes.

Making Your Own Lame Hero isn't difficult. In fact, most chargen systems/players will produce them a fair amount of the time. Another tactic is to make every player take an established lame hero - heroes who couldn't justify a solo book, or can't anymore - and have that hero seek redemption as part of an ill-formed team. The nice thing about such characters is that they're often obscure enough to act as blank slates. I'm thinking of such patchwork super-teams as Primal Force, for example, which included Claw, Red Tornado, and Jack O'Lantern (almost all Global Guardians make good choices).

A look through Green Ronin's DC Adventures' first splat book (Heroes & Villains vol.1) might yield the following team:
-Agent Liberty
-Air Wave
-Gypsy
-Chronos II
-Aztec
(I of course could have put actual Outsiders on the list.)

But Mayfair's DC Heroes remains my favorite resource because they had so many sourcebooks full of characters. They might inspire the following:
-Son of Vulcan
-Rampage
-Sinbad
-Ultra the Multi-Alien
-Robby Reed (Dial H for Hero)
(I would have liked to put any member of Hero Hotline on there, but I want to avoid parody.)

Some of the above are actually pretty cool, but they failed to be viable headliners in the past. If you had to play a lame or obscure superhero (it need not be in the DCU), who would it be?

Doctor Who RPG: Season 1

On the occasion of completing reviews on the 1963-4 season of Doctor Who, I should like to re-imagine it as a role-playing game campaign using Cubicle 7's DWAITAS RPG.
Set-up
GameMaster David has four players, and has the crafty idea of splitting them into two groups for character generation. Billy and Carole Ann will make Time Lords, and William and Jackie, humans native to 1963. The idea is that each duo will share in a certain measure of loyalty, while the other remains an unknown quantity. The players are keen to role-play organic relationships between the characters, with growing trust or mistrust as time goes on. Together, they agree on a pretty demanding schedule of short and punchy weekly sessions for the better part of a year. The focus will be a Lost in Time campaign using a malfunctioning TARDIS.

The Characters
-Billy's Time Lord will be called the Doctor, a grumpy old man nearing the end of his first regeneration. Through arrogance, rashness and general disgruntlement, he hopes to keep the human players on their toes and not reveal whether he can be trusted or not. And though he takes the usual high Time Lord scores in Knowledge, Science and Technology, he uses his physical abilities as dump stats, leaving room for younger characters to find their niche.
-Carole Ann's Time Lady will be called Susan, the Doctor's granddaughter and almost an infant in Time Lord terms at the age of 16. She means to play her with an equal measure of genius and childishness, and puts points into Psychic Traits, such as Empathy.
-William will play Ian Chesterton, a science teacher who was once in the service. He hopes to fill the more physical and combat-oriented niche of the party. He and Jackie have decided to play high school teachers because it would allow them to know each other, yet have completely different specialties.
-Jackie will play Barbara Wright, a history teacher who will weekly save the world in a cardigan sweater. Perhaps because she has that particular interest herself, she adds Aztecs as a Knowledge/History expertise. Hint, hint, Mr. GameMaster.

An Unearthly Child/100,000 B.C. In the first session, having been quickly briefed on who each character was, Carole Ann puts Susan in Ian and Barbara's school, and after role-playing a few scenes that highlight the unusual nature of her character, the teachers take the bait and follow her home. Finding themselves in the TARDIS, it takes off for their first trip through time. The GM chooses prehistory and embroils them in the political machinations of a tribe of cavemen and their firemaker.

TYPICAL CAVEMAN
Attributes: Awareness 2, Coordination 3, Ingenuity 1, Presence 1, Resolve 1, Strength 5
Skills: Athletics 2, (Craft 1 OR Fighting 2), Knowledge 1, Marksman 1, Subterfuge 1, Survival 3 (making fire at this point in prehistory requires a Survival+Technology check at -2, which is why Firemakers have it as a field of Expertise)
Traits: Choose from Brave, Indomitable, Keen Senses, Tough, Clumsy, Cowardly (almost anything outside their experience could be worth a Fear check), Impulsive, and Unattractive. Story Points: 3-6
Home Tech Level: 1 [Equipment: Stone weapons (+2 Strength bonus)]

The Daleks. From the past, on to the future. The GM introduces ghastly evil mutants trapped in metal pepperpots and they're an instant hit (it's the voice), both terrifying and adorable. The players do surprise him by first not taking the Thal meds he left for them (the players still need to trust HIM) and later by splitting up, forcing him to throw some relatively hackneyed obstacles right out of pulp movie serials at Ian, Barbara and their Thal allies going round the back. In the end, it all evens out and the players might have grumbled at the railroading if the victory over the Daleks hadn't come along just then. If he wants to reuse the Daleks, he'll have to come up with a way for them to overcome their reliance on static electricity though (surely, a Major Bad Trait). This adventure also starts this group's tradition to load up on Story Points early in an adventure by sacrificing the use of the TARDIS in some way (they call it "Fluid linking").

The Edge of Destruction. The GM tries something different, but it's too different to work. Good thing he didn't spend more than 2 short sessions on it. He posits a stuck switch that causes the TARDIS to try to go back beyond the Big Bang, through secret notes asks the players to act out of character (even threateningly), and throws strange clues at them via the TARDIS systems or melting furniture. Billy gets a nice speech out of it, but players generally dislike losing control over their characters and not knowing what the heck's going on.

Marco Polo. His attempt at a leisurely, almost D&D-like voyage on the Silk Road is more successful. He creates a fine cast of characters and shows his research in a variety of ways, managing a mixture of charming exploration and jeopardy in each session. He falls into the trap of loving his created world too much, however, and the players unfortunately become mere bystanders in the climactic fight between Marco Polo and the villain Tegana.

MARCO POLO
Attributes: Awareness 2, Coordination 3, Ingenuity 3, Presence 3, Resolve 3, Strength 4
Skills: Athletics 2, Convince 1, Fighting 3, Knowledge 3, Subterfuge 1, Survival 2, Transport 1
Traits: Brave, Charming, Obligation (to Kublai Khan). Story Points: 12
Home Tech Level: 3 [Equipment: Sword (+3 Strength bonus)]

TEGANA
Attributes: Awareness 3, Coordination 2, Ingenuity 3, Presence 4, Resolve 4, Strength 4
Skills: Athletics 2, Convince 4, Fighting 3, Knowledge 1, Subterfuge 3, Survival 2, Transport 1
Traits: Brave, Charming, Indomitable, Dark Secret (impending Mongol invasion). Story Points: 12
Home Tech Level: 3 [Equipment: Sword (+3 Strength bonus)]

The Keys of Marinus. And it's back to science-fiction. Eager to repeat the Daleks' success, David creates the Voord, to lesser effect. In this adventure, he tries something new - an over-arcing quest. It's in an effort to motivate the player characters to accomplish a specific goal and avoid the meandering of the previous adventure. Travel dials provide the means of travel to a different environment and mini-adventure each session, though these are admittedly pretty slight. It's also a clever way to split the characters up, neatly covering up the fact that Billy can't come and play for a couple sessions. Because DWAITAS is well suited to guest players native to the visited location/era, Robin and Katherine come in to play Altos and Sabetha for a few sessions. They're clearly slumming it and don't get up to much, but enjoy their time in the game.

TYPICAL VOORD
Attributes: Awareness 2, Coordination 4, Ingenuity 2, Presence 2, Resolve 3, Strength 5
Skills: Athletics 2, Fighting 4, Science 1, Subterfuge 1, Technology 3, Transport (personal submarine) 3
Traits: Alien, Alien Appearance (Minor), Fear Factor 1, Tough. Story Points: 3-5
Home Tech Level: 7 [Equipment: Knife (+2 Strength bonus); Personal submarine (Armor 2/Immune to acid, Hit capacity 6, Speed 8)]

The Aztecs. David's GM skills are definitely stronger in research than they are world-building. Using Jackie's (and Barbara's) interest in Aztec culture, he decides to make that the next destination and give her a huge role. Because time hasn't been defined as either solid or rubbery yet, she actually tries to alter history (the prerogative of player characters who need not return to the accepted present). The Doctor of course rejects the idea, and silently, so does the GM who throws all manner of impediment at her, most in the manipulative form of Tlotoxl, the High Priest of Sacrifice. The Doctor gets to play some romance and almost gets married. Ian is made into a warrior, finally filling the niche William built him for. And Barbara plays the goddess. All thanks to David's research. Carole Ann will regret having missed a couple sessions.

TLOTOXL
Attributes: Awareness 3, Coordination 1, Ingenuity 3, Presence 4, Resolve 4, Strength 2
Skills: Convince 3, Craft 1, Fighting 1, Knowledge 2, Medicine 1, Subterfuge 3
Traits: Voice of Authority, Code of Conduct (Aztec), Unattractive. Story Points: 12
Home Tech Level: 2 [Equipment: Knife (+2 Strength bonus)]

The Sensorites. Maybe the GM should stick to historical adventures, even if it makes the players itch for some alien intervention. Yet another xenophobia story, and diminishing returns on his alien races. In no way does the Sense-Sphere live and breathe like the historical worlds did. But the attempt was to give Carole Ann's character Susan something to work with, and as per her request, create a situation where her psychic abilities will be of use. It's true that they've practically ignored them since the first session. And so, telepathic Sensorites. David just couldn't get into their heads and make them formidable antagonists, that's all. Jackie did NOT miss much by skipping a couple weeks.

TYPICAL SENSORITE
Attributes: Awareness 4, Coordination 2, Ingenuity 2, Presence 1, Resolve 4, Strength 1
Skills: Convince 2, Fighting 1, Knowledge 2, Marksman 1, Medicine 1, Science 2, Technology 3, Transport 2 (You may add 1-2 points in any skill, even one not listed based on the Sensorite's caste)
Traits: Alien, Alien Appearance (Minor), Environmental (can survive for a few minutes in the vacuum of space), Psychic Training, Weakness (Minor/Loud noises), Weakness (Minor/Darkness). Story Points: 2-4
Home Tech Level: 5 [Equipment: Hand ray 7(3/7/10); GADGET/Telepathy booster (Telepathy - exposure for humans may cause insanity if their minds are "opened" by strong emotions and they fail a Resolve+Ingenuity check)]

The Reign of Terror. Just like Jackie had been mentioning the Aztecs, Billy and Carole Ann seemed fond of the French Revolution. The GM tries something new to hilarious effect. As the characters get separated, so does he separate the players in different rooms. The unintended result is that though they keep mounting rescues of one another, they keep missing each other. Still, the GM manages to bring this part of history to life half way between realism and literature, though it's starting to look more and more like Carole Ann is having a hard time finding ways of making Susan useful.

The season finale is in September, and GM David will leave after the New Year, though he's asked his friend Dennis, who helped with the French Revolution research, to perhaps take over. Carole Ann decides to stay until David leaves, giving him a chance to help write her out. But let's not get ahead of ourselves, that's a matter for Season 2!