Thursday, December 30, 2004
Putting it together
Standing on the shoulders of those who came before me....
I love that about science and programming. Well, it works the same for RPGs. Using the Fudge system and whittling it down to a few options and chunking the rest has helped me solidify the Silver Cord RPG system.
Psychics in a world where everyone is potentially psychic may seem a bit overkill, but I think that it levels the playing field.
In this game, only a few psychics actually make it to the power level PCs could attain. But there is a price to pay for having power. For story balance, not game balance, I've included a few things in the game that I've seen done in other game systems. Consequences.
There is a game mechanic feature that encourages, but does not require, player character to cooperate with others. There are two elements to this in the game: Madness and Despair.
Characters that have developed their psychic abilities have to have a way to deal with the stresses of being psychic. The stronger the psychic abilities, the greater the stress. The stress has two side effects I just mentioned. One is Madness, and the other is Despair. Otherwise known as Insanity and Depression.
When characters start to get a little insane, they loose touch with their psychic core, and have trouble using their psychic abilities. The same is true for depressed characters. Their will to keep going, when damped, will diminish the strength behind their mental powers.
To counter Madness and Despair, character can see a shrink, take medications (which have their own side effects), buddy with other psychics ( psychic friends network), or even join an organization that helps to focus and recharge the fresh mind. These things help keep a psychic sane and hopeful. At least to the degree that it does not affect performance.
A game element I have added is the Psychic Beacon that everyone emits. Stronger psychics have a stronger beacon that allows those that can sense psychics an easy target.
For good or ill, organizations are out to find the strong ones and recruit them to their cause.
Saturday, December 04, 2004
I'm still working on getting the Silver Cord RPG finished. It will be based on FudgeRGP, but it will have a stricter rule set.
Fudge is flexable enough to handle what I intend to do with it. Psychic based role playing games should have more mental attributes than physical ones.
