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l_the_fangirl1.) What is your game about?
::This Game:: is about hot-blooded humongous mecha badassery in the face of an eeevil foe, with the careful (or not) forging of alliances on the way. It is the Tengan Toppa G-Gundam to Bliss Stage's Neon RahXephon Bokurano.
2.) What do the characters do?
Kick the shiny metal asses of the Von Neumans back to the Core, and hopefully into the singularity there, whilst trying to make friends that help you along the way (sometimes this involves impressing them by kicking thier fleshy alien asses). Every star we see is a potential ally!
3.) What do the players (including the GM if there is one) do?**
The players go through combat (possibly in an explicitly combined robot, possibly not), mowing through mooks, trying to outdo each other's Holy Shit Quotients before taking enough damage to withdraw / explode / get killed: impressive maneuvers fill up a collective "Flow" meter (for lack of a better name) in order to power up more and more impressive weaponry. Flow does not need to be spent in order to power up from, say, "Beam Saber" to "Hornet Missile Barrage!" - you just need a minimum amount in order to use an ability ONCE.
Then they spend their Flow on forming various Ultimate Weapons which can be used to complete (and by Complete, we mean Blow Up) true objectives (major enemies, battleships, annoying factory planets)...
And when you win an Objective, you gain points of Glory (or sommat) that can be spent on forging alliances in Interludes.
Strategically, you need to win a galaxy: the GM puts out a galactic map at the beginning of the game, and you need to take locations, sector by sector. He plays the Enemy, and the potential allies, while the players control thier Characters and Allies (if you control a character, someone else controls your personal Ally).
There's some kind of formula for determining how much Enemy Presence there is in a given location: distance from the Core lowers it.
Imagine Risk meets Story-Games by way of Gurren Lagaan.
4.) How does your setting (or lack thereof) reinforce what your game is about?
I have next to no idea. Any suggestions? I'd like to have a transhuman/posthuman diaspora vibe were aliens = former humans, but other than the fact that this gives the players an immediate excuse to help / demand the help of the "aliens" ("You were human once: we have common ancestors: we owe to them to help our cousins!"), I have no idea.
5.) How does the Character Creation of your game reinforce what your game is about?
I'm tempted to make a great deal of the character sheet relationship / motivation based, and have a splat/archtype system (easy to set up) but I don't know why. Certianly having straight combat stats in the vein of Reflexes / Awareness / Tech seems to me to rather miss the point of the genre, though I: having a Courage / Badass stat is right out. Perhaps a Motivation -> Fear system, where attacking a Fear yeilds... results...?Help me out with this one...
6.) What types of behaviors/styles of play does your game reward (and punish if necessary)?
Hot blood and badassery. Plain and simple. ...Possibly angst in tolerable levels?
7.) How are behaviors and styles of play rewarded or punished in your game?
You fill up the Flow meter by impressing the GM and other players: and the Flow meter is what wins you objectives. You must literally entertain or die.
8.) How are the responsibilities of narration and credibility divided in your game?
Player Intent, Initation, and Execution cannot be blocked: Effect can. Fortune in the Middle, definitely. Players describe the actions of thier characters and of the personal Allies of other characters: the GM narrates the actions of enemies and "Potential Allies," alien foes as opposed to Von Neuman robot bastards.
9.) What does your game do to command the players' attention, engagement, and participation? (i.e. What does the game do to make them care?)
The Von Neumans are perfect, cold, calculating villians. Possible quote: "Against cutting steel and icy if-then statements, our best weapon is smouldering lust and incandescent rage!"
...What if each player created and statted thier own Potential Ally race and the strength of the Potential Allies could wane, making it possible for the Vonners to decimate thm? Seeing your own personal race, the accomplished empaths known as the Ng'anda, die in droves, screaming at the pain of their brothers on the front would get your attention...
10.) What are the resolution mechanics of your game like?
Players have to get as much Flow as a group as quickly as possible, but this is done by spending dice in/risking mecha components and allies. How much daring is enough, and when does it get dumb? Probably going to end up very similar to Bliss Stage. Also: Forming Blazing Sword and blowing the holy hell out of a bad guy requires an action but is automatic at foo Flow (and I need to solve for Foo).
...Possibly the act of burning points in a Motivation will add more Flow to the system, but at the cost of making a Fear check?
11.) How do the resolution mechanics reinforce what your game is about?
Help me figure it out? Maybe making them even more bad-ass because they're getting Chumbawumba-ed ("I get knocked down...")?
12.) Do characters in your game advance? If so, how?
Objectives completed in combat go into a pool shared by the party: they can be spent, by individuals, on (for lack of a better term) Interludes. Interludes can snag you Allies, which give you additional abilities / limbs for your mecha, or improve ones you already have, or wear away at enemy Influence on an alien race or individual.
13.) How does the character advancement (or lack thereof) reinforce what your game is about?
It emulates the genre, that's for DAMN sure.
14.) What sort of product or effect do you want your game to produce in or for the players?
Unabashed, guilty-pleasure fun, people quoting TTGL (whether they realize it or not: "WHO THE HELL DO YOU THINK I AM!?") and dropped jaws.
15.) What areas of your game receive extra attention and color? Why?
The enemy, the better to hate them with. The history of Earth, so people realize the lost glory and the "They used to be human..." angle, and respond accordingly. The mecha, by contrast, are deliberately left fairly undefined, as are the nature of the lost colonies: possibly Earth/the PC homeworld is far better defined, to ground the players in culture and place.
16.) Which part of your game are you most excited about or interested in? Why?
Seeing how redicolously, suicidally audacious people get.
17.) Where does your game take the players that other games can't, don't, or won't?
Into the cockpit of a super robot.
18.) What are your publishing goals for your game?
Small print run, sell and demo at Anime cons (as opposed to gamer cons), PDF for slow trickle of sales, word-of-mouth advertising and cheap viral advertising.
19.) Who is your target audience?
Anime fans, Super-Robot fans in particular, who probably haven't gamed before. If making a reference to "Captian Garlock" or reciting "My hand holds a great POWER! It's burning GRIP tells me to DEFEAT you!" makes someone grin uncontrollably, that person is in my audience.
Thoughts on my bolded questions?
::This Game:: is about hot-blooded humongous mecha badassery in the face of an eeevil foe, with the careful (or not) forging of alliances on the way. It is the Tengan Toppa G-Gundam to Bliss Stage's Neon RahXephon Bokurano.
2.) What do the characters do?
Kick the shiny metal asses of the Von Neumans back to the Core, and hopefully into the singularity there, whilst trying to make friends that help you along the way (sometimes this involves impressing them by kicking thier fleshy alien asses). Every star we see is a potential ally!
3.) What do the players (including the GM if there is one) do?**
The players go through combat (possibly in an explicitly combined robot, possibly not), mowing through mooks, trying to outdo each other's Holy Shit Quotients before taking enough damage to withdraw / explode / get killed: impressive maneuvers fill up a collective "Flow" meter (for lack of a better name) in order to power up more and more impressive weaponry. Flow does not need to be spent in order to power up from, say, "Beam Saber" to "Hornet Missile Barrage!" - you just need a minimum amount in order to use an ability ONCE.
Then they spend their Flow on forming various Ultimate Weapons which can be used to complete (and by Complete, we mean Blow Up) true objectives (major enemies, battleships, annoying factory planets)...
And when you win an Objective, you gain points of Glory (or sommat) that can be spent on forging alliances in Interludes.
Strategically, you need to win a galaxy: the GM puts out a galactic map at the beginning of the game, and you need to take locations, sector by sector. He plays the Enemy, and the potential allies, while the players control thier Characters and Allies (if you control a character, someone else controls your personal Ally).
There's some kind of formula for determining how much Enemy Presence there is in a given location: distance from the Core lowers it.
Imagine Risk meets Story-Games by way of Gurren Lagaan.
4.) How does your setting (or lack thereof) reinforce what your game is about?
I have next to no idea. Any suggestions? I'd like to have a transhuman/posthuman diaspora vibe were aliens = former humans, but other than the fact that this gives the players an immediate excuse to help / demand the help of the "aliens" ("You were human once: we have common ancestors: we owe to them to help our cousins!"), I have no idea.
5.) How does the Character Creation of your game reinforce what your game is about?
I'm tempted to make a great deal of the character sheet relationship / motivation based, and have a splat/archtype system (easy to set up) but I don't know why. Certianly having straight combat stats in the vein of Reflexes / Awareness / Tech seems to me to rather miss the point of the genre, though I: having a Courage / Badass stat is right out. Perhaps a Motivation -> Fear system, where attacking a Fear yeilds... results...?Help me out with this one...
6.) What types of behaviors/styles of play does your game reward (and punish if necessary)?
Hot blood and badassery. Plain and simple. ...Possibly angst in tolerable levels?
7.) How are behaviors and styles of play rewarded or punished in your game?
You fill up the Flow meter by impressing the GM and other players: and the Flow meter is what wins you objectives. You must literally entertain or die.
8.) How are the responsibilities of narration and credibility divided in your game?
Player Intent, Initation, and Execution cannot be blocked: Effect can. Fortune in the Middle, definitely. Players describe the actions of thier characters and of the personal Allies of other characters: the GM narrates the actions of enemies and "Potential Allies," alien foes as opposed to Von Neuman robot bastards.
9.) What does your game do to command the players' attention, engagement, and participation? (i.e. What does the game do to make them care?)
The Von Neumans are perfect, cold, calculating villians. Possible quote: "Against cutting steel and icy if-then statements, our best weapon is smouldering lust and incandescent rage!"
...What if each player created and statted thier own Potential Ally race and the strength of the Potential Allies could wane, making it possible for the Vonners to decimate thm? Seeing your own personal race, the accomplished empaths known as the Ng'anda, die in droves, screaming at the pain of their brothers on the front would get your attention...
10.) What are the resolution mechanics of your game like?
Players have to get as much Flow as a group as quickly as possible, but this is done by spending dice in/risking mecha components and allies. How much daring is enough, and when does it get dumb? Probably going to end up very similar to Bliss Stage. Also: Forming Blazing Sword and blowing the holy hell out of a bad guy requires an action but is automatic at foo Flow (and I need to solve for Foo).
...Possibly the act of burning points in a Motivation will add more Flow to the system, but at the cost of making a Fear check?
11.) How do the resolution mechanics reinforce what your game is about?
Help me figure it out? Maybe making them even more bad-ass because they're getting Chumbawumba-ed ("I get knocked down...")?
12.) Do characters in your game advance? If so, how?
Objectives completed in combat go into a pool shared by the party: they can be spent, by individuals, on (for lack of a better term) Interludes. Interludes can snag you Allies, which give you additional abilities / limbs for your mecha, or improve ones you already have, or wear away at enemy Influence on an alien race or individual.
13.) How does the character advancement (or lack thereof) reinforce what your game is about?
It emulates the genre, that's for DAMN sure.
14.) What sort of product or effect do you want your game to produce in or for the players?
Unabashed, guilty-pleasure fun, people quoting TTGL (whether they realize it or not: "WHO THE HELL DO YOU THINK I AM!?") and dropped jaws.
15.) What areas of your game receive extra attention and color? Why?
The enemy, the better to hate them with. The history of Earth, so people realize the lost glory and the "They used to be human..." angle, and respond accordingly. The mecha, by contrast, are deliberately left fairly undefined, as are the nature of the lost colonies: possibly Earth/the PC homeworld is far better defined, to ground the players in culture and place.
16.) Which part of your game are you most excited about or interested in? Why?
Seeing how redicolously, suicidally audacious people get.
17.) Where does your game take the players that other games can't, don't, or won't?
Into the cockpit of a super robot.
18.) What are your publishing goals for your game?
Small print run, sell and demo at Anime cons (as opposed to gamer cons), PDF for slow trickle of sales, word-of-mouth advertising and cheap viral advertising.
19.) Who is your target audience?
Anime fans, Super-Robot fans in particular, who probably haven't gamed before. If making a reference to "Captian Garlock" or reciting "My hand holds a great POWER! It's burning GRIP tells me to DEFEAT you!" makes someone grin uncontrollably, that person is in my audience.
Thoughts on my bolded questions?
