Decommissioned: Time Mechanic

March 29, 2008 at 4:10 pm | In D-Com | Leave a Comment
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The beginning of a D-Com game consists of the player(s) and Department Manager (the GM) discussing how long they want to play that night (yes, D-Com is now a one-night game; I want to position it as a game that can be played when a player doesn’t show up for game night).  The negotiated length of the play session determines a central mechanic in the game: Core System Time.

Let’s say the 2 players and the Dept Mgr decide on a 2 hour game.  The two Battlebot PCs begin play with a 10 in Core and a d4 in “Spirit”.  Since in this example the game length is 2 hours or 120 minutes, every 12 minutes, both Battlebots lose 1 point of Core.  When a Battlebot’s Core is 0, they are completely broken and cease all functions.  These 12 minutes are real-time since everyone agreed to a two hour game.

If you think about this with the Core mechanic of stressing the system, most of the time, the game would last less than 2 hours.

Here’s my favorite part of the timing mechanic.  Once the play group settle on a game length (in hours), they play an mp3 that comes with the game that lasts two hours.  The mp3 is completely silent (nothing to distract those players who hate music in game).  Every twelve minutes, an audio cue notifies the players that Core System failure has occurred.

But say you only want to play for an hour?  That’s cool.  The game will come with an mp3 with audio cues every 6 minutes.  The game will come with mp3s for play sessions of 1, 2, 3 and 4 hours.  As for what “comes with means”, I’m still pondering the details of either a CD included with the game or more likely, hosting the mp3s online.

I look forward to playtesting this live.  I’ve discussed the mechanic with a couple people and have received interesting feedback.

Decommissioned: New and Improved Stats

March 29, 2008 at 2:31 pm | In D-Com | Leave a Comment
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Last week, I was reading the game theory discussion Ron Edwards placed at the end of his book Sorceror and found his breakdown of the type of conflict resolution a very interesting explanation of how games work.

The next morning, I woke up with ideas for D-Com mechanics that has really excited me about the game again.

At this point, there are two base stats.  Once I get them firmed up, I may add more fiddly bits to play with, but for now, only two. 

Core:

The first stat is called Core.  Core covers all physical actions that a Battlebot can do: move, shoot, hack into systems, follow orders, process sensory input, make tactical decisions in the field, pretty much anything and everythgin that a corporation would create a Battlebot to do. 

  • Core is a base number, not a die value.  You cannot “roll” Core.  To perform an action, you compare Core to the difficulty of the task. 
  • Core begins at a 10.  The highest possible Difficulty for an action is 11 (that’s right, my game goes to 11).  Therefore,  at start, a Battlebot can do pretty much anything (they’re the best there is at what they do)
  • As play progresses, the Core stat decreases (reflecting the degradation of the Battlebot as systems fail).  This means Battlebots will face failure for easier tasks as the game progresses.
  • Fear not!  One fiddly bit is that a player can choose to “stress the system” and push their PC to accomplish higher difficulty tasks by taking immediate drops in their Core equal to the difference between their current Core and the difficulty (EX: Battlebot is at 6 Core and wants to attempt Difficulty 7 action to save a comrade; the player can choose to “stress the system”, meaning their PC saves the comrade, but the PC’s Core drops to 5 immediately (7 Diff – 6 Core equals 1 drop in Core); this means a player can still do fantastic deeds with their PC, but at a cost of hastening their demise.
  • But wait… there’s more: there’s yet another way for players to beat the odds – check the next stat

“Spirit” 

The second stat is currently called “Spirit” but it is only a placeholder name.  Spirit is the reflection of that bit of soul that sets a PC apart from its fellow Battlebots.  While an average Battlebot only exists to serve the Tech Masters for the good of The Corporation.  Spirit is also the reason for the Battlebot’s upcoming demise, because it is what drove the unit to rebel and flee the Compound.

Spirit is used when a Battlebot does something outside its programming: talking to humans, making decisions off the battlefield, moral or ethical decisions, performing “illogical” actions or anything the play group agrees would be outside a Battlebots programming.

  • Spirit is represented by a die type and a roll of the die.  Spirit begins as a d4, but grows over the course of the game
  • Department Manager sets the difficulty of the “spirit” action and player rolls their die attemptign to meet or exceed the difficulty
  • Spirit is increased when a player fails a roll.  This represents the learning computer within the Battlebot.
  • Spirit is normally used for actions outside a Battlebot’s programming, but if the player describes how their Spirit gives a boost to an action that is within Battlebot programs, the player can roll Spirit and add it to the Core total to compare against the difficulty of the action

Decommissioned: Sample Characters

March 22, 2008 at 3:06 pm | In D-Com | Leave a Comment

Here are three sample Player Character concepts for different D-Com games.

Battlebot #1 

Renames itself Payback. The player chooses Vengeance as Sacred. The player creates a Tech Master villain who the Battlebot has decided must die because he deactivated one of Payback’s comrades.

Payback escapes The Compound, and then once the connection is severed from the Hub, it re-enters and hunts down the Tech Master to kill him.

Battlebot #2

Renames itself Haven. The player chooses Life as Sacred and decides the Battlebot sees a group of refugees fleeing the corporate systems for a new life on a newly terraformed pioneer world. Haven decides that it will protect them on their journey.

Battlebot #3

Renames itself Concord. Player chooses Peace as Sacred and decides the Battlebot has had enough of fighting and wants to escape it all. Concord must escape his pursuers without killing them and find a place of solitude to enjoy some peace until it expires.

One thing I love about baseball

March 15, 2008 at 11:36 pm | In MtB | Leave a Comment

Last week, I went to see a spring training game between the Yankees and the Reds.  My parents drove down to FL to meet with me so we could go see a couple games together.  It was going to be a nice vacation.  We showed up at the Tampa Bay Yankees ballpark 90 minutes early in hopes of seeing players up close, maybe getting an autograph.   I saw Alex Rodriguez, Derek Jeter, Hideki Matsi (my fave) and several others. They were all taking batting practice on the field outside the stadium.  It was a beautiful chaos. The batters hacking away while infielders did drills and outfielders shagged flies.

But the big surprise was the staff.  My Dad immediately pointed out Craig Nettles, a NY 3rd baseman from when I was a kid.  He was hitting grounders to the 2nd basemen on the right side of the infield.  And then, we walked over to the left side of the batting cage. There he was, this 6′8″ man in his sixties, tall and lean, his face hard.  My dad recognized him, but couldn’t recall his name.  A man standing near us said his name was Frank Howard.  He was a hard hitting outfielder for the Dodgers and the Senators (the old Washington team) of old.  He wasn’t just standing there, he had a bat in his hand, and he was hitting grounders to one of the Yankees young 1st basemen, Shelley Duncan.

He would toss up a ball and in one smooth motion, choke up on the bat and smack a hard grounder towards 1st.  He was so old, and when he walked, it was with this old limping gait.  But his hands were so practiced, he never missed the ball.  Shelley would snag the grounder, then he would one hop it back to Frank. And Frank would catch it one-handed.  There was this respect, this understanding between them.  It was amazing to watch, as if  the two men were this connection between when baseball was good and pure and now.

The players all wore these top of the line baseball caps, fitted, all nice and neat.  But Frank Howard wore an old adjustable cap, the kind with the half moon circle on the back between cap and strap.  Then, I looked in the program my dad bought, he wasn’t there.  Everyone else was there: Tony Pena, Bobby Mercer, Rich Monteleone, Craig Nettles.. but not Frank Howard.  He wasn’t an instructor, or even a noted attendee.  He was just an old baseball player hitting balls and walking around the field.

Once my Dad told my Mom who he was, she called out to him, “Mr. Howard!”

He turned around, not surprised, but he responded, unlike the other ballplayers (they had many fans calling to them).

She called out, “How are you, Mr. Howard?”

He replied simply, “Just fine, champ.”  Then he turned to whack another grounder.  He was all work.

All the other players fell away as I watched him.  That repetitive motion, tossing the ball, sliding up to grip the bat, cracking it to first, then waiting to one-hand catch the return throw.. like this kind of zen.

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