Inspired by my own daughters, nephews, and nieces
When a player rolls the dice in most RPG’s, they are rolling for success or failure. Roll a d20 and get a 2 or a 10 dice pool and get 3 successes. This players eyes lose that spark; inevitably they ask “Is there anything I can do?” Usually there is not much, some system might allow a re roll or extra experience, but their story stops.
The Conflict System is designed around the idea that player chooses success, not the roll. A player decides how many of their characters values, abilities, aspects, and resources they use to succeed.
The rules empower the player to make choices, doing things at the table to expand the story. You play this game by using more resources than you think you should, thinking up cool effects to change the story. This game can play boring, if the players don’t do things to drive their story. The conflict system thrives on players making the cool happen. Players need to take a risk they would not normally take, make an attempt even if its so crazy you cannot believe your character can do it. Players make something happen, the conflict system always lets you try, and even succeed if you out think the challenge.
This game is about making fun meaningful choices; that creates a story you want. Players see the effects of their choices, leading to growing a character so you can do even more. The game changes the player, the characters and the story with every choice, not the roll of the dice.
So if its all about choice how do challenges work? Just like any other RPG, with one difference; after the roll the character chooses what they will use to figure their success.
Each challenge type has a different success requirement; which changes the players choices. Players either build a skillset, boost an attribute, or apply skills to overcome the challenge. The GM sets the Opposed EF or Situations Modifiers, which the character must overcome to succeed.
A SkillSet is a combination of Main Skills, SubSkills and Past Events; totaled to a values called an Effectiveness. The player also gets to add a single attribute, related to what the character is doing.
Boosting an attribute uses SubSkills and Past Events to boost a single attribute to overcome any Situational Mods.
The Characters (players) take an action, the GM opposes it. Setting a Challenge target the players character has to beat with a SkillSet. A SkillSet is a collection of Skills, abilities and past events, limited by a characters Skill Depth.
The dice indicate how capable a character is at the challenge. A straight percentile roll (1d100) must be under or equal to an attribute for a character to use their full Skill Depth. A failure indicates that the character is stumped by the challenge and has only a Skill Depth of 1. Failures limit a characters ability to succeed, forcing them to choose failure or spend resources to re-roll or otherwise boost their Skill Depth.
The SkillSet
After a player knows their Skill Depth value, they build a SkillSet, adding Skills, Past events, abilities and other modifiers to get a total. The SkillSet total must beat the GM set Challenge Target to succeed at the challenge.
Both the GM and the Players have options to boost their final values, to determine success.
That’s the Conflict System in a nutshell, the GM and the players move the story forward. Challenges force the Players to make choices to overcome the opposition and drive the story their way. Choice is the driver of the conflict system.
Hello all,
So PAX was great saw a few panels with some successful designers as well as some great testing and discussions of my games.
Great Playtest and some awesome feedback on play and design of the game.
Here is sample of the test phantom player side of the character cards, some redesign is in order but looking good.
So The QuickPlay is close to release, after some feed back from pax. It has a new 3 stage adventure based off 2 previous quickplays.
Here is the cover:
Lastly after some deep discussions Zombie Golf is being moved up in the Production queue to get it out there fast. I fdon't have any firm art or rules yet, but its gonna be a busy week.
Look for a StrikeForce, Zombie Golf, Panic and Flashpoint: Global Influence designer diary in the weeks to come.
Thanx for your interest...
Zombie Golf
All the Frustration of Golf, All the Satisfaction of Killing Zombies
So after PAX Unplugged I was super motivated to start a project I have had on my desk for months in index card form.
The idea is simple; the end of the world is here. A nuclear accident caused a mutation in the avian flu, making people and parts of the environment zombies and zombie like. You and your friends have a standing bet on who is the best golfer and this is your last shot, winner takes the title. So you grabbed your clubs, losing some in the rush, and met them at Demon Sands Country Club for a quick 9 holes.
So simple game using cards and a single d12. You take a swing, advance your ball up the map of the hole (avoiding hazards) and then the zombies attack. 4 types of zombies, Walkers, Shamblers, Runners, and Biters. The first 3 do wounds, the last turns you into a zombie and out of the game. You roll the D12, add you position on the hole, club and card bonuses to get to the green, or land in hazard. Once on the green you roll the d12 and have to be within 2 of the putting number, using any card or club bonuses.
First player to win a majority of holes, first to putt in wins. You can also play for score for a longer game.
That's it a simple game; so I started creating cards... Here are the first testers.. Enjoy.
Who knew.. An opportunity opened up and I will be in the alpha room with 3 games to tryout:
Panic: The Bad Scifi Move Board Game
The Beta of the StrikeForce:2136 conversion to Rev X. I have 4 pregens and an adventure created for PAX.
Lastly I hope to run a game or 2 or flashpoint, these are the older rules, still fun and will help me confirm some game flow.
So are you at PAX and have 90 minutes to kill or want to try a different sort of Game..
RolePlayersINK is there in the alpha room, come find us.
