Forbidden City
So, here we go, a first draft. It's very rough. I'd welcome feedback.
I'm going to do the Opium Wars, a conflict in which the British sent gunboats into China to enforce the drug trade. Nasty stuff.
Graham
Forbidden City
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Summary:
First draft of Graham's war game
[See finished version]
I love the way that the theme emerges from the mechanics. The British always win the war. The marines always reach the Forbidden City. The question seems to be how the players and their characters interpret this war, over which they have no control. The actions of the marines won't change the outcome, which is nicely mirrored in the fact that the actions of the players won't affect the fights.
The "smoke" is also a beautiful element. It's not only the narcotic that is destroying the land, but also the smoke rising from the ruins of the land itself. In their red coats, the marines are almost living embodiments of the smoke.
I'm concerned about the role of the emperor, who is trying to convince the marines that they are destroying the land. The mechanics of the game already make it clear that they ARE destroying the land. As a player, I have to work quite hard to pretend that this isn't so, and to sympathize somehow with one of the marines. I might not feel a lot of tension, as a result.
How do the wounds affect the game? At one point, I thought that each marine accumulated a pool of wound dice, representing physical or emotional injuries suffered during the war. That still interests me. What would happen if the wound dice show the highest number in a fight?
That's an excellent point about the tension. The viewpoint of the British at the time, I imagine, was that they were destroying the land to teach the Chinese a lesson.
At the end, I think there needs to be a choice, about whether you destroy the Forbidden City, or turn on your own side.
I like the idea of accumulating wounds. I'll think about that.
Graham
Graham
Forbidden City
Genre: War Story
Themes:
- technological superiority
- cultural superiority
- betrayal
Introduced Themes
- war as a mental struggle
- seeking to return home
Rules
The story is not about whether or not the characters overcome obstacles, but how they come to do so and whether or not they accept their methods of victory.
The mechanics are such that characters are almost assured of giving in to cowardice or smoke at some point. Facing that is integral to the story, but there is little sense of consequence in the rules themselves.
The process of narrating to get dice is a nice touch, encouraging involvement without having to jump into resolution mechanics
The rules for wounds are partially in the example of play, rather than in the rules section itself. A little clarification is needed on whether wounds become a generic pile, or if each player has their own pile. Wounds increase in likelihood the more dice are rolled, so teaming up to accomplish tasks is actually a bad idea.
It seems like losing control occurs too often. In a way I think it’s an unneccesary mechanic, since losing by an unwanted means feels like losing control anyways.
Right now the Emperor’s only power over mechanics is to determine when rolls are needed. Some minor influence would be really interesting.
Pools create an interesting play between the players, wherein they can effectively attack one another simply by grabbing as many dice as possible. I could see some need for moderation to control a pushy player.
Setting Resources
The setting is not detailed per se, but the “Emperor” is given some guidelines that are useful for maintaining the feel of the game. The hallucinatory nature of the setting makes fixed descriptions innappropriate to the game, but I can’t help but think that vignettes might be very useful (look to the Metropolis Sourcebook for the Kult rpg for some excellent examples).
I really think it would benefit from the slightly allegorical elements being played up more.
How do the character background details come in? Are they used for success via smoke?
Finally
This is the game that won the “Surprise Me!” point. Every war story game I’d played before was about whether or not the characters could defeat the enemy, but this one wasn’t. It took a lot of thought to review, and I like things that challenge me to think.
/forum/t-109453/forbidden-city#post-
