How I wrote City of Judas (part six)

How I wrote City of Judas (part six)

How I wrote City of Judas (part six)

Again about the design process of City of Judas. I’d love to hear your opinions – as fellow game designers and as players as well.

First part (intro and inspiration): https://plus.google.com/+DavidePignedoli/posts/EzYVbYncPhT 

Second part (starting to design the game): https://plus.google.com/+DavidePignedoli/posts/iMSHo8Cjqat 

Third part (playbooks, counters, and moves): https://plus.google.com/+DavidePignedoli/posts/PDjiV3RU5Dp

Fourth part (about the number of moves, and about accepting good advice): https://plus.google.com/+DavidePignedoli/posts/5ZL2cUBMaoz

Fifth part (about the setting in general): https://plus.google.com/u/0/+DavidePignedoli/posts/BriT4AN3REj

Today we’re in for a sensitive subject.

Religion

The manual contains a clear disclaimer that warns the reader about how it deals with religion, and a sensitive pairing such as religion and violence. For some reason, there’s always someone that feels like it’s perfectly fine to crawl into a dungeon and kill goblins or kobolds to loot their treasures, but they grow uncomfortable if religion is also thrown into the game.

Armed robbery and murder are fine; but keep god (or God) out of the equation 🙂

Now, I believe the majority of the players don’t have any problem to deal with how City of Judas presents religion: as a piece of fiction that is used to give color to a certain type of gaming and adventures. It’s this kind of people that I guess would buy the game, so these are the people I’m addressing. If someone is offended by the game, I guess he just won’t buy it; there’s enough in the preview to drive off potential “offended” customers.

I feel like the entire setting is built with a decent balance: there’s an almost real Church of Christ, and a totally imaginary Cult of Judas. Actually, even though they appear as “religions”, the manual clearly presents them as “political” elements: the Church of Christ is a symbol of stability; the Cult of Judas is a revolutionary force (in a relative modern prospective).

The combination of a realistic Christian church, paired with an absolutely fictional Judaist cult, I think puts also the former into a different light. 

In other words, when playing City of Judas, the strong fictional charge of the cult of Judas makes also the Christian church somehow “less real”. If this happens in your game, that’s fine; City of Judas is about an alternative, fantasy history, not about the real history of the crusades. This fictional space is supposed to give you the freedom to explore these sensitive topics without feeling restrained: you’re not talking about a “real” religion, even for the Christians, but about something made of imagination (mostly…).

How did you feel dealing with them in your games? Did you feel uncomfortable to have perhaps to describe one (or both, more likely) as organizations with their own agendas, which often aim to something more than religious goals?

Did you have trouble when those cults were associated with violence, greed, betrayal? Or did they instead (as I hope)served as powerful leverage to push your stories forward?

Here is a short presentation of City of Judas from tabletopgamingnews:

Here is a short presentation of City of Judas from tabletopgamingnews:

Here is a short presentation of City of Judas from tabletopgamingnews:

http://www.tabletopgamingnews.com/city-of-judas-a-new-rpg-about-medieval-mercenaries-in-a-alternate-history-jerusalem-during-the-crusades/

http://www.tabletopgamingnews.com/city-of-judas-a-new-rpg-about-medieval-mercenaries-in-a-alternate-history-jerusalem-during-the-crusades

How I wrote City of Judas (part five)

How I wrote City of Judas (part five)

How I wrote City of Judas (part five)

Again about the design process of City of Judas. I’d love to hear your opinions – as fellow game designers and as players as well.

First part (intro and inspiration): https://plus.google.com/+DavidePignedoli/posts/EzYVbYncPhT 

Second part (starting to design the game): https://plus.google.com/+DavidePignedoli/posts/iMSHo8Cjqat 

Third part (playbooks, counters, and moves): https://plus.google.com/+DavidePignedoli/posts/PDjiV3RU5Dp

Fourth part (about the number of moves, and about accepting good advice): https://plus.google.com/+DavidePignedoli/posts/5ZL2cUBMaoz

This time it’s all about the Setting – the crusades, the medieval times, and why the Middle East…

The Setting

When I released the first beta (or actually, alpha) of the game, it already had a very precise setting: the characters are mercenaries, and they start in the area of Jerusalem, in a setting that is a mix of real historical events (such as the crusades) and imaginary ones (the most prominent being the cult of Judas).

What I wanted to achieve was a setting that would stand out as clearly different from the dark “European” fantasy setting that most of the games have. This choice required some sacrifices: there is no Empire, there are no Fantasy Kingdoms with their wars and their nobility, for example, but here the characters are somehow part of an invading force, or anyway forced to cope with a mix of war and politics where it’s very hard to determine who to side with…

There is no space for a dark and cold forest with ogres or goblins – but there are demons, many of them; they’re at work in the dark, influencing the politics of men in power and trying to exploit the weaknesses of the various religious cults. And there are other monsters like Carnivorous Elephants, Sand-worms, Scorpion-men or Horned Wild-cats (for all of those I took some inspiration from the ancient persian and arab monsters).

I felt that the setting had a great potential: both for its intrinsic value and for the simple fact that it is different than others.

The temptation to recycle a more common stereotype was strong (and I guess City of Judas could be also played in such setting with a very minimal adaptation, if you feel inclined to do so). I was actually working on a different system with such traditional setting. But judging by the feedback I received, the choice of the holy land and the crusades was a winner.

Another positive side of the combination of the medieval times and the holy land, is that it presents a subject which is reasonably familiar for most of the players; there’s no need to study some alternative history or geography. But at the same time, since this is not the real history, not the real crusades, it leaves space for improvisation and original stories.

Strongly tied to the setting is the issue of religion and sorcery.

But before we discuss that, here are some questions for you.

What’s your favorite part about the setting or the City of Judas flavor and color?

Did you have a chance to exploit, in terms of fiction material or inspiration, this setting with its very well defined premises?

Do you feel still free enough to improvise, to re-write history with your players?

If anybody has any advice, suggestions (or requests) on how to prepare playbooks and GM materials for a one-shot at…

If anybody has any advice, suggestions (or requests) on how to prepare playbooks and GM materials for a one-shot at…

If anybody has any advice, suggestions (or requests) on how to prepare playbooks and GM materials for a one-shot at a convention, please comment!

Originally shared by Davide Pignedoli

So, I’m making a quickstarter document for #cityofjudas  – i.e. for conventions.

First of all I am filling the playbooks with some basic info/choices already made for the players. The character creation process can take a little bit of time, and while I believe some players would love to customize their character further, an almost-already-made character can save up quite some time.

Pick the playbook, circle names and looks, answer the background questions, play.

www.daimongames.com/listing/5-TheCityOfJudas-QuickStarterForConventions.pdf

I am going to complete the next characters hopefully in a couple of days. If you played any of these characters, or if you’ve read the manual, please have a look.

Let me know if you think by making certain choices for the players I might be taking away too much, or if you think this will work well for a single session, convention-style, adventure?

If you haven’t read the manual you can probably still comment at least on my choice of moves.

Second question: as a GM, what would you like to see in a document for a convention?

I assume you’ve read the manual if you’re the GM; but if this is your first adventure with City of Judas, would you like a couple of quick-starters for adventures?

And what else could be useful?

http://www.daimongames.com/listing/5-TheCityOfJudas-QuickStarterForConventions.pdf

So, I’m making a quickstarter document for #cityofjudas  – i.e. for conventions.

So, I’m making a quickstarter document for #cityofjudas  – i.e. for conventions.

So, I’m making a quickstarter document for #cityofjudas  – i.e. for conventions.

First of all I am filling the playbooks with some basic info/choices already made for the players. The character creation process can take a little bit of time, and while I believe some players would love to customize their character further, an almost-already-made character can save up quite some time.

Pick the playbook, circle names and looks, answer the background questions, play.

www.daimongames.com/listing/5-TheCityOfJudas-QuickStarterForConventions.pdf

I am going to complete the next characters hopefully in a couple of days. If you played any of these characters, or if you’ve read the manual, please have a look.

Let me know if you think by making certain choices for the players I might be taking away too much, or if you think this will work well for a single session, convention-style, adventure?

If you haven’t read the manual you can probably still comment at least on my choice of moves.

Second question: as a GM, what would you like to see in a document for a convention?

I assume you’ve read the manual if you’re the GM; but if this is your first adventure with City of Judas, would you like a couple of quick-starters for adventures?

And what else could be useful?

http://www.daimongames.com/listing/5-TheCityOfJudas-QuickStarterForConventions.pdf

This is a really nice play-report from one of our first new GMs trying the City of Judas – a medieval fantasy AW…

This is a really nice play-report from one of our first new GMs trying the City of Judas – a medieval fantasy AW…

This is a really nice play-report from one of our first new GMs trying the City of Judas – a medieval fantasy AW hack – and scaring the s**t out of a couple of characters with an angry, huge Roc.

(and for those who followed the first adventure of Azim, now the mule’s got a name: Judith)

Originally shared by G. Dzi

This is the first part of my second game session of COJ.

For starters, the casting :

– Azim ben Arrabas, the veteran from the crusades follower of the book of Q who successfully accomplished one mission (and saved a mule called Judith^^).

– Grégoire de Marsiac, a Frank leader from Gasconny who ended up at Jerusalem after having ashamed his family.

The two of the blood brothers were summoned once again by the Magister Geoffrey but this time he sent them to the small and remote village of Bersaba in the southern part of Judea. Their mission was to assess the economical and strategical strengths of the place and if worthy to start negociate a business relationship with the Iron Fist (IF). Even if Azim was the most experienced brother, Geoffrey gave the command to Grégoire because he’s heard “some people” speaking highly of him (As a noble, Grégoire’s got some family in Jerusalem as he described in his background). Nonetheless, it didn’t really please the Magister who will particularily have an eye on Grégoire’s results. Better for him to succeed in his first endeavor…

The Quatermaster of the IF (have to give him a name next time, because I have the feeling he’ll be a recurrent NPC) gave them one horse each (strong european ones actually) and rations for the 10 days trip.

Before leaving the City of Judas, Azim thought that a map would (justly) help them to get quickly and safely to Bersaba.

NOTA : I, at first, thought they should have gotten a map but then thought that those items were rare and mostly very expensive at the time so I decided that, as rookies still, the IF wouldn’t invest so much in them…for now at least.

I called for a Equipment move and Azim scored a 7-9, so he could find a map but had to pay some extra gold for it (-1 equipment).

As for Grégoire, he had the very good idea to buy some presents for the Bersaba’s authorities, so both of them spend the rest of the first day around the numerous bazaars and souks of Jerusalem. They even witnessed to a christian flagellant procession towards the Mount of Olives.

NOTA : concerning the Grégoire’s request, I didn’t want to have him check his equipment move now as I thought it would be more funny/interesting to have it roll when he’ll give it to the village’s elder. I thought that maybe he could have choosen poorly the gift and maybe anger the Elder if he rolled 6- for example.

Anyhow, Azim & Grégoire got out of Jerusalem and started a long trip into the Judea’s wilderness. I asked only Grégoire to roll a Face Danger+steel and Azim to help him (actually both of them) rolling a face Danger+Brains as he was using the map. He rolled again a 7-9.

So…the map was really usefull to them as Azim’s player described how it’s got many places indicated to rest during the hottest part of the day and to find good shelter for the more than chilly nights (probably a map maide by an old pilgrim) but one day as Azim was looking at it at mid-day, he didn’t notice the scorpion crawling under the map and before he realized it stung him.

NOTA : the scorpion was the consequence of his 7-9 face danger test, it was a soft move at first as Azim spotted the crawly but failed at another Face Danger+Edge check. So I turned it into a hard move and had him loose 2 or 3 health (I don’t really remember how much it was).

BTW, how do you guyz rule the effects of poison? Do you give it a straight number of damage like I did? I thought that maybe one could give as well the Unstable condition even if Health is superior to 0? What do you think?

Grégoire decided to loose couple days to stay put to help Azim recover a bit from his strong fevers (I took there the opportunity, as part of the fiction to have Azim dreamt about the girl at the well from their first adventure and start having strange and mixed feelings about her. You’ll see why later…)

NOTA : Here I asked Grégoire’s player to choose between helping Azim and stay put but maybe loose their supply of food and water or to keep them but keep on going riding with a feverish veteran on a saddle.

After the two days, the fever was gone and they could resume their trip. So as part of the deal, i asked both of them to make an Equipment check to see if they’ll have suffciently rations to get to Bersaba, and they both aced it.

At the ninth day (out of 10) they reached a treacherous mountain path and had to take their mounts by the bridle, mostly climbing more than walking. I asked for another Face Danger+steel : Azim got a 10+ and Grégoire a 7-9. So as they were advancing amongst the rocky landscape, Grégoire spotted a strange shadow passing right over them. He couldn’t see what it was but it gave him an eerie feeling about it.

NOTA : here I used my move from the 7-9 of Grégoire to introduce a Remote Danger.

Some time later they heard screams quickly followed by a strange buzz and a sudden wind. As they were getting closer a flock of sheeps emerged from the top of a cliff, running in every directions. They peeked from over the cliff and saw a shepherd desperately trying to drive out the most gigantic bird they had ever seen. They noticed as well another shepherd lying on the rocks in a pool of his own blood. The huge bird of prey was flapping its wings with such a strength that he could create such a strong wind, that the shepherd had to wrestle with it to stay on his feet.

NOTA : the bird was indeed a monster. I just got my inspiration from the classical Roc Bird and have it be Massive with 2 armor points roughly speaking.

I asked the two compagnions what they wanted to do and after some considerations towards the beast, they finally decided to avoid any confrontation whatsoever with it. So as they were sneaking past it, I called for a Defy Danger+shadow test when the Roc just cleved the poor shepherd they could have saved.

NOTA : now I know what to do to them when they’ll reach -1spirit…Some tainting is on its way.

Azim, once again, proved himself worthy and sneaky and therefore avoided the monster quickly with his mount. But things didn’t turn out so good for our leader. Unfortunately he got a 6-, so he didn’t sneak past it AND the Roc spotted him! I also stated that his horse got scared and ran away (now I thought that maybe I was a bit hard on him at the time). Grégoire asked for the best course of action (or should has he said “survival”?) and I asked him to roll a perception test. he managed to figure out that the best way out was a small cave at some distance or trying to jump on Azim’s mount to ride double. But first he had to get the hell out of there at once as the enormous bird-thing was jumping straight at him! Time to roll an other Face Danger +edge. Grégoire just had the time to get to Azim before he heard the slamming of a gigantic beek right behind his neck!

NOTA : I had Azim helped Grégoire automatically as his described how he was getting his mount clsoer and ready for the Frank, waving and cheering at him to give Grégoire some more strength.

But now they weren’t out of harm’s way yet, they had to outrun the Roc and another time the battle brothers saved themselves thanks of the horsemanship of the veteran (who got another 10+ on his Face Danger+edge test).

NOTA : I’ve got a question here : I think I should have given him maybe a -1 to Azim face danger test as they were riding double. How do you deal with this kind of drawback in general? I believe that in DW you could do that but I’m not entirely sure.

They rode and rode quicker than the wind, avoiding the holes and the treacherous rocks along the way and after what was an eternity of riding, ducking and keeping balance on the saddle their got outside the mountain pass by nightfall. They didn’t catch any glimpse of the bird but could spot some lights down the valley. They had reached the village of Bersaba.

As there was 1 hour of riding left and it was dark, they prefered spend the night in a cave nearby even if the monster could be near.

NOTA : I thought that it was kind of a poor decision personnaly, as i described that the Roc was on their tail for most of their escape but their argument was valid, so I called for a spirit check. And they both failed (6-).

Azim and Grégoire spent the worst night they ever lived. During most of it, they could clearly hear the threatening buzz and the flapping of massive wings followed sometimes by a terrifying shriek. Azim was submerged by fear and crawled to the deepest part of the cave where he spent the whole night trembling and sweating, chanting all the prayers he knew from the book of Q. As for Grégoire, he was just furious against himself as he thought that he acted with cowardice when he let the shepherd got killed gruesomely by the monster.

NOTA : here I used the consequence of a failed test your spirit check and chose : “you show the worst of you…”

Only when the firsts rays of light shown themselves, they got it together and could they resume their mission.

As they were climbing down the mountain, Grégoire spotted from far away, the cloud of dust made by a group of riders approaching the village. Who were they and what was their business at Bersaba?…

END of the first part.

So, as usual, I’d love to hear comments, critics and advices from you guyz about how I ran the first part of this adventure. As you noticed, I called for a lot of Face Danger tests. Do you think there were too many? Or should I had replaced some of them with other moves maybe? To me it didn’t appear like weird really but I’m always open to suggestion! Hope you liked it! 🙂

 

How I wrote City of Judas (part four)

How I wrote City of Judas (part four)

How I wrote City of Judas (part four)

Again about the design process of City of Judas. I’d love to hear your opinions – as fellow game designers and as players as well.

First part: https://plus.google.com/+DavidePignedoli/posts/EzYVbYncPhT 

Second part: https://plus.google.com/+DavidePignedoli/posts/iMSHo8Cjqat 

Third part:

https://plus.google.com/+DavidePignedoli/posts/PDjiV3RU5Dp

This time it’s about accepting good advice – and about how I reduced the number of Moves in the game.

The number of Moves

The first drafts of the game had a lot of Moves. There were a lot of Basic Moves and a lot of Peripheral Moves, and also a lot of Combat Moves. For example, in combat you had a standard move to fight, one to be more on a defensive stance, and one to be attacking in full force.

Several of the feedback I received were clear about this: there were way too many Moves.

My initial response was to be defensive. It’s normal to be defensive I guess: it was my game, it was for free, and I wanted advice but most of all I wanted to be given compliments and confirmation. Still, while it’s legitimate to say: that’s the game, play it as it is or don’t play it at all, well… feedback is exactly that: telling you what you did right, and what you should perhaps consider to change.

What I did with the number of moves, was indeed was to change and simplify.

There are a couple of reasons for this: one is indeed that I recognized the wisdom of the commentators that insisted that there were too many moves. A lot of them were smart people that in other cases I found myself agreeing with.

Perhaps this time they were wrong, or perhaps I thought they were wrong just because they were talking about my own work. Yes, of course the real reason was the latter, I was just being defensive.

More importantly (the second reason for this change), I thought about the process I followed when doing other work: when I write fiction, I write following the inspiration, but then I need to review and clean my work, and a lot of it involves taking out stuff.

Same when I write code: when you get the job done quickly, there’s a lot of clutter in the code. When you take your time to tidy up, you usually end up with a better script, which is also shorter.

So yes: I reduced the number of Moves, and in some cases that paired up with reducing the number of Counters.

Bottom line: usually good people give good advice, and while it’s good in an early stage to throw into a game all the ideas you have about that subject, later on you will need to simplify and cut away some useless (or nearly useless) chunks. 

An example: Rings were used to improve your rank within the Iron Fist; they had a special rule and a dedicated counter.

Now the rank is just a single Advancement you take with XP. From a rule and a counter, to a single checkbox, without actually removing anything relevant from the game.

So, how’s your experience with your own game design? Does it feel painful to cut certain pieces of your work, to simplify? Or perhaps you don’t have this problem at all?

And as a player/GM, do you find yourself house-ruling to simplify games that are too (unnecessarily) complex? (of course, again, this is often a matter of taste)

Following Richard Sardinas suggestion, I added a few Categories to the community: Play report, Custom moves,…

Following Richard Sardinas suggestion, I added a few Categories to the community: Play report, Custom moves,…

Following Richard Sardinas suggestion, I added a few Categories to the community: Play report, Custom moves, Questions, and Design.

Of course, you can still post in the generic ‘Discussion’ category – I’ll move the post if I believe it should be filled under a different label.

If you’ve got something that you think should go to a different category, feel free to ask.

Some questions&answers about the Raider

Some questions&answers about the Raider

Some questions&answers about the Raider

Grégory Doizi  I totally understand that this could cause some confusion.

Does the Raider PC make a move for his gang in battle AND another one for himself using the regular moves? […]

When the Raider takes advantage of his own gang, and acts as a leader within its ranks, than it usually makes sense that the Raider will roll the move for the Gang and consider the single character as part of the gang action.

In other words: roll just once for example for Engage in Battle, and the Raider is acting within the ranks of the gang. See also pages 123 and 124 (especially 124 the section CHARACTERS’ GANG VS. NPCS’ GANG).

the Player asked me what are his stats relevant in combat […]

The Raider’s stats become relevant in the case he wants to act indipendently. 

Now, the advantage to act indipendently is clear: roll with the Raider’s Steel (which might be a higher stat), attack the enemies from two fronts, or even do something else entirely (“while my gang keeps the enemy busy, I help the noble we’re escorting to get back on his horse and run away…”).

If we stick to battle, I usually treat things like this: for everything there’s a price.

If the Raider stays with the gang, they roll together to Engage in Battle, but the Raider is of course always in position to give orders, to get help from his companions, to direct the gang tactics. And the Raider is not outnumbered because he’s part of the gang.

If the Raider moves ‘out of the ranks’, then it depends: does he engage the same enemy? OK, but he’s outnumbered; he’s not part of the gang anymore, just a single guy fighting among a bunch of enemies and friends…

Does he want to give orders when things are getting hard for the gang? OK, but how does he do it if he stepped aside and picked targets with his bow, instead?

in our group there were a raider and a veteran and they were fighting a small gang

That sounds bad for the poor gang of NPCs 🙂

is the other character considered to be part of the gang? and if so how about his own moves

He is considered part of the gang only if he ‘gives up’ acting indipendently and stays within ranks. 

If the Veteran wants to move out of the ranks and do something else (attack the enemy gang from the flank, pick them from afar with a crossbow, steal something while the enemy gang is busy with the Raider’s gang…), then he’s not in the gang anymore (and does not enjoy the protection of numbers…)

If not part of the gang or doesn’t want to be part of it, does he have to fight the gang using the Face Death move as if he were alone?

Oh, yes, absolutely. Unless he takes the Last Stand move, and then he has an option to fight a gang on equal ground.

Now, the above are important principles, but a bit of flexibility might be in order, in certain cases.

Take in consideration how many characters do you have, and how’s the situation on the battlefield, and the fiction you guys enjoy the most. What is this fight about? 

If you need to overcome the enemy by brute force, then I’d stick more to the tactical side, if your Players enjoy that.

But if the fight is about getting some other NPC safely out of trouble, for example, than for sure the focus is more on threats directed to the NPC.

For example: Raider+Gang engage together the enemy, while the Veteran and the NPC run away.

On a 7-9 of the Raider, instead of hitting the gang, I let the NPC gang take the blow but say that a couple of them sneak past the Raider’s gang and are about to chase the Veteran. Raider, what do you do?