The Campaign Builder's Guild

[ic]There's something foul in here, and for once it isn't you.  Moving.  Somewhere beneath layers of waste and turbid effluvial muck, heaving and shifting slowly, breathing.  Watching?  You stagger to your feet and shake off a week's accumulated debris as your rheumy eyes adjust to the dark.  Where are you, you slimy bastard, and what are you doing in my alley?

It moves again, behind an overturned trashcan; smaller than you had expected but no less lethal for it.  A shadow, an oily blackness on the grey canvass of the alley floor.  Its eyes are green and bright like traffic lights; its mouth drips with something vulgar.  A hiss, and it raises its hackles.  It jerks suddenly, disgorging a tarry spray, but you're no fool and you've seen the trick before.  Your old bones grate as the gun appears in your hand '" where the hell did this come from? '" and you twist sideways, dodging the acid muck and letting rip a roaring blaze of fire.

The thing explodes with a pop, and the alley is silent again.  It smells worse than before, but now, at least, it's quiet.  Maybe now you can get some shut-eye.

I know the secret of the cosmos, and it's found at the bottom of this gutter.

If you want to get to the top, the fastest way there is to fall through the bottom, into the blackness, out of memory.

The whole world's languishing for want of a purpose, looking to the stars for the answers, but the truth is staring at them from a trashcan.

The saints are real.  They wear rags, drink swill and don't smell nice at all.

Bugrit, millennium hand an' shrimp.
[/ic]


This is a game about bums.  Not your run-of-the-mill, hard-up, dime-a-dozen schmucks, but the senile sods who've lived on the streets so long that they've forgotten their own names; who've drunk themselves to the brink of the abyss and stared the darkness down; who've learned more cuss-words than could fit in any modern lexicon but can't string two sane words together to save their lives.

They're also the keepers of the world, holding together the fraying fabric of human civilisation.  The greed, apathy and despair of the rabid body public breeds all manner of monsters (metaphorical and otherwise) that slink through the dark and curtained spaces outside of public view.  But those spots have already been taken by the homeless, and they're not about to share.  It's their job to keep the evilness back '" not necessarily because they're good at heart (though some are), but because they were here first.

Bums are unappealing sorts.  They're old, smelly, cantankerous and foul-mouthed, not to mention bat-crazy.  Coincidentally (or not), those are their stats:

Old
Not one of these bastards is younger than forty, and many of them would (if only they could remember their age) put the Guinness Books to shame.  Old applies to any situation where seniority, experience or physical inability would come into play.  It's also useful for getting people to feel sorry for you (and give you munny).

Seasoned
Frail
Wasting
Decrepit
Deathly

Smelly
It's hard to stay clean without the basic amenities afforded most everyday folks, but some folks take it a step further.  They reek.  And it's not just a temporary thing: the smelly stat reflects how bad they smell after only a full day unwashed.  The smelliest bums can work psychological magics of aversion, confusion and fear with their stink, but they're also not very pleasant to be around.

Malodorous
Stinky
Repugnant
Putrid
Vile

Cantankerous
You probably wouldn't guess it, but these guys can fight like demons.  They're uncoordinated, sure, but they're loud, angry and they've got a massive score to settle with the world.  Cantankerous deals with causing chaos: kicking out patrol-car windows, laying the hurt down on the ungrateful youths and smashing up the scenery.

Grumpy
Cruel
Vicious
Inhuman
Monstrous

Foul-Mouthed
Most hobos are pretty civil when in public.  It's hard to get munny when you're tossing expletives like candy on Fat Tuesday.  But when the occasion calls for it, oh lordy how they cuss!  Foul-mouthed governs diplomacy and intimidation.  It's also useful for making nuns blush and kiddies weep.  (Note that just because they're uncivil that doesn't necessarily make them mean-spirited.  That's governed by Cantankerous)

Uncivil
Crude
Profane
Godless
Unholy

Crazy
Live out in the cold away from friends, family and generally good company for as long as some hobos, and you'll see why they're so often out of their damned minds.  Either the loneliness eats away at you until you can't remember what 'you' even means, or you fill that social void with a fantasy of your own.  All bums are kooky to some extent.  Some are downright insane.

Weird
Senile
Loopy
Demented
Insane

Flaws are what the hard life has heaped upon you.  They typically represent the way other people see you, not necessarily your self-image.  In fact, you might consider yourself an entirely different person, but that's largely irrelevant.

These are the good things you've picked up from your time on the streets.  The bad news is, unlike your flaws, these are in limited supply.

Gumption
You've got balls.  You've seen a lot of weird things in your life, and you've been emboldened by the experience.  When you do something bold, impetuous or downright defiant, add some gumption to the task.

Charm
You're frail, funny looking, you don't smell real good and people have a hard time understanding what you're saying.  Nevertheless, you have this way of getting what you want.  Stack this on top of Smelly when you want to gross people into avoiding you (or cantankerous to intimidate them).  Stack it on Old to induce pity, and so on.

Sneakiness
For all-round skulking and hiding purposes.  Be one with the city.  Disappear.

Mojo
This is used to increase your sorcerous powers (if you ever get any).

These are the unique traits you had before you became a vagrant, or that are simply part of your nature.  Some examples are:

Fought in the war
Cunning old bastard
Still knows a little soft shoe
Voice of an angel
Down-and-out pugilist

You can theoretically have bad perks, as stupid as the idea is.  I mean, you're flawed enough as it is, right?

Sometimes the supernatural terrors nipping at your ankles get a little too much to handle.  At this point, maybe it's time to fight fire with fire.  Dark Majikc is the unholy art of corrupting human intentions and unshackling the ravenous Beast beyond the Curtain.  There are five flavours of darkness:

Necromancy
Communicating with the dead, raising corpses, preserving bodies and possibly even resurrection.  The older you are, the better you are at necromancy.

Terror Magic
Inspiring fear, disgust, doubt or contempt in another human being are all the provinces of Terror magic.  Smelly people are good at Terror Magic.

The Ancient Zen Art of Flipping Out
Putting the rage on, causing massive chaos and just being a general all-round arsehole are all part of the Ancient Zen Art of Flipping Out.  Cantankerous folk are good at this.

Demagoguery
This is the magic of subliminally convincing people to do what you want them to do.  They invariably think it was their idea '" after all, who listens to homeless guys?  The fouler your mouth, the better you'll do with Demagoguery.

Nihilomancy
The Abyss gazeth back.  This is the sinister art of parting the Dark Curtain and beholding the Unhappy Face of the Cosmos.  It's also a sure-fire way to send yourself and others irredeemably nuts.  Naturally, crazy people are good at this.

These are the miscellaneous activities you'll be performing in your daily task of keeping yourself alive.

Restraint
This is how you reign yourself in and adopt some pretence of normality.  Scrub yourself for a few hours and temporarily reduce your stink.  Remind yourself of the principles of 'civil living' and reign in your filthy tongue.  Listen to a busking violinist play Claire de Lune and calm your cantankerous nerves.  And so on.

You lose both the benefits and drawbacks of any reduced flaw.

Begging
Spend a few hours begging for change.  This'll get you enough munny to get drunk, or eat a subsistence-level meal.

Spending Money
At the end of a day's begging, roll a d6.  On anything other than a 6, you get to do what you want your money.  On a 6, you must spend all of the money you've saved on booze.  This is probably the reason why you're still a bum.

Getting Drunk
A single point of Munny will buy you enough booze to get drunk, which is how you aggravate your flaws.  For every point of drunkenness you possess, roll a d6.  The results are as follows:

1-Get older
2-Get smellier
3-Get more cantankerous
4-Get more foul-mouthed
5-Get crazier
6-A fellow player selects the aggravated flaw and you roll again.

If you keep rolling sixes, it's entirely possible that you'll drink yourself into oblivion from a single bottle of low-grade liquor.  But booze has its own special magic:

Communion
The drunker you are, the closer you are to the Gods.  For every three levels of drunkenness you reach, you can Commune with one spirit or get one Brilliant Idea.  Oh, and you also gain a poison level (see below).  That's the price of enlightenment.

Fine Dining
If you spend all of your money on booze, then you'll have to scrounge for food in dumpsters and the like.  You always succeed, but depending on the quality of the food you can count on being Poisoned or Dead.  Roll a d6:

1-The food is bad, but harmless.  You're no better or worse than you were before.
2-This is gross.  1 poison level.
3-Ugh!  1 poison level.
4-It's hard to slide it down without gagging.  2 poison levels.
5-You puke about half of it back up.  2 poison levels.
6-This must be what hell feels like.  3 poison levels.

Poison levels take effect the next day.  Every day you lose a poison level (but you might also gain new ones if you eat more shitty food).  If you ever reach ten poison levels, you're Dead.  The more Poisoned you are, the less effort you can commit to tasks.

Taboos
A bum is always unemployed.  They can do chores to get themselves a little munny on the side, but it's only ever enough to keep themselves alive (or get drunk; see above), and it's never official work (or legally sanctioned).  Whoever's paying you is always taking advantage of your labour and short-changing you.  You never come out on top.  If you ever stop being a vagrant, you're out of the game.

NOTES:
It should be pretty clear that I'm missing a lot in the way of mechanics for this game.  The idea behind flaws is that they're the ugly side-effects of homeless life, but they're also the way folks get things done in this sordid underworld.  The characters sort of bumble through their lives, and the same things that can hinder them (muttering unintelligibly) can help them (making thoughts incomprehensible to mind-reading aliens).

So what this game needs is a mechanic for using each flaw in both positive and negative ways, and for the expenditure of Aptitude.  I have some ideas, which I'll post in the first update, but until then I am eager to hear what y'all think.

Inspirations
My first inspiration for this very silly game was a documentary about the homeless that I saw recently.  Though a serious topic, the blatant melodrama and sensationalism of the piece made it impossible to connect with the issue; all it did was give me this stupid idea.  My main RPG inspirations are the following totally awesome games:

Unknown Armies (http://www.atlas-games.com/unknownarmies/)
Panty Explosion (http://www.atarashigames.com/whatispantyexplosion.html)

Enjoy!

Okay, this is really quite interesting. I love the way you've blurred the line between vices and virtues, here. I like the unusual perspective, as well; it's neat to see the bottom of society being treated as closest to the top heights of enlightenment (or, failing that, that insanity might be better than rationality for purposes of seeing the true nature of the world.)

My main issue with this, I suppose, is that I have a hard time imagining what a game session would actually be like, and what the players (and characters') goals would really be. Is there a built-in motivation for these bums, besides "live another day, and get drunker"? What is gameplay going to consist of, besides begging for cash and waiting for supernatural visitations to appear (both of which, I assume, are going to be mostly passive types of activities?)

Basically, this is a really fascinating idea, so I don't want to see it turn into the "sit on the street corner and wait for something to happen" game. Maybe the supernatural element can be used to give players more of an active purpose?

(For example, what if you combined Vagrant Stories with Dystopia's Penumbra, and the vagrants were able to delay (or hasten!) Penumbra's advent?)

When I first saw this post I thought it was going to relate to Square's Vagrant Story, a PS1 RPG, and a dark and unique one at that. Blast you for getting my hopes up :cry:

That said, Dark Majik is pretty funny, especially:

QuoteThe Ancient Zen Art of Flipping Out
Putting the rage on, causing massive chaos and just being a general all-round arsehole are all part of the Ancient Zen Art of Flipping Out. Cantankerous folk are good at this.

A quick reply before I hit the sack, and hopefully a more detailed one when I get up tomorrow.

Quote from: PhoenixWhen I first saw this post I thought it was going to relate to Square's Vagrant Story, a PS1 RPG, and a dark and unique one at that. Blast you for getting my hopes up :cry:

That's where I got the name from, actually.  A great game, though I don't remember it much beyond it's sheer awesomeness.

Quote from: Luminous CrayonBasically, this is a really fascinating idea, so I don't want to see it turn into the "sit on the street corner and wait for something to happen" game. Maybe the supernatural element can be used to give players more of an active purpose?

That's my hope.  I want, first and foremost, for eating, drinking and begging to be little asides that give a small context for the character's existence, establishing the restraints that keep them in the same miserable cycles (As well as providing ignominious ways a foolish or unlucky charactr can bite the bullet).

Begging is something a character can do on their own time, or while they're information gathering, waiting for a contact, keeping an eye out for the slugmen, etcetera.  When a character gets munny they don't just have to spend it on booze; they also need to eat, bribe other homeless people (or children), buy Useless Stuff and so on.  Spending it on booze is useful because it's a good way to power up (though it's really just a way of making them more unbearable) and it provides divinatory glimpses that can give them an edge on their foes.  It's also a neat way to summon something Mean.

(You can rob or swindle for your munny, too, but that's difficult to do, given a bum's general incompetence)

The activities described in "The Life of a Bum" basically reflect the miserable, depressing drudgery we associate with homelessness.  While it's certainly a relevant aspect, the true conflicts and motivations are the unseen currents beneath the surface: the internecine wars for "sakred mud-soked sandwidges" and the fate of puke-soaked allies.

I'm really going to play up the supernatural angle.  In this game, vagrants are kind of unsung cosmic heroes; their basic human nature has responded to a horrifying glimpse Beyond the Curtain by seeking to contain, pacify or destroy it (sure, some want to control it, but we all know that never ends well).  Alas, their better nature is distorted and hidden beneath layers of confusion, paranoia and asociability.  They want to keep their streets safe, for whatever reason, but they are constantly impeded by their own failings.

I think it'll be useful to have some kind of statistic/mechanic for identifying character motivation and tying it into the story, as well as for creating bonds between PCs.  Perhaps the characters, having glimsed the Abyss, are spiritually incapable of abandoning their vagrancy.  Moving from the streets, even for a day, would give the Beast all the time it needs to establish its grip on the City.

(I guess this could end up being a "sit on the street corner waiting for something to happen" game in the same way that D&D could end up being a "sit in a tavern waiting for a mysterious stranger to appear" game.  With a little creativity, I think that can be avoided.)

But that still leaves the question of mechanics!

I was actually reading this and thinking Unknown armies.. but... Panty Explosion? Really?

Also, what about a supernatural Hooverville style of demiplane. All corrugated tin and cardboard in some freak shadow realm. Just a thought.

Yeah.  Panty explosion.  Mainly the whole idea of the group narrative, the allocation of effort and the general tone.

I actually had in mind that the kind of weirdness characters face would be inspired by the clean, closeted pretentious world of the wealthy and middle class.  Demons of Sin (particularly Greed, Pride and Gluttony), abandoned experimental superhumans, Dark Gods of Power and Influence; the alleys are the Paths to the Curtain, and Beyond the Curtain is the Womb where all the ills born from human Hubris dwell.

There is also the Beast, whose nature is unknown but who wears a solicitor's grin.

The traditional "dark-and-slimy" evil is there too, but dark-and-slimy pretty much sums up a bum's existence, so it's a very minor thing.  The world these bums don't understand is the one with the fast cars, fancy suits and fine dining, not the lightless pulsating void of tentacled evil.

Conflict and mechanics.  Hmmm.
Well, are you looking for short games or campaigns?  

And the onset of weathher should be in it's own world for influence here.
I mean, in Boston, we lose a few every year to the cold and snow.  Dodging crazy Bums on a rainy night is it's own special skill, I know from experience.

And what of the other cast of characters on the streets?  Whores, pimps, the cops, stupid teenagers/college kids, pickpockets those dumb kids in black sitting in the pit, that guy who owns that place that keeps on calling the cops, the soup kitchen, the Shelter (I CANNOT BE CAGED, I NEED SHRIMP, IT GROWS IN HERE, Y"KNOW! ),every grate and steam outlet, the liquor stores, the mugger, the Bouncers...It goes on.   Do we want to give them stats?

Since you like the group dynamic, you are going to need different 'types' of Bums, that can be better and worse at the different traits and skills you've given, much like the bloodtypes in 'Panty Explosion'.

I have to tell you, BTW, that your descriptions did really ring true.  Especially the 'Ancient Zen Art of Flipping Out".  You have it cold.