The Campaign Builder's Guild

[ooc]This is the discussion thread for the Look Ma, No Dice! contest.

Entries go in that other thread. Chitterchatter goes in this thread.[/ooc]

Talk to me.

I may to try and come up with an 1890s occult game using a Ouija Board for conflict resolution...

Can we submit stuff we've already made? If so, DUGS is so entered!

I will probably try and come up with something fun.
As a note, one of my friends made a resolution system for her one-shot scenario. It wasn't so much designed to resolve skill checks (which weren't in the game) as to resolve the flow of the story and major turning points involving all the players.
Basically, each player had a black and a red bead, each representing a predetermined outcome. They would then put one of these beads in a pouch, without revealing it to the others. Then, the GM produces a random bead from the pouch and resolves the scene.
That way, the resolution is most likely to go the way of the general consensus amongst the players, but all players have a chance of being heard.
This of course only works in games featuring elements of collaborative storytelling as otherwise all the players will just put "good" beads in the bag.

EDIT: I can also recall hearing of a western scenario called Salvation which used poker hands to resolve and another where you had to eat a slice of very filling, to the point of nauseating, cake (mazarin pie) whenever your character succumbed to in-game temptation.

I'm still tinkering withe the details of my entry, so the specifics may fluctuate slightly.

LC- should I enter this: http://www.thecbg.org/e107_plugins/forum/forum_viewtopic.php?74722 (See the rules post on my link)
It sort of breaks some of your rules, then again Steerpike's entry is also a bit longer than a paragraph :D. I skimmed his and the story in the spoiler was great- when I get some time I'll have to read it in more depth to be able to comment with criticism and critique (something better than 'yeah that was great')

Oh yeah, there was a limit... whoops.  Not sure what to cut, the vignette is in spoilers anyway so maybe it doesn't really count?

Don't you dare cut that story- I was enjoying reading about the theosophical society inspired skulduggery :D

Here's some books alongside the very good ones you already recommend:

Steinmeyer, Jim (2005). The Glorious Deception: The Double Life of William Robinson, aka Chung Ling Soo, the "Marvelous Chinese Conjurer". Carroll & Graf Publishers. ISBN 0-7867-1512-X.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Whiteside_Parsons (Never realized that a decent portion of the US rocketry program at CalTech was thanks to an acid-tripping occultist who was a mortal enemy of erstwhile romantic rival L Ron Hubbard

Pendle, George; Strange Angel: The Otherworldly Life of Rocket Scientist John Whiteside Parsons, Harcourt, 2005[6]


Both biographies were amazingly enthralling.

Hmmmmmmmmmmm...

Hey, Steer, I can't help but mention this, but the Fool seems really silly as a value-less card. Both mechanically and in regards to the meaning of the tarot card itself.

Might I suggest a different form of use for it? Perhaps letting one trade-in your current cards and draw new ones (same number that you turn in, plus the Fool)? It fits with the theme of the card itself and gives you a potential lifeline in bad situations.

I'm also skeptical of the Ouija board in general, but I guess that comes with being a tarot reader.

I wonder how long before we see a Rune or Gypsy Card-based system now. :D

gypsy card?

EDIT: having never tried a ouija board, won't the ouija board resolution just be a physical contest between player and medium as the medium tries to force the planchette towards goodbye?

I'm making a resolution system for the contest involving chess pieces portraying astral entities like the Three Fates and the Blind Warrior fighting over the destinies of mortals.

Great idea for the Fool!  I kind of want to come up with more "Special Abilities" for the various Major Arcana.

I'm not sure how well the Ouija Board would work, but the idea is that no one consciously moves the planchette.  The participants simply place their fingers on the piece and watch while asking a question.  Eventually, the planchette will begin to move seemingly "on its own," hence why the gullible/superstitious believe that spirits are moving the planchette.

Frankly if I actually played a game of SEANCE! I'd probably bring an online Ouija Board via laptop in case the physical board proved too slow.  They're truly random (as far as I can tell they don't pick up on ideomotor movement of the mouse or anything), so you couldn't Turn the Tables, but at least it would allow the game to proceed.

EDIT: Made some tweaks.

Added special abilities for all Major Arcana.

Gypsy cards are diamonds (or squares, depending on your angle, I suppose) used for divination that function around images. Each square has four half-images on it, and divinations are made based upon which pictures are connected, and what direction they face. Personally, I'm not too learned on them, but I have a friend who was big into them.

Steer, if you want more special abilities for the Major Arcana, let me know. I'm pretty familiar with tarot in general, and some of the Major Arcana really lend themselves well to having 'special abilities' as cards.

The only things to consider are: With 22 Major Arcana, how many do you want to have special abilities? That's a lot of special abilities to keep track of if you give each one an ability; but it also leaves the question of how to decide what ones have special qualities if you decide for more than one.

Personally, I figure the Fool and the World are the best two, as 0 and 21 are both numbers impossible to roll on a D20.

I'm also not sure about having so many forced discards for abilities: Seems very Magic-y to me. And it seems very counter-intuitive during party-play. PvP seems to be in mind with how it stands now-- or at least inter-party conflict.

Yeah, I was thinking of Magic.  Perhaps that's too many special abilities.  Any suggestions for what the World could do if I just had a couple of special abilities?

CC: re: runes- Steerpike did mention them in passing at the end of his story, :D so we're probably not too far off from a rune-based system.