Chapter System, continued

I’m working on a few new things. With a major non-gaming project coming to fruition in three weeks, my time is very tight. However, my Chapter system still allows me to plug in a scene while I’m waiting between appointments.

In other news, I’m still finishing the next chapter in my Drowsbane campaign, and I found myself sketching out a couple of original fantasy characters — something I haven’t done for a while — and revisiting one of my favorite systems, Jaws of the Six Serpents.Trying to find balance, I don’t want to completely abandon gaming even when my work project intensity spikes.

In any case, here’s the next in my Chapter system experiments with the random title anchor.

More of Doria:

Chapter 2: The Knights’ Crusade

I

Rain continued to pour. Doria picked herself up and considered the direction of her horse. Just then, a figure approached draped in a voluminous cloak and masked by an old helm with a respirator. He introduced himself as Blazespawn and beckoned the warrioress to follow. “Your horse has no doubt been captured and sold,” the man said in a metallic voice as he led the warrioress through a maze of backstreets lit by the occasional bonfire around which vagrants stood listlessly. Inside an abandoned building, he led her deeper into a guarded room behind a steel mesh fence.

II

Inside was a round, dimly lit chamber of concrete and steel. Doria looked warily into the room. Suddenly, she was shoved within, and the door to the steel cage was slammed shut behind her. With an oath, she whirled with sword and dirk in hand. “What is the meaning of this?!” she growled. “What do you know of the cult of the storm bringer?” the man asked. “Nothing!” she swore. After came a slew of questions, including what she knew of the Balarhen skyships. She admitted that she had seen many as a girl in the north, and had even been brought aboard one before she fought her way to freedom, but she could remember little. “That should suffice,” the man said cryptically. Suddenly, he flipped a switch on a control panel, and a metallic behemoth of a construct whirred to life within her cell, grinning a display of yellow and red blinking lights. The thing rolled forward, chopping the ground repeatedly with a massive cleaver attached to a bionic arm. She rolled out of the way as the mechanical monster rent the concrete she had occupied. She saw coils of fluids at the base of the thing’s armored dome top, and worked her way closer with a series of parries, spins, and dodges. With her blade, she sliced through an exposed hose. Hot fluid sprayed out and an even louder buzzing and squealing filled the room. It slowed significantly. Next, a different mechanical arm extended bearing some sort of long chrome barrel. Doria leapt aside as a brilliant beam of hellfire ripped through the steel mesh behind her. She ducked again, and took the opportunity to leap through the sizzling hole. The armored man who stood at some control panel panicked. With a sword leveled at his throat, Doria commanded, “Shut that thing down!”

III

The man did so and cowered, sobbing behind his metallic mask. “Please,” he cried. “Spare me! I am the last of the rune-knights who seek to undo the cult and see the shackles they have placed on these people thrown away. I have waited for years to find someone worthy…I have waited this long for my replacement — I have waited for you!” Blazespawn related that his knighthood was a divine order sworn to protect the folk of the Blackened Bowl from their oppressors — the priests of the cult and their sorcerer allies who flew in on the old warships to take slaves and materials, leaving all under the domination of the priests of the cult. “Please! You have the skills to defeat them!” he said. “You can defeat their technology! Will you not take my cause?”

IV

Doria regarded the man, unable to see even his eyes through his visor. “I am no noble knight, sir,” she answered. “I am a sell-sword, and no more. You seek another.” “But you are wrong!” answered the man. “I have been shown the only path to salvation, who shall cometh as a woman radiant of the darkness, who shall cleanse the unnatural overlords with shadow and blade…she shall herald her coming by condemning a feared and powerful Padh to righteous justice where all others have failed. This prophecy names you, my lady. Wouldn’t you want to exact justice on those same ones who obviously enslaved and ravaged your kin?”

Ultra-minimalist solo experience thoughts

As mentioned here, I have given some thought about a high-speed solo system that provides little fuss, and lots of speed. And so, I've given my Chapter System a try. As mentioned in that introductory post to this fast-paced experiment, the object was to increase speed of play into a format I can accomplish something in one sitting.

I have run two chapters so far, each with a strict limit of 6 paragraphs (some of those paragraphs get some bloat). Was it successful? Sort of...

Getting through a Mythic game is time-consuming, and I have a low record of completing projects. They can easily get derailed, since there is little to regulate the amount of randomness that can sway narrative and action. With Nine Questions, I have a great deal more success. However, I don't have a chance to sit down and journal out an entire game.

The Chapter system is a bit of a merging of the two ideas: 9Q's sense of structure (though in more nebulous terms), and Mythic's epic, ongoing feeling. What I ended up with is not much different than a typical scene with a 9Q's session. However, the goal is no longer an over-arching narrative that produces cohesion and finality like a 9Q game; rather, it is more focused on the short term with a backdrop that it belongs to something larger.

The cool innovation, in my opinion, is that I've adopted a chapter title that essentially becomes the anchor for all of the action in that chapter. I used this little Random Fantasy Novel Title Generator to come up with chapter titles. The object of each chapter is to reference the random elements and ideas against the context of that title. The result seems like a normal 9Q scene (at least the way I run them), but finding that meaning seems to be a nice manageable session goal. I am also keeping a running tally of threads, things, factions, people, and so forth similar to Mythic's lists.

The paragraph count certainly helps. Seeing emerging arcs over the long term is also something that can keep the exercise interesting and somewhat natural, without letting new twists, such as the way they are generated by Mythic, to leave too many open threads to deal with.

Below, I have pasted my first chapter attempt. This is a saga featuring an anti-heroine, Doria Nightraven, the "Dark Raven". The setting is intended to be full of Sword & Sorcery flavor, with a Thundarr-esque sorcery and super-science post-apocolyptic element. I've used FU rpg for this to keep things running lean and quick. Here she is:


Doria Nightraven

Dark-haired and pale-skinned, Doria is an attractive yet imposing figure. She hails from the forgotten north, a place few have seen, finding her way by virtue of the sword. She has served as bodyguard, mercenary, and adventurer. She wanders, seeking to bring down the sorcerers who have enslaved and destroyed her people.

Descriptors: Quick as a Cat, Willful as the Devil, Swordplay, Vengeful
Gear: Iron Longsword, Stiletto Dirks

Special: as a special charm ability, spending 1 FU point and making a Beat the Odds roll allows Doria to summon a flock of ravens upon need to confuse or bewilder.


Chapter 1: The Betrayal of Two Demons

I — scales, pot of gold, sack 

Aldegold — The city of scrap, where merchants, coin, refuse, slaves, and illicit goods are traded and sold to half a dozen races, mutant and pureblooded alike. A red cloud of dust and contaminated haze mingled with the glow of the dying orange sun as it sank, forming a ring around the city of refuse and reek at the depths of a great crater of black stone. Here, a dark-clad temptress — tall and fell — rode slowly through the narrow streets, eyeing the villainy from the corners of her almond-shaped eyes. She noted a particularly shrewd merchant weighing a pile of twisted scrap and measuring out milled grain to a waiting mutant with red pocked skin. Rabid animals fought over the fresh carcass of a bloated and clearly diseased nazrat. All the while, local eyes peered back at the imposing and deadly pureblooded — or so she seemed — passing figure. They looked at the slender longsword strapped across her back, the dirks strapped lengthwise to the tight leggings of her thighs, and to her cold and lethal gray eyes.

II — footprint, crown, chaos 

Suddenly, before the black-clad warrioress came a procession. Several hulking slaves bore a massive palanquin adorned with beaten copper and gold twisted in crude and menacing shapes about its surface. A loud man in a flowing headdress of metallic mesh cracked a whip, sending those who had gotten in his way flying in terror. It just so happened that the multitudes on the Street of Fetid Riches was dense due to the congestion and narrow lanes lined with heaps of refuse, that Doria Nightraven did not notice the procession until the intervening patch of pavement was suddenly cleared, suddenly revealing a vexed procession figurehead, who snapped his whip again. “I said move, vermin!” With that, the man cracked the coil again, but it was abruptly caught in the gloved hand of the rider, who held tight to its end. The procession leader widened his eyes in rage. “How dare you!” The woman only regarded him coldly, unwaveringly, and stood perfectly still. The man pulled, and the two strove until finally the woman was pulled off her horse by the man’s greater leverage. However, she landed catlike on her feet, released the coil, and had sword in hand, all in one quick flourish.

III — pointing man, storm cloud, waves

“How dare you impede the procession of Padh Jerokin, high priest of the cult of the storm giver! Lay thee down and await the wrath of his judgement!” From out of the refuse, Doria heard a whisper. Her attention was momentarily caught as a wide-eyed shadowed figure tried to mime a warning — that somehow the man she now crossed was fearsome and important. “Stop,” came a more audible whisper, “before he calls the demons of storm and flood to destroy us!”

IV

The northwoman had never before heard of the cult, nor the priest named by the fool standing before her. No one stirred, and only a tense watchfulness lay upon the city square. Finally, she answered, still with bare steel in her hand. “The Padh is welcome to find another route,” she said in an uncommonly deep and cold voice, which was punctuated by a snort of derision by her horse. “I go forward.” “Why, you little…!” answered the man, who stepped forward with raised whip. However, that whip was never brought to bare. A thin dagger quivered in the man’s breast before he fell. In a flash, the palanquin was nearly dropped and all the slaves rushed forward barehanded to strike her. Lightning fast spins and fierce strokes dismembered one after another, until the ground was painted in blood and gore.

NPC description: arrow, rainbow, pushing over wall

When at last those survivors fled, the woman in black approached the litter and opened the veil with her bloodied blade to view its occupant. She saw a thin shirtless and bald man sitting cross-legged and straight. About his eyes was painted colored rings and his gaze was intense and equally as deadly as hers. “You know not what wrath you have incurred,” the man said in slow and even tones. The man’s eyes flashed with some sort of intense but brief light, and with it, an unseen wall of force bowled into the unsuspecting warrioress. She was knocked back and to the ground, the air beaten momentarily from her lungs. Her horse fled in terror the opposite direction. The man stood and picked up a shillelagh, and slowly and menacingly approached. “That was most unwise!” He raised his staff up over his head. Somehow, with the promise of death before her eyes, she somehow summoned enough will and speed to thrust her sword through the man’s gut before he could bring the weapon down to crush her skull. His eyes rolled into his head and he slumped to the ground, a hand twitching until he finally expired.

Overhead, thunder rumbled almost in answer to the deed as ominous green-red clouds rolled in, and droplets of red acid rain began to pelt the ground with here and there a hiss like tears of blood. Those hiding souls who had watched the conflict mesmerized still gazed in awe and fear at the stranger who had slain a feared tyrant, unable to react or comprehend what they had just witnessed, or what it might portend.

Ultra-minimalist, high-speed solo rpg

Wow! Twice in one day!

With some unplanned open time gracing me, I've given some more thought about my plight: that of having no time, but still wanting get some gaming in. The Nine Questions system has been a wonderful tool, but still tends to take me a long time to get through. I think I've been able to complete only one entire adventure once in a single three-hour session. Mostly, it's been piecemeal.

I've tinkered with some of the essentials of John's 9Q's several times. The structure it produces is very satisfying. I also like some of the unpredictability of Mythic GME as well. Where the 9Q's often feels like a complete film or play, Mythic can wander it's way and feel more like a novel.

Today I picked up a very free-form GM-less system I've tossed around and tweaked it, and gave it a playtest. I call it the "Chapter System", a very loose and simple set of guidelines to create a novel-like play experience generating something like a chapter...which needn't be fully conclusive, and over time, can lead to some arcs.

Chapter System


This is a simple scene framing plot constructor that creates and connects simple chapter-like arcs.

1. Introduce an element. Use some cubes, draw a card, look at a picture. This is either benign, hostile, or completely neutral (but may pop up again later). Create a scene setup and run it.
2. Introduce a hostile element or obstacle unrelated to point #1. Create a scene setup and run it, or, if it makes more sense, attach it to the previous scene.
3. Introduce a twist of the elements above (substitute elements generated from previous chapters if fitting better). As always, this is a new scene, or attached to the previous one.
4. Conclude the chapter when the protagonist either resolves the threat or reaches a critical impasse (unable to proceed until aid or escalation intervenes). As always, this can be a new scene, or attached to the events of those established before. If it ends in an impasse, it forms a cliffhanger.

Note that the order of points 1 and 2 above may be freely interchanged. A list of elements that arise out of play may be useful for future "chapters". Repeat chapters until a clear threat to a character’s personal or heroic motivation(s) arises. This could be story arc #1. The following chapters should gravitate toward a shocking twist, revelation, or betrayal and an escalation of threats, forming story arc #2. The final arc should begin when the road to resolution is visible and within grasp when it pertains to the overarching plot, and should conclude when all major threads are resolved. Freely use any random generator to create motivations of NPCs, which may be actual, or false. One may impose a 4-6 paragraph limit to the exercise of noting chapters.

Anyway, that's it. I tried a quick run through and it took about an hour to write out. While it can eventually lead to a good-length "novel", it is broken into fairly manageable bits. I'll post results later.