A Note on Theming
I said this post was going to be about numbers, statistics, turn structure, lots of things, but I pivoted. I still will probably spend some time marinating in that, so expect a post soon.
On Having Something to Say
As a fairly neurotic dude with a STEM background, I have a lot of negative self-talk when it comes to creative self-expression. I have folders of half-finished writing projects that floundered because of some combination of discouragement and lack of discipline. I'm sure that anyone reading a tabletop RPG blog probably has a similar experience. One of the nicest aspects of plugging into this hobby is that there are so many interesting people who will not only provide the encouragement to just create and do while practicing what they preach. The nagging question of
"but do you really have anything to say"
Gets completely drowned out by friends, mentors, and role models who want nothing more than to see you create for the sake of creation. It kicks ass!
That said, when I started noodling on this project, I did want to scrounge up some kind of answer to "but do you really have anything to say". The initial seed, an Oddlike that uses playing cards, can limp along as a generic fantasy game for as far as I want to take it. I have enough trouble sticking with side projects already though, so I want to feel a unique value proposition that I can lean against when I'm struggling to move forward mechanically or thematically.
Get On with It!
Okay, okay. If we return to the starting assumption that we made last time:
The value of the poker hand that your character can play directly correlates to something like amount of damage dealt
We have a game concept that is innately tied to Poker, or gambling in some way. Cool. What sorts of stories are deeply tied to Poker? Westerns? Sure, but I don't have much to say in the Western space. Generic fantasy RPGs already often have narratives or tropes associated with the frontier and westward expansion baked into their bones so let's not start there. Pirates? I think there are cool things to say in pirate fiction but I'm personally more of a Moby Dick guy.
So I changed course and asked, "who are character archetypes typically associated with gambling?" Sailors, spies, maybe musicians. Seems like a question where the first-order answer might be a job.
Mechanical Implications
If we quickly jump from themes to mechanics, I'm not a huge fan of "skills" in tabletop RPGs. I've seen them implemented in a few ways; if you've gotta have them, I'll go back to the well and say that Cypher does them pretty well. If you're at a high-enough-trust table, my preference is the Motif system in His Majesty the Worm, where players tell a handful of stories about their life before adventuring and end up with three Motifs. These are flexible combinations of upbringing, temperament, background, former job, you name it, and they represent knowledge and skills that your PC brings to the table. Mechanically they provide you situational bonuses during Tests of Fate and topics of Lore that you can ask about. Very tidy. So jumping back to themes, the first question about your character might be "What do they do that puts them in situations where they are frequently gambling?" I think the answer would provide some first-order background motifs.
Quick aside here: I recognize that gambling addiction is real and it is not a topic I intend to make light of as we continue along this project. If any readers feel that I'm verging into unpleasant territory, I'd be happy to have a conversation with you.
Bringing it All Together
I worked through the previous train of thought while I was sitting in the grass in the rain at a local music festival. If you spend enough time thinking while someone plays the Harmonium, you're going to think about ghosts. If they're playing the Harmonium over trippy ambient Appalachian music, you're going to think about haints. I've played Old Gods of Appalachia and the heroic horror fantasy theming is great; what space is there for something a little more gonzo, a little more NSR/POSR? This brought me to where I think I want to take the game thematically. The following questions washed over my brain in time with a hammer dulcimer:
- What if our player characters are battling Appalachian haints?
- Why are they doing that?
- How can they do that?
- What does that have to do with Poker?
- Do these characters still have souls?
- Did they lose their souls playing Poker? To Whom?
This provided me the second axis for a hypothetical character. What was your life like when you got involved in this seedy underworld, and who did you lose your soul to? You are probably aware of Triangle Agency, but PCs are composed of an Anomaly (an otherworldly entity that inhabits their body), a Reality (the heaviest part of the "life" scale in their work-life balance), and a Competency (their job within the titular agency). The Anomaly provides the justification for why their character can interact with the threats in the game and I think it's a great premise for us to play with. Edit: My friend Noel at Viridian Void noticed that I initially reversed Reality and Competency. Whoops!
Some otherworldly entity won a bet against our intrepid player characters and now either possesses or shares their body. Without having designed the game yet, I think this also provides a natural arc for a Player Character in the way that a Quest in His Majesty the Worm does; PCs want to earn their soul back under some condition set by their Creditor.
One Last Thought on Cosmology
You're seeing me think through this in real time, so the setting hasn't been determined here yet. Obviously! That said, I want to jot down some ideas about things I find interesting. The visual metaphor of hell as a DMV or similarly arcane bureaucracy is...folks, it's peak. When I imagine the PCs as characters who have lost/sold their souls, I don't want to immediately create an edgy implication of the party as all evil, soulless monsters. They are obviously dealing with some level of internal conflict! But! My mental model is that whatever entities (probably devils as a baseline) are Creditors to the PC's soul need the PCs as ways to interact with the physical world and are seeking to correct some issue with ghosts or haints that are trying to circumvent the normal process/bureaucracy of the afterlife. This idea is liable to change over time but it was really tickling me after a very challenging 24 hours.
Let me know what you think!