Subject:
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Re: Elements of a brick oriented RPG
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Newsgroups:
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lugnet.gaming
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Date:
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Mon, 20 May 2002 09:04:19 GMT
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Viewed:
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3398 times
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In lugnet.fun.gaming, Christopher L. Weeks writes:
> As you know from our previous conversation, I favor a new
> system designed to capture The Brick as a fundamental
> underlying determinant. I'll be using this standpoint in
> commenting below.
One of the ideas I've been keeping on the back burner for BrikWars is a
supplement for some kind of construction-campaign system. It's anybody's
guess as to when (or if) this idea will ever get fleshed out, so I'd be just
as happy to see it work its way into a brick-specific RPG.
The underlying mechanic of most RPG games is a process in which players try
to boost their characters' numbers over the course of several adventures.
Why not create a system in which the characters, once created, remain the
same, and the means of advancing in power and stature is in getting hold of
basic bricks and building things with them. Sort of like if you made one of
those real-time strategy games (starcraft, age of empires, etc.) into an
RPG: players would have to go out and secure sources of bricks, harvest
them, bring them back to wherever they wanted to build stuff, and begin the
process of construction. Players could be required to construct devices and
vehicles, as well as hire minifig workers and technicians, to help perform
any of these tasks, especially as their constructions became larger and more
complex.
What would make the system interesting is how you limited the types of
constructions players could build; you could try to relate it to the real
world (players have to harvest forests to get timber and do some quarrying
to get stones), or you could go full-on Lego and just say that each color of
brick is available in certain places and carries specific advantages and
disadvantages. Basic bricks in small quantities would be easily obtainable,
just lying around or available at the local shops. More unique bricks,
bricks with special powers, or unusually large quantities of brick would be
harder to come by, and would require the completion of quests of varying
difficulty.
It'd be up to the GM to decide on the ultimate 'scale' of the game. with
enough bricks, time, and storage space, players could have the ultimate goal
of building a whole medieval city or starbase or whatnot, complete with
military defenses, civilian habitat, and thriving brick economy. A more
manageable campaign would have players trying to maintain around a dozen
hirelings and a good-sized hall or tower. Once the players' collected
wealth, property, and manpower reached a certain comfortable size, the focus
of the game would shift to improving and refining existing constructions
rather than expanding and creating new constructions. There are plenty of
easy ways a GM could limit players' ability to build; a simple pronuncement
like "as the King's vassal, you are allotted these two 32x32 baseplates on
which you may build" would do just fine. Gaining building rights to
additional baseplates would be either impossible or saved as a reward for a
very high-level quest.
You might possibly consider making some types of brick 'expendable,' so that
(for instance) minifigs have to have a certain amount of yellow bricks to
eat or they'll starve, or automobiles have to have trans-yellow bricks for
fuel. This would limit players in the number of minifigs they could sustain
at any one time, according to how much of their land they dedicated to
growing food or how much of their money they dedicated to buying it.
You might also consider creating a system in which minifig scientists and
wise men can research new and efficient uses of ABS and its miraculous
properties, although that is probably better left to the storytelling
abilities of individual GMs rather than to a system of rules.
Once character attributes cease to be a primary focus of the game mechanics,
it becomes a lot more feasible to make them simple enough that representing
them with bricks becomes practical. Even to the point that stats are
limited to values of 1-4 bricks (1=poor, 2=average, 3=good, 4=heroic), and
super-simplified so that each stat is color-coded and can all fit on a very
small plate (something like black=strength, yellow=skill, blue=magic,
red=health).
Equipment could be limited to what a minifig can hold in his hands and carry
in one of various kinds of backpacks; it'd be fun to even limit money in
this manner, so that if a minifig wanted to carry large sums of cash around
he'd be required to have a cart with a chest. This is obviously a little
unrealistic if you want the minifigs to represent humans (who have pockets
and pouches and scabbards and all manner of things), but I don't see any
reason to make things so human-centric. Let the minifigs represent
minifigs, and it will be one more reason to encourage players to construct
their way out of problems.
All in all I don't see any reason this game couldn't be kept simple enough
that the essential rules couldn't fit on a single page - a big plus for
encouraging new players, and especially if you want to try and get it
written up in a gaming magazine at some point.
> > 7. What is the intention of the game? A game for one off con events? An
> > alternative RPG to give a break from something else? A long term
> > campaign as a primary game?
>
> I only play RPGs with campaign as the intention.
Clearly this idea would lend itself best to campaign play, although it would
mean storing players' constructions for possibly long periods of time.
> > A brick based RPG clearly calls for a moderately detailed combat system
> > which is tactical in nature
>
> Huh? How so? I'd say that "a brick based RPG" calls for construction as some
> kind of uber-theme.
I agree, there's no real reason that a good RPG has to involve combat at
all. I have a suspicion that most RPG's use combat as a distraction so
players don't have to do any real role-playing.
That being said, a brick-based RPG doesn't necessarily need a detailed
combat system, because every detail that goes into a well-built brick
environment is one more detail that doesn't have to go into the system.
Obviously there's nothing stopping you from going way overboard and going
ahead with a system with way too many details than are necessary (cough
brikwars cough), but with a little forethought and self-discipline you can
make a system that lets the bricks do most of the work for you.
> > I had been thinking of trying to use LEGO pieces to build the character
> > sheet, but I think that wouldn't really work out (you'd be constantly
> > looking at the rules to determine just what skills you had).
For the type of game I'm picturing it would be best to limit each minifig to
one or two 'special' skills, and let all other skills be covered under a
generic 'skill' attribute. For instance, if you hired a black-brick miner,
his special skill would be Black-Brick Mining, which allowed him to mine
black bricks at twice the normal rate. Or you could say players couldn't
build catapults unless they hired someone with a Knows How to Build
Catapults skill. There'd be no real reason to make up any kind of skill
lists (except possibly a very cursory one, with skill templates like
"Specific Weapon Skill" and "Building-Related Task Skill;" for the most part
the GM would just make up skill types as they became necessary. Finding a
minifig with a specific skill type could become a quest in itself.
> Silver Duplo 2x4...Cha-ching!
Cha-ching, if you could find some way to transport it to a bank! Probably
wouldn't even fit out through the dungeon entrance.
> There were several notes on constructing setting elements. I've been toying
> with a terrain system that uses 4x4 plates offset so that they are
> schematically hexagons (they border six other plates). You can assemble
> modules of terrain (with varying elevations) based on these units (which are
> each flat).
This sounds like a good practical solution to force bricks to conform to
existing rules, but it does make for some pretty harsh constrictions on the
kinds of things you can build, I think. Better to force the rules to
conform to the brick.
- Mike.
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Message has 2 Replies:
 | | RPG or PBM? (Was: Elements of a brick oriented RPG)
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| (...) This is a cool idea, but does it neccesitate no character advancement? Is the goal to just get away from the traditional RPG aspects, to simplify the rules, or something else? Would having both advancement mechanisms work? (...) So, the idea (...) (23 years ago, 20-May-02, to lugnet.gaming)
| | | Re: RPG or PBM? (Was: Elements of a brick oriented RPG)
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| (...) This concept is in fact an integral part of my own current project. I have been designing rules for a Castle-specific PBB wargame in conjunction with building a display that is built both with the rules in mind and with the intent of just (...) (23 years ago, 20-May-02, to lugnet.gaming)
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Message is in Reply To:
| | Re: Elements of a brick oriented RPG
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| Hi Frank and all, I just got around to reading this thread and it seems that you've already decided to bag the idea, but I wanted to make some comments. (...) I think this is the heaviest question here. Everything else stems from how this is (...) (23 years ago, 19-May-02, to lugnet.gaming)
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