Aspects in Echo Bazaar

November 12, 2010 – 12:14 pm

Echo Bazaar was first brought to my attention by The Border House Blog. I was at first hesitant — I don’t know how may of these sorts of games I’ve played over the years — but I created an account and made it through the first few tasks.  Then I noticed something which I’d seen many time since while playing (this isn’t an exact quote of that time, but representative):

There’s been a twist in your tale: You’ve gained the Aspect A strange benefactor:1!

I went and looked at my character sheet, and down near the bottom left was a list of little factoids about my character, amongst them, that aspect.  As I’ve played, these have grown, and now it’s a formidable list.  This morning, after several days of effort, I got rid of the aspect “Troubled by Rats”.  As a reward, I wound up with a pet rat, which moved on over into my inventory.

I’m not going to delve deeply into the gameplay or style of Echo Bazaar. It’s pretty delightful and fun, and I’ve enjoyed exploring that world and setting.  I just want to talk about how they represent your character, and track where you are in the story.

Echo Bazaar has three sections on your character sheet, which should seem relatively obvious to anyone who has played an RPG before.  You’ve got some basic stats about your character: name, lodgings, a cameo and four stats: Watchful, Persuasive, Dangerous, and Shadowy. Next to that is  an inventory of items which are both equipment (which is segregated) and usable and trade items (some of which are primarily intended for sell in the eponymous Bazaar).   Finally, down the lower left-hand side, we have a list of categories, which expand out into longer lists — your aspects.

Some of these are qualities you have: I have Scandal 1, and Nightmares 7 (“Don’t let this get to 8 or something bad will happen”); I have Magnanimous 5, and Subtle 3.  These were gained by taking in-game actions, such as having a date with a devil, or saving an old lady from a gang of thugs (while I pick-pocketed her!).

Some of them, like “a visitor to the Clay Quarters 4″ represent where I am in the story or “storylet”. Others mark my position in a venture or ambition, and still others represent who I have as contacts — and with the number — how strong or far along I am.   The aspects are potentially temporary — you can lose scandal or nightmares.  Some mark progress along a small goal, and go away after (and then mark the chance of success along that goal).

Echo Bazaar hasn’t gotten completely away from quantifying everything, which is probably easier and clearer than developing a set of adjectives which mirror the numeric score. Doing so makes a compromise between the player and the computer-mediator.  The advantage is that I can look at the words and they are evocative to me about what they mean and how they could be applied.

They are less flexible than the ones in FATE that I discussed yesterday, for obvious reasons.  Still, it’s a bit less scary than basing things on an array of stats, and a bit more concise than long quest text.  (Echo Bazaar does include a short one-sentence description of an aspect, for context).

Initial actions in Echo Bazaar are unlocked based only on stats, or occasionally inventory items you may have.  Later actions as you branch out depend more on your aspects, as well, leaving stats to determine success in most cases.  You could argue that everything is an aspect (You have the aspect: Has Fancy Hat: 101), or, contrariwise, that nothing is.  Yet the things Echo Bazaar calls aspects, tend to be longer than one word, and describes a relationship, or facet of your character, giving them more flavor and complexity.

Next week, I’ll write about how aspects could be used to greatly change what an RPG is like, and to give more options for style beyond kill monster, get treasure, level up.

By Joe Tortuga | Posted in Games | Tagged | Comments (0)

Aspects in FATE

November 11, 2010 – 12:00 pm

I was introduced to aspects in FATE, particularly through Spirit of the Century and Dresden Files RPG. In a lot of ways aspects in FATE replace attributes in other games.  In DFRPG or SotC, you don’t have Strength, Dexterity or Constitution, although you can take aspects that imply you do.  The other side to Aspects is that they need to be both good and bad in order to be properly effective in the game (both narratively and game-mechanically).

Here’s a character I made for my Origins game. His name is Tom Dunn, and he’s an unwitting emissary of power, specifically for Coyote.  He’s also a bit of a thief and rogue himself, and you can download his full character sheet and description.  DFRPG characters have Aspects, Skills, and Powers/Stunts.  Skills and powers are pretty standard type things, at least as far as this discussion goes.  But I want to talk about his aspects.

Every character has a High Concept and a Trouble; these are reminiscent of the character’s class and some basic problem they have. They are unique to the character, though, and serve as their first two aspects. Tom Dunn has a high concept of “Coyote’s Catspaw” and his trouble is “But… it’s shiny!”.  His remaining aspects are

  • City Boy,
  • It just fell into my hands,
  • Wanted in 5 states,
  • Francine, dear, can you hold this?, and
  • I can get in there, no problem.

Each of these is based on some part of his life backstory, or a story he was part of.  ”City Boy” because he grew up in a large city, for instance.  One actually references another of the characters, Francine.  This way we get unique characters who are all different from each other, and aspects kind of give us a feel of who they are. (The better the aspects, the better that feel. This example, IMHO is only okay.)

Not all of these are good, of course, “Wanted in 5 states” is there to put the threat of authorities on him. It could also be used by the player, who might say something like, “I can elude them because I’ve had practice ditching the cops.”   Aspects like this work as both advantages and disadvantages; our characters don’t have to sacrifice to be awesome, but sometimes their awesomeness is the problem.

The game economy in FATE is designed to encourage aspects which aren’t purely good or detrimental. If the GM compels and aspect, say by pointing out the big jewel he wants because… it’s shiny!, the player can acquiesce, and receives a fate point for that. Later, the player can spend that point to tap an aspect — their own, or one in the scene or on an enemy — to gain a significant bonus to a die roll.

A lot of DFRPG revolves around determining and invoking aspects, and it encourages a narrative approach to these.  The more flavorful the aspect is, the more it can be stretched and implied. An aspect like “It just fell into my hands” could be used to imply bad luck or excellent slight of hand.

Now, this was one of the first characters I made, so the aspects could be better, but this is what you can do with an early effort and (honestly) a minimal understanding of how these things worked. The person who played this character, had fun with some of the aspects, and others never got used.  The more evocative they are, the more they’re useful.

Of course, being a Pen and Paper RPG, aspects are very powerful at the table. Where numbers are great for being precise, natural language phrases are great at stimulating the imagination.  Put a little stress on your players and they will come up with interesting ways to use their aspects, and that is so much better than “I swing my sword at the Orc.”

Any digital game is going to lose some of this flexibility, because computers can’t quite manage that.  But as you’ll see in my next piece, aspects can add depth and intrigue to a digital game, and make a game feel more approachable to people who don’t want to see huge menus filled with numbers.

By Joe Tortuga | Posted in Games | Comments (0)

Aspects

November 10, 2010 – 12:00 pm

I recently wrote on Gameful that I was interested in “aspect-based gaming”.  I didn’t define it, and no one is out there asking me what I mean, but I want to write about my ideas in relation to this, as I think it opens up some interesting possibilities.

There’s more than one blog in this, but today I just want to write about what I mean by an “Aspect”.

Of the definitions for aspect from thefreedictionary.com is “a distinct feature or element in a problem, situation, etc.; facet.” This is the closest to the way I’ll be using it, and as it’s used in the games where I’ve seen it. I’ll be taking what those games do with it, and breaking that apart, and ultimately talking about how it can be  a beneficial design tool for games and content creation.

But first, some better definitions.  I’ll be using aspect to mean “a human-language phrase or sentence which describes a feature or element (or facet) of a game object.”  Where a game object is just any entity or thing in a game: a character, scene, object, or storyline.  Done right, any noun can have aspects.  This makes them akin to adjectives, and in the same since they offer potential for more flavor to gaming.  This is particularly true in pen and paper gaming, where Aspects can replace attributes with phrases that can be applied more widely, making for more color and possibility than a numeric stat can offer.

There are two games that I’m currently interested in that use aspects. One is FATE, particularly as it’s used in the Dresden Files RPG.  The other is Echo Bazaar, a web-based semi-social game similar to Kingdom of Loathing, or Facebook games like Mafia II.   Over the next week, I’ll be discussing how aspects work in these games, and then how I see them working in regular, story-based games, and how they could open up new possibilities in RPGs.

By Joe Tortuga | Posted in Games | Comments (0)

Shattered Earth Adventurer’s League : Fire and Ice

November 9, 2010 – 12:00 pm

Zhenette focused her will and channeled her magic into the bit of stone in her hand. Magic flowed from the ether, through her crsystal-bound rune.  She shaped it with her intent and words, and then, just shy of triggering it, placed it in the stone.  She handed it to Lyp. “Now remember, it’s a touch spell, so..”

“Yeah, yeah,” the halfling said. “Just hand it to me.

Zhenette looked up at Ormond, who was changing a fire-protection spell, his hand on Lyp’s shoulder.  He released the spell and shrugged, giving Zhenette a half-smile.  ”Next wave is incoming,” he said.  Magrite, the Dark elf sorceress who was working with them finished her own magic stone.

Lyp took it and dashed off to the traps they’d set.  The door at the other end of the small cavern shuddered as the magma monsters on the other side pounded on them.  Magrite picked up a new stone and began the chant again.  This would be the last one she could make before the fight would finish.

“Too bad these are so localized,” Ormond said.  ”I could go for an ice version of burning hands.”

“You and me both,” Zhentte said.  ”There used to be a spell that  sent out ice like dragon’s breath in front of the mage.  That would be perfect for this.”  To bad it had been lost, like so much else in the Shattering.

Magrite finished her spell, and Zhenette picked up the final stone of her own. The door visibly flexed, and started to catch on fire.  Lyp inserted the stones into the traps she’d built, and tumbled away, back to them. “I didn’t even know stone could catch fire,” Lyp said, her eyes wild with adrenaline.  Zhenette handed her the completed stone, and she bound off for the final two traps.

Ormond helped the two casters up, and they pulled out their weapons.  As Lyp placed the final stone, the door gave way, and two large flying monsters of stone and fire stepped through.  As they moved in the first two traps went off, releasing a burst of cold air on the monster, enough to freeze the water vapor around them.  They cried out, cooled off, but not put out.

A third monster, some sort of rock lizard stepped behind them, and let out  a gush of fire.  Lyp bound away just in time, and joined her friends, and the flying things seemed to glow with healthy warmth.

“I guess four wasn’t enough,” Zhen said, grasping her staff.

“I guess not,” Ormand said, he began to cast a spell of fire protection on the group.

The second traps went off, almost killing the two flying mephits.  Lyp let fly two daggers, knocking them down before the lizard could breath fire again.

“Lyp, can you tumble behind him?” Ormand pulled out his mace.  ”I’ll try to keep his attention while you hit him with spells.  Zhenette and Magrite readied their ice spells, and nodded.

“This is so much more fun than farm duty,” Lyp said, bounding behind the fire lizard.

By Joe Tortuga | Posted in Shattered Earth | Comments (0)

Shattered Earth Adventurer’s League : Family

November 8, 2010 – 11:59 am

Foster stood leaning against the stone retaining wall.  Keelie stood on top of it, which put her head about even with Fosters.  She looked at him and laughed.  ”Grass in your mouth and hat and everything. You really fit in here.”

“It’s home,” Foster said. “When I’m done I’m going to head back the family ranch and help run it.”

“Your family seemed nice enough,” she said. “Mixed household seems to work for you.”

“It’s all I’ve ever known,” Foster said. “Your family not so great?”

“Oh, they’re fine. It’s just that Dad married someone new — a dark elf a third his age. It’s weird.”

“Elves live a long time,” Foster said.

“Not as long as gnomes, Foster. She could be my little sister, and I’m only 75.”

Foster raised his eyebrows. “I didn’t know. I guess it’s not so strange to be attracted to someone of a very different age.”

Keelie looked at him, and arched her eyebrow. “Glad you didn’t say old. My grandmother was alive for the Shattering, She used to tell us about it when we were kids.  Now I think only the dragon remembers.”

“I’d love to hear those stories sometime,” Foster said.

“It’s a date.” Keelie looked out in the fields, the horses were returning from their daily run. “About time to get to work,” she said, hopping down from the fence.

Not that the work was hard. There had been one guy from that caster’s guild who muttered something about funding and water, but they’d sent him on his way, and warned the other ranch hands about him.  The horses came into the corall, and settled down for the night

“So,” Keelie said. “The ranch send you into the League?”

“Yeah,” Foster said. “Took us a while to save, but it means less ties when I’m out? You?”

“Minos Mercenary Guild. Better than being a miner, anyway.”

“Why do you need a Mercenary Guild?”

“Because we don’t always have the Adventurer’s League around to fight off magma monsters,” she said.

“So the real reason you came with me was –”

“–so I wouldn’t have to do the same ol’ same ol’.” She grinned at him.  ”I get so tired of fighting fire and rock elementals, and magma mephits.  Plus, here I can have a quiet bite to eat and drink.”

“So you’re saying the rest of our team is not having such a restful time?”

“Not at all,” Keelie chuckled. “Not at all.”

Note:  These Adventurer’s Leauge posts are some idea of what sorts of things we might be doing near the beginning of our adventure, if you’d like to join us. We are still looking for a Few Good Adventurers.
By Joe Tortuga | Posted in Shattered Earth | Comments (0)

Shattered Earth Adventurer’s League: Briefing

November 5, 2010 – 10:08 am

Commander Bess Nightingale addressed the Silverwings. “We’ve got a couple of assignments for you to pick from. Normal rewards apply.”

The Silverwings settled in, their goal was to complete as many missions as possible, and pay back their debts so they could be full Citizens sooner, or at least make a little money out of this Adventuring thing. There were stories about some Citizens who never had to work again once they were done, and others who just barely made their time.

“The first is an easy mission, the Druids Alistair and Nessa need someone to watch over them while they join the Horse Herd in Coyn.”

“They’re doing what?” Ormond asked.

“Joining the Horse Herd,” the commander said. “That’s what it says right here, and all you or anyone else needs to know.”

“What do they need from us?” Foster asked. The half elf ranger was always interested in going to Coyn; if nothing else there were trees there.

“Guard duty mostly, not that they can’t handle themselves,” Commander Nightingale said. “It’s a bit hush-hush.”

Zhen looked away from the commander and caught Lyp’s eye. She arched her eyebrow at the halfling, who returned a half-smirk. “The other job?” Ormond asked.

“Fighting magma monsters in Minos,” she said. “There’s a dark elf sorceress, named Finistra, who has some ideas about using cold spells in traps, and needs some magical and stealthy advice.”

“That sound interesting,” Lyp said. “How much fighting in that?”

“Only a little,” Commander Nightingale replied. “It wouldn’t take all of you, if that’s what you mean.”

“Lyp and I would be up for that one,” Zhen said.

“Ormond, why don’t you go with them,” Foster said. “The druids will have their own healing. I’d like to go to Coyn, see my folks.”

“I’ll join you,” Keelie said. “So I don’t have to see mine.”

The group nodded, this would work. Splitting up would get things done faster, with more return. Pluse, it sounded easy.

“Okay,” Commander Nightingale said. “Form up in the portal room in half an hour.”

Note:  These Adventurer’s Leauge posts are some idea of what sorts of things we might be doing near the beginning of our adventure, if you’d like to join us. We are still looking for a Few Good Adventurers.

By Joe Tortuga | Posted in Shattered Earth | Comments (0)

Shattered Earth Adventurer’s League: Delivery In Thirty Minutes or Less

November 4, 2010 – 12:00 pm

The Edge Bar and Grill wasn’t technically on the edge, as it was inside the safety fence. Adventurer’s League Silverwings Troop was on the outside of that fence, looking down.

“I don’t like this,” Foster said. The ranger scuffed his boot against the side, knocking a stone down in to the abyss beyond.

“I thought you liked wide open spaces,” the wizard Zhen said. “I thought you’d be used to this, growing up on Coyn.

He looked back at Haven City which sprawled out behind him on the head of the Scepter. He let out a breath he didn’t realize he was holding — the city wasn’t much better, but at least there was ground. “I like the ground,” he said. “And growing things. I always stayed away from the edge and the hole there, too. Even so, what we’re doing is insane.”

Keely walked up, carring a huge box, that was easily three times her size. “Gotta feed the dragon,” she said. “Plus, it sounds like fun.” She grinned at Lyp who was making sure the ropes were ready and felt strong.

“I’d feel better if we could check the ties,” Ormond said.

“Owlbear troop is checking that,” Zhen said. “They’ve got our back.”

“They better,” Foster said. “Now go over this for me again.”

Zhen chuckled. “We put on these rope harnesses. We throw the box and jump off at the same time.”

“And then we fall, really fast into oblivion,” Keelie said. Foster blanched a bit.

“We fall down to the gravity line, sure. and then we start rising, and the gravity slows us down. The ropes are tied at the center of the Scepter, and so they pull us back in as we slow down.”

“That’s when we shout ‘wheeee’ and you shout ‘oh shit,’” Lyp said.

Zhen coughed, and arched her eyebrow at her short companions. “By the time we’re stopped, we’ll be in reach of the pommel, near the Dragon’s spire. Then we do our business.”

“We make sure Petracalifax’s box lands safely, and the nice ancient dragon is happy,” Foster recited, as he checked his harness. “We pass along our requests, and she does the same.”

“Then she tosses us back,” Ormond said morosely. His shield was strapped carefully to his back, and his weapons secured.

“Whole thing shouldn’t take more than half an hour,” Zhen said. “Barring accidents.”

“Just be ready with that healing spell,” Foster said. The cleric nodded once, his expression grim.

“Okay, time for that jump,” Lyp said. Keelie tossed the box over and Lyp jumped on it as it fell.

“You coming?” Keelie asked as she jumped too. “Got to take the dragon her din-din.”

Note:  These Adventurer’s Leauge posts are some idea of what sorts of things we might be doing near the beginning of our adventure, if you’d like to join us. We are still looking for a Few Good Adventurers.

By Joe Tortuga | Posted in Shattered Earth | Comments (0)

Shattered Earth Adventurer’s League: Rats

November 3, 2010 – 12:00 pm

What D&D campaign doesn’t have the party fighting a rat swarm or dire rats sometime early in the game?

As they approached the place the farmers said the rats were, Foster called a halt and sent Lyp on a head to scout.  As the halfling disappeared in to the tall wheatgrass, Foster turned to look at Keelie. “Now remember, the Druids won’t let us kill them all.”

“Do you have to spoil my fun?” the gnome groused, and pulled out a greataxe almost as as big as she was.

“So long as they aren’t psychic rats,” Zhen said, brushing her forehead where her wizard’s glyph twisted and flowed.

“Psychic rats?” Ormond scoffed. His white cleric’s glyph pulsed, too, in readiness for what was about to happen.

“Yeah, psychic rats,” Zhen said. “I was reading about them in the vault. Some sort of pre-cataclysm monster.  The more of them there are the smarter they get.  A full swarm was a powerful wizard, not to be trifled with.” She glared at the cleric. “Like most wizards.”

Ormond chuckled, and waved dismissively.

Zhen was about to respond when the wheat rustled Lyp stepped through.  ”Huge swarm,as well as several larger rats around the perimeter. And Zhen, ” she paused. “They didn’t seem to be casting any magic.”

She sputtered a bit, “You heard that?”

“All I can say, ” Lyp replied, “is that when we’re facing intelligent opponents, maybe you could be a bit, I don’t know… quieter?” Lyp drew a quick outline in the floor, and Foster bent over it.

“Keelie, Lyp, you flank and take out these two big rats.  I’ll shoot the one on this side.  Zhen, you know what to do.”

“Burning hands the whole lot,” she said holding out her hands and wiggling her fingers.

“What about me?” Ormond asked. “Stand back and heal?”

“That and make sure she doesn’t catch everything on fire.”

Ormond laughed.

Zhen shook her head.  ”I’m never going to live that down, am I?

Note:  These Adventurer’s Leauge posts are some idea of what sorts of things we might be doing near the beginning of our adventure, if you’d like to join us. We are still looking for a Few Good Adventurers.

By Joe Tortuga | Posted in Shattered Earth | Comments (0)

Video Game Interface: To Menu Or Not To Menu?

November 2, 2010 – 9:15 am

I’ve now had a chance to play Fable 3 and experience it’s “menu-less” interface. I was also a fan of Black and White, also by Lionhead, and also menu-less.  In general, I found Black and White’s lack of menus more compelling than Fable 3′s and I’ve been thinking for the past week or so about why.

A menu, ultimately, is an interface element to allow the player to manipulate some part of an computer application.  Video games are computer applications, of course, and most games have some sort of menu of some kind or other.  Even Fable 3 has a menu to allow you to save and load, and adjust game options like subtitles or volume.

Some games have a lot of menus, some naturally have very few. Menus aren’t necessarily evil, but they aren’t necessarily fun.  I’ve seen games like Football League simulators that are nothing but menus — these are data heavy games that require a dense information layout. In fact, the people who may actually do that job (as it were) probably use a spreadsheet or something similar to do it, so it’s not a wrong choice.  The one Tetris console game I had (The Next Tetris) had almost no menu, beyond selecting a player and a game type.  You never saw a menu while you were playing the game, and that’s good because it would have broken flow. Read More »

By Joe Tortuga | Posted in Games | Comments (4)

Tales From Shattered Earth: The Balance

November 1, 2010 – 12:00 pm

The sun’s rays shown up through the water disk, as it prepared to rise.  Jaxom, special assistant to the Druid Guild Council Representative, spoke quietly to his companion.  ”I still think it was a bit of a cruel joke, Roslyn, putting that fake flavor spell on their water.”

“They mishandled the crates,” she replied. “They are required for the trees and our survival.”  She patted the roots of the tree they nestled in.  Most druids spent their times in the branches of the two trees, not here where their roots tangled together.  It made a good place for the two to clandestinely meet.

Roslyn thought for a moment, and leaned in closer to her confidante, her lips brushing his ear with a whispered kiss.  Her nominal boss, the Baobab Citizen representative needed this information passed on most discretely.  ”Arturus is at it again, ” she said. “With his studies.”

Jaxom let out a bark of a laugh, “What is it this time?”

“He’s calculated the volume of water we have, and how long it will last the Alliance before it runs out.” Jaxom went very still, but Roslyn slid her hand along his leg, and he, for a moment, only pretended to be her lover.

“He knows,” Jaxom said.

“But he can’t prove it,” Rosalyn whispered. “That’s why he’s asked the council for funding, and many of them want to give it.”

“We can’t vote on this,” he said.  ”They’ll know.”  He didn’t say what — that they had something to hide, that the special assistants colluded together despite council rules.  That they were secretly lovers, and had been through many elections and officials.

“The Farmer’s Guild has a bill they want passed. I’ve let them believe we oppose it, but that our vote can be bought for an exchange.  We’ll recuse ourselves of this vote, since it involves Baobab.”

Jaxom nodded, relaxing, they’d done this before, bartered votes in secret.  He turned and kissed her for real and not pretend. “I know a dark elf who needs a similar favor.”

“The sun is coming,” she said.  They turned and looked as the sun broke over the water disk. The sun’s light below refracted and the light above reflected, turning the whole eastern disk  bright gold.

“A moment of balance,” Jaxom whispered.

“A moment of beauty,” Roslyn replied.

“That then concluded this business?” Jaxom asked.

“Indeed,” Roslyn said, and kissed him soundly.

His hands went to her robes, and her’s to his.  Now they could get down to the real purpose of this meeting.

Note: We’re still looking for a Few Good Adventurers.

By Joe Tortuga | Posted in Shattered Earth | Comments (0)

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