In playing with the mechanism of rolling 4 dice and then subtracting larger dice from smaller ones (in the various combinations of sets that I was able to make) I discovered that the results were far too limiting. Numbers were frequently repeated leaving very little actual choice. This wasn’t going to work.
Meanwhile, I was researching the common character archetypes found in dramatic fiction. Most of the articles that I read shared from twelve to fourteen archetypes. If I tied each archetype to a subset of game play options, this would give players a much larger pool to choose from than I had initially planned (or thought myself capable of constructing.) I could go back to Can’t Stop’s original game mechanic of adding the dice.
My new concept was this: a player selects a character archetype based on the sort of character that they would like to portray. This archetype would be assigned to the number 7. On each side of the 7 (at positions numbered 6 and 8) the player would assign the archetype that is most closely related to the archetype that they selected. This would then also be done for the archetype at the 6 and 8 positions and so on. For every archetype I would need to find two similar archetypes.
I was speaking with Julie about my ideas, and she noted that the way I was defining complimentary archetypes (and the fact that I was working with a set of 12) reminded her of the astrological signs of the zodiac. This set my mind spinning. The zodiac was perfect for this application. Dramatic archetypes and zodiac signs have a lot in common and the zodiac was already organized and grouped in the sorts of sets that I am thinking of using. My wife is a genius.
We also discussed what all of this might actually look like in play. She pointed out that it would be important to give players some kind of incentive to role-play against type or players would always choose the 5, 7, and 8 options when pairing the dice. I had already thought about this, but it was nice to be reminded. My game was starting to take shape. It even got itself a working title: Star Signs: A Game of Improvisational Story Telling. (Sounds good, right!)
I now have a loose idea of character design and a thematic direction to move in. To bring this all into sharper focus, I look at the challenge of making the aberrant choices at the far ends of the bell curve as appealing as the more probable options in its center. My solution is to define option levels. The idea is to create a numerical value for how much an option effects a scene. This design must embrace the idea that when a character behaves contrary to what is considered normal for them, it creates more drama and draws more attention than when the character acts as expected.
Here’s the idea: options have levels of influence in the scene. These levels are based on two things: the value of the scene die, and how far off center the option appears. The scene die adjusts influence based on the urgency in the scene from green to red (see: Game Design Part 6.) Green doesn’t affect influence at all, assigning an influence modifier of +0. Yellow assigns an influence modifier of +2. Orange assigns an influence modifier of +4, and red assigns an influence modifier of +6. This is added to the influence modifier based on how far off center your option is from 1 to 5 steps.
Characters have access to the green options of all archetypes (except one) but only have access to the yellow, orange, and red options associated with their core archetype. Players will have the ability to choose options of a lesser urgency during a scene. So, if the scene die indicates that the urgency of the scene is orange, a player can choose a green, yellow or orange option, but can not yet choose a red one.
This table shows how option choice and scene urgency work together to create influence. Across the top is the value of the dice for the chosen option. Under this is the amount of influence applied based on that choice based on the urgency of the scene.
This shows that in a situation where there is little or no sense of urgency, if a character behaves in the manner expected of them, they will exert no influence on the scene. This changes if the character behaves in an unexpected way and as urgency increases.
This table represent the options available to a brand new character. As the character advances and evolves through many game sessions, the options currently unavailable to them (those represented by a dash) will open up and become available.
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Yes, your wife is a genius
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