Below are the 20 most recent journal entries recorded in M a r k C a u s e y I I I's LiveJournal:

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Friday, October 9th, 2009
11:40 am	Stats for Persona TRPG I'm thinking that the "stats" should only be indicators of interpersonal compatibility. This will map to PCs, NPCs and summoned Persona. I wonder what they should be? I imagine there should be four of them, to map easily to the card deck. (2 Comments |Comment on this)
Thursday, October 8th, 2009
4:22 pm	Skills for Persona TRPG One of the items I'm sure about for the real world side characters is that their skills are the classes and clubs they take: History Mathematics English Science Phys. Ed. Drama Debate Band Sports Team I'm not quite sure what the stats should be, though. (Comment on this)
Tuesday, October 6th, 2009
2:26 pm	Persona TRPG I have this idea in mind for a tabletop Persona style game. It involves using the non-face cards for most of the game and the face cards for a portion of it. Stage 1: Players make teenagers in high school. They don't have to all be in the same grade or the same homeroom (in a Japanese school), but the same building is key. They have to be able to see each other on a daily basis for most of the week. Players will all also be linked by the fact that they play a popular MMORPG. They may spend a lot of time or very little time, but they are involved in it, as are other kids in the school. The MMO is designed by the group. During Stage 1, the characters take classes, try to make friends and join clubs. The key point is to explore a school and town. Prior to resolving scenes in which players are meeting someone for the first time or are in a stressful situation, they draw a card from the deck. This is the initial state or intensity of the situation. A particular stat or stat+skill will be noted as meeting or exceeding the state and indicating success or failure. If the player wants to change the status (there will be reasons to fail as well as succeed), they can draw cards and add them to their stat+skill or to the initial state after describing what intensifies those items. There will be stats for who you are compatible with as well. Eventually, the deck will be completely used up. This ends Stage 1. Stage 2: Something happens in the town or school that is a mystery. This can be a murder with weird methods or no evidence, a missing person, or a large theft. It needs to be personal and affect dearly someone that the characters will have reason to interact with. These can be coworkers at part time jobs, classmates, etc. They don't have to be the victims but they do have to be tied to the event. It can be a player character, but the PC cannot die at this stage. The mystery will be something that the entire group agrees that the PCs will be involved in, but the mystery shouldn't have a predetermined solution. During Stage 2, play will be centered around how the characters interact with those people affected by the mystery. This can be as simple as meeting them and consoling the grieving or as complicated as a midnight raid to uncover evidence. Cards will be drawn again for initial reactions and also for any sort of action the group considers to be outside the normal limit of a teenager's authority or responsibility. Some things should be decided by the group to be unsolvable or unaffectable at this point in the game. One or two items would be best. These will take face cards to "break open". Eventually, the deck will be completely used up. This ends Stage 2. The deck may be smaller at this point. Stage 3: The characters will find themselves online in the MMO. This could be a normal meeting or a method of discussing things without adult ears. However, they will soon find out that something is horribly wrong: they feel pain, their lives are in danger, and they can't logout. During Stage 3, the characters will be reacting to the danger and trying to find a way out. They cannot simply shut the program down or the machine off. There will be a second set of skills that relate to their in-game characters. This is the first time a PC can die. The group should determine a path to logging out. The steps to obtain will not have initial draws but set levels of difficulty that encourage the players to add cards together to beat. Succesfully logging out will garner the group a face card. Stage 3 ends with a successful log out or if one of the characters dies. If someone dies, this will not be resolved until the next time the PCs return to the MMORPG. Also, the PC that died should now be intimately tied to the mystery. Finally, a PC death will always grant a face card. Stage 4: Play will now resemble Stages 1 and 2. The mystery will deepen, friendships and relationships will grow, and new unlockable clues will be determined. Stage 4 will end when the deck is used up. The PCs will learn that someone has gone missing and is somehow communicating with the outside world: they've been trapped in the MMO. If someone died in Stage 3, this will be their new character. Stage 5: Play will resemble Stage 3. A face card will be granted when the character is successfully rescued. A PC death at this point will not end the session but will make them more entangled in the mystery. Further Stages will continue a loop resembling Stages 4 and 5 for a period determined by the group, between the amounts of 0-2. After the determined number of loops (the group can stop after a Stage 5 redux at any time), play will resemble Stage 1 except for the fact that the setting should change. A class field trip or vacation would be appropriate. Mysteries should not get more complex at this point. The focus should be on resolving as many clues as possible. Face cards can be obtained by maxing out friendships. At this point, the group can decide if the mystery has been solved or not. If it has, a final pair of Stages should be enacted. However, the person at the center of the mystery should be met in the MMORPG world and tracked down to the real world, reversing the order of the previous pairs. It is up to the group to decide if it should be a heroic or tragic ending. This is the only time a PC can be forced to die in the real world. Thoughts? (Comment on this)
Monday, September 21st, 2009
2:07 pm	Oboro Muramasa 2 So, now I'm playing the English edition of Muramasa. The game makes a ton more sense now. And I hit a 500 hit combo! (Comment on this)
Monday, April 13th, 2009
9:49 am	Oboro Muramasa Man, Oboro Muramasa plus my component cables and my HD TV = frakking awesome. Add to that fun gameplay and the fact that even I can get a 61 hit combo makes my mind wander to this game during the day. Here's a preview of it, and I'm sure you can find others online if you try. I cry for those who will have to wait until 2010. (Comment on this)
Tuesday, February 24th, 2009
2:25 pm	Grande Finale - New System Hey, all, I have a much more simplified game system for Grande Finale. Here's a preview doc as I finish up the character creation section. Grande Finale Version .20090223 Grande Finale is a game I'm developing based on my love for Final Fantasy games. It is not intended to emulate them, but provide a basis for stories like them can be told. It is a love letter, really. /Elements Necessary to Alchemize/ At a low level, the Final Fantasy games were steampunk (or whatever you want to replace steam with - crystal, mana, etc.) and were focused on environmental themes. Corrupt goverments or tyrannical leaders made choices that weakened or threatened the world and its inhabitants. *[Expand this section]* Any elements you bring to the table that work along these themes should help you find the game you want to play. This isn't prohibitive, but inspirational in its constraints. I have no desire to, nor can I hope to, ever tell you how to play "right". I am just trying to share a vision. /Basic Game Play/ Basic game play is predicated on the concept of Achievements and Sacrifices. Any achievement worth accomplishing will bring forth potential sacrifices. Some will be made, some will be avoided, and they may cause the accomplishment to be pushed off. So long as your desire is strong enough, the achievement can be accomplished. Contrary-wise, any achievement that doesn't trigger any sacrifice isn't worth being brought to bear in the system. They may be important to the story at hand, but if the group doesn't believe that a sacrifice is present or needs to be resolved, then dice aren't rolled. So, let's say you're going to leap into a crowd of angry wolfmen, in an attempt to steal back your girlfriend from the leader's grasp. You describe this as an act of Passion and Grace (which are two of your basic Attributes). You get one die for each Attribute, so you pick up 2d6. The GM states that you could very well be harmed in this scene. Also your girlfriend could be harmed. So, we now have an Achievement: Rescue my girlfriend Methods of accomplishing this: Passion and Grace Possible Sacrifices: Harm to self and Harm to my girlfriend. At this point, you can roll with your 2d6. The results would be applied to the Achievement and all Sacrifices. As you can see, in one category you'd be destined to fail. First of all, this is okay! Some sacrifices are known and prevalent. Sacrifices are a method of growth, too, but later on that. However, you could call on a trait to give you enough dice so as to have a chance of succeeding at all categories. This also means that you'll have a better chance of accomplishing your achievement. In this instance, you could call on "Soul Sword" or "Mycea and I are in Love". Or, you could call on both! This would mean that the GM should develop a new Sacrifice to call in for you to combat. However, in some situations, the GM can allow one more die than sacrifices. In this case the GM decides that "In Love with Mycea" might be in question - Mycea might come to question the brash actions of her lover and doubt their future together. Also, this means that there are times that the GM can call on a Sacrifice that can't be matched by a trait or attribute. This doesn't mean the Sacrifice will happen! It just means that, by its very presence, a hard choice will have to be made. So, to bring it all back together: Achievement: Rescue my girlfriend Methods: Passion, Grace, In Love with Mycea Sacrifices: Personal Harm, Harm to Mycea, Harm to "Mycea and I are in Love" So, let's roll some dice! /Basic results:/ Achievement: 1-2 Achievement adds 2 Requirements 3-4 Achievement adds 1 Requirement 5-6 Achievement is accomplished! Sacrifice: 1-2 Sacrifice takes full effect and gives 2 Harm 3-4 Sacrifice takes limited effect and gives 1 Harm 5-6 Sacrifice takes no effect and gives no Harm /Harm/ So, what is Harm? Other than the obvious story elements represented by this (sword cuts, bruised egos, burning buildings), Harm is also mechanically represented by making attributes and traits temporarily unavailable. Let's take a look at the previous example. Let's say that the you end up having to accept Personal Harm (not hard to believe) at the worst level - full effect and 2 Harm. So, story-wise, it looks like the angry wolfmen nearly tore you apart. Mechanically, you personally brought forward Passion and Grace. Looking at your character sheet, you can see that you have Passion 2 and Grace 2. You can either give one Harm to each or take the full brunt in one of the two attributes. Let's look at that separately: Passion 1 Harm and Grace 1 Harm: You were both cowed a bit by their attack (Passion) and you might not be dancing at the ball later tonight (Grace). Passion 2 Harm You'll have nightmares from this encounter. Also, see "Broken" below. Grace 2 Harm You'll be walking with a limp for the next couple of days. Also, see "Broken" below. /Broken/ So, what happens when an attribute or trait is reduced to zero by Harm? Well, it's Broken. When it's broken, it can't be called on in for dice in an Achievement roll. It will stay that way until it's Refreshed. Eventually, you could be so Broken that you'd lose anything you'd try to Achieve. If you want to rise like a Phoenix and remake yourself, this is the way to go. Otherwise, you may want to Refresh your Broken attributes and traits earlier on. Either way, the process is the same. /Refreshes/ So, you've gone and got something Broken. It could be your Passion or it could be your Soul Sword. Either way, you've decided to Refresh it. You need to enter into a Refresh Scene. This scene will be used to define how you've come to terms with being Broken (or having something of yours being Broken). The scene will show your efforts to recover. This can be anything from a long rest with good friends, an 80's style montage scene, or a dark moment where you share the dire revelations that have come to you because of this event. When this is done, you can stretch your arms and swing your sword - everything's better again! But wait, you say, what if I don't want to rebuild my Soul Sword? (Don't ask about the Passion just yet). Well, start the process the same way. But, instead of collecting the materials to reforge your weapon, describe how yo spoke with sages and learned how the weapon becoming Broken was destined, and how you have become the Soul Forger instead. In either format (regular or transformative), at the end, your Attribute or Trait will return to full power. /Character Creation/ *[Expand on Section]* Inspirations: Final Fantasy IV, VI Otherkind, PSI*RUN, GHOST/ECHO The Shadow of Yesterday FATE, a version of FUDGE (Comment on this)
Friday, January 9th, 2009
1:59 pm	Why or When Do We Roll? I want to start a discussion. Please respond if you can with your own opinions and feel free to respond to anyone's responses. I need to understand two things about roleplaying games that I didn't quite realize that I didn't understand until asked recently about a game in progress: "When do people roll and why?" Roll will mean any kind of decision making process, including but not limited to rock-paper-scissors, dice, cards, bidding, and predetermined narrative authority being invoked. When do games make people roll, and how does that [1] impact gameplay and [2] affect the fiction? I've heard terms used before that will color this discussion, I'm sure. "Task resolution" and "Conflict resolution" are the two that immediately come to mind. I also know that there are still some revolutions being developed in this "field"; V. Baker's In A Wicked Age comes to mind. I guess if I could come away with a small map, I'd be happy. Use these kinds of rolls for this kind of effect in play, and those kinds of roll for those kinds of play. For instance (but completely off the cuff): If you only roll a) when you meet people for the first time and b) once per scene, and no other time, this will make for a kind of play where you are wanting a detective game where the players will always describe any sort of action to their desires.  I may be asking too much. Give me whatever answer you can muster. Point me to articles if appropriate. (Comment on this)
Tuesday, November 11th, 2008
4:44 pm	[Grande Finale] Characteristics I've made some updates to the Characteristics section of Grande Finale. Go, read! Comment if you desire :3 Home Page Page Being Referenced (Comment on this)
Monday, November 10th, 2008
3:36 pm	[Grande Finale] Home Page I don't have the funds to run a real website, but I have managed to cobble together a wiki. Please come by if you want; the rules are posted there if nothing else. Grande Finale (Comment on this)
1:24 pm	[Grande Finale] It just wasn't in the cards ... So, I've ditched a card based resolution entirely. I'm kinda sad, because I was really certain that I wanted cards to be a part of it all. So, here's the new version. Let me know if you have any ideas/questions. Grande Finale Alpha 2 (Comment on this)
Tuesday, November 4th, 2008
10:17 am	[Grande Finale] Active Battle System So, I have two main mechanics in the game for resolution: Active Battle System and Minigame. ABS is not solely for combats, but is for any intense scene. Minigame is for light scenes. They both should really be able to resolve situations and should be used when thematically appropriate. I'm currently working on ABS. Here is the basic concept, so you don't have to research: Let's say you and I are in a classic battle scene. We get the deck of cards in front of us. I'm red and you're black and I go first. I describe what is going on. I have about a sentence worth of action to narrate. I then draw a card. If it is red, I get to continue on. If it is black, you get to start describing things. Whomever has narration has the temporary advantage in the scene and describes accordingly. Hopefully this rapid back and forth will be fun, representing the swords clashing and spells flying in a crazy cool fashion. When we've drawn five cards, we see who had the most cards that matched our color. The "winner" dishes out some damage to the "loser", in the form of a reduced Aspect and a trauma Aspect added at the same value. Aspects are used differently in Minigame, where their value actually affects cards drawn. In this situation, they're basically hit points. There are three core Characteristics, that, if depleted, will knock a character out. These core Characteristics become available to attack when they have no Aspects to defend them (Aspects are tied to the core Characteristics). So, I want the players to be able to say, "This conflict matters to me" in a way much more powerful than fighting over it. But, at its core, the ABS mechanic doesn't allow for it. Even if I have some rules about holding cards up your sleeve, you can win the battle but not he war. I want a player to be able to make a sacrifice that makes a major statement and could, when used properly, win the battle and the war. I'm thinking that a player could be able to "sacrifice" an Aspect to attack with more power than normal - maybe when they've won a five card volley they could sacrifice their attacking Aspect to use its full power, hopefully breaking through the defending Aspect on the other character. This would deplete this arena for them for the battle, and force them to change it after the scene in some way. Kind of like buying off a Key in TSOY. Any thoughts? (2 Comments |Comment on this)
Monday, November 3rd, 2008
2:19 pm	[Grande Finale] Alpha Document Here is the alpha document for the Final Fantasy style tabletop game I’m developing. Send me an email or hit me on one of my blogs or post something on Story Games and I’ll respond. I respond quickest in that order. ( Read more... ) Document (1 Comment |Comment on this)
Friday, October 31st, 2008
11:19 am	Grande Finale: Alpha Preamble I'm not really going to even look back on previous posts or blogs to review what I've said in the past. I hope I don't contradict myself too much with this. Please read this. If you're of a like mind, please contact me and I'll provide the alpha doc for my game in development, Grande Finale. I'm looking for help on filling in some gaps and seeing what gameplay is like outside of my head. Grande Finale v.103108  Mark Causey    First and foremost, this is a game for me and people like me. I've wanted a "Final Fantasy" game ever since I heard of tabletop roleplaying. I'm asking for help because of the classic reasons, but mainly because I like sharing in the creative process. I do not want to make this game for everyone, not even all Final Fantasy fans who tabletop roleplay. Feel free to join up or drop out at any time. There is no need to "make a commitment". If all you have is one comment, that is fine with me. All help is appreciated!    Second, I feel no need to create beautiful new mechanics to change the way everyone games. It is already pretty traditional with some indie or story gaming influences. I will probably respond to ideas founded on a whole new way of doing things as a request for permission to design your own game. Sorry if that hurts, but I have a big desire to see a playable version done as soon as possible and not be caught in self-revisionist hell. That said, ideas are welcome. I've borrowed from quite a few sources already. I don't mind this being a hodge-podge game.    *Console Gaming*  I've seen quite a few posts and essays on console gaming. I know that part of the problem of emulating this type of game is that there are many elements in these games that people find interesting and fun and that not everyone shares the same elements in kind or the same perspective on these elements.        /Classes/ - I love the classes in the Final Fantasy series. Dragoons, Gamblers, Dark Knights, Summoners and others all appeal to me and I love most every variation on them.           /Clashes with Evil Kingdoms and Love Stories/ - I throw out my internal critic when the story moves to grandiose war stories and heartwarming love stories. They make each game feel that much more accessible when you know the cliches. Whether you're retelling the story on the table top or replaying the video game, you get this sense of engaging in a myth with many variations.           /Action Battle Systems/ - When it comes down to the most visceral, casting those big spells or wielding those fantastic weapons makes my heart race sometimes. Mountain shaking monsters and sky darkening fleets of airships are the enemies you play to fight again and again.           /Airships and Moogles/ - The minute details of any given Final Fantasy world usually delight or annoy most players. I don't want to force Moogles on my games and I don't want those kinds of elements even firmly outlined. Because, damn, which FF would you choose *your* Moogle from? Or your Chocobo? But, a reminder to find a way to include your favorite minutia is necessary and integral to a successful game.        (Comment on this)
Thursday, October 30th, 2008
9:13 am	Dead Set So, the people that air Big Brother in England (E4) have gone and made something pretty cool. Dead Set is a 5 part zombie TV series airing this week, with the finale on Halloween. Premise? What if the only survivors of the zombie apocalypse were the remaining members of Big Brother, specifically chosen for their ability to annoy each other .... I've seen the first episode and am hoarding the rest waiting for my friend Eric to come over Saturday to watch the whole shebang. It looks good, and they even use the real host of Big Brother in the show. Fantastic! (Comment on this)
9:11 am	Avatar: The Last Airbender I've now seen the first season of Avatar. Can't wait for the next two! It only took me getting sick and staying home for two days to see it. We'll see when that happens again ... (Comment on this)
Wednesday, October 22nd, 2008
3:32 pm	[TSOY + Cards] New Concept Okay, new thought dump. We'll see if this works. There are three main Pools that everyone has. There is a slot open for a fourth Pool, which can be filled by any of the Elements or Jobs available in the campaign. However, this Pool is fueled only by Keys. Main Pools: Passion Cunning Resolve Sub Pool examples: Shadow Dragoon So, you'd use and Refresh your main Pools as per the rules. The sub Pool would only be available to you for augmenting your draw or roll by spending accumulated XP acquired by fulfilling the Key or Keys associated with the sub Pool or for activating Secrets (which might be based either on current Pool size or by spending XP again). The sub Pools might grow in power based on total XP acquired for that Pool regardless of whether the XP has been used yet or not. You can have many sub Pools but can only have one active in a given scene, barring a Secret that allows otherwise. Thoughts? (Comment on this)
Monday, October 20th, 2008
2:31 pm	[The Shadow of Yesterday] Playing Cards So, I've been converting TSOY to use playing cards slowly in my mind. This is sort of a thought dump; items may contradict each other. You get three out of four "main" Pools during character creation. These will map directly to three out of four suits (and are the same mapping for everyone). There may be other Pools, like a Job Pool that affect other actions. Combat may end up being a subset of normal resolution. When you start a scene, you're dealt three cards. Based on those cards, you'll know that you have a strong hand or a weak hand towards certain actions. Based on what you want to do in the scene, but before you use the cards for any sort of resolution, you can describe your actions (I stumble towards you, with murder on my mind, weak from a night's deliberation; I counter your every argument, my words fueled with malice and forethought) to accentuate the pull you made. As players get used to this, things that might have called for rolls in the past are ignored and you move towards drawing cards only when you say, "Oh, no, you don't!" The cards to which you have no main Pool for can act as helper cards but can't be the lead card. I still think you can have Abilities based on non-Pools - you just won't be able to augment them with Pool points. Damage in Bringing Down the Pain will actually come from an elemental label attached to your Abilities or your Pools, I'm not sure. Shadow, Holy, Fire, Earth, Water, Air, etc. These elements will have conditions that need to be met to recover from the wounds. When you play a card, your Ability modifier will allow you to add more cards of the same suit (or half the value of a helper suit). So, an Ability at Grand Master would allow you to add in four more cards to come to your total value. The math will have to be worked on. That's all for now! (Comment on this)
Friday, October 17th, 2008
2:33 pm	~Final Fantasy~ Anyone that knows me knows that I hold a special place in my heart for Final Fantasy. If you don't, now you do. Two things: Visit the website for the sequel to FF4 that is only out on telephones in Japan right now. You can see some nice pictures and listen to some of my favorite FF4 tunes (ad infinitum!) http://www.square-enix.co.jp/mobile/ff/ff4after/top.html Also, I'm working on converting TSOY to FF (and using playing cards at the same time): http://www.story-games.com/forums/comments.php?DiscussionID=7916 Come join the discussion! (1 Comment |Comment on this)
Thursday, October 16th, 2008
2:20 pm	Anima: Shadow of Omega I gots it! Anyone else played this before? I think it will be tons of fun ... (Comment on this)
Tuesday, October 14th, 2008
2:08 pm	Grande Finale: Tenets and Elements Part 1 So, I'm trying to teach myself how to write an integrated story and game together. So far, it is still a fantasy heartbreak style game. Here's what I came up with today. Basic tenet is this: don't introduce a setting element without making it have importance in the game. Make the game be about conflicts where there has been a prioritization of one element over another. Elements: Souls - You can see your soul in a mirror, and only rarely does a mirror work like it does in the real world. The precious material of souls is silver, and trading in silver is almost the same as trading in souls. You can play a spirit race in the game, and can either be protected by or harmed by silver. Your iconic weapon are dual curved blades. Death - When you die, you awaken later on one of the three moons. These moons are very dangerous, but you can fight your way back to the world for one last chance. The precious material of death is opal, and trading in opals is akin to cursing someone. Still, people want them because you can determine the final fate of loved ones with it. You can play one of those who has returned to the world from the moon, the moon blessed (undead). Your iconic weapon is a scythe. Memories - All of the memories of anyone, past, present or future is hidden in the ocean's depths. If you want to forget a particular memory, you can cast it into the ocean; walk into the ocean at the right time and you'll come back as someone else. The precious material of memories is crystal, and trading in crystal is to trade in nostalgia; be prepared to share some stories along the way. You can play an exalt in the game, which is a body of memories incarnate walking the earth trying to right some wrong or achieve a long lost goal. Your iconic weapon is a whip. Purity - The sun's rays give the world purity, and nearly everything afterward corrupts it through sinful lust. Fire, torches, candles - anything that sheds light is giving purity back to the world. The precious material of purity is the diamond, but many argue that if there are gradations of diamonds then there must be gradations of purity. The irony of those who lust after diamonds is not lost on many. You can play a starborn race in the game, and shed light on the sinful. Your iconic weapon are polearms. That's it for part 1. Soon I'll post part 2 with honor, destiny, loyalty and freedom. Guess where humans fit in? (Comment on this)