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SensationBasicConcept

You are on the archive wiki. The new wiki is here. Okay, as you can guess, I'll be outlining the basic concept for the overall system on this page, hopefully giving you all an idea of what kind of playing experience the system should present, as well as a basic idea of what makes the system what it is. Anyway, on with the raving tirade...

I had the idea for this system in one of those classic "It's-2-in-the-bloody-morning-and- I-can't-sleep-because-I've-got-a-head-full-of-weird-shit..." moments, about 3 weeks ago. Anyway, basically, what ran through my head was "Maybe it would be fun if someone came up with a system that focused on players interacting with the world via their 5 senses and altering reality around them using those same 5 senses." A bit of a vague idea, yeah, but it continued to run around inside my head for a the next few days before I finally sat down and started writing the shit down so as to get it out of my skull. The overall final idea was to come up with a system more focused on the roleplaying, as opposed to rollplaying.

Initially I was thinking of doing away with almost all the standard RPG system concepts and working the system as a kind of weird "You-Are-What-You-Play-You-Are" system, but then I realised that this might be both difficult to play and GM for. Things kinda then swung the other way for a while, but currently I think I've managed to find a simple balance between too many dice and none at all. Anyway, more on all this later. Monday is a bit of a busy day for me...

Some more stuff:

Okay, looking back on the previous few paragraphs I see that they were quite vague. As I said, the idea was to create a system that focuses on what the players experience via their senses. This means that player experiences should be a bit more focused than your "There is an Orc. He has a pie" type of thing. Rather, the statistical aspect of player characters, as well as important NPCs?, focuses on their Senses. Unlike many other systems, stats for player features such as Life, Physical features, Mental features etc, etc are not part of the Sensation system.

This does not mean they will not play a role in the game, as immortal PCs? with no physical or mental defects would just be silly. Rather, such features will be represented in a different manner which ensures they do not take over the game. The emphasis will be on players using their Senses, in combination with their various Skills, to solve problems and interact during the game, as opposed to players using various Physical, Mental and Social attributes in combination with Skills.

Of final note is the idea that the Sensation system be dice-rolling and stat light. This means the game will not be about min-maxing, hopefully. Millions of dice will also not be a requirement.

Comments

Dump what you think below, in all its unadulterated glory :-)

I have moved this page from its original location, "Basic Concept". For the love of Fod, read my rant. - Adrianna

d@vid May 2:

finally read through all the notes; core concept is very interesting,
focussing on characters' perceptions would hopefully engage the players strongly with their characters and the setting

however, it isn't really clear what characters would do-- do they rely
on their senses to extract details (clues) from the world? do they need them to survive in a weird reality? I think one or two examples of play
(focusing on characters in the/a setting not how the system is used) would be helpful

I have some comments on focussing on perception (basically passive) and
not action (active) traits, but depending on what you see player-characters doing this may be irrelevant

OOPMan May 6:

Er, I'm amazed. Someone has actually finally read this stuff. Thanks. Now I have
a bit more of a reason to continue working on this thing. It would be nice if the other mooks out there who use the Wiki would take the time to comment. This whole system is
very WIP, so if someone has an idea that they think is really nice and would fit in with the general system concept, I'd like to hear. No Man is an Island, as they say. Anyway, a reply to the above comment, to some extent...

The question does raise a very valid point. What do the Senses do? Well, it all depends on the situation. In an ordinary situation, where nothing incredibly strange is happening, a character with a really sharp Sense will probably notice nothing more than one with a Sense at normal human levels, although both would probably notice more than someone with a Sense at an impaired or non-functional level. However, in situations where not everything is as it seems, the character with the sharper Sense may or will notice minor details, etc which could help him/her react quicker, or tune the character into some fundamental fact about the situation. Depending on the sharpness of the Sense in question this could range from anything between noticing a mobster's hand creeping incredibly slowly towards his gun, to actually smelling the mobster's fear and exhiliration levels increasing or hearing the thin layer of sweat on his hands leaving his sweat pores. Characters with extremely heightended Senses have perception levels which make superheroes like DareDevil? look silly. Entirely how the character's use their Senses will become more clear when I finish putting up the sections on things like Channeling, Reality Alteration and Skills.

MyrdemInggala May 6:

I've read all the bits, and this all sounds pretty cool. I like the idea of a sense-based system. Do you think you have enough at the moment to run something for MondayNightMayhem? :)

Why don't you subscribe to Cthudmasters?, and post some of this? There's currently a lot of discussion of gaming systems on the list, and there are several people on it who don't read the wiki.

OOPMan May 7:

Hmmmmm, I'm not really sure. A lot of things are still very WIP and I'm not entirely
satisfied with a number of features. The Non-Sensory stats have recently garnered a large amount of my dislike because they're very deriviative of other systems and
also mean players will spend ages rubbing out numbers and keep records. Other parts of the system are also very bare-bones currently, such as ESP, which is currently only a
very basic idea I've got which I've not even put to paper (Although there's no chance I'll forget it :-). I think possibly I could have something ironed out for 2nd semester,
but I highly doubt I could get anything running this one.

Thanks for the Cthudmasters? hint. Me is currently subscribing to it to take a look
at things.