TRPG General Chat

BESW

12:04

Okay, so I have no idea how coherent this is, but.... very rough first draft that I think might hold together:

Surgadores, v0.02

Polyducks

I like that. Reading now

FYI the dev is me

BESW

Mmm. This is seriously not at the point where we're tinkering with exact phrasing.

@Polyducks There's no point in copy-editing something that may still change drastically and waste all the effort of fine-tuning the specific words being used.

Polyducks

Was just making sure it was clear :)

This looks good

BESW

Over/under terminology is pretty standard RPG phrasing. As is the XdY notation.

Polyducks

4d6 is a dice roll, but 4 six-sided dice are four objects

but I'm being picky

There is a flaw that I can see

When do players chose to wrestle or operate?

Is it possible for the players to just wrestle without operating?

BESW

12:18

Sure. But WRESTLING doesn't let you colour in your mask.

Polyducks

Aha

And everyone has to operate on the patient?

BESW

Right.

Polyducks

I want to play already

BESW

So everybody's gotta tag in and out on wrestling Death.

Polyducks

This looks so fun

BESW

12:19

You wrestle Death so you don't lose, and you operate in order to win.

Polyducks

Is there a turn order?

or does everyone just declare their action as they see fit per round

BESW

> Thumb wrestle to see who starts and go clockwise from there.

Polyducks

Oh yes.

Do you need illustrations?

Like an example mask?

BESW

That would imply any thought has gone into whether or how to distribute this thing.

Polyducks

I'd say it looks playable now

Oooh

Is there a minimum player count?

BESW

12:31

...two?

Mathematically, two.

Polyducks

If there are two players, would they be able to switch who goes first? What if the second player fills his sheet and the first needs to take the patient

BESW

Playability-wise, that's what playtesting is for.

Polyducks

because if the first fails, the second can always chose to wrestle death

but not the other way around

That's some nice emergent difficulty

Maybe put something in there about encouraging flavour text?

Not mechanically, but just for funsies

BESW

12:46

Again, this is the "making sure it doesn't fall apart in a light breeze" stage of development.

Polyducks

haha

BESW

Presentation and packaging are distant concerns.

Polyducks

I can see it'll be a challenge fighting off death at the start which lessens as the game continues

BESW

Per roll, yes.

Polyducks

It starts off at d6 vs <(3 +0)

BESW

12:49

But getting those last OPERATION successes will be hard, meaning WRESTLING has more chances for failure as the likelihood of each roll failing decreases.

Polyducks

Oh I see now, yes

BESW

In theory, this makes the game get more tense as it gets closer to the end.

At first you're mostly focused on WRESTLING DEATH, because each roll has a high chance of failure so more surgadores have to try each round.

Polyducks

operations start as d6 > (2+0) and finish with d6 > (2+2)

BESW

But whenever the successful WRESTLING roll isn't the last one in the round, at least one surgadore gets to OPERATE.

And when he succeeds at OPERATING, he's better at WRESTLING.

Polyducks

Is it only one surgadore? Or can multiple operate at once?

BESW

12:52

Multiples can operate, yes. But tactically, you want to be sure DEATH has been WRESTLED first each round.

Polyducks

If the first surgadore wrestles death, the others can operate, right?

BESW

Aye.

Polyducks

and then it gets scary later in the game when the first surgador needs to operate

and you don't know if death will be wrestled by the remainder

BESW

Yup.

Polyducks

This will be so awesome

BESW

12:54

But generally speaking the last surgadores in the round will wind up with the fastest coloured masks early in the game, meaning they're good at defence later in the game.

Polyducks

Yes

So long as the players play tactically

I can't wait to play!

BESW

I think in order to have any replay value it'll need a bit of extra complication.

But for a first pass I'm content with it.

Polyducks

Isn't there replay value in the flavour?

The fact you can make a new mask

BESW

Little bit.

nitsua60

13:43

@BESW I think the rules go on the inner surface of the mask. Or the mask needs be made from the rule-sheet. Same thing....

There's no "cost" to failing at operating, except that it makes the game longer thus giving DEATH more chances to swoop in, right?

BESW

Yeah.

I started with the narrative win/lose conditions (You stabilise the patient before DEATH breaks through; you fail to hold back DEATH before the patient is stabilised) and worked back from that.

nitsua60

I think there'd be a benefit--in word-count and in flavor--to coming up with a catchy term for "the number of colored areas on your mask."

BESW

Yes.

nitsua60

[thinking]

BESW

If this ever gets out of "light breeze" versions, that'll be a thing.

nitsua60

13:49

they represent both/either successful stavings-off of death or successful operations...

BESW

A serious treatment of this game would include research into luchadores and La Santa Muerte, which would yield vocabulary as well as interesting nuance.

Polyducks

'patches'?

mask patches?

Yes, I agree

you've got this in the bag, @BESW

nitsua60

I'm an idiot, sitting here racking my brain. Headed down to Spanish department right now.

BESW

And I'm going to bed.

G'night!

nitsua60

"clavado" is a pin in lucha libre

they like the idea of "lucha a meurte"

Polyducks

14:00

luchameurte

Exciting

It's so cool that you work at a university

nitsua60

@Polyducks HS, actually

we just have an overabundance of departments =)

Polyducks

Also cool :D

nitsua60

English, Drama, Math, Computer Science, Pre-Engineering, Greek, Latin, History, Economics, ...

Some of them only have one faculty member, others a dozen. It's not a sensible beaurocracy =\

Polyducks

What's Pre-Engineering? Is that preparation before engineering?

nitsua60

yup. CAD, structural analysis, manufacturing processes, &c.

Polyducks

14:11

coolguyglasses.jpg

nitsua60

we had two speakers here last night: one on developing medical assistive devices deployable through south america, one on fire safety engineering

Polyducks

14:35

That sounds way too advanced for highschool. Sounds like your students are mega smart

or at least, well educated

@BESW crap. I shouldn't have used the dev account. Had management ask me "What's the document 'sugababes'?"

I think they meant surgadores

Anyway, bright pink face-flush

Doomed Mind

lol

Polyducks

Don't ever let me use the work google account again. I've only just found out it messages the whole department

Doomed Mind

well, we cant really stop you can we? :)

Polyducks

8~)

Doomed Mind

"sugababes" made me chuckle though

nitsua60

14:51

@Polyducks I don't know how to grimmace sympathetically in a three-character abbreviation, so I'll just spell it out. [grimmaces sympathetically]

Polyducks

@nitsua60 It's not all bad. The rest of the department spend their time building fantasy football teams. I don't see how this is that different (except with surgery and luchadores)

nitsua60

@Polyducks OMG now I want a fantasy surgadore league...

for my anaesthesiologist I'll choose...

Polyducks

Does he have a name?

nitsua60

Possibly Dr. Wagner, Jr.? My Spanish is pretty weak. "D es para terminado," and all....

Polyducks

Mine will be Nurse Donde está la biblioteca

nitsua60

15:06

parejas increibles: ("incredible pairings") when an unlikely pair of 'dores wrestle as a team. Such as two orthopedic hand-specialists sharing the same table...?

"parejas increibles highlight the conflict between a 'dore's desire to win and his contempt for his partner."

nitsua60

15:23

@BESW @Polyducks @trogdor @doppelgreener @eimyr wonder if there's room for a bit of intraparty rivalry there... (see last two messages)

Polyducks

How do you mean?

eimyr

15:59

@BESW @nitsua60 Mexican doctors are stereotypically infamous for their shady medical practices. Maybe we could somehow poke some fun at it as well?

doppelgreener

@nitsua60 maybe, though this is a one-shot action-focused adventure, this is probably left up to freeform :)

unless a quality is "which other surgadore in this operating theater do you admire/envy the most?"

nitsua60

16:45

@BESW @Polyducks @trogdor @doppelgreener@eimyr foxhugh.com/spanish/204-spanish-wrestling-vocabulary

wrestling vocabulary ^^

Polyducks

17:58

Anyone have links to the Surgador work-in-progress?

My players are about to take it on

nitsua60

18:10

will this work? docs.google.com/document/d/…

Polyducks

18:24

Got it :D Should've said a while back

We've just drawn our masks on roll20 haha

@BESW Oh, found a bug. What happens if you use an asset against death. Can you do that?

Polyducks

18:53

@BESW i.imgur.com/Aq7zh7Z.png

@BESW Summary of our two-player test: We got one colour each before death passed my four-dice move.

Here's a pastebin of the game:

http://pastebin.com/KFqqwEQ3

It was fun being really over blown and ridiculous, but I think we need more players. I definitely saw the mechanics working to get the game harder as we went through. We worked on the idea that assets weren't used up when used against death - which means we could use them again and again until they were used up in surgery. I liked how that worked because we'd have to save our best moves for the end.

user61230

20:35

brings a group of potential players together

user61230

turns out all of them have polar opposite preferences on games

user61230

(Which is weird, because there's common ground in all their RP, but.....)

Zachiel

@Emrakul I feel you

user61230

There is no GM's guide for people :[

Sejanus

quite a few actually

pick any managers guide for professional managers :)

nitsua60

21:03

@Polyducks This is just about the most-awesome thing I've seen all week. Ty, ducks =)

BESW

22:47

@Polyducks Thanks, that was helpful!

trogdor

23:21

@nitsua60 oh neat

BESW

23:44

Brainstormery: what kind of mad science or magical alternate power would it be likely/amusing for Hollywood to adopt?

nitsua60

Reed Richards--like elastic bodies.

BESW

Odic-sensitive windmills.

nitsua60

ohh... do you mean power source? I was thinking power like "superpower"

BESW

yes.

nitsua60

Then it's definitely a portal to hell, manned by a round-the-clock divine protectors, into which is thrust a heat exchanger such that stars have on-tap instant water at the temperature they require for their baths.

Is this the chateau?

brb

BESW

23:59

@nitsua60 All of Hollywood, including Chateau Marmont.

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