Show Offs.pdf

(259 KB) Pobierz
Show Offs:
A Game of Reckless Abandon and
Creeping Anxiety
by Eben Lindsey for Gamechef 2015
Introduction:
A master spy sitting at the baccarat table feels a bead of sweat roll down
his temple as he sits across from the terrorist financier, and prepares to
make a 10,000 Euro bluff. He looks around the crowd of well-dressed
socialites and minor nobility watching the game and smiles. He always
does better with an audience, so he pushes his remaining chips into the
pot.
An elven ranger frowns seeing a thief push his way through a crowded
marketplace after attacking and robbing a poor woman selling fruit. She
quickly jumps up on a high table and draws her bow. She can feel the
eyes of the crowd on her as she takes aim. These humans do love a
show.
A jewel thief deftly disables an alarm while breaking into the well
protected home of a corrupt business man. He moves to disable the
security cameras as well, but stops himself, imagining the looks on the
faces of those highly paid security consultants as they watch him on their
screens, easily walking in and taking the contents of one of the most
expensive safes in the country. He leaves the cameras running and slips
through the window.
Some heroes are quiet loners who act only for their ideals. To them, the only thing that
matters is that the job gets done. They don’t need any credit.
​
Show Offs​
not a game
is
about those kind of heroes. The heroes in this game are showboats. They have the
opposite of performance anxiety. They love the spotlight, and the bigger the audience
the better they perform. Give them an audience big enough and they could
accomplish almost anything. Their anxieties occur when they
​
don’t
​
an audience.
have
Leave them to do a job alone, and they will most likely fail.
1
 
Playing a Narrative Story Game:
Show Offs is a narrative story game in which the players all work collaboratively to tell
a story. One player, the Game Master or GM, acts as a guide, leading the players
through the story, interpreting the events, and acting out characters in the story. The
other players each control characters, and describe their actions in response to the
scenarios and other information provided by the GM. All you need to play is paper,
writing implements, gaming tokens of some sort, and at least one set of polyhedral
role playing dice.
The main goal of Show Offs is not to succeed at any given mission, but to create a fun,
memorable story. In this game, the players are the audience, so a game where the
players die exciting heroic deaths may in fact be preferable to a game in which they
complete a mission in a straightforward and uninteresting way.
Creating a Show Off Character:
Show Off characters can be anyone or anything the player desires, but they all share
one major characteristic:
​
are compelled to act out in front of an audience and are
they
more likely to be successful when they do so.​
Beyond that, they can be anything the
player can imagine, as long as it fits into the general story the group is trying to play.
When creating a character, players will find it useful to write the following information
on a piece of paper:
●
Name​
: This is the Character’s Name
●
Description​
: This is a brief physical description
●
High Concept​
: This is a one sentence description of who the character is, and
what role they play in the game
●
Show Off Origin​
: How did your character end up a Show Off? What in his or her
life led them to develop this intense need to perform, and anxiety when they
are not performing?
●
Dream​ player should write one dream or ambition that motivates their
: The
character. This is a chance to define your character by their motivations, and
differentiate them from the other characters in the game.
2
 
●
Skills​ player should list up to 2 skills that their character possesses. The
: The
level of specificity is up to the player. Use your imagination.
●
Flaws​ player should list up to 2 character flaws that complicate their
: The
character’s lives. Apart from the obvious need for attention, of course.
The Core Mechanic:
Characters in
​
Show Offs​
primarily driven by their intense need to perform. When
are
they act without an audience, they are faced with overwhelming anxiety about their
actions. This anxiety is represented by Anxiety Points (AP), which can be represented
by tokens, coins or any other small objects. At the beginning of the game all players
start with 3 Anxiety Points, and draw or discard tokens as their AP increases or
decreases. Anxiety points can also be tracked on paper, but it is more fun to have
tokens of some sort visible to everyone so they can see how the characters’ anxieties
are progressing.
Whenever a character wants to accomplish an activity of any complexity, they must
choose a die based on the audience for that action (See
​
Audience Tiers​
, below), and
roll greater than or equal to their Anxiety Points. If they succeed, they overcome their
anxiety, the action is considered a success and the player narrates the outcome.
If the player rolls less than their Anxiety Points, then the action is considered a failure,
the Game Master narrates the result, and the character’s AP increase by 1 for each
point below their AP that they rolled (see
​
Increasing and Decreasing Anxiety Points
below). This reflects the anxiety produced by failing in front of an audience and/or
their allies.
Since players want to avoid failure as much as possible, it is up to them to explain who
the audience is for any given activity. They can feel free to describe any elements in
the environment they may use to attract or reach an audience. The group will then
decide what Audience Tier the player has described, and therefore what die the player
will roll. The Gamemaster has the final word on the Audience Tier if the group cannot
make a decision. Any actions described that are intended only to draw an audience
​
do
not​
need to be rolled as an action, as they are part of the preparation for the roll.
The other way players can increase their chances on a given roll is to describe how the
roll relates to a dream, skill or flaw​ described during character creation. For each
they
​
dream or flaw they connect to a given action, they can add 1 point to their roll.
3
 
Audience Tiers
Tier
0
Die
d4
Description
No Audience, the character has to live with their own worries
and anxieties without the sweet roar of the crowd to
motivate her.
Immediate actors only. The only one who will see this heroic
deed are the character’s allies and perhaps 1-2 foes. It’s
always good to remind your friends how great you are, or
strike fear into an opponent's heart.
Bystanders, Small Groups of Foes: The character’s action will
be viewed by 4-10 individuals not directly involved in the
interaction, including allies of a targeted foe, but not a
character’s ally or target.
Small to Medium Crowds (Less than 50). The character’s
action will be appreciated by a nice size group of people.
Large Crowds (More than 50). Now that’s a real audience,
whether they be in a theatre, on a crowded street or
organized in an angry mob. A character will know that her
actions will be talked about for years with a group like this.
Massive Audiences: National TV, Coliseums, The floors
legislatures in session. The actual numbers matter less than
the fact that actions taken in these venues will have an
impact that is cultural in scale and may be remembered
forever.
1
d6
2
d8
3
4
d10
d12
5
d20
4
 
Reckless Abandon Boosts
Each time a player rolls their AP or above on an action, that is considered a success.
However, for each multiple of their AP they roll or higher, they can receive a
​
Reckless
Abandon Boost​
. These represent particularly good outcomes for their reckless
behaviour. For example, a character with an AP of 3 who rolls a 6- 8 would get a
success and one Reckless Abandon Boost, and if they rolled a 9 they would get a
success and two Reckless Abandon Boosts.
For each Reckless Abandon Boost, the player can choose to describe a way in which
their success conveyed an additional advantage to themselves or an ally, and can
reduce their AP by 1. Reckless Abandon Boosts can also be used to deal additional
damage in combat as described in the next section.
Combat, Damage and Character Endings:
The characters in
​
Show Offs​
in a world that is often violent, and more often than
live
not their exploits lead to combat. In this game, players do not take turns in a specific
order, instead the make their actions in whatever order makes sense for the story.
When a player chooses to use their action to attack, they deal 1 damage to their
enemies for each success and each Reckless Abandon Boost they roll. The amount of
damage an enemy can take should be determined by the Game Master, who may
choose to use the
​
Enemy Damage Thresholds
​
table as a guide.
When an enemy attacks a Character, the Game Master will describe the attack, and the
player will describe how they defend against it, and roll using the same process as in
the core mechanic. Characters who fail a defense will describe their injuries, or have
them described by the GM, but they do not take damage. Instead, their Anxiety Points
increase by 1 for each point below their AP they rolled.
While there is no death mechanic, there may come a time when a character’s AP
reaches 20, at which point, it is impossible for them to accomplish any task, no matter
the audience. When this occurs, the GM and players should work together to
determine a fitting end for the character. This could mean the character dies, goes
insane, or perhaps that they finally overcome their need to perform, and simply walk
away. In any case, that character is no longer involved in the story, and the player can
either create a new character or simply watch the rest of the game.
5
 

Plik z chomika:

Inne pliki z tego folderu:

Inne foldery tego chomika:

Zgłoś jeśli naruszono regulamin