Skip to main content

Mechanic Monday: Keeping up Out of Mana Cipher a While

Weeeeelcome back to Mechanic Monday! I definitely have something for this, and DIDN’T just scroll back a few entries to that informal list of mechanics and latch onto one that I can roll out into a sheet, slice into very very fine strands, boil in salted water, and then hurl at the wall.  And it’s definitely well thought out, and not loopy from tiredness at all ok here we go!

Trojan Horse Battering Rams

In Cyber-GREEM, you have a number of attack vectors to try and infiltrate the system of a rival corporation.  A runner? Don’t be silly, individuals don’t have the resources to compete with ponderously powerful financial entities, it’s just giant conglomerates harnessing skilled and indentured labour to mount electronic offensives and counter-offensives on one another.  There are five lanes between players, and each round, players play cards face-down into their side of the lanes.  At the end of a player’s turn, they choose two lanes with which to boost and attack; cards may be revealed as part of an attack, as part of a defense, or upon successfully penetrating with an attack or warding off with a defense.  For example, a Worm card may be revealed, which grants its Attack Vector +2 for overcoming the other player’s defense on that lane; a Bastion card might be revealed, which grants +1 to all lanes’ defense; a Gelatin card may grant additional card game if that Attack succeeds; a Spines card grants VP for every successfully repelled attack in that lane.

Alright, so this is a real Richard Garfield goulash, tossed in a combination time machine and crockpot to stew and morph.  The inspirations here are Netrunner, which Richard Garfield designed after Magic: the Gathering (and which I didn’t really get to play until Android: Netrunner, which was after Richard Garfield had moved on) and cipher, a Magic: the Gathering keyword that I’m pretty sure was introduced between when Richard Garfield designed Android and when I first discovered Android:Netrunner.  Could I type Richard Garfield any more times, or create a more convoluted view of time? Probably, but that’s enough of both for the time being.  I like this, it feels like an actually playable Corp vs Corp take on Netrunner; instead of David trying to get his engine up in time to thwart Goliath, it’s a sumo match between two octopuses on drugs.  Fun stuff.  Til net time!

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

TTRPG Tuesday: Three Means Of Resolving

Hi it’s another TTRPG Tuesday! First of the year.  Let’s get right into it. Saw a challenge on Twitter to make some resolution mechanics.  I can do those! Here we go: Hand to Hand The player performing the action and the person running the game or otherwise opposing the action both put their dominant fists toward one another, bounce them three times to get a rhythm, and reveal a number with their fingers, 0-5.  Sum the two numbers, and if the number is greater than 5, subtract six, so that the final number is always between 0 and 5.  On a 0, the action fails catastrophically, on a 1-2 it fails, 3-4 it succeeds, on a 5 it succeeds spectacularly.  The player taking the action starts the game with all five fingers up on their non-dominant hand; after an attempt, they may lower fingers on that hand to add to the sum of the attempt. Ex. Alice attempts to seduce Cat’s character over to the coup conspirators.  They put their dominant hands together (right for ...
Post a Comment
Read more

TTRPG Tuesday: Campaigning

  Hey it's TTRPG Tuesday, let's see if I get something written before sleep overtakes me. I'm still on that Channelers kick, but today I want to talk about a possible campaign path: The Magpie Offensive.  I see this as a military campaign where the PCs are conscripted, volunteers, or mercenaries for an army that is marching to quell Spirit threats and unite the region under a protectorate. There should be free RP sections as interludes between missions, and missions should be chosen by the party.  The army ensures loyalty with intangible rewards as well as artifact items. NOTE: This whole thing is being designed with the Rascal article on militarization in ttrpgs in mind. What is the thrust of the campaign? It's fundamentally one of conquest.  How do I encourage characters to question their presence and their complicity? How much interpersonal violence is an acceptable price to pay for environmental justice? How can party composition affect all this from jump? H...
Post a Comment
Read more

TTRPG Tuesday: The Secret Calendar

Welcome back to TTRPG Tuesday! Have I done any this year? Looks like no! On pace to be a pretty low-posting year I guess. Today I actually have a full-fledged one pager TTRPG to share.  I was listening to a Ludology with Camilla Zamboni as the guest and was inspired by her collection Roll for Learning.  The Secret Calendar came to me pretty much fully formed as I walked and listened to the episode, though I do want to acquire RfL to get layout inspo. Anyhow, the first draft can be found HERE .  I think this could be a fun activity for students (was also thinking of Wolfenoot) and maybe I’ll publish it or submit it at some point. Okay I’m out of practice so that's it buh bye!
Post a Comment
Read more