All the changes from this page will be added to the complete master game page at A Basic System 12 (ABS12).
I added chapter numbers to the game. There is only 6 chapters in this version 1.06
Also I added a downloadable PDF version.
Download the ABS12 PDF ver 1.06
A Basic System 12 (ABS12)
Index of my blog
Thursday, July 7, 2016
RPG and Story Scenes: Writing and RPG methods
RPG and Story Scene Series
RPG and Story Scenes: The foundation of action within a story.
RPG and Story Scenes: RPG scenes
RPG and Story Scenes: Writing and RPG methods
RPG vs Story Sequel: Reaction
The RPG and Story Writing Methods of managing Time Modes
In the last section concerning time modes, I introduced several techniques used in both fiction writing and in RPG gaming. In this section, I will delve a little more deeper into those techniques. I will also reference an important free book called RPG Design Patterns by. Whitson John Kirk III.I'll follow a similar timeless and time focused grouping for first RPG gaming and then story writing.
After discussing this section, the bridge from one media to the other should begin to become more crossable.
RPG gaming
Timeless modes.
Time vague skill comparison
For this type of action, the controlling player has some indicator to compare to something that represents difficulty. Many games use as an indicator a roll or draw of a card plus or minus any modifiers due to skill, condition, attributes, powers, environment, or position. What actually happens might be interpreted by taking into account the degree of the success or failure
In the book RPG Design Patterns, they are called Generalized Contests.
Series of sequence rolls vs target or each other
For this type of contest a player does repeated tasks. Each task adds progression on to proceeding progression. The final result is compared to either a target or a competing result in order to find out the success of the series of actions. The purpose is to create a sense of tension building up do competition. It works best when the two or more parties are nearly equally matched. What success or failure means should be establish before the series is begun.
In the book RPG Design Patterns, they are called Contest Trees or sometimes Last Man Standing.
Story element rolls
For this type of series of action, entire sections of a story can be resolved with as little as one roll. This type of technique is good to get past more boring material - almost trivial - but important to be in the game or story. It can be used when those involved are obviously outmatched. Important is discussing ahead of time what the actual successes or failures mean.
In the book RPG Design Patterns, they are called Negotiated Contests.
Time focused moments
The time focused material is normally governed by some time keeping system such as rounds or cycles. Some like Powered by the Apocalypse (PbtA) use triggered moves, which are sort of like scripts.
Simultaneous rolls
This type of action can either help decided action and reaction at the same time. Some systems use only one indicator which is either a roll, card, or pool of points. An upper value results to mean that the actor succeeds and the target fails. The middle value might mean ties or both act. The lower value might mean the target succeeds and the actor fails.
Some simultaneous roll systems use one roll of each party both as the active base and the reactive base - just apply two sets of modifiers to the same roll, however deriving two different numbers for comparison. One is offensive and the other is defensive.
Either technique might be best when medium importance is attached to the actions.
Alternating rolls
This is the most time consuming and detailed of the techniques. Sometimes the rounds are subdivided into different phases, steps, or stages such as surprise, initiative, declaration, resolution, and reaction sections. Normally the purpose is to have on person or one team remain in the end - which are the winners or successful side.
In the book RPG Design Patters, both types Simultaneous and alternating are normally called Last Man Standing
Time specific skill rolls
Time specific skills are rolled and based in action round time such as during combat. It uses the similar mechanism as timeless moments except a duration of time will probably be attached to the skill action. Most of the time it will be whatever the standard action is. Sometimes, more difficult or time consuming actions might expand into several time units. A few times, they may be rapid or hurried actions skills.
In the book RPG Design Patterns, they are called Generalized Contests.
Dialogue
Dialogue isn't something really emphasized in RPG core rules nor expansion material. It only seems to become important when characters need to interact with the NPCs or each other. Some GMs seem to get into character easier when trying to mimic NPC voices. I think that it makes the game more fun and interesting, as long as the conversations stay somewhat near towards the plot of the game story. Certainly, much like writing, character dialogue can create unwanted tangents leading to nowhere. One thing that it does noticeably do is it helps to connect the players to their characters more directly. It has very similar use in story writing to help connect readers with the characters directly.
Time based narration
Time based narration all happen within a time frame of rounds, moves, cycles, or other time-unit based system. The time units keep track of time more closely and accurately. Narrative however summarizes what is going on and around the characters. It can describe what the other NPCs are doing and reacting.
Timeless moments
Narrative summary
This is 'telling' what happened, 'not showing' what happened. It is static description and sometimes called exposition that normally has explanatory information interwoven. It can summarize a set of facts for actions, dialogue, feelings, thoughts, and descriptions. For static description techniques it might describe a thing, the scene, or a person.
This type of summary is good before and after an intensely detailed scene. Before a scene, it helps to explain the important and needed information for the conflicts that will be shortly faced. When used after a scene it gives the reader or player a chance to recover without getting those involved bogged down in unnecessary details..
Transitional scenes
When quickly moving from one important moment to the next - when details don't matter as much, transition sentences can transcend time, space, and even characters. In very brief summaries, you can take a character or group from once action and important scene to another one, thus bypassing travel, trivial scenes, and unimportant content that's not really related to the plot.
Time focused moments
Action
Action within a scene normally means that someone is trying to go somewhere, get something, solve an issue, or move forward progressing the plot. There is a scene goal from the point of view character and a series of obstacles or challenges that may represent the antagonist, which when the two interact in conflict they create outcomes.
Descriptions of supporting character actions
Emotions can't normally described the same way with non-POV characters as POV. With non-POV, a writer can describe external behavior that gives clues to the psychological state of the character. Instead of saying that another character is 'happy', describe how the characters smiles, sighs, or laughs joyously. Maybe they hum a happy tune. Although you can't see inside the head of those characters, external clues let the reader guess what is going on in their heads.
Dialogue
Dialogue is one of the fastest methods to improve fiction. As long as the dialogue is related to the plot and not too wordy. Dialogue can reveal character, advance the plot, and discus the theme. It is one of the ways we can understand how the characters think and act about what's going on in the story plot. It can reveal and show conflict. Dialogue should be written from the character's perspective, not the author's perspective. It should include personality and relationship subtext.
Story writing has better and more established advice, techniques, and methods for helping to write better character dialogue.
Interior monologue
Interior monologue is a tool to reveal what a POV character really thinks. It is the most direct method to understanding the character's internal workings. Using internal monologue that differs from external dialogue can create conflict within a character where they say something different than they actually think or believe.
Inner emotions
Inner emotions and instinctual reactions can reveal things that not even the POV character knows or understands about themself. Whereas monologue is a direct connection to the POV mind, emotions are a direct connection to the POV unconscious mind, emotions, and heart.
Interior monologue and emotions are something that a RPG lacks because it uses the player's as proxy to feel for the characters.
Summary
RPG gaming techniques do physical action better than story writing. Story writing has better dialogue, interior monologue & emotions techniques. Both RPGs and story writing deal with time using similar methods though they are called different things.
Tuesday, July 5, 2016
ABS 12: Powers - Verbs
All the changes from this page will be added to the complete master game page at A Basic System 12 (ABS12).
Verb
heal/repair - causes damaged parts to become whole, functional, and damage free again.
injure/hinder - do physical harm or damage to something.
reveal - help bring to knowledge previously unknown, hidden, or secret information.
covert - to do things not in the open or dispalayed: hide, sneak, and spy on others.
move - to change position of an object: push, pull, or drag.
travel - movement through or across an element or surface.
summon - to call upon, order, or cause something to appear, gather, or come forth.
send - to cause, permit, force, direct, order, or enable something to move, go, propel, or deliver somewhere else - a destination.
destroy - to reduce, dissolve, eliminate, or extinguish to nothing, useless, or damage.
animate - to make as if alive, give motion, or stir to action.
charm/control - to dominate, command, act upon, and direct over something.
frighten/repel - to drive away, force back, scare, terrify, or cause panic.
shield - to protect, safeguard, secure, defend, guard, or insulate against
expose - to uncover, reveal, unveil, unmask, or make vulnerable.
transform - to change significantly in form, appearance, or manner.
preserve - to maintain, retain, or keep in an original or current state.
alter - adapt, modify, amend, revise, or adjust comparitively small but significantly.
drain/absorb - to deprive, use up, or transfers resources from the target to the caster.
A Basic System 12 (ABS12)
Index of my blog
Verb
heal/repair - causes damaged parts to become whole, functional, and damage free again.
injure/hinder - do physical harm or damage to something.
reveal - help bring to knowledge previously unknown, hidden, or secret information.
covert - to do things not in the open or dispalayed: hide, sneak, and spy on others.
move - to change position of an object: push, pull, or drag.
travel - movement through or across an element or surface.
summon - to call upon, order, or cause something to appear, gather, or come forth.
send - to cause, permit, force, direct, order, or enable something to move, go, propel, or deliver somewhere else - a destination.
destroy - to reduce, dissolve, eliminate, or extinguish to nothing, useless, or damage.
animate - to make as if alive, give motion, or stir to action.
charm/control - to dominate, command, act upon, and direct over something.
frighten/repel - to drive away, force back, scare, terrify, or cause panic.
shield - to protect, safeguard, secure, defend, guard, or insulate against
expose - to uncover, reveal, unveil, unmask, or make vulnerable.
transform - to change significantly in form, appearance, or manner.
preserve - to maintain, retain, or keep in an original or current state.
alter - adapt, modify, amend, revise, or adjust comparitively small but significantly.
drain/absorb - to deprive, use up, or transfers resources from the target to the caster.
A Basic System 12 (ABS12)
Index of my blog
A look at quickness of actions in RPGs
See also my more In depth Reviews
Starting a more in depth review series.
Test played Reviews: JAGS Revised
Test played Reviews: Hackmaster
Act first but not actually quicker actions
One of the biggest issues that I considered in all of the games is the normal disparity between having an attribute that is supposed to represent quickness such as Dexterity, Quickness, Speed, or Reaction Speed (REA) and having the ability to actually be quick by doing multiple actions in a single round. D20 products normally consistently perpetuate the lack of actually being in action rather than just being first in line. They prefer the 'I go first' method.
Feat or talent separation mentality
They normally just let Dexterity be added to an initiative roll. What that does is let characters act first, but not faster. A d20 character normally can only act more than once through either a feat/ability - which must be obtained separately - or through a system of standard action, instant action, and full action. While the third is the best to my liking, the actions are normally talent, feat, ability based in which dexterity has no influence on.
I looked into GURPS system and for it you also need to 'buy' more than one attacks.
Three Quickness methods
Only a few actually had anything to indicate speed of actions.
JAGS, Hackmaster, and several d100 systems have the systems that I liked the most. Each accomplish the speed adjustment in combat and round systems differently.
A) Hackmaster attaches the speed to the items, weapons, skills, actions, or spells. I think of it as the utility speed method.
B) d100 has a chart where intelligence and dexterity are combined to see how many actions a character has per round. I think of this as the body-mind method.
C) JAGS to me seems like the most ingenious of the methods. It uses the actual attribute as a pool of points which three levels of actions can use. A character can chose to do multiple actions directly based on the REA stat size - 3REA for short actions (reactions like defense), 5REA for medium actions (attack & spells), and 8REA for long (run away). In addition, skills and powers can increase or decrease the size of REA - like having a level 3 expert skill lets you take a 4 REA attack using that skill once per round. In the revised edition, you can even spend a few points to wait or delay actions. I just think of this as a direct attribute pool method.
Both d100 and JAGS require the character have available points in order to do defense. So that spending all your points on offense will leave your character unable to defend actively.
For me, it's important that quick characters actually act quick - and not just act first.
Aioskoru part 4 : "Emotional Plea"
Aioskoru website
Aioskoru Adventure seeds
ABS12 System
Madi the amateur magic user is PL1.
| Species | Life | Spd | Def | Def Type | BP | Damage | D Type | Mag | Sc/Tc | BP | Verb | Adj/Adv | BP | Verb | Adj/Adv | Cost |
| Magic User | 2 | 2 | 3 | Cloth | 2 | 1d12/6 | Staff | 4 | 5 | Fireball S | 1d12/2 | 3 | Net S | 3 | 15 |
Andelin the amateur fighter is PL1
| Fighter | 4 | 3 | 6 | Plate | 4 | 1d12/3 | Sword | 2 | Rescue | 2 | 2 | Tracking/hunting | 2 | 15 |
Madi = 4 EP
Andelin = 6 EP
Continued from this Aioskoru Story Series
Aioskoru part 1 : "Wild Horses"
Aioskoru part 2 : "Friendly Centaur"
Aioskoru part 3 : Experience Points award
Aioskoru part 4 : "Emotional Plea"
"Emotional Plea"
By Ken Wickham
Copyright © 2016
They rode on centaurs into the village.
[Are there any other centaurs around? Very Possible +4; 1+4=5; No, however ... shouts can be heard from across the village, somewhere beyond the huts. FG 8 Time; 8 Old = maybe someone old died]
Madi saw no centaurs as they trotted into the village. All of the woven straw windows and doors were shut on the earthen structures. She noticed the larger doorways twice the height of normal doors. Also the door handles were much higher - more towards the upper third of the top of the door.
Ramp structures were beside several of the buildings. They seemed to have some sort of -
Off in the distance arose a mighty chorus sung. The sound jarred her from looking around. They were here. Just not in the central village.
They were headed towards one of the larger structures but not towards the chorus sound.
Madi's centaur stopped a little distance away from the structure. Andelin's soon came up and stopped beside her.
He was actually laughing towards the centaur that he was on. How could he- she had to get his attention. "Pss!"
Andelin swung his head towards her and his smile became a more stern.
She mouthed, What, and brought her hands up.
He shield his mouth away from the other centaurs in front of them, pointed towards the large centaur who was now looking forward with a strong erect posture, and whispered, "Nefron's rather humorous."
She heard the the rain drop on puddles below them. Looking towards the his captor, she saw said many things. Humor wouldn't be one of them.
Andelin was messing with her during this critical dire situation they were in. How could he be so cruel? She felt her blood pressure rising. Chicken poop! She made a pushing motion towards him in the air, mimicking pushing him forcefully.
The motion shook the centaur she was on. Her captor turned, weapon drawn towards her.
Madi stretched back away from the blade. "Shh!" the brown centaur said with a deep low voice, eyes narrowed and staring her down.
She heard an explosive muffled giggle from Andelin's direction. Looking towards him, she caught him elbowing the centaur. That centaur turned quickly towards her. He then let out a quick, disgusting snort joining in with Andelin's taunt.
A clearing of throat interrupted their taunt.
The leader was now motioning them forward.
Two centaurs moved towards the building where several were lined up on each side, weapons drawn, facing the leader leaving a pathway between the two formations. They came to a stop right before the leader.
The centaur reached around and grabbed Madi by the waist. She was lifted into the air and brought forward ahead of the centaur. After a moment, she felt a slight pressure towards the middle of her back. The pressure made her dare not move too suddenly.
The leader of this centaur group glances each of them for a moment, looked off towards the distant rugged plateaus and then back to them. She somewhat tentatively reached into a pack at her waist and brought out a book. She seemed to find a section. After a moment of reading, she nodded, and gently closed the book. This time the leader spoke more slower and gently. "You two are guilty of trespassing on ekouinmanus territory. An offense punishable by two years of service. What say you?"
"You can't do this -" she began. Andelin's hand came up as if to block her words.
"We are guilty of tresspassing - yes. However, please reconsider allowing us to have that service in the common defense of both of our nations in a combined war against the plateau dwellers."
His words were simple, slow and gentle, spoken much in the same way that sounded similar to how she had spoken to them.
"I cannot make that decision. It's not within my authority."
"We understand. Please bring it up to those who have such authority."
Madi was beginning to feel the strain and exhaustion of their journey. She had to restrain herself from snapping and loosing control. And that was something she rarely did. But Madi had to say something. "You must. Consider the danger. We must return safety to our borderlands."
The leader cleared her throat a few times and then rubbed her jaw. She seemed to squint, looking inward.
Maybe she will agree at least with those terms, Madi hoped.
They didn't have to wait long for her answer.
"I will bring it up to the elders."
Madi felt an unexpected relief of held back tension - tension that she had forced back with restraint. She let go a deliberately quiet exhale. She briefly closed her eyes.
At least they had hope.
Sometime during their interaction with the leader the chorus had ceased. Now the entire village was in silence.
They were escorted through the village towards another edge of the village. On this other end around a larger building, had other people working around a structure that had piles of straw and dried grasses piled under protective rooftop structures.
There were other people - that weren't centaurs here.
Several off to one side were working with logs. They seemed to be rolling logs up to a pile. Several would come together and then lift the long logs onto a stack. The pile gave off a woody pine odor.
Off in the distance Madi could now hear the sound of hooves walking. The sound increasingly grew louder. Many of those working stopped where they were and looked off into the village empty streets.
Soon lines of centaurs came into view. Ahead walked one centaur dressed in dark clothing. He held a dark lantern in one hand - even though it was daytime. The other hand seemed to hold a dark staff. Behind him three centaurs seemed to be pulling some sort of cart.
The cart turned before reaching where they were. As it turned, Madi could see that a motionless centaur, which seemed to be an elderly one with grey hair, lay on the cart. Madi instinctively lowered her head until the cart disappeared behind the buildings.
[To be continued]
Ramp structures were beside several of the buildings. They seemed to have some sort of -
Off in the distance arose a mighty chorus sung. The sound jarred her from looking around. They were here. Just not in the central village.
[do they head towards the sound? 1; No, also ...
FG 3, Mouth; 2, Sweet.]
They were headed towards one of the larger structures but not towards the chorus sound.
Madi's centaur stopped a little distance away from the structure. Andelin's soon came up and stopped beside her.
He was actually laughing towards the centaur that he was on. How could he- she had to get his attention. "Pss!"
Andelin swung his head towards her and his smile became a more stern.
She mouthed, What, and brought her hands up.
He shield his mouth away from the other centaurs in front of them, pointed towards the large centaur who was now looking forward with a strong erect posture, and whispered, "Nefron's rather humorous."
She heard the the rain drop on puddles below them. Looking towards the his captor, she saw said many things. Humor wouldn't be one of them.
[Does Nefron do anything? 1; No, also..
FG 6, Think; 9, Guess]
Andelin was messing with her during this critical dire situation they were in. How could he be so cruel? She felt her blood pressure rising. Chicken poop! She made a pushing motion towards him in the air, mimicking pushing him forcefully.
The motion shook the centaur she was on. Her captor turned, weapon drawn towards her.
Madi stretched back away from the blade. "Shh!" the brown centaur said with a deep low voice, eyes narrowed and staring her down.
She heard an explosive muffled giggle from Andelin's direction. Looking towards him, she caught him elbowing the centaur. That centaur turned quickly towards her. He then let out a quick, disgusting snort joining in with Andelin's taunt.
A clearing of throat interrupted their taunt.
The leader was now motioning them forward.
[FG 12, Dimension; 11, Liniear]
Two centaurs moved towards the building where several were lined up on each side, weapons drawn, facing the leader leaving a pathway between the two formations. They came to a stop right before the leader.
The centaur reached around and grabbed Madi by the waist. She was lifted into the air and brought forward ahead of the centaur. After a moment, she felt a slight pressure towards the middle of her back. The pressure made her dare not move too suddenly.
[I'll test the new drama escalation rules
Is Andelin able to pursuade her to let them speak to the leader?
This is related to the plot, but is the first test which means it will be at a -4. Each additional plot related roll will receive a +1.
9-4=5 No, however ...
FG 7, Transformation; 3, Reform]
The leader of this centaur group glances each of them for a moment, looked off towards the distant rugged plateaus and then back to them. She somewhat tentatively reached into a pack at her waist and brought out a book. She seemed to find a section. After a moment of reading, she nodded, and gently closed the book. This time the leader spoke more slower and gently. "You two are guilty of trespassing on ekouinmanus territory. An offense punishable by two years of service. What say you?"
"You can't do this -" she began. Andelin's hand came up as if to block her words.
"We are guilty of tresspassing - yes. However, please reconsider allowing us to have that service in the common defense of both of our nations in a combined war against the plateau dwellers."
His words were simple, slow and gentle, spoken much in the same way that sounded similar to how she had spoken to them.
"I cannot make that decision. It's not within my authority."
"We understand. Please bring it up to those who have such authority."
Madi was beginning to feel the strain and exhaustion of their journey. She had to restrain herself from snapping and loosing control. And that was something she rarely did. But Madi had to say something. "You must. Consider the danger. We must return safety to our borderlands."
The leader cleared her throat a few times and then rubbed her jaw. She seemed to squint, looking inward.
Maybe she will agree at least with those terms, Madi hoped.
They didn't have to wait long for her answer.
"I will bring it up to the elders."
Madi felt an unexpected relief of held back tension - tension that she had forced back with restraint. She let go a deliberately quiet exhale. She briefly closed her eyes.
At least they had hope.
Sometime during their interaction with the leader the chorus had ceased. Now the entire village was in silence.
They were escorted through the village towards another edge of the village. On this other end around a larger building, had other people working around a structure that had piles of straw and dried grasses piled under protective rooftop structures.
There were other people - that weren't centaurs here.
[FG 5, smell; 6woody
9, move; 9, roll]
Several off to one side were working with logs. They seemed to be rolling logs up to a pile. Several would come together and then lift the long logs onto a stack. The pile gave off a woody pine odor.
[Are the villagers returning from the wherever they have been? 8; Yes, however ...]
Off in the distance Madi could now hear the sound of hooves walking. The sound increasingly grew louder. Many of those working stopped where they were and looked off into the village empty streets.
Soon lines of centaurs came into view. Ahead walked one centaur dressed in dark clothing. He held a dark lantern in one hand - even though it was daytime. The other hand seemed to hold a dark staff. Behind him three centaurs seemed to be pulling some sort of cart.
The cart turned before reaching where they were. As it turned, Madi could see that a motionless centaur, which seemed to be an elderly one with grey hair, lay on the cart. Madi instinctively lowered her head until the cart disappeared behind the buildings.
[To be continued]
Saturday, July 2, 2016
Story vs RPG part Appendix: Emma - RPG to Story Conversion using Psychology and Sociology Theory
Story vs RPG Series
Story: Elements
Story vs RPG Part 2: Main Characters - Protagonist, Antagonist, PC, NPC
Story vs RPG Part 3: Character Information
Story v RPG Part 4: Potential Pitfalls of using a RPG session for a Story.
Story v RPG Part 5: Personality Types
Story v RPG Part 6: Alignment, Morality, and Ethics
Story vs RPG Part 7: Character NeedsStory vs RPG Part 8: Character emotions
Story vs RPG Part 9: Lies - Our characters darkest secrets
Story vs RPG Part 10: Setting - cultures
Story vs RPG Part 11: Pair Dynamics
Story and Game Structure: Storylines
Story vs RPG Part 12: Larger groups - conformity & deviance
If you like this series support it by buying it today for kindle all in one file and without advertisement. It's also available in most countries that Amazon supports.
Example of an RPG to Story Conversion using Personality Theory
For more practical purposes, lets try making a story character that is based on a fantasy character. Most of this process will help to develop backstory.
Picking a name
I'll pick a popular names in the US 2015 for character names - Emma.Gaming information
Emma a Lawful Good alchemistEmma is e a Lawful Good character in a game that is a alchemist - someone who works to transmute material into magical items. To move that character to a story I begin with what I know about the character. In this game maybe the alignment is the only indicator of character personality. I'll use that information to try creating a hopefully more interesting character by adding small backstory and character details.
Conversion
As mentioned yesterday, I think that Lawful Good is similar to Jung's Hero. Let's compare them.Lawful Good - Crusader
Core Concepts: Duty, fairness, honor, property, responsibility, right, truth, virtue, worthiness
Jung - Hero
The Hero (Heroine, Champion) - Defender, guardian, rescuer, sacrifice, win, arrogance, confront
And then compare this information to the first enneagram.
1. Reformer (Perfectionist) principled, purposeful, self-control, thinks they are always right
If I agree to this comparison, I begin to see character weaknesses of arrogance, confrontational, and maybe sacrifices themselves beyond what most people do.
Converting Class to Profession
And maybe I want take this character to move over to more modern terms, changing the world and setting slightly.To me a alchemist might be some sort of scientist, maybe like a CSI type crime scene investigator. She's someone who uses technology to work with the material in crime scenes to reveal what happened by various methods. In a different fantasy world, that might by using magic powers to analyze stuff. In this modern world, rather than magic it will be technology and procedures.
Character Behavior
Emma wants to know and tell the truth about these crimes. She does her job well and tries to tell the truth, even if less desirable people accused of crimes or a bad person in general has evidence that supports their innocence. Because of this I give her Kantian Ethics.- Kantian Ethics - right is determined by intent, reason, and type of action, not the consequence. "Tell the truth even if it causes harm."
From the Jung - Hero archetype, they also sacrifice themselves - in this case I will translate that into relationships. Emma doesn't spend time to develop romantic relationships. Instead she fills her time with activities that reaffirm her sense of truth. It might be a religion, working for a cause, or maybe trying to find new advances in crime scene investigation.
Character Needs
Because of her needs are strong in some areas and weak in others. She has strong sense of law and order for safety, yet might be threatened somewhat by helping to put away dangerous people. Here biggest relationship weakness is an issue of social love, belonging, and sexual intimacy. Along that line which might affect the balance of affiliation, autonomy, and dominance needs should be used occasionally in any story created, while the weakness is still open. If that weakness ever is filled, another weakness should also emerge.Character Emotions
Having looked at character personality, ethics, and needs emotions will now be more predictable.Emma will be courageous when facing the results of brutality within a laboratory. However with relationships, then may be fearful a begin to feel threatened when in casual situations dealing with relationships. The biggest surprises may come when she thinks she knows the truth but finds out later through investigation that it was all an illusion or wrong. From these basic emotions they can easily be turned into backstory of actual events - one for every major emotion.
All of these examples show that once you know your character's personality, ethics, and needs the other details flow much more smoothly out from backstory. You can just create events that would created the emotion. A list of several emotion creating events would help to round out the character, and make them more whole and less one dimensional - even if you don't actually write that information into the story.
Character Lies
Any number of lies depending on Emma's earlier experience, may be creating or maintaining her relationship weakness. Something probably happened in her childhood or adolescence.Maybe she saw something between her parents and created a vow not to ever get herself into that situation. In her teenage years, maybe her early relationship went really bad and she was hurt in the process. Or maybe her interests kept her from forming any teenage relationship with someone else.
Whatever it may be, using lies can help create a dark secret with is great for storytelling.
Character in Society
Her job as a CSI scene investigator is going to come with many role expectations. Some conflict can occur when her relationship weakness my interfere with her social role expectations. Conflict that other characters might attribute wrongly to her own reason and cause.Character Pair Dynamics
Interesting dynamics can occur between her and investigators that interact with her. Especially if they have very conflicting personalities, needs, and ethics. She might despise a rule breaker at first. But then when their rule breaking leads to the truth faster than her objective evaluation the dynamics of the relationship may change as she begins to respect and trust the rule breaker.Character Group Dynamics
Emma probably begins with conformity to the CSI rules, procedures, and regulations. As she tries new methods of investigation, she may begin to have innovative goals. With her relationships and dating, she may be in rebellion or retreat at first.Summary of Emma from the Lawfully Good Alchemist
I believe this is much more usable and better for story writing than just knowing alignment and class.All of these details I tried to create just based on RPG alignment of lawfully good and the class of alchemist. I'm just showing one way that details can be found just by expanding background using tools and interpretation to expand those two descriptive data pieces.
Emma is a CSI type crime scene investigator. Here personality believes in duty, fairness, honor, property, responsibility, right, truth, virtue, worthiness, defender, guardian, rescuer, sacrifice, win, arrogance, confront, (perfectionist) principled, purposeful, self-control, thinks she is always right. She's someone who uses technology to work with the material in crime scenes to reveal what happened by various methods. In this modern world, rather than magic it will be technology and procedures.
Emma wants to know and tell the truth about these crimes. She does her job well and tries to tell the truth, even if less desirable people accused of crimes or a bad person in general has evidence that supports their innocence. Because of this I give her Kantian Ethics. Kantian Ethics - right is determined by intent, reason, and type of action, not the consequence. "Tell the truth even if it causes harm."
From the Jung - Hero archetype, they also sacrifice themselves - in this case I will translate that into relationships. Emma doesn't spend time to develop romantic relationships. Instead she fills her time with activities that reaffirm her sense of truth. It might be a religion, working for a cause, or maybe trying to find new advances in crime scene investigation.
Because of her needs are strong in some areas and weak in others. She has strong sense of law and order for safety, yet might be threatened somewhat by helping to put away dangerous people. Here biggest relationship weakness is an issue of social love, belonging, and sexual intimacy. Along that line which might affect the balance of affiliation, autonomy, and dominance needs should be used occasionally in any story created, while the weakness is still open.
Emma will be courageous when facing the results of brutality within a laboratory. However with relationships, then may be fearful a begin to feel threatened when in casual situations dealing with relationships. The biggest surprises may come when she thinks she knows the truth but finds out later through investigation that it was all an illusion or wrong.
Any number of lies depending on Emma's earlier experience, may be creating or maintaining her relationship weakness. Something probably happened in her childhood or adolescence.
Maybe she saw something between her parents and created a vow not to ever get herself into that situation. In her teenage years, maybe her early relationship went really bad and she was hurt in the process. Or maybe her interests kept her from forming any teenage relationship with someone else.
Her job as a CSI scene investigator is going to come with many role expectations. Some conflict can occur when her relationship weakness my interfere with her social role expectations. Conflict that other characters might attribute wrongly to her own reason and cause.
Emma probably begins with conformity to the CSI rules, procedures, and regulations. As she tries new methods of investigation, she may begin to have innovative goals. With her relationships and dating, she may be in rebellion or retreat at first.
Maybe she saw something between her parents and created a vow not to ever get herself into that situation. In her teenage years, maybe her early relationship went really bad and she was hurt in the process. Or maybe her interests kept her from forming any teenage relationship with someone else.
Her job as a CSI scene investigator is going to come with many role expectations. Some conflict can occur when her relationship weakness my interfere with her social role expectations. Conflict that other characters might attribute wrongly to her own reason and cause.
Emma probably begins with conformity to the CSI rules, procedures, and regulations. As she tries new methods of investigation, she may begin to have innovative goals. With her relationships and dating, she may be in rebellion or retreat at first.
Friday, July 1, 2016
Aioskoru part 3 : Experience Points award
Aioskoru Adventure seeds
ABS12 System
Continued from this Aioskoru Story Series
Aioskoru part 1 : "Wild Horses"
Aioskoru part 2 : "Friendly Centaur"
Here are the stats for my two main characters.
Madi the amateur magic user is PL1.
| Species | Life | Spd | Def | Def Type | BP | Damage | D Type | Mag | Sc/Tc | BP | Verb | Adj/Adv | BP | Verb | Adj/Adv | Cost |
| Magic User | 2 | 2 | 3 | Cloth | 2 | 1d12/6 | Staff | 4 | 5 | Fireball S | 1d12/2 | 3 | Net S | 3 | 15 |
Andelin the amateur fighter is PL1
| Fighter | 4 | 3 | 6 | Plate | 4 | 1d12/3 | Sword | 2 | Rescue | 2 | 2 | Tracking/hunting | 2 | 15 |
Before I start, I want to test the new experience points for the two characters for the prior two scenes.
EP per Scene Goal reached - scene 1 - meet centaurs, scene 2 - find out more info
Madi - scene 1: yes; scene 2: no = 1 EP
Andelin - scene 1: yes; scene 2: yes = 2 EP
Character true to it's concept
Madi - scene 1: yes; scene 2: unkown = 1 EP
Andelin - scene 1: yes; scene 2: yes = 2 EP
Conflict with opposition
Madi - scene 1: yes; scene 2: unknown = 1 EP
Andelin - scene 1: yes; scene 2: no = 1 EP
New Awareness about something important
Madi - scene 1: yes; scene 2: unkown = 1 EP
Andelin - scene 1 unknown; scene 2 yes = 1 EP
Total EP for "Wild Horses" and "Friendly Centaur."
Madi = 4 EP
Andelin = 6 EP
I will test out 10 EP = 1 Power Level increase for now. I tried to make it 3 scenes per level. If that is too little then I will switch it to 20 or 30.
I will test out 10 EP = 1 Power Level increase for now. I tried to make it 3 scenes per level. If that is too little then I will switch it to 20 or 30.
I'll try doing a scene just for Madi in the future like I did for Andelin in "Friendly Centaur" to help balance the points out.
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