Future Imperfect chapter 4

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Chapter 4, Crafting Stories and The Master's Realm  

The Hero

Future Imperfect is about Heroes and the stories they create. These are the prime movers of the known universe, especially in the story you as players tell. Depending on the scope of the campaign a Hero may be a larger than life Space Ranger, hopping galaxy to galaxy vanquishing the plots of interplanetary criminal organizations. Just as likely, the Hero could be a grizzled everyman, struggling to carve out a living sailing the spaceways to deliver hard-earned cargoes.

The scope of the story is unimportant to the Hero. What is important is that when there is an opportunity to right a wrong, make a profit or otherwise indulge his passion, the Hero acts.

Impetus

What passion drives your Hero? What makes him who he is? Just as importantly, why did you choose to make this character, what did you want to explore in this game? Impetus will (help you) answer those questions, while also making the game more fulfilling for everyone. Not only that, it will also help develop a more cohesive crew, so the Master can facilitate scenarios which deliver the game the players wish to experience.

Definition

Impetus (noun): The force or energy with which a body moves.

Impetus is literally what moves you. In Future Imperfect, Impetus is a drive, passion or desire for a Hero or important NPC. This is what he really cares about, and by extension, this is a declaration by the player that these themes and situations are what he wants to explore with this hero.

Tying the crew together

The primary purpose of the Impetus system is to form a cohesive crew. The best stories are those which involve all of the characters, and this is especially true of the stories we tell at the gaming table. By incentivizing shared goals and desires for the Heroes, impetus effectively narrows the focus of the campaign scope. Since each player has participated in choosing the shared impetus of the Crew, it can be assumed that any plotline or story arc which focuses on this impetus will be attractive to all of the players.

Basking in the spotlight glow

Impetus is also fantastic for allowing crew members to do amazing or heroic things in pursuit of their passions. These signature spotlight moments build character while they create memorable moments in the story.

Creation

While Impetus is technically a part of a single Hero, they should be created in concert with the entire crew to ensure compatibility while preserving individuality. Each Hero must have at least one Impetus that establishes a common goal or motivation the crew shares. This is the Crew Impetus.

Alternatively, a deep connection to one or more members of the crew can be substituted, with Master approval (though this should be strongly scrutinized). Since the goal of Impetus is story movement, this connection must establish not just a bond, but a reason to act.

The Volunteer

Heroes are those who perceive a need for action, and declare that they will fill that need. They stand up and boldly move the plot forward. Impetus is why the Hero volunteers; action is how they achieve. All Heroes in Future Imperfect must be internally motivated to pursue the plot of the story.

Master Responsibility

By defining the shared Impetus of the crew, the players have outlined for the Master the type of stories they wish their heroes to anchor. The Master must keep this shared Impetus in clear focus when preparing for each scenario.

It is the Master’s responsibility to ensure he understands the crew Impetus, and also to facilitate scenarios and scenes which highlight either the Impetus of the crew or individual Heroes. In short, if the crew is not motivated by a story, the Master should evaluate if it really addresses the crew Impetus. Discuss it with them. Communication is key to successful resolution.

Mechanics

Enough about what Impetus is, how do I create one, and what does it do for my hero?

Excellent questions.

Each Hero will define three Impetuses (there is a word you don’t see every day). As previously mentioned, at least one must be a common goal or motivation shared by the crew. Each Impetus must also be defined as General or Specific.

A general Impetus can be applied in a very broad range of circumstances. They are the basis of many codes of conduct. A commitment to justice is a General Impetus. General Impetuses change the way bumps work. Instead of a bump every 5 over the TN, they occur every 4. The shared Impetus of the crew is likely to be a general impetus.

Specific Impetuses are applicable in a much narrower subset of circumstances. They define personal feelings rather than codes of conduct. The love of one’s family could fit the classification. Specific Impetuses reduce the difficulty of all actions by one level, to a minimum of Easy(3), or a -2 TN for any combat action, minimum 3.

Ismail has a strong connection to Alison that goes back to their days in high school. Because she is older (though only by a year), she sees herself as her protector. While investigating potential clues to ForeRunner artifacts on Kultis IV, Alison is engaged by saurian gangsters working for Sandoval Ribas, the local Mafioso. Ismail spies Alison hanging on to a ledge for dear life, while a saurian moves forward to stomp on her hands and cause her to fall. Ismail draws her laser and she knows she needs to make this count, so she declares a called shot to the head of the saurian. Because of the range, the standard TN is 6, but because she can call in her specific impetus, this is reduced to 4. That won’t counteract the -4 penalty for the called shot (added to the result).

The Crew Impetus might be the most common. Whenever a Hero fails a task while pursuing the Crew Impetus he may draw a chip from the story pool. Missing a target in combat does not count for this, unless ruled otherwise by the Master. The same goes for unskilled tasks, except with Master approval.

Anytime a hero is pursuing a task related to his Impetus he may add the appropriate bonus to his check or test. This bonus can be applied to ANY dice pool, even unskilled checks. The Impetus is a strong motivating factor; this is the Hero’s raison D’etre!

There is no limit to the number of times an Impetus bonus can be used. Multiple Impetuses can affect a single roll. Players are always eligible to spend chips when invoking an impetus.

Usage

If the crew are invoking an Impetus on every die roll, it is likely they are being applied too liberally. Conversely, if they are appearing only once or twice per multisession campaign scenario, they are likely not playing their intended role.

Outside of this, it is up to the Master and Crew to determine what frequency suits their game best. As Impetus invocation grows, so grows the heroic scope of the story.

A note on archetypes

Some archetypes are common in fiction but do not adapt well to a cohesive story. The goal of collaborative storytelling is participation. Cinema, literature and even video games are much more effective at telling a story without collaborative input.

To that end, two particular archetypes should be strongly scrutinized before being allowed in game. These are the loner and the one trick pony. Both of these character types lead to significant downtime for the player, and also rarely move the plot. The core of collaborative storytelling is interaction. The Master should help facilitate creating a crew that will maximize the interaction for the greatest number of players.

More minds = more ideas.

If a character is regularly divorcing himself from the action, or not participating in significant portions of the game session, is this truly a hero? More importantly, is this hero really an essential part of the crew? A crew is only as strong as its weakest link.

The Master

In a game of Future Imperfect, one player will be designated the Master. Other games use terms like GM, referee or storyteller for the same role. We assume you know what roleplaying is, and how a game is conducted. Rather than trying to cover those subjects, we have intentionally defined those as out of scope for this book.

Why would we make such a decision? Those subjects are frankly too large to be given their deserved breadth and depth here. Rather than spending a couple of pages “doing our best, given space”, we have chosen to make no attempt at all. Anything worth doing, is worth doing right. Why broach a subject if it is not to be explored fully? There are plenty of other resources, in print and online, which describe those subjects in a way that does them proper justice.

Reading a few paragraphs in a rulebook will never teach you what roleplaying is, only sitting down with a few friends and trying it can help you understand. Epistemology may conclude that empiricism is not the only knowledge of value, but I contend that without a healthy dose of it you will never be able to determine what roleplaying means to you.

Narrative Structure

What follows is the meat (or textured soy product, for you vegetarians) of how a game of Future Imperfect is structured. In a general sense, the game is structured dramatically in scenes, like a television show or movie. The Master is tasked with setting the scene, but the Crew are also encouraged to participate and add detail and flavor to the scene as it unfolds, both through their actions and their descriptions of the world around them.

Scenes

Each story is played in a series of scenes. Scenes may be connected physically, temporally or not at all. A single scene may take place over many locations. The definition of a scene is purposefully fluid, allowing each Master to utilize his own skill to stitch together scenes in the most satisfying way. Scenes may have attributes, including type (discussed later) which may interact with Heroes in various ways. The Master will determine any scene attributes.

In previous examples Ryssh flew his launch and attached it to Grun’s ship, while Antares was being interrogated and forced to ingest poison in the brig. Ryssh then boarded the ship and rescued Antares from the clutches of Chensky. Following this, Ryssh flew Antares back to their ship, the Habra Dahl. Upon arrival, he helped Antares work himself free of the tangler web, and then got a debriefing of what happened in the brig. There are at least 4 locations (the launch, the Habra Dahl, the brig and the hallway) in this narrative, but they all occur within the same scene.

Tasks

Each scene may contain one or more tasks. These tasks are meant to represent the moments of drama in the story. A task may be a social interaction between PCs and NPCs, it could be a movement action or possibly a physical conflict. Any time there is a chance of failure, it is a task (or check, see chapter XX). Tasks are discussed in Chapter XX.

Conversely, dice should never be rolled (nor cards drawn) when there are no consequences. In addition, the results of failure should be as interesting as those for success. Maybe not as desirable (though often so!), of course, but it is the job of the Crew to ensure that all interactions lead to a better story, even though they do not all lead to what would have initially been termed a ‘success’. Learning to advance the story as effectively through adversity as through achievement is the hallmark of a strong Crew and Master relationship.

Dmitri Kopalev is fleeing from 4 Kyr operatives through a crowded thoroughfare in Centauri City. Knowing he cannot outrun them forever, he decides springing a trap would be his best chance for escape. He draws his laser sword and surveys the surrounding scenery. He notices a large truck barreling his way loaded with cargo. Quickly he sidesteps, intending to slash the tires and send it careening in to the cadre of Kyr agents. A card is drawn the result is a miss.

That could be end of this action. The Master could just say ok and move on to the actions of the Kyr. Instead, he indicates that the driver notices his attack at the last moment, and he swerves to avoid the potential mishap. This causes him to crash into a nearby building, toppling a fire hydrant. The crowd is hysterical, and there is water spraying all over the entire scene.

Notice how this example provides an extra complication that makes the scene more interesting, but it is conflict neutral, in that it does not necessarily favor either side. Whoever can find the best way to take advantage of the changing landscape will prevail. This is the hallmark of good game play and storytelling.

These sorts of extra tidbits create the extra color that make the story spawn a life of its own. There is not always an opportunity to insert these details, but as Master you should always be looking for them.

Antagonists

A strong nemesis is valuable to a successful narrative. In the best literature and movies these enemies come on strong in the beginning, and create interesting and challenging situations for the Crew to resolve.

One issue that is common in RPGs of all types is the structure of combat. In fiction, the lackeys fight while the nemesis directs, and at the last moment he escapes. The Heroes build enmity toward their nemesis, and the story gains depth. This rarely happens in RPGs. The players concentrate all of their attacks on the most powerful (perceived) enemies and ignore the rabble until they are all that remains. How does that help build an engaging narrative?

Story Enemies

The concept of Story Enemies allows the Master and Crew to work together to craft a story that builds from scene to scene, episode to episode. By embracing a mechanic that encourages recurring villains, players develop a connection to the story and setting. This increased investment and immersion pays off with a much more satisfying conclusion.

Story enemies will be classified in three tiers: henchmen, villains and masterminds. Henchmen are the grunts of the enemy force. They arrive in force and use numbers to overwhelm Heroes. Henchmen act in teams. One team of henchmen is equal in size to the Crew. When attacking, henchmen consult a row equal to their size. The column is determined by the number of henchmen teams on the battlefield. If there are one or less, they use d6; if there are 2, d8; three, d10; four or more d12. Henchmen groups make a single attack versus one Hero, and do weapon damage shifted down one row. They use the most advantageous line of sight.

Henchmen have three wounds and 12 CT. Teams are not mobs and are not required to remain in proximity to one another. Henchmen do not normally recover CT until the end of scenes, at Master discretion.

Hrulfgarr Ericksonn, Harry Greenhill and Antares Darkeye tail a known fence into a warehouse on Denoba Prime. Unbeknownst to them, they are stepping into an ambush. Seconds after entering the building the lights dim and six goons step from the shadows to do their worst. Three of the henchmen have stun rods, while the other three have laser pistols. Each henchman team attacks using 3d8. If Harry springs into action and decks one of the stun rod toting baddies into unconsciousness, the remaining stun rod team members would attack with 2d8, while the laser pistol team would attack with 3d8.

Villains and masterminds are special cases. Early in the story, villains are the leaders that present themselves to the Crew. They lead henchmen groups, and are generally equal, or nearly equal, to the Heroes in power level. While any henchmen remain active on the battlefield, villains may hold and use story chips. Each villain is limited to one chip in hand at a time, and draws from the same pool as the Crew. If at the beginning of his action a villain has no chips, he may take an action to draw one. Villains may not hold black chips. If one is drawn, place it back in the pool and redraw. When the last henchman falls, the villain must discard all but one chip held, and may draw no more except under special circumstances (see The Master section). Villains have characteristics and skills as assigned by the Master.

While Harry engages the stun rod team, and Hrulfgarr engages in a gun battle with the laser toting goons, Felicia the Fence draws her force sword and approaches Antares. “I have been waiting for this day for many months.” She says, as the Master draws a chip from the story pool.

Masterminds are the nemeses that provide the constant foil to the Heroes. Each Hero receives 1 XP each time a mastermind escapes from a combat alive, except for the climactic battle. Masterminds also reduce the severity of all wounds by 1 level, ignoring 1 point wounds, as long as any henchmen or villains remain active on the battlefield. They also may draw a fate chip to add to their pool each time they are attacked by a Hero as long as any henchmen are active on the battlefield. Masterminds may hold unlimited story chips, and they carry over from scene to scene, session to session. They may also use them to protect their villains and henchmen, if desired.

Game designers note: Story enemies not only create continuity and purpose for the story, but they also allow virtually any Hero to be relevant in a combat situation. Henchmen are relatively weak and easy to damage, and taking one down greatly affects their combat effectiveness. Even less combat-focused Crew members can make a big difference by engaging and defeating henchmen.

Another type of important NPC is a solo story enemy. These are enemy characters that are clever and potent enemies, but are not part of antagonist groups. They may still be involved in scenes with other story enemies, or they may act independently. Solo story enemies may persist across many stories, and may even gain experience. Solo story enemies have full character sheets and may be of any power level.

If a solo story enemy is killed or otherwise permanently defeated, the Master may elect to give each character who is present (at the game table, not necessarily at the scene of the defeat) an extra chip draw to prevent this death. Whenever a solo story enemy has his plot sufficiently foiled without him being killed, all members of the Crew receive 1 XP. When a solo enemy is permanently defeated or killed, the Crew receive 1 XP (that is, if they are not awarded a chip draw instead).

The Climactic Battle

Many stories will conclude with a final showdown involving the mastermind. When this occurs, the scene should have the appropriate type attribute, climactic battle. The mastermind is no longer given free rein to escape: there is no incentive for the Heroes to allow it. However, if the mastermind does escape, and the Crew still desire to engage him as an enemy, a further climactic battle can occur in the future. When a mastermind escapes from a climactic battle, the Master should award him XP.

Hey, nemeses are people too!

Rabble

Not all enemies are story enemies. Sometimes conflict may erupt between other types of antagonists, police or any number of potential adversaries. Non-story enemies have no special traits and are referred to as rabble. The Master should always alert the Crew when story enemies are in play. Most rabble use 2d6 results for all actions, experienced rabble (like police or soldiers) may have a single result of 2d8.

Scene Attributes

Sometimes there are pervasive themes or elements in a scene. These properties are represented in game mechanics by attributes. Attributes may effect Heroes as well as enemies (story or otherwise). Attributes should be shared by the Master with the Crew at the beginning of the scene, though sometimes it may behoove story progression to only reveal it when it becomes relevant.

Kayla and Oso are moving quietly through the back alleys of a distant starport. Oso, being an ursoid, is very large for the small spaces between the structures, and brushes up against a switch. The Master then says: The streetlights all darken, there is no longer any ambient light. This scene now has the Attribute: darkness.

Scene attributes affect the story by altering difficulty levels or dice pools. Attributes that reduce dice pools or shift result rows up are called hazards. Except in extreme circumstances, hazards remove one die or shift results up one during checks or tests related to the focus of the hazard. If the relevant pool has only a single die (or the row is 1), that check or test becomes unskilled. Attributes that alter difficulty levels are called complications. Minor complications raise the difficulty by one level, major by two.

The Master assures the Crew that this Attribute is a complication, increasing the difficulty of all tests by 1. However, that is not all he has in store for our enterprising pair.

Attributes may also be favorable to the Crew, these are called boons. Boons reduce the difficulty of all appropriate tasks by 1 level.

Barging into a cavernous starport bay, Kayla and Oso spy the Calyptrian bound in a chair, surrounded by scores of robotic goons. Knowing they must save him, the pair spring into action. Little do the goons know that the Calyptrian is an expert in chemistry, and has a hidden gas capsule in his wristband. He wriggles it free and drops it to the ground, breaking it. Quickly the bay fills with an engineered bioweapon that enhances the physical abilities of certain beings, humans and Blarads among them (Oso is a Blarad). The Master indicates that the scene now has the boon attribute: quadroxylate hydroflourozine* gas, which affects both Kayla and Oso, as well as the Calyptrian.

Not all scenes will have attributes, and not all attributes have a direct effect on dice pools or cards. Some may change the way extras act, such as the climactic battle attribute, described above. Attributes which affect something other than dice pools or cards are called dynamic. The Master has the final say on attribute effects.

*I'm no chemist, that is just technobabble for flair!

Advancement

Vibrant characters in fiction grow and change. They confront danger, wrestle with conscience and tackle difficult moral choices and emerge unscathed. In a game, however, players prefer that their Heroes advance rather than stagnate. Observing the growth and evolution of a great Hero can be one of the most satisfying experiences in roleplaying. This growth, however, should not be taken for granted. To grow, one must be challenged.

Heroes earn experience points by challenging themselves and failing. They also earn experience for confronting their fears or foibles in a way that has a tangible, detrimental (at least initially) story effect on the Hero. Heroes should never receive experience for succeeding (except in cases already listed, such as foiling a solo story enemy without killing him). Success is its own reward! How much of a challenge was a task if you conquered on the first try?

Heroes who are knocked unconscious (lose all CT), at the discretion of the Master, may draw from the story pool and immediately convert the chip drawn into XP. This should only be awarded if it is during the commission of a heroic act, or due to enemy actions. A Hero that fails a critical test (as defined by the Master) may also draw a chip as described previously. Lastly, at the completion of any story arc the Master will draw from the story pool once per each two sessions (or fraction thereof) of in the arc, and award each Hero XP equal to the value of the chips drawn.

The Realm of the Master

You have decided to take on the role of Master. What does that entail? What should the Crew expect from you, and what should you expect for yourself?