Design Discussion

One problem with the traditional tabletop game is the inaccessibility of it.  While game systems have always existed on both ends of the spectrum of heavy math, and light math, the popular and successful ones that a majority of people play have some fundamental flaws with the design of the system that make it difficult for a few critical things.

Game Masters are necessary and fundamental in design for the success of a tabletop game, and the feasibility of a system without one is quite limited.  But the GM position in a game can be quite stressful for new people to pick up, and most games aren't conducive to learning.  Additionally, GM burnout in general is a factor, and games are always healthier when different people in the group take turns GMing, and understand what goes into the process.  Healthy groups can last a very long time and be the source of friendship and socialization, and are one of the very best parts of tabletop gaming.

However, few systems on the market are really focused on encouraging that kind of development.  It's sort of an accident of happenstance, or a sign of good friends when it does.  Most systems are designed mechanically to reinforce the Game Master as an enemy.  It encourages players to try to beat the GM, missions and plots and fights are about winning the game, rather than about telling story.  A GM by nature, must be of a certain personality type to be willing to have that kind of control and in that environment only certain kinds of personalities will even have fun.  Not every game will play like this, but the very base systems of D&D and Pathfinder very much treat the GM as the enemy.

World of Darkness did a great job with it's storyteller system of trying to focus on the storytelling aspect of the GM instead of the mechanical functions.  It has a very light set of mechanics to reinforce story as the main aspect of the game, and it had plenty of thematic elements to back that up.  WoD though requires an intense amount of plotting, and is very focused and limited with each separate module not being very compatible.  In addition the thematic elements at the time of release made it difficult to appeal beyond a very niche audience.  Furthermore, the underpinning mechanics that did exist where very broken and actually had problems with scaling backward, where the more dice one had, the more chance of catastrophic failure there was.

In both D&D 3.5/Pathfinder, and WoD, the GM has the added issue of having to fudge dice and re-balance the game on the fly.  Due to Pathfinder's ridiculous class and system imbalances with many different rulebooks and synergies that scale exponentially, the power imbalance in a game of unequal skilled players means significant difficulty for a GM to balance encounters.  With powerful players it can be a challenge to even present a moderate amount of difficulty without catastrophically wiping the party, or making less skilled players feel useless.

So what purpose does Dreamcatcher serve in this discussion?  Many systems provide enough of a good experience that any existing tabletop group can have plenty to choose from.  And newer systems have come out more recently to make the games more mechanically balanced that allow newer GMs to pick up the dungeon crawling portion of traditional tabletop, like D&D 4.0, but they miss the primary point.  With the advent of video games it becomes a challenge for a tabletop game to offer the level of mechanical interest, and strategy found in video games.  In addition, Massive Multiplayer games offer a few of the social elements that drew people to tabletop.

What is the primary unique factor that tabletop games cannot have replicated in video games?  Collaborative storytelling.  A common derogatory term for GMs who force a specific set of actions and plot on players as 'railroading', which is to say, the GM that does not adapt the story and seeks to tell a plot like a movie.  This eliminates the largest part of the interaction in story for the players.  Dreamcatcher seeks to mechanically offer a cooperative experience that while maintaining the model of GM and player, sets up the entire system mechanically and thematically to reinforce the players and GM on the same side.

Dreamcatcher calls the GM a Dreamweaver, for they help to navigate and inject plot, come up with situations to challenge the players, but the entire focus is different.  There is no combative rolling in this system, rather the Dreamweaver does not roll dice against the players.  Instead, players roll for both offensive, and defensive situations.  It creates a unique dynamic compared to existing systems in play, and makes it immediately less combative on a subtle psychological level.

The rules themselves are designed to inherently discourage the traditional optimization of games in numerous ways, that don't inhibit design of character, or fun or flexibility.  There is logarithmic scaling instead of exponential scaling of power, allowing for characters who dabble to still have use.  Skills are flexible and broad in use, so creative players may be more effective by thinking through how to solve a situation rather than picking attacks or skills from a list in front of them.  That isn't to say the system is without mechanics, as there have been many that have come out before to strip a system bare to focus entirely on storytelling.  But rules play a roll in helping new players learn how the world works, and a robust system can help in allowing shy players to be eased into role playing instead of just being thrown in.

What strategy exists in Dreamcatcher was carefully selected.  The three fundamental sources of strategy this rule set incorporates are:  Resource Management, Luck and Risk Management, and Problem Solving.  Resource management is something pretty much anyone who has ever played a game instantly grasps and is able to understand and use.  This game features different resource pools to manage during the course of play.

All resources recharge after periodic breaks, in this case taking inspiration from one of the better design elements of D&D 4.0, the rest system.  While many games have used 'days', or 'sessions', to describe the period in which things recharge, both are arbitrary, and harder for players to understand on a mechanical level, and neither element is within the control of players.  Long rests as defined in Dreamcatcher are periods of rest or break, long enough to have a full eight hours of sleep uninterrupted.  When players choose to do this, is under their control instead of the Dreamweaver, so they can retain they can plan how they use their resources based on when they know they will be able to recharge.  In addition, there are short rests, which allow for some resources to recharge during a break or breather.  This adds another element of depth, choosing when to use these resources so that recharge is not wasted.  Spending a lot of resources in one encounter, may prove problematic later down the road as the resources that do recharge do so slowly.

Resources include three separate pools of Fortitude, each of which represent a different part of a players well being.  Physical, Mental and Spiritual Fortitude are calculated differently, and expended on failure or occasionally consumed on use of certain abilities.  A character is only as strong as their weakest Fortitude, as if any should hit zero, they become Vulnerable.  The reason for the different health pools is it discourages optimization by design, as a character is only as strong as their weakest Fortitude.

Another major resource is Destiny.  Destiny is a stat that lets players write their own story.  They may expend Destiny in order to override dice, assure successes, or replicate any function they need to.  They are very powerful, and if spent together can stack up to create game changing actions.  Destiny is the single most powerful effect a player can have in storytelling, allowing them to determine the outcome of a situation, but being a resource they must be careful to decide how they use it.

The next big element of strategy is Luck and Risk Management.  This is presented in some ways with the Destiny resource, but also applies to the fundamental dice system.  Many games in the past feature little thought beyond rolling a dice or dice on the player's end and seeing what falls.  As described in a previous chapter, Dreamcatcher features a mechanic called Fraying, which is secondary consequences to an action. While failure and success are the two primary measures most consider in an action, consequence is far less considered in design in most systems.  Consequence is expressed in the form of Frayed Actions, situations in which a Fray goes through that may occur regardless of an actions success.  When players roll, a specific number called Fraying determines what dice that come up count as Frays.  Frays may be removed from a roll by any other non fray dice.  This means that excess dice may be used to cancel frays out.  However, there will be situations where a player must choose between success while leaving a Fray in the action, or failure, or between a huge success with a fray or a minor success.  These considerations are up to the player, who has the choice of deciding between the options and determining how the action concludes.

The dice don't determine what consequences are though, and the system leaves enough flexibility to make it sensible rather than mechanical.  A Dreamweaver may use one of the many Frayed Conditions to represent a story element, or may come up with far more elaborate consequences for the frayed action, but regardless it becomes a choice the player makes that integrates them with the story being told.

The last big source of strategy in the system is problem solving.  The game does not differentiate combat with any other form of encounter.  It treats every system by design as a skill challenge, or puzzle to solve regardless of the conditions.  It is mandatory that a Dreamweaver present multiple paths to conclusion for players, and is given tools in encounter design to allow for creating these multiple paths and determining conclusion in a mechanical way that will reinforce the storytelling.

Character skills are expansive, and designed around a guideline of potential, but leaving open the option of using skills in ways not quantified within the book.  The skills allowplayers to think outside the box and approach encounters in ways that aren't prescribed directly by the rules if they make sense from a story perspective.  The design does not inhibit the story, but reinforces it.

That is the most fundamental part of Dreamcatcher, rules that are simple enough to grasp, have good depth but reinforce the story instead of limiting it.  It is the hope in the long run that more people get to experience role playing, and GMing and creates an inclusive experience for both experienced and newer players.

Rules to Play By: Tapestries

The mechanics of this game are intentionally designed to remain robust while attempting a level of simplicity that new players can pick up. Most importantly, the game is focused on storytelling so the mechanics support, rather then provide a distraction from the story.

This post will discuss the three key controlling factors of the game's dice rules. Each named for the concept of creating a fabric, or tapestry of a story or plot. They help to decide the luck factor in fate, instead of leaving the judgement entirely up to the Dreamweaver.

Weaving -

The first number describes the process or skill in weaving threads. The number represents knowledge, experience, innate ability and influence from other parties on a character's capability. This number is determined by a character's stat, and the skill rank associated with the task they are trying to complete, plus a possible bonus from a Dreamcatcher, or Contract. Weaving is generally static for each skill, only rarely featuring temporary modifiers. The player may determine this number on their player sheet while not in play, giving them opportunity to not need to do math on the fly.

What weaving does is determine how many D10s are thrown when attempting the task, and the skill associated controls that weaving. Skills are designed to be flexible and accommodate the creativity of players, and at the same time it is highly discouraged for players to just use a skill mechanically. The actions should be decided based on the story, and the appropriate skill chosen. However, the skill list is descriptive, covering exact mechanics for many different ways of using the skill to give guidelines to both players and Dreamweavers on how to interpret the actions for each skill.

Weaving is the most static of each of the three base mechanics, and is the one character creation and the player has the most control of. The numbers may range from as low as 1 to as high as 15, meaning quite a few dice may be thrown during skill use.

Fraying -

The fraying number represents the number at which consequences may become part of an action. Any dice that rolls that matches the Fraying number or is lower than it counts as a fray in a roll.  Frays can be problematic to any weave, but a skilled weaver can fix them without leaving permanent damage, though the few that do stick become a permanent part of the fabric.  

All actions baseline start off with a Fraying of 2, though some traits may lower Fraying, and many flaws raise it. Umbral Effects, nasty environments of the penumbra often raise fraying or react directly frays that occur within them. Fraying is significantly more reactive than Weaving, altering throughout the course of an adventure for even the same skill.

Frays themselves don't determine success or failure of a weave, rather they are nasty side effects that carry on if not properly dealt with. Any dice that is not a fray, may be used to cancel a fray, so a character has control over eliminating them. The risk of a fray being part of a completed action is much lower under normal conditions, and far higher in nightmarish places and places of high stress.

When an action completes with a fray, a frayed condition may be placed on the character, or other unintended consequences of the action may happen. This is to say, someone may still strike with a weapon, but break their bone in the process of doing so. An unintended consequence while still succeeding at the primary action, as the two concepts are independent. Sometimes it might be better to fail an action outright than suffer a more lasting condition.

Below is an example of a more complex Frayed Condition, as currently described in the book. Not all frayed conditions are progressive or increasing, but many are problematic and hard to ignore, and they are not simple to remove.

Corruption -It might be slow, or it might be fast, but something is corrupting deep into the character’s psyche, affecting their moral decisions and perhaps even their physical shape.  Long term exposure is more progressively effective and becomes more difficult to remove as the character begins to desire its effect.  For each long rest with this effect in place, it requires an increasing number of successes to remove the effect.  Story-wise it should suppress the character’s conscience if they have one, and push them away from the party’s intent.  Mechanically, it adds a Stitch to checks to complete tasks that the party is trying to succeed at.  For each long rest it adds +1 to the Stitch, up to +5, after which the corruption has fully taken effect and cannot be removed, and the character no longer wishes to work with the party, and may even become an antagonist.

Stitch - 

The stitch represents the difficulty in completing a stitch on the fabric, and determines success and failure. The number is determined by the Dreamweaver, with guidance from the rulebook for suggestions on determining it. The number ranges from 6 to 10, though it may even go higher in the form of 10x2, 10x3 and so on. What the number means is each dice that hits that number or above counts as a success. 10x2 means the first success requires 2 10s in order to count, while 10x3 requires three 10s.  

Weaving increases the likelihood of rolling a number that counts. Unlike some similar systems, frays do not negate successes on their own, though successes may be spend in order to eliminate frays just like any other, so there may be times where a player voluntarily chooses to fail rather than suffer nasty consequences. This is one core element to player decision making, a simple strategy that they may decide when they roll.

In the end, the stitch number is the Dreamweaver's primary input to the outcome of a roll. Their end of the bargain in determining the fate of a character. Each completed stitch adds up to tell the story of an encounter, and guide the storytelling and descriptions of what happens. Both players and the Dreamweaver are highly encouraged to use these numbers to reinforce how they describe each challenge and the conclusion to the action.

Introductions Ahead

Draft: 1st

Current Word Count:  134,000

This is first and foremost a tabletop role playing game with dice. Four months now have gone by with near constant progress on the first draft. Lets tally where the book currently stands by breaking down the contents that have been created thus far, and look at where progress will bring it in the future

The Setting - 

The game is set in the near future, ten years after the Veil between Dreamtime and Reality broke, the world has significantly changed. Beyond over 90% population loss, many new things have been discovered, changing the direction of humanity. Old magics were found to be true, new technology has been made even as others have been lost, and yet it is a struggle to survive. Traveling risks encountering dreamtouched Wilds and nightmarish Penumbra, or falling through the Veil into Dreamtime itself.

This setting allows for plenty of flexibility for storytelling, allowing for nearly any theme imaginable, while having consistent mechanics that keep it grounded in reality. And while it is connected to the real world giving it a basis for Dreamweavers (GM in most rulebooks) to work with. Familiar places, the real world, myth, all can be easy starting points to work with, without needing to create and define setting or use pre-generated locations. However, the rulebook contains numerous areas of the world detailed to give clear direction of its shape and even offering plot-hooks and danger for the Dreamweaver.

However, this game is focused heavily on collaborative storytelling, player input is as important to the story as the Dreamweaver's, and the book provides short stories about characters experiencing the setting first hand, as well as clearly defined but extremely flexible skills to provide them with guidelines of how they might progress through the story.

One of the key storytelling and mechanical elements in the game are Contracts, which are signed with Kami, powerful beings of the Dreamtime that we have named as Gods, or Monsters, or even just Ideas over the centuries. They've received perhaps the most polish and attention in the book thus far and provide plenty to work with from a Dreamweaver and player perspective including conflicting motivations and direction. 

The characters may be as diverse as the setting, and the rules allow for customizing characters in both a physical and mental sense to a great degree. There are no races, rather the character builds their character's shape using the traits and flaws, and stats as guidelines. There is also a Shapeshifting mechanic built into the game instead of races, and allowing for coping with the sudden physical changes that can happen when dealing with Dream. The game is skill based and classless, allowing for flexible backgrounds and design and furthermore skills themselves are designed to encourage creativity rather than provide restrictions on what players may do.  

The Mechanics - 

The game's mechanics are designed to supplement storytelling instead of restricting it. They are there to reduce conflict, and support cooperation instead of competition between the Dreamweaver and players. This is critical for creating a fun game and one of the big problems with existing rules. Only a few RPGs out there have done well in integrating the mechanics with the story, and a problem with many other systems out there is the tendency to create a game, instead of a story. The problem is, most games devolve into dungeon crawls with a majority of players, and differing skill levels of players tend to really stand out and create problems. They also often devolve into a competition between the GM and the players, which can lead to occasional hostility, arguments and encourages Rulemongers and Munckins.

This game is a little softer on the mechanics, attempting less rolling, less math than the popular rules on the market, but by no means is it simple. The game is designed around simple yet deep philosophy of modern gaming, the idea of boiling the system down to root strategies and offering a lot of them without trying to overwhelm players with optimization, numbers and math. While this book hasn't been able to avoid it entirely, and does fall into the occasional bit of it with some of the more advanced mechanics, new players and Dreamweaver's shouldn't be bogged down in them and allow them to focus on the art of storytelling and role playing instead of learning systems. This does mean the system and setting focus heavily on that aspect and it may force shy and inexperienced players to have to interact and think in ways they haven't had to in other systems.

It is the hope of the designer that the book provide a focus on the strongest aspects of tabletop games and might bring tabletop gaming to a wider and different audience than Pathfinder. While the marketplace is full of RPG settings, and even systems, this should and will stand out among them for its design focus.  Its about to start alpha playtesting on finishing the first draft, and will receive balancing, revision and initial artwork before it hits Kickstarter. Eventually, the book should be available in both hardcover and digital format.

Completed -

8 Vignettes

31 Contracts

2 Godstones, and 25 Dreamcatchers, 10 Oracle Coins

150 Traits and Flaws

30 Husks

10 Runewords

6 Penumbra

18 Metropolises

4 Pathways

6 Crossroads

Character creation

Character growth

Setting history

Skills thoroughly created, expanded, detailed

To do list - 

A few more vignettes

Revise & Redesign one Contract

Three dozen more Dreamcatchers

Guidelines for Husk creation.

Two dozen more Husks.

Wild and Dreamtime examples

More Pathway examples.

Mock Play Sessions

Pregenerated characters with stories