Avec les ombres de la nuit

Happy Fourth of July, and here's a quick plug for the iPhone version of my novel Florien, published last week by Megara Entertainment, who are the folks behind the iPad version of The War-Torn Kingdom (aka Fabled Lands Book One) that should be out at the end of the year. (I've seen a video of the beta being tested and it is stupendous - not just a gamebook conversion, this is a real 2D CRPG.)

Anyway, enough of that. We were talking about Florien. This is a book I originally wrote for the Horrorscopes series, which put me in the distinguished company of writers like Terrance Dicks and Lisa Tuttle. But between approving the treatment and delivery of the manuscript, the publisher had a change of heart. Originally they intended the Horrorscopes series to cover a range of genres from spooky/supernatural to psychological thriller to slasher fic. So I wrote Florien as hommage to Hitchcock (specifically the Vertigo to Marnie period). Then the publisher got worried that Turn-of-the-Screw type tension wasn't what they wanted after all. "Can't you put in a stalker, serial killer or rapist?" they asked. Well no, not without making it a completely different book.

So my wife Roz dashed off the in-yer-face terror book the publishers were after. She came up with the plot in forty-five minutes (literally - we had just that time before a Desmond Morris programme came on TV that we wanted to watch) and wrote the whole book in fifteen days. And that appeared as Mirror Image in the Horrorscopes series while I kept the rights to Florien.

I thought I'd soon find another publisher for Florien, but it was the one book of mine that I couldn't sell. The snag was, it has a sort-of vampire theme, and a dash of teen romance, but it defies (well, contemptuously ignores) all the conventions of teen vampire romance books. One publisher showed me a series they had in that genre and wondered if I could adapt Florien to fit. Their book started, "Gary turned his head towards the hillock where they were putting her coffin into the ground. As a vampire, he couldn't walk on consecrated ground so he couldn't be there to see her off. But he would be there later, as the moon rose, to welcome her back."

Okay. So you see how the mention of vampires in the second sentence kind of puts it firmly into the way-out-there fantasy category? Well, Florien's not that kind of horror book. It's more of a Hitchcock thing, like I said. It's the kind of fantasy where there's not a sword or a spell in sight. Where vampires don't sparkle or hiss or do that growly thing like a cat in a bad mood. Where things, quite frankly, are not at all what they seem. Indeed, is it a vampire novel at all? Judge for yourself by grabbing a copy of Florien from Amazon.

7URPS

For our gaming group, GURPS is the role-playing system of choice. We grumble about it from time to time. Combat can be very fiddly, especially when you venture into the maze of special cases involving grappling. As the referee, it's hard to apply commonsense rulings without seeming arbitrary because the rules are so precise, yet they tend to produce absurdities at high skill-levels (in the case of stealth, for example) that risk unbalancing the game if allowed to stand as written.

And yet - it's hugely versatile. (Well: "Generic Universal..." What would you expect?) Steve Jackson and his team have done a heap of work so that you can just get on with your game. It's such a gift to a harassed referee just trying to get the work's adventure ready. Do you want to figure out the relative damage of a Wogdon Dueller or Nock's Volley Gun? Thought not.

For years, the big flaw at the heart of the system was the way it is built on just four stats. This is an evolution from Jackson's earlier Fantasy Trip system, which had its origins in tabletop games. It's simple - but it's a fake simplicity, given the baroque detail layered onto that narrow base. In a nutshell: if you are a great archer, chances are you'll also be a great swordsman and great sneak thief. If you are a great scholar, chances are you'll be sharp-eyed, strong-willed and exceptionally empathic. That's because dexterity (DX) and intelligence (IQ) pretty much drive everything else.

I figured that a little bit of extra detail in the roots of the system would make for more interesting variety between characters without adding any complexity to the game. And so leapt forth 7URPS, a set of quick notes that lets you alter GURPS into a 7-attribute system with the addition of agility (AG), empathy (EQ) and willpower (WL). Take a look for yourself here, and if you think it could be your cup of tea, you can get Frazer Payne's almost magically self-calculating 7URPS character sheet here. A caveat: it will mean nothing to you unless you already have the GURPS rulebook, so go and get that here.

Oh, and the pronunciation? We say "zurps".

Skein of Destiny RPG - part 3

The third and final part of my quickplay RPG rules...

COMBAT

Combatants act each round in descending order of Mind score. You can take one action, either an attack or a parry.

The attacker's degree of success minus the defender's degree of success is the amount of damage that gets through to the defender's armor. The defender can then make an armor roll, and the degree of success of this roll is how much of the damage the armor absorbs.

armor values
leather 5
light 7
medium 8
heavy 9
shield +2

Use the higher of the dice scores for the degree of success of an armor roll. Unlike an ability roll, the armor roll cannot be optionally modified.

SPELLCASTING

Spells can be based on any RPG system you like. To attempt a spell you first make a Magic roll to see how much you remember of it at that moment. Time is a factor, so if you attempt the roll after only one round you must take an optional modifier of -5, after two rounds an optional modifier of -4 and so on. (If you have a book or scroll containing the spell then the roll is a little easier, beginning at -3, etc.) The degree of success of the Magic roll is the maximum level of the spell that you can then attempt to cast.

You then attempt a Spellcasting roll, subject to normal optional modifiers if you wish. The attempt costs 1 point of Emotion. The degree of success of the roll is the strength of the spell. The target can attempt a Imagination roll, and must get a higher degree of success to avoid the effects of the spell.

If you then want to cast the same spell again there is no need to repeat the Magic roll. You already have that spell in mind and can cast it in just one round. Only make a new Magic roll if you want to attempt a different spell.

OTHER MAGIC

It is possible to learn Magic and not Spellcasting. The Magic skill on its own is used for preparing horoscopes, making talismans, brewing love philters, and so on.

INSULTS

Public insults and disgrace can cause the loss of Honor. The severity of the insult ranges from 2 to 20. If in doubt roll 3d6 for this. A 2d10 roll of equal to or less than the severity of the insults causes the insulted party to lose 1 Honor point.

Normally it is possible to prevent the loss of Honor by issuing a challenge to duel. However, if the character making the insult gets a degree of success with Etiquette at least equal to the insult's severity then you cannot pin him down enough to make a challenge.

Example: Cassius insults his former comrade Marcus, calling him an incompetent oaf in the middle of the Roman Forum. The referee rules this is severity 9. Cassius gets an 11 on his Etiquette roll so Marcus cannot demand satisfaction or counter with a lawsuit. On a roll of 9 or less on 2d10 Marcus must lose a point of Honor.

WEALTH

Optionally, to save the bother of keeping a bank balance on the character sheet, which slows up play, characters can simply be assigned a Wealth score ranging from 1 (pauper) to 20 (very rich). Wealth is used like a talent.

Example: Ferdinand wants to buy a fine dueling sword, for which a degree of success of 12 on his Wealth roll is required. His Wealth is 14. Rolling a 6 and a 3 gives success, but only with a degree of success of 6. The Referee announces that he was outbid by a rival.

Skein of Destiny RPG - part 2

Our simple quickplay RPG system continues. Third and final part on Monday. (You see, told you it was simple.)

ATTRIBUTE ROLLS

Sometimes you will need to roll against an attribute directly. This works exactly like using a talent, ie optional modifiers cannot be applied. Some common uses of attributes are:

Match Mind against another person's Charm to see if you have the good sense to resist them (assuming you want to). The higher degree of success wins out.

Match Emotion against another person's Authority roll if you want to resist giving in to them.

Match Honor against a criminal suggestion to see if you have the nobility to refuse to go along with it. (The referee will assign an arbitrary value measuring how dishonorable the suggestion is.)

Some examples of competitive use of attributes are:

Body vs Body in a contest of strength.
Mind vs Mind to outwit someone in a game of skill.
Emotion vs Emotion to intimidate a foe.
Imagination vs Imagination to win a game of chance.
Honor vs Honor when vying for respect or promotion.

LOSS OF ATTRIBUTE POINTS

Attribute losses can be brought about by various means. In most cases losses will only be temporary.

Body is reduced by wounds, poison and disease.
Mind can be reduced by stress or terror.
Emotion is reduced by harrowing experiences and by casting spells.
Imagination is reduced by supernatural encounters or sleeplessness.
Honor is reduced by disgrace or failure.

Reduction of an attribute to 0 has the following effect:

Body: death
Mind: insanity
Emotion: apathy
Imagination: loss of all magical aptitude
Honor: exile or suicide

Ability scores are affected by the loss or gain of points in the primary attribute, but not the second (modifying) attribute. If you lose Body during a fight, for instance, you also lose the same number off your Weapon Parry score but not your Weapon Attack.

RECOVERING ATTRIBUTE POINTS

Attributes recover at different rates:

Body: roll Mind or less each day to recover a point; a Medicine roll at least equal to your current lost points adds 1 extra point a day.
Mind: roll Honor or less each week to recover a point.
Emotion: recover all lost points in one night on a successful Imagination roll.
Imagination: roll Imagination or less each week to recover a point.
Honor: noble action will restore lost points at the referee's discretion.

IMPROVING ABILITY SCORES

Both skills and talents can be increased by experience. You are eligible for an ability increase in any month in which you got a degree of success of 10 or more with the ability. Keep track of how often you achieve that each month with a tick next to the ability. At the end of the month, make an Imagination roll to increase the ability. To the degree of success of this roll, add the number of uses of the ability for which you are eligible. You need a final total higher than half your current score to increase the ability by 1.

Example: Murillo got a degree of success of 10+ twice when using his Priest skill this month. At the end of the month he makes an Imagination roll and gets a degree of success of 7. Adding 2 to this gives a result of 9. This is higher than half his current Priest score, so it goes up by 1.

Training can also be used to increase skills. Typically the referee will first require an Honor roll to see if the teacher is impressed enough to take you on as a pupil. (Money can't buy everything.) At the end of each month, the teacher makes a skill roll and you make a Mind roll. Assuming both are successful, add the degrees of success. If the total exceeds half your current score in the skill, increase it by 1. You can only train in two skills at a time.

A quickplay RPG

This is a simple RPG system that I designed to encourage a fast, interpretive, narrative-driven style of play. I call it Skein of Destiny, despite or perhaps because of the unfortunate acronym. I've divided it into three parts. Today, we begin with character creation.

Characters in the Skein system are defined by five attributes:

Body
Honor
Mind
Emotion
Imagination

Assign a total of 55 points between these attributes.

Body is your presence in the physical world. Honor is your presence in the world of men. Similarly, you can see Mind as a measure of how the physical reflects in you, and Emotion as a measure of how society reflects in you. Imagination is where those things all come together: the inner and outer life, the world of physical reality and the world of human society.

When you consider that the types of conflict that generate stories essentially reduce to man versus nature, man versus society and man versus himself, these five attributes comprise all the foundation you should need for a rich variety of adventures.

It is up to the player how he or she chooses to interpret high or low scores in the five attributes. For instance, high Body could mean you're strong, or wiry, or big, or dexterous, etc.

ABILITIES

Abilities are divided into skills (which can be trained) and talents (which can only be improved by experience). Abilities of either type are based on two attributes. The sum of these attributes determines your maximum possible score in that ability. The first attribute listed in each pair determines your highest possible starting score in that ability.

Skills

Agility = Body + Honor
Brawling = Body + Body
Etiquette = Honor + Mind
Magic = Imagination + Mind
Medicine = Mind + Honor
Missile Use = Mind + Body
Priest = Honor + Imagination
Scholarship = Mind + Mind
Seamanship = Body + Mind
Singing = Imagination + Honor
Spellcasting = Emotion + Mind
Thievery = Imagination + Mind
Tracking = Mind + Body
Weapon Attack = Emotion + Body
Weapon Parry = Body + Imagination

Talents

Authority = Emotion + Mind
Charm = Emotion + Honor
Perception = Imagination + Mind
Sex Appeal = Body + Emotion
Stealth = 20 + Imagination - Honor
Streetwise = Mind + Imagination
Survival = Body + Mind

You begin with two abilities at full starting (not maximum) value, three at half starting value, and four at one-third starting value. Round fractions up in your favor.

USING ABILITIES

To use an ability, roll 2d10. Success is indicated by a roll equal to or less than your score in the ability. The degree of success is equal to the higher of the two dice in the case of skills and the lower of the dice in the case of talents. If you roll a double then add another 1d10 to either number to get the final degree of success.

Example: Fafnir has a Perception score of 9. He rolls, getting a 3 and a 5 on the dice. The total of the dice is 8, which is less than his Perception score so he has succeeded. Perception is a talent, so the degree of success is the lower number rolled: a 3.

OPTIONAL MODIFIERS

Instead of making a straight skill roll, you can choose to apply a modifier ranging from -5 to +5 to the total roll (announced, of course, before you throw the dice). If successful, you apply the same modifier to the degree of success, to a minimum of 1 and a maximum of 15. (Note that optional modifiers cannot be applied to talents, only to skills.)

Example: Pierre is asked to entertain Prince Andrei. He decides to try and impress the prince by attempting a particularly difficult song. He opts for a modifier of +5 to the dice roll. His Singing score is 13 and he rolls 6 and 2, giving an 8. With the +5 modifier he just succeeds, and he also gets to add 5 for a total degree of success of 11.

In days of old

I already posted about the various proposals Jamie and I made to Puffin for a late entry in the Fighting Fantasy series. The one they picked was Keep of the Lich-Lord, but we really liked some of the others. Here’s one with an Arthurian slant, something we had been interested in exploring in gamebook form for some time. And therein lies a tale – but first, take a look at the proposal we submitted to Puffin in 1989:

Knights of Renown

This is presented either as a Fighting Fantasy gamebook or as the basis for a separate series like the Robin of Sherwood gamebooks.

The story is set in Arthurian times with the reader taking the part of a young knight. His or her quest is to perform some great deed to win a place at the Round Table. Throughout the adventure the young knight will encounter other famous knights and characters from Arthurian myth like Lancelot, Gawain, Guinevere and Mordred.

The tale begins with the reader making a declaration of intent to King Arthur and the knights of the Round Table. In response, Arthur tells him of a strange Grey Knight, a giant, who has slain many a worthy knight. His tower is on a bleak moor in a remote corner of the kingdom of Logres. If the young knight can rid the land of the evil Grey Knight he will win himself a seat at the Round Table. The young knight sets out, but is not the only one undertaking the quest. Others also seek glory and fame, including one or two established knights of Arthur's court. Everyone hopes to be the first to encounter and best the Grey Knight, so speed is of the essence.

On the journey, the knight comes across an enchanted marquee in a lonely glade. This is the Pavilion of Dreams. If the knight successfully survives an attempt by evil forces to bewitch him, Merlin will appear and tell him about the Lance of Longinus. This sacred artifact would be of great help in defeating the evil Grey Knight. It is said to lie in the crypt of the ruined Abbey de l'Ombre which the knight must find somewhere in the Forest of Caerleon.

After a series of adventures the young knight will at last confront the Grey Knight of the Wastes – only to discover he was once a human knight who has been ensorcelled by Morgan Le Fay. If the hero has earlier obtained some oil taken from the Holy Sepulchre it will be possible to anoint the Grey Knight and alter him back to human size and disposition. Before this can be done, of course, the Grey Knight must somehow be subdued. The reader will certainly need the Holy Lance and to recall Merlin's advice in order to achieve this.

Returning to Camelot, the young knight can claim his reward, a seat at the Round Table. The fact that he also denounces Morgan will vex her, and allows her to become a recurring figure if there is a sequel.

Special Rules for Fighting Fantasy

The knight will have some extra abilities as well as the standard FF ones:

RENOWN
Starts at 2. Renown is a numerical rating of the knight's fame and can increase or decrease as the adventure unfolds. It will govern things like whether a knight would be willing to joust with you or how likely you are to be recognised from your coat-of-arms. For instance, during the game you may be lost and wounded in a remote forest. Finding a castle, you approach the gate. If your Renown is above a certain score the lord of the castle will let you in and aid you, pleased to have so famous a knight as a guest. If it is too low, he might decide you’re just a wanderer of dubious intent and turn you away.

CHIVALRY
A representation of how honourable and knightly the player is. Chivalry will decrease or increase as the adventure continues. In certain situations your Chivalry score might influence or even dictate your actions. For instance, you come across a princess imprisoned in a tower and guarded by a very powerful knight. If your Chivalry score is very high, you are obliged to attempt a rescue. If it is low you would have free choice in the matter, but failing to try and help her would cause your Chivalry to drop even further. Thus a Knight with high Renown and low Chivalry would be seen as a mighty fighter but not a man of honour – perhaps an evil knight. In Arthurian myth, characters like Sir Agravaine, Breunis Sans Pite and Tarquin would be of this sort.

JOUSTING
An ability that functions just as Skill in combat, except that it would apply only in jousts. The techniques of the joust make it a way for knights to settle disputes with the maximum use of expertise and the minimum chance of fatality. Some evil knights refuse jousts, preferring to go straight to the business of melee and slaughter. Whether it is possible to ignore a challenge to joust depends on the result of a Chivalry roll.

PIETY
A characteristic generated at the start in the same way as Luck. Piety reflects the knight's ability to perform acts of devotion such as an all-night vigils in a chapel. A high Piety score also allows the knight to drive back evil spirits and break enchantments. When required, the player would throw dice exactly as if making a Luck roll but using his Piety score. (Piety does not decrease with use, but may decrease or increase as a result of special events during the course of the adventure.)

Knights of Renown as non-Fighting Fantasy

MELEE
Generated at the start by rolling one dice and adding 3. This is used in combats when the knight wields a sword, mace, morning star or other melee weapon. In combat, roll 2 dice and if the score is equal to or less than your Melee rating you have scored a hit. You then roll another dice. This is the number of points your opponent loses from his Endurance score. Your opponent then does the same. Combat continues in this manner until someone yields or is slain. Opponents will vary widely in their Melee ratings. Different weapons have different damage ratings. The knight may also find items that increase the damage he inflicts or that enhance his Melee score – for example, if Excalibur is lent to the knight it increases his Melee by 2 and allows him to add +2 to the dice score when rolling for damage.

ENDURANCE
The knight begins with 30 Endurance points. When these fall to zero he is dead. Lesser degrees of wounding will slow him up and affect his Melee score.

ARMOUR
The knight begins with chainmail armour, a helmet and a shield. This deducts 2 from all damage rolls made against him (or 1 if the shield is lost). Better armour may be found during the course of the adventure.

JOUST
The knight may be required to joust against other knights. This involves the use of the lance on horseback, and is a very different skill from Melee. The character’s Joust score is generated by rolling one dice and subtracting 1. A joust is conducted in 'runs'. Before each run, you must decide whether you are aiming for your opponent's head or his shield. The reader rolls 2 dice, and adds his Joust skill (which could begin at zero). He then does the same for his opponent. A total of 12 or more means your opponent has been unseated. (Thus it is possible for both contestants to be unseated simultanouesly.) A roll of 2 on the dice means your lance has shattered whether or not the final result unhorses your opponent.An unseated knight may take damage from falling to the ground. Someone whose opponent aimed at his shield takes 1 dice damage. A hit on the head inflicts 2 dice, and a roll of 12 when aiming at the head kills the knight outright! For this reason most decent knights go for a foe's shield rather than his head. Success in a joust allows a knight to improve his Renown and Joust scores.

CHIVALRY
This works as described for the Fighting Fantasy variant, except that the knight may be required to make a Chivalry roll. A roll of on or below the Chivalry score on two dice forces the reader to behave according to the strict rules of honourable conduct, while a roll above the Chivalry score permits him to try a more devious approach. High Chivalry is much admired and may help in gaining boons from the King, but it often forces the knight to take a straightforward and careless approach to danger.

RENOWN
This is the same as in the Fighting Fantasy variant except that a Renown roll may have to be made, as detailed for Chivalry above.

PIETY
As the Fighting Fantasy variant, except a roll may be made as for Renown and Chivalry.

Further books in the series would involve the Knight, now fully fledged, undertaking adventures based on Arthurian myth such as the search for the Holy Grail, the hunting of Questing Beast, the encounter between Sir Gawain and the Green Knight, and so on.

Okay, so that was the pitch to Puffin. The book sounds like it would have been a fairly typical gamebook, probably influenced by the Pendragon campaign run by Ian Marsh that we were occasionally playing in back then. (And the Grey Knight..? I know, I know - but remember that when you're making a pitch that may end up getting hammered into a slot somewhere in the world of Puffin's FF books, you're not going to pull out all the creative stops.)

But now look at this earlier proposal, dating from 1987, that Jamie and I sent to several book publishers. See if it reminds you of anything:

HERO QUEST
A quantum leap in the evolution of gamebooks... and a new way of presenting the old favourites of folktale and myth

This proposal combines elements of gamebooks, role-playing and board games. Hero Quest is set in a mythic landscape (perhaps the worlds of the Norse legends, Arthurian myths or the Arabian Nights) and allows the reader to participate in the stories.

To give some idea of what is involved, consider what the book looks like. It consists of a number of large colour maps which might depict, say, Britain in Arthurian times. The reader begins by deciding whose eyes he or she wants to experience the story through; in this case, it might be Lancelot, Gawain, Morgan, Mordred or Balin. Areas on the map are marked with numbers, and after travelling to an area (moving a counter across the map) the reader gets to turn to the corresponding numbered paragraph. This then guides him or her on through other paragraphs, in the manner of a solo gamebook, until it is time to move on to a new location. The reader discovers missions and goals while playing. For instance, a reader playing Lancelot might disgrace himself at Camelot and be told by King Arthur that he must atone by finding one of the Thirteen Treasures of Britain and returning with it to the court before New Year's Day.

How does it differ from traditional gamebooks? First and foremost, since the reader is creating the overall narrative for himself, there is no need for the long linking passages and purple prose found in a conventional gamebook. Paragraphs would be quite short, as the emphasis is on exploring the episodic form of the story (why a knight behaves honourably, what it means to refuse a challenge, why one must be wary of elves, etc). Each possible character will have different skills and shortcomings, and the reader must be aware of these when deciding how best to act. Gawain will find it easy to behave honourably, for example, but almost impossible to tell a lie. En route from place to place, a matrix and dice roll would give the reader random encounters that might range from a disputing knight at a crossroads to a haunted priory by the roadside.

All episodes would be drawn from the original sources, so in a sense this is just a new way to tell the old stories. This way of discovering legends by "living" them, though, has a number of advantages over traditional narrative form. It clarifies the reasons why a protagonist makes the particular decisions and choices that he does. It shows the consequences of alternative courses of action. And for a modern reader accustomed to the lure of television and computer games, it makes the stories infinitely more vivid and exciting than in a traditional third-person narrative.

Leaving aside the need to couch our proposal in respectable literary terms (ie the emphasis on being true to existing legends, which was necessary to sell to editors who were even then quite hostile to what they regarded as “trash” fantasy) what’s interesting is that this was essentially a proposal to create a series like Fabled Lands – a full eight years before we actually got to do “The War-Torn Kingdom”. Had we got FL started in 1987, when gamebooks were at the height of their success in Britain and Europe, I am quite sure we would have been able to complete the twelve-book series and probably carry on and do more. That Tardis is going to be busy if I ever get the fluid link fixed.

Conquerors rules

That was the last page of the book, the idea being that if you reached that page it meant that you'd won. But you don't need to know about that, because you're not going to be playing the book version. The card rules are as follows:

1. Each player shuffles their deck of 15 cards, placing the cards face down beside them.

2. The players each take their top card and reveal it to the opponent.

3. Each can study the other's card, but when either player is satisfied he knocks on the table and says, "Ready." The players then take up their cards again.

4. Each player now decides which of the characters on the card to send into battle. He turns the card (face down) so that character is nearest to his opponent.

5. The cards are now turned over and compared. The winner discards his current card and draws the next card from his deck. The loser retains the card he has just played to use again next round. If there is a draw, the player who is behind (ie, has discarded fewer cards so far) gets to discard - a levelling factor. If there is a draw when the players are neck and neck, both discard.

6. Play now continues to the next round as before. The loser from last round uses the same card as before, but he may choose a different character on the card to go into battle.

7. The winner is the first player to discard all his cards.

The game is, as I hardly need to tell you, Rock Paper Scissors only in a five-way matrix:
Hope you enjoy it. And if you do, or if you can suggest improvements, that's the comments button right below. The illustrations are by the ever-brilliant Russ Nicholson, of course.