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Darren Menorath: The Avatar Personality Game (APG).

Exploring how characters we create reflect our own identity

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“The danger exists if games show, or kids see, only one world, one world view, only one narrow type of game. Real intellectual and ethical growth comes from having been in many worlds, some of them different enough to get your thinking for yourself.” (Gee, 2007. p. 16)

Darren Menorath: Last Wednesday at a Game dev meet up, I presented a simple (and butchered) version of GURPS. Moving on from the simplified version of Dungeons & Dragons v3.0 (also butchered) that I got a group of newbies to play a while back, I found that GURPS system easier to digest for newcomers.

It was interesting to see the transition from a new RPG system changed the way they created their characters in the game. One person in particular thought it would be swell to take on as much disadvantages to gain more advantages (Min-Maxing), and made a very interesting character that other characters became annoyed of, and relied heavily on when the time need be. 

Because the scenario created for the players was a survivalist based, it didn’t require wealth and social status, a language system (English is the universal language), quirks, and contests. Damage and armour were dealt through stats and advantages chosen (e.g halo: Spartan Mark V suit would need the advantage, “Environmental Suit”. The person has high strength and health so the chance of them surviving hits is high). Dice roll were mostly based off “success and failure” rolls where rolling under a 10 will be a success and vice versa (I removed the notion of damage rolls and reaction rolls so the newbies didn’t get too confused on the dice systems). It required a lot on the GM’s end to picture the scenario, whether or not the characters survive. Players also had to be specific as to how they were going to use their skill (e.g. I want to use my natural sciences to find any flora that could be used for healing. Roll for success or failure.). 

The feedback I got from the test players were mostly positive, stating that it was interesting that they got to create whoever they wanted, and still be able to play the game. However, they did comment on the advantage/disadvantage/skills list and how they found it complicated as to how they worked. They also noted that due to time constraints of the meet up, that the narrative on my end wasn’t as descriptive as it should of been, though the poster (the image above) helped set the scene for them.

Next Step: Clarifying some of the rules and advantages/disadvantages. I will also try to incorporate language, wealth and social status, and contests, depending on the scenario in the story. I feel that for the purpose of my research, I won’t dwell too much in NPC selling items, but rather grant loot through exploration to compensate.

Note: Thanks to gilgalahad and aphrael6 for suggesting Fate Accelerated and Swords & Wizardry White Box.  If GURPS does me wrong anytime soon, I’ll try them out :)

Back story for the game: As a loud piercing screech runs through your ear as you recover from your concussion, you find yourself ejected from wrecked metal pod. The dirt that supports life on the ground has a different texture, as you wipe it off your face, the surroundings are un-familiar to you. The trees face towards one area, and are shaped like nothing on your own planet. It is raining, and dark clouds cover the sky like swarm of large beings. As you look around your surroundings, metal pods rain down like fiery shells across the vast wilderness. As you look towards your sides, you see in the far distance, a great contrast of weathers: Chaotic Firestorms where the great red giant of their star shines, and blizzards in the dark abyss where no light can touch it with its radiance. In a state of amnesia and confusion, you question about how you have arrived to this distant planet, what is your intentions, and what happened before the crash. 

Players are stuck on a planet and all have amnesia. Their goal is to find out what happened to them, and why are they’re on the planet. 

The game itself is set out over the course of 5 days. Each day grants 5 points which is used to level up stats, buy skills and advantages, and remove disadvantages. Additional days will be worked on after the initial 5 days are completed, as their choices in the game will affect the following days. 

Gee, J. P. (2007). Good Video Games + Good Learning/ Collected Essays on Video Learning and Literacy. New York: United States. Peter Lang International

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Darren Menorath: In an attempt to understand more about role-playing games, I found myself looking into table-top RPGs and how their video game counterpart has taken much of their rule structure into their own. Having not played any table top RPGs before, I asked someone who did and was suggested to play D&D ver.3.0 rules and was given a few boards, dice, and figures. Having gathered newbies to try out the board game, we found ourselves trying to figure out a complex character creation. After hours of re-rolling and allocating stats, the group stated they had enough.

Having realised that the complexity of D&D ver. 3.0 had put off the newbie players, I looked into creating my own version of the game by making it a story-telling game (RPG story time sessions). By simplifying the class & stats, allowing any sort of race, and removing the use of dice, players found themselves being immersed into the experience faster and were more engaged with their characters within the fictional world. During this experience, I found that the power of the imagination is immense, as no video game with all of its flash graphics can compare to the universe created in your head.

Next step: Looking in the GURPS (Generic Universal Role-Playing System), I found that the storytelling game that I was playing was basically this game without the dice system. In the next RPG story time session, I will be using this system and see how this plays out with the people participating.