Post by Sweevie in Systems You Wish Got Hacked More Often/At All

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Malandros—other tight knit communities in tumultuous times with that attention to detail and focus, please!

The elegance that can be found at the core of Cthulhu Dark applied to something different than cosmic horror (there is also a free version of the two page of rules that game has but CN for use of ableist terminology that's changed in the official release).

Super selfishly I'd like some people to do the mind-boggling work of writing new sets of lifepaths and re-working the skills and traits lists of Burning Wheel to match. With, as applicable, a new emotional attribute here or there. Just to center the entire game differently (tbh, I don't know if this is possible). Also, the game could use another social minigame next to the Duel of Wits.

I also need to play some more Good Society but I feel like the core of it could very well be applied to different literary inspired works and their associated societies? Like, I've read people drifting it in the direction of Tolstoy and I can imagine stuff that goes more into the magical realism way of Gabriel García Márquez, for example.

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Gwathdring5 years ago (5 edits) (+2)

Ooh! I liked the idea of having more Insight-like numbers that cause trouble, so you're always juggling your resources against internal tension rather than against cosmic horror. Which led me to "What about Chtulu Dark but you're a Bioware protagonist."

If it's within your competency, roll your die.
If you've got just the person for the job, roll their Pulse Die.
If the plan is especially risky or complex, roll the Drama Die.

When you challenge someone's drives roll their Pulse die like an Insight check. When someone is unsure of the mission or has their trust challenged, roll Drama like an insight check. If a characters Pulse or the group's Drama die are the highest, as with Insight. When Pulse tops out, that character lays everything they have on the line for their drives--even if it pits them against the group--and then leave. When Drama kicks off, two people go at each other and at least one of them won't be staying with the team.

Ideally the protagonist is controlled by the group s a whole, but it presumably also works with no "protagonist" character or as a one-on-one game. Haven't managed to check yet.

(Edit: too many typos)

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Sweevie5 years ago

Eeeek! YES! That would be such a good take on the "assemble a rat-tag team of specialists"-trope!

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nickwedig5 years ago(+2)

I hacked Cthulhu Dark a couple times (into a time travel game and a steampunk ghost hunting game, plus an occult western where it's hacked until the game is nearly unrecognizable). Adding more Insight-like numbers works great when you have different, bad endings for each die. So in the cowboy game, you have your "Way of the Gun" die. When it maxes out, you are gunned down like a dog. If you max out in "Way of the Drifter", you wander into the desert and are never seen again.

The cool thing about doing that is it forces the player to make some interesting choices other games don't. Most games encourage you to find ways to make your best skill applicable to all situations. But this does exactly the opposite: use one method to solve all problems and you're out of the game quickly. So every character wants to show different sides at different times.

I love hacking Cthulhu Dark. It's got a lot of potential t be applied to a lot of different stories in different ways.

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