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May We Die in the Forest - What's In It?

So, probably everyone who’s glanced at allgeektout has forgotten about this already, but there was a time when I was planning on writing a Lookouts RPG. It’s been on my Secret Projects list (Codename Charging Unicorn) since then, but I haven’t done anything about it. Until this past week. I spent about an hour this past week hammering out what I wanted to include in the RPG in the handy form of a Table of Contents (it’s one of my two major ways of thinking about projects, though it’ll probably become one of many as I start to work on these more frequently). All the titles and content is subject (nay, likely) to change.

INTRODUCTION - May We Die in the Forest
A brief summary of the game (maybe a “10 Things You Need to Know”), as well as probably a “What is Roleplaying?” section.

PLAYERS’ SECTION

CHAPTER 1 - What Men Must Know…
A summary of the world, including the Eyrewood, and some of the major villages.

CHAPTER 2 - …a Boy Must Learn
A summary of the Lookouts, and probably the Daughters of the Eyrewood as well.

CHAPTER 3 - Lookouts, Ho!
The rules for character creation.

CHAPTER 4 - Surviving the Eyrewood
Rules of play, combat, and stuff like that.

CHAPTER 5 - Merit Badges
Rules for advancement. Will most likely end up being folded into the chapter on character creation.

GM’S SECTION

CHAPTER 6 - Camping Trips
At least three sample adventures - one will be the one from the comic, one that portrays the twisted-fantasyness of the Eyrewood, and a third, most likely non-traditional one (if I can figure out what that means).

CHAPTER 7 - Creating Camping Trips
Rules for creating your own adventures.

CHAPTER 8 - Wrong Things
A bestiary, plus rules for creating monsters. Will contain both traditional fantasy monsters, as well as twisted versions of normally friendly creatures.

CHAPTER 9 - Secrets of the Eyrewood
The truths of the Eyrewood. There will likely be multiple sets of contradicting secrets, to give the Troop Leader (GM) a variety to choose from.

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5 Comments

Comment by Zakharov Sawyer on October 25, 2009 at 8:35pm: http://www.penny-arcade.com/comic/2009/6/10/ <-- Gotta love it!

Comment by Aaron Broder 1 day ago: I know, right?

Comment by Zakharov Sawyer 1 day ago: What dice mechanic\rules are you thinking of using?

Comment by Aaron Broder 1 day ago: It's largely stolen from other game systems I own (and mostly ones I don't, interestingly enough). It's dice pool, with four or five stats (haven't completely decided yet, there's one that I'm feeling kinda iffy about actually having), each with a rank between 1 dot and 5. Roll d6s, 4-6 are success, 1-3 are failure.

Each stat has a submechanic to minimize min-maxing, although it's really more for symmetry - I came up with a few submechanics and wanted to make sure that it didn't seem awkward.

"Merit Badges" are intended as a more personal form of XP - "Merit Badge for Overcoming Seemingly Insurmountable Odds" or "Phoenix Badge" sounds a hell of a lot cooler than "You get 2 XP." "Advancements" every 3 xp, and move up a rank (like Kobold Scout to Goblin Scout, for example) every… few advances. I've forgotten now.

That's all I can think of off the top of my head. I'll post more about it as I develop it more.

Comment by Zakharov Sawyer 1 day ago: Yes, definitely! You should definitely share your experiences as you develop it with us on the Game Design\World Building groups!

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