Random Mind Games

...Digital Thoughts from Random Minds

How to Win (or at least not Lose) in Qi: Living Energy

Written by Makar on November 16th, 2009


Probability Mechanics behind the FastDraw System.

For sometime I have has players that say unusual things while playing Qi.  “Yeah I’m at a 1 point Disadvantage that’s right where I need to be” or “down 2? Great, that’s the sweet spot”, are not uncommon.  Some players actually take penalties just to get rid of the Advantage.  Does this strategy work, other than the desire to be the heroic underdog?  The answer is sometimes.  Let’s explore the mechanics behind the FastDraw bidding system.

First, every character has a Bid comprised of the total of their Skill and the Statistic it is based on.  That Bid is in most cases between 1 and 10, with 1 representing an untrained ability and no aptitude and a 10 for a total mastery of the ability. Can Bids go beyond 10?  Yes, using the proper tools, taking additional time or even supernatural levels of skill can take the Bid above 10 and make even impossible tasks child’s play. When two opposing Bids are compared, the difference between them is the points of Advantage.  If your Bid is greater than the other Bid, you have the Advantage.  If not, you are at Disadvantage.  When at Disadvantage your draw number must meet or exceed the total of your opponent’s draw number and the points of Advantage they have in the test.  The Advantage can range from a +5 Advantage or Overbid down to a -5 Disadvantage where your opponent Overbids you. It never gets better or worse than that, just +/-5.  The test then moves on to the draw, where each player “draws” a number between 0 and 5.  If the total of the draw numbers is 5 it is a “Critical Successes” assigned to the player with the lowest draw number. If the draw numbers match (1&1, 2&2, 3&3,…) the player at Disadvantage wins.

That is the system but how does all this compare in game play?  How does the math really work behind it?  OK, here goes…

With each player able to Draw a number between 0 and 5, there a 6 options for each player.  With 2 players there are 36 possible permutations (62). For each permutation there is 6 possible levels of Advantage, 0 to +5, the only thing that changes is if the player is Advantaged or Disadvantaged, but the number of possible results is the same, 216.

Of those 216 possibilities;

6 are Matching Draws at 0 Advantage (a Stalemate).

30 are Matching Draws with an Advantage (Disadvantaged player wins these).

18 are Critical Successes for the Disadvantaged player.

18 are Critical Successes for the Advantaged player.

Of the remainder there are

38 are Wins for the Disadvantaged player.

106 are Wins for the Advantaged player.

Overall, there are 124 Advantage player solutions or 57.4% of the time, 86 Disadvantaged player solutions or 39.8% of the time and 6 Stalemate solutions or 2.8%.

Great math, but I bet your still asking how do I win.  The trick is in shifting toward the most favorable advantage position that limits your odds of losing.  In addition to the odds of a Stalemate where nothing happens, the chances of success or failure are not linear in the FastDraw system.

winpercent

From -5 to -1, a players odds of winning rise sharply from 25% to 58%, so yes there is a better chance of success at -1 than at 0, +1, or +2.  The player would have to push the advantage to +3 to increase their odds of winning over 58%.  Many maneuvers allow you to add a +1 or +2 as well as the +1 bonus of each additional attacker.  Here is what we refer to as “The Bat Wing”, a chart of the percentage change in the chance of success between the different levels of Advantage.

changetowin

At a 0 Advantage, it is not that you have a better chance to lose, it is that you are so evenly matched that neither you nor your opponent can win, i.e., a Stalemate. At +1 the Stalemate percentage becomes the probability that the Disadvantaged player can match your draw number, 1 in 6.  From there the odds of success rise again but note how the percentage change in success drops again sharply between 3 and five. This is an effort to prevent players from being completely blown out by high-end advantages.

The key is to use maneuvers and modifiers to push your advantage around the “survival zone” between 0 and +2.  Having backup can increase your odds by as much as 11%.  You can use many of the maneuvers including grapple and sweep to shift into or out of the “survival zone” or just hold your opponent in that zone until your buddies show up to push you to +3.  Remember no matter how bad the opponent is the odds are never worse than 1 in 4.

For example, say you are at a -3 against an opponent.  Your odds are better than 1 in 3 or 36%.  If you take the opportunity to Defend (+1 cumulative) for a round instead of attacking, your odds increase to almost 1 to 1, 47%.  Do it again and you have a 58% chance to hit.  Or try a Sweep maneuver and your opponent is -2 (for Prone) and your are +1, a total of +3 in a single round.  Maybe you find yourself stuck in a Stalemate, backhand your opponent with your off-hand.  It takes you to a -1 Disadvantage but your odds go up almost 17%.  Also remember, you are not required to Bid your full ability.  Pull your punches and save a few points, especially in the initial engagement.  When your opponent tries to maneuver to get the +1 Advantage, you can raise your bid after the draw (as long as you actually have the points) and turn the tables on them.  What other RPG lets you Rope-a-Dope?

Bidding and Draw strategy is not about min-maxing and dealing your max damage as fast as possible.  It’s about maneuvering, taking the advantage, exploiting opportunities, and being the last one standing.  Grapple to reduce your opponent’s options.  Sweep them to the ground and run away.  Fastdraw your opponent’s gun when they get in your face.  Throw people at other people or Disarm them when they rely too heavily on their really cool toys. Take cover, use suppressive fire, and take time to aim and pick your shots. Sometimes it pays to fight smarter not harder.

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Grunge Punk Episode #1

Written by Makar on October 12th, 2009

Plastic. Logan hated ‘stic.  His mole had been tunneling through a flotsam rainbow of it for the past three days.  The non-biodegradable vein of a bygone age was prone to gumming up the grinders and blocking off the sorters from receiving any useful materials his mole gobbled up.  He had already lost half a day swapping out grindheads and changed course four times to try to break clear.

This is what it was going to be today, he mused as he fumbled for his patch case.  Taking out one of the quarter sized blue slappatches, he briefly debated and grabbed a second one, removing the silvery backing, and adhering them to the back of his neck.  As the saying goes, no one ever complains about the blue ones.  He could already feel the comfortable numb removing him from his sense of time as he settled in behind the controls.

Plastics.  It’s not all bad. After he dropped it off at Control he would still cover his costs.  Its not that ‘stic didn’t pay well.  Recovered plastic was reconstituted back into the petroleum that it came from and still brought a fair price by weight, but mining it was tedious.  You can’t run the mole all out and it generally cost plenty to extract in both time and parts.  He really wouldn’t mind plowing through a vein of organics to close out the week.  You could punch through that at full throttle and be done in half a day with full tanks of high-grade compost.  Maybe he could hit a vein of old IC boards or cell phones. A load of lithium or gold would make up for all the ‘stic he had been hauling and, as he figured, he was due.

Suddenly the mole lurched and shuddered to a halt. Logan shot up, pulling the transmission into neutral and locking the mole down by rote, before even bothering to check the damage panel to see what the ‘stic had gotten to this time.  The damage panel showed up clean so he flipped it into diagnostic just in case.  He brought up the analyzer log from the sorter. The mole had frozen on an error code from the spectrometer and had already uplinked the data back to Control.  He pulled at the virtual panels trying to get at the definition of the error code.   They were written for desk jockeys who apparently had a background in organic chemistry.

He slapped the panels shut and pulled up the last few seconds of the spectrometer’s log.  It was reading that he had broken into a pocket of organics.

Great, what’s the problem. He popped the hatch and was momentarily stung by the decomposition of rotting biomatter. Should have put on a wet suit, he thought as he grabbed a re-breather and gathered himself to go up to the grinders.  Walking up to the front along the tunnel under the old landfill, he could hear one of the sleds from Control pulling in behind the mole.  Wonder what I hit that they came all the way down here to ‘help’ me with.

He hauled himself up the outer ring of the grinder cone and leaned past the yellow and black warning bars.  He found himself face to face with a human skull. Only partially decomposed, the empty sockets of its eyes looked back at him almost as shocked as he was.  It’s face had been mostly lost to the grinders but even the sickening glance that Logan managed before he slid off the mole and began retching into his re-breather told him all he needed to know.

As the suits from Control strolled up, he was able to pull himself together just enough to speak.

“It’s a little girl”.

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Why I wrote Qi: Living Energy

Written by Makar on September 17th, 2009

In 1994 I saw a need for a change in the role playing industry. It was a golden age and a new style of game was emerging. Live Action Role Playing or LARP, was becoming increasingly popular and the explosion of the internet age was underway. But I felt that the industry was still missing the mark. The market was flooded with small independent game systems from both indie publishers and leading names in the business. There was no shortage of different game mechanics or disparate environments or worlds to play in, but the industry seemed to be chaotic. It was growing more like a cancer than a sustainable enterprise. It was then that I decided to go another way.
Looking over my own experience with role playing and I decided to strip away all of the old conventions, find what worked, what didn’t, and keep only what was need. I reviewed old systems that I had quit playing and why, mechanics and rules that I had rewritten, and core mechanics that I found limiting. In several systems, your actions are reduced to waiting for your turn to swing your +5 weapon of Incredible Badness, rolling some dice and waiting again. In other systems, the dice themselves were a problem, from huge quantities needed or the substitution of other methods of random resolution that had all the variety of rock-paper-scissors.
Also most RPG publishers seemed to have a ‘publish or perish’ mentality. They write a core rulebook, write some more books to fill in the world background with more rules in them, and write some sample adventure books. When they run out of ideas, they revise the core rules and start the process over again. This leaves the player with a stack of antiquated books and a collection that will never be complete for all their effort and years of loyalty. Most of us write reams of our own material anyway, from world background and house rules, to adventures, character backgrounds, and NPC’s. These are also made obsolete by the new editions that the big boys keep cranking out.
I set out to write a system of my own that would unify all of the good things about role playing games. It would be truly universal, able to crossover the boundary from traditional tabletop gaming to LARP with a single set of rules. Experience would not be lost when a new character is built but be assigned to the one who earned it, the Player themselves. This pool of experience would be used to balance the group of players while still providing an advantage to those who have been playing longer.
The need for random resolution would be replaced with a system that let you attempt to outwit your opponent, where the character’s destiny was not only in the hands of the static numbers on a page and a roll of the dice but also the skill of the player. Combat actions would focus on maneuvers that allowed the player tactical control of the situation beyond the ‘I swing again’ phenomenon and allow them real options beyond where to move on the map. Combat would become a thinking man’s game. Action scenes would be as much like real combat as possible; fast, dangerous, and wherever possible simultaneous. No more would the action start and the less combat capable player’s adjourn to hit the snacks, knowing it will be a while until it hits ‘their turn’. Combat would finally be played as it exists in the real world, a fluid experience in barely controlled chaos. Adversaries would move about at the same time jockeying for position. Large scale battles would be just as fast and dangerous as small skirmishes. Quick thinking and superior tactics would stand against bigger numbers and better weaponry to win the day.
Most importantly it would be about the role play. The system would reinforce the ability to take on a persona without grinding down into a mathematical mechanical nightmare. Players would vote anonymously and democratically on who they enjoyed role playing with the most, who developed a Reputation, for good or bad deeds, and for what they would be known. The effort and actions of the players would be rewarded for developing the world, their characters, and the role playing experience for the group. The ‘fun’ factor would be more than it’s own reward, it would be a contest in itself. The experience award would be given by the group to the player who strives to be involved and to involve others, who challenges others to role play at the highest level, and entertains and engages the group the most.
With Qi: Living Energy I believe we have accomplished all of these things and more. We have developed a system where the core mechanics are simple but can be applied in anyway the players want, from dice to playing cards, to hand signals. Qi is designed from the ground up to take advantage of the internet and focuses on developing the role playing community over producing a catalogue. It is designed to grow in an organic way and allow players to share experiences, ideas, and the work that they have put in to their own game worlds and adventure episodes. It allows them to develop powers, abilities, and technologies to fit their own games or to get ideas by looking at the work of others. It provides the tools for players to harness their own talents and make role playing easier and more fun for all of us. Role playing was never about the books or dice, it was about the stories we tell and the fun we have with friends while doing it.

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Story Elements

Written by Makar on September 4th, 2009

A quality game is a lot like fishing.  You need to use a big enough net to catch the whole group.  You must maintain control without making them feel like they are powerless.  You need to give them enough room to run and tire them out, if you get them in the boat too soon, they’ll put up a fight.  You have to keep them out of the weeds or everything grinds to a halt.  You need to keep them from funning for the bottom or you’re never get them in the boat.  You have to use the right bait, a good strong line that will hold if they start to struggle and that can’t be cut right through, the wisdom to know when to let them run and when to reel them in, when to use the net, and when its time to hit them with a bat.

Hooks

A good story grabs you from the very beginning; it lays out the basics of the story, connects with you on an emotional level, and gives you a reason to follow along to the end.  This is called the Hook.  It takes hold of the audience and draws them into the story.  A bad hook makes the players feel like they are being dragged along or you lose them entirely and they go looking for something else to do.  A good hood grabs the players at a deep emotional level, anger, fear, or curiosity, and makes them want to get in the boat with you and seek the resolution on their own.  The bigger your group the more complex the hook, if you don’t grab them all party dissention may derail the game.

It is important to know your players and their characters well.  You need to hook them by the emotions so you need to know what makes them tick.  All art invokes and emotion.  And artful hook makes the players feel the way you want them to and makes them want to go where you lead.  A weak hook creates apathy or disinterest and makes the game move slowly, if at all.

Using the same hooks all the time lessens their impact.  The characters only have so many relatives you can capture or kill and the players will eventually move their families and friends into a tall tower somewhere.  Maintain a constant atmosphere of anger or fear, and the players adapt and you have to up the ante.  You can’t just threaten them every week, eventually you have to wound, maim, and ultimately kill.  Then what do you do?  Intro a new character each session, work hard to ge the characters to like them, and then summarily shoot them in the head?  The characters will withdraw and stop bonding with anyone including each other.  You have to change your lures often.  Capture their family, expose their past, offer them wealth, power, glory, or steal their toys.  Attack their pride by showing them up with a rival; make them doubt their own assumptions by changing the rules.  Send in the damsel in a dress, the arrogant villain, or the revel with a cause.  The players should never know what to expect when you rollout the hook, if they think they do then throw them a curve and prove them wrong.

Pushes – Plot Drivers

The scenes that move the plot forward are called Pushes, Bumps, or Beats.  They are the dramatic movements that give the story a kick by delivering information, introducing the key characters, or providing the time to put the pieces together.  Pushes keep the story from being a continuous stream of actions scenes with the plot of a video game – defeat opponents, acquire new weapons, advance to next stage.  Character development and role-play requires the freedom of dramatic scenes to give the players a chance to engage in dialogue instead of gunplay.

Pushes can be used to give the characters plot elements; clues, key characters, directions to explore, or even “red herrings” – misleading information to throw them off the straight track.  Pushes can also be used to develop the subplots, and alter the pacing.  If the game is moving too fast, cool things down with a “flavor” NPC that doesn’t develop the plot but offers an entertaining divergence, a difficult shop owner, a traveling salesman with stories to tell, and investigative reporter looking for an exclusive – whatever fits the scene.  If the action is moving too slowly, then it is time to up the ante.  Bring in their “boss” to tell them to pick up the pace, send in victims to beg for help, or break down the door and just start shooting.  Show them things are happening in the world while they are just resting on their laurels.  They don’t want to go looking for a fight, bring the fight to them.  Pushes are a chance for developing the story and giving the characters the tools they need and the will to keep things moving.

Climax

The point of all this build up is to reach the Climax, the scene where the last piece falls into place or the pivotal conflict with the villain, where the story breaks into the open.  The Climax is the most important scene of the game.  The twists are exposed and all your hard work is in the open.  The Climax can make or break a game, a badly played revel where the puzzle or the mystery doesn’t fit the clues or is just solved for the players or climactic battle the players can not win or effortlessly roll over the opposition ruins the game.  Logical progression and scaling are just as important as showmanship and fitting the challenge to the group in running the pivotal scene.

Resolution

Like chess, a role-playing game requires a good endgame.  The Resolution is where the loose ends are either tied up or exposed as possible hooks for the next game.  It is the victory scene for the players if the win or the cliffhanger for the next game if they lose.  The captured are released, the villain is dealt with or escapes, and the threat is ended or revealed as a larger plot.  All stories must have and ending and the resolution ties up the episode either as a happy ending or the foreboding of “to be continued…”.

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Evoking Emotion

Written by Makar on September 2nd, 2009

The most important element that many role playing games never address is that roleplaying involves creating art.  A role playing game is a creative endeavor designed to entertain which involves elements of theater; writing, acting and directing. Role playing requires the use of knowledge, skill and creative imagination in the production of entertainment that is enjoyable. A good game is a crafted thing and a good Operator has the ability to execute what he has devised.

Art is an expression of life and transcends both time and space. We must employ our own souls through art to give a new form and a new meaning to nature or the world…  The aim of art is to project an inner vision into the world, to state in aesthetic creation the deepest psychic and personal experiences of a human being. It is to enable those experiences to be intelligible and generally recognized within the total framework of an ideal world. –Bruce Lee

Good art evokes an emotion and a good artist can control what emotion he wishes the audience to experience. Tolstoy said “to evoke in oneself a feeling one has once experienced, and having evoked it in oneself, then…  to transmit that feeling that others may experience the same feeling – this is the activity of art.”  To make your game really come alive it must carry a “feel” or tone, a style expressive of a mood or emotion that permeates the work. A consistent tone helps to hold your Realm together. If your Realm is a Post-Apocalyptic world where life is cheap then random violence is a common occurrence and the tone is established by regularly testing the actor’s survival skills. If it is a horror tone you want to establish, then your planning will include descriptions of darkness, remoteness, and should include a building sequence of fear and false alarms. In a mystery, lots of detail is required so that the plots, characters, and events are peeled away like an onion, revealing the truth beneath.

Different episodes and scenes may have a different tone than the background tone of the Realm, but that serves to make those scenes stand out against the tone of the world. For example, if your group is a rough nomadic band of heroes that explore a dark and violent frontier then it will unbalance them to be called into the brightly lit refinement and political subtlety of the King’s Court.

Pacing is also an effective tool in handling the tone. If you only allow the players short pauses between the action scenes, they will feel your urgency and the sense of impending doom. If you stretch the pacing out and allow the players to wait for the other shoe to drop while surprising them with constant false alarms and red herrings, this can build tension. If they are waiting for someone dangerous to show up, then have a dim witted NPC quietly order pizza or bring back the NPC that was left for dead.

There are plenty of examples of artful writing out there in every genre, immerse yourself in them.  No artist ever works in a vacuum, and for writers that is doubly true.  Find good examples of the tone you are looking for and absorb as much of it as you can.  Take it apart and look at what elements are used to develop the feel.  What pacing and changes in pacing are used to reinforce it?   Take in as many examples of the stories you would like to tell and they will rub off on you.  With just a little knowledge of the tools of evoking emotion and establishing tone and some great examples at hand, you will see how easy it is to transfer those emotions to your players.

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Roleplayer’s Manifesto

Written by Makar on August 31st, 2009

What I have seldom seen is a role playing game that steps beyond the “publish or perish” mentality that pervades our hobby. A game that supports the player instead of bilking them out of their hard earned currency by pushing out new text every few months with more “stuff” or “new rules” buried somewhere within their shiny new covers.

The industry is crying out for a system that promotes community and creativity, one that helps players find each other and draws them together creatively. Few RPG companies help you to find a gaming group and those that do enforce a hierarchy among their ranks that interferes with the ability to play the game itself (that would be you, Camarilla).

Roleplayers, we have walked a hard road. We have been called names. We have been treated as evil or insane. We have shared the guilt of merely wanting to share a hobby with our friends that exercised our minds, our creativity, and our comradery. We have written for long hard hours and years to turn rules into art. We have worked hard to retool barely playable systems and static world backgrounds to fit our needs and to tell the stories we want to play. We have earned a say in this industry beyond the purchasing power of our dollar or the prestige of our characters. Our time has come!

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