2021-07-18
Tiered Play
One of the things I find with a lot of rules systems I don't like is that most systems don't really try to make a system that can accommodate most playstyles. With The City Fathers, I wanted to write a system that allows the DM to easily set expectations for both himself and the players and create a really cool campaign that doesn't throw too many curveballs. I think a lot of campaigns die with a whimper due to poorly set expectations (after the number one cause being life) and I thought that every game should offer clear guidelines for what they mean when they tell a player the campaign is gonna be about X or Y. If you go "hello, we're doing a pirate campaign" that doesn't really "set expectations" in any meaningful way. How? Are you going to be carefully plunging through caribbean themed tombs? Are you going to manage your ship's supplies, raiding other ships for things, sail them back to port and offload them for fun and profit? Will you be building up your own Libertalia or navigating complex political alliances among the Great Pirate Lords? Or are you going to do a Pirates of the Caribbean adventure where you gotta stop the evil pirate before he gets the thing and does the thing? Save the world, etc? Because there's a lot that goes into "pirate campaign".
Some people write specific systems for these games. I wanted to write a system that is easy enough to understand, doesn't require the tedium of something like GURPS and lets people make fun characters. I'm aware that many setting-agnostic systems exist, like Cypher or GURPS, but I'm just arrogant enough to believe that I'm gonna provide the real solution this time!
Heroics
Heroic play is all about doing the simple beer'n'pretzels shit. Lord DarkSoul has stolen the world endin' gem and its up to you, noble heroes, to be guided through a modestly pre-prepared storyline and slay his lieutenants, undo his worst plans, and then hack him to pieces on a mountaintop. He's a bastard and an asshole and you're the one who is going to fix this shit, fix it good.
For how that would alter the game, the main differences would be a lot more starting health, and so instead of "roll STAmina and your HD and that's it" you would take the max value of your hit die, then roll again, then add your STA modifier. This would mean you get a real jumpstart to your health pool. You also do the roll 3d6 and drop the lowest and decide where you're going to place them, giving you higher on average ability scores. On top of that, you wouldn't have to worry about equipment: it's DCC rules here, left vague and up to the Judge - "if it makes sense, you can carry it". On top of this, I added that you can simply pick whatever starting equipment you want, because plate mail doesn't help very much when you need to make saves - so you need to be careful. High AC won't save you much.
The biggest change is probably including a proper exp system, one which would only be used and allowed to be used in Heroics systems. This means that warriors and combat focused Features are infinitely more valuable, useful and dangerous than in the other versions. Heroic play is all about combat, and modern DnD style adventures. If you want to do 5e adventures, you will want to do it with Heroic play.
Expedition Play
Expedition play is very different to Heroic play, and it's the most OSR feeling of the bunch. This is where you get everything from strict time records to careful tracking through a dungeon. It's very easy to have a character who, in theory, should be stomping face in a dungeon, but his 2hp betrays him. It's easier to die in this mode than the other two, and it's for people who want a DCC-esque experience without DCC's guardrails making it harder to die. None of the things mentioned above are true here - you roll 3d6 down the line. You take what you get health wise. You have strict encumbrance rules. You have to purchase your own equipment. There is no experience points given for killing monsters, instead you gain a free test for "hard" battles (more on that in a later post). All of this means that warriors with high HP pools and STR scores are going to be at a premium, but - the more tactical players will find themselves much more useful. A locked door, a lone guard near an alarm, etc - these are things you won't really need to worry about in Heroics. In Expedition play, each of these is gonna be a cool challenge.
This very much is about the old-school loop. Into the dungeon, battle, barter and befriend your way through the various challenges, and then leave after a few rooms, pockets clanging with glinting gold. An easier way to explain Expeditions play is that it's the default assumed play, and Domain and Heroic play are pulled from it.
Domain Play
Domain play is the toughest one to define, and so I won't be doing much in the way of trying to "codify" what it means for every single campaign. I'm probably just going to come up with domain rules for each and every single thing. The original set of the City Fathers rulebook came with a fairly work-able little domain system but I ended up throwing it out (somewhat) because it wasn't as modular as I wanted it to be. The City Fathers Domain and Setting Book I will probably contain enough campaign rules for running campaigns set in that particular city, running your own little domains, warring with others, generating them on the fly, detailing them and on and on and on. For how it will play at the table, you'll just be expected to think in grander terms for your adventures. You'll need to, as a Judge, add intrigue to your player's games. They'll have responsibilities. They will be leaders of a community, and experience the difficulty of keeping that community happy. This can be as small as a ship full of pirates or as large as a massive empire ruled by satraps.
That's that
There you have it. The general idea of this tiered system is to provide a similar, easily understood systemic ground for you to build a campaign on. If you say, "I want to run a tribal survival game, domain-level", everyone understands what you are doing. If you say, "I want to run a vampire hunter campaign, expedition-level", everyone will know what you're doing, and what to expect. And obviously if you say, "I want to do a pirate campaign, heroic level" people will come in expecting fun adventure.
In this way I generally hope that things will work for players. When people are playing "the city fathers", I want that to mean everyone understands how to fight and throw spells, but as to how the campaign unfolds is the thing.
Let me know what you think.
- Dicey
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