NOTW XXXIX:Impending Retribution: Game Design Notes and Concepts.
First, Id like to thank everyone who signed up and played in this game. I had a blast finally being able to host this and Im fortunate that I got enough participation to see my ideas go off without me having to redesign due to a lack of interest. I hope everyone enjoyed the game and I hope it lived up to your lofty expectations.
Impending Retributions humble beginnings and lessons learned from NOTW XXII: The Road to Ruin.
The basis for this game started during the tail end of NOTW XXII: The Road to Ruin. At this point, I had gotten enough positive feedback to suggest hosting the game had been successful and a second game in a more modern setting (rather than FFH) would go over well with the masses. It seemed the bulk of the people playing enjoyed it, and with a handful of ideas and tweaks Id come up with during the game, I figured I could incorporate them into the design of a sequel.
There were a few things that stood out to me during XXII, and I wanted to incorporate the pros while negating the cons in its successor. The first thing that stood out to be was the positive feedback of the games setting, so when writing the final cut scene I added/changed a few things from the original draft that would become the initial focal point of
Impending Retribution. By focusing on Captain Whitower, I gave myself the perfect night zero kill that most NOTWs have to tell the townies something is amiss. By this point, I had not decided how I was going to incorporate the two surviving Rogues, Chandrasekhar and Nahkarma, into the game. By leaving it open, I could afford to tinker with different ideas until I found something that was believable and worked with the rest of the storyline.
I also felt the time limit installed was a good thing, as it gave a cutoff point for all sides to work toward. Loyalist/innocents wanted to make it there, insurgents/rogues did not and it was the main thing that galvanized the whole player pool. The idea of the choose your own adventure theme seemed to go over well (where the platoon had to vote on the short, middle, or long route back to extraction) and I knew it was something I wanted to bring back with pros and cons present to each choice. Not to mention it helps the moving storyline concept myself and others have come to enjoy within a NOTW game.
The one main positive I took from the game was how close things were for all three sides (Loyalist/Innocent, Rogue, and Insurgent) and how the game flip-flopped between each side having a considerable lead until the Rogues put the game away. By the mid-game, each side at one point had held a commanding lead over the other, and this dynamic kept things highly interesting and on the edge. Its this edge I believe that made XXII so successful in the eyes of the players as there ultimately was never a dull moment. Game setup was apart of this, but also fantastic play by the two baddie factions helped keep the seesaw from tilting too much in one direction.
If there was one main complaint I had from a mechanical standpoint, it was the insurgent team relied too much on luck to win. The initial design concept was the team would have to wait a while before using the weapons at their disposal (ambushes and bombs primarily) so that once the Rogues had cut into the total player count with their kills, the effect of these attacks would be amplified (as the insurgent VC hinged on having a certain percentage of players injured). Except the RNG rolls were not favorable in a few instances, and that plus a GM error (which allowed the effects of one ambush to be negated entirely) meant the insurgents, no matter what they did, still relied on luck to win. Since each of their attacks were done by consumable means, once their window had closed (ie, they ran out of stuff to throw at everyone) they had very little chance to win, and what chance they did have rested in the hands of other non-insurgent players. I did not like this facet at all and in design knew I wanted to change it for the sequel.
Construction begins:
With NOTW XXII over, the ideas swelled around May of 2009, enough to the point where by June I had taken over the NOTW Information Thread and added my name to the hosting queue. By this point, I had the rough concept put together taking place aboard the
Impending Retribution and the ship needed to get home for some reason, Rogues would return, and the Saboteurs introduced to act as a foil to both sides (replacing the insurgents in XXII) with a few things still undecided (namely the inclusion of an insurgent faction). I knew I wanted to make two major additions the first being location and two, the introduction of a Rank system since in the first military themed game there was some confusion over who was who. Since it was taking place aboard an actual naval vessel, I knew I needed something structured to stop that confusion. It was also very bare-bones at this point compartments would have to get damaged by the saboteurs and enough damage would cause issues and result in sinking, while the rank structure just meant players could move up in down in ranks if someone higher up the food chain promoted them. Coincidentally, the impending death of Captain Whitower answered how the Captain slot would be filled and I could build the rest of the structure from there starting with the Commanders.
The location element had been done before in other games (usually involving keys to places) but their use was something very one-dimensional as in the room did one thing and that was it. If I was going to have numerous compartments aboard, I wanted it something that everyone could react to and do actions in. Beyond that, I hadnt yet decided how I would implement this concept into the game though the idea of everyone including plain old townies being able to interact with every compartment intrigued me.
After those ideas cropped up, I basically stalled on its construction. Instead of trying to force it, I let the game simmer in the background and hoped Id have something to resurrect it down the road. Almost no work was done to it for a year and a half with the exception of a handful of character backstory ideas (which Ill get to), which in itself was fairly depressing. I wasnt sure if, not when I could host it given my work schedule at this point and the lack of ideas that followed. Fast forward to early November of 2010, and we start banging on all cylinders.
The bulk of the work: Rank and Compartment dealings.
The ideas started pouring in, namely how to implement the compartments on a grand scale. The idea of public versus secure compartments was hatched, and the idea of limited access for most players spawned even more ideas. From here, the rank structure was fleshed out with the higher ups receiving more access than the junior ranked officers. Not only that, but the higher ups would (logically) be those who could control who was promoted where, and the thought was there would be a power struggle at the top for this simultaneous control of access and promotions. From there to fill in other rank ability slots, I realized giving historically personal abilities to a rank slot meant the ability could never be removed from the game if a group of people realized its importance. The player could be killed, but the slot could also just be refilled with another player. Since design dictated a probable power play at the top, Id move the more powerful rank abilities to the lower tiers to hopefully encourage some dynamics throughout the rank tree. Ultimately, this concept shaped what abilities were rank abilities and what abilities remained personal.
I knew I also wanted to make the Captain role way more than your typical mayoral role, as in the mayor typically only comes into play during a tiebreak situation. However, giving him total promotion/demotion control, along with total access everywhere seemed a bit much for the rank. Also, I needed to give the lesser ranks something, so I created a sort of checks and balances system to balance the Captain with the lesser ranks. The Captain once elected by the masses could only promote/demote his Commanders, while the Commanders handled the bulk of the promoting/demoting. I also needed a way to fill ranks as players were killed, so the Commanders would take care of that as well. I wanted to incorporate a mutiny mechanic with the game as a way to oust a Captain (as the Captains supreme power would be to stop a lynch), but at this point I could not come up with a way to incorporate it without it 1) being overpowered, and 2) exploited constantly (of course, shortly after the game had started I figured out exactly how to make it work). Instead, I limited the Captains stop a lynch ability to once per game, and if he used it the crew would mutiny anyway and dispose of him from the Captaincy.
Contrary to popular belief, players were not assigned ranks, their roles were, then I randomized who got what role. Certain roles at a certain rank would be overpowered, and I didnt want the baddies in the really high positions for multiple reasons, one of which was I was afraid player would metagame that I stuck one or two high up on the totem pole. Below is a chart of the Rank Abilities at each slot:
Base Abilities Design
With location starting to come together and the idea of incorporating the plain old townie role into something bigger, the universal abilities idea was developed to fill the niche. Universal abilities allowed those without decent personal abilities to do something productive for the ship as a whole. That, plus access through whatever means, meant an ordinary townie could elevate his status into someone important and be a useful addition to the innocent cabals that would likely (and did) surface. With that in mind, I realized I had to limit how many abilities could be used in a night. Allowing players to use all three at night seemed imbalanced, especially considering the universal abilities were in part in there to give the more generic filler roles something to do each night. Since rank abilities are ultimately independent of the individual player (as in, the rank abilities wont change as the players change) and that I wanted a large number of promotions to occur, I allowed Rank abilities to happen with either Universal or Personal, but not both. Special abilities would be added shortly before launch to address a technicality where I initially had gaining access to places as either a personal or rank ability and the confusion that would likely follow had I left it originally.
1st Place: Accomplish VC, PG, and Survive: BSmith1068, classical_hero, and rhawn!
2nd Place: VC and Survive: DaveShack, Duke Blackstone, and Takhisis!
3rd Place: VC and PG: Diamondeye, Earthling, God Emperor, Niklas, Renata, robbiecon, and Seon
