Nov 10, 2019 8:54 pm
This is more of an interest check/idea sharing for now, do tell if you'd like to play this!
Short version: a series of mini-campaigns with different players who all contribute to the global progress. Each new character is a descendant of the previous character and gets affected by the things their ancestor did in their game.
"You stand before massive cast iron gates. Ravens sitting on the walls glance down at you, their eyes boring into your soul, as you contemplate the sight behind the bars. Above the tree tops of a cowered in shadows garden, you can see your destination, the sole reason why you ventured into these lands of mires and thunderstorms - the manor. Your ancestor, the one who previously held the deed, disappeared only a month ago, but the building already looks uninhabited. What's worse, it looks haunted - you can't help but shiver at the sight of its facade, empty windows stating back at you.
But the manor is your heritage. It's been in the family for generations, and no matter how many of the locals call it cursed and how many of its owners disappeared, no one ever tries to get rid of it. And it isn't important what brought you here besides the will of your ancestor - be it family heirlooms, history book, wealth of the past or hidden occult mysteries, - now you are here.
And every raven around calls out in the foggy morning, sincerely welcoming you to the Gloom Manor."
This is an idea I had for a while, and I'm eager to see if there's any interest in this.
I'm not sure if legacy and succession games exist as a genre in tabletop RPGs - the closest thing I can think of is campaign tabletop RPGs, like "Gloomhaven". Let me clarify the terms as I know them, for it explains the idea a bit clearly! Or just skip ahead for the actual mechanics of this game.Core Mechanics
This game is a mix of two concepts above. It will consist of a series of one-two players mini-campaigns, and between each of them there will be a timeskip, and the players will change.
Players will represent members of a noble family who end up with the deed to the manor and get pulled into the mysterious happening in the said manor, with each new player being a descendant of the previous one.
The game will keep the changes between playthroughs - for example, if the ancestor blew up one wing of the building, it'll stay damaged. And if the ancestor signed a deal with a local cult, their descendant will have to deal with the cult as well. Besides story elements, the descendants can benefit from their ancestor's experience - or inherit a curse, it goes both ways. The important items are also passed as heirlooms, some straight to the new character, and some they will be able to find in the manor.
System
Since this is more story-focused than tactical - more than half of the family members probably wouldn't have to wrestle an angry squid monster, - it will use a homebrew numbers-light system. Its main features are as follows:
- Attribute values are passive bonuses to the rolls of corresponding skills.
- Skills represent the number of dice that you roll. Dice are d3s.
- Traits allow you to add various bonuses, reroll dice or - rarely - use temporary effects.
- Characters can impove via different methods (including consuming questionable alchemical substances), but the main experience source is interacting with the manor's mysteries and, of course, resolving encounters.
- For each one character there will be at least one mini-timeskip during their time in the manor, during which they can improve as well. This is done mostly for the sake of giving characters time to live in the manor.
- Each mini-campaign's end will reward (among other things) victory points, which will go into the global progress, see below.
Global Progress
After a player is done with their campaign, they can describe what their character ended up doing during the timeskip - including using victory points to modify the manor. They can rebuild the building, add a room, make a fortune, summon a demon and pretty much everything that will be able to benefit their descendant.
For example, the ancestor decides to build an armory - and their descendant will have an easy place to get weapons. The ancestor spends time to write a detailed journal - the descendant can find this journal and benefit from the information in it. A secret passage, an observatory, a druid circle, you name it. The ancestor was very wealthy? The descendant will have more starting equipment!
The ancestor can one item that they have to the descendant for free, others will require victory points. However, the items that weren't passed on don't disappear - they are scattered around the manor and can still be recovered.
Of course, negative consequences happen as well. If the ancestor messed with something living in the manor, it will probably come for the descendant as well. and so would family curses.
Another thing that affects the descendant are character stats. If the ancestor was a master carpenter, it's possible that they decided to teach their descendants it as well. If the ancestor's highest stat is Strength, their descendant will have a bonus to it.
(But as the blood and wealth of the family grow stronger, so does the threat. Something looms over the manor, and the end approaches slowly - but surely...)
Genre
As you probably can see, this is a mystery, horror and comedy (kinda) mix. It's not supposed to be too serious and grim all the time - simply because I wouldn't be able to hold the atmosphere constantly, - but neither it's just a light-hearted adventure. It will probably depend on the players a great deal as well.
The setting is a vague light-fantasy world - there certainly is magic, but it's not widely known, and technology is something that is more widespread. The characters will have firearms like revolvers and magical swords, there are cars - but so are carriages, - and spellbooks, but the magic in general is regarded with more skepticism.
Alternately, I was thinking of making it a different story: about a small region in an enchanted forest which always requires a guard to be stationed locally, to protect a magical portal that has potential to unleash forces able to destroy the world. Instead of a family owning a manor it's a line of adventurers owning a small house in the forest - with changes to some inheritance mechanics, of course. Here the focus will be more on amassing items and building a more homely (and protected) house.
If you are interested in this concept, please let me know!
And do tell if you'd prefer the mystery and horror manor story or more light-hearted fantasy adventurers story.
Short version: a series of mini-campaigns with different players who all contribute to the global progress. Each new character is a descendant of the previous character and gets affected by the things their ancestor did in their game.
"You stand before massive cast iron gates. Ravens sitting on the walls glance down at you, their eyes boring into your soul, as you contemplate the sight behind the bars. Above the tree tops of a cowered in shadows garden, you can see your destination, the sole reason why you ventured into these lands of mires and thunderstorms - the manor. Your ancestor, the one who previously held the deed, disappeared only a month ago, but the building already looks uninhabited. What's worse, it looks haunted - you can't help but shiver at the sight of its facade, empty windows stating back at you.
But the manor is your heritage. It's been in the family for generations, and no matter how many of the locals call it cursed and how many of its owners disappeared, no one ever tries to get rid of it. And it isn't important what brought you here besides the will of your ancestor - be it family heirlooms, history book, wealth of the past or hidden occult mysteries, - now you are here.
And every raven around calls out in the foggy morning, sincerely welcoming you to the Gloom Manor."
This is an idea I had for a while, and I'm eager to see if there's any interest in this.
I'm not sure if legacy and succession games exist as a genre in tabletop RPGs - the closest thing I can think of is campaign tabletop RPGs, like "Gloomhaven". Let me clarify the terms as I know them, for it explains the idea a bit clearly! Or just skip ahead for the actual mechanics of this game.
[ +- ] Legacy
Legacy board games games are the games that change between each session - you write on the cards, destroy some of the cards, add stickers to the game field, acquire new figurines, etc. They usually have an overarching story, represented by a special deck of cards which you open depending on how the story progresses. The legacy game that inspired this idea is "Betrayal at the House on the Hill: Legacy" (or just "Betrayal Legacy"). If you are interested in the concept in general, check it out along with "Pandemic Legacy" and "Charterstone", these all are fine board games.
[ +- ] Succession
Succession games in video games is the term that refers to a playthrough shared between a number of players - one player plays through one period of the game, and then passes their save file to the other player, until they pass it to the third player, and it goes on until the game ends. A famous example of this is "Boatmurdered" of the game "Dwarf Fortress", and there're a lot of strategy games (like "Crusader Kings 2" and "Hearts of Iron 4") for which players start succession games.
This game is a mix of two concepts above. It will consist of a series of one-two players mini-campaigns, and between each of them there will be a timeskip, and the players will change.
Players will represent members of a noble family who end up with the deed to the manor and get pulled into the mysterious happening in the said manor, with each new player being a descendant of the previous one.
The game will keep the changes between playthroughs - for example, if the ancestor blew up one wing of the building, it'll stay damaged. And if the ancestor signed a deal with a local cult, their descendant will have to deal with the cult as well. Besides story elements, the descendants can benefit from their ancestor's experience - or inherit a curse, it goes both ways. The important items are also passed as heirlooms, some straight to the new character, and some they will be able to find in the manor.
System
Since this is more story-focused than tactical - more than half of the family members probably wouldn't have to wrestle an angry squid monster, - it will use a homebrew numbers-light system. Its main features are as follows:
- Attribute values are passive bonuses to the rolls of corresponding skills.
- Skills represent the number of dice that you roll. Dice are d3s.
- Traits allow you to add various bonuses, reroll dice or - rarely - use temporary effects.
- Characters can impove via different methods (including consuming questionable alchemical substances), but the main experience source is interacting with the manor's mysteries and, of course, resolving encounters.
- For each one character there will be at least one mini-timeskip during their time in the manor, during which they can improve as well. This is done mostly for the sake of giving characters time to live in the manor.
- Each mini-campaign's end will reward (among other things) victory points, which will go into the global progress, see below.
Global Progress
After a player is done with their campaign, they can describe what their character ended up doing during the timeskip - including using victory points to modify the manor. They can rebuild the building, add a room, make a fortune, summon a demon and pretty much everything that will be able to benefit their descendant.
For example, the ancestor decides to build an armory - and their descendant will have an easy place to get weapons. The ancestor spends time to write a detailed journal - the descendant can find this journal and benefit from the information in it. A secret passage, an observatory, a druid circle, you name it. The ancestor was very wealthy? The descendant will have more starting equipment!
The ancestor can one item that they have to the descendant for free, others will require victory points. However, the items that weren't passed on don't disappear - they are scattered around the manor and can still be recovered.
Of course, negative consequences happen as well. If the ancestor messed with something living in the manor, it will probably come for the descendant as well. and so would family curses.
Another thing that affects the descendant are character stats. If the ancestor was a master carpenter, it's possible that they decided to teach their descendants it as well. If the ancestor's highest stat is Strength, their descendant will have a bonus to it.
(But as the blood and wealth of the family grow stronger, so does the threat. Something looms over the manor, and the end approaches slowly - but surely...)
Genre
As you probably can see, this is a mystery, horror and comedy (kinda) mix. It's not supposed to be too serious and grim all the time - simply because I wouldn't be able to hold the atmosphere constantly, - but neither it's just a light-hearted adventure. It will probably depend on the players a great deal as well.
The setting is a vague light-fantasy world - there certainly is magic, but it's not widely known, and technology is something that is more widespread. The characters will have firearms like revolvers and magical swords, there are cars - but so are carriages, - and spellbooks, but the magic in general is regarded with more skepticism.
Alternately, I was thinking of making it a different story: about a small region in an enchanted forest which always requires a guard to be stationed locally, to protect a magical portal that has potential to unleash forces able to destroy the world. Instead of a family owning a manor it's a line of adventurers owning a small house in the forest - with changes to some inheritance mechanics, of course. Here the focus will be more on amassing items and building a more homely (and protected) house.
If you are interested in this concept, please let me know!
And do tell if you'd prefer the mystery and horror manor story or more light-hearted fantasy adventurers story.
Last edited November 10, 2019 8:55 pm
