After successfully negotiating running the annual Halloween game this year, I have begun my planning. I finally found an affordable copy of a gaming book I've been looking for over a year now: Grimm, by Fantasy Flight Games.
The game was originally a d20 setting book, but later they ended up creating their own system for it. I haven't read too much of it yet, but I've gotten through a few parts.
First, the premise. You're a kid. Somewhere between a toddler and a teenager. And you've somehow been sucked into the world of Grimm's fairy tales. All the stories you read about as a kid are there. Cinderella's wicked step-sisters. The big bad wolf. Jack's beanstalk. The witch's gingerbread house. All that stuff shows up. And it's all dark and creepy.
Second, the characters. You play a kid with one of seven different archetypes. You've got your popular kids, your bullies, your nerds, your jocks, your normal kids, your outcasts, and your dreamers. Each one gets a base set of stats (Cool, Imagination, Luck, Muscle, and Pluck) and a few playground and study traits to go along with them. Finally, they each get a couple of special bonuses. Your traits are all talked about in terms of grades. You have a 4th grade Cool and a 1st grade Muscle, for example. Saying 'grade' is just more thematic is all - it really means you have 4 ranks of the ability or what have you.
Third, the basic system. I haven't read too much of combat or anything yet, but the basic system is very simple. Let's say you're trying to push open a heavy oak door that's got a piece of furniture on the other side to keep you trapped in. This will be a Muscle check. As the storyteller, I decide it's a 4th Grade difficulty. Your Bully runs up with a 4th grade in his Muscle. You roll a d6. If you get a 2-5, you perform at your grade. If you roll a 1, you drop one grade and reroll, dropping a grade each time you roll a 1. If you roll a 6, you gain one grade and keep gaining a grade each time you roll a 6. So if you have 4th grade Muscle and it's a 4th grade check, you have a 5/6 chance of pushing the door open.
Little twists get thrown in when you start being a little more complicated. There are three ways to adjust things.
Want to pick that lock? Well, you have a paperclip, but the Outcast has some lockpicks. So she gives the lockpicks to you to use. Your grade increases by 1 because of the equipment you have. Equipment and situations can raise or lower your grade.
Want to lift that chest? Well, it'd be easier with two people. Pick your primary person, and he rolls a die for each person in the attempt. If your jock, normal kid and bully all try to lift the box, you roll three dice and keep the best one. Much harder to get that -1 grade now, and much easier to get that +1 grade.
Want to shoot your arrow in the bullseye? Take a few rounds to focus. For each round you focus, the number you need to get a +1 grade decreases by one BUT ONLY FOR THE FIRST ROLL. So if you take three rounds aiming, you'll need a 3+ to increase your grade by one for the first roll. But then when you reroll the die, you need a 6+ again.
See? All in all, pretty simple system. I started reading the combat, but haven't gotten to the fights yet. One thing I like about the game is that it has what are called Dramatic Moments. These are those moments when a villain pops out and gives the massive speech about what he intends to do. During this time, the characters cannot act. So none of the, "My villain pops out. 'So, I see we...'" "I shoot him." "Wait until he's done speaking!" "No, I shoot him now." In all the fairy tales, the villain had the chance to explain parts of the plot before getting railed by the heroes, so he gets that chance here too.
Anywho, moving on to read some more of the book this weekend. Looking forward to it!
No comments:
Post a Comment