It’s Aeroteaka Time! (Patreon)

-TLDR AT END-

     Remember at the start of the year how I said I wanted to get a playtest for a tabletop game going? Well I’m mechanically speaking getting closer to that goal. So I figured I’d take a moment to sit back and explain what all I’ve got going on (Or at least a big chunk of it) This post is going to be a long one and I’ll have a tldr at the bottom if you want the cliff notes so let's dive into what I’m affectionately calling Shifts: After hours Warriors. 

     Let’s start out with some basic world information. Where does Shifts take place? I’m looking at a far flung future of 30XX, a semi-utopian retro future setting. Nothing is perfect but people get by. Be it school, work, the drone of the day to day. Stress finds it way to get to everyone. With the Hex Unit they, along with friends or family, can dive into a fantasy world of Ortalia. Ortalia is one of the highest ranking games going around with hundreds of thousands of players. Something I’m going to go into later is how I want to try and showcase finding a balance between stress and focus. And how, hopefully, I can use them as mechanics to make the gameplay a little more interesting. If you’re curious what a Hex Unit is here is a little blurb that I’m working on explaining it:

             The current craze amongst the people is the ‘Handheld Express Cerebrum Amplifier and Transition Element’. Or more commonly known as the Hecate unit, or the Hex unit by the sales reps and most people online. The Hex unit is a handheld device not much bigger than a phone, it controls a specially made chip that’s implanted somewhere at the base of your skull. With it you can initiate and run programs that have a wide variety of effects. Which is to say people use it to game in their free time. Because the system is an amplifier (or an accelerator depending on who you talk to.) you’re able to deep dive into various game worlds (or tasks) and spend what could feel like weeks in just a matter of an afternoon or evening. The Hex is the first handheld iteration of this kind of technology. Prior to this there were large scale units, some ranging from the size of a room to as small as an apparatus that fits on your head. 

     I’m not sure how deep down the lore rabbit hole I'm going to end up going with the Hecate/Hex Unit. But I feel like there are a lot of cool story hooks and plot lines that could come up from a lot of it. So we’re going to see how deep I can really get into it. But so far I hope it sounds like a cool setup. Maybe it’s the 90’s kid in me but the idea that you have a Skannerz (fuckin anyone remember that shit?), Digivice, belt worn tech device just sounds neat. Let alone one that lets you literally escape reality for a while. Now let’s get to the bulk of this and talk about gameplay and mechanics.  

     Starting off from the top! If you aren’t familiar with tabletop systems or if you’re used to one type over another I’m going to try and explain everything as straight forward and plainly as I can. If you’re curious about something specific please just let me know. The original base for this game started in The Storyteller System.

       [The Storyteller System is most commonly found in Onyx Path/White Wolf games.  

       They deal in Dark Supernatural stories. As a forewarning though older editions are of  

       the time when it comes to their lore and subject matter. While Onyx Path is trying to  

       right their mistakes with the newer editions, it can still come off as a little tone deff. 

       Think of this as a heads up and a warning if curiosity gets to you.] 

So why the Storyteller system? Well for one I’m a huge fan of d10 systems. And I want to make a system that anyone can pick up and play, but still has that delicious amount of crunch if those who really want it. Yes I know I want it all and honestly I think I can do that within this system….or what’s left of the system. I may or may not have taken a chainsaw to it and hollowed it out for my liking. But I can explain! I hope. 

     It does still have some similarities to the core aspects of a Storyteller System. Mainly there are 9 Core Attributes split up into 3 categories. Each of those categories has its own set of skills. In the case of Shifts the three categories are Your Hex Unit (which has Ram/Graphics/Overlcock), You the Person (Charisma/Reaction/Intelligence), and then You the Character (Strength/Agility/Constitution). So far I’d like to think things are pretty simple. You can have up to 5 points in any given attribute and skill. Each point gives you a d10. If you’re familiar with FATE as a system then you might recognize this part. Success on the die roll isn’t gauged by a total/value. On an average difficulty roll a 6 to 9 on the die counts as +1 success and a 10 counts as +2. 4 and 5 are neutrals. 3 and 2 count as -1 success. And a 1 counts as -2 Success. As an example, if you were going to try to find something hidden and it’s easy to find you’d need one or two successes. Something hard to near impossible might be eight or more successes. That covers the bare bones basics so far, check to see how many points you have in the relevant stats and skills, roll that many dice, check for successes. Simple and clean………yeah no it doesn’t stay that way for long. I said I took a chainsaw to this system and you guys have a front row seat to it. 

     For those who are experienced or for those of you who use/understand statistics, for rolls where you need a lot of successes you’ll start having trouble pretty quickly. That brings us to the first mechanic that I’m fidgeting/working with. Tension. What is Tension? Tension is the balance of the dice, when you Crank Up the Tension the numbers all crank up one. What that means is, a 10 still counts as +2 success, 9 to 7 are still +1 success, 5 and 6 are now neutral, 4 to 2 are now -1 success, and 1 is still -2 success. To Loosen the Tension by one means it goes in the opposite direction. Loosening means, 10 stays the same, 9 to 5 are now +1 success, 4 and 3 are now neutral. 2 is still -1 success, and 1 remains the same. What causes the Tension to change? A number of things, to start the GM can arbitrate if something should be Cranked Up or Loosened. Skills, Classes, Magics and Combat Arts might all have different techniques to cause a change in Tension in certain rolls. One example I have on hand of this is the Alchemical Doctor, one of the doctors Skill Tree is Grappling and Forcing an Opponent (Or ally) to move in a direction the doctor wants. (I’ll explain Skill Trees and everything soon I promise.) One of said levels on the tree is to Crank Up the Opponents Tension to make it harder for an opponent to break out of the grapple. When I was working on it I definitely had a sort of ‘debuff and support’ kind of vibe to it. Especially given how much I wanted it to feel a lot like a mmorpg. Let me know your thoughts and if that feeling comes through. 

      Given that I’ve already mentioned it I figure I should talk about Your Character, Your Characters Character, and what the fuck a Skill Tree is. The character sheet for Shifts comes in roughly two parts. The first part is the ‘real world’ stats. This is where things as the human part of your character are put. The Hex Units Stats and Skills and The Persons stats and skills go here. The second half of the sheet is your in-game persona/characters skills, stats, class. Why make the distinction? Because Charlie (a tired college student that works late hours at a video rental store) isn’t their character in the real world, only the game world (Their character being Blubganor the Deep Sea Orc FlintLock Caster.) That distinction also is made because there are two types of experience to track. Experience for the people in the real world and Levels for those in the game world. Experience is what you use to level up real world skills, base attributes and a few other mechanics that I’m not getting into in this particular part. While Levels are what you use to go down Skill Trees. Yes I used this all as a segway to talk about Skill Trees. What is a Skill Tree? A Skill Tree is the different paths you can take in Classes, Magic Schools, and Combat Arts. Each one is broken down into 3 different tree’s. During character generation you choose an in-game class to start which grants you access to their skill tree. You can then choose one either combat arts or magic school (depending on your class) to be an additional tree you can learn from for your character. To use an earlier Class as an Example, Blubganor's starting class is Flintlock Caster, the Flintlock Caster’s Skill Trees consist of Enchanting their Bullets, Making Special Ammo, and using Magic to Modify their range. Because they are a Caster they can only choose from Magic Schools as their additional Skill Tree. So they could choose to double down and learn from the School of Enchantment, they could instead, decide they want to help with healing bullet so they choose the School of the Holy Word. So on and so forth till they find a unique combination that they enjoy. Which is the hope I had when making things this way. Some of the most fun I have in games is finding and building a character in my favorite kind of playstyle. I love having the options and the chance to build all kinds of characters. With the core roster being 15 classes, 10 Magic School, and 10 Combat Arts I think I will succeed in that. 

      I’m writing all of this in a document and I’m starting to breach 5 pages so I think it’s about time I tap out and give everyone some air. If you’ve made it this far thank you for your time! There is so much more I have been working on and I hope everyone has enjoyed what's here. Any feedback and questions would be wonderful. Let me know what you’d like to hear more about. In the meantime thank you all so much for your time. And I hope everyone has a great day!

TLDR

• The Hecate or Hex Unit is a popular device being disturbed about in a retro futuristic world. Which means more people can enjoy the wonderful world of MMORPGS. (I’m starting to wonder if I just made a game about a futuristic WoW addiction.)

• This system uses Attributes+Skills to get your dice pools. You roll d10’s to check the results. 

• Tension is a mechanic that can change what counts as a success and a failure. 

• You are not your Khakis. That is to say there is a difference between your PC and your PC’s character. Experience enhances your PC while Levels enhance your In-Game Character. 

• You guys are awesome, thanks for reading!