A Confluence of Ideas

Yesterday, I was watching Mike Mearls' YouTube channel. If you don't know who that is, he was a designer for WotC, working on 4E and 5E before Hasbro/WotC let him go. I think he was the D&D brand manager during the early 5E days. 

He put up a video this week discussing the shortfalls of 4th Edition. I don't disagree, although I think he has some blind spots with regards to WotC's editions of the game. Most importantly, though, he says that one reason 4E failed was that it was built for the system mastery crowd, not for the casual gamer. In his words, the players that "just want to swing their sword" at the monster weren't happy with a game that wanted them to learn and optimize all these options (at will, encounter, daily, utility powers). Some players are just there to have a good time with their friends, pretend to be a warrior or a wizard fighting orcs and dragons, then get on with their lives. 

It's one of the reasons I've been working on Missions & Mayhem for the past year. I like the concept behind d20 Modern -- a toolbox set of rules that is flexible enough to emulate many modern-era genres and character archetypes. But, as Mearls also admits, the 3E engine is not a light and easy to master system. You CAN create a simple character with it, but it's designed for the guys who want to look under the hood, make modifications, and customize their ride. 4E was even more so a game like that. 

Thinking about what Mearls had to say last night, I had a realization about my Flying Swordsmen 2E design. It hasn't been on my mind much lately, but suddenly now it is. Don't worry, I won't let it distract from getting Missions & Mayhem finished. But I came to see the flaw in my FS2E design. 

For those who may not remember, as it's been a year or more since I was working on it, I'm revising Flying Swordsmen to use the WEG d6 game engine. I think it's more fitting for a cinematic style game of wuxia than either old school or new school D&D design. The original Flying Swordsmen, and Dragon Fist before that, failed in that D&D combat really isn't designed for wuxia style combat. And it has next to nothing to offer the player that wants to get into character and play up the drama of being a wandering martial artist, in love with a forbidden partner, pursued by a vengeful rival, on a quest to avenge their slain master, and all of that sort of thing. The d6 engine has more support for cinematic combats AND for the drama (although not as much as a dedicated narrative/story-first game does). 

Watching this new video from Questing Beast this morning, about Pawn/Protagonist/Author stance while gaming, consolidated my thinking on the matter. I need to have a game that supports more than just "punch a monster in the face" but doesn't punish players who just want to punch a monster in the face. It should be fun for everyone. 

So, what's the big change? I'm getting rid of the martial arts techniques. Yes, they're the descendants of the martial arts maneuvers and spells of the original game. And they're not going away completely. But my new idea for how to structure Flying Swordsmen as a d6 game is as follows (subject to revision when I finally get around to implementing this): 

Instead of Powers (magic) similar to the Force Skills of Star Wars d6, and then specialized Techniques that you gain as your Power dice go up (like the dedicated Force Powers of Star Wars d6), the magic and martial arts will just be skills like any other. 

There will be six ability areas, each with related skills under them. I'm not sure if there will be one kung fu/magical skill under each ability, or if there will be a Magic ability, with the magic while the kung fu (qinggong lightness techniques and neigong physical conditioning techniques) will be under other abilities. 

Either way, all the special techniques will just be things you can do with the kung fu/magic skills IF you roll high enough. Anyone can try. Those with training will be able to pull them off consistently. Those without will need some luck (exploding 6s on the Wild Die, and/or character points spent). 

I'm uncertain if I'll add a narrative meta-currency like Force Points in Star Wars. I currently don't have one, but it could be added easily enough. And I could potentially tie them into the templates, to help reinforce the archetypes of wuxia. Or they could be earned by doing all the dramatic stuff mentioned above, similar to the Inspiration mechanic of 5E D&D. That's something to ponder as I finish up Missions & Mayhem, and the various campaign modules.