The Luck Child

Sometimes I get lucky and when an idea hits me, it hits all at once, bringing the theme, setting and mechanics with it in one fell swoop. It is like being buried in an avalanche of coolness.

Yeah. It's like that.

With The StoryTeller RPG it was very much like that, although granted, it didn't start that way.

Actually, it started something like this...

Search for the right Fantasy Game - Get frustrated - Keep searching - Get frustrated - Consider making my own - Keep searching - Get frustrated  - Wait... POP! BOOOM! The StoryTeller.

So here's what I have so far...

Basically, the game is mechanically very similar to The Muppets RPG, which is in turn based on Risus, Sketch! and a number of other RPGs. In addition, some ideas from my Smurfs RPG have snuck in here as well. Since I designed that game with a heavy faerie folklore emphasis, a lot of the same concepts can be applied here (it also goes with the type of game I want to run and the stories I want to tell).

Above you will see the character sheet I designed for the game. It begins with, "Once There Was A...", where you list the type of character you are. Preferably, make this either as descriptive and folklore related as possible or as simple as you can. For example, The Luck Child could be identified as A..."Seventh Son of a Seventh Son" or A..."Luck Child".

Next is "Named", where you write your character's name. In our example, "Lucky" is the The Luck Child's name. Fancy that, eh?

"Who Sought Out" defines your character's overarching goal, quest, purpose or just what they really want in life. It need not be epic but it certainly could be.

The Luck Child did not initially seek anything, being happy to live life as the adopted son and bookkeeper for a Miller and his wife. After being discovered by the cruel and greedy King of the land to be the child prophesied to one day claim his throne, Lucky was told to head for the castle with a written, royal proclamation. Little did Lucky know that the proclamation told the Queen that, upon meeting the boy, she was to have the guards seize him and chop him into a thousand pieces.

Since Lucky did not know this, what he "Sought Out" could be listed as "His Fortune" or "The King's Castle".

This is where "Despite" comes into play. You could say, Despite "A Cruel and Greedy King" or "The Plans of a Greedy King".

Much of the interaction between the PC and the game mechanics and game universe (though not all of it) will come from trying to seek out what you want despite a thing trying to impede you. In the story of Fearnot, Fearnot is a young man "Who Sought Out" What It's Like To Be Scared "Despite" Being Incapable of Fear.

Finally, the opening of our sheet ends at the beginning with "And So Begins Our Story..." in which you give the title of your particular folktale. You see, each PC is a folklore character in a legend all their own. Not only will you be going on adventures of a mythic nature but you are also always on your own, personal mythic adventure. 

How are you liking it so far?

What's that? Hit points? Where are the hit points and armor class you ask? What is the Luck Child's strength? I don't know. Haven't the foggiest. Hmm? Initiative? Don't worry about such things right now my friend. We're here to tell tales by fire light. If it's important I'm sure we'll get to it.

You old schoolers getting a bit uneasy? Keep calm, read on and Fearnot...

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Barking Alien

***

I don't want to depart for today without acknowledging a few items of interest and importance.

Today commemorates the 50th Anniversary of Martin Luther King Jr.'s "I Have A Dream" speech and the March on Washington that let it be heard. We could use an ounce of that fire in today's world.

On a personal note, I want to say Happy Birthday to another 'King', Jack 'King' Kirby, born this day in 1917. Born Jacob Kurtzberg, a native New Yorker, Mr. Kirby passed away at the age of 76 from Heart Failure in February of 1994.

He is remembered by comic book fans every day they look at an image or read a story featuring any one of the dozens upon dozens of characters he created or co-created for Marvel and DC Comics including The Fantastic Four, Black Panther, The New Gods, Mister Miracle, Galactus, The Silver Surfer and of course, Captain America.

I neglected to make mentioned on the 23rd that it had been one year since the passing of musician and Muppets puppeteer Jerry Nelson.

In loving memory.

The Heroic Age...Of Around 11 - Part II

Continuing my majestic monologue of manic matters in the mighty Marvel manner...

In the Marvel Heroic session I ran months ago for the RECESS Game Event, I seem to recall no more than two 6-sided die, one 8-sided and one 10-sided being added to the Doom Pool in the entire four hour session with six players at the table.

When I ran the game at the study center last Sunday (March 24th), in the first few moves (only Wolverine, Human Torch and Scarlet Witch had actually taken actions), I already had two 8's and a 10 (not including the two 6's the standard Doom Pool always starts with). By the time Thor went...and than Thor rolled...

I was honestly caught in a paradoxical state of extreme sadness and chocolate-milk-out-of-my-nose laughter.

Scarlet Witches attempt to transform the molten, hotter than hot earth beneath Hulk's feet into stone and trap him failed. The Scarlet Witch's Player also rolled a 1 (an opportunity for me). I tweaked the rules just slightly and gave her not one but two Plot Points. It was a great idea and a good effort but if the Hulk avoided it than she negated the Complication (the ground was now solid stone, not lava-like).

Invisible Woman was up next and did the smartest and simplest thing she could think of. The Player had Sue create a force field wall with her and Wanda (the Scarlet Witch that is) on one side and Hulk on the other. Invisible Woman than gave the next move to Thor.

Editor's Note:

In Marvel Heroic, the Watcher/GM chooses who goes first and than that person chooses who goes next. The last person to go chooses the next person to go and so on and so forth until all the participants, NPC heroes, allies and enemies, have taken an action.

This means if you don't let the bad guys go in between the moves of yourself and your friends, then at the end they all get to go. This is not cool. I mean, it's cool for the Watcher but not for your fellow supers.

At first, this was a bit tricky for the kids to grasp but they eventually got the idea. Also, since they are middle school kids, they were being careful to pick people to go next who would actually help them (friends) and not those who would ignore them and simply attack the Hulk ('cause they have cooties or whatever kids think these days).

Now Thor...poor Thor. Sue's Player chose Thor because they had seen the Thor and Avengers movies and knew a little mythology and figured, if anyone of them could halt the advance of the Hulk, it's had to be Thor.

"’Cross the Rainbow Bridge of Asgard,
Where the booming heavens roar,
You’ll behold in breathless wonder,
The God of Thunder, Mighty Thor!"

Versus

"Doc Bruce Banner,
Belted by gamma rays,
Turned into the Hulk.

Ain’t he unglamo-rays!

Wreckin’ the town
With the power of a bull,

Ain’t no monster clown
Who is as lovable.

As ever-lovin’ Hulk! HULK! HULK!"

 

Thor certainly wins on theme song lyrics and better hair but the Norns did not look fondly on the Son of Odin that fateful day. The Player decided that the God of Thunder would hurl great Mjolnir at the Hulk and rolled...dismally. Three 1s. One of which was on a 12-sided die. I gave the fellow three Plot Points and than discarded one die from the Doom Pool to have Hulk retaliate on his Defensive Action.

 

As the Hammer misses Hulk and turns in the air to fly back to Thor, Hulk grabs it and uses it to carry himself to the Asgardian. One Player balked that, "Hulk can't lift the Hammer, he isn't worthy!". I applauded him for paying attention to the mythos but Hulk wasn't lifting it or wielding it in any way. Mjolnir was heading home to Thor's hand and Hulk just hitched a ride. Hulk proceeds to punch Thor (Well, not so much punch as be drawn to him via the Hammer with his big, green fist forward) and my roll was...devastating. Seriously. Hulk knocked Thor from Albuquerque to Santa Fe.

 

Falling back to Terra Firma (Thor was in the air when he threw Mjolnir and when Hulk struck him), we found the class was running out of time. We decided as a group to give Hulk his move and he (I as Watcher as Hulk) made an Area Attack. Clamping both hands together, Hulk hit the ground with earthquake inducing force. I added the D12 from the Doom Pool to really leave an impression. Unfortunately I was outsmarted...by Reed Richards.

 

 

 

Spending a Plot Point on his Defensive Action, Mr. Fantastic calls for all the earthbound supers (that is, anyone who can't fly) to jump back through the Transportation Portal that brought them all to New Mexico. With a little help from Captain America (who also spent a Plot Point to grab The Thing), the flyers took to the air while Wolverine and Spidey made a mad dash and leapt back through the Kirby Krackle clouded gate to the Baxter Building.

 

Right before we ended, Richards came up with an interesting plan. "If we postulate that the Hulk is being driven to this higher rate of madness by some imbalance, illness or outside force, we need not defeat the Hulk to stop him. We simply need to calm him down and perhaps he can fight it himself."

 

Mr. Fantastic plans on devising a sedative-like elixir, to be delivered by Captain America, to get the Hulk back to the normal level of rampaging green giant we all know and love.

 

Be here in thirty, for a story we could only call...

 

"RELAX, DON"T DO IT!"

 

Stay strong True Believers!

 

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Barking Alien

Hail to The King!

Happy Birthday Jack Kirby!

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Barking Alien