Estertor, Panegírico y Epitafio sigue avanzando. Estoy en su tercer borrador. En esta ocasión estoy reescribiendo gran parte del sistema, que demostró no escalar adecuadamente ni estar bien equilibrado.
Os recuerdo que en Drivethru podéis descargar gratuitamente la primera versión Alpha. Está obviamente ya muy anticuada, pero las ideas han permanecido, y debería servir para imaginar si es algo de vuestro interés.
Makedon ha marcado siempre el límite Nor de la península de Okonus y de la Liga de Ciudades de Ren. Durante el control del Duque de Noanorren, Makedon fue una de las principales fuentes de revueltas y rebeldes opuestos a los Trelos.
Hace ocho años Aléxandros ho Makedon se convirtió en rey de Makedon, tras la muerte de la reina Olimpia. Aléxandros fue educado por los mayores eruditos de las Ciudades de Ren, e incluso tuvo como preceptor personal a uno de los más renombrados logos de las Ciudades de Enor, Toteles ho Estageira.
Tras su llegada al trono, Aléxandros comenzó una compleja serie de pactos con otras ciudades estado de Okonus, tanto de Ren como de Enor, y formó un inmenso y temible ejército, adoptando muchas de las mejores tácticas e ideas de los ejércitos Trelos, y comenzó a marchar hacia el Nor. En primer lugar conquistó una gran cantidad de terreno y posesiones del Demagogo de Prosperidad, causando que el Demagogo Cleón III fuera defenestrado por uno de sus generales, que se convirtió en el Demagogo Eumenes I, y que, con la ayuda del embajador Kleistenes, firmó un acuerdo de paz con el Imperio de Makedon.
Alexándros ha seguido avanzando, conquistando varios estados menores por completo, reclamando terrenos fértiles que antes pertenecían a la Tierra de los Ríos o a Yoloc, y fundando nuevas ciudades en su nombre.
Hace un año Alexándros se proclamó Megas Alexándros ho Makedon, rey de Alexandria, y declaró Makedon como capital de su nuevo Imperio.
Alexándros ha limitado sus conquistas por el momento a los antiguos terrenos del Ducado de Noanorren. No sólo consigue victorias militares: ha firmado tratados con varios territorios, y en general demuestra interés en mejorar los lugares que conquista, siguiendo gran parte de las ideas que Toteles le transmitió. Ha decretado un estricto código legal que aplica a todo su Imperio.
De momento, su ejército sigue avanzando, con él a la cabeza, hacia Yoloc y las Tierras del Jar.
As explained in the previous design diary, I started with three attributes for the player characters: Death Rattle, Panegyric and Epitaph. PCs had points in each attribute, and spent them to fuel powers and overcome obstacles, and losing them caused advancing through the stages of grief, until they reached Acceptance and the game ended for them. This was a simple model, thought to be able to fit in a single page of paper. But it had several problems:
So I added a pool of points for each Stage of Grief. Now, players should try to lose points of the earlier Stages of Grief and win points of Acceptance, and should try to keep as many basic attribute points a possible, as they grant them the option to use powers and to overcome obstacles. And the stage of grief pools determine the order of the stages of grief, allowing for some back and forth between them.
But this was too simple: the pools needed to be related in some ways, to allow more interesting decisions.
Now the mechanical part of the game consists on balancing the attribute points and the stage of grief points, trying to change of stage in the right moment, trying not to win too many Depression points and a lot of Acceptance points, and not losing many attribute points to be able to use powers and overcome later obstacles.
Here it is, the first true design diary for my first full roleplaying game, Death Rattle, Panegyric and Epitaph. In this series of posts I want to tell you why I’m creating this game, how I’m creating this game, for who I’m creating this game, and why I’m creating this game the way I’m creating it. Where do I start?
I’ll start with the name. I’ve had the Spanish sentence «Estertor, panegírico y epitafio» (that is Death Rattle, panegyric and epitaph in Spanish) in my mind at least two years. I sincerely can’t remember where did I heard it, or when did I put those words together.
I was initially planning on using it as a title for a mystery novel involving three whodunits with the narrative frame of a conversation between three persons related with the stories and with only the given names of Estertor, Panegírico and Epitafio to keep in secret who they were in each story. I have not totally forsaken this idea, and the first of the whodunits is progressing (it will be called John Merridew is dead), but probably the details and the frame narrative will be different.
So, at the start of 2015 a new entry of the Rolero de Hierro (Iron Roleplayer) contest started. Rolero de Hierro is a mini rpg creation contest with a previously established theme and elements. In that occasion, the theme was death. I had the perfect title for a roleplaying game about death!
There were three categories of elements, with three options each. Each contestant had to pick at least one element from each category, and I chose the following elements:
I had the title and these elements. I decided the game would be about a recently deceased ghost looking for help from his or her living acquaintances. Any player would be able to act as the ghost in any moment (to fulfill the first element), and the ghost would grant narrative powers to the players to allow them to defy the DM (and fulfill the second element). To tie it all together, two additional ideas: there will be three characteristics, called as the game: Death Rattle, Panegyric, Epitaph; and the player characters and the ghost will be going through the five stages of grief: Denial, Anger, Bargaining, Depression, Acceptance.
You can now get the alpha in-development version of Death Rattle, Panegyric and Epitaph from DrivethruRPG.!!!!
I’ll be updating it for some time while adding to the alpha until having a complete alpha version, with at least all the main systems in it.
