The Saga of the Smiling Fox -- possible future convention event

[rjcurrie]

For quite a while now, I have been looking at adding another game to my slate of convention games (SuperSquad America, The Remarkable Wrong-Righters, and Friends of Justice). I have talked a brief bit about it on the boards such as in the thread that had me settle on the name of the Hero as the Smiling Fox.

 

In brief, this game would tell the story of the Smiling Fox and his associates in their battle against the unrightful ruler of their land. But, unknown to that ruler and his minions, the Smiling Fox is not a specific individual hero, but rather anyone who wears the Smiling Fox mask which grants a number of abilities to its wearer. The idea would be that the mask is in the possession of a group of rebels who would be the player characters in the events.

 

As for the world it is set in, I got thinking about settings for this event and realized that I already had a more fantasy-based world in my universe. That would be Eyratha, an extra-dimensional version of Earth which was home to the mother of SuperSquad America member Silver Bow. So, I decided that to set the Saga of the Smiling Fox in Eyratha, several hundred years ago.

 

What do we already know about Eyratha? At least until recently, it has been ruled by a royal family (Silver Bow's family to be precise), whose royal blood gives them enhanced strength and dexterity. Also, Eyratha is home to several mystical places such as the Forest of Futures, where people are prone to receiving visions of their future. There have also been some very powerful magic-users in the universe, but nothing has been firmly established about how common magic is or what types there may be.

 

One idea is that many years before, the humans grew tired of meddlesome interference from the Eyrathan gods and actually fought and won a war against the gods, who were imprisioned within the world itself. It is the powers of the gods themselves that are leaking through to create places such as the Forest of Futures.

 

So, here's the set-up I'm thinking of. About 15 years ago, the evil Duke Duvelle overthrew and slaughtered most of the royal family with the aid of powerful allies among the other nobles. Unbeknownst to Duvelle, a servant of the Royal Family escaped with the baby Princess Amelita and that servant's family raised Amelita as one of her own. Amelita is now 16 years old and has begun to show the enhanced abilities of a royal -- so her adopted family has told her of her heritage and she sets out to join the rebels to regain her rightful place on the throne.

 

So, after that somewhat lengthy intoduction, here are my questions to folks:

 

Does this sound like an interesting setting for a continuing convention game?

 

What types of characters should be part of the group with Princess Amelita? I picture Amelita as primarily being a fighter type with her enhanced STR and DEX. I'd like to avoid stock D&D types if possible or at least provide a twist on them.

 

Any thoughts on an interesting approach to magic for this game? It should be practical for a con game, but also allow for the creativity of players. I am thinking that there may be one or two magic wielders amongst the player characters.

 

Any other thoughts and comments?

 

 

Thanks

Any thoughts on a simple flexible magic system to use for the game?

[Manic Typist]

Re: The Saga of the Smiling Fox -- possible future convention event

 

Sounds like a classic tale of heroes. So perhaps tying back to some classic archetypes?

 

The roguish fighter, the strongman, the mysterious sorceress, etc?

[Thia Halmades]

Re: The Saga of the Smiling Fox -- possible future convention event

 

How off the wall do you want to go? Luchadores in your fantasy, what?

 

First, yes, it sounds just fine as a concept - reminds me very much of the Grey Fox from Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion, wherein the final prize I believe is a mask or somesuch - I didn't do that quest yet. Regardless.

 

A lot of people say the first question in fantasy is magic - that's no more true than the first question in sci-fi is science - it's OFTEN the first question, but it's so bloody overdone that there's no point. So let's ask a NEW first question.

 

TONE. Are we going Robin Hood? Knights of the Round Table? High Fantasy? Low Fantasy? Horseback & riders and modern (by fantasy standards) conveniences? A lot of Fantasy is very modern - people speak well, dress fashionably, and live in sprawling cities that have no historical business being there. You have a vast amount of room to manuever and still fall under the setting of 'fantasy.'

 

So we have this mask that the group has and they fight against the BBEG. Take the whole thing left, and create a MacGuffin war. The party's mask, which is really eeeeevil, vs. the Duke's mask, which has been forced to compromise its position. Taking up on this, the party's mask has opted to coerce the party members, convince them of the 'horrible danger the duke poses' without actually revealing the second mask, and voila! MacGuffin war!

 

Now as for your archetypes. Gyah. I'll try and put these in comparatively discrete boxes, but without some sort of general guide it's rough. Here are some ideas I had recently.

 

- A Swordsman's college, where 'magic' is woven into the fighting arts. In truth, they're just amazingly skill fighters and no one would ever accept an explanation for what they do other than magick; but there's a second truth, a series of hidden arts held by Ancient Masters around the world, etc. This allows you to develop schools, styles, and an automatic reason for any fighter types to adventure. The truth-truth? That's up to you.

 

- The Alchemists Guild. You can go over the edge and follow the style of Full Metal Alchemist, in which case it's magic with a few limitations on it, but otherwise, the same. I tend to use Alchemy in my campaign to replace gadgets. Flashbangs, grenades, healing potions/first aid kits, that sort of thing. Rare ingredients and obscure orders from the head of the guild have sent many a young alchemist into places he'd rather not go.

 

- The Circus Performer. Bring on the clowns, baby. And the ancient secrets they hold to the nature of the universe. Maybe laughter IS the best medicine; you can break away from 'rogue' and go with the more elite and interesting to design 'jongleur.' They make efficient thieves, carry cool tools, and it sounds better.

 

- The Holy Men. I just came off an NGD discussion, so I'm going to go completely left field here. Have you see Tri-Gun? Nicolas D. Wolfwood - why is that cross so heavy? Because it's so full of mercy! I think creating a mercenary religious order - mercenary only in looking for ways to make money to help people - would be an interesting concept. Especially if they're ushering in the era of the gun.

 

So there's four definately-not-d20 concepts for you to chew on. Lemme know if they help.

[rjcurrie]

Re: The Saga of the Smiling Fox -- possible future convention event

 

My main inspirations in this were Robin Hood, the Court Jester, and Star Wars with a little bit of the Princess of Anastasia of Russia thrown in. I was thinking that the world is mainly low magic with the occasional powerful magic user showing up. Of course, such powerful magic users are often trouble-makers, so it wouldn't surprise me if the Duke has either co-opted or destroyed the few powerful ones that were around. Magical items are fairly rare.

 

I'm not sure about the whole MacGuffin war. It gets a little more complex than I would like for a series of convention games.

 

There definitely won't be much technology as it has been previously established that higher tech items don't work in modern Eyratha so the tech level is about that of medieval Europe.

 

Some of your character ideas are interesting, particularly the circus performer and I am thinking about including one. I well know the usefulness of such characters as a long-running and well-loved Fantasy Hero game at GenCon had the cast of a traveling carnival as the player characters. However, that is one of the reasons I may not include one -- of course, including one could be seen as an homage to that earlier series of games as opposed to a rip-off.

[War Cry]

Re: The Saga of the Smiling Fox -- possible future convention event

 

Are humans the only race or are there dwarfs, elfs, orcs, ect?

 

And if so, how far from "ordinary" are non-human races?

 

Hmmmm.......I'll have a few for you Sunday that I have used in the past as NPC's.

[rjcurrie]

Re: The Saga of the Smiling Fox -- possible future convention event

 

Are humans the only race or are there dwarfs, elfs, orcs, ect?

 

And if so, how far from "ordinary" are non-human races?

 

Hmmmm.......I'll have a few for you Sunday that I have used in the past as NPC's.

 

I'm thinking only humans -- but the existence or non-existence of other races has not been previously established.

[Thia Halmades]

Re: The Saga of the Smiling Fox -- possible future convention event

 

Medieval European Fantasy Flavored PCs:

 

- The Local Hero, who with his mighty axe and dog... oh wait, Paul Bunyan. Same thing! It's a tongue-in-cheek variation on 'Ranger,' except in HERO we buy the pet as a Follower and go from there.

 

- Druid is another great one, especially if you back away from the usual "Wickerman" (I can't wait to see how badly this film colors people's perceptions) edge and just go with a straight nature-loving type person.

 

Without magick & without guns you're looking at the basics in terms of what drives fantasy. So you'll need to get granular. Since magick is a non factor here, I'm not quite sure what you're looking for - here are some really generic I haven't-had-breakfast-yet type ideas that are slightly more detailed.

 

Knight Errant: Built as a Defender type, with groovy passive abilities like AOE negative DEX; he's so good at what he does that by attacking him you're already at a disadvantage. (Change Environment). This also gives you an opportunity to roll in some extant politics.

 

Mercenary: Offensive fighter, sword & board, well worn weapons, the usual tropes. Coming off of a job for the Knight Errant's lord.

 

Runaway Squire: Who hated a different Knight Errant, but is now working with the Mercenary, and has a deep seated loathing of the monarchy.

 

Traveling Tradesman: Merchant, Blacksmith, whatever, who was passing through, repaired another PCs gear and happens to be moving on, but wait! Plot hook!

[War Cry]

Re: The Saga of the Smiling Fox -- possible future convention event

 

Alright, I gotta few ideas.......

 

A ranger with an addiction. This guy isn't a typical nature loving defend the weak type. He loves the woods because he knows where to find all the "ahem" medicinal herbs - and he's addicted to them. Could play up the humor value or he could be fighting his vice and trying to overcome it. Either way, he should still be very good at blazing trails and geting people from point A to point B.

 

"Seen Everything There is to See" mercenary captain. Missing an eye and has a limp from old injuries. He is the last survivor of his company and is bitter. Comes across as a grumpy old man but when things get ugly, he seems to know just what needs to be done. His motivations could be almost anything. Royalty has money and he expects to be paid a handsome sum or maybe he is honor bound to help. He might even be a former royal guard who took to the mercenary life when his side lost. Now it's payback time.

 

The rescued/reformed bar wench. Makes a good rogue or thief type. She can sweet talk a man out of his money and if that fails, keep him distracted with her womanly charms while she liberates his purse. She can be the one who gathers the info and intel. I mean, who's gonna suspect a sweet little bar wench? Very handy to have around in more civilized areas, but relatively useless in the wilds, unless its dinnertime. Makes a mean stew.

 

The Farm Boy with Daddy's sword. I know this is a bit of a classic trope, but its too much fun to not mention. He lacks smarts and skill and is a bit on the clumsy side, but oh dear, he is BIG. One thing he does have in over abundance is heart. His daddy was in the army, god rest his soul, and died a brave hero on the front lines (or so "Jim Bob" believes). He grew up daydreaming of the day he could follow in his daddy's steps and be a great hero himself. Now that his little brothers have grown up some, he grabbed his daddy's sword and set out to make a name for himself - or die within the week.

 

As for magic users, how about a wizard who is actually losing power? His spells are weakening and getting more and more difficult to cast. He really wants to regain his former glory and power and perhaps helping a princess is the key. Maybe he needs royal blood to jump start his magic or get her to fund his research.

[Threnody]

Re: The Saga of the Smiling Fox -- possible future convention event

 

In brief' date=' this game would tell the story of the Smiling Fox and his associates in their battle against the unrightful ruler of their land. But, unknown to that ruler and his minions, the Smiling Fox is not a specific individual hero, but rather anyone who wears the Smiling Fox mask which grants a number of abilities to its wearer. The idea would be that the mask is in the possession of a group of rebels who would be the player characters in the events.[/quote']

Oooh, that there's a cool idea.

 

So, here's the set-up I'm thinking of. About 15 years ago, the evil Duke Duvelle overthrew and slaughtered most of the royal family with the aid of powerful allies among the other nobles.

Sounds like a really hiss-able villain. That's always good to have.

 

Unbeknownst to Duvelle, a servant of the Royal Family escaped with the baby Princess Amelita and that servant's family raised Amelita as one of her own. Amelita is now 16 years old and has begun to show the enhanced abilities of a royal -- so her adopted family has told her of her heritage and she sets out to join the rebels to regain her rightful place on the throne.

 

So, after that somewhat lengthy intoduction, here are my questions to folks:

 

Does this sound like an interesting setting for a continuing convention game?

Yeppers.

 

What types of characters should be part of the group with Princess Amelita? I picture Amelita as primarily being a fighter type with her enhanced STR and DEX. I'd like to avoid stock D&D types if possible or at least provide a twist on them.

Her kid sister who wants adventures too dangit! as she kept tellin' her folks. Her floks said no, but she snuck out anyway.

 

Or her brother, only his excuse is Amy needs protection.

 

Any thoughts on an interesting approach to magic for this game? It should be practical for a con game, but also allow for the creativity of players. I am thinking that there may be one or two magic wielders amongst the player characters.

 

Any other thoughts and comments?

 

 

Thanks

Any thoughts on a simple flexible magic system to use for the game?

There's only 3, 4, 5, maybe 6 spells, but they each got Variable Special Effects. Thing is, it's a slow business to change the VSE.

 

You'd get yourself an EB/RKA, a HA/HKA, a Clairsentience (you'd hafta allow VSE to change which Sense), a Force Wall, and a Run usable as Flight (or vice versa), Few spells so the players can remember 'me easy, alterable so's inventiveness can be rewarded. I like, hope you do too.

[zornwil]

Re: The Saga of the Smiling Fox -- possible future convention event

 

I think that given the magic roll the mage would be more of a scholar-mage, the researcher type whose primary combat influence is only after careful preparation. This may or may not mesh with being a cleric/healer type, depending a lot on how the myth/religion works in your world versus magic. Since there are real gods, I assume the religions maintain the more "true fantasy" style than Robin Hood style, so no big monotheistic thing, and magic has many sources and so on, so probably makes sense for the scholar-mage is separate from an orator-conscious-healer religious type.

 

Just to throw an idea out but you may not at all like it, I like the idea of anthropomorphic "animals" as characters/beings, like the animated animals Robin Hood version. But this is just a random brainstorm/brainfart...

 

Anyway, as to magic, I think the skill-heavy versions in Fantasy Hero are good for lower-powered fantasy.

 

Just to mix it up, I think the "big farm guy with a sword" would be fun as the more intelligent, stable member of the team, just limited in skills, while some skulker or such could be more oblivious or naive or otherwise the "lesser intellect" (though personally I don't like those as slow-witted, I prefer them as I described, more oblivious or otherwise disadvantage from a differing world view or way of perceiving, I think the slow-witted party member is just too cliche, IMHO).

 

Just some random thoughts. Looking forward to seeing the game take shape.

[Talon]

Re: The Saga of the Smiling Fox -- possible future convention event

 

Given your other games (and thus the reputation you likely have, and the kind of people who will come looking), I would have a mid to high level of magic. Two magic-users in the party sounds about right.

 

I like the idea of there NOT being dwarves, elves, gnomes, etc...that will help distinguish the world from D&D. One neat idea would be to make one PC be from a completely "out there" race (a sprite, centaur, air elemental, etc.).

 

I would also think about whether or not you want to interact at all with your other games -- since the world has a SuperSquad tie-in, in theory you could have them show up, which would be neat but which could also diminish the fantasy atmosphere.

[Talon]

Re: The Saga of the Smiling Fox -- possible future convention event

 

Just to mix it up' date=' I think the "big farm guy with a sword" would be fun as the more intelligent, stable member of the team[/quote']

 

This, ironically, would be close to the setup in the "traveling performers" FH game Rod alluded to (where the leader was the strongman).

 

I do think that one "performer" PC would be a cool homage, though...

[zornwil]

Re: The Saga of the Smiling Fox -- possible future convention event

 

Whatever the case, there should be a bard, and I want dibs on that character...

[rjcurrie]

Re: The Saga of the Smiling Fox -- possible future convention event

 

Whatever the case' date=' there should be a bard, and I want dibs on that character... [/quote']

 

Oh, yeah, there'll be some kind of bard/minstrel/storyteller character, I may try to avoid using the term bard itself to avoid any D&D preconceptions, but I will admit that I may be overworrying that point.

[rjcurrie]

Re: The Saga of the Smiling Fox -- possible future convention event

 

I think that given the magic roll the mage would be more of a scholar-mage' date=' the researcher type whose primary combat influence is only after careful preparation. This may or may not mesh with being a cleric/healer type, depending a lot on how the myth/religion works in your world versus magic. Since there are real gods, I assume the religions maintain the more "true fantasy" style than Robin Hood style, so no big monotheistic thing, and magic has many sources and so on, so probably makes sense for the scholar-mage is separate from an orator-conscious-healer religious type.[/quote']

 

My current thought is that all magic in Eyratha emanates from the gods buried in the world itself. So being closer to a point of power such as the Forest of Futures or the Inlet of Inspiration would generally produce more powerful effects. There would also be ways to manipulate this -- however, I'm not sure if they should be manipulated as an engineer would or as an artist would.

 

I am still strying to get a handle on religion. As I mentioned in my orignal message, I am leaning towards the idea of man having overthrown the gods and buried them within Eyratha. But if they overthrew these gods, do they still worship them? Perhaps they worship the fact that the gods created and sustain the world. I still haven't decided. There are a couple ofl issues at play here -- one is creating a world with a feeling I like, the other is creating a world that is playable in a convention game -- that is, one that is not overly complex. So for example, the idea of one pantheon replacing another is pretty much right out as it would involve references to two sets of gods.

Just to throw an idea out but you may not at all like it, I like the idea of anthropomorphic "animals" as characters/beings, like the animated animals Robin Hood version. But this is just a random brainstorm/brainfart...

It doesn't feel right to me for this game. In the right game, such characters could be fun.

[rjcurrie]

Re: The Saga of the Smiling Fox -- possible future convention event

 

Given your other games (and thus the reputation you likely have' date=' and the kind of people who will come looking), I would have a mid to high level of magic. Two magic-users in the party sounds about right.[/quote']

Are you basing this on the power level of my other games? Or something else?

I like the idea of there NOT being dwarves, elves, gnomes, etc...that will help distinguish the world from D&D. One neat idea would be to make one PC be from a completely "out there" race (a sprite, centaur, air elemental, etc.).

 

Perhaps.

 

I would also think about whether or not you want to interact at all with your other games -- since the world has a SuperSquad tie-in, in theory you could have them show up, which would be neat but which could also diminish the fantasy atmosphere.

 

I am aware of the risk of mixing this game with my other ones. I currently have no plans for doing so.

[zornwil]

Re: The Saga of the Smiling Fox -- possible future convention event

 

Oh' date=' yeah, there'll be some kind of bard/minstrel/storyteller character, I may try to avoid using the term bard itself to avoid any D&D preconceptions, but I will admit that I may be overworrying that point.[/quote']

I like minstrel or orator or narrativist or story-teller or sage or...I just used bard for easy identification as to archetype.

[zornwil]

Re: The Saga of the Smiling Fox -- possible future convention event

 

My current thought is that all magic in Eyratha emanates from the gods buried in the world itself. So being closer to a point of power such as the Forest of Futures or the Inlet of Inspiration would generally produce more powerful effects. There would also be ways to manipulate this -- however, I'm not sure if they should be manipulated as an engineer would or as an artist would.

 

I am still strying to get a handle on religion. As I mentioned in my orignal message, I am leaning towards the idea of man having overthrown the gods and buried them within Eyratha. But if they overthrew these gods, do they still worship them? Perhaps they worship the fact that the gods created and sustain the world. I still haven't decided. There are a couple ofl issues at play here -- one is creating a world with a feeling I like, the other is creating a world that is playable in a convention game -- that is, one that is not overly complex. So for example, the idea of one pantheon replacing another is pretty much right out as it would involve references to two sets of gods.

 

It doesn't feel right to me for this game. In the right game, such characters could be fun.

Like many pagan faiths, perhaps they overthrew the "bad gods" and "good gods" are around but not intrusive (perhaps defined as good for their unwillingness to manipulate human events).

 

As to the animals thing, as I said, easily could just be a brainfart...

[Talon]

Re: The Saga of the Smiling Fox -- possible future convention event

 

I think it would be cool for people to worship the gods -- after all, they were gods -- but that doesn't mean they get cleric spells. It could be a Roman kind of thing, where there are a lot of traditions and rituals which people treat with varying degrees of seriousness.

 

(It sounds like even though magic technically comes from the gods, it's not something that the gods have control over -- they can't deny magical power to someone they don't like.)

[Talon]

Re: The Saga of the Smiling Fox -- possible future convention event

 

Are you basing this on the power level of my other games? Or something else?

 

Power level and style. Your JI game has someone with a Deflecto-Shield; an analagous fantasy game would have a fairly high level of magic, it seems to me.

 

Of course, you might specifically want to do something different -- in which case you should make that really clear in the event description. That way people have something useful that they can not read.

[rjcurrie]

Re: The Saga of the Smiling Fox -- possible future convention event

 

Power level and style. Your JI game has someone with a Deflecto-Shield; an analagous fantasy game would have a fairly high level of magic, it seems to me.

 

Of course, you might specifically want to do something different -- in which case you should make that really clear in the event description. That way people have something useful that they can not read.

 

Okay. Gotcha. Something for me to keep in mind. And believe me as someone who writes software documentation for a living, I'm quite used to people not reading what I write.