Splinter (Roleplaying Game)
Apr. 9th, 2017 07:43 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
chuckroEarth, 2471 AD. The only thing that matters is The Game. As a Player - a trained Professional or a conscripted Amateur - you Port into The Splinter with an audience of millions watching your every move. In a VR mega-dungeon of infinite size, you will struggle in conflicts dire, for your very life, and for the entertainment of the masses.
The concept is solid: It starts essentially with the Hunger Games, a far-future Earth where a rigid caste system keeps the elite in power and the poor scrabbling to survive, except that occasionally, one can rise in society by succeeding at the games. The gaming experience is then split between Earth-side struggle against a nigh-unbeatable oppressive system, and a classic dungeon-crawling experience within the titular Splinter.
(In-game, the Splinter is “officially” very sophisticated VR, but it’s pretty clear that it’s actually a real, separate world and the players are porting into the minds of actual inhabitants with real histories and personalities. There are even rolls to contest whether the player or character are actually in control at any given point.)
Within the Splinter, everyone is a three-form shapeshifter (with some of the alt-forms being animals, and some being Liches or Robots) who can use magic to warp reality. Tech levels range from medieval to futuristic with plenty of weird anachronisms. The Splinter is infinite and constantly changing, a mashed-together series of worlds of various sizes, from tight stone corridors to vast “outdoor” world-levels. The influence of both World of Darkness and classic D&D, as well as both roguelike and jrpg video games is clear.
Your strength in the Splinter is directly related to the popularity of your feed on Earth—XP is essentially gaining Youtube subscribers, and you effectively get it by doing cool stuff that plays well. You can also offer “color commentary” on your actions for bonuses.
The problem is, despite being full of creativity, this comes out as a cavalcade of interesting ideas that were clearly not sufficiently playtested. There’s very little in the way of overarching game mechanics—one of the reasons D&D has been more playable since 3E is because most things boil down to “roll a d20 and add some numbers” and there are edge cases off of that. This is the sort of system that’s ALL edge cases. The progression of powers and spells, the racial abilities, even the general resolution mechanics (sometimes you’re using DICEPUNK; sometimes you roll d6s and 4, 5 or 6 is a success; sometimes you roll d6s and add them) are all catch-as-catch-can. Earth and the Splinter actually use to entirely separate sets of mechanics. That two-systems idea (they mildly interact, but only for some stats and odd edge cases) is cute, but not actually helpful in making a good play experience.
Overall: I strongly suspect I’m going to use this setting, or a bunch of major elements from it. But the system is a hot mess that I can’t imagine my players tolerating. (I suspect this needs a “second edition” by an experienced game design team who can streamline the rules.)
The concept is solid: It starts essentially with the Hunger Games, a far-future Earth where a rigid caste system keeps the elite in power and the poor scrabbling to survive, except that occasionally, one can rise in society by succeeding at the games. The gaming experience is then split between Earth-side struggle against a nigh-unbeatable oppressive system, and a classic dungeon-crawling experience within the titular Splinter.
(In-game, the Splinter is “officially” very sophisticated VR, but it’s pretty clear that it’s actually a real, separate world and the players are porting into the minds of actual inhabitants with real histories and personalities. There are even rolls to contest whether the player or character are actually in control at any given point.)
Within the Splinter, everyone is a three-form shapeshifter (with some of the alt-forms being animals, and some being Liches or Robots) who can use magic to warp reality. Tech levels range from medieval to futuristic with plenty of weird anachronisms. The Splinter is infinite and constantly changing, a mashed-together series of worlds of various sizes, from tight stone corridors to vast “outdoor” world-levels. The influence of both World of Darkness and classic D&D, as well as both roguelike and jrpg video games is clear.
Your strength in the Splinter is directly related to the popularity of your feed on Earth—XP is essentially gaining Youtube subscribers, and you effectively get it by doing cool stuff that plays well. You can also offer “color commentary” on your actions for bonuses.
The problem is, despite being full of creativity, this comes out as a cavalcade of interesting ideas that were clearly not sufficiently playtested. There’s very little in the way of overarching game mechanics—one of the reasons D&D has been more playable since 3E is because most things boil down to “roll a d20 and add some numbers” and there are edge cases off of that. This is the sort of system that’s ALL edge cases. The progression of powers and spells, the racial abilities, even the general resolution mechanics (sometimes you’re using DICEPUNK; sometimes you roll d6s and 4, 5 or 6 is a success; sometimes you roll d6s and add them) are all catch-as-catch-can. Earth and the Splinter actually use to entirely separate sets of mechanics. That two-systems idea (they mildly interact, but only for some stats and odd edge cases) is cute, but not actually helpful in making a good play experience.
Overall: I strongly suspect I’m going to use this setting, or a bunch of major elements from it. But the system is a hot mess that I can’t imagine my players tolerating. (I suspect this needs a “second edition” by an experienced game design team who can streamline the rules.)
