There's a very strong central concept to the setting of this game, it's what I started out with, and I've been struggling with a way to make it work mechanically. Recently I've had some ideas about how to do that. I've also realised some of my problems have arisen because while there was a situation baked into the setting, it wasn't explicit and dire enough. You should read it and be like "BAM, here's what's going on, WHAT DO YOU DO?" whereas previously it was more like "ok, so there's this world and it's like this, what do you want do to here?". But I digress...
There's this thing I want to be handled mechanically and that's how different social classes interact between themselves. I have figured out a mechanic that achieves the precise effect I want, but it makes everything too simplistic. It also takes the power out of the players hands and places it firmly with the dice and numbers...so I need to take a step back.
Here's an example, it's an abstraction, but it will give you an idea...
Let's say you have a list that says:
-11 to -8 Murder
-7 to -4 Avoid
-3 to +3 Duel
+4 to +8 Disarm
+9 to +11 Torture
Each character belongs to a social class, ranked with a die from the guttersnipes (d4) to the ichor-blooded aristocracy (d12) [and a couple of ranks beyond that, but no matter]. When you get in a physical conflict with someone, roll your social rank die and they roll theirs and subtract it from your roll. The effect of this is, it's easier for a low-class to murder or avoid a high-class individual. Individuals of equal class fill fight on the same ground, whereas for the high-class it becomes increasingly easier to simply disarm or torture the low-born. See where I'm getting at? Basically what I want to have is a mechanic that means that people from the same social class behave one way towards one another, but behave differently towards higher-ups or the unfortunates below them.
Drop me a line if you have any thoughts.
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