Yesterday at Meetup of Doom we played a session of Becoming. It played out pretty much how I wanted to, which I take as a good sign. At this point I think there are one or two minor tweaks I want to add to the rules to cover a couple of edge cases, but aside from that I feel like playtesting is done on the game.
So what’s next? Now I finish writing the thing. Some of you have read the playtest document; that document will form the basis of the first chapter of the game, the chapter that covers the rules of play. Chapter 1 will be more expanded and fleshed out than the playtest document, and will include more examples of play, but the bones are there.
Chapter 2 will cover Quests. This chapter will contain four Quests, all using the basic rules but tweaking them slightly to emulate their various genres. I plan on covering a few different genres, from fantasy to sci fi to horror. The intent is to give you a variety of examples that you can either use whole cloth or treat as the basis for creating your own Quests.
Chapter 3 is where things will really get interesting; it’s the chapter on hacking and drifting the game. The intent here is to talk about various ways to change the default assumptions of the game, from messing with the number of players to inverting the Hero/Fate dynamic to playing without a pre-written Quest at all. Each hack will include a Quest as an example of that hack, which you can play through on its own or use to make your own stuff.
And that’s Becoming. When I’m done writing the thing, it’s time for art, editing, layout, and the Kickstarter campaign. I’m pretty excited about this thing; I hope you are too!
I am eager to see it. With regards to the hacking chapter, have you considered a hack for longer-term play where you have a rotating hero role?
Do you have thoughts about how such a thing would work? As it stands, the attrition model in the game is such that the Hero doesn’t have much left over by the end of the Quest, so passing the Hero from person to person might not work that well. And if the group is just making a new Hero, how is that different from just playing a new Quest with a connected storyline? I suppose I could put in a sample Quest arc, with three linked Quests and rules for what happens between them. That might work to some extent, but Becoming isn’t really designed for long-term play.
The idea would be that each person at the table would have their own Hero.
Scene 1, Alice is her Hero (Angela) with the 3 Furies played by Bob, Chris and Dave.
Scene 2, Bob is his Hero (Bruno) with the three Furies played by Chris, Dave and Alice.
Scene 3,4 are scenes for Chris and Dave respectively, then you loop back into scene 1.
You keep passing the furies around, but with four distinct Heroes going in their own thematically linked direction. Either together, or perhaps in four different periods of time. Somewhat Fiasco-esk, to support a larger 3-4 session game.
That’s a cool idea, but it’s such a significant hack of the system that I think it goes beyond the scope of the book. I might revisit it later, but that’s not something I’m likely to cover in the book I’m writing now.
Fair enough! Just wanted to toss the idea in your general direction and run away.
Very much looking forward to Becoming.
I’m glad! I’m having a good time writing it.
I can’t wait to see this game at Kickstarter!