[Setting, of sorts...]Cranium Rats.

[Thunder_God]

Cranium Rats/W.(M).D.R: The Game of Solipsist search for Enlightenment and Internal Strife. I am working on that now, however, I thought I'd share with you the roughest skeleton possible of the setting. It may bring some ideas up for you folks, it may just cause you to chuckle and/or wince.

Remember, triangle is an instable social form!

It also ties in to this thread in a way, even though all the "Aspects" belong to a single character.

Enjoy, and share your thoughts!

You can see the skeleton here (updated 1/4/06). I'm afraid only 50 people will be able to download it before Geocities closes its doors on the hourly limit, unless some kind soul wants to host it (IT's on the wiki now - killfalcon)

Edit: Seems the 50 people limit is per hour, not per day.

[Kicker]

I am quite confused. This is not unpleasant.

Supposing you did want my feedback (not particularly likely), I would have to understand what I'm reading. As it is, I don't feel confident that I understand it enough to even know which questions I should ask you to further my understanding.

That said...if Rat, Mud and Water are stats or aspects of characters, then are characters...umm, rats? Or rat-like? I'm not sure where the setting comes into it. What do these things do? Live in people's heads?

Please do elaborate. I find it interesting so far.

[Thunder_God]

They are aspects of people. Dirt and Water comprise a human, basically. At birth or shortly thereafter a metaphorical "Rat" enters each person, thus Cranium Rats.

The 3 aspects vie for control in people as each tries to push its global "agenda", whatever that may be. Characters are those who are aware of enlightenment and strive towards it. This knowledge pushes the fragile balance between the aspects out of balance. Internal strife abounds.

This is more or less the RPG of internal strife while possibly on the road to enlightenment in a solipsist(of a sort) paradigm.

Imbalance has its effects, which is mostly what this explores, asides from the random seeming top two paragraphs which are free brainstorming ideas.

[Kicker]

Wow...okay, I like it. I like it, but I feel like it's above my clearance...Here's my attempt at a question, though.

How does one player play three antagonistic aspects in a solipsistic mode or way? To take a common example, in the game Vampire, characters have an internal battle between their Selves (echoes of dead people) and their Beast (some big bad inner demon). This is represented in play by rolls to not do certain things in certain situations, as the players effectively direct the "Self" and are sometimes controlled by the "Beast," even though technically both aspects are the same individual. So, with that kind of character, how do you imagine actively playing both a Characters Humanity and Beast, without portraying that characters physical actions (which is what I assumed was meant by solipsistic in this context)?

[Thunder_God]

They don't.
Each player plays the three Aspects, but across different characters. Each character is portrayed by three players. That's half the deal. RPGs are moved by conflicts, this setting/RPG will be all about the internal conflict.

I thought about an optional mode where it takes a more psychological bent and where one player plays all sides, but then you completely lose the Bidding side of the mechanics, as one can't really be all that antagonistic and counter-bid himself.

To take the White-Wolf side, instead of Beast take the Shadow from Wraith or P'o from Kindred of the East.

And the game will have physical actions, it's solipsistic in theme/goal, which is what solipsism ends up in for lack of proof(Har har). I'll try to shed some more light once I finish writing the 4 page skeleton.

[Kicker]

Oooh. Okay, looking forward to it!

[Thunder_God]

Ok, I updated the file. It is now posted in a more or less playable format, and could be considered in beta-testing.

I'll try to meaten this up to be more than just the skeleton during the weekend. Hopefully I'll reach 20-30 pages. There doesn't seem to be much interest, so guess keeping it on Geocities will be good enough...

Edit: It's just missing the Character Sheet. I just didn't feel like messing with graphics right now.

[Thunder_God]

Anyone wants to take it out for a spin? This is a complete and utter skeleton. It has no meat, but it's playable. All the rules are there. Only lacking a charsheet.

I plan to make a betatest version for a closed betatest, hopefully it'll be done by next week.

Any comments on the system, relation between system and setting, questions?

Edit: Took down the smaller file, so people won't get it since it is included in the more recent file.
Also, game ends when an Aspect reaches 10, as mentioned originally, not 9 as mentioned later.

[Thunder_God]

Anyone?

[Belphanior]

I can't read the file, but this is basically Herman's Head: the RPG?