What Class was Saint Paul?
When I was in junior high school and we made games, our trick was to make character classes of whatever we thought were the important types of people in our world. When we made our Teenage Role Playing Game (TARP), the classes reflected high school stereotype of rocker, skater, jock, and nerd. When we made a science fiction game it was scientist, soldier, pilot, and space knight.
In Principia, the game I’m working on now, the character classes embody cultural ideals linked to art, science, warfare, and religion. But how do you represent a big idea like Christianity or Reason as a character class without trivializing it?
I’m working on an idea right now that I’m having a lot of fun with. Each position (that’s analogous to a class in Principia) has a matrix that links a representative situation with a narration and a consequence. Take a cultural group with a strong cultural ideal, create a matrix, and I hope you get a potentially explosive terrain for role-play. Here’s what this might look like for the first Christians:
When I play a character in that early Church, the rules tell me exactly how I can influence the world when I act selfless, invoke Jesus’ name, or suffer for his sake. The consequences of influencing the world are new challenging situations for my character. I make enemies, create expectations, and people start talking about what has been done.
But Principia is not about the Early Church, it’s about the Renaissance. Here’s what
Alchemy looks like in the current draft of Principia:
Alchemists are mercurial characters. They’re always changing the world around them and suffering the consequences. Also, they can blow things up, and they never have to roll the dice for it. A nice fringe benefit that.
In Principia, the game I’m working on now, the character classes embody cultural ideals linked to art, science, warfare, and religion. But how do you represent a big idea like Christianity or Reason as a character class without trivializing it?
I’m working on an idea right now that I’m having a lot of fun with. Each position (that’s analogous to a class in Principia) has a matrix that links a representative situation with a narration and a consequence. Take a cultural group with a strong cultural ideal, create a matrix, and I hope you get a potentially explosive terrain for role-play. Here’s what this might look like for the first Christians:
| In this situation: | My character can: | And the GM decides: |
| I act selflessly | Work miracles | Who is incited to jealousy, anger, or hatred against me |
| Invoke Jesus’ name | Heal the sick and infirm | What they expect from me |
| Suffer blame, calumny, or violence for Jesus’ sake | Convert someone | What their friends, family, or compatriots think of that |
When I play a character in that early Church, the rules tell me exactly how I can influence the world when I act selfless, invoke Jesus’ name, or suffer for his sake. The consequences of influencing the world are new challenging situations for my character. I make enemies, create expectations, and people start talking about what has been done.
But Principia is not about the Early Church, it’s about the Renaissance. Here’s what
Alchemy looks like in the current draft of Principia:
| In this situation: | My character can: | And the GM decides: |
| I work in my lab | I can produce drugs, explosive, or other reagents | Declare a side effect of those items |
| Use alchemical reagents | Blow things up | Decide the collateral damage |
| Forge a relationship with a character | Discover their motivations | What form the relationship takes |
| Interact with someone whose motivations I understand | Urge them to an appropriate course of action | How it changes the relationship |
Alchemists are mercurial characters. They’re always changing the world around them and suffering the consequences. Also, they can blow things up, and they never have to roll the dice for it. A nice fringe benefit that.