The Grey Neighborhood's Log #1

In 2021, before I made the Itch account, before EMPLOYEE was even a concept, there was The Grey Neighborhood.

I even already declared it back then.

Back then, I even didn't know how to make a campaign, or a thing and two that I need to know and prepare to make a D&D campaign - heck, I even didn't really know what the current edition of D&D at that time! All I know was there is a game called Dungeons and Dragons that you play it with a dices and sheets and pencils and imaginations and a bunch of books. There.

And one day, I draws several simple figures and I posted it seperatedly at IG with each roles and health and defense and et cetera on each captions. And at April 28, I post the picture above along with their name - The Gray / Grey Neighborhood. At that time, it's just a concept - an adventure that involving a three boys, a sentient motorcycle, two creature that representing angel and devil, a tyrannosaurus, and a frog magician (that also a merchant). That's all. And I continue with my life.

2022, I started to joining the bandwagon. And all I had inside my head at first was The Grey Neighborhood. Due to limited knowledge and lack of experiences of current edition of Dungeon and Dragons, I believe it would be wise to based my game from it's fundamental, origin documents available on the internet : 

System References

By using Advance Dungeon and Dragons FIRST EDITION and AD&D Monster Manual. That was the first thing I had in mind - First edition will be providing basic informations that I needed. But Boy, how wrong I am.

I read the AD&D and didn't understand at all. I flipped the pages and presented in front of me tables with numbers and things. This is not as easy as I thought. After re-reading for several times and playing the introductionary solo adventure provided on the module, I gave up and start doing that I can do at that time : create the story.

Settings - why with the Risk Mgmt?

What is a semi-modern suburban area? what is encounter on risk management?

Imagine the first area from Tony Hawk Underground 1 but with red, ashes skies and it was a post-apocalyptic setting where the buildings were not buildings anymore but rubbles and ruins. Humans still exist in this world, but also with another sentient creatures - they are forced to lived side-by-side. And what with risk management encounter? I got the idea after purchasing Jason Tocci's 2400 and read several modules from it. And I thought "Shit.. this mechanism is risk-based management". But funny thing is, I didn't confident enough to put Tocci's 2400 on the system reference - I need more data and more evidence on how the game works.

Opening hook

As I mentioned above, I already had the setting on my head. And Preemo (from the word Primer) would be a great name for a starter point. 

Character creation

I remember when I deciding on this : I only had one d6 from a Monopoly and a d12 from MTG's bundle box. And why with the stats? Why there are only STR, AGI, INT, CHR, and WIS? Truth to be told, Constitution was the thing that I totally forgot and didn't understand at all. STR, AGI, INT, CHR, WIS - I'm familiar with these stat blocks, I knew it from the old JRPGs I played since I was a boy. While Constitution was a new thing for me. Hence, I left it out.

Three starting quests

And for The Grey Neighborhood, I wanted to implement a Quest system - which is an absolute steals from all those RPGs I played. 

I think I need to scan my writing book, it had so much more information regarding this.

New Year's Resolution Mechanic : Smoking Kills (But Also Helps)

Disclaimer: this article is and will not suggesting and promoting readers to smokes in their real life. Also this article is not encourage people to start smoking, especially those who still under the age. This article is intended to be used for tabletop role playing games. Smoking is not cool. But yeah, it might help your depressed life a little bit. BUT STILL, SMOKING KILLS.

While reading, compilling, writing and making the last two I Read This in 2024, Prismatic Wasteland is no doubt catching my eyes on. We're talking about the New (Year's) Resolution Mechanic. The challenge was simple - create a new resolution mechanic in this month of January 2024. The complex one is, what kind of mechanism that I can bring to the table?

In my game, Employee, you will be playing as an employee (duh) who work their ass to get the job done or die trying thanks to office-related stress or maybe sinister entity that controlled the whole company. And when this stress level (in-game I named it (IN)Sanity points) is beyond player's threshold, their (IN)Sanity level will up and they might see something that they didn't see before - mentaly and supernatural-y.

Can this level be lowered down? The answer is No. But can it be reduced the impact to their points and levels? There's a possibility.

In every five in-game days, the Player will get Weekends, where their (IN)Sanity points will be reset to zero, but not their level. They can start a brand new week with fresh and a little bit sanity inside their head. But what if it their at their limit, that with just a little nudge and they will became level 5 (IN)Sanity person, but it's still in the middle of the week?

I got this idea while I was taking a smoking break at the office earlier today.

See, smoking is an activity that a lot of people do, while also a lot of people despise. Some use cigarette, some use cigar, some use the electronic ones, some rolled their own recipe. Despite how they smokes or what they smokes, I see several things that became an output of smoking:

1. Death. An obvious one. Maybe started with illness first;
2. Stress relieve. Even it's just a temporary nerf of the stress, sometimes it's helpful when the time was not right;
3. Ease up the convos. Some people do business while eat, some people deal at a meeting table, some taking a smoking break that might break the informality between them and the client and ease up the business process they trying to make.
4. A flawless ice-breaking method. New at work or just transfered to new division? Smoking might help to ice-break those thick wall of iceness from those ice-cold stare humans and find some warm and welcoming individuals at the new ice-ice-baby place.
5. Nicotine rush. Sometimes when I need inspiration or I need to clear the fog out of my head, I take a short smoke break, not even finished the whole cigarette; I just need the nicotine hit. It's like a little nudge to the brain to tell them to wake up.

(source)

So, what was the mechanism?

Proposing "Smoking Kills (But Also Helps)".

The concept is when the PC smokes a cigarette/cigar/e-cigs/pipe/handrolled/whatever, they might get a small temporary buff on one or several attributes such as sights, awareness, critical thinking, charisma (for talking and breaking the ice) or maybe shove away the sleepiness for a while. And if I try to apply it to Employee, PC could temporary decrease the amount of their (IN)Sanity points by taking a smoke*1 (releasing stress and followed by contemplating, for example).

But will it always grant them these glorious buff whenever they do one? No. Sometimes, when the time was not right, smoking won't give you a single thing except heat and illness. No inspiration, no convos, nothing - only tars gummed up on your lungs. That's why, when a Player want to use smoking as their buff system or ice-breaking, they should roll a d6 where the result of 4 and above are considered successful (buff granted and ice has been melted).

So, that means, the PC can be smoking all the time to get those sweat buff, right? Yes, but with consequences. In every cigarette PC take, there is a latent harm that is waiting. Like in real life, smoking in games also affecting your character health (poking at you, Kojima-san)*2. Health will decrease as long as the character using/equiping the smoking item, until it depleted the whole health bar.

For this mechanism, health detoriating system (H.D.S.)*3 will be decided by using a d10 as a percentage roll every time a character take a smoke and it will treated as accumulative. For example, PC A with 100 points health, take a two time of smoking with d10 7 & 3, means their health already detoriating at 10%, which makes the permanent PC health into 90 points. Is there any chance to recover their health? Sadly no. It was the consequences. It's the opportunity cost that must be paid.

To conclude, this smoking mechanism might helps character to overcome short-paced encounter or minimizing risk in a very short tempo with simple and quick method to be pulled in the game, with a twist that every time they pull it off, their health detoriating bit by bit.

I Read This in 2024 - Week 2

 **A collections of information regarding TTRPG that I gather from several blogs. Initially take a shape of pen-and-paper which later digitalized as blogpost. All rights of each articles are belong to their respective writer.**

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> CAPSULE GAMES PART II : Meditations on Capsule Design / Rise Up Comus

• Continuing the essay, The Writer explains main principles for a capsule games and providing a concrete examples of games a for the reader to learn and experience more about the concept.
• The game (along what the concept they are great about) were:
• Lady Blackbird by John Harper (Defining Characters)
  
• Wolves Upon The Coast by Luke Gearing (Create Rules that are the Right Size)
• Yazeba's Bed and Breakfast by Possum Creek Games (Create Immersive Rules)
• Silent Titans by Patrick Stuart and Dirk Detweiler L. (Create Maps with No Blanks)
• The Dark Crystal Adventure Games by Janet Forbes and Jack Caesars (Create a Sense of Finality)

> Drinkin' The Game Away; or; The New Year's Resolution Mechanic Challenge / Archons March On

• The Writer propose a new mechanic where the players get a shot glass with several marks.
• Player could ask:
• How much the glass will filled up, but the drink was picked by the DM; OR
• What kind of drink they wants, but filled how much the DM wants.
• The mechanism of the dice and the drinks are a little bit confusing for me, but the last two sentences on the particular paragraph,"the amount..." is eye catching : "if you pass out, your character dies. If you puke, you have to clean it up."
• There is also a bonus mechanism provided by the Writer called "Overflow" where the player could take a 1/2 max result on your next roll instead of drinking.
• The thing is, I don't drink. So I don't understand about any of this mechanism but also on the other hand, I want to try it with another kind of drinks.

> CAPSULE GAMES - PART 2 : Player Characters / A Knight At The Opera

• The idea of capsule games are minimalist in preparation but full-fledged on the story. The Writer wants to dive into the design of Playable Character / PC and how to make them interesting and memorable without relying on complex rules or extensive backstory.
• The Writer suggests that:
1. using archetypes to quickly establish the PC's roles and personalities;
2. by using Traits to add uniqueness to the PC (appearance, personal goal, flaws, etc.);
3. using relationshop to create connection and conflicts between PC and NPCs (Allies, enemies, rivals, lovers, etc.);
4. utilizing random tables to generate or inflicting creativity and improvisation.

> Implied Magic, No Magic, Low Magic, Fake Magic / Monsters and Manuals

• The Writer exploring the usage of magic in several fiction novels and they able to seperate it into four different and distinguishable types:
• Implied Magic: the magic is present in the world, but it's subtle, mysterious and rarely seen, even the the characters didn't know how to handle them. It's a natural thing that came from the World itself;
• No Magic : no such things called magic or even it does exist, they are so rare or hidden somewhere in the world;
• Low Magic : the magic is exist but limited and dangerous - both from magical abilities and/or from an magical items. PCs will be asked to use them wisely;
• Fake Magic : the thing called "magic" was actually an advanced technology or alien intervention or psychological manipulations.

> Terrain, Terrain, Terrain / Seeds of Worlds

• Enjoyin and inspired by Baldur's Gate 3, The Writer had some ideas:
• Jump is a bonus action
• Shoving is also a bonus action, not an attack.
• Quoting from the Writer,"Verticality is more prevelent... and coupled with chasm (shove it and fall in and die)... makes it an interesting opportunity."
• Shoving people / enemies off heights will inflicts fall damage and also potentially slows them down from getting back to action / contact.
• Coverage will be provided by ledges and height differences. Also by utilizing terrains available, players could create a choke-points / ambush point by using spells and consumables.
• Writer also trying to implement or suggesting this method for 5e.

> D6x6 Thriving Thanoi / Archons March On

• Thanoi is a barbarian race of walrus-folk.
• This is my Thanoi:
• This Thanoi pierce thick rings through their noses and their fattier parts of their flesh;
• This Thanoi dwell in tubes of stitched seal-skins inflated into long houses by channeled wind;
• This Thanoi traverse the waves from below, alongside tamed whales they can hitched themselves to when they tire of swimming;
• This Thanoi's kagog (Spiritual Leader) has prophesied a coming ice age, and has gathered an army under their banner in preparation;
• This Thanoi wield enchanted club made from the baculums of their heroic ancestors;
• This Thanoi are serving as hired muscle for a lich who wants to hide their phylactery in the remotest corner of the world.

> Resolutions in the Flame Imperishable / Rise Up Comus

• The titular system was an answer for tht Writer to Prismatic Wasteland and also Writer's next capsule game system.
• The concept : if the Player had Time, Gear and Skills, they can overcome almost any obstacle. On the contrary, if even one aspect they lack off, they must test their fate with the rolls.
• Quoting the Writer,"When you test fate, roll a pool of six-sided dice. This pool starts at 0, and you add 1 to the pool for each one of the following you have.."
• Fellowship : add a dice if someone helps you with the task;
• Lore : add a dice if you have a lore that is relevant to the task;
• Attribute : add a dice if one of your attributes would be helpful;
• Magic : add a dice if you use one of your magical abilities to accomplish the task;
• Equipment : add a dice if you have the right tool for the task.
• After rolling the dice, the results are categorized into three types:
• (1) or (2) : Miss
• (3) or (4) : Near Miss
• (5) or (6) : Hit
• if the Player get at least 1 hit from all dice they had to roll, they will be considered succeed the task.
• For every additional hit, add one detail to Player's accomplishment.
• There are possibilities of turning the Near Miss into a Hit by stressing one of the assets rolled. Stress rolls will be refreshed during downtime.

> 1949 River City Crime Table / Elfmaid & Octopi

• I took the liberty to roll and imagine what kind of River City I will visited by the Writer's d100 tables.
• (88) Rival gangs selling bad drugs and killing each others;
• (63) Bomber has been blowing up witness and jurors to influence court cases;
• (38) Gang of Snooty-masked, suit-wearing art thieves, claim to be saving art from Philistines;
• (21) Gang running criminal lottery racket with kids for runner;
• (86) Desperate war vets living on streets, being recruited into gangs but have to commit a violent robbery and murder to get in;
• (62) Journalist have gone into hiding from a gang of killers they seek to expose;
• (77) Plan to steal a famous collection of artefacts passing through the city by rail;
• (83) Two gangs feuding are sold military weapons including BAR adn Tommy Guns and granades. Violance will promptly explode;
• (48) Troubled young addict goes on stabbing spree in the streets and wants police to shoot them for insane;
• (93) Prison governor is working with gang leaders inside to take over gangs outside.

> New Year's Resolution Mechanic : Taking Your Time / A Knight at the Opera

• Following up Prismatic Wasteland's challenge, the Writer came up with a system that involving realistic usage of time and the of players doing the action in the available time slots.
• When a Player trying to attempts an action that have 1) non-trivial chance of success; 2) non-trivial chance of failure; 3) meaningful consequences, they will be asked to roll a dice. This are the foundation of a lot of RPG, and sometimes the main interesting thing to be anticipated was the meaningful consequences that many players want to create as interesting as possible - "dramatic, fun, non-boring" consequences.
• There is a term called "Taking 20" that I believe tickled the Writer to create a better mechanism regarding this matter.
• The Writer also reminds us about the "Base Time Unit" (which until now, I haven't found the unversal or general rules about this base time unit), and using it as the foundation, the Writer proposing a mechanism that rather than Declare and Roll for how long will the player will doing something, the player roll n dice for n turns instead. n is for number of turn / roll they want to do.
• They put two different scenario regarding this system:
1. When a player (let's say) declaring they want to create a potion that need 3 turns to be completed, and on the third turn, there is a commotion happens outside that breaking their potion making action. They will only get 2 turn instead of 3 (thanks to the commotion), which means the action won't be as effective as players wanted. Interuptions inflicts a penalty.
2. When a player want their action is giving out the outcome they want to be, and there's no consequences on re-attempting the action, they will keep re-rolling the dice until they get the outcome they preferable / desire to be happen. Hence, why the Writer makes re-attempts are at a penalty. Means on every re-attempts, the player will receive disadvantage, and it might stacks / multiplying everytime they re-attempts. A single dice rolls representing PCs best effort at doing something.
• The Writer also proposing another alternate mechanism called "Shifting Time Scales". In example, the player want to brew potion that usually takes 1 turn to do. They can take a single turn to make the potion OR add another turn (2 turns) to make a little bit potential potions that maybe giving them some oomph. Or in other examples, when trying to lock picking that usually takes 5 turns to successfully pry it, the player was faced with the situation that in the next 10 turn, the Guard will come up from the corner. Will the Player do 5-5 turns while hopping the lock opened in their first try? or commiting full 10 turns to opening the door just right before the Guard sees them?
• Quoting the Writer,"Compromise; player chooses if they'd rather make a risky attempt to succeed quickly with plenty of time left over, or they take time to get an advantage but they spend the whole turn on it. Why not just keep making (several) quick attempts in a row? Because each one (will) increase the re-attemps penalty."

> d100 Tavern Tables in Shadelport / Elfmaid & Octopi

• What is Shadelport? It's a setting that created by the Writer.
• Let's see what kind of experience that these taverns in Shadelport provide me with:
• (59) Clerks from shipping companies meeting for a meal;
• (43) Weapons makers discussing the prospects of war and work;
• (78) Drunken student out to party and dance and get loaded and vomit everywhere;
• (60) Street vendors having break from wheeling and dealing with pushcarts;
• (71) Drunken students, some getting drunk for first time ever.

> Young and Unafraid : Wizard & Witches / Traverse Fantasy

• My Wizard and Witch tower had 3 stories...with the other floor might be a (4) recreational room;
• Something's always happening inside the tent (6) washing cat in a couldron;
• The ingredient might look like (5) magic mushroom (that might grow in a forest or cave;
• Current Wizard experiement (8) Paleolithic Park, with 11 person who lived on the property.

> Weird Crimes for Heroes 1949 / Elfmaid & Octopi

• One day while strolling down the lovely street of River City, you see:
• (76) newspaper chief shot after declaring mystery man and vigilantes should work for the goverment or go to prison life. Crowds believe the editor's wild claims;
• (69) foreign spy found murdered in hotel room;
• (77) newspaper magnate was found strangled in the car while the driver went to fetch a newspaper. Supporters claim he was silenced for speaking the truth;
• (22) cult-like family head is furious at members for leaving and marrying outsiders, now tje family want to kill them and cover up their weird ways;
• (74) during an angry mob riot, a politician was shot and injured;
• (18) millionaire offers a reward for finding their sweetheart who disappeared while travelling.