I decided to see if I could run a short game on this very simple but unique system. I will post the full rules below, but the basic concept is this: All of the player characters inhabit the same body. Thus, one character makes all the decisions, while the others simply start out as voices in his head. As the game progresses, the voices get stronger and the original main character gets weaker, and once at that point, anything could happen!
I'm looking for 3-5 players for a single adventure.
Here's the game system, designed by Tobias Radesäter, and translated and edited by me:
The Game
MPD is a thriller-RPG set in the present day in the real world. In MPD there are, as in most RPG's, a Game Master and multiple players. For logistical reasons, the number of players must be at least two. Each player has a character within the game. In MPD characters are divided into two categories; one character is the main character and is called the Protagonist; the others are called Reserves. The distinction between the two kinds of characters will be explained later. All random events in the game are determined by the roll of one or two six-sided dice (D).
The Protagonist
The Protagonist is, as mentioned, the main character of the game; the entire plot revolves around him. The protagonist has ended up in a difficult situation which she must resolve. Hopefully the situation will be intense and stressful, to create the appropriate thriller feel. Maybe he must avenge a murdered friend, save her kidnapped daughter, or kill a former lover who is blackmailing him. The Protagonist should be a normal person, with an everyday job; it could be anyone in the crowd, except for this extraordinary situation she is in.
The Reserves
The Reserves are the other characters; any player who isn’t playing the Protagonist is a Reserve. Unlike the Protagonist, they do not have to be normal people; in fact it is preferred if they are strange and unusual. The reason for this is that the poor Protagonist suffered some strange forgotten trauma during his childhood, which led to her developing certain psychotic tendencies, which are triggered by the extraordinary stress he is currently experiencing. That is where the reserves come in. They are personalities The Protagonist’s mind created to take over when things get too hard for her to handle. As these are not real people, it would be appropriate for the Reserves to be rather extreme; a crazy clown, a child who only speaks in rhyme, or an ice cold assassin; such personalities would make good Reserves.
Hey, who’s driving this thing?
At the beginning of the game, the Protagonist is still in control of his body. She is aware of the reserves, but only as annoying voices in his head. Gradually, as the Protagonist runs into more and more terrible things, the Reserves get stronger. The dominant personality (the Protagonist to start with) is the only one who can take actions, as she is in control of the body the characters all share. The other characters can only make suggestions to the dominant personality and hope he will listen. As the game progresses, they might be able to gain control of the body (this will be discussed in detail later), but in the beginning they are unable to affect the world around them except through convincing the Protagonist to listen to them.
The Rules
Skills
Characters have to be able to do things, and for those things you have skills. To see how good a character is at something we have numbers called Skill Values. The higher a character’s Skill Value is, the better the character is at that skill. Each player gets 60 points to divide between their skills. Each skill starts at 3 points, and then players assign additional points up to a total of 12 for each skill. However, all characters get 12 points in their native language without spending any of their total 60.
In most situations, characters can simply use their skills to do anything that would be covered by that skill. If there is doubt as to whether the character’s Skill Value is high enough to achieve the task, or if the task is dangerous or otherwise risky, a skill roll might be required. A standard skill roll has a difficulty of 14, but the Game Master can make it higher or lower as needed. The player rolls 2 dice and adds their Skill Value. If the total is equal to or higher than the difficulty, the action succeeds.
Vital skills
(Value 7 is the average adult): Intelligence: The ability to analyze facts and make conclusions. Agility: The ability to jump, climb, sneak, or perform any acrobatic movements. Strength: The ability to lift heavy things, as well as hit hard. Endurance: The ability to withstand injury and exhaustion. Perception: The ability to notice small details. Will: The ability to retain (or gain) control over the mind and body.
Other skills
(none of these are specifically required beyond the basic 3 points): General knowledge: The amount of potentially useful trivia the character knows. Driving: The ability to handle motorized vehicles. Skill Value 5 is needed to handle a normal car in regular traffic. Animals: Used to handle, calm down, or otherwise interact with animals. Medicine: Used to dress wounds and treat injuries and illness. Firearms: The ability to hit something with a firearm. Fighting: Used to sit something with fists or any kind of melee weapon. Language X (needs to be specified): The ability to speak a language. Value 7 is basic conversation skill. (Remember that you always have a 12 in your native language) Thievery: Used for breaking and entering, lockpicking, and similar illegal activities. Technology: Used to handle and repair technological gadgets. Survival: Used to handle life outside of civilization. Occupation X (specify): Any skill or knowledge pertaining to the character’s occupation. Persuasion: The ability to talk other people into doing what you want.
Combat
To be added
Trauma
As mentioned, the Protagonist is a run-of-the-mill kind of person, who is put in a very stressful situation. This puts his already fragile mind at risk. If the situation becomes too hard for her to handle, there are Reserves who would be happy to take over. The impact on the Protagonist’s mind is measured by Trauma.
increasing Trauma
When the protagonist sees or experiences something horrible, his Trauma increases. Different events affect Trauma to different degrees. Minor events, such as being fired at without being hit, being chased by police, or witnessing something horrifying that doesn’t have a personal impact, gives the Protagonist 1 Trauma unless she succeeds a Will Roll. Larger events, such as being injured, having his life threatened, or killing someone, gives the Protagonist 1D/2 Trauma (rounded up). Extreme events, such as seeing a close friend die, almost dying, or killing an innocent person, causes 1D Trauma. It is possible for Trauma to decrease, but it is a lot harder. If the Protagonist experiences some major success, or makes clear progress toward a resolution of their situation, her Trauma might drop by one.
The Effects of Trauma
If at any point Trauma exceeds the Protagonist’s Will value, he gets suppressed and one of the Reserves takes control. The Game Master decides who takes charge. If there is an obvious choice (say, the suppression happens during a car chase and one of the Reserves is a racecar driver) that character automatically gains control. Otherwise, it might be decided by the Dice. In either case, the Protagonist gets pushed back among the Reserves. The Protagonist can be temporarily suppressed if she sustains more than half his Will in a single Trauma increase. The Reserve gains complete control for 1D hours, and then the Protagonist gets to do a Will roll each hour. If the roll succeeds, the Protagonist regains control.
A Suppressed Protagonist
If the Protagonist has completely lost control because of high Trauma, it can be hard to get it back. However, if the Reserve who has taken charge attempts an action which the Protagonist absolutely doesn’t want to happen, she can attempt to prevent that action. The Protagonist and Reserve each makes a Will roll, and the highest value determines the outcome. If the Reserve wins the roll, the action continues and the Protagonist receives 1 additional Trauma. If the Protagonist wins the roll, the Reserve has to take another action. If the Protagonist succeeds with three of these action stops in a row, without failing one in between, he regains control and loses 1 Trauma. However, as long as the Trauma value is equal to or higher than her will, the Protagonist will lose control again the next time Trauma increases. If the Protagonist is unable to regain control, he can instead attempt to shift control to another Reserve. This can be done once every hour. The Protagonist chooses which Reserve she wants to take over, and that Reserve and the dominant Reserve each makes a Will roll. If the challenger wins, control shifts to them. If not, the Protagonist must wait an hour before making another attempt.
The dominant personality, Protagonist or Reserve, can at any time choose to give control to any of the other personalities. It should be noted that giving it away easily does not equal regaining it easily.
So, those are the full rules (or it will be once I add the combat section). because it is such a simple system it is easy to add house rules if anyone has suggestions. I have a few things in mind I might change or add if this takes off.
So, if anyone is interested, let me now! And also please tell me if you want to be the Protagonist or a Reserve.
Now that this poll is officially over, it's time to congratulate Aaarrrgh for designing Hill, which has been decided by popular vote to be the Card of the Month for October 2013!
Sounds a lot like Everyone is John. Anyway, I'm starving for a game. I'm in.
Ah, I love being submissive and flawed characters, Protagonist sounds fun. But Reserve let's me stretch my snowflake muscles. Put me down as flexible, I suppose.
While I can see the similarity, MPD seems considerably less wacky than Everyone is John. At least to start with. Depending on the reserves' character decisions, and who gains control when, I think this could get pretty crazy too...
Now that this poll is officially over, it's time to congratulate Aaarrrgh for designing Hill, which has been decided by popular vote to be the Card of the Month for October 2013!
Everyone is John is a one-shot game, so it has to escalate pretty quickly. It was more thematically, since playing alternative personalities is a rather uncommon setting.
Anyway, I don't really see how this game plays out once Trauma becomes really high. Your note say that it's easier to increase than decrease, so doesn't the protagonist sort of just 'die' after a certain amount of time?
This is also mainly a one-shot game. I have actually never played this before, but as far as I see it, once the Protagonist loses control, it becomes more about trying to get whoever is currently in charge of the body to stay focused on what the Protagonist is trying to achieve. I think I would insist on at least one of the reserves having the protagonist's best interest in mind, so that the plot can progress even when the protagonist is suppressed. But yes, Trauma decrease would be one of the things I would be willing to houserule. Probably I would let Trauma drop 1 for each time the protagonist stops an unwanted action, instead of just every three. I would also say that a night of peaceful rest would decrease Trauma. Also, the protagonist does not have to be inactive while someone else is in control. He can spend the whole time yelling at the dominant personality to get back on track, or be campaigning for support among the other reserves. Remember that the protagonist doesn't have to be in control of the body to reach his goals.
Now that this poll is officially over, it's time to congratulate Aaarrrgh for designing Hill, which has been decided by popular vote to be the Card of the Month for October 2013!
I think just letting it reduce with rest is okay. Alternatively, you could make the reserve into the new protagonist.
What I sort of meant is that you sort of end up as a reserve, except you don't actually get to make a hostile takeover once you reach a certain point, so you sort of end up playing a strictly inferior role (although you get the opportunity to swap around every hour if you so desire.)
Anyway, guys, come play. I am totally brimming with excitement, don't let me down.
Man, game signups are pretty slow these days, huh?
Anyway, Mown, you're Norwegian, right? I could link you to the original rules in Swedish, as well as show you a few other games designed by the same guy. He's made one that is for two players and no GM, so we could play that while waiting for other people to sign up for this...
Now that this poll is officially over, it's time to congratulate Aaarrrgh for designing Hill, which has been decided by popular vote to be the Card of the Month for October 2013!
It's honestly pretty difficult to read, I have an easier time listening to myself speak the words, although I get there eventually. It's not so bad that I google translate the site though.
Not that big on Star Wars, but the premise of the game is quite cool. Juggling all the strategies in my head might be difficult.
If you want to give the Star Wars game a spin, just let me know. I won't be up for doing much tonight, but it looks like it could be fun at some point.
Now that this poll is officially over, it's time to congratulate Aaarrrgh for designing Hill, which has been decided by popular vote to be the Card of the Month for October 2013!
Now that this poll is officially over, it's time to congratulate Aaarrrgh for designing Hill, which has been decided by popular vote to be the Card of the Month for October 2013!
Cool, I'll be the Jedi then. I'll try to translate all the strategies to English to simplify communication, and then we could do this at some point in the next few days.
Now that this poll is officially over, it's time to congratulate Aaarrrgh for designing Hill, which has been decided by popular vote to be the Card of the Month for October 2013!
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