Hi Neil

I've not been ignoring this, but I've been doing Hearts in Glorantha last week and now SimpleQuest so my heads a million miles away from the Lands of Monkey.

Saying this will be engaging Monkey mode soon , to prep my mate Ginger Matt who will be running the game at Continuum for me.

So I will be answering your questions in the depth they deserve :)

Regards

;O)Newt
D101games -An Imaginary Company

I've not been ignoring this post, just been a bit snowed under with stuff magically getting finished...

1. How did the test at Furnace last year impact upon the game?

The major result was a streamlining and clarification of the central rules mechanic, which is used for everything from fast and furious kung fu action to Poetry contests..

In Monkey you draw playing cards from a deck equal to your skill. The Narrator draws a number of cards from his deck, equal to the resistance, which is either a difficulty (eg. 2 cards for an easy difficulty, 6 for a near impossible difficulty) or your opponent's skill .

Red cards are Yang (Active energy) and Black cards are Yin (passive energy). You play either a Yin or a Yang hand, depending on which is higher - and narrate your action as appropriate.

For example a Yang attack would be an aggressive round house kick, will a Yin attack would be a gentle push where the attacker focuses their energy and projects that rather than relying on powerful physicality.

You also get a one bonus card for using appropriate Trait that match the type of card draw playing. So an Aggressive Trait, which is Yang, would only be give a one card bonus to the round house kick, but not the gentle push in the example above.

The Narrator does the same for the opposition, and who ever gets the highest hand wins the action. Seeing this is a Narrative game, if you don't narrate your action properly including how you build your trait into action, you don't get to play your hand.

Simple actions are one draw vs a resistance draw, who ever gets the highest hand wins.

Dramatic actions, such as multi-round combat, are one card draw per round. It used to be if you lost a hand you would lose a card next round. When you where down to zero you were out of the action, eg lost a fight. Worked reasonably well, but three strikes and you are out for heroes/major characters, 2 strikes if you are a supporting character and one strike if you are an extra/mook works much more smoothly. This change came out of the Furnace playtest. Jokers, which automatically win you an action, are still in, despite people finding them a bit jarring in the Furnace playtest. They model the unpredictability of the action from the book, were even a mighty immortal like Monkey can be brought low by unexpected resistance or events.

Players can also keep unused, but high scoring, cards in a Fortune hand, which initially starts at a limit of two - and increases as the player actively pushes forward the story or just simply entertains the other players up to a maximum of five.

Another big change is that as well as Player driven Virtue Goals there are now GM Virtue awards as well (see below for an explaination of how this works). The line of blank faces around the table when I explained Virtue Goals, made me realise that initially these should be set by the GM until the players get the hang of setting their own.

2. Remind me of the funky chargen procedure?

First you pick your Immortal type
Animal spirit (like Monkey), Celestial (born into Heaven for a specific purpose such as serving the celestial burocracy), Terresital ( Local Gods) , Demon (either native to the 10 Hells or a monster cursed by heaven) and Ascended Master (Kung Fu Masters, Taoist or Buddhist priests - Mortals who through practice of meditation and/or martial arts have become immortal).

Then you pick your three skills, which are more like skill groupings/professions (such as Solider, Kung Fu, Taoist Sage, Mandarin, Poet, etc) than traditional rpg skills. One is your Primary at five, the next is your Secondary at three and the last is your Tertiary skill at one. The rank of the skill is the number of cards you draw.

Next is Traits or Attitudes, since skills are what you can do Attitudes tell you how you do things. Attitudes are either Yin (Passive) or Yang (Active). You pick five. As noted above you get a bonus card if you can play an Attitude (Yang is red, Yin is black) during an Action. Animal spirits who rely more on their raw personality than skills get two cards (but their primary skill starts at four and their secondary starts at two).

Then you have five points to spend on magic powers. Every Immortal starts with Flight and Shape change. Each magic power has a limitation ; For instance if you are Flying you can't carry a mortal (since everyone knows a mortal is heavy as a mountain to an immortal in flight). At the moment players can make up their own powers, the final game will have a list drawn from examples in Chinese Mythology, and all they have to do is think up a limitation. Each power starts at a rating of one, and the player can spend extra points out of their five to increase it on a one to one basis. Magic powers can also be put into items, such as Monkey's Iron Staff, which increases one of the power's in it by one.

Finally you choose your Crime, the reason why your Immortal was banished from Heaven, with associated Weakness. So for example You could have been thrown out for stealing the Queen of Heaven's magical peaches of immortality, so your Weakness would be Theft. Weakness in play is a major block in the road back to virtuous behaviour. For example our Theif knows that it is wrong to steal but will have to fight against this Weakness every time an opportunity arises OR the Player can play along with the Weakness and draw an extra card into their Fortune hand.

3. What do the characters actually do?

The overall mission statement for the player characters is that they Chinese Immortals are trying to attone for their past crime and get back into Heaven.

This can either be the Eastern Buddhist heaven, which is big on lessening the pain of living creatures and helping them find enlightenment or the Western Taoist Heaven where the aim of game is upholding the Mandate of Heaven. As a way of keeping track of this there is a Virtue score, which initially starts at zero. Players gain Virtue points, either by GM award or by the Players setting their own tasks and achieving them. You lose Virtue for obvious offences against heaven, so the effect of this mechanic is that it focuses the player's efforts away from the usual anti-social rpg behaviour of 'cheating, lying, stealing and using force' against non-player characters. Obvious enemies, such as Demons are another matter entirely, but even with these there is a strong urge earn extra Virtue by bringing them to Justice rather than just slaying them out of hand when they are defeated.

This sees the Player Immortals complete various quests, bickering with one another and despite their weaknesses trying to accumulate Virtue in the process.

4. Whats the endgame?
Play can either be short form, where you have to gain 6 Virtue points to 'win' . If the players are pushing it this can happen within one session. Or Long form were the players have to accumulate 60 Virtue points. This is best for a longer story approach, such as that taken in the Novel itself.

When the players reach 60 points, the Narrative stops and shifts to the Immortal's glorious ascendancy to Heaven. If the players are playing a Long Form game this may be deferred to a denouncement at the end of the series of games.

Regards

;O)Newt
D101games -An Imaginary Company