Moving forwards with a little light editing of the SRD’s clock section for my Forged in the Dark project.
I also started a new project in Affinity Publisher for Goodnight Maus, which — for me — is another mental milestone in getting a project finished.
Not a ton of progress here, but any progress is real progress.
For Steam Thieves I’ve just changed a few words. I feel a more drastic change on clocks is coming, but not yet. Perhaps steam thieves need ‘gauges’ too. I at least need a mechanism for measuring how much steam they have in their packs. This is a resource I want players to use when pushing themselves. I’m not sure if it replaces Stress or if it is a parallel mechanic.
I want a situation where, to pull off an amazing in-flight move, a player opts to spend one unit of steam (granting them a die). They would then mark off steam from their steampack rig (rigs might be my playbooks…). If it goes to zero they are out of the adventure and need to explain how that happens. If they have no steam left to mark off they must leave the current engagement. They still have just enough steam to make it to the ground safely. Then they need to decide if the character goes back to HQ, tries to affect things from the ground (which should be very hard), or if they scramble to find the requisite steam needed to get back into the fray.
I like the idea of having players being able to toss steam cannisters (‘cans’) to each other in air and players being able to refill cans during missions (by illegally siphoning steam out of the mass pipe network that dominates the soaring city).
Anyways, new stuff below:
Steam Thieves
(Steampunk x Forged in the Dark, Ashcan here [link])
Simple Obstacles
Not every situation and obstacle requires a clock. Use clocks when a situation is complex or layered and you need to track something over time—otherwise, resolve the result of an action with a single roll.
Examples of progress clocks follow.
Danger Clocks
The Operator can use a clock to represent a progressive danger, like suspicion growing during a deception, the proximity of pursuers in a chase, or the alert level of coppers on patrol. In this case, when a complication occurs, the Operator ticks one, two, or three segments on the clock, depending on the consequence level. When the clock is full, the danger comes to fruition—the coppers hunt down the intruders, activate an alarm, open fire, etc.
Goodnight Maus
(Mausritter adventure site inspired by Goodnight Moon)