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Attribute Auction/ Kingdom (liege) creation tool
Anyone here ever actually played diceless roleplaying? I GMd and played in some Amber Campaigns a while back, but was wondering if anyone here has played too. There are a lot of pretty interesting concepts regarding how to GM extremely powerful characters found in the Amber Game.
But there is a very cool concept called the Attribute Auction that takes place before character creation that I have used in other RPG settings, with slight modifications. Here is a wiki description of it, in a paragraph.
"wikientry":http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Amber_Diceless_Roleplaying_Game#The_Attribute_Auction
MORE IMPORTANTLY - I have used the auction to have players help me come up with more realistic leaders for kingdoms and/or nation states who are neighbors. How it works: You come up with a list of attributes. In Amber, its strength, endurance, psyche and warfare. But it could just as easily be anything.
For kingdoms I use:
1. population
2. mineral/ mining wealth
3. farming/ forestry wealth
4. currency reserves
5. arcane magic skill of populace
6. divine magic skill of populace
7. standing army/ navy
8. static defenses
9. skill of the king's advisors (governance)
10. skill of the king (governance)
You assign each person who wants to help you out with the name of a king/ kingdom. You might even show them on your maps where this kingdom is located (or not, its not necessary). Basically you give them a copy of your list of what is going to be bid on, and tell them they have 100 points to Bid with. Once they are comfortable, you start the auction. At the end of the auction you ask each player to jot down their least favorite and most favorite kingdom (usually based on who was trying to outbid them during the auction, this simulates a history of ill will or cooperation without having to work out a whole backstory - or you could use that info to create a diplomacy tree).
The end result is a much more dynamic NPC liege creation system. As a GM, you already have laid out for you the answer to innumerable questions that might arise during the course of a mid to high level campaign-- if the players are taking an active role in conquering, building strongholds, fighting wars or engaging in politics, etc. If they arent, you still have set yourself up with a Simulated Continent or Region that you can use to help drive storylines and make your world more realistic. The most liked and least liked also give you the context for a history of wars/ religious strife, or economic / social cooperation between some nations.
I HAVE ADDED A SECOND POST BELOW THIS ONE WITH A CONCRETE EXAMPLE, AND ALSO HOW YOU CAN APPLY THE AUCTION CONCEPT TO ANOTHER RP SITUATION .. see below :)
But there is a very cool concept called the Attribute Auction that takes place before character creation that I have used in other RPG settings, with slight modifications. Here is a wiki description of it, in a paragraph.
"wikientry":http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Amber_Diceless_Roleplaying_Game#The_Attribute_Auction
MORE IMPORTANTLY - I have used the auction to have players help me come up with more realistic leaders for kingdoms and/or nation states who are neighbors. How it works: You come up with a list of attributes. In Amber, its strength, endurance, psyche and warfare. But it could just as easily be anything.
For kingdoms I use:
1. population
2. mineral/ mining wealth
3. farming/ forestry wealth
4. currency reserves
5. arcane magic skill of populace
6. divine magic skill of populace
7. standing army/ navy
8. static defenses
9. skill of the king's advisors (governance)
10. skill of the king (governance)
You assign each person who wants to help you out with the name of a king/ kingdom. You might even show them on your maps where this kingdom is located (or not, its not necessary). Basically you give them a copy of your list of what is going to be bid on, and tell them they have 100 points to Bid with. Once they are comfortable, you start the auction. At the end of the auction you ask each player to jot down their least favorite and most favorite kingdom (usually based on who was trying to outbid them during the auction, this simulates a history of ill will or cooperation without having to work out a whole backstory - or you could use that info to create a diplomacy tree).
The end result is a much more dynamic NPC liege creation system. As a GM, you already have laid out for you the answer to innumerable questions that might arise during the course of a mid to high level campaign-- if the players are taking an active role in conquering, building strongholds, fighting wars or engaging in politics, etc. If they arent, you still have set yourself up with a Simulated Continent or Region that you can use to help drive storylines and make your world more realistic. The most liked and least liked also give you the context for a history of wars/ religious strife, or economic / social cooperation between some nations.
I HAVE ADDED A SECOND POST BELOW THIS ONE WITH A CONCRETE EXAMPLE, AND ALSO HOW YOU CAN APPLY THE AUCTION CONCEPT TO ANOTHER RP SITUATION .. see below :)
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You now know, as GM, that a straight up armed conflict between A and C will result in A crushing C (lets say that C is ranked #5 in standing army and #6 in static defenses) very quickly.
But, you also notice that C has the top rank in population, and is #2 in farming/foresty wealth and also #2 in Skill of Advisors. So, as a GM you now have all kinds of motivations and metrics to back up whatever earth shatterring conflict of kingdoms you might want to run in your campaign, without havingt to pretend to be several different personalities each with their own motives.
It gives players a whole host of pivot points that they can manipulate for added leverage in any given conflict. In the example above, the players might decide they are going to help fend off the invasion from nasty kingdom A, since they are currently set up in kingdom C. One possible way they could do this would be to utlize the royal advisors, calling in contracts or favors, setting up economic embargoes, selling timber rights to kingdom D who is ranked last in forestry wealth in exchange for a promise of mercenaries, etc . Or, maybe C is most liked by Nation E (remember the most liked and least liked note you asked your players to write for the kingdom they bid for?). This could mean that it would be a lot easier to pull nation E into the conflict given sufficient cause (or RP).
The possibilities are literally endless. Players get to feel like they had a real hand in creating the world they play in, and the GM has a much better/more realistic set of kingdoms or nations to help set the stage and move the storyline along. It is much easier to fairly determine the outcome of macro level events during the campaign once the kingdom attribute auction takes place.
But again, an auction can be used for all sorts of things where an absolute ranking would be helpful. I have also used an attribute auction during an all thief campaign I ran; in that case the items being bid on were all of the classic thief skills (hide in shadows, move silently, climb walls, pick locks etc). They were all master thieves, but it was very helpful to have them ranked in comparison to each other; you always knew who would reach the top of the wall first,or who should be the one to sneak past the guard and grab the key, etc. A band of thieves roleplaying is basically nonstop rounds of one-upmanship in my experience, in between heists and capers. The ranking system worked wonders for that. Just remember - die rolls whenever its not two ranked entities competing. Or, in other words, ranking only comes into play when its ranked vs ranked. Otherwise its just a skill check.
I'm going to point this thread out to Florimel to see if he'd like to steal the idea. In one recently ended campaign (The Sun Eaters), we designed the protagonist race by committee...this sounds like a more organized way of doing so on an even grander scale. :)
But at least for the kingdom building aspect, it really does cut out hours and hours of DM work for me-- not just initially, but later on during the campaign. And, after creating lots of worlds, I found myself setting up a lot of the same kind of conflicts between nations/ kingdoms over and over. Plus, coming up with realistic motivations for EVERY king and country is also a pain in the butt -- the first few times it was exhilirating -- then after that it becomes a bit of a chore (for me anyway).
Using the auction sets you up with unpredictably complex relationships and comparisons amongst a group of regional neighbors, and as I mention in the original post-- gives a DM tons and tons of great RP hooks to work with -- all without spending hours and hours necessary to whip up individual kingdoms, kings, resources, etc.
Thanks for sharing this Igor.
Maybe end of March or beginning of April sometime? lemme know, either post or just send me a private message here on OP. thanks!
ok, lets get something goin last weekend of march, I will post a thread (called Auction Time) a week before hand and maybe we can set a 30 minute window when we will all be available. :) catch you guys later!