Fire in the Sky

I have a structure in mind for a typical play session, but what I’m on about right now is trying to shake out some sort of core story game mechanic.

First, I want action in the air and on the ground integrated. What this means is, the mechanics of a personal confrontation on the ground mirror that of a dogfight in the air. So, in Ground Scenes, the Aggressor is coming at you and he’s got a goal (whatever that may be – ruin your reputation, steal your girlfriend, humiliate you, etc) The way he does this is by acting against you to achieve this goal. If he succeeds, you lose whatever was at stake and you lose Energy, which tracks your character’s story arc through the game. In a dogfight, this action is more literal – the Aggressor wants to get on your six and put missile up your tailpipe. Here his goal is simple: shoot you down. If you lose, well you’ve probably lost your plane, some of your comrades, and of course Energy. If it is your Last Mission, you may also lose your life.

It works like this- there are three things you can do to an opponent: Maneuver, Respond, and Attack.

Maneuvering lets you set up a good Attack. Successfully Maneuvering on an opponent means you have the advantage over him and makes Attacks easier. You can Attack without having an advantage, but it won’t be as effective.

Responding allows you to check a Maneuver, and it allows you to check other Responses and Attacks. You trump each other back and forth until one of you runs out of Energy to play another Response. Then the last person to have succeeded at an action wins the scene.

Attacks are just that – direct action against your opponent.

In Ground Scenes, one round of this action is a complete Ground Scene. The actions can be broad or narrow, and the time scale is flexible, minutes, days, weeks, however long it takes. So for example an Aggressor’s goal is to steal your pilot’s girlfriend Mayumi. He opens with a Maneuver, describing a scene where you’re supposed to go meet her for a date, but because you are a notorious and irresponsible carouser (part of your Baggage), you have stayed out late, got drunk and slept until noon. With you indisposed, he can conveniently happen by the Officer’s Club where you and Mayumi were supposed to have lunch and swoop in on her. He won’t actually get to describe these moves until he successfully plays an Attack action, but he’ll be in a great position to do so if you don’t Respond. You do so, and say that a squadron buddy calls you from the club and says your girl is waiting for you and you better light your burners and get down there. If the Aggressor has the ability to do so, he too can counter your Response with a Response of his own and so on. Let’s say you played the last Response action and get to the O-club in time to intercept him. There he is chatting up your date. You don’t have enough Energy to play a Maneuver against him to try to gain an advantage so you just have to go right in and rely on chutzpah. Your energy is low now too so you play a weak Attack action and describe how you simply walk up to her while she’s talking to the Aggressor and brazenly try to pull her away. Alternatively, you could describe punching the guy in the mouth. The Aggressor can Respond if he has the Energy, and the last person to succeed at an action at this point will likely get the stakes; if you win, you’ve got your girl and an Energy boost; lose and the Aggressor has stolen her away and you have an Energy loss.

In a dogfight, things narrow down a bit more and are more literal, with play going round by round until someone’s plane is scattered across the desert and parachutes are opening up. Responses are also more exact, with things like Barrel Roll, Half Loop, High Speed Yoyo and Vertical Rolling Scissors being among a set of moves that counter other specific moves.

I know this needs a lot of work still, but this is the basic idea.

I must acknowledge the source for this mechanic, the excellent Down in Flames series of air combat games by GMT. It’s about the only air combat game I have played that captures (at the basic game play level) the speed and seat-of-the-pants feel of a dogfight.

I posted this in the original Story Games thread but it’s worth restating here (cleaned up a bit). This is what I want from this game:

1. Pilots who have Drama going on all over the place, and Problems that can only lead to a fiery end literally and/or figuratively. Their Drama and conflict plays out on the ground as well as in the air. In fact, when the pilots are in the air, they should be carrying their dirtside burdens with them and sometimes (often) working those problems out in the air, in combat.

2. Aircraft that are an extension of the character. They’re on the character sheet. You give them a name and draw nose art for them. They’re that important.

3. A dogfight system that is tactical and has the right air-combat “color” (“I pull a 4G yoyo and drop onto his six, ‘Fox 2!'”), allowing for move and counter-move, but is not a hex-and-counter wargame, and requires no map (but minis of airplanes to show relative positions and whooshing noises are just fine). A dogfight system that links it to the story of the pilots flying the planes. Maybe a system that treats all conflict as a dogfight?

4. Group creation of the squadron and some management of its affairs (negotiation of contracts, maintenance and supply issues, etc) that isn’t just bean-counting and making lists. It has to have an impact on the main characters – the pilots.
So far, the one unifying concept I’ve pulled from the SG discussion is the idea of Energy as an attribute of both pilot and plane. In a dogfight, Energy equals advantage – if you’ve got it, you can get on your enemy’s 6 and flame him. In this game, Energy measures a character’s momentum to move through his story arc, literally and figuratively. On the ground, the pilot risks Energy to outwit one’s rivals, and in the air, it’s literally used to outfly them – the plane adds its Energy to the pilot’s. Energy also tracks the story arc of the character, and when it exceeds or drops below a certain point, the character’s story ends. There’s a bit more to it but that the main thrust of the idea.

I decided to start this blog to help me maintain the momentum, or should I say my Energy, that I picked up from the Story Games thread where this got started. It’s kind of strange that I somehow found the motivation to actually try to design a story game. I wasn’t planning to. Not that I haven’t thought about it before but I just never had an idea build itself to critical mass the way this one has.

So, I intend to use this blog to talk about where the game is coming from, where I’m at with it, and where I want it to go. The game idea comes from my desire to see a game about fighter planes and fighter pilots done well, with clear inspiration from the Area 88 manga and anime. I recently picked up In Harm’s Way: Wild Blue which was a good idea but fell down in the execution, IMO. My reaction to it spurred the idea for Fire in the Sky.

Most air combat games are straight up wargames (and that’s fine, I like wargames) and most role-playing games that have included air combat tended to be little removed from their hex-and-counter cousins. What I want is a story game that is all about the drama of a mercenary fighter pilot’s life and death, combined with kick-ass air combat that is an integral part of the system.

Can I do it? I don’t know but I’m going to try. I’ve done game writing before, but always with other people’s systems. I haven’t tried to design my own game from the ground up (save the D&D knock-off I wrote when I was 12, but anyway). But anyway, it’s been just over a week and I haven’t lost the urge yet.

So my first waypoint on the current flight plan is to try and put together some sort of game system that looks like it will work. if I can do that, I’ll figure out a vector to the next waypoint. In the currently hazy and distant future, I sure would love to be able to release a finished game, but at the moment, I just need to figure out a design that will at least get off the ground.

But any good combat pilot needs a good wingman and squadron mates. So I’m hoping people will join in here to talk about the game with me and help with ideas, talk about your favorite airplane movies and media, and of course your favorite aircraft (!) and see if we can’t push the envelope a bit.

Tomorrow I’ll go over my design goals again.