Pause // Playtest Rules 0.5.1

Allright y'all, quick addendum to the new ruleset concerning Sync and Lock Out. I forgot to put all that in when publishing these rules in the first place. My apologies!

Playtest Rules 0.5.1

Pause // Playtest Rules 0.5

Finally got the new rules all put together in a neat PDF package. Bear in mind that it is formatted to be printed out, so there are page numbers and headers on alternating sides of each page as you read the manual. There are also blank pages and blank spots throughout the manual as a placeholder for future illustration when I can get to it. For now though, here's the rules. Merry belated Christmas and a Happy New Year to you all!

Playtest Rules 0.5 on Rapidshare

Pause // (WIP) Playtest Rules 0.5

In both an effort to make the game as smooth to play as possible, as well as to define rules for the investigations which are supposed to be so important to the gameplay experience of Pause, I have come up with some very notable rule changes for the upcoming version 0.5 of the playtest rules. Some of them are as follows:

• Adding sub-stats called Aspects, three for each Trait, in order to allow the player to better define his or her character. They also contribute to possible Merits and Flaws, which can be used as situational modifiers to dice rolls. (Yes, I'm borrowing this from World of Darkness. Deal with it.)
• Adding a shared team metric called Sync and removing Critical Status, as it got too clunky and was notably easier to revive from Lock Out than to heal the team member in the first place. Damage beyond a character's health is dealt to the team Sync, resulting in negative effects upon the team. Sync can be changed through other ways too.
• Reducing the number of Domains from seven to six. Also changing their function a bit - they can be used for situational extra dice before a roll.
• Lock Out will be tied more to the team's Sync than their individual health levels. The exact effects of Lock Out are to be determined.
• Actions are now all one point of Personal Time to use. More difficult actions have higher target numbers, as usual. More PT can be used to gain an advantage. Domain points can be used for extra dice in situations where they can be used rather than PT. Sync can be used for extra dice in dire situations.
• Consolidating the Within a Pause and In Between Pauses sections into one section about gameplay.
• Gameplay will now be divided into Scenes, which can be a combat or part of an investigation.
• Turn order now remains the same during an entire Scene rather than being rerolled each turn, unless characters wish to swap their places once during the Scene.
• Customization of actions and Domains still cost additional PT, but DO NOT add dice to the roll.

With so many rule changes already in the works, as well as others which I am considering, it makes sense that I will have to rewrite entire parts of the manual to accommodate the changes. Please be patient while I do this, as well as to make the manual into a more presentable piece of work (hooray Adobe InDesign!), not to mention that work still has me in a wonky-as-hell schedule thanks to the holiday season. Thanks for the continued support and I hope to keep hearing more suggestions and criticism from y'all!

An Update and an Idea

Just chiming in to let you all know that I am still alive. In short, work has me on a very hectic and changing schedule, not to mention other intermittent interruptions (checkups concerning my diabetes, doctor appointments to help further mitigate it, meetings of the local board and card gamers meetup) which gives me very little time to actually playtest Pause for the time being. I still need to tweak out how investigations will work without turning too rules-heavy and slow - one of my main gripes with the World of Darkness rule set. Other than that, it seems that the rules for being within a Pause are starting to coalesce rather well.

Other than figuring out Pause, I have also been bouncing around ideas to open up an original game store in the long term. Well, I don't know if you could call it original, but it'd be different than most of the fare in the greater Baton Rouge area. The basic idea would be one part game store, one part cafe. Sure, many a game store sell snacks and drinks to their patrons, and sometimes even let them bring in outside food and drink. But instead, what about a game store that cooks their food on-site and sells it to their patrons?

Granted, the menu would most likely be limited to items such as sandwiches and wraps - self-contained items to minimize the risk of spills and other such unseemly damage to gaming materials. But instead of porking out on chips and chocolate and soda all day long during a gaming session, I'm sure that many gamers would actually like to have a fulfilling, substantial meal to go along with their adventure. Not to mention that I really do think that better food leads to a better state of mind in the first place, which would also in turn lead to a better experience for patrons. It's something I learned ever since I changed my diet upon my diagnosis back in June.

As for the store itself, I would like to offer a variety of products to the patrons. While there will be the mainstays of any gaming store - items such as Dungeons and Dragons, Warhammer 40K, and Magic: the Gathering - I would like to appeal to a broader base. Stock up on games of all sorts, be they party, strategy, or Euro, as well as family favorites. And of course there would tournaments and the like to be held at the store during the month.

One thing I have also been considering is the idea of a rewards system for the patrons. I would like to make a system that rewards on three bases:

• Items purchased: 1 point for each item over X price. This includes food items. Sometimes people only come in for components for this game or that. Dice, miniatures, paint, stuff like that. No need to undervalue these patrons.
• Amount spent: 2 points for every X dollars spent. Of course, the regular patrons would be rewarded more for their continued business.
• Event participation: 1 point for each event. More possible depending on event. Things like tournaments and featured game nights are designed to both bring in new patrons and keep current ones involved.

The points would of course be redeemable for rewards, most likely store credits or perhaps special deals to people who have a certain amount of points. It would take a good deal of time to implement and keep such records secure, not to mention the walls of legal that would be required to actually run such a system without being sued the pants off of, but I would like to see such implemented with the store.

Speaking of legal, establishing the business in the first place is most likely the largest obstacle of them all. Sure, I could get a business loan as seed money, sure I can get people to help me get the place off of the ground, but establishing the business is probably going to be the most difficult of all. Tax codes, contracts, legal protection, business law - all of these things I'm going to have to become familiar with before actually going forward with the idea. Hence why this is a long-term goal for me.

In any case, I ought to stop this wall of text here.

Pause // Playtest Rules 0.4

Updated playtest rules!

• Character Creation
• Added a section on creating a character's concept
• Domains
• Down from 10 Domains to 7 Domains
• Domain scores are re-interpreted
• Domain uses are re-interpreted
• Examples now in priority of target number
• Anchors
• Weapon mode is now as flexible as tool mode
• Damage
• Got rid of composite damage (Light+Moderate, etc.)
• Personal Time Recovery
• Got rid of the excess ET dice rule
• Breaks
• New appendix with a better description of them
• Aberrations
• Got rid of the particular examples
• Improved Aberration generation in its appendix
• Character Sheets
• Changed them to reflect the rule changes

Pause // Playtest Rules 0.3.1

Well, I guess I lied when I said I would take a break. There were a few clarification issues brought up by the playtesters about the game about the Breaks as well as part of the character creation process, so I addressed them here. Also included now is an alternate rule regarding the modifiers, so check that out as well.

Pause // New Wiki

Nothing new with the rules, but I have compiled them in a wiki format as well as created a playtest setting. You can find both at Obsidian Portal. Although it's not labeled as such, I am indeed looking for players for the playtest. Feel free to let me know if you're interested.

Pause // Playtest Rules 0.3

Hello there. It's been a while since there was an update, but I have been working on the first fixes for Pause. And here they are! Enjoy!

Pause // The Unfinished Dissertation

And now, storytime!

Pause: A Game of Time and Space // Introduction

Tick.

That was the last real sound. The cut off so sudden, so loud in that sea of silence. Everything around was still, even your own flesh. Not paralyzed, not changed, not even sore. Just still. And then breath came again. The air around you moved sluggishly as you slowly stood up, and looked around the now silent lecture theater.

All was still.

And then it wasn’t. One by one, a couple of others stood, shaking off a tangible slowness, and gazing around the room in shock. Everything was frozen. Chairs on the verge of sliding, drinks on the edge of spilling, a thrown paper airplane carrying a message from one side of the crowded hall to the other, all stopped in their tracks.

A silent, frozen world, populated by the five, counting yourself, you could see almost wading through the sea of slowness. Some seemed to be speaking, yet there was no sound passing through the still air. How odd…

Then a crack appeared through the wall. Except, it wasn’t in the wall, and even as you watched it spread, moving through the air, the furniture, the people, seemingly without effect. A sense of profound wrongness surrounded it, a feeling of instinctive dislike and discomfort, a knowledge that, whatever it was, it was Wrong.

You were almost so distracted by its passage you didn’t notice the thing it left behind, but it’s hard to miss a jumbled together mass of tables and chairs rearing its “head” and howling in a voice which sounded like a thousand stools screeching over across an already scuffed floor. Then it turned to look at you.

Of course, you backed away. Any sensible person would back away. But a little voice at the back of your head told you this was your job. You had been selected to deal with a problem. You had no choice in the matter. The universe was broken, and it was up to you to put it back together.

You wouldn’t be entirely unaided, however. That ring, the one you got on holiday all those years ago, but still fits you perfectly, suddenly felt heavy in your hand. Then it felt warm. Then you found yourself holding a ring of shining steel, a circular blade you were certain was deadly sharp, yet you held with an easy competence, an almost innate understanding of its use suddenly blossoming in your mind.

The air around moved almost freely now, and looking around the room, all the others seemed to be moving faster, more freely, and almost all were armed. The thought occurred to you that a bladed ring thrown at thrice the normal speed possible might just help with the job ahead.

This was starting to get interesting…

Joshua Nanke-Mannell