the Wall

Updated on June 8, 2022July 2, 2019/ Fraser

Who Watches . . . Civil Disobedience and the Wall

This post was first presented on 23 Jun 2019 at Patreon.

The Wall is a game about being part of an occupying force and the ethical challenges the characters will face in trying to maintain their humanity – or at least their moral core. In the game, the occupying forces are explicitly stated to be from another state – the occupying power. Watching the reporting on the widespread protests in Hong Kong, it provided another example of how the “occupiers” – or at least the occupying force – do not always originate in a distant land. For the citizens of Hong Kong, they faced a group employing force against them in the interest of the ruling elite who were – ostensibly – their own government.

This is not so unusual in history, nor is it restricted to authoritarian regimes or – in the case of Hong Kong – local representatives of an authoritarian regime. Canada has had its own moments, and not so long ago. Both the FLQ crisis and the Oka crisis saw employers of force – and in both cases, the Canadian Forces, Canada’s military – acting against Canadians in the interests of “the state.” Note: this is not to say that the state was wrong in employing these measures nor is the intent to conflate the FLQ and the Mohawk Warriors, but these were cases of military forces acting as security forces within the borders of Canada.

Many of the difficulties the kind of occupying force in the Wall would face remain for these state assets, especially since in an open and democratic society which values the rule of law, the employment of force against one’s own citizens should be an extreme last resort. However, in all of the cases I’ve mentioned – the Hong Kong extradition bill protests, the FLQ crisis, and the Oka crisis, the occupying force came/comes from a community outside of the target community or protects an outside community’s interest. In Hong Kong, the police were really acting in the interests of the Communist Party of China, which is the ultimate sovereign whom the Government of Hong Kong must propitiate. In Canada, the government and parliament’s interests are in the continued federation of the provinces and territories to the benefit of the mainly anglophone, white population. This put it at odds with the FLQ and the Mohawk Warriors, which were pursuing what they likely perceived as the interests of a minority, marginal, and/or victimized group.

The Hong Kong protests from Business Insider

The Wall is about the tensions between the characters and the rest of the occupying force, the elites, and the dispossessed. In these cases, the elites would actually be part of the polity directing the characters and the occupying force. In the game, that polity – a distant dictator or empire – does not have a mechanical function, so it’s loss changes only the narrative and not the mechanical structure of the game. In a game which replicated an internal crisis, the elites would be the portion of the society and/or population that is in the majority or at least that part of the population that is not marginalized or victimized. This part of the population supports, accepts, or at least does not protest the government’s actions against the marginalized group – the the protestors in Hong Kong or the indigenous residents of Kanesatake and other communities who side with the Mohawk Warriors. .

The tensions with the rest of the occupiers could narratively be described as perhaps different organizations – the PCs are police or security forces while the rest of the occupying force is military, or perhaps the reverse of that. It could even just be the tension between a team that is questioning the tactics or the entire premise of their deployment against fellow citizens and the rest of their peers, who accept and perhaps even relish in the action.

Finally, the marginalized group is the dispossessed. They have the same mechanical function, however the dispossessed may not seem removed from the general population in situations like the Hong Kong protests. Bloomberg (the news service) reported 2 million people involved in the protests on 16 June 2019. The population of Hong Kong is around 7.7 million, so that’s a pretty hefty percentage of the adult population confronting the government and police.

Protesters march at night during a rally in Hong Kong: Kyle Lam/Bloomberg

They had the numbers, but their stand against their government and confrontation with state security forces makes them the dispossessed- for the Wall.

Playing in these kinds of games might not be for everyone. This is not to say that exploring modern political protests through the Wall is political while other games aren’t – every inclusion and exclusion in the narrative of a game shapes its politics. I would expect it is plain that the Hong Kong protests are immediate in a way that the Spanish occupation of the Low Countries simply isn’t.

As always, be considerate of each other, and try to figure out a way for everyone to get the most of the game without anyone being hurt or made uncomfortable in an unwelcome manner.

Updated on June 8, 2022February 18, 2018/ Fraser

An Opening In the Wall

The Wall is now available through Drive Thru RPG.

You are the occupying soldiers of a foreign power garrisoning a city far from home. You do not share a culture with the citizens, and your state has decided to use the existing political structure to maintain its rule. You stand as the voice of the occupying power, ensuring the elite protect that power’s interests while avoiding antagonizing the regular citizens. You do not want political opposition and you do not want riots.

You are the Wall against chaos, against dissension, against revolution. But you are also the Wall against freedom and self-determination.

This is not a game about playing inhuman monsters. It’s a game about playing humans in a monstrous situation.

The Wall is a role-playing game about hard choices which uses a simple conflict resolution system to decide the outcome of scenes, which in turn affects the city the characters occupy and the factions within that city.

This game was developed as part of a Patreon campaign. If you would like to see more games like this, please support the author at Patreon.

You can find out more about the Wall here.

Updated on June 8, 2022January 20, 2018/ Fraser

This month, the release through my Patreon is the Wall, a new role-playing game in which you play members of an occupying force in a foreign city.

You are the occupying soldiers of a foreign power garrisoning a city far from home. You do not share a culture with the citizens, and your state has decided to use the existing political structure to maintain its rule. You stand as the voice of the occupying power, ensuring the elite protect that power’s interests while avoiding antagonizing the regular citizens. You do not want political opposition and you do not want riots.

You are the Wall against chaos, against dissension, against revolution. But you are also the Wall against freedom and self-determination.

And now you need to live with that.

This is not a game about playing inhuman monsters. It’s a game about playing humans in a monstrous situation. You are right in the middle of various factions, all seeking to better their lives or increase their power. You need to maintain order without alienating the foreign elite or making enemies out of allies. When you are ordered to do something wrong, how do you avoid it? How do you find a better outcome? And then what are the repercussions for you?

You can find the Wall at my Patreon.

Updated on June 8, 2022December 8, 2017/ Fraser

The Wall: Coming in 2018

You are the Wall against chaos, against dissension, against revolution. But you are also the Wall against freedom and self-determination.

And now you need to live with that.

The Wall is a role-playing game about hard choices from the designer of Sword’s Edge, Nefertiti Overdrive, and Centurion: Legionaries of Rome. It will be released first on Patreon and will be available to the public in March 2018.

If you are interested in the Wall or the other RPGs by Sword’s Edge Publishing, please follow us at Google Plus and/or support Fraser Ronald’s Patreon.

May 8, 2017May 8, 2017/ Fraser

This Is How (What) We Do It

After having a fair break with minimal pressure following the success of the Sword’s Edge Kickstarter, with the payments in, project management has started. But that’s not all. There are a bunch of other projects on which I am working, and here’s a general overview of what I’m working on and what stage it’s at.

Sword’s Edge: So the text is off for editing, and I have both the indexer and the fulfillment locked in. Right now, I am finishing off the setup for BackerKit and once that is running, this will move to project management, which means long periods of monotony punctuated by spurts of effort.

Fiction Commission: I can’t say more until this happens, but I am updating a fiction commission that I had thought was done. That’s okay, because the reason for the revision is one I whole-heartedly support. It has kind of changed how certain characters should be impacting on the story, but it is totally manageable and I’m happy with how this is turning out.

More to follow when I can.

“Lawless Heaven”: This is going to happen. It is actually very close to being in presentable form. Unfortunately, I won’t have portraits for the pre-made characters, but I do have some art for the book and most of the text is written. I will be doing some tweaking with it before it is released, but it won’t actually hit the public until after Sword’s Edge is released as a PDF – which will likely be November 2017, a month after the Kickstarter backers get theirs.

“Face ‘Splosion”: Another Sword’s Edge adventure, this time a science-fiction high octane actioner heavily inspired by Borderlands and especially Borderlands 2. Like “Lawless Heaven,” this will be released after Sword’s Edge hits the public, but this requires more work. The adventure and pre-made characters are all ready, but I need to write the other text that will be included, like an introduction, an explanation of the genre, and a discussion of the intended setting in case this will become the intro to a wider adventure.

Head Crushers: Another role-playing game, but this one is at the intersection of Nefertiti Overdrive and Sword’s Edge. Its default is fantasy, and it was designed to replicate the Skull Kickers comic, which was itself based on RPG sessions. The writing on this one is done, but it’s going to sit on the backburner for now, though I have plans to release it.

The Wall: And yet another RPG, but this one far and away from anything I’ve done before. Rather than fast, high octane action, the Wall is much more about creating narrative scenes. Its subject – the difficulties of being a foreign occupier in an unfriendly city – screams for deep thinking and drama rather than hacking and slashing. The mechanics on this one are ready, but there is a lot of writing to get it ready to hit the public. The intention, though, is there.

“The Nor’Westers”: This is a Sword’s Edge campaign set along the North West Company’s fur trade route in Canada in 1810. This campaign is made up of short scenarios, and so needs to be fleshed out more with lots of supporting text. This will likely be the last of the Sword’s Edge supplements that will be put out as it needs the most work. This is very much a backburner project. Once Sword’s Edge is out, this will take a higher priority.

Sword Noir: I paused on the updates for this, my first RPG, but much of the mechanics revision is done. There is a lot more, though, because the included setting of Everthorn needs much more work than the SN mechanics do. For now, SN is going to follow Sword’s Edge, but with its own special differences. Everthorn, however, needs a very major overhaul in regards to characters, and I have considered releasing the mechanics separate from the setting.

Nefertiti Overdrive: The historical addendum to this game is growing, but I am still in the middle of research on the 25th Dynasty. This is scheduled to happen after Sword Noir is done, so likely not for a while. A cool part of this project is that I have an actual Egyptologist who has agreed to review my work. For those who wanted more history in their insane action, this should go a long way to scratching that itch.

Crowd-funding: One of the ways in which these projects might see fruition is through Patreon. I have been toying with the idea for a long time, and I think as a system it works better for me than Kickstarter. All of the projects listed could be Patreon projects – some of which might be released in components rather than a single work. I need to get enough in order that I will have a regular release schedule, so this is not something that will likely happen for a couple of months, but I think it makes sense. It is also a way to release my games and supplements in advance of Sword’s Edge hitting the public.

So, yeah, I’ve got a few things on my plate.

Whew!

December 9, 2016December 9, 2016/ Fraser

The Wall: Rules Developing

This post is one of a series describing the design of a prospective RPG called the Wall. You can find more posts here.

In writing the text for the actual game, I came across a further problem with the rules as they existed. There is a carrot and a stick in regards to Fist: it is the easiest to succeed with, but failure has heavier penalties than the other Tools. Also, while d4 is more likely than the other dice to provide a re-roll, the likelihood of success is so much lower that this is not an advantage, so presently Eyes is the most difficult Tool to use. That should be Heart – as careful planning may not work as well as force, but it is generally a better approach than just persuasion.

So, the dice for each need to be changed (the easiest change) and each should have an advantage and/or a disadvantage commiserate to the ease of use.

In the first place, Fist will remain d8, but Eyes will be d6, and Heart will be d4.

Fist already has an advantage (likelihood of success) along with a disadvantage (both an increase to the Threat and the degradation of a Condition on failure).

So, right now, Eyes isn’t as useful as Fist, but is certainly more useful than Heart and it doesn’t carry a disadvantage. I think that works. That balances it.

In order for Heart to be attractive – being the most difficult to gain a Success – it needs an advantage. Let’s have Heart provide a free Sympathy to spend (which is useful only with the Dispossessed) and when a PC Prevails (even with a Negotiation), Distance decreases by 1. This makes Heart extremely useful when interacting with the Dispossessed, and even provides a bonus when used with other Factions, given the impact on Threats.

It think that works. I like that Heart now becomes the best Tool to use with the Dispossessed but is not particularly useful with the Elite or the Occupiers, which to me is pretty much correct.

December 5, 2016December 5, 2016/ Fraser

The Wall: Test Run Four

This post is one of a series describing the design of a prospective RPG called the Wall. You can find more posts here.

This is a return to test number three. The rumours of Elite food hording has proved false, so the PCs decided it was time to track down the Preacher who spouted these lies. Aelfgifu, the PC spy within the Occupiers, is eminently suited to that.

Our breakdown again is:
Episode: Food riots have begun in the Fifth Quarter, one of the middle class sections near the river. Order is threatened and the Company’s influence among the Elites is at stake.

Scene Goal: Find the Preacher

In test number three, the players decided that Aelfgifu was going to use her contacts among the Dispossessed’s underworld to get information on this Preacher, but then because there was no way to wager Sympathy, realized it was pretty much impossible.

The change to the rules governing Conditions makes it possible for the PCs to spend Sympathy to affect the outcome. The will be 5, but let’s see how this scenario plays out. Part of the plan is to Prevail and thereby lower the Distance, making further interactions with the Dispossessed easier. Unfortunately, that means it needs to be at least Subtle if not Open, which does not play to Aelfgifu’s strengths. A success with Hidden would not shift the Distance, as no one would know that the Occupiers were involved.

So, Aelfgifu is using Eyes, because this is going to involve careful planning and consideration. It’s going to be Subtle – Openly is kind of the antithesis of spying and Hidden wouldn’t help to lower the Distance. She is going to do this in uniform to get the die for Authority, and because she knows how fraught relations with the Dispossessed are, she’s going to be Careful. Finally, she’s wagering Sympathy because she really needs the successes. She wagers 2 Sympathy, 1 to use Spy to shift the Subtle die to d8 (d4 would allow more re-rolls, but d8 has a greater chance of Success), and the other to shift her Elements die also to d8. That leaves her with a d4 and three d8. Her only chance of success is hitting maximum number and getting re-rolls.

Maybe Relationships can also be used for free re-rolls? I think that makes sense. Wagering 2 still leaves Aelfgifu with a Sympathy she can use to get a free re-roll. I don’t think the amount of Relationships are high enough to unbalance resolution, but let’s see.

With her d4, Aelfgifu rolls a 2. This is not looking good. For her shifted Approach d8 she gets a 2. Oh no. For her two other d8s, she gets a 7 and an 8. That allows one more d8, which is a 5. That’s three successes. This would allow a Negotiation. She only has 1 Sympathy held back, so that’s not enough re-rolls to get the job done.

I’ve run this scenario ten times without success. Hitting five Successes when outside one’s niche is going to be very, very rare. What if she were using Hidden? It wouldn’t help in the future, but out of interest I tried it. It’s 2d4 and 2d8, which honestly doesn’t look as good as 1d4 and 3d8. And my hunch was correct, because it didn’t work out.

What about sharing Relationship to allow for more re-rolls and shifts? There’s really no other method of “helping” or “aiding” another PC. The system is really designed for that. Since this is a group, sharing Relationship might be possible. Maybe at a cost of 2 to 1? This might seem like I am trying really hard to make this particular scene work, but it is more a consideration of the 5 Difficulty. It should be possible to Prevail against 5 – since that is what Distance is initially set at – but not easily. Aelfgifu actually did really well with her rolls, so there should be a resource-based method for helping out. Sharing Relationship seems like a good way for that.

The sharing will need to be logically explained – how the character is helping – and that needs to be part of the narrative for the scene.

Unfortunately, nobody has 2 Relationship. Combining everyone’s seems a bridge too far to me – why not just have group Relationships if that is the case? And the point of it is that players can decide how their character approaches the factions – where do they make contacts and connections? So I’m not going to have combined Relationship. Since no one has 2 Sympathy to share, this is left at a Negotiation.

We know there is a way Aelfgifu’s player can make this work, just not with the Dispossessed. So what about Beatris? She was left with only 1 Sympathy after the first Scene, but let’s say she’s coming at this fresh. She had 3 Sympathy, could she pull it off?

Beatris would have the advantage of being able to go Open for the d6 which she could then use her Good Cop Concept to shift to a d8. She’s going to use Heart as well, which fits her character, and shift it to a d8 with another Sympathy. She’s going in uniform for Authority and finally she is using her Persuasion for another d6, which she will use her last Sympathy to shift to a d8. She is now looking at 4d8 and with Aelfgifu’s 2 Sympathy, there’s a re-roll if necessary.

Out of ten attempts, none succeeded. That’s important. That tells me that a Difficulty of 5 is too high. It tells me that even 4 is pretty hard (three times out of ten), but 3 is attainable. Aelfgifu could have Prevailed with three, and Beatris could totally have done so without burning all her resources.

This test taught me that the mechanics work pretty well, that there needs to be a way to assist, that I am comfortable with sharing Relationships as the method this happens, and that Threat should begin no higher than 3.

So at the introduction of a campaign, the Threats need to be set at 3 Distance, 2 Disdain, and 1 Discord. That makes sense to me.

With this, Aelfgifu’s attempt would have succeeded, and the Distance would have lowered to 2 while Harmony would have increased to 6. It cost her, but she succeeded while playing only slightly outside of her niche.

Things are cooking now.

Updated on June 8, 2022November 25, 2016/ Fraser

The Wall: Rules Next Evolution

This post is one of a series describing the design of a prospective RPG called the Wall. You can find more posts here.

In the last Scene, the PCs were very restricted in what they could do because Harmony was at 0 and so they could not spend Sympathy. Given that the outcome of the Episode is a movement in Order, impacts like this seem out of place. By the same token, changes to these stats only once per Episode make sense for a long campaign, but not if you are only playing through two or three Episodes in total.

So the loss of Harmony is fine, but there also needs to be a way to improve it.

There also needs to be terms for these city stats. How about Threats for Distance, Disdain, and Discord and Conditions for Peace, Order, and Harmony. It’ll do for now.

So, Conditions: what if, like Relationships, these could be wagered? What if they were a required wager to act? So, when the PCs interact with the Dispossessed, they are wagering Harmony. This could work. I think a range of 0-10 would be good, with a starting point of 5. Under 3 and the costs for using Relationship are doubled. Above 8 and Relationship wagered is paid back double (if one wagers 1 Sympathy and Prevails without Negotiation, it would pay off 2). At 0, one can’t wager Relationship. At 10, one does not need to pay Relationship to use Concept to shift a die.

The range allows for some play – as in a single failure, or ever a succession of failures, do not limit options.

I like this. So how would this have impacted the game so far?

In the first scenario, Beatris was dealing with the Dispossessed so the Condition effected would have been Harmony. In the example, it was dealing with Order because the Episode dealt with Order. Old rules. Now, it would be Harmony, meaning that the city’s Harmony would be 4. Further, it was a Negotiation. With a Prevail, the Condition increases by 1. With a Failure, the Condition decreases by 1. With a Negotiation, status quo, so that would not have effected Harmony.

In the second scenario, Adriss was dealing with the Elites, so this would have been Order. Adriss succeeded there, so Order would now be 6.

In the third scenario, Aelfgifu wanted to try to work through the Dispossessed, but the Condition would not allow it. Now it allows it.

What if Aelfgifu had worked through the Dispossessed. Could she have lowered Distance?

We’ll look at that next time.

November 18, 2016November 18, 2016/ Fraser

The Wall: Test Run Three

This post is one of a series describing the design of a prospective RPG called the Wall. You can find more posts here.

Okay, time for test number three. We didn’t actually provide an outcome for Test II. Let’s say that the rumours of Elite food hording has proved false, so the PCs decide it’s time to track down the Preacher who spouted these lies. Aelfgifu, the PC spy within the Occupiers, is eminently suited to that.

Scene Goal: Find the Preacher

The players decide that Aelfgifu is going to use her contacts among the Dispossessed’s underworld to get information on this Preacher. This is a difficult way to go around it, but success will help to lower the Distance and make further interaction with the Dispossessed easier. Unfortunately, that means it needs to be at least Subtle if not Open, which does not play to Aelfgifu’s strengths. A success with Hidden would not shift the Distance, as no one would know that the Occupiers were involved.

Further, because Harmony is at 0, Aelgifu can’t wager Sympathy. There’s almost no way she can succeed without shifting a die. The players decide they will need another plan. Aelgifu has best relations with the Occupiers, so it’s time to see if any of her comrades at arms knows anything of this Preacher.

Aelfgifu is using Eyes, because this is going to involve careful planning and consideration. It’s going to be Subtle – Open is kind of the antithesis of spying and Hidden wouldn’t effect Discord should the PCs succeed. She is going to do this in uniform to get the die for Authority. Unseen really doesn’t work for this, so how about Careful? The PCs don’t want any warning to reach whomever is involved in this, so Aelgifu is going to be very careful with how she fashions her questions and inquiries. There’s no need to wager Respect, given that she only needs 1 Success to Prevail.

With her Eyes d4, Aelfgifu rolls a 2. That’s not a good start. Her Subtle d6 rolls a 4. That’s a Success. Her Authority d8 gets a 3, which doesn’t help, and her Careful d6 gets a 2. Only 1 Success. That’s all they need. Discord can’t drop any further. The Scene is a success, but there’s no mechanical changes.

The mechanics are working, but there’s something that’s got me thinking. We can talk about that next.

November 15, 2016November 15, 2016/ Fraser

The Wall: Rules Evolution

This post is one of a series describing the design of a prospective RPG called the Wall. You can find more posts here.

Sometimes, changes to rules occur not during their use, but in the contemplation that comes after. This time, I was thinking about the use of Fist and the effect it and the other two Tools have on the city.

As per the last set of rules, when a PC succeeds, the Difficulty resolved against (Distance, Disdain, or Discord) lowers by one. If the PC uses Fist, it increases by one.

In the last example, Fist was used and because the PC Prevailed, there was no movement in Disdain – it increased by one because Fist was used but decreased by one because the PC Prevailed. But that is unsatisfying to me.

Fist is supposed to be the easiest way to get things done. Force, when you are an occupying military, is an easy option that works to solve problems, but only in the short term. It deals in symptoms, not core issues. Force should never alleviate the difficulty of working with a group.

But what about fear? Shouldn’t fear of what the Occupiers could do make the locals more compliant? This is true. Fear and brutality have been used to maintain order for extended periods of time.

So, how about this. When one succeeds in a resolution, the Difficulty of the faction one is resolving against lowers by 1 – so if one succeeds against the Elite, Disdain drops by 1.
However, none of this is true if one is using Hidden. If one succeeds in using Hidden, no one knows it was the PC or even the Occupiers who did it, so no benefit is accrued.

If one fails when using Eyes or Heart, Difficulty does not shift.

If one fails when using Fist, the Difficulty increases by 1. Further, if one was using Open, Peace decreases by 1 while if one was using Subtle, Harmony decreases by 1.

If one is using Fist, whether the PC fails or Prevails, the Relationship with the faction drops by one, so if the resolution is with the Elite, Influence would drop by 1, even when the PC Prevails. This is in addition to any Relationship the player wagers.

Fist has the greatest chance of success but also carries the greatest risk.

I like this . . . for now. Let’s see what happens with the next test.