Bay 12 Games Forum

Your exciting, thrilling, once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to manage a team in a season of a magic sport, where players battle with the powers of Air, Fire and Water to honor the Dragons of old, in a world where magitek takes the place of modern technology. Manage players, fans, shadowy sponsors and rival teams, win matches and make your way into the finals for a chance at the Dragon Cup and immortality!

This would be a suggestion game. You wouldn't have direct control over players in their matches, but you'll decide on strategies, manage them, decide on pep talks, so forth, plus manage the team outside their games in various ways. The exact mechanics are explained below.

The Elementalist Games, usually just referred to as 'the Games', are the world's biggest sport and the obsession of millions. It's a team sport, where lines of three players face off, attempting to break through to the opponents' end of the field to light one of three lanterns on a rotating pole with elemental magics. Once all three Lanterns are lit, your team wins the game. If time runs out - an hour of playtime divided into two periods – the game goes into overtime, followed by a series of 'shootout' timed attempts on the Lanterns to decide the game.

Each Lantern must be lit with a precise and accurate sigil crafted using a corresponding elemental magic - the Air Lantern with Air, the Water Lantern with Water, the Fire Lantern with Fire. The three elements of the Games correspond to the three Elements given to Man by the Dragons in ages past, though the average man on the street is unlikely to know or care about that. Officially, the Games are held in the Dragons' honor, and those Dragons who still live seem to like them well enough.

Players on the field use their magic against each other as well, though there are some limits on what kind of attacks are acceptable. This has led injuries being common, and the occasional death every year. Physical attacks are strictly forbidden, on the other hand - this is a game of mages and magic skill, not one for commoner ruffians.

General Play

Matches are split into two halves of ten Rounds. Each Round, the Lines cycle between the teams' 4 different ones, unless a Line is directed to stay on for longer than usual.

The game begins with a Duel: the centers of the two opposing Lines facing off in a contest of elemental magic - Fire, Air, or Water, depending on the turn of the die. The winner's Line takes the offensive.

On the offensive, the players of a Line roll d6s, plus (or minus) their Offensive Play modifier. Various strategies or situations may further modify the result. The total is compared to the defenders' Defensive Play rolls.

With 1 Degree of Success (1-4 over the defenders' total), the offensive continues. The attackers pressure the defenders and maneuver themselves into an advantageous situation, receiving a bonus for their next Round's attack.
With 2 Degrees of Success (5-9 over the defenders' total), the offensive breaks through, and the attackers receive 1 Lighting Opportunity.
With 3 Degrees of Success (10-14 over the defenders' total), the attackers receive 2 Lighting Opportunities.
With the rare 4 Degrees of Success (15-19 over the defenders' total), the attackers receive 3 Lighting Opportunities.

Potentially, I might scrap the 1 DoS 'offensive bonus' result and instead have it give 1 Opportunity, with 2 DoS giving 2, 3 DoS 3, 4 DoS 4, etc...

With 1 Degree of Failure (1-4 under the defenders' total), the defense blocks all attacks, but the offensive continues.
With 2 Degrees of Failure (5-9 under the defenders' total), the defense pushes out of their zone and goes on the offensive in turn.
With 3+ Degrees of Failure (10-14 under the defenders' total), the defense rushes out of their zone in a lightning breakaway, gaining a Breakaway Opportunity and going on the offensive.

Opportunities

When a Line gains an Opportunity, a player is chosen at random to try and score by blasting the opponents' Lantern with appropriate magic. In this, they roll a d6 plus (or minus) their appropriate Control modifier (Fire, Air, or Water). With 6 or more, they score, lighting the Lantern. With 12 or more, they have a chance to do a Double Lighting, simultaneously scoring on two of the enemy Lanterns, or simply a particularly spectacular lighting. A natural 1 is always a miss - even the masters can't always get it right!

Injuries and Penalties

Every player on the field tests to inflict Injuries and to evade Penalties for both halves of the game... or every Round of the game. This is something I'm struggling to make both simple and tied to the stats of the players. Currently, the players roll d6s, adding their Aggression modifiers, with a 6 or more being a hit, 10 or more two hits, and possibly 12 or more three hits. Each of these hit is allocated to one of the opposing players on the field at the time, who then roll d6+Physique against the attacker's d6+Aggression. They may either shrug it off, receive a bruise that weakens them slightly for the rest of the game, a Minor Injury which weakens them even further, a Major Injury, or a Severe Injury. Rarely, they may even die (which stops the game). The worse the injury, the longer it'll take to heal from it, and Major and up will remove the player from the match.

The players also test Discipline to avoid penalties. Here, d6+Discipline is rolled, with a result of less than 6 a penalty, and so forth. Inflicted injuries add a penalty to Discipline rolls, as those kinds of hits are more likely to result in penalties being called. These penalties are not necessarily from attacks, but may also represent other rule-breaking (I have a list, but there's no mechanical difference).

Aggressive players are thus useful in clearing out and weakening skilled opponents, but they also bring the risk of penalties. A penalty usually results in the offending player sitting the next Round out, allowing the victims to play 3 against 2 for a while.

There's quite a bit to keep track of here, which is why I'm not happy with it. In any case...

Player Stats

Every player has stats, as below:

Offensive Play: Skill as an offensive player, used when your line is on the offensive.
Defensive Play: Skill as a defensive player, used when your line is on the defensive.
Fire Control: Skill with the elemental magic of Fire, used in Fire Duels and Fire Lantern Opportunities.
Air Control: Skill with the elemental magic of Air, used in Air Duels and Air Lantern Opportunities.
Water Control: Skill with the elemental magic of Water, used in Water Duels and Water Lantern Opportunities.
Aggression: Chance of attacking another player with magic, and the strength of said attack.
Discipline: Chance of playing clean and avoiding penalties.
Physique: Taking hits, endurance, recovering from injuries.
Growth: Learning, growing as a player, and the height of your potential.
Fame: How famous you are. Famous players may expect better pay and draw in bigger crowds and sponsors.

An average player has +2 or +3 in most stats. +4 or +5 represent great skill, with +6 an exceptional talent. Players with multiple +6 stats are world-class stars.

Star Players are particularly exceptional individuals who may have Special Traits, such as always dealing a harsher injury on their victims, being great at shootouts, or being prone to politically insensitive remarks about non-human races that keep landing you in hot water with the media.

So, basically, you can have all kinds of players: skilled snipers who score practically every time but are small and flimsy enough to be mangled by the slightest hit, all-round solid players with no weaknesses but no outstanding strengths either, good attackers who lack in defense or the other way around, aggressive and brutal enforcers, highly-disciplined players who you might wish would deal out more hits, masters of one element but incompetents in the others, eccentric and media-friendly stars who aren't your best but bring in the crowds, and so forth. Each might have their own issues and flaws, which might make them a risky proposition to take on, however great their skills. Some might look weak, but have great Growth and thus great future potential; others might be strong but old and tired, with negative Growth sapping their skill every year.

The idea is to manage your Lines so that you put the best people in the right places - skilled Controllers up centre to win Duels, defensive Lines to hold off the opponent's star offensive ones, aggressive enforcers when you really want someone on the enemy team dead, and so forth. You could further affect the play and rolls with Strategies and Pep Talks before the game and in the intermission.

Team Stats

Team morale is represented by Confidence and Cohesion. Low Confidence (usually the result of long losing streaks, player injuries or deaths, poor management, and the like) results in Play penalties, while high Confidence (winning, good management, and the like) results in bonuses. However, very high Confidence actually turns right back to penalties, as your players get all too cocky and overconfident! Cohesion represents the chemistry and internal happiness of your team - how well the players play together. Interpersonal conflicts, new players, and the like lower Cohesion, while playing together for long periods and getting along well increases it, with corresponding effects on Play.

Emily, as a guest, was recreated in host-form from the collected data in the far future for whatever reason (Bernard/his faction wanting to preserve or restore humanity?), and proceeded to try and recreate her father too. Or maybe they’re building a reverse Westworld, where they’re making previous guests suffer in their personal hells, heh... Anyway, I rather liked MiB’s immediate irritated recognition that he was in the Matrix in a simulation/something.

Pretty cool episode all around. This was a disappointing season, but I guess it left me curious for what’ll happen next.

Poor Sizemore finally got to finish that speech, yay. I kinda expected him to be killed by Maeve for his betrayal or something equally grimdark, so a genuine heroic sacrifice was actually refreshing.