Come dream with me tonight

Last time we talked about how Vivid should feel - "being skilled is about not wasting effort" - and it's main design goal, to be an ultimate gateway game. But I wanted a lot more, actually. 

First, I wanted something that will broadcast a message of teamwork, a game about working together to achieve goals. Second, I wanted a game in which combat isn't the only interesting sub-mechanic, but just one of several, a subset of a more general "physical action" scene, with additional "social intrigue" scenes, all being just as mechanically fun to play as F20 combat. And third, I wanted it to evoke wonder, because that's just my jam, I'm into wonder. 

And while doing all of this, the game must also be easy (for both GM and players), colorful, and inviting. 

Somewhere in the middle of the design process, I realised Vivid should be a toy.

When you look at a Vivid box you should be filled with a sense of wonder, and when you take it for a spin, you should be able to create an experience that matches this wonder simply by pressing some metaphorical buttons and twisting some metaphorical knobs. This, again, includes the GM - the game should provide her with the tools to evoke wonder with ease.

Some of these demands are more easily handled than others. For example, cool random tables are an excellent way to help the GM evoke wonder. Allowing for interesting decisions during a non-combat action scene is much trickier. 

To get some inspiration, I went to see how animated TV shows do it. They're very good with toys, after all. I began to realise a lot of what I'm looking was already "solved" in animated TV shows, and Vivid should perhaps emulate some of the lessons learned there. Almost all animated TV shows have cool action scenes in which a physical fight is only a part of what's happening; there's ton of teamwork; and also, many shows know how to evoke wonder. 

When I think "wonder and exploration", I think The Adventures of Teddy Ruxpin. Not exactly a common cultural touchstone, I'm aware of that, but the opening theme gets me every time. It's basically a pacifist show - none of the core characters can fight, or wish to - and yet, there's action, mystery, and all the wonder you can ask for. 

I learned a lot from Teddy, as well as from The Pirates of Dark Water and Bionic Six. You'll see it in the future, when I talk about the Frame and arenas, two core concepts of Vivid. One thing I also noted while watching the shows was that no protagonist actually gets better over time. The world becomes more complex, new connections and tools sometime become available, but if someone ever gets to upgrade their abilities, it's either for a single episode or it's a very specific skill that they were having trouble with before.

Animated protagonists are not like PCs, of course, but progression was still an issue for me as well - because it stands in opposition to "simple" and "easy". Most of all, it seems completely incompatible with "avoid 'highest is best'". Most players, of any game, enjoy progression and expect it, usually in the form of bigger numbers. I can offer wide progression, instead of tall progression - more abilities instead of bigger numbers - but that clashes with simple and easy again. 

For a time, progression seemed like my biggest obstacle. I wanted a campaign-length game, in which players will evolve their characters in meaningful ways - but somehow, the resolution had to stay almost the same. That's when I came up with the idea of Challenge Ranks, which avoid the problem completely by cheating. It was a brilliant solution, and next time I'll explain how it works - and how I gave it up eventually, because turned out, it didn't work.