Many Systems, One Campaign

Introduction

Often I find myself sighing, so many role-playing games, so little time. After writing a much longer and more tedious essay, I’d like to explain ways we can play multiple RPGs within the same campaign.

Why Do It?

So why entertain this strange idea of a multi-system role-playing campaign at all?

• To sample other systems and settings.
• To try other genres ill-adapted to one’s favorite system.
• To capture the multiversal strangeness of Marvel’s Exiles, Moorcock’s Eternal Champion series, etc.

Prior Work

Many games contain elements of what I’m searching for, but I will restrict myself to three.

West Marches Campaigns

While named by Ben Robbins, author of Microscope among other things, the West Marches style harks back to the way Gygax, Arneson, et al played their games.

The group had multiple DMs/GMs/Referees and dozens of players. Each player was encouraged to have several diverse characters. A Referee and a group of players would arrange for a session whenever all parties had time. Each adventure lasted one session; at the end, every surviving PC struggled home.

Thus the recurring setting lies on the border between civilization and a monster-haunted wilderness full of named but unexplored adventure locations. Adventurers would name one of the unexplored locations and gather a party (and a Referee) to go loot explore it.

Notably, one was alway safe in town. Adventures happened out there, in the wilderness and dungeons. (We’ll circle back to that later.)

Godstones of Hârn

In the world of Kethira, on the island of Hârn, an ancient people called the Earthmasters built the so-called Godstones. Someone who knew how they worked and had the psychic strength to master them could open portals to other worlds.

The “Godstones” supplement to HârnMaster relies on that systems’s mechanics, of course, but it outlines procedures for activating, configuring, and opening portals to other pre-defined worlds. Most tellingly, the supplement contains this passage:

If a traveler uses a Godstone (or any other method) to move between worlds with radically different environments, there is a good chance that his physical form and/or his personal powers and attributes will have changed when he reaches his destination, bringing them more into line with the norm in the destination world. This also applies to inanimate objects.

In other words, the player may not find himself in his usual body, playing by the rules of his usual game. Another supplement on other worlds accessible from Kethira include:

Mâraku – A place where trolls and dragons and strange native beasts share the world with more familiar, and friendly creatures.

which might be the Trollworld of Tunnels & Trolls, and

Tekú – Tekú is a world of great empires and strange, alien races. The principal activities are politics and intrigue and the penalty for failure is often impaling. The great empires vie constantly for hegemony under the starless sky, and hostile aliens confuse already complex issues, often beyond human comprehension.

which is almost certaily Tékumel, setting of the classic RPG Empire of the Petal Throne.

To quote “Godstones” again:

GMs may use the Godstones to link different worlds under one or several GMs into a megagame wherein characters travel from one world to another in the course of their adventures. Each world can operate under its own natural laws (rules). Powerful characters from a magic-strong world should find their abilities reduced when they arrive in a magic-weak environment like Kethira (and vice-versa). Each player might have several profiles describing the same character, reflecting changes in personal powers as he moves from one world to another.

Here we have not West Marches, but entire worlds.

The Flux

John Wick’s “The Flux” poses the following questions:

What if the world died yesterday and was completely reborn and you were the only one who noticed? And what if you could pull skills and abilities and even powers from the old world and use them in this new world?

Every so often, the world is torn down and completely rebuilt … using a new game system. Players make a new character for each of these new worlds using the new system. Tying these characters together is a tiny “character sheet”, a fraction of the size of an index card:

.

This sheet is a sticker on the cover of the booklet containing all the characters / incarnations experienced so far.

Memory quantifies the ability to remember and pull abilities from previous worlds, and Whiplash quantifies the universe’s adverse reaction to doing so. Memory’s greatest use is the ability to reach back to a previous self and activate an old ability. How powerful is it? According to Wick:

Remember, when the players reach through the Flux, they are breaking the rules of the world. The world doesn’t know how to respond. Therefore, it is unprepared to deal with the effects. That means whenever the players break the rules, the effects should be spectacular. They should overreach what the player wants. Give him what he expected and a little more.

Whiplash, on the other hand, occurs when characters pull stunts like that:

Whiplash occurs when the world notices you breaking the rules. You gain one Whiplash for:

• Using a skill, power or ability from a past world,
• Restoring another’s lost Memory, or
• Altering a current world.

And what does Whiplash do? It hurts. A lot.

Whiplash is the world’s effort to get rid of you, once and for all. You are an unwanted virus and the world sends antibodies to take care of you. Remove you from the system. It may fail. It may succeed. But it is going to do its best.

Now, I’m not sure I’d use “The Flux” exactly as is. But it provides one way to tie together characters.

Potential Pitfalls

Before I describe my approach, let me desribe solutions I considered and rejected.

Universal Systems

How to move from genre to genre, world to world?

The obvious answer (or is it an objection?) would be to choose a “universal system” that can represent any genre or setting. Unfortunately so-called universal systems all have limits. GURPS works great for slightly better than normal people to low-level superheroes, and then breaks down. HERO System represents superheroes well but has trouble stepping down to ordinary people. Dungeons & Dragons, sad to say, didn’t become popular by doing multiple genres but by inventing its own fantasy mashup genre and fitting it like a glove. Powered by the Apocalypse is really more of a style than a system. Cypher System games all start to feel the same. And so on.

I want to sample the richness and weirdness of a dozen different systems, not get stuck trying to represent a FN P90 in Cypher System.

One Game To Rule Them All

What if we introduce an overarching system that allows us to move freely between it and other systems? Something like HârnMaster (only not that) and its Godstones?

The pitfall of introducing another RPG system to link all your RPG systems has an obvious weakness, succinctly pointed out by the Web comic XKCD:

SITUATION: THERE ARE FOURTEEN COMPETING STANDARDS.

STICK FIGURE A: “Fourteen?! Ridiculous! We need to develop one universal standard that covers everyone’s use cases!”

STICK FIGURE B: “Yeah!”

SOON …

SITUATION: THERE ARE FIFTEEN COMPETING STANDARDS.

Silly stick figures.¹

In the West Marches the town was always safe. Why? Because if it was full of adventure player characters would never leave. Likewise, picking one game as “reality” encourages players to explore that world and not Trollworld, Tekumel, the Imperium, or the Shadowdark.

Frankenstein Systems

Why not combine systems to experience two or more at once?

The longer version of this post included a section on “Resleeving”, running one game inside or alongside another. Like characters in Eclipse Phase one subsystem goverend the mental and social landscape, another the physical. Like D&D exploration but hate combat? Graft on your own combat system!

Except … things never go smooth. Successfully joining two published systems, or homebrewing a new subsystems, takes a lot of work in the general case. The D100 family cleanly separates magic from fighting and skill use; the Fate Point economy or something like it pops up in a lot of games. But time spent designing your new frankengame takes away from time spent playing it.

Introducing the Metasystem

Players portray the Timeless, reincarnating eternally across space and time. In one incarnation they may fight a brutal war involving other Timeless. Tn the next, they find they are the ones who start it.

The Timeless break consensus reality to perform seeming miracles. Mundane consensus reality, however, is a powerful force. Every time the PCs break the laws of time, space, and parallel worlds, the metaverse has a chance to fight back. And it fights dirty.

The Metasystem Sheet

To represent this higher self, each player has a Metasystem Sheet. It prefaces the accumulation of character sheets for specific games. It’s little more than a business card or bookmark with the following values on it. (PDF)

Player

This is the player’s real-life name.

True Name

This is neither the player’s name nor the name of any of the characters they play save maybe the first. It is who the Timeless thinks of themselves as in the privacy of their own mind.

Psyche

Psyche represents the integrity and power of the Timeless’s soul, independent of their forms in various worlds. Every Timeless player character² starts with Psyche 3, and gains more Psyche as they complete Quests in the worlds they visit.³

Karma

The Metasystem Sheet contains just enough room for achievements that cleave not to just one incarnation but to the character’s soul. Maybe they have mastered a technique to focus their Psyche more effectively. Maybe they’ve roused the ire of another Timeless, or some entity outside Time. Whatever the situation, there’s just enough room for four words or phrases that remind the player of boons and banes indelibly linked to their existence. Their karmic chains, if you will.

Bending Reality

To achieve an effect beyond or outside the current character’s abilities, but within the abilities of another incarnation, the player makes a test of (Psyche)d6 vs. a Difficulty Factor (DF). Doubling down on the theme of “consensus reality”, calculate the DF as follows:

• 12 DF just for the attempt.
• +3 DF if the effect is wholly outside the current consensus reality, as opposed to a mere “one in a million chance”.
• +3 DF if the effect would happen in front of ordinary people, +6 if it’s a crowd of ordinary people (e.g. on a public street), or +9 if it’s a BIG crowd (e.g. it’s being televised).
• +3 DF for a big effect, or +6 DF for a REALLY big effect, in the GM’s judgement.

Add one die to the roll if the effect occurs inside a personal or group sanctum, or two dice in a Power Spot such as the site of a Portal. Add one die for a karmic boon from the Karma part of the sheet. Subtract one die for an applicable karmic bane.

If the roll is ≥ DF, the effect happens, otherwise it doesn’t. If the player rolls two or more 1s, the effect has karmic consequences: disaster strikes the player character and maybe everyone around them. (The player may elect to roll fewer dice than they’re entitled to, to reduce the chances of backlash … and also the chances of success.)

Voluntarily trying to change realities uses the same procedure. It usually ends the session, as the GM goes off to prep another game.

Since I like probability tables so much:

Other Concepts and Rules

• Players can choose when they change worlds through Portals, gateways to specific worlds, and Power Spots, regions where consensus reality weakens and players can perform any miracle, including shift to any world.

• Characters for each world gain experience only when actively played.

• Only Psyche and Karma evolve through multiple games. Psyche increases only when a player resolves a Quest of that world. Simply zipping between worlds doesn’t increase Psyche.

Alternative Systems

Wick used an additive d6 dice pool, and so did I. Pools of D6es are easiest to get, and unlike single polyhedrals a dice pool can grow without limit. But I can see other mechanics.

Psyche as Modifier

Psyche could be a modifier to a D20, 2d6, or other fixed die roll. Naturally, Difficulty Factor calculation would have to change.

Psyche as a Level

One could also design a ladder of Psyche values from Average to Mythic. Each level exceeds a certain level of resistance from consensus reality. A roll of 4dF determines whether the actual attempt exceeds or falls short of one’s usual Psychic performance.

Alternatively, Psyche could remain Diceless. Actual results depend on circumstances and the Referee’s judgement.

Psyche as a Resource

Players could have a pool of Psyche Tokens. Like Fate Points or Luck Points players expend them to break the bonds of consensus reality. The Referee can also offer one if they can trigger a Backlash or some lesser consequence at some later time. (One cannot use a Psyche Point to mitigate a Backlash.)

The main risk is that these may conflict with existing mechanics, such as Fate Points in a Fate game.

Conclusion

This loose framework, I believe, can tie together a series of adventures in a series of game worlds using different game systems. The Metasystem Sheet provides a link to all a player’s incarnations, and a mechanic to use an ability from any past incarnation at need.

If the GM offers “portals” to other realms, players can somewhat control the next game they play. This parallels how West Marches players can choose their next adventure location (admittedly based on name), and Godstone operators can choose their next world.⁴

Furthermore, the rules are not so heavy that they distract from the games the GM and players want to explore. The story arcs of the Timeless, or any other convenient frame story, using powers that transcends realities echoes some of the best ideas of “The Flux”.

Most importantly, we now have an excuse to play more games.