Writing my Odd Game

Kids on Summer Break

Saudade, an emotional state of melancholic or profoundly nostalgic longing for a beloved yet absent someone or something.

It is often associated with a repressed understanding that one might never encounter the object of longing ever again.

INTRODUCTION

The Bastion Project (placeholder title)1 is a TTRPG about a group of Kids hanging out during vacation or a weekend or summer break.

It embraces the worldview of childhood, and the scope of its real, but child sized, issues.

There are no dragons to slay beyond the huge spider that took domain of the treehouse you built last year. No mythical artifacts to find but the weird crab carcass on the beach you want to take home with you.

Deadly dangers exist, as they do anywhere, but the usual life and death situation is peer pressure and looking lame. No one wants to feel left out.

It will hardly be a game for children, instead being for the adults that for long have not allowed themselves to play like kids.

PRINCIPLES

INSPIRATIONS

SCOPE OF PLAY

The Bastion Project is about the joy and whimsy of childhood, the nostalgia of leisure times lived and passed, but also the unrelenting march of time.

It is meant to be played as a Short Story, of 5 to 12 sessions.

Every 1 or 2 sessions, advance a year to the next Break/major group reunion. The characters - and the Adventure Spot - all change year by year. A fun Spot is revisited each time, but with new things to find as the world changes around the Kids.

Once a Kid reaches 13 years of age, they are too cool and grown to hang out anymore. They don't show up next year.

You should play a Short Story of The Bastion Project only once, and never again. Childhood is a one way ticket.

MAKING YOUR KID

AGE DIE

Your Age Die is determined by how old you are.

ABILITY SCORES

You have three Ability Scores.

Roll your Age Die twice and keep the highest to determine each.

Cross your two worst Ability Scores on the table below to find your starting package. Pick either of the options.

[Imagine a sick table here, with slingshots, and baseball bats, and cool caps]

If two Kids would have the same equipment, they must pick the other option or, if that's not possible, any Package from an adjacent column.

Finally, consider and write down a Memory for the Kid (1 for 8-9, 2 for 10-11 and 3 Memories for 12).

Use them to help define who the Kid is.

MEMORIES

A consequence of a major, unforgetable event, such as reaching an incredible scenery, finding a remarkable creature, or achieving something out of the ordinary.

At the end of a Break, decide what moment was etched in the Kid's mind for years and years to come.

For any Save related to a Memory, a Kid can use their Age Die instead of the D20.

Some memories can carry painful and negative tones. Those too can shape a Kid's upbringing.

A Kid can also use their Age Die for them, but must roll twice and take the highest result if the traumatic circumstance is also related.

For example, a Kid may have a scary murky river dive as their Memory of that Break. It becomes an important Memory as they could become a better swimmer, but turvy waters may bring up bad feelings. Let Memories be applied loosely.

Memories also influence how you grow and change in such formative years. Consider them as you decide how to better your Ability Scores each new year.

A Kid could face their fear and be a better swimmer from the Memory above, possibly growing in Brave. Alternatively, the same Memory could feed into a fear of water, directing their growth towards other interests, such as honing Nimble with dance classes instead.

DAMAGE, ABILITY LOSS, SHRUG OFF

The Bastion Project does not use Hit Points.

Instead, Kids can shrug off a single instance of Damage in each of their Ability Scores per Break, no matter the amount. They are sturdy.

Once a Kid takes any Ability Loss, it may hurt, scrape, scare or even leave a scar, but they only take it seriously if it reaches zero.

REACHING ZERO

Whenever an Ability reaches zero, a bone may be broken, or they might now be quite sick.

In any way, a Kid will run home, cry and be grounded until the end of the Break, possibly to never be allowed to play with that group again.

Introduce a new Kid to play for the remainder of the Adventure as soon as possible, then later decide which Kid will show up next Break.

COMBAT

Attacks always hit, always for D6, unless enhanced to a D12 or impaired to a D4.

A Kid can choose at each hit if incoming attacks hit Big - as they take the impact but resist it - or Nimble - as they dodge but get tired.

If a Kid suffers an Ability Loss in either from an attack, or if they hit a living being, it will always be their Memory of that Break, and a painful one at that.

If a living creature dies in the process, it is a harrowing experience: they will never get over it.

GROWING UP

Each year, consider the Memory the Kid has of that Break, and allocate 3 points on their Ability Scores accordingly.

A Kid may also spend a point to resignify a bad Memory into a better one, or to choose an Ability Score to shrug off damage to it an additional time per Break.

ADULTS

Apathetic and uninterested at worst, helpful but busy at best.

Kids don't want to spend their Break going after Adults beyond asking for favors and help, if that's not too shameful or embarassing - God forbid you talk to your parents.

Strangers are wildcards. Be wary.

ADVENTURE SPOTS

Adventure Spots should be sandbox oriented, in order to allow the Kids to explore at their leisure.

Favor creating Spots of your own Adventures and locations from your childhood. A town or place and a year.2

Embelish them with what your imagination believed was true. Let the Kids find out what they want to do with their free days for that particular Break.

Then, age it. Next time, a full year past, what changed?

Did the natural landscape get altered, the river now overflown or even dirty? Any houses or places now abandoned, or oppositely, filled with new people or creatures? Your old hideout now occupied by a snake, the bridge you once took for granted broken down, the construction site fully transforming into its goal, a construction.

Then next year, do it again, until the Kids grow old enough to not come back.

STARTER ADVENTURER SPOT

LAMBARI RESERVOIR - 2000s

[To be written in a future post]

  1. Chris, please don't sue me.↩

  2. I should advise you to change names. Please don't share your childhood facts on the internet.↩