IDFHV 6XEFRQVFLRXV5ROH3OD\LQJ. Copywrite Kirk Mitchell 2004

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1 IDFHV 6XEFRQVFLRXV5ROH3OD\LQJ Copywrite Kirk Mitchell 2004 First off, I would like to thank several people (or at least groups of people): - The cast and crew of the dramatic monologue Bombshells for getting me thinking about what really goes on in a person s head. Stars Caroline O Connor, and if you ever get a chance to see it, do so. You won t regret it. - Linkin Park for their song Papercut. - Ethan Greer for being so enthusiastic when I first voiced the idea, and being the unwitting catalyst for letting the darkness out of my soul. For that I am grateful. - The Forge and everyone in it for opening my eyes and broadening my mind. Its like a face that I hold inside Face that awaits when I close my eyes Face that watches every time I lie Face that laughs every time I fall It watches everything. So you know that when its time to sink or swim Face inside is hearing me Right beneath my skin Linkin Park, Papercut Hello I m your mind Giving you Someone to talk to. Hello Evanescence, Hello,QWURGXFWLRQ Faces is a role playing game where the players play as the deepest part of a person, the most secret and unknown place in someone s psychology: their subconscious. All but one of the players each take on a part of the subconscious, known as a Face, while the final player plays as the person themselves. The game is about looking at and exploring a person, what they think, what they don t think and what they do because of what goes on inside their head, even if they don t notice it. When you are playing the game, remember that you are what goes on in the deepest parts of someone s mind. Don t be afraid to explore issues that would relate to how your Face reacts to what happens in the world, even if the issues are difficult or scary. All the more reason to confront them and display your feelings on such subjects. To play the game, you will need a handful of normal 6 sided dice, referred here on in as d6s. The d stands for dice, the number afterwards is how many sides the dice has, in this case six. If there is a number in front of the d6, for example 3d6, the first

2 number means how many dice to roll. So 3d6 would mean to roll 3 six sided dice. You will also need at least three people, including yourself, this rulebook, some pencils and some paper. Munchies (food) are optional but are probably a good thing to have. The first thing to do when you sit down with your friends to play the game is to decide who is going to play as the person that the Faces are a part of, known in this book as the Mask. Discuss it with everyone and choose someone. The person who plays as the Mask should be able to think quickly to create situations that the Faces can react to and be able to incorporate the Faces s expressions (how the Faces react to outside stimuli) into the narration of the outside world. The Mask has control over all of the outside world and the Faces, through their expressions control or at least significantly effect how the Mask reacts to the outside world. 7KH)UDQNHQVWLHQ(IIHFW When you go about creating the Mask, start from the ground up, with the Faces. Each of the players who have Faces should discuss with each other and the Mask about the ideas they have for the overall character. Discuss concepts and ideas for the character s history, their age, their relationships. As you work your way up from the Faces, which are the most basic component of the Mask, and the deepest imbedded part in the psyche, into the id (the Freudian name for the subconscious) where all of the Faces come together, and then into the Mask itself where the body and the conscious mind is created, a fully fledged character will appear. A new person. Throughout play, the Faces will be able to develop and as such develop the Mask, while the Mask is crucial to developing the Faces. )DFH&UHDWLRQ Faces have five traits that make up their being. Distribute 10 points between them. It is quite valid to have a trait set a 0, but may never become negative. Dominance - How dominant or overwhelming the segment is Pervasiveness - How prolific or subtle the segment is Id - How important or powerful within the id the segment is Absorption - How able the segment is able to absorb outside information Expression - How able the segment is able to impress upon the Face Synapse Pool - The synapse pool is made up of synapse points which may be spent to take actions. It is equal to the id trait + dominance trait + pervasiveness trait.

3 ,G$VSHFWV Choose two of these aspects, representing the focus of the Face. As you choose them, think about how they relate to each other and how this could be expressed. 0HPRU\ Memory is memories of important or life affecting incidents within parts of a Face s life. Choose one memory time. Other Faces may choose to have memory as a part of their Face, but may not choose the same memory time as other Faces. Obviously only choose those that are relevant to the age of the Face, but memories from older memory times can possibly be used as premonitions or some other phenomenon. Times - Baby - Childhood - Teenager - Adult - Old Age (PRWLRQV Emotions are the governing emotions that make up the Mask s personality. This is part of the id as it is rare that a person notices what emotions are driving them. Choose an emotion that drives your particular segment. Emotions,QVWLQFWV - Anger - Love - Grief - Guilt - Tenacity - Malice - Happiness - Hope - Contempt - Contentment - Anxiety - Desire Instincts are the most basic parts of a Mask and its id. They represent basic animal responses to sense data. Choose an instinct that is the response that your Face is most likely to have to sense data. Instincts - Aggression

4 7HQGHQF\ - Fear - Hunger - Sex Tendency is what tendencies of response the Face is likely to exhibit in differing situations. Choose one tendency. Tendencies - Create - Destroy - Anticipate - Pursue Id aspects apply whenever your Face reacts to sense data which might trigger one or more of their id aspects. Whenever you think or want an id aspect to apply, describe and try to justify how it might apply to responding to that particular sense data. This may include introducing things from the past if you have a memory aspect, how segment associates emotions with that particular sense data or reacts instinctively to a specific sense data for example. Whenever you choose to do so, note down the reason on your sheet and roll as many more d6s as the applying id aspects when making a roll that relates to what you have written down on the sheet. However, from then on, your segment must respond in that way to that particular kind of sense data.,g&uhdwlrq The id is the subconscious of the Mask. Id was a term coined by Dr Freud, a groundbreaking Austrian psychologist. The deepest emotions, the most significant events, the core of a personality is within the id. All of the Faces contribute to the id. In this game, the id is made up of three things, as follows: Id Pool The Faces Subconsciousnes - The id pool is a pool of responses that were not successfully expressed to the Mask. These just lie within the id and can be resurrected at any time to effect the present. - The players who control Faces are all a part of the id. - This is a trait that shows how strong the subconscious is within the Mask. The subconsciousness trait is equal to the id scores of all the Faces added up.

5 0DVN&UHDWLRQ The final part of the person is the Mask itself. It is the physical body as well as the conscious mind. The player that controls the Mask gets to create it. In this game, the Mask has four traits. Distribute 20 points between them, adding 2 to the consciousness trait for every Face controlling player over 2. Consciousness- How strong the conscious mind is within the Mask. Strength - How physically strong the Mask is. Guile - How fast or quick thinking the Mask is. Intelligence - How smart the Mask is. 2SHQLQJ The Mask player writes down a beginning incident or event to kick off the story. The incident must have powerful implications and be the beginning of a conflict of any kind. 7KH%DVLFV )DFWV :KDWLVD IDFWµ The game basically operates around the introduction and reaction to facts as they are known in the game, either through sense data from the Face, or as responses from the segments. A fact is essentially a single thing described. As the Face for example, you could say Arthur is challenging me to a duel, and declare that a fact. You could not for example say Arthur is challenging me to a duel in the small town where I grew up in front of my parents as a single fact. To declare such a description a fact, you would have to declare Arthur is challenging me to a duel as one fact, In the small town where I grew up as another fact and In front of my parents as another one. Three facts in total. Facts from Faces should be formed as suggestions on how to react, or could be interpreted as suggestions on how to react. For example, if the above facts were taken into account, then a Face could respond (assuming that this particular fact was accepted by the Mask) Anger at the challenge and the Mask would take into account the anger of the character at being challenged when the Mask narrates.

6 0DVN0HFKDQLFV 5HDFWLRQ When all of the Faces have used up all of their synapse points for the turn or choose to abstain from spending any more, it is the Mask s turn. Taking what the Faces have done into account, how they have reacted to the previous Mask narration, narrate what the Face does next. Feel free to introduce anything that happens in the outside world if you think that it will drive the story better. That is your realm. The facts that have been accepted by the Mask during the Faces s turn must be incorporated into the narration of how the Mask acts. The reaction should only take a maximum of 10 minutes to narrate. Try as little as possible to go over time so that everybody gets a turn. Within that 10 minutes try to introduce another situation for the Faces to respond to. If you haven t set one up by the end of the 10 minutes, quickly set one up and move on. When something comes along that would require the use of a Mask s trait, for example, the Mask being directly opposed by someone or something, determine what trait would be the best to use and discuss with the rest of the group how difficult the task would be. Determine a number between 1 and 15, 1 being incredibly easy, and 15 being incredibly hard and roll a number of d6s equal to the trait chosen. Decide on what would happen if the roll succeeds and what would happen if the roll fails. Roll the dice. If the total of the roll is equal to or over the chosen number, the roll succeeded, if the total was below the chosen number, the roll failed. Unless the action is directly opposed, simply narrate what happens. You want to kick open the door and start abusing your boss, go ahead, just narrate doing it. But if there is a security guard there who is going to directly oppose you from kicking open the door and abusing your boss, then you roll the dice. 6HQVH'DWD After the reaction has been completed, roll d6s equal to the consciousness score and describe as many facts to the segments as the total of the rolls. This is the sense data that the segments are able to react to. Keep the sense data to simple statements of fact and to the outside world. The Mask cannot say anything about the reaction of the Mask in the sense data, that is what the Face responses are for )DFH0HFKDQLFV Go through all of the Faces from the lowest synapse pool to the highest. $WWHPSWLQJDFWLRQV To attempt an action, spend synapse points. If the action is unopposed then roll as many d6 as synapse points spent and try to get under the synapse pool. If the action is opposed by another segment then roll as many d6 as synapse points spent and try to get over the synapse pool.

7 As you are only a segment of a person s personality, you cannot do things physically. You must affect either the id, other segments or the Mask itself through specific actions. Specific Actions: Absorb Sense Data Resurrect Response Block Face Creating Id Aspects - The Face absorbs and acknowledges an equal number of sense data facts equal to its absorption trait. A Face can only react to what it absorbs. When the Face absorbs data, it must react to it immediately. If the action roll succeeds, roll a number d6s equal to the expression trait + id aspects that apply and describe a number of facts equal to the total number rolled about how the Face reacts, so long as it fits in with the Face s id aspects. The number of facts that are accepted by the Mask are equal to how many points were over the consciousness trait of the Mask. If the total of the roll is not over the consciousness trait, then none of the facts are accepted. The Face chooses what ones are accepted or not. The rest of the facts are stored away in the id pool for later usage. - The Face draws from the responses within the id pool to try to express it to the Mask again. If the action roll succeeds then roll a number of d6s equal to the expression trait. Any number of responses in the id pool up to the number of points over the consciousness trait get accepted by the Mask and implemented when the Mask narrates. The rest remain in the id pool. - In addition to simply opposing a Face s actions, synapse points may be spent to block the Face directly. If the roll succeeds, the total number rolled is added to the number that the Face must get over to succeed (their synapse pool + total number rolled). - Over time, more id aspects may form within Faces, representing the growth and development of the Face itself. The Face will create associations with particular characters outside the Mask, depending on how the Face and Mask itself reacts. To create a new id aspect within your segment, you must absorb at least 10 related sense data facts. The sense data facts do not have to be the same thing, but they do have to illicit similar responses from your segment. Once you have absorbed those 10 sense data facts (noting them down on your segment sheet along the way) you may create a new id aspect from the listed id aspects, choosing the appropriate ones based upon your segment s reactions to the sense data facts. As you go through the game, use responses to further explore the id aspects that make up your Face, fleshing out the overall Mask and the Mask s history.

8 6WDUWLQJ<RXU/LIH To start off the game, after everyone has created their Faces and the Mask has been chosen, the Mask narrates the Opening based upon what was written on the Mask s sheet and introduces sense data as written in the Mask mechanics rules. The segments then react to the sense data of the beginning and the game continues from there, alternating between the Mask and the Faces. ([SORULQJWKH0DVN Being the Mask is the most difficult and potentially the most rewarding part of playing this game. As the Mask you have complete control over the outside world, providing sense data for the Faces. In return, the Faces tell you how to react. With such control over the world, it would be tempting to set it up so that the Mask will always succeed. If that is the sort of story that you want to explore, then go ahead and do it. However, more poignant stories can be constructed with more powerful premises if you set up challenges for the Mask, difficulties to be overcome or failed. There is little on the line for your character in this game, they can t die unless you want them to, the only thing that you will get by challenging the Mask will be a better story, and lose nothing. As you create the Mask, think about what sort of person the Mask is, what sort of environment the Mask lives in and what has made them what they are. Discuss this with the rest of the group and soon as everyone contributes ideas a person will form. Don t be afraid to let this person change through the game, as you either create or destroy their life, depending on how you and the Faces play. As the Mask, you begin play, creating the sense data that the Faces respond to. However, the Faces do control the Mask to a degree, effecting the next reaction and sense data. This loop is what drives play and is what you should strive to preserve. The Faces are going to react to the sense data no matter what, but to give them something to react to is a challenge for you. Get the Mask into trouble, introduce things that are going to get the Faces riled up and responding in different ways. It is probably a good idea to introduce situations that ask potentially dangerous questions about the world, about people, about religion. Any human issue, from terrorism to suicide to rape is a potential story to be plumbed. Through the responses of the Faces, everyone will contribute their feelings on the issue and the story will progress, and through your interpretation and narration, the Faces will find more to react to. $XWKRU V&RPPHQWV Ok. I realise that this game is unfinished. It has no fiction in it, few examples, most likely extremely sloppy explanations and a completely whacked concept (whether the other ones are true, I know that this one is). It was created in around about 10 hours and after I post it on the Forge after submitting it to the 24hr RPG comp then it will definitely get better. In the meantime, enjoy.

9 Mask Sheet Player Name: Mask Name: Consciousness Strength Guile Intelligence Opening

10 Id Sheet List of Faces (player name) Id Pool Subconsciousness

11 Face Sheet Player Name: Dominance Pervasiveness Id Absorption Expression Id Aspects Aspect Choice Applicable id Aspects Situation Reason Synapse Pool