Ask Erik: Episode Eighteen

Here at Ask Erik, we've spent a lot of time reading books and comics, watching movies, and browsing through the Internet in the hopes of finding the answers to life's biggest mysteries.  What impact does Kickstarter have on smaller independent groups trying to get noticed?  Have we lost touch with simpler times with the bombardment of new technology? Does anybody else remember that the monster truck Bigfoot once was part of a cartoon cast of video game characters?

Having instead amassed a vault of useless knowledge stored in his head, Erik instead tackles your questions and tries to find the answers you care about (or a reasonable facsimile).  Or, if you don't care, he'll at least try to make you laugh and forget you just wasted time you could spend doing anything else.

To Erik: If you could combine any two systems, which would they be?

Man, there are so many places to go with this question.  Let's try breaking it down into a list:


Video Game Systems:  Well, I was going to say that I'd love something that combined the mobility of the iPad along with any of the classic style consoles, but they already have the WiiU and it's apparently not doing too great these days.  So I'm going to have to get a bit more obscure.


I guess I'm going to have to branch this out a bit, and pick systems that might have had one specific feature or peripheral that I think doesn't get enough respect.

First off, I'm not doing anything with the Mojowijo.

Yes, it's precisely for what you think it's for.

Insert your own "Virtual Boy" or "Power Glove" jokes here, folks.

I will admit, I do love the fact that the Nintendo 3DS rewards you for carrying it around in sleep mode.  With a healthy battery life, it's constantly pinging a wireless signal around looking for other 3DSes (3DSi?) to communicate with.  When it finds one, it beams your avatar information over and receives the other person's avatar.  You can then use those new "friends" to get puzzle pieces for a mini-game or  have them take part in a "storm the castle to rescue your character" RPG that's pretty fun.

Of course, it means sometimes you have to hang around outside of elementary schools while trying to look like you aren't just hanging around an elementary school, and that's just awkward to explain to the cops.

It also keeps track of your footsteps during the day in case you want to know how active you are, and then rewards you for that activity with coins you can also spend in games.

I guess this is what I'd love to combine.  Take the Steel Battalion controller and make it customizable.  Remember this hulking monstrosity of a controller?

This picture is also added so that when I link to this on Facebook, people don't have to see video game sex toys in the preview photo.

Well, suppose they sold that as a kit, so you could connect different peripherals (much like you might put attachments on a Wiimote that ARE NOT THE MOJOWIJO) for different styles of games.  With interactivity being such a big deal and playing games online seems to be the norm, I could picture a group of people wanting to replicate the experience of playing Artemis (seriously, click the link) without having to go with a PC.  You're all playing a space simulator?  One person is the pilot, one person is in charge of weapons, one person maintains power control to systems, one person pilots one of the smaller fighter craft, and so on.

Perhaps you're playing a racing game, but you want to incorporate some James Bond "blow up the other vehicle" technology, you'd simply attach the steering wheel aspect and you and your friends would drive around, trying to line up the cars right before flicking the switch for the oil slick, the missile launcher, or the smoke cloud.

Or maybe you and your friends are taking part in a massive wartime first person shooter, you could use a button set-up to alert people to when you're getting overwhelmed and need back-up (because shouting into a controller doesn't help when everybody is talking at once), or to call in air strikes.  Perhaps you want to change over to a joystick when you find an anti-aircraft cannon or a drone and want to bomb something.

To that, I'd add something akin to the 3DS.  With wireless hot spots now being the "hip" new thing, I don't see any reason why companies couldn't get the license to add certain items to peoples' equipment, or perhaps something that might give them a boost to their character.  It might just be a small handheld system like an Apple device or a 3DS, and you could play other games on it, but it would keep track of the major game it hooks up to (and others) and watch for other players.  Maybe you're hanging out a coffee shop, and they've made a deal with the space simulator video game company that people who come in and buy something will get a code they can punch into their system.  And there might be a few other people who play the same game who are also enjoying a cup of coffee.

Then the next time you hook your system back together, when it loads back up, you find that your character (during shore leave or whatever) managed to get some specific supplies to help the ship out.  Plus, you apparently met some other people from other ships, and can have their info in case your ship is left dead in the water after a huge fight and you need to call someone for a tow.

Star Systems:  I'd love to see a combination of our own type of system (at last check, our solar system had the most planets and planet-like objects in it) along with a multi-star system that has two stars orbiting each other.  I'm not sure how it would work, but it'd be interesting to find one like that.

Computer Systems:  ...they're pretty much all becoming identical these days anyway, so why bother?

Subway Systems:  I've been told that the metro system in Seoul, South Korea is a wondrous site to behold.  It's like the Tokyo system (ridiculously clean and punctual to a fault), but much simpler to figure out.  Apparently you can figure it all out in a week and go anywhere without effort.

Combine that with the metro system of Barcelona (which has an underground mall, sports center, and race cart track) and you'd have the perfect mass transit system in the world.

...am I forgetting anything?

To Erik:  Tabletop systems, smart-ass.

Oh, right, I forgot who the author of this question was.

Okay, so, if I'm going to choose two great systems to combine together, I need them to be as close to total opposites as I can allow without having them really conflict with each other.  So, let's try to break it down to numbers and role playing, since one is more dice-heavy and one is more, you know, actually socializing with people.

I think my choice for favorite numbers-based system...well, the new Marvel RPG system is one that I really want to give a solid try-out to at some point, because I like the fact it completely skips a lot of the classic "here are your attributes, here are your skills" business and simply assigns you dice to roll based on traits your character has.  Iron Man is an inventor, so if something he's doing requires inventing something (or can be linked to it) he gets to add those dice to his dice pool.  However, if it involves magic, you probably want Thor on call instead.

The FUDGE system has also won me over as of late, since it lets you use the world that's been built for bonuses to what you do.  If the scene described to you involves being on a leaking boat, you can try to use that to your advantage by saying how you're using something and getting a bonus for it (I'm really simplifying things here).  Exalted did something similar, except it rewarded you for doing the most absolutely insane "stunts" you could think of.  Sure, you could try to pick the lock to that door, but wouldn't it be cooler if you were doing it upside down, Mission Impossible-style, while shooting behind you with one hand operating one lock pick with your teeth?

However, I think my personal favorite that doesn't get enough respect is the Alternity System (specifically Dark Matter, which I discussed on here before).  I loved the fact that it went counter-intuitive by having you want to roll low numbers, but it really worked since the better you rolled, the better you did.  If you rolled X, you might get the job done, but if you rolled half of that (rounded down), then maybe you got it done faster, or done better, or some other bonus.  I like the idea of "degrees of success" because it allows someone who isn't as good at something to have remedial luck with a chance of greatness, but gives the truly great more opportunities to shine.

Now, for role play, there are a few systems I really like.  One recent discovery I made was the Monster Hearts series, which allows you to keep track of "threads" you have with other characters, and then use those threads in attempts to manipulate people to do what you want.  Again, I haven't had any opportunities to play it, but there are some really original ideas in it.  The dice rolls for it are simple (higher is better, and there's a basic chart that tells you what the results mean, use strings for bonuses).  Granted, the game is based almost entirely on things like Buffy: The Vampire Slayer and Twilight, so it has a rather heavy hand towards love and sex and high school, and that's kind of hard to explain to people who want to know what you're doing.  ("Well, see, that person is playing a chosen one, like Buffy, and I'm playing a werewolf like that shirtless guy from- yeah, that one.  And we're getting ready for a huge fight, and I'm trying to convince the chosen one to have sex with me because then I'll do better later.")

So yeah, while a solid core system, the whole thing that goes with it kinda disqualifies it for now.

The system for A Song of Ice And Fire and the FUDGE system are also good, since they both use conversation and argument as a combat system, letting you try to "defeat" your opponent and getting them to either want to help you or bully them into doing the same.  Surprisingly, the Song of Ice And Fire system has much fewer rules for sex than you'd think considering the Game of Thrones TV series that's on the air right now.

If I had to settle on one, though, I'd go ... well, the problem is that a lot of systems tend to skirt the issue of being social, relying more on the person running the game to see how good an argument the players can make, and rewarding or penalizing them on their creativity.  I guess if I had to choose a solid system instead of simply going with the more free-form role playing...

Okay, I've changed my mind.  Get the social/string system from Monster Hearts, and throw out all the sex stuff.  I think that being able to tell someone "you rolled X, and that result means that the person you're talking to has to tell you what you'd have to do for them (or to them) to get them to do what you want" or "you really botched that social encounter, so now they have a string they can use against you later unless you spend one now to counteract it."  You can build off that kind of system, allowing things or locations to have strings that you can draw on and manipulate, like in the FUDGE system, allowing someone who has familiarity with the area to get a social bonus to someone who's hopelessly lost.  And by having different results be locked to different die rolls, it also seems to work well with the idea of "levels" of success, like the more dice-heavy part of the system would allow.

Man, this post went pretty long, but hopefully I got that question out of the way.  Remember, any other questions can be sent to erikatthegates@gmail.com, or harass me on Twitter at @ErikAtTheGates or message me on Facebook if you know me and want to risk your question getting lost in previous posts.