Quote from: pspahnI've played a lot of characters with debilitating flaws or low stats and had a good time.  I game mostly because I enjoy socializing with friends and I like to try new things every now and then at the table.  Sometimes it's fun, sometimes it's not.  
Pete

There is a serious difference between having a character with a flaw, flaws, or even 'seriously fucking gimped' an playing a character who is just going to get worse as time goes on.  

Shadowrun illustrates this accidentally: You can make a character that is stupidly capable in one limited area at the cost of being pathetic everywhere else.  Of course, you can then spend your expirence points to improve what you are already stupidly good at, or for peanuts you can get 'less gimped' over time.  D&D, in almost any incarnation is the same. Got a fighter with an 8 strength? By 15th level he is still a pretty damn good fighter, even if he is a scrawny wimp.


By contrast, you could play the guy who is stupidly good in his schtick and gimped elsewhere... then slowly loose his stupidly goodness, and maybe pick up additional gimpiness along the way. That's what the OP suggests.   The 15th level, strength 8 fighter who, session after session, regresses to 1st level, where his gimpy stat is magnified.

Not even worth the exercise for me, and for those of us who have barely started to feel the effects of creeping 'old age' it clashs horribly with our knowledge of how the world works... one gets better with time and practice. For those who are intimately familiar with the aging process, I suggest they wouldn't like the reminder of their own mortality and increacing infirmness... and at least THEY can still sit back and say 'I may be weaker than I was twenty years ago, but I am smarter/know more than you will be for another twenty years...." so it STILL clashes with a fundamental 'this is how things work' idea.

Quote from: SpikeBy contrast, you could play the guy who is stupidly good in his schtick and gimped elsewhere... then slowly loose his stupidly goodness, and maybe pick up additional gimpiness along the way. That's what the OP suggests.   The 15th level, strength 8 fighter who, session after session, regresses to 1st level, where his gimpy stat is magnified.

Well, it sounded to me like he had the germ of an idea and was tossing it out to help develop it.  I think it's a cool enough concept, but the execution of it is what would make or break it.  I think the mechanics would be secondary in a game like he's proposing.  What would be important is an endgame, something you could strive towards, like making the world a better place, etc.   Waning power takes the emphasis away from character builds and bonuses and makes it more goal-oriented IMO. In this case, my character doesn't have to become more powerful, but he has to accomplish what he sets out to do (for the most part) in order for the game to have any meaning.  

I've played enough Cthulu games that I knew were doomed from the start, so I have no problem with the bleakness and increasing gimpiness--most of my characters finished a lot worse off than they started.  

Pete

Quote from: SpikeBy contrast, you could play the guy who is stupidly good in his schtick and gimped elsewhere... then slowly loose his stupidly goodness, and maybe pick up additional gimpiness along the way. That's what the OP suggests.   The 15th level, strength 8 fighter who, session after session, regresses to 1st level, where his gimpy stat is magnified.

Also, that's not the way I was interpreting it.  I was picturing legendary heroes, with great stats, bonuses, etc. who gradually lost those bonuses over time (but not going all the way down to 1st level).

Pete

How about a hyper-accelerated devolution game?  A race against the clock one-shot, where your powers go down every 20 minutes or something.  You have to complete the adventure and defeat the badguy before you turn into a commoner!

Quote from: pspahnAlso, that's not the way I was interpreting it.  I was picturing legendary heroes, with great stats, bonuses, etc. who gradually lost those bonuses over time (but not going all the way down to 1st level).

Pete

I just reread the OP to make sure I hadn't missed anything.  I hadn't.

True, while saying 'down to first level' is simply my illustrative example, it would be the end result of the play style he suggested, yes.  Provided the housecats didn't kill you first. Ok, kobolds, to take from a further post on the subject.

In call of Cthulu, provided it is the chaosium rules I am familiar with from iterations of Runequest (and Elfquest, me first chaosium game... sigh....), then you DO get better as you play. More insane? Sure, but better at 'stuff'. And doomed?  Sure, but that can be interpreted through the long lens of 'we are all doomed eventually, woe is us, we are meaningless in the face of existance' that Lovecraft actually wrote, so you don't necessarily have to be 'doomed to die within three game sessions'.  Thus the characters can improve and survive and even 'win' within the span of the game and still be canon 'Cthulu'... so long as the Old Ones can still eventually rise and consume all life at some nebulous future date.

Then again, I hate the whole 'woe is us, we are meaningless' line anyway. That puts me no where near the right demographic.  I'd probably try to pervert a CoC game into one where my character set up a rum running gang and used the illegal empire to seek out and destroy cultists while making money hand over fist from moonshine... or something.

Quote from: SpikeI just reread the OP to make sure I hadn't missed anything. I hadn't.

I read the post as: "I have an idea for what might make for a neat change of pace game - how can I make it work?"

I might be completely off the mark, though.  

Quote from: SpikeIn call of Cthulu, provided it is the chaosium rules I am familiar with from iterations of Runequest (and Elfquest, me first chaosium game... sigh....), then you DO get better as you play. More insane? Sure, but better at 'stuff'.

I don't know, man.  In CoC, the more you learn about what it is you're up against, the worse off you are.  It sounds like you downplayed the sanity rules quite a bit.  In most of the games I've been involved in, dealing with phobias and other mental disorders played a _huge_ role in the course of the game, short and long term.  If the character was some type of sorcerer, things got even uglier.  

The CoC setting is about as bleak and nihilistic as they come. Sure, you can learn how to drive or track better, but you know that in the end whatever you do is all for nothing.  So, the emphasis (for me anyway) was in winning the little battles.  That's the same way I see it for the setting proposed by the OP.  The fact that my character's powers are waning is what makes it more interesting and challenging--"rising Dark Lord that must be overcome" has been done plenty of times, but "rising Dark Lord that must be overcome while your own powers wane" seems like a neat twist.

Obviously, if you're not into it, you're just not into it.  I still think it's something worth pursuing.  On a related note, wasn't there a game where people played mythic gods whose powers relied on belief?  I can't recall if it was just a topic or an actual game, but it seems like the waning power theme would be similar.  

Pete

PS - Elfquest.    Those were simpler times.

Quote from: flyingmiceAre we not men?

-clash

[decloak]

Guess I'm just a spudboy

[recloak]


TGA

Quote from: pspahnI read the post as: "I have an idea for what might make for a neat change of pace game - how can I make it work?"

Not even that really Pete. It was just something that bolted into my brain from no-where and i wondered how the hell something like that could attract players (given how most people play to be heros and have fun). Me and my group wouldn't consider playing it. I just put it up here as a conversation point and the possibility that someone had a brilliant idea as to how to make it work a bit more traditionally without the 'woe is me' schtick and wanting to slash your wrists.

Walkerp's idea for a one-shot would make most sense. That makes it more of a fun exercise. Something that could be played over a few hours for a laugh as opposed to the horrible grind the original idea would be.

Quote from: One Horse TownIt was just something that bolted into my brain from no-where and i wondered how the hell something like that could attract players (given how most people play to be heros and have fun).

That's cool.  I still think it's a good idea, but it all comes down to the execution.  I think you could still be a hero and have fun in a setting like this; heroism just wouldn't be defined by individual uber badassedness.

In any case, since you're not keen on the idea, I'm shelving it for future use.  

Pete