Language Dungeon Spitballing

I've had an idea floating around in my head for a puzzlebox dungeon (system and setting indeterminate) centered on decipherment of the dungeon-builder’s language, Chants of Sennar or Heaven’s Vault style. Pulled off right, it could be a really fun diegetic challenge for players; pulled off wrong, it’ll be a tedious pain in the ass. This post is me thinking aloud and seeing what sticks.

Need: Complementary Components  

The concept would naturally attract language enthusiasts, but I don’t want to limit the focus so that they’re the only people who would enjoy it - for that, I could just make a wickedly hard decipherment puzzle. Things like pronunciation and spelling would also need taken into account: it’s no fun for anyone if the DM is constantly stumbling over describing the puzzle.

Ideally, the language-puzzle should exist side-by-side with the dungeoncrawl without overwhelming it, serving as another tool players can use to navigate the environment and the hazards therein. 

Need: Onboarding Clues / Trailheads

Throwing players directly into the deep end with no leads would be a bad move if the goal is engagement, but I also don’t want to give them a complete key to the puzzle from the beginning.

 

Trailhead Option: Give players a document written by a known party.

Epitaph did this nicely by giving players the one Roman source mentioning this people has a few root words and the names of two kings, and that worked pretty well for that game. You just need to give the players some context clues so they can identify the dignitary or god or what have you:  if you had a king named “Ran the Tiger” and then there’s a statue of some imperious looking guy with a tiger pelt, you can make some guesses about which words on the inscription are what if you have “here’s how Ran is spelled in the ruin script” or another king nearby to compare inscriptions to (could get titles or numbers from that).

Trailhead Option: The script is still used in the modern day 

This would entail giving the players the key to the known version of the script (or just using the Latin alphabet) as one of the opening clues. Some of the symbols would be used for the same sounds, while others would be repurposed, left out, or used in nonstandard ways.

Trailhead Option: The children’s book

Hand someone a copy of One Fish, Two Fish, Red Fish, Blue Fish in a language they know nothing about, even if they can’t read the script, and within moments they’ll know five words, where adjectives are placed in relation to their nouns, and maybe even plurals. 

This option requires a bit of finagling for your typical generic vernacular fantasy setting, but it’d work excellently in Mothership or other sci-fi settings; stumbling across the classroom of an abandoned colony would be a treasure-trove in this sort of puzzle-dungeon.

Pulling on that thread a bit…

Trailhead Option: Use players’ existing knowledge as starting point

Making up an original text for the above scenario would be easy enough and a good clue; but you could also hand the players a book titled “Ozad Shungan Hluneitsan” with a little girl, a metal man, a scarecrow, and a lion on the front cover. Players will immediately clock that the words on the cover translate to "The Wonderful Wizard of Oz" and that’d be both a good clue and a way to encourage engagement because it’s something players already know.

Question: Script or no?

Script here meaning anything not the Latin alphabet; nearly all games of this sort involve translating glyphs directly into their semantic equivalents in English. This is a method that works (Heaven’s Vault, Chants of Sennar) but it's a method that bypasses phonetics and most grammar: relying on it is going to typically result in a logographic language, and those tend to have enormous glyph lists (hello, hanzi) to make up for the fact that you can't really just spell out a word as it's pronounced. So that's either a very truncated glyph library, or a load of extra work.

Using a different kind of script drastically decreases the number of symbols but introduces the new step of symbols no longer being directly connected to concepts. But that's not as big of an issue as it could be, because even if you don't know how the symbols are pronounced, Pattern-Seeking Brain will still be able to figure out that this string of glyphs means this or that with the right clues

Real-World Example: Koga's Koffing

So back when I was 8 or 9 or so, I was able to pick up that の meant possession in Japanese despite knowing absolutely nothing about the language, because I had some Japanese Pokemon cards (couldn't tell you how i got them) and when you've got cards you know are "Koga's Koffing", "Koga's Weedle", and "Misty's Starmie", you can process-of-elimination your way through it.

• The strings of matching kana on the Koga cards must be his name, so the rest of those names must be Koffing and Weedle, respectively.
• If I port the word order over, Misty and Starmie's names should follow the same pattern.
• の is a shared element on the cards that isn't part of their names, so the only thing remaining is that it marks possession (or, as I understood it at the time, it's the Japanese version of apostrophe + s). 

**

 All right, I think I've got enough to work with here.

• Mothership adventure set in abandoned colony previously inhabited by a group that kept to themselves (for whatever reason); colonists have their own language spoken nowhere else.
• Computer systems are either down (so you can't just google-translate them) or locked behind figuring out passwords, program names, and executable commands.
• If there are any survivors, they need to be encountered after the main language puzzle is solved. 
• There's a classroom for the colony children with books printed on-site. Since this is a treasure trove for solving the puzzle, there needs to be some sort of obstacle between the players and getting in that can't just be forced. The reveal that it's a classroom could be really meaningful if the players don't know what's behind the blockage until they get in.
• Signs, warnings, and maps are easy ways to get some clues and basic words in.
• Assigning sounds to symbols will need some sort of video or audio component. There could be subtitles on a video, or you could cross-reference the A/V clue with another document (a work schedule, an attendance sheet, etc)
• This is going to involve a LOT of handouts: these will need to be formatted for home printing & cutting out sections (numbered index cards?)
• Add a horrible monster and some reason the PCs can't leave until they do something, and you've got a stew going.  

Solid start, I'll keep you posted if it goes anywhere. 

MOSH: Environmental Scenario Design Framework

Via NASA

Planet generation is a topic I keep coming back to, trying to develop the perfect formula. This post has been percolating for well over a year at this point, long enough that I had actually forgotten the contents of my prior attempts (see here, here, here and here)

I have been fiddling around with this idea for a very long while now (I think this is a year+ draft?), and in doing so I have come to a revelation of sorts.

The revelation is this: In terms of making a functional component of a tabletop game, most planet generation tables are mostly useless.

They're certainly fun if you want to indulge your inner sci-fi writer for a while, and they are a useful tool in establishing the flavor and character of a location, but as a functional component of game prep? Not very useful.

(Stars Without Number's tag tables are of course very good - because they're about providing you with points of interaction.)

We can reduce all those tables of atmosphere and temperature and mass down to a binary: if you take off your helmet, either the planet kills you instantly or it doesn't.

If the planet is the sort that kills you instantly, your adventuring is either going to be inside a habitat or out in a suit. (For our purposes, gas giants and deep space are also included here.) If the planet is not the kind that kills you instantly, that's Basically Just Earth. This gives us three functional location-based adventure types:

• Habitat - An enclosed environment, ranging from the equivalent of a single building to that of a small country. There are nice thick walls and layers of safeguards between you and enough radiation to fry your progeny to the seventh generation.
• Out in a Suit - Outside of the habitat, you are both vulnerable to the elements and at significantly increased risk of finding yourself out of range of help or support.
• Basically Just Earth - You already know what this one is like, you live here. Basically Just Earth is not beholden to the clean kills you / does not kill you dichotomy. It can certainly still kill you, but not as fast as the others (usually).

I'm leading this all to the point that if we're going to be generating planets for Mothership, we should be generating them with a focus on one of these three adventure location roles.

Habitat

95% of the human population lives here, in the Iterative City and similar settlements. Monkeys in tin cans, in dome cities, in walled-off fragments of Earth.

Scale

1. Facility
2. Town
3. City
4. Metropole
5. Country

Type (Orbital)

1. Bernal Sphere - Rotating sphere.
2. O'Neill Cylinder - Rotating cylinder.
3. Stanford Torus - Rotating ring.
4. Beehive - Asteroid or iceteroid that has been burrowed into.
5. Tin Can - Little more than a pressurized can with thrusters and solar panels attached.
6. Gravity Balloon - A comparatively thin shell filled with enough atmosphere to keep it from collapsing in on itself.
7. Dyson Tree - An enormous, genetically modified plant fed on icy bodies and sustaining an enclosed atmosphere.
8. Freefall - Any type of large habitat with no spin-gravity components.
9. Decommissioned Ship - A spaceship that is no longer serviceable for interplanetary or interstellar travel, but can still serve as living space.
10. Modular - A collection of connected habitats, often of different types. Roll d3 for # of additional modules.
    

Type (Planetside)

1. Dome - The classic. Can't go wrong with a good dome.
2. Burrow - Underground is sometimes the safest place to be.
3. Lava Tube - Saves on digging costs.
4. Aerostat - Suspended in a dense atmosphere.
5. Hydrostat - Suspended on or underneath liquid.
6. Worldhouse - A crater or canyon is domed over, sealed, and terraformed in-miniature; kin to an enormous greenhouse.

Habitats will always be accompanied by some manner of support infrastructure (power generation, resource extraction and reclamation, food production, etc), though self-sufficiency is not a given and many habitats could be easily crippled or killed outright if cut off from the necessary imports,

The biggest hazard in a habitat is the enclosed environment.

• Your options for escaping or avoiding the threat are limited.
• You will be in close quarters with other people (if other people are present).
• You are more likely to be in a surveilled environment.
• Instant or near-instant death lurks on the other side of the wall.

Out in a Suit

Going out in a suit means that your number one priority is getting back to somewhere you can take the suit off. No one wants to go out in a suit, but sometimes circumstances will force your hand.

Why Are You Out In A Suit?

1) You need to travel between habitats.
2) External equipment needs repair or maintenance.
3) You are trying to reach a location.
4) You are trying to find a person.
5) You are investigating an event.

Environmental Hazards

The Rimspace Planet Generator from the Hull Breach folks has us covered here, and I'll be copying their tables mostly wholesale. I've added a fourth table for radiation and magnetic field just to even the horrible space dangers out, and I've added mechanical bits where the original tables implied them.

Temperature

1. Frigid - Extreme thermal protection required
2. Cold - Thermal protection required
3. Temperate - You don't need any special protection from the temperature
4. Hot - Thermal protection required
5. Burning - Extreme thermal protection required

Gravity

1. Minimal - 0-G training required
2. Low - Move with caution
3. Standard - You don't need any special adaptation to the gravity
4. High - Habituation required
5. Crushing - Strength training or exoskeleton required

Atmosphere

1. Negligible - Pressure suit required
2. Thin - Hazard suit recommended
   
3. Moderate - You don't need any special protection against pressure
4. Thick - Extreme winds and precipitation; Hazard suit recommended
   
5. Dense - Pressure suit required

Thin / Moderate / Thick could all technically be breathable, but that's for Basically Just Earth.

Rads & Mags

1. Extreme radiation - Surface exploration lethal
2. High radiation - Hazard suit required
3. Tolerable - You don't need any special protection
4. High magnetism - High electromagnetic interference
5. Extreme magnetism - Wireless devices useless

The biggest hazards while Out in a Suit is running out of resources

• Air supply will be limited
• Suit integrity is critical to your safety.
• Communication is more likely to be unreliable.
• You are more likely to be far away from help.

Basically Just Earth

You will neither freeze nor fry instantly here, and neither the gravity nor the atmosphere will crush you flat. It might not look like Earth, but the fact that you can stand there and say "It doesn't look much like Earth" is a miracle. This doesn't mean that the environment is safe, only that it will not immediately kill you. It is functionally Basically Just Earth, which means you might still need specialized survival equipment, genetic modification, or something else of that nature.

Basically Just Earth has the widest array of hazards to choose from, to the point where you can choose what you like from the lists above and elsewhere. But the biggest ones will be:

• Availability of open space means its easier to find yourself isolated.
• Earthlike worlds can support more factions (and faction conflicts)
• Spaceship escapes are a lot less practical
• We all know you want to put weird aliens here, go right on ahead.

 

Final Thoughts

So there you have it. Not particularly complex, but I think it's a good framework to bolt additional complexity on top of. MoSh works best when it is scenario-focused, so sketching the boundaries that will shape a scenario is the obvious first step.

Hopefully clearing this article (which had been sitting at like, 90% done for that year+) will get the others flowing along to completion. Damn my perfectionism - when it flares up, it flares up bad.

Lighthouse Design Corner: The Core Mechanic

These posts on twitter are always popular with folks, but twitter is a burning garbage fire on a good day and there haven't been many good days of late. So have the bigger version.

The Core Mechanic

I'm trying to get everything roll under on a d20.There are five stats, which are generated by rolling 4d4 (and so your success range, barring modification, is between 20 and 80% - if something would raise it above that level, it's just automatically granted advantage).

Body - Raw strength, endurance, gross motor skills, pushing your limits.

Reflex - Reaction, finesse, fine motor skills, hand-eye coordination.

Mind - Recall, deduction, computation, conceptualization.

Spirit - Willpower, empathy, charisma, gut checks.

Combat - The ability to commit violence against another being

So far so typical. These are general, and I'm not planning on doing a formal skill system ("eh, you'd know how to do that, roll with advantage" is the phrase of the day).

My main divergence is that I'm going to treat as much else as I can as stats on their own, rather than as modifiers to your own stats (in most cases - those modifiers will still exist here and there.)

This is where the lateral advancement comes into play, with Insights.

Every Lighthouse character comes with a number of Insight slots. Some backgrounds might start you with a few filled by default, but ordinary folks will start with a blank slate. Each slot costs 1 Insight to open, and then you can fill it with any of the Insights that you've unlocked for yourself.

A Confession: This is whole-heartedly stolen from the Thought Cabinet in Disco Elysium)

An Actual Quandary: Insight has morphed into both "special thing about your character" as well as "currency used to buy / unlock those special things". This is likely to pose problems in the future, so I need to figure out which one is what and find a replacement for the other.

So say you get a nifty new power, or a new magical item, or a new ally - you'll pencil that in on your character sheet with whatever number is associated with it, and whenever you're going to call on that resource you'll roll a d20 and try to get under, or burn off a point of its stat, or sometimes both. And if you happen to get a lot of Insight burning a hole in your pocket, you can upgrade the stats of your Insights (oh no the quandary!)

Most group insights will likely not take up a slot.

Some Insights, the ones that just are the way they are and there's no chance they can fail, do not have a stat.

Some generic Insight structures can include:

• Burn point > get effect, no roll required.
• Burn point > get effect, roll stat to determine if complication occurs
• Always works, no roll required
• Always works, roll stat to determine if complication occurs
• Roll stat to determine success / failure

Or in more practical examples:

• Convocation Call (5) - Burn one point to send a voice message of under a minute via sparrow. Regain a point by taking time out of your day to go feed the birds in the park. You can increase points in storage above 5.
• Blunted Knife (X) - A chipped butcher's chopper, heavy as lead and possessing a permanently dull blade. Completely useless against wood, flesh, or bone, but can cut metal and stone without resistance.
• The Blue Notebook (4) - The creature it calls forth hovers, crouched, indistinct and tense, in the corner of your vision. It is very hungry. It hates you in particular, but cannot yet strike back. It will hunt down and kill a target if you offer it one of their possessions. You will always gain a point of Hamartia for its use. Every time you roll above this Insight's score, increase it by one. If you roll successfully, increase it by two. If it reaches 16, the creature will be freed from its binding. It will go after your contacts first.
• Angry Tom (Minor Contact 10) - Activist, freelance layout guy, specialist marijuana gardener, very, very angry acquaintance. Roll under 10 to see if you can get some help. Rolling over means he is too busy, or getting the help would require you to provide something else to him.

Tune in next time when I talk about how combat is going to work, and the cost of committing violence.