Iou-Batting : Mechanical help request

I'm working on story-lines and inspiration areas for the Sin-Eaters on my web site (scarn.com), which has been fairly fun so far. 

I just came up with an idea which I would like to post while it is still hot in my mind -- however, while I'm strong on the story-telling, and scene creation, I'm not so hot on the mechanics yet.

So... I'm hoping that someone on here is good enough with the basic mechanics that they could help flesh out this Sin-Eater "game".

-- Background --

In Breton folklore, Iannic-ann-ôd ([ˈjɑ̃nig əˈnoːt], which means "Little John of the shore") are said to be the lost souls of those drowned at sea and never recovered. They are said to be heard along coastlines at night crying, "Iou! Iou!".

From "The Celtic Legend of the Beyond":

Iannic-ann-ôd is not evil, provided one does not amuse oneself by sending his plaintive call back to him. Woe to the imprudent who risk this game. If you reply once, Iannic-ann-ôd leaps half the distance separating him from you, in a single bound; if you reply a second time, he leaps half of the remaining distance; if you reply a third time, he breaks your neck.

Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Iannic-ann-%C3%B4d

-- Game --

Name : Iou-Batting

Typical players of this game are the krews of Bone Pickers, and some channels of the Celebrants

The game is popular around sea-shores, where shipwrecks are known to happen, usually in concert with bon-fires, keggers and grunion-runs. It's a beach party game.

The players, using bashing twilight weapons of low power, stand on the rocks or on the edge of the shore. Normally the game requires that the Sin-Eater's movement is limited by the terrain, so standing on a outcrop of rocks, where he can only take a step, one way or another, is looked on with much more favor, than standing on the beach, where it is thought that the Sin-Eater has an unfair advantage over the Iannic-ann-ôd.

Once in place, the Sin-Eater shouts "Iou!" until he can get an answer.

Since the Sin-Eater is initiating the "Iou!", the Iannic-ann-ôd may make the final leap to bash his head on the Second, not the Third. Some Iannic-ann-ôd have been confused enough by the change in instigation of the game to come in on "their third call", which would be the Sin-Eater's fourth reply. So the Sin-Eater isn't certain of the arrival moment of the Iannic-ann-ôd.

The Iannic-ann-ôd come in fast, very fast. Normally they come in from the direction of the sky, but they don't have too, they can come in straight on, and from the right or left. So there has to be an awareness, an ability to focus on the incoming Iannic-ann-ôd, quickly enough to bash the ghost before the ghost bashes you.

Would love to hear suggestions on the game itself, and what rule sets and levels to apply to the game, so that story-tellers can just take it off the site and use it without having to research things up themselves.

Granted, it would be a game, played by story-bands, and not player-bands, but... it is still nice to find something like this, with all the parts ready to play.

Thanks in advance.

Glenn Hefley

guess I'll work this out myself.

I realize that this idea is on the level of "cow-tipping", but then, it is suppose to be... in the story I'm writing the reader should be a bit appalled by the whole idea... but I didn't expect silence on here from it... maybe it's too much.. hmm.

thanks anyway.

I am currently too hung-over to provide any mechanical feedback or support,

HOWEVER:

I find the idea to be AWESOME, and I fully intend to use this in my games in some form. I love it. Seriously. Awesome idea. Cudos!

Neisseria:

Here's a brief idea I thought up, but it's a tad convoluted, so maybe someone else can refine it.

This is exactly what I was hoping for, you bring up some good points on how the action goes.

I'm not completely lame with the mechanics, but ... when you get down to it, this single action encounter is a bit complicated when you start describing it from the SAS POV.

The game is only one player, happens only once on a night. Only one Iannic-ann-ôd will fall for this on a single night (also, staying with the description of the legend, no one ever hears two calls at the same time, so only one Iannic-ann-ôd is in any one area, calling, on any given night). So, the way I'm using it in the story I'm writing, is this is an initiation ritual to join this group.

The Iannic-ann-ôd attacks once, and then flees back to the ocean -- whether or not he gets hit with the bat, or breacks the guy's neck. So it is a single attack.

It can take hours for a Iannic-ann-ôd to answer the "Iou!" call of the player, hence the bonfire, the kegger, the beach party.

A party can move up the shore and call again in another area to get another Iannic-ann-ôd if they wish... at least a half-mile distance.

The Iannic-ann-ôd is completely manifested, in physical form. He is using a full-out attack, with a charge.

I like the way you handle the inititive/surprise problem. Because, while the player doesn't really know which direction the Iannic-ann-ôd is coming from, its not sneaking up behind him, it is coming in from one of four different angles, but all of them are from the direction of the sea. So I wasn't really sure that suprise should be brought in, and if not, how to do the initiative.

Being a one-shot Bang, it's over deal... the Player wins, if he survives the encounter and comes out un-injured, as long as he didn't "dodge" the Iannic-ann-ôd attack. He has to attack first, with a full-out attack. That's the game. It's a dare, a proff of strength, a frat-party, all rolled into one game.

Anyway, thanks for taking the time to write that up, you came up with a really good way of handling the game play.

If anyone else has something to add to this, I would be greatful. I'll be posting the finished encounter treatment and posting it in full on my web site, probably Tuesday... watching my email to see if anyone has something to add, or help with the mechanics.

Glad I could help. I didn't realise that you'd only get one "hit" per night, though, which makes things slightly different. Need to heighten the tension somewhat in the mechanics (not sure how to achieve that). I'm looking forward to seeing the finished result once you've worked it out!

Do you mean that you didn't realize that it was a single attack battle, or that the ghost would only show up once a night?

I was thinking of it in terms of a Jock's version of Bloody Mary. Once the spirit shows up, ... you live or you die... that's the thrill of the game. 

What were you thinking? Maybe it is better?

I suddenly got the mental image-stream, from your last post, of five guys out there on the rocks, the waves coming in, each shouting "Iou!" to get a ghost to answer, and the ghosts answering some of the calls.

Each of the Batters, not really knowing which ghost is answering them, or if the ghost answered with the second call, another Batter -- what is the count? who is the ghost going to pounce on the third call? how many ghosts are out there in the waves?

It's madness... It's fantastic... it's hell on the story-teller. awk!

glennhefley:

or that the ghost would only show up once a night?

Been working on this story-line and decided to bring it up to a full four encounter story for the Geist players. Here is an excerpt of part of the first story-line where the group comes across a Krewel who use this game as initiation, and the Indian guide that is bringing the player group up north, has objected to the game, because it is disrespectful. This is the leader of the Krewel speaking...

What? Respect for the dead? Listen tribal-spawn, I've been dead, and I had a chance to look around, and I didn't see a whole lot of respecting going on out there in the drainpipe of the over-world. What I saw was the Big Flush.

My father was killed by these fucking Iou's and I didn't see any respect coming off them either, so don't be telling me about the good and the bad, or your Ghosting Way bullshit Cochise.

Good and evil, right and wrong in the spirit world? Buddy that's where I live, all you have is the fucking map!

Besides, it ain't like we are hurting these murderous pricks. They ain't got no conscious any more, not like we think about it any way. Hell, these things are little more than May flies, just born to screw and die, only the Iou's got it all messed up, they kill and stay dead.

They're so screwed, drifting out there in the deep, no light, no hope, no nothing. Just darkness and deep out there. How do you know they don't look forward to this beach party? Hell, they keep showing up for it! Every damn Friday night the Iou's are out there, hoping to be the one to crack-a-neck this week.

Yeah well a lot of weird shit happens in Maine, ya know? Or haven't you read any Stephen King novels. Hell we got Cujos, and ladies mad as hatters, and hell -- we got the devil himself walking around at least twice a year -- opening up curio shops. 

We got lots of weird, ass, scary stuff, and you are worried about a little fun with some piss-ant phantoms who are nothing more than plasma pop-a-moles? Shit man, I'd tell you that you should find a better way to spend your time, but then, look what we're doing on a Friday night eh?

It's bullshit! Yeah its weird, and a bit dangerous, but hell, you get right down to the brass-tacks with it , and it's just lame ol' pop-a-mole, that's all it is.

You want to protect the Iou's, fine, you take its place. Your ghost against Rich's, Ghost vs Ghost, to The Blood. We ain't into the killing thing see?, we've all had enough of that shit to last our lifetimes.

Should be done with the whole game soon, but I'll be posting it a part at a time on the web site, so you won't have to wait long to get into the story.

Good stuff. You've captured it really well, I think. I'm surprised there aren't many comments from other people in this thread by now...

Neisseria:

I'm surprised there aren't many comments from other people in this thread by now...

Yeah, kind of disappointing, but I just read the thread "Only Two Books?" and it seems that the attention to a game thread area starts to decline fast when the word gets out that a story area of White Wolf's, is not going to be getting more books into the line. It is like watching a balloon pop...poof, there goes all the interest..

 I was around when Scarred Lands had the same thing happen to it, the White Wolf area looses so much traffic, that .. heck, my scarn.com web site is now the top listing on Google for Scarred Lands, ... above the White Wolf page, and the Wiki area is bare.

It seems that the general player-community is not interested in continuing game areas, and new ideas for a dying game area is non-interesting as well. In fact, had I read that thread, before I started writing the Shades of North story line, ... frankly I wouldn't have started working on it, I would have worked on something else. But since I'm nearly done with this five part - 26 scene storyline (I let turn into a minor monster), I'm going to keep moving forward and finish it, and then probably move into another area, even though I have outlined another storyline already. ... we'll see how it goes.

The Shades of North Will be on this page when published

first story - The Calling (Six Scenes) will be coming out tonight or tomorrow... depending on how long it takes me to format it for use.

Funny, i was looking for something related to Blood Mary as described in Urban Legends and ended up here - real shame people didn't give it some merited attention before.

It's not what i was looking for, but a most engrossing group of ideas. You bet i'll seriously comment on it later. See ya.

Sorry I missed this thread the first time.  You just marked another location on my overworld map of the Internet.  This stuff is really righteous.