Journal Entry: Kill Your Darlings

We've all heard it before. Kill your darlings. Not all of them, mind you; your game has to be about something. But if a mechanic is not about that thing... kill it.

In the case of Hostargo, I'm in a huge purging process. I've built it up with all my favorite things from every RPG game I've ever liked (exaggerated). But now that it's basically functional-complete, I have to ask myself if all of those functions are really necessary.

Just a bit ago I considered the point of the city of Hostargo. The idea started with a world around the chaos of a "gold rush". It's because of this I was planning on adding three distinct viewpoints from which the players could play: corp, crew, or gang. But I weighed the plusses, which are mostly just replayability, against the effort and complexity of both creating them and using them in game. Wasn't worth it. Slash it.

The idea of character "gears", or motivations, borrowed almost entirely from Cortex Plus's "drives", is something that I loved. It was even a major talking point on my sell sheet. It gives characters dynamic and ever-changing ideals, which I think is just so cool. But... this game isn't really about the characters. It's about the city. It's about the characters in the city, yes, but there's already so much to drive them forward that they don't need gears chugging away in the background. I had to tack on mechanics to fit them in, so it's best if I just rip that extra piece out right now.

Lastly, I love the idea of a meta-resource giving character's natural luck. Hostargo used to be all about the ebb and flow of luck, much like FATE points. But now it's a shell of what it used to be, after the much more integrated mechanic of Effort Pools was introduced. I even wrote a whole blog post about how I was still going to use luck... but in the end, was it necessary? Not really. It solves a problem that doesn't really need to be solved. Not when the rest of the advancement mechanics support a tight reward cycle already.

I'm enjoying the bonfire. Cutting back on some of the extra slack is a quick way to get to the finish line! It gives me some room to breath, and I plan on breathing life into this creation very soon.