Hey all, long time lurker here but I've been aproaching a few artists about this to no avail. I reckon this is a good thread to post my own game design in... If anyone thinks it's good enough to maybe make sweet sweet profit then drop me a line...
The rules system is complete and that's what I'm posting here. Actual card desgins are nowhere near so.
The year is 2121 and, for those with the power, wealth or cunning to obtain it, immortality is a fact. The Priscilla procedure, painless and simple though highly restricted by the powerful and effective only on females, renders the recipient immune to physical harm and insensitive to all pain and discomfort. However, the laws of the universe will not permit something from nothing or something into nothing, so the procedure has one drawback. No modification of the procedure has yet been found that did not make the recipient horribly susceptible to… tickling.
The Vellocrats, rulers by virtue of their immortality, found themselves caught between two unacceptable choices. On the one hand, extend the procedure to the commoners - impossible, for no-one willingly parts with power. On the other, watch the world laid waste by war between immortals. For the new rulers are not content with immortality, but strive against one another for power and influence. To contain the situation, the Vellocracy collectively agreed to settle disputes by ritualised combat in the form of tickle torture.
While insisting on their right to rule, between themselves the Vellocrats are chaotic. While factions of a sort do exist, they are better understood as philosophies and individual ties and loyalties are much stronger and more important. Nonetheless, the philosophies, approaches to dominance in the tickle arena, are important. Though they do not have any direct effect on the game (at least til expansions…) they may give clues as to the strengths and weaknesses of each character.
They are as follows:
Nietzsche – Willpower and physical fitness are the way to win. She triumphs who endures. They tend to have good defence, stamina and pride.
Plutarch – The road to success is paved with money. Very effective when tickling as a group.
Dyonisia – The best way to effectively give and receive tickling is to try to enjoy it. Good all-rounders. Resilient, but not as much as Nietzche.
Psybernetick – Victory goes to the most intelligent. Adept at exploiting weaknesses and reducing stamina.
Cabal – To succeed you must be ruthless. They have good location specialists and a lot of special abilities that effect pride.
Character Information
Each character has the following information. The full meaning of each will be revealed as the course of the game is explained.
Name, Faction, Attack, Defence (separately for feet, thighs, tummy, ribs and underarms), Stamina, Will, Pride. Each character may have one or more moves which they can use either when being tickled or tickling, though only one per character may be used at once.
You can see all information for your own characters but not that of your opponents. Of course you may have duplicates in which case you will know some of each others strengths.
Beginning the Game
Each player enters the game with a team of eight characters. In the first phase of the game you can look at your opponents team and must choose five of your own to be that games combatants. The three unchosen characters take no further part in the game.
During each round each player takes an action. Both actions resolve simultaneously so a draw is possible. Victory is achieved if one player has no unbroken characters.
One action can be one of the following:
Choose an enemy character and put her in a piece of torture equipment.
Put a character already being tickle tortured in a different piece of equipment.
Tickle an enemy character who is in a piece of torture equipment.
A character being tortured cannot simultaneously torture an enemy character. You can only torture one enemy at a time.
Equipment
Each equipment set-up has seven characteristics in addition to its capacity. Each will have a modifier for each tickling point (e.g. feet) which is added (or indeed subtracted) to the attack of a character tickling the victim there. Equipment also modifies stamina loss, i.e. equipment with a stamina loss of -1 will take longer to exhaust the victim, whereas +1 will exhaust faster. Furthermore equipment has a pride modifier which is applied at the point when the victim is placed in it but has no further effect.
Crucially, equipment also has a capacity stat assigned to each tickling point. This is the number of ticklers that can be assigned to that point. This may take the form of either/or, for example a total of two ticklers who can both be assigned to the ribs or the belly or one on each.
Tickle Torture
When a location is tickled the ticklers Attack stat is compared to that locations defence. One attack point is scored for each time the defence stat goes into the attack stat e.g. attack 4 and defence 2 = 2 attack points.
The attack points are totalled up and the victims Pride is subtracted from the total. This gives you that rounds final tickle attack score.
This score is subtracted from the victims Will and Stamina.
A character reduced to zero Will is broken and cannot tickle or be tickled. Next round the player will choose a new victim. When all of one players characters are broken the game is over.
A character reduced to zero Stamina is exhausted and all damage that would take a character below zero Stamina is instead subtracted from Will.
Sample Round
Player one has chosen to torture Tammy Hilden and uses the lone foot clamp (i.e. feet stretched out and immobile, bands holding the thighs down but otherwise free to move). This equipment setup only has room for one torturer and he chooses Laress Vell.
The relevant stats:
Hilden
Feet 1
Thighs 3
Tummy 5
Ribs 5
Underarms 5
Will 40
Stamina 20
Pride 6
Special Trooper: Loses no Will til exhausted
Vell
Attack 5
Special Pedologist: +2 attack when tickling feet
Torturor: If Vell’s victim is exhausted at the beginning of the round do not subtract Pride from attack score, instead add it.
Lone Footclamp
Feet +4
Thighs 0
Tummy -2
Ribs -3
Underarms -4
Stamina loss +3
Pride Modifier 0
And so to begin…
Round 1
Vell tickles Hilden’s feet. Her attack value is 5 but to this must be added 2 for pedologist and 4 for footclamp, making 11. Hilden’s feet have defence of only one but she has pride 6, so the total score is 5.
Because Hilden is a trooper she takes no will damage but because of the clamp she takes 8 rather than 5 stamina loss, leaving her on 12 stamina.
Round 2
The same attack reduces Hilden to 4 stamina.
Round 3
Hilden loses her 4 remaining stamina and is exhausted. The remaining 4 damage at last reduces her will, leaving her on 36.
Round 4
Because Hilden is exhausted the vicious Vell is able to turn her pride against her. Her attack score is 11 but the addition of Hilden’s 6 Pride points makes 17. Not only that, she gets another 17 because of Hilden being exhausted, for a total attack of 34. Hilden has 2 points of will left and will be broken next turn.
This is an example of an unusually resilient character being swiftly overcome by the use of the right attacker and the right equipment. In this instance the player controlling Hilden may be well advised to abandon their current victim and torture Vell just to get her out of the way.