Hey Man, well this is Babylon

From the very first moment of the very first scene, every character in Billions and Billions of Bullets is royally doomed. This is one of the very first design ideas I had for the game since its first conception. I have always loved the tragic destinies of gunslingers and anti-heroes in most of the bullet dramas out there, and wanted to make such a concept a Major Theme of this game.

So to thematically simulate this and tie it directly into the systemic core of the game, I’ve drafted up the Lifetimer mechanic. Using this mechanic, everyone has a twelve-point clock called the Lifetimer. As the game flows, the clock fills up, and once the stroke hits 12, the time of the character’s demise has arrived, and she must have her final Fate narrated during the current or next scene of the game.

The Lifetimer counts up with every scene that passes. Additionally, certain powers and abilities may affect the Lifetimer for the better or the worse, and in-game narration of conflict outcomes can potentially modify it as well. It is the job of the character’s Hand of Fate to try and push that lifetimer to the limit, so they can bring about the character’s tragic destiny before that character fulfills her goals.

A major goal of the game, then, is for players to try and resolve their personal and scene Purposes before their time is up. I’m currently trying to tie the resolution of goals into the mechanics as well, possibly as a modification to the current incarnation of the Lifetimer. One idea I’m harboring is having each “quadrant” of the Lifetimer linked to one of four wedges. As the character grows closer to fulfilling their goal, they fill in the associated wedge – possibly by taking the “inner circle” of the Lifetimer and just dividing it into four pieces. Accomplishing major achievements in the narrative will fill in wedges, and once all four have been filled in, their personal Purpose is near completion.

Different mechanics could then be put into place that somehow connect the two tracks (Lifetimer and Goals). For example, the Lifetime could move slower if it’s associated Wedge is already filled in, or the Wedge could be more difficult to acquire if the Lifetimer is much further along the count. Something like this would make the Lifetimer and the Goal wedges mechanically interconnected.

The ultimate goal, then, would to make them both suitably elegant without too much complication, while giving the players a reason to actually care about either. The players must want to accomplish their goals, while the Hands of Fate must want to make their “pawns” suffer terrible fates, and yet neither side must be afraid of either outcome. So yes, the characters start the game screwed, but now I have to work “being screwed” into the system in a way that makes them like it.