For the uninitiated, it may worth reading the description of how Magic Dice work, and perhaps the Baseline Rules.
Whatever anyone else tells you, game design is hard. You're trying to cultivate a relationship between the text, the setting, the players, and the DM. There's no requirement for any of those elements to remain static - the players can reject the ideas within, the DM can make any houserules they like, and you yourself can change your mind about the text! If you want to create an art-form that never changes, that is always perceived how you intended it... forget it. The greatest carvings etched deep within the stone of mountains will be worn by the eons, and there are infinite potential fluctuations that can spring up between any text and any reader.
So, no art-form is static, and no art-form has a more active audience participation role than role-playing games. And besides, the previous paragraph was completely backwards, the text isn't the art-form, the game going on at the table is the "art". The text is just the script/recipe/sheet music that might be used, twisted, abused, ignored, improvised over. And that's whole point! Gallons of blogs have been spilled over the relationship between the text of a game and the game itself. Which is interesting, but beside the point: You can't make someone do something just be writing it down.
"So how do I design a game-text so the game plays out the way I envision?"
You don't. You just do your level best to make something more fun and interesting than the alternative. Which is what we are trying to do today, in:
The Golemist and All His Works
The goal of this class (one of 111 in Nameless Legends of GLOG) is to have it touch upon some of the themes of the original Jewish Golem mythology, without necessarily copying all the symbols exactly. In order for it to do so, the class itself never needs to explicitly reference any of the themes, but the likely outcome of playing that class needs to provoke these interesting situations and questions. Challenging. Impossible to guarantee. But still, we do our best. Remember, if we make something more fun and interesting than the alternative, it will possibly remain consistent to the vision. I'm hoping that the class I've written will succeed in this matter, but that's all - hope.
Here's the current text of the class, unfinished, but coming together gradually:
Golemist Imbue a lifeless sculpture with a spark of the divine
Gear: (see speciality list)
A Once you have crafted a sculpture out of your chosen material, you can bring it to life with [sum] HP, or [sum]x[dice] if you have a pristine, well-equipped workspace. It loses 1 HP each time it is active for the same amount of time as was spent crafting it. +1 MD
B You can create golems out of two different materials, combining the traits of both. You'll need to find a master artisan to help with the new material. +1 MD
C Partner Golem: While acting in tandem, both Golem and Golemist can use the higher start from of either set. +1 MD
D [to be determined]. +1 MD
Golem stats (based on 1-4 MD):
Damage: 1d6 / 1d8 / 1d10 / 1d12
Defence: none / light / med / heavy
Max size: chair / human / wagon / building
[sum] damage special attack
Intelligent, but bound to follow all instructions from the Golemist
Speciality, (starting equipment), golem traits:
- Clay (potters wheel, three clay blocks, sledgehammer). No traits
- Stone (chisel, pickaxe, lantern). Take min damage from attacks while upright, effective at destroying structures, very slow
- Metal (portable anvil, hammer, three ingots). Extra defence and damage, expensive and difficult to make
- Wood (hatchet, saw, plane). Half damage from bludgeoning and piercing, double from slashing and fire
- Glass (miniature kiln, pipe, bag of sand). Fill with potions to grant spell casting. Explode for [sum] damage when broken
- Thread (100ft of silk, silk gloves, scissors). Shaped into a series of fractal glyphs. Take twice a long to make, incredibly light and strong
- Wax (fire-lighter, 30ft of wick, three bags of tallow). While burning, takes 1 damage, and has an additional action per round
- Porcelain (three clay blocks, portable kiln, assorted paints and glazes). Immune to spell of [dice] or less. Double bludgeoning damage
Doom
Golemists don't have the usual Doom track. Triples result in the newborn Golem gaining free-will, no longer losing 1 HP each time-increment, and permanently absorbing the MD used in their creation. The MD are returned if the Golem is destroyed.
Opt: If the magic empowering a golem wears out, the body can be enchanted again. Some maintenance is required each time, or Chaos Dice are added to the spell.
Opt: Some Golemists build a secret weakness into their creations, such as a hidden symbol that can deactivate the golem permanently.
Opt: A Doom that results in a Golem that is amenable to the party can be played as a character. They start with Automaton A + Demigod A (even though they are neither).
The rest of this discussion will be a fine-grained analysis of the choices I have made with this class, and how I envision it performing at the table. It has yet to be playtested, which is invariably the crucible of improvement (and also when I usually finish the high level abilities), but it certainly has been designed.
The Class
First of all, the Golemist is a full MD spellcaster, with just one a single spell, that they will very rarely cast, and almost never in battle. They are an exercise in restraint, focus, and long-term planning. If they are playing in a campaign that uses a downtime system, it's likely they will spend as much time as possible working on their latest creation. They will also seek out tools, expertise, artisans, workspaces, all of which will bring them out of their hideaways and into fruitful contact with other players and the NPC community. If they are in a rollicking, combat-heavy campaign, they will constantly be trying to eke out time to perform their craft, while also bringing a powerful melee combatant to the field.
Since the Golemist learns only one spell, and has very little need to cast it regularly, they will be well placed to assist any party-members that are also spellcasters. While outside the scope of this class, it is worth keeping in mind that many GLOG campaigns feature opportunities to learn more spells through diligent research and careful practice, rather than simply through levelling up.
During combat, the player of the Golemist will have twice as many individual characters to control, twice as many actions to manage, and twice as many positions to consider. This is reasonable, considering that the mental load of their spellcasting is firmly outside of combat. Since the player is already controlling more characters than usual, and is also not distracted by complex mechanics or large lists of spells, they are well-placed to take on a leadership role within the party. The Golem is a powerful combatant (and a disposable one...) while the Golemist is more suited to a supporting role in the thick of battle.
The description of the Golemist class "Imbue a lifeless sculpture with a spark of the divine", is an indicator of the flavour of the class. The Golems being built aren't mechanical creatures, like an Artificer would make. They aren't spirits, conjured by a Summoner. They are their own magisterium, perched on the border between life and unlife, reminiscent of Adam in Eden. Depending on the campaign setting and the proliferation of magic, they may be the sole arbiters of the nature of the Golem, and where it sits in any spiritual hierarchy.
How the Golemist treats their Golems is entirely up to them. They can be marched into traps, sent down suspicious holes, left behind while the "real" characters escape. All this and more can be achieved by a Golemist who treats their creations solely as a tool, a huge boon to the safety and survivability of the party.
None of the above circumstances are guaranteed, but they are certainly encouraged by the mechanics. With that in mind, a successful Golemist is likely to be:
- Focused
- Patient
- Plan-oriented
- Community-minded
- Unhurried
- Helpful
- Studious
- A leader
- Spiritually significant
- Saddled with deciding the fate of the creation they built
A solid start! While powerful, a Golemist comes with many orthogonal challenges. A fresh player with no knowledge of the source material is posed a number of questions and conundrums by this class. Whether they succeed or not is up to them.
The Creations
The Golems created by the Golemist can take many shapes and forms, be made out of many different materials and be designed for many different purposes. However, all of them are intelligent, and whether they have feelings (or suffer pain) is left as an exercise to the reader. All of them are bound to the Golemist, leaving the creator as the greatest weak-point for the Golem.
The most important part of the design of the Golem rules-text is the Doom of the Golemist and the three optional rules. Whether these optional rules are in-play is the choice of the DM, but will likely have an influence how the player acts as the Golemist either way.
The Doom of the Golemist is quite unlike any normal Wizard Tradition, and it is also incredibly unlikely to appear. Other spellcasters that might accrue several Chaos Dice during a day of adventuring, and then wind up in a sticky situation where they will push their luck. When the going gets tough, the Golemist still doesn't usually have any real use for spending loads of MD on a Hail Mary spell. They might cast one spell a session, if that, and so will rarely have to deal with Chaos Dice. A 3 MD spell has a 2.78% chance of resulting in triples, 4 MD has 9.72%.
In many adaptations of the source material there is an antisemetic eagerness to harp on the violence that the Golem wrecks on the community once the rabbi loses control. This is not the main point of the text. In the case of this Golemist class, the Doom results in a Golem that gains free will, and can do whatever it likes: whether turning on its maker in violence, remaining to help them, or leaving to explore life on its own, the choice is given to that which was once a slave by design.
To reduce the risk of rolling such Doom over the long term, a Golemist might craft a body over the course of a day, and regularly animate it with only 2 MD. Every six or seven days, they'll have to stop the golem and spend time repairing it, lest Chaos Dice build up. (Remind you of anything?)
That said, while not particularly fatal, a Doom of 3 MD or more can effectively end the magical career of the Golemist. Unless they can find alternate sources of MD or work with other spellcasters, that will be the last major Golem they create. But, what a creation it will be! 3 MD will create a sentient, free-willed being, tough and strong, massive yet still quick, effectively ageless - a flawless creation.
Of course, the MD can always be recovered: All the Golemist needs to do is murder their creation. If the Golemist is afraid of this eventuality, they can even build intentional weak-points into their Golems. This lets them keep an iron-grip on their projects, and kill it the moment it shows a sign of deviating from following their commands.
If the Golemist still doesn't want to risk their creation coming to life, and taking their MD with it, they can always just restrict themselves to 2 MD casting. But if they do that, they can't make any Golems larger than a human. If they can't bear to risk themselves being surpassed, they will forever restrain their own talents and potential. But if they are willing to chance losing control, willing to risk being usurped by their creation, they can create magnificent structures beyond the power of a mere human.
It can be a real challenge to write a concise class that ends on a punchy finale, while not burying the lead. In the case of this Golemist, I'm quietly pleased about the final line. It prompts the player to consider how they are treating the Golem, whether they are respecting its desires as a sentient being, without being too preachy or demanding. It sets forth an option to discuss retiring characters and a changing roster, a campaign style I am always looking to promote. It leaves an open question as to the true nature of this creation: Is it magical? Is it divine? Is it a work of pure craft and human ingenuity? The answer of course, is that it's The Golem.
Final Thoughts
Players don't like doing what they are told. It's a verifiable fact. If the DM tells them to do something they were going to do anyway, they will either a) not do it or b) have less fun in the process. If the rules try and tell them what to do... yikes. In my experience, dictates from the DM or the rules-text can take a few common forms:
- You just cannot do this thing.
- Your character would never do this thing.
- You get +1 XP every time you do this thing.
- You take 3d10 damage every time you do this thing.
But sometimes you want to get the players to do something. Maybe it's for their own good, so they'll have more fun. Maybe it's because you've designed these six setpiece dungeons. Maybe you would just prefer they don't murder every single allied NPC. Apart from Method 0, which is of course, talk to them like people, what you need are additional layers of abstraction.
In the case of class design, the need is less pressing. Maybe you have a particular theme or setting element you'd like to display. Maybe you want the class to have a coherent feel to it. Maybe you want it to match the flavour text you wrote for it! Whatever the case, the same methods could possibly apply. The classic examples of motivated class design are paladins - whether the threat of losing powers, or just "your character would never do that", paladin players are often in a sticky situation.
In the case of the Golemist, there is only an extra one or two layers of abstraction. The sticks and carrots are barely hidden, but it's enough (I hope). 4 MD and one spell, a Doom that rarely rears its deadly head. A quiet hint about playing as the Golem if it likes you enough, to make you think, how are we treating these creatures? Nothing overt, nothing preachy, nothing concrete, nothing didactic. Just a nudge, and it's enough to take the player in a completely different direction, without being forced to do so. It doesn't take much to craft a class that provokes interesting gameplay, just the tension between what they've got, and what they want to do.
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