After working on a number of playsets for Agon, I want to gather my understanding on designing for the Paragon system to help design future playsets. I hope it helps other designers curious about making their next Paragon playset.
About AGON and Playsets
AGON is a game about epic Greek heroes contending with the will of the Gods across unique and dangerous islands. It is built on incredibly simple mechanics that the designers (John Harper and Sean Nittner)have opened for hacking via the Paragon system.
Find out more about the AGON rpg and explore some of playsets created for it. If what I've written here intrigues you I really recommend you buy AGON and read through it as you make your first playset.
The unique constraint in the Paragon system is that it doesn't allow for the creation of standalone rule-books. Instead designers can make "playsets"; playsets must point players back to the original AGON rules, but are free to describe any rule changes, additions, and new assets like player sheets. Playsets can be free, pay what you want, or sold for a price. A good rule of thumb is that if you are recreating a large swath of rules from the AGON book, it's better to leave it out and point players back to the book.
Below are my thoughts on the playset format. You may discover it is perfect for your next hack.
Benefits:
Find out more about the AGON rpg and explore some of playsets created for it. If what I've written here intrigues you I really recommend you buy AGON and read through it as you make your first playset.
The unique constraint in the Paragon system is that it doesn't allow for the creation of standalone rule-books. Instead designers can make "playsets"; playsets must point players back to the original AGON rules, but are free to describe any rule changes, additions, and new assets like player sheets. Playsets can be free, pay what you want, or sold for a price. A good rule of thumb is that if you are recreating a large swath of rules from the AGON book, it's better to leave it out and point players back to the book.
Below are my thoughts on the playset format. You may discover it is perfect for your next hack.
Benefits:
- Standalone hacks need to rewrite the same base rules of the original game, even when they are unchanged. Not a requirement with playsets. There is never a sense that you need to start from the ground up or restate rules in your own words.
- Playsets can be short and sharp, focusing on flavor or theme without changing any rules. They can be extensive, reworking characters and game cycles. Often they'll fall in-between. Regardless playsets are always brief enough that making or reading one is relatively easy.
- Playsets rely and build on a shared understanding of single core game, AGON. Any discussion or design decisions are expressed as similarities or differences with the core game. Talking about and learning to play new playsets are given consistent and familiar context.
Considerations:
- Any would be players or readers need to buy and read the Agon rulebook before they're able to play your playset. Not a huge deal; a PDF copy of AGON is about $15 USD. The core book itself is well-written and incredibly short.
- Playsets must be expressed as similar to or in contrast from AGON, a game about epic Greek tales. None of the mechanics require your playset to be epic or Greek, but it's worth noting that that is where players will be starting from in their understanding.
How the Paragon system works
Here I'll be describing how the game works at a fundamental level to establish a groundwork for future discussions about hacking the system. Like a play-set it's best if you have a copy of AGON for more context, but the rules are simple enough that it shouldn't be too tough to follow.
Throughout this section (and in future posts) I'll be interjecting with notes on how approach each mechanic for your own playset.
Story at The Table
Like any RPG there will be a group of players; the GM (AGON: Strife Player) represents the game world while the remainder represent individual characters. The GM follows a specific narration structure to lead players along the story, found on page 66 of AGON:
Throughout this section (and in future posts) I'll be interjecting with notes on how approach each mechanic for your own playset.
Story at The Table
Like any RPG there will be a group of players; the GM (AGON: Strife Player) represents the game world while the remainder represent individual characters. The GM follows a specific narration structure to lead players along the story, found on page 66 of AGON:
- Reveal the situation to the Players.
- Ask questions and build on the answers to drive the game forward.
- Judge contests and resolve the outcomes into new situations.
This may seem overly simple; I recommend reading through this section of AGON. Following these steps will carry you through any story. It is incredibly easy for any new GMs to facilitate, and loose enough that experienced GMs can incorporate any of their own pet techniques.
Contests
The "contests" mentioned in judge refer to dice rolls. Whenever the GM or players call for a dice roll, both sides will state their approach and their goal for the contest. The GM will roll a number of dice based on the challenge the players are facing, usually dictating the "domain" of the contest (more on this in Part Two). The highest dice, plus a modifier, dictates the difficulty rating for that “contest”.
Unless the narrative excludes them, any player can participate in a contest (but they don't have to; alternate ways of supporting scenes are available). They do so by gathering dice based on their attributes (perhaps describing their character as they do so), then everyone rolls at once. The player's roll result is the sum of their two highest dice plus their highest bonus dice if they rolled any.
Unless the narrative excludes them, any player can participate in a contest (but they don't have to; alternate ways of supporting scenes are available). They do so by gathering dice based on their attributes (perhaps describing their character as they do so), then everyone rolls at once. The player's roll result is the sum of their two highest dice plus their highest bonus dice if they rolled any.
Dice in AGON are generally d6, d8, d10, and d12, with d4 being reserved for bonus dice. Players will be rolling at least two to three dice, optionally rolling more with advancements and spending resources. While you can explore moving beyond these dice constraints, it’s up to you to balance and play test and make sure you didn’t break anything. My recommendation is to stick with the basics, at least for the first few playsets you make.
A personal note; For my playstyle and for the people I tend to play with, allowing players to participate in virtually any contest is low-key the best part of this game. Everyone gets to be rolling dice and telling a story with very little downtime. You can still have contests where only one player participates, but that is not the default.
Narrating Roll Results
Players narrate their results from lowest to highest. If they rolled under the difficulty rating they failed, while equal to or greater than the difficulty rating they succeed. If everyone failed the GM gets to narrate how their failure manifests and how the opposition accomplishes their goal.
This “lowest to highest” narration structure means that contest results are another organic and fluid addition to the story, drawing from the entire table. It can be surprisingly thrilling; The lowest player gets to establish the beginning of the scene, each successive player gets to continue the thread, and the highest player finishes out with a bang. It always results in a clear new narrative scene to continue playing from. Contests are decisive and consequential.
This isn’t to say that each player needs to pick up the story directly where the last player left off; players are free to narrate results however they want. Counter-intuitively, there is a huge amount of narrative freedom from rolling first then narrating later. Players are constrained only by the narrative and their roll result (failure, success, best success); within those constraints they have full freedom of expression.
Players tend to go over the top when granted as much narrative freedom as Paragon grants them, but it’s worth noting that context and theme have a huge impact on how your players narrate - an appropriate theme alone wil change how players narrate their stories. If the established fiction is that your players are desperate survivors rather than epic heroes, they will reflect that.
It's also worth noting that rolls in AGON tend to have wider scope; a single roll may cover events over minutes, hours, days, weeks, years, etc. That same roll may be about tying your shoes, or it may be about killing a God. It really depends on the fiction surrounding the contest. This, combined with the narration structure, means that dice rolls and fewer but more significant.
In part 2 I'll be exploring the attributes that comprise a player character. This is where we can really get into the weeds of where you can tug, pull, and tweak to make a playset your own.
In the meantime, read AGON and some of the other playsets! They're great.
Greg Soper
Product Designer at Banzai, part time artist and game designer.
Product Designer at Banzai, part time artist and game designer.