Great comments, thanks! I'll respond individually below.

"If you trust that the medic who triaged this patient did so accurately, you can skip the Diagnose (DX) move." You should probably give a reason why Dx is needed. Because, as I read the rules right now, the safest thing to do seems to be to trust the other medic and not make a Dx roll, given how Dx has a tendency of making things worse. There is literally no benefit from rolling Dx as it stands now, and a bunch of drawbacks if you roll low (even just 7-9). Maybe move the 10+ result down to 7-9, and have a good diagnosis (10+) give a bonus to the Treatment. Playtesting will have to show the right balance, but Dx seems punitive at the moment.

Yeah, I need to tweak this for sure. Thanks!

The full rules look less rolley than I feared. Depending on the severity the MC wants to put into a situation, it looks like he could put in patients that only has a single clock at 4, making the surgery go by quickly unless there are complications. After playtesting, you should probably put in some examples of different configurations of patients and how they'll generally work out. Say a three day stint with two easy anonymous patients (one clock at 4), followed by a seriously injured named patient, would have the first two mostly serve to drive up stress, before getting into the hard job of saving the named patient. It might tend to reduce a patients to a bunch of numbers that just need to be reduced to 3, but that might be a feature, allowing a shock when it turns out that there is a person behind the numbers.

Agreed.

There does seem a bit of a lack of obvious ways for the players to strategise their way out of bad situations. In an battle you can run away, try to outmanoeuvre or try to negotiate. In the surgery it seems you can swap places with another medic, use hold (if you have it), or impose a debility. They all require a Tx roll to solve the situation, perhaps with a tiny bit of bonus. That might also be a feature, leaving a surgeon to have a bad day where he just can't help but make mistakes (bad dice luck), but I could see it sapping player enthusiasm, when they can't do anything to alleviate the bad dice rolls. The character's moves might change that, but until then..

My intent is to try and make surgery a somewhat realistic balancing act where the player has to make tough decisions, though this will be more effective when they know the patient. Surgery is also supposed to be a bit painful and stressful (for the character - not the player), so they have more reasons to try and blow off steam (Stress) with Events when they're not operating. We'll see how it shakes out in testing.

Speaking of debility "You can now ignore this clock, but the overall clock is unaffected." First off, does this apply to all debility choices, or only Tx? Secondly, I take this to mean that the Status clock is unaffected. Or is the overall clock another clock? What is the reasoning behind not (potentially) lowering the status clock? If all other clocks are at or below 3, you are forcing the player to operate on a clock that doesn't need it. If any clocks are above 3, he'd need to operate anyway, since he can't send away the patient before all clocks are low enough.

Yeah, I'm thinking there's probably no significantly good reason to have an overall clock. That's probably coming out.

All that being said, the conversation in surgery still seem kinda structured around the moves. I tried to run the conversation in my head, and it kinda runs make move -> explain result -> make move -> explain result -> make move. Where an AW game would go do something->make move -> explain result -> do something -> make move. The next move for a surgery always seems predestined. The player might wrap some language around it, but he is just saying stuff to justify the move that has to come. He isn't doing something, and then making a move based on what he does. But I might just be running the conversation wrong in my head. Or I'm missing an aspect introduced by other parts of the rules.

This is something I'm struggling with, since the Surgery conversation is definitely more constrained due to the circumstances. The Events that take place outside the O.R. are more traditional AW moves. In the O.R., you're stuck at a table with a patient, and have to either give up or keep operating until you're satisfied. There's not a lot of room for different types of moves yet, but I'm thinking about how this can be tweaked for more options and less 'predestination'. Any thoughts welcome.

Unrelated to the Surgery rules; Under Relieve Stress, 7-9, do you remove one stress and choose one, or just choose one? The reason I'm confused is because the first choice says "remove one additional stress" which kinda suggests that you always remove one stress (on a hit).

It should be:

On 10+, choose two. On 7-9, choose one:

•   Remove one Stress from yourself, and relieve one Stress from another person who was involved.
•   Ensure that there are no consequences for this action.
•   Add one to the Mission Pool.

I don't think the amount of rolling will be excessive, but it's definitely something I will be thinking about as I nail down this idea.

Now, if you were rolling 10+ every single time, then it would be just rolling multiple times until the patient is well enough. However, all lower rolls will be throwing various consequences and failures at the players.

The 'surgeon' won't be rolling to heal all the trauma clocks, because they're all continuing to get worse. The player has to focus on one, hoping that the consequences to his rolls don't cause the other clocks to get worse even more rapidly than they already are. I'll try to get that section fully updated and posted this week, if real life doesn't interfere.

Just a quick note. I haven't abandoned this - just needed to take a break for some family stuff and to release some supplements for my Corporia RPG. Of course, as soon as I did that, I learned that I barely have any hardcovers left from the first run, so I need to publish a Print on Demand edition. My current plan is to release the POD this month, then get back to 'MASHED' in July.

Still happy to hear any comments or questions in the meantime.

I realized that (duh) it makes more sense to provide a document with the latest updates, since this is a DRAFT, and the previous posts will be rapidly getting out of date.

Here's a link to the latest public design draft. The big addition in this Word doc is that it includes all of the basic moves and medical moves. There are still character and special moves to come, though.

https://www.dropbox.com/s/8o3435qc1terh3a/MASHED_design_draft.doc?dl=0

Thoughts?

Here are three sample draft pages for those who are interested. I'm still working on "translating" my paper notes into Word. :)

======================

What This Is

MASHED is a story game that you play with your friends. It’s a game that’s based more on conversations than rolling dice – though you’ll still be using those as well. Everything that you say will craft an ongoing narrative, much like a stage play or television show without a script, where everyone’s ad-libbing their lines. The rules and dice are there to help this along, adding an element of randomness that lets you succeed in what you want to do – but also ensuring that that there will be consequences and complications, especially when you fail. After all, war is hell.

In this game, you take on the role of a doctor or nurse assigned to a Mobile Army Surgical Hospital in 1951, shortly after the United Nations’ entry into the “police action” that will later be called the Korean War. It’s a game about medics whose government sent them to a foreign land, usually with little to no military training. It’s about men and women who were forced to spend hours and days on end spattered with blood and viscera, their hands inside mangled human bodies, sometimes those of their friends – and were expected to stay sane.

This is a game about the value of human life and the stress that war imposes on those who live through it – but it’s also about relationships. And courage. And humor. And love. Although the medics may spend hours – even days on end – in the operating tent, the game abstracts these into much shorter scenes, focusing on the most dramatic moments. Most of the conversation actually occurs outside of surgery, in those times when the flow of casualties has ebbed. Here you may fall in or out of love, fight the orders of ineffective top brass, pull pranks, help the native South Koreans, pick fights, seduce your way through the unit, pull rank to get what you want, and more.

If you can find enough ways to blow off the stresses of surgery and war, you just might make it through your rotation and get sent home with your sanity intact. Just remember that you’re practicing medicine in a combat zone – and death isn’t confined to the operating tent.

The MASHED rules are based on Vincent Baker’s innovative Apocalypse World game and inspired by other Powered by the Apocalypse games, primarily Jason Morningstar’s wonderful Night Witches, but also by ’Hood, Lapins & Lairs, Monsterhearts, and Tremulus.

======================

Using the Playbooks

When you’re ready to play, select one player to go first. Starting with that player, go around the table clockwise, with each player picking one of the four character playbooks. Each playbook is based loosely on one of the four ‘Humors’ from ancient Greco-Roman medicine, and labeled as: Head (melancholic), Heart (sanguine), Bones (phlegmatic), and Blood n’ Guts (choleric). These are explained further on page XXXX. If you have more than four players, you can provide another set of these four playbooks after the first four have been chosen.

Second, starting with the last player to take a playbook, go back around counterclockwise and let each player choose one of the eight Roles. No two players should start the game with the same role, though this might occur later since Roles can change over the course of the game, at specified intervals. Roles indicate the position you tend to take in your MASH unit’s dynamic, and provide you with unique advancement options that other players don’t get. Roles include: Bully, Casanova, Cutter, Devout, Mentor, Prankster, Scrounger, and Stickler. You can read more about Roles on page XXXX.

Third, pick a rank. Each rank provides a different set of numbers (such as +1, 0, 0, +1). Assign each number to one of the character’s four statistics (Fight, Luck, Nerve, and Skill) on the playbook, however you prefer. For example, you might assign your numbers as Fight 0, Luck +1, Nerve 0, and Skill +1 (or as Fight 0, Luck 0, Nerve +1, and Skill +1), or some other combination.

Fourth, detail your character’s name, appearance, and background. You can invent these from scratch, or choose from the examples that appear on the playbook under: Name, Gender, Uniform, Body, Hair, Eyes, Homefront (your state or country of origin), and Who you write to back home.

Finally, give your character a service number. If you’re in a hurry, you can skip this last step, but having a service number is a nice bonus that provides another mental connection to your character. Details on how to generate a service number appear on page XXXX.

[insert steps in list/bullets]

[begin sidebar]
Consider these three questions when filling out your playbook.
•   Who are you? Have a good idea of your character’s personality traits and appearance. You might base this off yourself, someone you know, or even a fictional character.
•   Why are you here? You might be here unwillingly because of the Doctor’s Draft, or you could be Regular Army (RA) – someone who’s making a career out of military service.
•   What do you want? Think about what goals you have. You might want to keep your head down and just follow orders until you can return home. Perhaps you relish the new experience and you want to enjoy your time in Korea as much as possible. Maybe you’re scheming ways means to hoard money or rise in rank. There are many possibilities.
[end sidebar]

======================

STATS

Each player has four stats (statistics) which are fairly self-explanatory: Fight, Luck, Nerve, and Skill. The more or fewer points you have in a stat, the better or worse you perform any related Moves.

Your rank indicates what point spreads you can assign to these statistics. As mentioned earlier, and listed on each playbook, different ranks provide four different numbers (such as +1, 0, 0, +1) that you’ll assign as you choose to the four stats of Fight, Luck, Nerve, and Skill.

Fight is the stat you use when it’s time to clobber someone. If you want to Slug an idiot desk jockey in the jaw, fumble a pistol out of your holster and Shoot an advancing ROK soldier, or Seize a person or item by force, you roll 2d6 +fight.

Luck measures how lucky you are, and is particularly useful when you choose to Tempt Fate. It also comes in handy when you want to Scrounge for items like misplaced (or stolen!) medicines, or when a Complication arises during surgery. In these circumstances, you roll 2d6 +luck.

Nerve is your mental steadiness and courage, and helps you mentally brace yourself to face a situation. If you want to Act Up, Manipulate, Seduce, or Pull Rank on someone, you roll 2d6 + nerve.

Skill measures your medical ability, your natural talent, and how well you pay attention to detail. When you want to Eyeball a situation or Diagnose (Dx), Prescribe medication (Rx), or Treat/perform surgery on a patient (Tx), you’ll roll 2d6+skill.

Special Moves and playbooks may sometimes state that, when you make a certain Move, you add a different skill to your roll than you normally would. For instance, you might be indicated to roll +luck during surgery instead of +skill. Those rules override the general stat descriptions above.

Thanks for the link! I haven't time to consider it in detail, but it looks interesting.

My current plan is for stress points to triggered by certain missed moves and events. For instance, going without sleep for a day might cause 1 stress. Getting news from home causes 3 stress (even good news - since you can't be there to share in it). That kind of thing.

If you don't try and burn off stress points (sex, parties, pranks, etc.), then you take mental harm and have to get shipped home. Of course, some characters are better at handling stress than others.

Right now I'm still pondering how many points of stress should equal 1 point of mental harm. I'm thinking 6, but I'm not sure yet.