Hi Steve,
welcome to Tanelorn (I think that's a song by Blind Guardian, but anyhow... 
).
Would you like to tell us a few things about Ingenero? In what way is it different from other Indie Games?
Hi,
These five principles guide the design. I wanted to make a system that recognises and supports the goals of your characters, both internal and external, and provide elegant mechanics to strive for those goals.
1) Improvisation: Ingenero scenarios are designed around an intriguing initial situation and a cast of great characters — both PCs and NPCs — and everybody improvises play from that point, including the GM. So the GM is just another player with a cast of characters to play. There is no preconceived plot to stick to.
possible problems avoided: trying to stick to a preconceived plot is stressful for the GM and robs the players of choice.
2) Character-driven focus and pacing: During play, the things that should be focussed on and examined are the things that matter to the characters – their aims and goals. In fact the system has two alternating phases of play specifically to deal with events that are highly relevant to characters goals and those that aren’t. Which of course means that the players dictate the pace and focus of the game through their choice of character goals.
possible problems avoided: bored or unsatisfied players because what is happening during play isn’t relevant for their character and vice-versa.
3) Internal goals are just as important as external goals: An external goal is when a character wants to make something external to himself happen – win a fight, rob a bank, kiss a girl, etc… Internal goals are those that satisfy something within the character — generally giving the character some sense of emotional satisfaction such as gaining admiration, feeding an ego, asserting their status over someone else, etc… Ingenero treats these goals of equal importance during play. Another way to say it is — whats going on in a characters head is just as important as what the character does.
possible problems avoided: focusing on purely external achievements may make for ‘samey’ play, one-dimensional characters and lack of interpersonal drama.
4) Fictional positioning is key: During action challenges, fictional positioning and risk-taking are the main paths to success. Fictional positioning means finding a way to get your character into an advantageous position and then capitalising on it. Such as gaining the high ground, providing covering fire, knocking an opponent off balance, etc… Ingenero also allows characters to increase their effectiveness if they put themselves in increased physical or mental danger, such as stepping out of cover to get a better shot, or staking your last hope on a decisive action. Combined, these tactics encourage colourful and dramatic action sequences.
possible problems avoided: straight up battles of attrition that rely on low-probability dice outcomes to spice things up.
5) Emotional manipulation is key: During social challenges, social skills affect perception and emotion, but they don’t dictate outcomes. Players always retain control of how their characters respond to those emotions or perceptions. If one character makes another afraid, for example, the other players character decides how to respond to that fear. It might be to try to hide it, or run away, or retaliate. The same for any emotion, shame, greed, happy – whatever.
possible problems avoided: Social skills being a ‘mind-control’ option with a binary outcome.
