One of the key features of Donnerjack DRPG is the use of webpages in character design, which are called the character's Core Personae (or in the case of genii loci, Core Vistas). But how does one choose a webpage for their characters? How do they translate into powers?At the same time, how can the GM be fair in judging webpages? Ideally, there should be easy-to-follow rules that do not slow the game down by having the GM pour over the details of a webpage.
Thus, the Three Tenets are offered to link the form and content of a webpage to a GM decision. Six Angles are defined.
- Bone or Shadow
- Also called depth or breadth. This Tenet deals with content: is your Action in keeping with the content of the page? What percentage of the webpage is devoted to your Action? The percentage determines how deep your knowledge is. The trade-off is obvious: you can go for a focussed page for in-depth knowledge, but you would not be able to do as much with it as a page with many different subject matters. Specialist (Bone) or jack-of-all-trades (Shadow)? You decide.
- Hand or Eye
- Also called speed or caution. This Tenet deals with length: is your webpage short or long? With short webpages, it's faster to read, and thus your Action will be accomplished faster. But on the other hand, longer pieces require the eye to be more careful, and thus the Action takes longer but is done with more care. So either you can go for speed (Hand) or caution (Eye).
- Heart or Mind
- Also called art or science. This Tenet deals with layout: is your webpage graphic-intensive or text-intensive? With graphic-intensive pages, the emphasis is on right-brain activities, like the arts and intuition. With text, the emphasis is on left-brain activities, like logic and science. Is the Action tapping into the creative (Heart) or analytic (Mind)?
The GM chooses the Angle that is most appropriate to the desired Action (Bone, Shadow, Hand, Eye, Heart or Mind). If two Personae are compared, the Persona with the better Angle wins the contest. This system should allow GMs to quickly determine who is superior in performing the Action, and also allow players to choose a variety of Core Personae according to these principles. As each webpage has its own unique blend of these Angles, there is no assurance that someone always has an advantage over another. It becomes important to know which Avatar you are sending out, and who you're going up against.An advantage to the Core Personae system is that each game can be different, depending on what webpage you choose to use. For example, a Con game can ask players to bring a Greater Avatar (i.e., a 25 point Persona), and the GM does not have to know in advance what is brought. Character creation becomes instant rather than taking up hours of set-up time. Hopefully, this paradigm will make Real Time scenarios easier to run.