Yes, I'm Crazy (Candyland RPG)

[Duke of URL]

CANDYLAND RPG

(A not-so-serious work in progress.)

Reserved -- this post will be edited over time the reflect the current state of the concept, assuming I'm crazy enough to actually see this through.

[Duke of URL]

INITIAL THINKING

I was originally thinking a d20 variant, but I'm not so sure on later thought. Perhaps it's better suited to be some form of d6/d8 game, since there are six colors and eight candy types... but let's see where this leads.

As I mentioned, there are six colors: blue, red, green, yellow, purple, and orange. There are also eight candies mentioned: plums (gingerbread in modern versions), candy canes, gumdrops, licorice, peanut brittle (peanut), lollipops, ice cream, and molasses (chocolate).

My initial thoughts are to make the colors correspond to an action type and the candies correspond to power sources.

As an example, on each turn, roll two d8's; one to determine action type the other to determine the power source. The player may then execute the given action type using any power he knows from the indicated source.

Actions
{table] 1 | Red | (TBD)
2 | Purple | (TBD)
3 | Yellow | (TBD)
4 | Blue | (TBD)
5 | Orange | (TBD)
6 | Green | (TBD)
7 | Any | Choose any color and take the corresponding action
8 | Double | Roll d6 and take two of the indicated action[/table]
TODO: Define action types

Power Sources
{table] 1 | Plum | (TBD)
2 | Candy Cane | (TBD)
3 | Gumdrop | (TBD)
4 | Licorice | (TBD)
5 | Peanut Brittle | (TBD)
6 | Lollipop | (TBD)
7 | Ice Cream | (TBD)
8 | Molasses | (TBD)[/table]
TODO: Define nature of power sources

[Griever]

Wohoooooooooooooooooo!!!

You are my new hero, sir. Now to go work on the WW Candyland Game.

[AetherFox]

Awesome! Is this supposed to take place on a the candyland board? Also, there should definetly be classes. I'll post if I think of anything useful.

[Duke of URL]

No, I was actually thinking about making it a full-fledged RPG using the names and concepts inspired by the game. So the named people and locations on the board would be NPCs and locations in the world, but there wouldn't be a linear path to follow.

[Human Paragon 3]

This may seem obvious, but why not use the candyland deck instead of rolling dice? It's already a random deck of colors... what more could you want? And it'll make the game feel a lot more like candy land.

You could save up colors and create combos with them. Each character could have diffent effects that would have a cost in color cards. So if you're playing as an Evil Molassas Dude you may have an ability that costs purple, purple, blue and slows all opponents for instance.

[Evil DM Mark3]

Urge to make up international history for nations on board rising...

[Raging Gene Ray]

Someone has to post this.

[Human Paragon 3]

Someone has to post this.

Brilliant. I love PBF.

[Vadin]

Taken from the wikipedia article, some characters, monsters, and others:

• The Kids
• The Gingerbread People
• Mr. Mint
• Gramma Nutt
• King Kandy
• Jolly
• Plumpy (taken out of the most recent version of the game)
• Mama Ginger Tree (replaces Plumpy- I vote we keep both)
• Princess Lolly (renamed 'Lolly' after 2002 edition- my vote is to keep princess)
• Queen Frostine (renamed 'Princess Frostine' after 2002 edition- again, I make a motion to keep the old name)
• Lord Licorice
• Gloppy the Molasses Monster (renamed Gloppy the Chocolate Monster- actually, I could go either way on this one)

And a synopsis of the computer game, which might be a good starting point for assembling the background of the world:

The computer version of Candy Land, a translation of the venerable board game bearing the same name, expands the locations and characters introduced in the original. The object of the game is to retrieve six special candies from various lands and free King Kandy from the evil Lord Licorice.

Things are not well in Candy Land. When the evil Lord Licorice imprisoned King Kandy, he cut off the flow of candies to our world, leaving all the candy stores with no candy to sell and in danger of closing. Mr. Pop's Sweet Shop is no different as, without any candy, he's about to go out of business.

Captain Cookie arrives on the scene and explains that King Kandy is in trouble. Kids accompany him back to Candy Land and try to enter the palace of Lord Licorice. Unfortunately, the evil candy-snatcher learns of their plans and collapses the bridge to the palace, making it inaccessible. Only by giving special candies to Gloppy, the molasses monster, can you rebuild the bridge and get to King Kandy.

Players must move to one of the six locations (Lollipop Woods, Gingerbread Orchard, Peppermint Forest, Gumdrop Mountains, Peanut Brittle House or the Icecream Sea) and perform tasks to get the special candies for Gloppy. However, Lord Licorice makes it hard by stirring up trouble and causing problems wherever he goes.

Candy Land accommodates up to four players and a host of characters including Princess Lolly, Mr. Mint, Queen Frostine and Plumpy. Can you help thwart the insidious Lord Licorice and put candy back on the shelves where it belongs?


With a little bit of tweaking, this is fairly excellent. Change 'Captain Cookie brought kids' to Lord Licorice's second-in-command, Captain Cookie, began to kidnap children, the second sweetest things in our world. Unfortunately, he underestimated them, and many escaped his delicious candy cages shortly after entering Candy Land. Not wanting too lose so many precious bits of sweetness, Lord Licorice destroyed the bridge back to our world, locking the children in Candy Land forever. Not a bad start, if I do say so myself...

Also, why would Lord Licorice want all the candy? What does he do with it? Better yet, what will he do with it?

Oh, by the way, mind if I jump on in?

[AetherFox]

I was thinking a skill system could work off of a card draw:

Red=1
Green=2
Yellow=3
Blue=4
Purple=5
Orange=6
Double red=7
Double green=8
Double yellow=9
Double blue=10
Double Purple=11
Double Orange=12

In no particular order, ofcourse. Each player has a deck of 12 cards, one of each (or a d12 if you're really unorriginal) that gets shuffled after each draw. You add or subtract modifiers as normal. What do you think?

[Raging Gene Ray]

Captain Cookie, began to kidnap children, the second sweetest things in our world.

Not wanting too lose so many precious bits of sweetness, Lord Licorice destroyed the bridge back to our world, locking the children in Candy Land forever.

...did you mean to make Lord Licorice and Captain Cookie sound like pedos? Because if not, that's what it sounded like to me...I may have a filthy mind, but tell me I'm not the only one who thinks this is in need of a few revisions to take out some of the skeeziness.

[Vadin]

When you're in a world where candy is apparently the only thing of any value, and children are the only active protagonists, a pedophile is what most villains will sound like, especially when you're looking for a loose and childish reason why he would kidnap kids. "Sugar, spice, and everything nice? Next best thing once you've got all the candy. Oh, and that other gender of kids is probably good for something too."

And yes, just a little. They're seriously messed up villains, apparently.

Also, it's a bit of a Gargamel thing- what does he want the cute innocent little Smurfs for? To turn them into gold? To eat them? Who knows?

[Raging Gene Ray]

I was thinking a skill system could work off of a card draw:

What do you think?

Do you mean that players would draw a number of cards, getting bonuses to actions based on cards drawn?

For example, would a player draw 3 cards, say: Green, Double Green, Red, and get a +3 to all green actions and +1 to all red actions?

This sounds like it could be really good, depending on the nature of the actions.

[AetherFox]

I guess it's up for discussion, but I was think more along the lines of "knowledge check: 1 Card+Int modifier" Stuff like that.

[streakster]

Huh. Classes.

Each powersource has its own classes, yes?

So, what about a weapon-based class for each candy? They get a magic weapon based on their chosen power source - the Licorice Whip, the Candy Cane, the Peanut Brittle Shield, etc. - which gains abilities and enhancements as they gain levels. Sorta like a Kensai, but with a pre-chosen weapon and themed enhancements to choose from.

[Carrion_Humanoid]

When I did this oh, i don't know, last year or two, not so many people were LULZ! CANDYLAND!

[Baxter190]

How about we make classes like the peppermint axe man, frost magicians, and the such?

[Prometheus]

Elements can do a lot for RPG mechanics, even if they are just colors or flavors. Good luck, I think it could come out awesome.

[streakster]

How about we make classes like the peppermint axe man, frost magicians, and the such?

Frosting Magicians, surely?

[Baxter190]

Frosting Magicians, surely?

Yeah, and don't call me Surely.

[streakster]

Yeah, and don't call me Surely.

Shirley, surely?

[Baxter190]

Shirley, surely?

Touche, but yeah, what will the classes be? The peppermint power will be the axemen, and the ice cream the frosting mage, but what about the others? Molasses be a controller like mages are in 4e?

[Vadin]

What exactly do you mean by 'action types' when associating them with colors?

Like ranged attacks, melee attacks, magic attacks, etc.? Or something else?

As for the power sources thing, would this be like saying to the player "you can only use arcance powers this turn"? If so, it might get a little old when he yells "FOR THE LAST TIME, I'M A FIGHTER! THIS BLOWS!"

[streakster]

What exactly do you mean by 'action types' when associating them with colors?

Like ranged attacks, melee attacks, magic attacks, etc.? Or something else?

As for the power sources thing, would this be like saying to the player "you can only use arcance powers this turn"? If so, it might get a little old when he yells "FOR THE LAST TIME, I'M A FIGHTER! THIS BLOWS!"

I assumed it was like the action types - Full, Standard, Swift, Immediate, Move, etc. So you get a Red Action, and can do anything you can with a move action.

[Baxter190]

How about the are modifiers to stuff, or powers that let you do stuff? Like green cards let you regain one health point?

[AetherFox]

GLOPPY
Large Ooze (Chocolate)
6d10+35 (80 HP)
Initiative: -3
Speed: 20 Feet
Armor Class: 6 (-1 Size, -3 dex) Flat: 6, Touch 6
Base Attack/Grapple: +4/+15
Attack: Slam +5 (1d8+2, 1d6 Chocolate)
Full Attack: 2 Slams
Space/Reach: 10 ft./10 ft.
Special Attacks: Chocolate Sludge, Chocolate Creation
Special Qualities: Immunity to Chocolate
Saves: Fort. +11, Ref. -1, Wis. +1
Abilities: Str 15, Dex 3, Con 28, Int 10, Wis 8, Cha 13
Skills: TO DO
Feats: Improved Grab, Swallow Whole
Environment: Chocolate Swamps?
Organization: Solitary
Challenge rating: 5
Treasure: None
Alignment: Chaotic Evil
Advancement: By Hit Die

Chocolate Sludge: Every 1d6 rounds, Gloppy can spew forth a spray of Chocolate in a 30 foot cone or 60 foot line. Any creature caught in this spray takes 4d6 chocoalte damage. A reflex save DC 22 halves the damage.

Chocoalte Creation: As a full round action, Gloppy make create 1d6 chocolate minions. Their initiative is directly after his.

Comments?

[tribble]

I like the idea of cards as color-coded "mana", A la Magic The Gathering, which are needed to do things.

[Baxter190]

The mana idea goes with my idea, but instead of having a deck of every color, how about your able to customize your deck. Like, White helps with frosting magic. Oh, and the gloppy works.

[Evil DM Mark3]

I have so many ideas for the actual cultures of this world it hurts! My current ideas as they stand (based off the idea that each of the above characters has a domain of their own) to be hi-jacked and stolen as you see fit.

I tried to be reasonably serious (or at least more than 13% logical) as well as avoiding clear cut "good guys" and "bad guys".

• Licoricea: The domain of Lord Licorice Licoricea has been a constitutional monarchy for most of its existence. Several years ago however Lord Licorice dissolved the increasingly ineffectual and bureaucratic mess that was the senate, he now rules as absolute monarch. Licoricea is a fairly industrialised nation located deep in the muscado desert. It has not fought a major war of its own in almost a thousand years but has a significant standing army that it has hired out as mercenaries to other nations. The Licoriceans are taller, thinner and more analyticity minded than most other natives of candy land and tend to have dryer, more sarcastic (and sometimes cruel) senses of humour. Despite their reputation Licoriceans are neither inherently cruel or greedy, although these traits are more common among them than most. The industrial and aristocratic elite are currently working around the current issues caused by their status as an Absolute Monarchy, Lord Licorice is still on his throne at least in part because no one want the chaos of a civil war.
• Gingeria. Home of the gingerbread people ruled by an elected council of gingerbread elders, Mama Ginger Tree and Plumpy. The people of Gingeria are a religious, athletic and agrarian people who in the past have had a history of warfare with their neighbours in The United Fiefdoms of The Peppermint Forest (back when they where the Peppermint Kingdom) and Brittletainia. They have a rich oral history full of folk heroes and legends. For the last 300 years however they have had no standing army besides the Elder's guard, often hiring Licoricean mercenaries. The recent turn of events has left them somewhat in the political lurch, not able to openly condemn Lord Licorice, but neither able to justify supporting them. This is the primary reason for the growing disaffectioned youth movement who want to return to their more violent past.
• The United Fiefdoms of The Peppermint Forest. Once upon a time The Peppermint Kingdom was the supreme power in Candy land, only prevented from total dominion by an alliance between Licoricea and The Kandy Kingdom. After several centuries of attrition by the alliance and rebels in their territories the Kingdom was torn apart by a civil war and collapsed into a loose association of Fiefdoms governed by a council of ambassadors lead on the principle of Primus inter pares by Mr Mint. The natives of The Peppermint Forest are unusualy heavy set and stoic in their outlook. There is a significant culture gap between the Upper and Lower classes, the Lower classes tend to be quite pragmatic, whereas the Upper classes are often painfully traditionalistic to the point of denial.
• Brittletainia. Brittletainia is a kritarchy, a nation ruled by the Judges. The current head of the Chamber of Legislation is "Grandma" Nutt. The Chamber of Legislation chooses who joins it and assigns its junior members to hear lesser cases in different areas of its territories, more significant cases are heard by specially appointed sub-comities of the Chamber. The overall mentality of Brittletainia is traditional, sometimes to the point of arrogance and xenophobia. For the most part the nation is reacting only slowly to current events. Relations with its neighbours are strained but they where the first nation to come out in open support of The Kandy Kingdom when the King was kidnapped.
• The Kandy Kingdom. An absolute monarchy the Kandy Kingdom is currently being administered by an emergency council of regents thanks to an obscurity in their legal code that prevents the prince ruling in his father's place unless King Kandy has formally abdicated or handed over temporary power. Once upon a time The Kandy Kingdom where firm allies of Licoricea but after The Peppermint Kingdom broke apart both sides (rightly or wrongly) began to see each other as their primary opponent. Now this has happened, King Kandy kidnapped and the culprit is almost certainly Lord Licorice. Despite the current state of chaos in the rulers of the kingdom the Kandy people are going on with life much as they did before, with a positive outlook and stiff upper lip. War may well be on the horizon, but without support the Kandy Kingdom will have little chance of reaching the cities of Licoricea without politically suicidal losses. So far only Brittletainia has offered any real support, everyone else is waiting for the other shoe to drop.
• The Twin Kingdoms. Despite being seperate nations the Kingdoms of Lolly and Frosting (ruled by Princess Lolly and Queen Frosting respectively). The two nations have traditionally strong partnerships in practically every area you could name, but recent years have made things tricky. Princess Lolly is only 15 and as such most of the day to day work is done by Pop, her Regent. Lolly is still quite politicly naive and may be the only person who believes Lord Licorice when he denies kidnapping King Kandy. Queen Frosting has almost the opposite problem, she knows only too well what Lord Licorice is capable of but cannot act because she is too old to have children and has no clear heir. To make matters worse one of the people with the best claim to the throne is Lord Licorice himself and she is currently bending all her political savvy to getting him to renounce his claim and if the cost of a stable kingdom after her death is the collapse of the Kandy Kingdom, well as queen she has to put her subjects first, as much as it pains her.
• The Tribes of the Gumdrop Mountains. Lead by High Cheiftain Jolly, few know much about the reclusive peoples who live high in the gumdrop mountains (mostly oz I ran out of ideas)
• Molasses swamp. Um, what is Molasses again?