The Game

How to explain the ‘Game” of “Weasel Knight” in a way that is quick and makes sense. I imagine there is the quick way that glosses over detail (see front page text) or a more detailed way that illustrates some of the more complicated mechanics that will be in use in the weaving of this tale. The idea is to make most of this very easy and approachable to get into so do not consider this some kind of long thing you MUST read into order to play along–buuut if you are at all interested in how the sausage gets made or table top games in general…then let’s continue!

I’ve mentioned quintessential TTRPG (table top role playing game) Dungeons n’ Dragons and if you have played a session, you will be at home here. If you haven’t…well, here is the thing that happens at it’s most boiled down:  You and maybe half a dozen of your coolest–I swear, they’re cool–friends sit around and run imagined scenarios in a fantasy land. One is the DM or “Dungeon Master” or even the term “GM” for “Game Master” is used. The other players are called “PCs” or “Player Characters“. While we are all nice and cozy, lets run a small example of something that might happen in one of these TTRPGs.

The Scenario-How a TTRPG Plays

See the number of different choices that were made? There are dozens more like simply firing into the shadows or the party staying down to stealth it out. I want some of that freedom experienced in TTRPGS given to the audience when it comes to this web-comic. Weasel Knight is going to have the mindshare of the audience control a focused character at the time, making the calls and decisions seen and not seen in the example–Good and bad! 

Dice Rolls and You!

Wait, so you mean to tell me that these rolls are completely random? No! There are forces that act upon these rolls. The main function around the d20 system is “Ability Checks” where a DM will ask you to roll if you are able to do a thing. Here is a great example:

“I’d like to scale this cliff!” the player says
“Ok,” the DM says “Roll an athletics check.”

The Difficulty Check is the number the players Ability Check needs to either meet or beat. It is determined by either a function of the rules, an opponents stats or set by the DM according to what you are attempting to do. These function to enforce a certain layer of logic to the world itself while also challenging the player to think creatively. What your character is good or bad at can also affect these rolls. When we get into character mechanics, these will be explained in detail.

Nevertheless, think of the d20 as the tool that lets you interact with the world. Speaking of the world…Let’s get philosophical for a minute.

The World

Why is Tolkien one of the best? Why is the world of Star Wars one so many media projects still mine stories from? Why is one of the best selling video games the one where you become a part of the student body of Hogwarts School of Magic? Well, everyone has their reasons but I’d say it’s because these contain a world that is fascinating, detailed and overall exciting to inhabit!

There is a science to making something feel real and three dimensional. Great characters in a fully fleshed out setting working in concert is the stuff powerful stories are built upon. But this is not a workshop on world building so much as an explanation as to what our world is whilst impressing the importance of the world when it comes to the subject of TTRPGS.  

TTRPGs are not subject to one world or even a game. TTRPGS can cover a multitude of subjects and worlds. “Where are we?” Is one of the earliest questions a campaign asks. Space? Cyberpunk? Past? Future? The sky’s the limit. You don’t like any of the available options in your local game store? Build it yourself! Which…is what we’re doing!

Ferrocita is a world that as we explore will find a dense history, multiple groups, factions, deities and mysteries to explore. Let’s dole out what we know. It’s a planet that is spherical with one central land mass (Cate Marpal) with a bevy of surrounding islands conjuring a shape not unlike a paw print.  Currently, it is inhabited by anthropomorphic creatures based on animals we all know and love. They are strange in that although beasts, they can speak, think and even love. Magic is also an influential force upon this world, it being shaped more so by powerful spells than say industrial power. If we were to talk about technology, I would say we haven’t strayed far past the Middle Ages. Small rustic dwellings are filled with formed metal appliances, culture is turning a broad smile to creative endeavors and barbarism is frowned upon. 

Can you believe there is also a strong system of governance? Like a lame duck Congress isn’t just a turn of phrase. It’s quite literal! 

This world is fun but not without flaws and societal ills. There is a concern for where the Prime Deity fit in an age that finds them more outmoded. There is a lingering distrust of certain species outright that may or may not have been earned. 

And at the center of it, our hot blooded bold hero ready to prove weasels can be good! 

Characters

In the world of tabletop games, the main thing a player will control and influence is their character. We are about to get into the nitty gritty of mechanics but to be simple: You decide everything about your character within the guidelines of the rules.

The role in the “Tabletop Role Playing” game is the secret sauce that makes a game great. A character with a unique personality, an unresolved backstory and is chosen for great purpose is electric when in action in game. You see, the character you make is your avatar in the world your DM has created. You assume their quest, consider their motives and do your best to advance their goals and dreams. But what is great is that these are YOUR dreams. Embody your character, make a silly voice, decide flaws, quirks, and most of all the singular rule of character making: have fun.

What if you want to try something out of pocket that doesn’t fit into the general dogma of the rules? Well, that is a conversation between you and your DM. So long as you are not making something distracting, game breaking or otherwise destructive you usually will find your DM accommodating. 

Now, uh. This webcomic. Weasel Knight.
The characters are still, dear reader, under your control. However, not quite as much initially. The characters themselves are going to be mostly my creations with race, class and thus stats determined. However, the rolls you submit and polls you vote in will determine what they do and perhaps even alter their personality overtime. 

As we advance in this project, we will explore new ways to have audience influence and create things in this universe!

Character Mechanics

Take you. And then, take someone else you know. Anyone. Got ’em? Okay, there are things that person will be generally better at than you and there are things that you will be generally better at than them. Much like we all have pluses and minuses here and there– Characters have STATS. Some obvious, some that the audience will have to intuit to an extent. For example: If you need a character to quietly infiltrate an enemy stronghold the vote may ask who to send. The giant rhino paladin with heavy armor would…be a choice to make but if the goal is to evade notice the lithe minx rogue would probably be ideal–more on class (A characters job) and race (literally what they are!) later.

Stats are broken down into 6 main modifier values that serve to describe what this individual character is good at and what they maybe aren’t so much. 

• Strength- How physically strong a given character is
• Dexterity-Describes physically abilities like speed and agility
• Constitution-Represents general health and vitality. HP.
• Intelligence- Book learning. How smart one is in an academic sense.
• Wisdom-Street learning. How smart one is as a result of experience.
• Charisma- How generally handsome and charming a character is
  

These stats are rolled upon character creation and assembled to what suits the character according to its player. There is a generic roll spread (15, 14, 13, 12, 10, and 8) that is sometimes used if the player doesn’t wish to roll themselves. If one decides to roll, 6 d20s are rolled and each number is recorded and assigned to these modifiers to determine what a character is best at! In fact, this gets broken down further into Abilities.

These ability scores naturally flow into these more detailed abilities. The DM will more often than anything else during the course of role playing call for an Ability Check. Building a character to function in the game is something that is more subjective than objective. What your character IS should be the primary determinate for what they can do well and what they cannot do well. Having characters do things well and not well is not a bug, it’s a feature! Remember, great stories are drawn not from perfect people because they-frankly–don’t exist. Flawed characters on a journey to overcome or endure is a journey worth following.

Race

What the character is? Weasel, duck, chicken? It matters!

For our game, most of the races are animals and thus, homebrew (meaning something not in the text of the existing TTRPG universe but created by a third party. I’m the third party). You can count on certain things like large clawed creatures getting two attacks per turn. Winged creatures can naturally fly. Certain creatures get different pluses and minuses. For example, Weasel Knight himself being a small mustelid is kind of hard to hit due to high dexterity and a special ability that can break an attackers flow. A bigger creature can be assumed to hold higher strength and constitution and lower dexterity.

Some of the homebrew used to create the various creatures will likely be published somewhere but for right now, frankly, we’re still kind of figuring this out as we go. New races, creatures and ideas will fly fast and free in our adventure so stay tuned as we flesh both this game and this document out!

Class

Finally something that is already in the DnD microchasm that can be used and doesn’t need to be created! So ok.
Each character should have a sort of profession when it comes to the adventuring life and these are the following 

• Barbarian – the relentless combatant, fueled by fury and capable of large scale damage whilst in a rage. In tune with the natural order.
• Bard – a story teller or musician using his wits, magic, and lore to get out of (or avoid) tight situations
• Cleric – a Holy man devoted to a deity. capable of bolstering the party and healing their wounds, or laying low their enemies with divine wrath.
• Druid – a nomad devoted to the world and the powers of Nature. Capable of adopting the form of a beast for battle or utility
• Fighter – Skilled combatant or strategist typically relying on his heavy armor and weapons to cut down their enemies. His training gives him unique abilities
• Monk – martial artist pulling on the power of his own body to produce impressive results.
• Paladin – A skilled battler whom bolsters his efforts with divine magic. Through his devotion he gains special boons from his god.
• Ranger – one who uses a unique blend of wilderness knowledge and martial ability to be a deadly hunter, with a bow, or melee weapons
• Rogue – a thief, assassin or stealthy character who has a knack for picking out his enemies weaknesses and exploiting them.
• Sorcerer – a magic user who draws his power from within, summoning his innate magical power and bending it to his will
• Warlock – pacted to a powerful entity the warlock trades favors for boons and spells.
• Wizard – keeper of arcane secrets and forgotten knowledge, the wizard manipulates magic and spells with cunning.

It’s known that some of these jobs benefit certain stats whilst others are not so much. The Fighter can be expected to have great strength and a Sorcerer’s magic is derived from their charisma! These deeper mechanics will be explore but now that we have all this detail and info…what is the point?

Crafting a Legend

So we’ve gotten so many paragraphs talking about this game and making characters and how they function so the next question must be—how do we use them? Or rather, why do we use them?

The entire purpose of fleshing out a world, filled with characters, is for use in telling compelling narratives! The Story is key and what this whole thing is about. What kind of story you wish to tell with your fellow players and DM is something agreed upon before starting and the best idea is to keep it simple from the rip then expand outward. I mean, simple to describe it in one sentence kind of way. “It’s a pirate adventure” or “It’s a group of anti heroes bent on upstaging a tyrannical regime” or “Plucky adventurers quest for the McGuffin of Power” or “Animal critters undergo adverse odds, racism, and evil to prove they are not defined by societal norms imposed upon them”.

Wow, that last one was oddly specific. That’s because that one is mine. Hi, welcome to Weasel Knight. I’ll tell you a secret that maybe can guide you as well. Not a bulletproof do X to get Y method so much as how my brain gets from X to Y.  This is how Weasel Knight was created:

Some brilliant guys named Peter Laird and Kevin Eastman one day decided to parody Frank Miller’s 80’s comic “Ronin”. They created the “Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles” by simply asking “What is the stupidest thing to be a ninja?”
In a similar way, I was using this exercise just as creative background noise. I started shuffling DnD classes and came to “What is the stupidest thing to be a paladin?” to which, I considered what a paladin is: A virtuous holy knight who ardently follows a code for fear of losing their status and power. What creature does not stand for any sort of law or morality but rather is a pejorative for all manner of negative behavior? Lo, Weasel Knight.

There you go! Now this is character creation so the next step was “What world does this creature inhabit?” and from there we have a story. I don’t want to get too far into nitty gritty here as some of my next thought processes could be spoilers. Needless to say, I don’t think I have much to opine about in terms of storytelling besides what I know

• Characters first
• Trust your gut
• Challenge that character
• Litter cool stuff to explore
• Consider your end goal.

I hope this helps and sparks something neat in you that will become something truly great. You have to pull some truth from your own self and slap it down somewhere. I cannot tell you how, but I hope–from creator to reader–that I do not disappoint.

Wrapping it all up

Whew. We’re almost done. Take a victory lap. You are officially WK approved TTRPG ready. Least I hope this long thing has been helpful in understanding these strange powers we are meddling with. Finishing this document is a kingly gift I do appreciate. I hope you will do me one more favor by allowing me about a  paragraph to explain the goal of Weasel Knight as a whole.

Weasel Knight is going to end up a unique collective storytelling experience that I hope you will join in and have fun with. The idea of a web comic influenced by the readers isn’t exactly new nor is using the structure of DnD to inform the media. What I hope sticks out as unique  to Weasel Knight is you. I hope the most ardent fans who hoist this comic on their backs and carry it out in the world can claim that one infamous role that caused lots of trouble. I want to see long reddit threads discussing how a serious poll went down and if it is or is not some small betrayal.  I hope the character of Weasel Knight and his struggles connects with some struggles in your life and makes you feel less alone. Because we are one.

Most of all, Weasel Knight is a dramatic comedy that I hope entertains ages young to old. If you found this entertaining, my work is done. But yours is not! I’d encourage you to spread the word into all parts, add your handle into the dice roller so I can shout you out for your roll.

I can only make this thing. I encourage you to make this a thing.

Thanks.
Yours, Ray.