Game design comes with its own bespoke vocabulary, and I love learning new terms! One of the terms that Carlos taught me is “skinning.”
SKINNING! Isn’t it delicious? So visceral!
According to IGI, “Skinning is a term that comes from the online video game genre, and it refers to changing the look and feel (which includes the game characters, artwork, background, theme and story etc.) but not the game play.”
For example, Carlos and I co-designed NEGOCIOS INFERNALES (oh, yes, I’ve talked about it MANY TIMES BEFORE, and I will do so again), a TTRPG about “Aliens and Inquisition.”
Our game takes place on a world called “Gloriana,” in the country of “Espada”–our fantasy proxy for 15th-century Spain. All our Worldbuilding cards and Plot-generating cards are geared specifically towards Espada.
But then, we have our friend Greg Wilson–professor, writer, gamer, and Twitchcaster–author of The Gray Assassin trilogy, published by Atthis Arts. We love Greg, and we love supporting indie publishers like Atthis Arts, and we love playing games on Twitch! So we decided to bring Negocios Infernales to the world of Grayshade.
During the Atthis Arts Kickstarter, in order to crowdfund for the Gray Assassin campaign, Carlos and I “skinned” Negocios Infernales, so that the game mechanics–specifically, our “Deck of Destiny”–would suit Greg’s setting, theme, ambiences, and characters.
I wrote about it here, where we posted a little video at the time to support the Kickstarter!
The game play of Negocios Infernales comes in 7 parts, not including the Trust and Affirmation pre-game. Some of those parts we had to tweak more than others to make this new skin.
We thought it might be useful for those of you who are DMs, GMs, fantasy writers, or just game-lovers with worlds of your own that you love to play in, to have an idea about how we skinned our game to fit into another world. Maybe you’ll want to do the same one day!
Much of this will make more sense when you have a copy of our rulebook and are familiar with all the mechanics of NEGOCIOS INFERNALES–especially our DECK OF DESTINY–so keep an eye out for our Kickstarter coming this October!
Here’s a run-down of what we did!
The Gray Assassins Skin of NEGOCIOS INFERNALES
Phase 0: Trust and Affirmation
In the Gray Assassins skin, this remains identical to any Negocios Infernales game. There is no change to the Trust or Affirmation cards, which all players take turns reading aloud.
This part of the game is basically setting up “lines and veils” to make gameplay safe and fun, and declaring our support for each other in the gaming circle.
Phase 1: Invocation
Here is the first big tweak for the new skin.
In this beginning phase, instead of using the short deck of narrative cards that sets up our Negocios Infernales world of “Gloriana” and the background about alien invasion, we took the text from the back copy of the first book of Greg’s trilogy, Grayshade.
Then we tweaked the text to decenter the protagonist, whose name is Grayshade. This opens up the Gray Assassins world for all the new characters whom the players collaboratively create.
The new text, which all of the players take turns reading, is thus:
CARD ONE: In the city of Cohrelle, the Acolytes of Argoth assassinate threats to their Order.
CARD TWO: They serve the Order of Argoth, and the Order serves The Just God.
CARD THREE: All the city of Cohrelle bows to the Order’s authority, even while city officials publicly distance themselves from its actions.
CARD FOUR: And those actions require the Acolytes of Argoth to dispatch targets: with protocol and with precision.
CARD FIVE: But when an assignment goes sideways, what core values does an Acolyte of Argoth cling to?
CARD SIX: We are all Acolytes who have served the Order without question.
CARD SEVEN: Until now.
CARD EIGHT: Grayshade is a novel of violent faith and shifting loyalties, a story about whether we can rise above our pasts to craft new futures.
Phase 2: Character Creation
As per this same section in Negocios Infernales, we draw four cards from the Deck of Destiny to help inspire us and generate our Gray Assassin characters on the fly. Mechanically, these four cards need to be of four different suits on each player’s Character Sheet.
Here is the tweak!
Instead of the four attributes that make a Wizard’s character in Negocios Infernales (Motivation, Role in Court, Magic, Doom), we used the worldbuilding in Greg’s book to create a new set of four attributes for players to create their Assassin.
Motivation: What makes your character tick
Backstory: Where your character came from and how they came to serve the Order
Speciality: What they’re best at in the assassination game. (Greg sent us a short list of common specialities)
–Soundshifting
–Hand to hand (use of the cucuri in particular)
–Thrown weapons (the reshtar, kushuri darts)
–Aerial infiltration/acrobatics
–Information gathering
Fatal Flaw: What may one day bring your character down?
Phase 3: Relationships
This works exactly the way it does in Negocios Infernales.
Each player character has a relationship with at least one other player character.
We draw one card from the Deck of Destiny and match its suit to one card in the Relationships deck to help inspire this relationship.
Phase 4: Worldbuilding
Maps are very important. They help ground characters in place, and make the strange feel familiar and navigable. For Negocios Infernales, we have a glorious map of, well, Gloriana! It was designed for us by the magnificent Shannon Potratz.
But for our new Gray Assassins skin, Greg sent us his own bespoke map of the city of Cohrelle. It’s divided into four cardinal districts.
Map of Cohrelle
North: Church District; South: Mercantile District; West: Government District; East: Residential District. (Rich folk leave south/west, merchants who are closest to the government.) North District is overshadowed by the Order of Argoth, though there are many cathedrals to many gods.
Greg also sent us a list of known gods and their functions, so that we could tweak the cards in our Worldbuilding deck to feature Cohrelle much more prominently.
- Sect of Rael–an heretofore minor religion/cult, aggressive in its denouncements of other religions, but not violent until recently. Rael himself claimed to be a minor deity who aspired to greater godhood until he was put down. Few take the Sect seriously, but there are rumors it conceals a greater and more ambitious order
- Serren the Plague-Giver–a god of wasting disease. Her adherents were fanatics who willingly infected themselves with fatal diseases to grow closer to their god, and as a result, the religion has been essentially extinct for years now.
- Varda–a goddess of peace and prosperity, whose people are simple and comfortable despite the shabby-looking nature of their church. Until Grayshade discovers more, the people of Varda seem to be of little threat to anyone.
- Argoth–the Just God, and the deity which the Order of Argoth worships. Easily the most powerful religion in Cohrelle, disciplined, focused, and ruthless. The Rites of Devotion are critical for all adherents to the faith, and the mantra “Justice is Balance” is the Order’s (and its Service) watchword.
- The Concordat–an organization as much as a religion, this secretive group studies demons and their like–though many suggest demons don’t even exist. Led by Ezel Colabon, the Concordat tries to stay out of city affairs as much as it can, though it has had run-ins with the Order of Argoth in the past.
WORLDBUILDING QUESTIONS SPECIFIC TO GRAY ASSASSIN BOOKS
In Negocios Infernales, we have a Worldbuilding deck of 40 cards. In any given game, players only draw 4-8 of these cards, which means there is plenty of room for replayability and surprise.
But since we were only going to play one game of this Grayshade skin, made especially for the Atthis Arts Kickstarter, we created a total of just 6 new Worldbuilding cards.
Each player draws one Worldbuilding card, and one card from our Deck of Destiny to inspire their answer.
- A new church is being erected in the North District of Cohrelle. Who is this upstart god that threatens the power of Argoth, the Just God?
- The Governor of Cohrelle and the Prelate of Argoth’s Order recently had a public disagreement over policy. What was the disagreement over?
- A parvenu merchant family is gaining wealth, if not prestige, in Cohrelle. What are they selling?
- Recently, the Acolytes of Argoth were tasked with quelling a riot in the slums, in the way only the Order can. Who is unhappy about the way the Order handled it?
- Recently, an Acolyte of Argoth purposefully defied an order handed down directly from the Prelate. What was the fallout of that defiance?
- What new assassination technology has the Order recently acquired?
Phase 5: The Plot
In Negocios Infernales, we offer players 7 Adventure Plots to choose from, each with their own deck of six Story cards, and six Question cards. Each of the adventures are a slightly different genre: Romance, Gothic, Mystery, Monsters, War, SciFi, and Weird. This way, there is a great deal of replayability!
But for the purpose of this skin, we created a unique Adventure plot deck, with six new Story cards, and six new Question cards. As in Phase 1, The Invocation, players take turns reading the Story cards aloud to immerse themselves in the game.
Adventure Name: “Tempered in the Forge of Faith”
CARD ONE: The Prelate has called all three of us to come before him.
CARD TWO: “The three of you,” he says, “have recently displayed a subtle yet notable lack of faith. This, of course, is unacceptable in the Order.”
CARD THREE: “Therefore,” the Prelate continues, “the three of you must earn back the Order’s trust. Argoth has granted me a vision of a special mission you must complete.”
CARD FOUR: “Though usually Acolytes work alone, on this mission, you will work together to complete it.”
CARD FIVE: The Prelate throws three scrolls tied together. “All the details of the mission are included here. Do your research and reconnaissance, but move with haste. You have one week in which to complete this mission.”
CARD SIX: The moment you are excused from the Prelate’s presence, you unfurl the scrolls and begin to read about the assassination you must perform.
Thus, we set up the lot.
Each player then chooses a Question Card from a deck of 6 questions, and then draws a card from the Deck of Destiny to help answer it.
Once all questions are answered, each player turns their answer to that question into a direct Order that the Prelate wants us to accomplish.
Just like in a regular game of Negocios Infernales, accomplishing all the Orders before your token gets buried to the hilt of the Sword of Doom means you win the game!
The specialty Questions we created for this skin’s Adventure, which the assassin characters must answer for the Prelate of the Order, were thus:
- Who is/are the target(s)?
- Where is/are the target(s) located in Cohrelle? How well-defended will they be?
- What is so difficult for you, personally, about assassinating this/these particular target(s)?
- How does this assassination benefit the Order?
- What might be a political repercussion of this mission?
- Why did the Prelate doubt your faith?
Phase 6: Roleplay
This follows the same structure of Negocios Infernales. Every player has to take their turn being Protagonist, every player has to play an NPC, and every playing needs to use their Specialty at least once in a scene.
(In Negocios Infernales, the wizard characters have to use their Magic, but in this skin, it’s the assassin’s SPECIALITY!)
Each time an assassin uses their Speciality, they make a check to see if they succeed. They draw a card from the Deck of Destiny.
If that card’s suit matches one of the four suits on their Character Sheet, the check succeeds! If it doesn’t, the check fails–and the player uses the image and phrase on the Destiny card to narrate how awesomely and bodaciously epic their failure is!
Each failed check moves the token down the Sword of Doom. If the token is ever buried to the hilt, the game is lost. (And losing is equally hilarious, if not more so, as winning.)
Phase 7: The Prelate’s Epilogue
In Negocios Infernales, our final phase is called “the Alien Epilogue.”
It’s a time for the aliens (the players) to consult with each other and decide if giving the people of Espada phenomenal wizarding powers was a good decision and if humanity is ready to join the Cosmic Consciousness? Or if it was a really, really bad decision, and humanity needs to mature a bit more first? Say, for a few more millenia.
In the Gray Assassin skin, all surviving members of the mission come before the Prelate one more time and debrief.
We hope this is helpful. You can view the whole Grayshade game on Greg’s awesome Twitch channel Twitch channel: https://www.twitch.tv/arvaneleron
C.S.E. Cooney 