From the Game's Introduction:
A game in 24 hours. Madness. But a challenge, and like a foolish young upstart, I see the gauntlet at my feet and cannot help but take it up. Now, somewhat more the wiser for this work, I cannot help but cry: Woot! Ha-Ha! Did it! Have I learned anything? Hmmm.
Ok, so it is not very polished. So this forward is a bit unprofessional. I am very tired. But what the heck, you haven't had to do more than put some time and bandwidth into looking at this work, so you are probably somewhat forgiving. I hope.
My name is Evan, and I am trying to make a go of producing some materials for games. And here, in order that I show off some of the strange things I have going on in my head, is an entire game built within 24 hours. See www.24hourrpg.com for info on this event and on why people like me are doing it. I hope you enjoy it.
When I began, I figured this was the perfect opportunity to try something experimental rather than classic. Experimental ideas do not get much of chance to be aired. The work needed to get them out there is usually too large to make them viable as a risk. There are long odds stacked against innovation.
First of all, I have always wanted to try to see what could be made of a game using the Seven Deadly Sins of Medieval Christian thought. Next, take a bit of inspiration from the White Wolf gaming system (in particular Wraith), and its fundamental simplicity of statistics. Take a helping of Nephilim concepts, and a dash of the GURPS points based character building. Add to the mix the concept of Enlightenment vs. Materialism and the Zen state. Toss in a gaming concept of my very own: the success of actions during a crisis are not governed by ability but are rather governed by motivation. Ability in turn governs results and the effectiveness of success. Then, turn on the mental blender.
So I decided to give a go to a few ideas that I am not sure will fly as full games concepts. I began by thinking of some of the more esoteric ideas I have come up with. Then I started mixing them up in my head.
I call this monstrosity Sin/Zen because of the primary driving forces of the system, and their philosophical origin. It is a system designed for games where abstracted motivational absolutes are the main thrust of game play. It is in no way focused upon material success, or even realism; but rather is designed to focus upon motivations and psychological flux of character development.