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Contrivance in story dynamics
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<blockquote data-quote="AbdulAlhazred" data-source="post: 8830931" data-attributes="member: 82106"><p>Umm, sure, but one of the, perhaps THE, most consistent objection to games with a structure like Dungeon World, or some interpretations of 4e (variously termed Story Game, narrative agenda, etc.) is PURELY the idea of contrivance itself regardless of any consideration of what purpose it serves plot-wise. While we could see the crystals as either problem or solution, they are certainly a contrivance, a 'plot driver' of some sort! </p><p></p><p>And honestly, I would not even see something like these crystals as either problem or solution at all. The problem is whatever using them for prevents or fixes. The solution is the actions that the PCs take in order to arrive at that solution. This is very different from the 'soft magic solves a problem' thing, because the soft magic is just something arbitrary which in-and-of-itself produces the solution to the problem. To be even more detailed in that analysis, even 'soft magic' isn't problematic if the protagonists must go to great lengths to carry it out. Its only problematic if it is so 'soft' that it can just be implemented anywhere without cost or effort. </p><p></p><p>I would say that there is more a rule of PROPORTIONALITY. That is minor problems can be solved cheaply and easily. If they are minor enough and the solution is 'soft' enough, they become nothing but color. Bigger problems, ones where more is at stake, generally require the protagonists to pay a greater cost to solve them. I mean, this rule can be subverted, which will produce some type of absurdity in most cases, but that might be useful once in a while (IE it is humorous if the giant bad-assed fire dragon is offed with a pin prick, but only once of course). A similar proportionality rule exists in terms of payout, the rewards and the risks generally need to scale together, otherwise things don't seem to be interesting. </p><p></p><p>However, OWNERSHIP creates even a different dynamic, to a degree. In our BitD game it would be fine if some relatively easy score gave us a big boost, though it would become silly if that was a common thing. OTOH if it happened that way, we'd probably devise some fiction where the ultimate outcome was more in keeping, like some kind of long-term consequence becomes apparent over time. Or maybe the new situation simply leads the crew to becoming overly confident or foolish and later that leads to a bad consequence. This sort of thing can be really well used at times, and is a fun activity for players (because, really, all players enjoy adversity in good measure).</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="AbdulAlhazred, post: 8830931, member: 82106"] Umm, sure, but one of the, perhaps THE, most consistent objection to games with a structure like Dungeon World, or some interpretations of 4e (variously termed Story Game, narrative agenda, etc.) is PURELY the idea of contrivance itself regardless of any consideration of what purpose it serves plot-wise. While we could see the crystals as either problem or solution, they are certainly a contrivance, a 'plot driver' of some sort! And honestly, I would not even see something like these crystals as either problem or solution at all. The problem is whatever using them for prevents or fixes. The solution is the actions that the PCs take in order to arrive at that solution. This is very different from the 'soft magic solves a problem' thing, because the soft magic is just something arbitrary which in-and-of-itself produces the solution to the problem. To be even more detailed in that analysis, even 'soft magic' isn't problematic if the protagonists must go to great lengths to carry it out. Its only problematic if it is so 'soft' that it can just be implemented anywhere without cost or effort. I would say that there is more a rule of PROPORTIONALITY. That is minor problems can be solved cheaply and easily. If they are minor enough and the solution is 'soft' enough, they become nothing but color. Bigger problems, ones where more is at stake, generally require the protagonists to pay a greater cost to solve them. I mean, this rule can be subverted, which will produce some type of absurdity in most cases, but that might be useful once in a while (IE it is humorous if the giant bad-assed fire dragon is offed with a pin prick, but only once of course). A similar proportionality rule exists in terms of payout, the rewards and the risks generally need to scale together, otherwise things don't seem to be interesting. However, OWNERSHIP creates even a different dynamic, to a degree. In our BitD game it would be fine if some relatively easy score gave us a big boost, though it would become silly if that was a common thing. OTOH if it happened that way, we'd probably devise some fiction where the ultimate outcome was more in keeping, like some kind of long-term consequence becomes apparent over time. Or maybe the new situation simply leads the crew to becoming overly confident or foolish and later that leads to a bad consequence. This sort of thing can be really well used at times, and is a fun activity for players (because, really, all players enjoy adversity in good measure). [/QUOTE]
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