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Reversing the order of narrative and dice (and musings on Star Wars: Edge of the Empire)
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<blockquote data-quote="Toben the Many" data-source="post: 6301822" data-attributes="member: 19273"><p>I've used the reversal of the dice and narration to great effect, speaking only personally. </p><p></p><p>Interestingly enough, it came about because the system we were using didn't support the kind of play that we wanted out of the game. So, the reversal of operations where it's dice and then narration worked for us very well. Now, I will say that it seemed to work best with very large, broad, or lengthy scenes. Basically, in place of what would be a 4e skill challenge. Here's how it worked for us. </p><p></p><p>1) The GM stages the scene. He/she basically describes what kind of scene it is. (Organizing troops; interrogating a prisoner; sneaking into a castle, etc.) </p><p></p><p>2) The players explain their goals, and then make a series of dice rolls. The GM has input. (Sure, you can use that skill. No, you can't use that skill. Okay, you guys can use those two skills in conjunction, etc.) The series of dice rolls is important here. </p><p></p><p>3) Based on the dice rolls, the players narrate what happens in the scene. The reason multiple dice rolls and skill checks are good for this is because it gives the player a framework for what happened. (You succeeded in this, but not in that. This was great, but then this tragedy happened.) </p><p></p><p>4) In the end, the GM looks at the players' narrative and generally decides the result of the scene. (Are the troops organized? Does the prisoner talk and how much do they say? Do they even survive the interrogation? Does the party sneak into the castle? Do they get stuck and cannot get out? Do they raise the alarm? Perhaps they raise suspicion but not alarm, etc.)</p><p></p><p>The reason this worked well for us is because this sort of roleplaying was one that celebrated failure. We were playing a game in which the PCs were military commanders of a huge body of soldiers. In a traditional RPG, PC <u>usually</u> end up succeeding in whatever they are trying to do. I say usually, because some RPGs assume the PCs will win more than 50 percent of the time. If PCs don't succeed, usually one of two things happens - the narrative stalls or the PCs simply die. Well, in a game where your choices affect thousands of people, that sort of dichotomy didn't work very well. Mainly because when you are working with that many people there is rarely complete success or complete failure. </p><p></p><p>The system we used above made failures really cool. Instead of the failures stalling the narrative, they functioned as continuations of the narrative. The game took new and unexpected twists all of the time.</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="Toben the Many, post: 6301822, member: 19273"] I've used the reversal of the dice and narration to great effect, speaking only personally. Interestingly enough, it came about because the system we were using didn't support the kind of play that we wanted out of the game. So, the reversal of operations where it's dice and then narration worked for us very well. Now, I will say that it seemed to work best with very large, broad, or lengthy scenes. Basically, in place of what would be a 4e skill challenge. Here's how it worked for us. 1) The GM stages the scene. He/she basically describes what kind of scene it is. (Organizing troops; interrogating a prisoner; sneaking into a castle, etc.) 2) The players explain their goals, and then make a series of dice rolls. The GM has input. (Sure, you can use that skill. No, you can't use that skill. Okay, you guys can use those two skills in conjunction, etc.) The series of dice rolls is important here. 3) Based on the dice rolls, the players narrate what happens in the scene. The reason multiple dice rolls and skill checks are good for this is because it gives the player a framework for what happened. (You succeeded in this, but not in that. This was great, but then this tragedy happened.) 4) In the end, the GM looks at the players' narrative and generally decides the result of the scene. (Are the troops organized? Does the prisoner talk and how much do they say? Do they even survive the interrogation? Does the party sneak into the castle? Do they get stuck and cannot get out? Do they raise the alarm? Perhaps they raise suspicion but not alarm, etc.) The reason this worked well for us is because this sort of roleplaying was one that celebrated failure. We were playing a game in which the PCs were military commanders of a huge body of soldiers. In a traditional RPG, PC [U]usually[/U] end up succeeding in whatever they are trying to do. I say usually, because some RPGs assume the PCs will win more than 50 percent of the time. If PCs don't succeed, usually one of two things happens - the narrative stalls or the PCs simply die. Well, in a game where your choices affect thousands of people, that sort of dichotomy didn't work very well. Mainly because when you are working with that many people there is rarely complete success or complete failure. The system we used above made failures really cool. Instead of the failures stalling the narrative, they functioned as continuations of the narrative. The game took new and unexpected twists all of the time. [/QUOTE]
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