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<blockquote data-quote="Manbearcat" data-source="post: 8921559" data-attributes="member: 6696971"><p>One last set of thoughts before I go MIA for a few days. Just a few examples of the Blades in the Dark game I mentioned above to flesh out the point:</p><p></p><p>At any given point, there is a constellation of Threats in play that manifest mechanically and within the shared imagined space in the following ways:</p><p></p><p>1) Setting or Faction or Rival Clocks. These are some combination of "extra-Score Clocks" that have emerged as a direct product of either (a) action resolution Complications during a Score (that can't be fully Resisted) or (b) a Devil's Bargain(s) or (c) Volatile tags (these are "auto-Complications" for some dangerous thing like a Ritual or Alchemical). A Setting Clock might emerge (d) as a byproduct major collateral fallout of a Score + a Fortune Roll that comes up as a 6. The final way these things emerge is (e) during Downtime as adversaries and allies both have dramatic needs and the means (Downtime Activities and Assets and Allies) to put into action those needs.</p><p></p><p>2) Players (f) choosing Rivals and our conversation during the Score yields us bringing them into play. This is, in effect, a player-authored kicker in a roundabout way.</p><p></p><p>The thing about a version of Blades in the Dark that employs neither the game's GMing Principles nor the game's Players' Best Practices nor the game's Advancement scheme which rewards dangerous, volatile, reckless play and the associated sucking up of the hardship that comes with it? That conceptual game? That game surely has a "solve" for each of (a) through (f) above. There is an <em>optimal answer to the problem-solution space</em> for each instantiation of those things during play of the game.</p><p></p><p>But Blades in the Dark is not that game (precisely because of the GMing Principles, the Players' Best Practices and the nature of Advancement). Each of that (a) through (f) above has an complex matrix of decision-space for the players where they are weighing simultaneous optimal arrangements that are at tension with each other...and there is also a layer of speculation and randomization (particularly when it comes to Resistance Rolls and the potential gamble of incurring devastating Stress to mitigate Consequences):</p><p></p><p>* Do I want to pursue this dangerous, volatile course to mark an xp in Playbook, Insight, Prowess, or Resolve?</p><p></p><p>* Do I want to pursue this dangerous, volatile course because that is the point of playing in the first place...AND my PC can deal (both mechanically with the robust toolkit for "dealing" and within the fiction itself...these are badass scoundrels with blood-soaked pasts!)?!</p><p></p><p>* Do I want to Resist this Consequence or turn down this Devil's Bargain because any of (i) I can't take the potential fallout, (ii) I don't love the course the potential fallout charts (thematically/premise-wise), (iii) there are just too many spinning plates in the air right now. BUT...can I even afford to Resist here...will I Trauma out of the scene (and hit one tick of my macro Clock to retire my PC)? Action resolution wise, can I afford to turn down this Devil's Bargain...like do I desperately need an extra die here? Can I think of an alternative Devil's Bargain or can someone else at the table?</p><p></p><p>* Do we really want this smoke? These guys are 2 Tiers higher than us with lots of dangerous Allies! But you know what...they did x and y...will we actually just sit idly by and let them do x...or y? Is that the kind of Crew we are? Is that the kind of Scoundrel I am? EFF THESE GUYS, WE WANT THIS SMOKE (or, let's just pay them off or find some other way to lower our profile...we want nothing to do with this trouble...for now).</p><p></p><p></p><p>This sort of stuff goes round and round and round and round and round in any given session of Blades in the Dark I GM. Its not here or there. Its not once or twice. Its perpetual. And that is by design.</p><p></p><p>So...yeah, there is a "solve" for every conceptual move in the hypothetical Blades in the Dark game above. But that ain't the actual game conceived-of...designed...-and-played. That game has omnidirectional push-pull and at-tension incentive structures that deeply complicates the reality of the constellation of "Threats on the Board" and the matrix of any given player and Crew's decision-space. An optimal "solve" there would require a seriously robustly parameterized model and a LOT of computing power!</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="Manbearcat, post: 8921559, member: 6696971"] One last set of thoughts before I go MIA for a few days. Just a few examples of the Blades in the Dark game I mentioned above to flesh out the point: At any given point, there is a constellation of Threats in play that manifest mechanically and within the shared imagined space in the following ways: 1) Setting or Faction or Rival Clocks. These are some combination of "extra-Score Clocks" that have emerged as a direct product of either (a) action resolution Complications during a Score (that can't be fully Resisted) or (b) a Devil's Bargain(s) or (c) Volatile tags (these are "auto-Complications" for some dangerous thing like a Ritual or Alchemical). A Setting Clock might emerge (d) as a byproduct major collateral fallout of a Score + a Fortune Roll that comes up as a 6. The final way these things emerge is (e) during Downtime as adversaries and allies both have dramatic needs and the means (Downtime Activities and Assets and Allies) to put into action those needs. 2) Players (f) choosing Rivals and our conversation during the Score yields us bringing them into play. This is, in effect, a player-authored kicker in a roundabout way. The thing about a version of Blades in the Dark that employs neither the game's GMing Principles nor the game's Players' Best Practices nor the game's Advancement scheme which rewards dangerous, volatile, reckless play and the associated sucking up of the hardship that comes with it? That conceptual game? That game surely has a "solve" for each of (a) through (f) above. There is an [I]optimal answer to the problem-solution space[/I] for each instantiation of those things during play of the game. But Blades in the Dark is not that game (precisely because of the GMing Principles, the Players' Best Practices and the nature of Advancement). Each of that (a) through (f) above has an complex matrix of decision-space for the players where they are weighing simultaneous optimal arrangements that are at tension with each other...and there is also a layer of speculation and randomization (particularly when it comes to Resistance Rolls and the potential gamble of incurring devastating Stress to mitigate Consequences): * Do I want to pursue this dangerous, volatile course to mark an xp in Playbook, Insight, Prowess, or Resolve? * Do I want to pursue this dangerous, volatile course because that is the point of playing in the first place...AND my PC can deal (both mechanically with the robust toolkit for "dealing" and within the fiction itself...these are badass scoundrels with blood-soaked pasts!)?! * Do I want to Resist this Consequence or turn down this Devil's Bargain because any of (i) I can't take the potential fallout, (ii) I don't love the course the potential fallout charts (thematically/premise-wise), (iii) there are just too many spinning plates in the air right now. BUT...can I even afford to Resist here...will I Trauma out of the scene (and hit one tick of my macro Clock to retire my PC)? Action resolution wise, can I afford to turn down this Devil's Bargain...like do I desperately need an extra die here? Can I think of an alternative Devil's Bargain or can someone else at the table? * Do we really want this smoke? These guys are 2 Tiers higher than us with lots of dangerous Allies! But you know what...they did x and y...will we actually just sit idly by and let them do x...or y? Is that the kind of Crew we are? Is that the kind of Scoundrel I am? EFF THESE GUYS, WE WANT THIS SMOKE (or, let's just pay them off or find some other way to lower our profile...we want nothing to do with this trouble...for now). This sort of stuff goes round and round and round and round and round in any given session of Blades in the Dark I GM. Its not here or there. Its not once or twice. Its perpetual. And that is by design. So...yeah, there is a "solve" for every conceptual move in the hypothetical Blades in the Dark game above. But that ain't the actual game conceived-of...designed...-and-played. That game has omnidirectional push-pull and at-tension incentive structures that deeply complicates the reality of the constellation of "Threats on the Board" and the matrix of any given player and Crew's decision-space. An optimal "solve" there would require a seriously robustly parameterized model and a LOT of computing power! [/QUOTE]
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