Generative resolution

[thefutilist]

What would non-generative resolution, in the Circles case, look like? Having one of the Elves appear, but being angry or dismissive of Aedhros? I don't think it would have been as satisfying.

It’s really hard to create parity amongst different situations with different resolution mechanics and so I think the following is actually kind of forced.

Aehdros begins to evade the guard, and moves toward the Embassy hoping he’ll run into an Etarch.

Say in Sorcerer...


Aehrdro’s hope and homeland VS the city (which wants to emesh him in depravity)

Sounds like a humanity roll. Failure.

You walk toward the embassy and around it, the guard following, quicker. You find yourself in dark twisting back alleys. In total darkness. Watching as the guard stumbles around a corner, he can’t see you, he seems a little scared now, unsure. You find your hand on the hilt of your knife.

Now I would probably never have a conflict like that AND I don’t think it’s necessarily better. Well in general I do but not for any give instance.

Your example of play (sounds awesome by the way), was reincorporating newly generated facts into the situation. Because you’re attuned to thematic stuff, that all came with it. This is the exact thing that gives that sense of emergent causality. The component pieces strongly suggest something more (as if by themselves) when you put them together.

 

[pemerton]

Aehdros begins to evade the guard, and moves toward the Embassy hoping he’ll run into an Etarch.

Say in Sorcerer...


Aehrdro’s hope and homeland VS the city (which wants to emesh him in depravity)

Sounds like a humanity roll. Failure.

You walk toward the embassy and around it, the guard following, quicker. You find yourself in dark twisting back alleys. In total darkness. Watching as the guard stumbles around a corner, he can’t see you, he seems a little scared now, unsure. You find your hand on the hilt of your knife.

I don't know Sorcerer as well as I should: what happens when Aedhros's hand goes to the hilt of his knife?

 

[thefutilist]

as you'd expect from a PBTA offshoot full of "I introduce a complication to the scene on a miss that should follow from teh established fiction but may not be from the immediate established fiction)

Really on point post. The snipped bit is interesting because the origin of this discussion was me and @pemerton discussing Apocalypse World and my claim that it doesn't (or shouldn't) use generative resolution and everyone is playing it wrong.

 

[thefutilist]

I don't know Sorcerer as well as I should: what happens when Aedhros's hand goes to the hilt of his knife?

That was me adding flourish. As a GM I'm throwing it back to the player because I assume he's going to kill the guard. he would be in his rights to say, no way I flee the city (or whatever).

 

[thefutilist]

The first of the ones that I want to focus on is the Sing check. The context for this is (i) a Belief, that I will free Alicia and myself form the curse of Thoth together with (ii) an Instinct, When my mind is elsewhere, quietly sing the Elven lays. The rules of the game demand a test at this point: given that, as a player, I'm trying to establish an advantage die that bears directly upon my Belief, there is something at stake, and so it's time to roll the dice. What's the conflict? I guess it's a conflict within Aedhros's spiteful soul, between his reality and some aspiration he still has to truly be an Elf. (One of his character traits is Self-deluded.)

In non-generative resolution, the failure would therefore - I guess? - have to pertain to Aedhros himself. Whether adding a new, disadvantageous die trait (perhaps in some fashion stepping up Self-deluded from a character trait); or carrying forward a penalty to his next test. (This seems to be what Vincent Baker does in some of his examples of AW play, turning their move against them.)

This is interesting. In Sorcerer I’d frame it as a humanity test and the roll over gives you extra dice to put toward conflicts with Thoth. Although, like the other conflict, I’m not sure I’d do it? Maybe? I’m more likely to do this one and than the one with the Etarch. It’s probably very group dependant.

I’d probably want the player to narrate on failure. Say if I was playing I might narrate it as ‘I sing the song but the contours and cold stone of the city eat it. The words feel hollow.’ Something like that.