Search results

A tabletop MMORPG emulator that desperately tried to pretend it can do anything other than that

Well, I have a pretty rigid criteria of what feels like a game to me: when at every point of interaction I can say "yeah, that was fair and deserved". Pretty much none of RPGs feel like games to me, as RPGs, are, by their nature, impossible to replay. There's no way I can end up in the exact...

Several different kinds of points (?) that are awarded for different things. Maybe traits could have a tracker attached to them. As an example, a Fate-like character *Detective down his luck *Crippling alcohol addiction *Ties to the Rose sindycate could be tracking how many times each of...

Awarding "scores" that mean absolutely nothing can be a good reward? Fate Points are part of gameplay and provide bonusi. Not earning them means being weaker, so it makes the incentive more "winning" oriented. If Fate Points were completely unused, earning them would be an optional endeavour...

A game, that doesn't have a continuous fiction. It's played in short scenes that have only vague relation to each other, the characters are more or less the same, but nothing necessarily has long-term consequences. Two lovers can have a bitter break up in one scene, and then be happily in love...

I will respond to the serious points and continue discussing them. I'm having an extended holiday (Nauryz küttı bolsyñdar, everyone!), so my thoughts are a bit scattered. I may post some vague notes here for latter, if I think something is interesting enough to share even in raw, unprocessed...

Yeah, I don't think I know any examples that codify such things. Like, you can ask the other player for their character do something and they can agree, but in ERP it's normally goes the other way — by default you can take control, and the other person can stop you if they don't like your idea.

As of definition, my favourite one (obviously influenced by my favourite kind of games) is "it's like watching and shooting a film at the same time". But as of expaining what RPGs are to clueless people, I just... Run them an RPG. – RPGs? What's that? – OK, imagine: you are leaving for work in...

I'll probably won't say anything new (similar ideas were voiced by Mo and Vincent Baker two decades ago), but I'm still gonna say something nonetheless. I have a thing for being showered in praise, y'know? First, housekeeping: If you are under 18, first, what are you doing here? Forums are for...

Now I have milk running down my nose. Thanks, I hate you.

Thinking about it some more (or, rather, not thinking about anything as trying to P-rank new ULTRAKILL secret boss leaves my brain exactly zero capacity to process anything beyond trying not to die), I have some more thoughts. First, cooperative nature of most RPGs definitely plays a part: I'm...

More or less, yes. Here, the crux of the point is that restricting the available options can emphasize, for the lack of a better term, system mastery. Whether it's "connected" to fiction or not, the way I see it, is secondary here. The larger theoretical framework is still very much in...

No. A "transcript of play" is produced through narration. A combat minigame produces exactly zero fiction, only boundaries in which the new fiction must be constructed. Ok, simpler example. Here's my new one-page RPG: When you do something risky, play a Quake 3 duel with the GM. If you win...

Some PbtA games have pretty elaborate moves (Undying immediately comes to mind), but yes, pretty much. I like games that demand skill, and I like storytelling games, but if skill being tested is navigating fiction, it hinders the storytelling possibilities. The solution I've found is to replace...

Only if you try to pretend that tokens on the board moving like chess pieces has any relation to what the characters in the game world are doing. Think about this way: let's imagine that a bunch of PCs are fighting in a mêlée with, say, a vampire. In Blades in the Dark, for example, that would...

"So as I pray, 'Unlimited Blade Works'"

I've said it upthread, but it's worth repeating. Roleplaying games aren't "real". Wave a stick in your FLGS, and none of the games that will fall off the shelf will be real. Rolling dice to determine the result isn't any more or less "real" than playing a chess étude, or a Quake duel, or an...

For example, your character shoots only one arrow where normally they would make two or three shots in a quick succession. Or maybe they use subpar ammunition they avoided using before. Or maybe they are so worried about expending the last few rounds that their hands are shaking slightly...

I apologize if I misrepresented your position, but I'm unfamiliar with the characters you mentioned. Can you clear this up a bit, so I can refrain from wrong assumptions down the line?

OK, let's switch to another hypothetical. There's this Dark Lord of Dark Darkness, who was foreshadowed within the game, and on top of that, the GM has been relentlessly dropping out of game teasers for the last few weeks, posting an artwork here, a blurred statblock there, a dramatic music...