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A Remembrance of Everway: The First WOTC RPG that was too Good to Succeed
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<blockquote data-quote="pemerton" data-source="post: 8953365" data-attributes="member: 42582"><p><a href="http://www.indie-rpgs.com/_articles/narr_essay.html" target="_blank">This blog</a> - now about 20 years old - does a nice job of putting Everway into its (then) historical context:</p><p></p><p style="margin-left: 20px">During the early 1990s . . . a certain approach to numbers and Fortune became apparent across a number of games: <em>Prince Valiant</em>, <em>Over the Edge</em> (especially in light of Laws' essay), <em>Castle Falkenstein</em>, <em>Everway</em>, <em>Maelstrom/Story Engine</em>, <em>Zero</em>, and <em>The Whispering Vault</em>. Later, similar games include <em>Sorcerer</em>, <em>Orkworld</em>, and <em>The Riddle of Steel</em>. All of these texts demonstrate an internal struggle to articulate means of addressing Premise, littered with trip-ups based on assumptions of GM-power and the utter lack of precedent in explaining the whole idea. . . .</p> <p style="margin-left: 20px"></p> <p style="margin-left: 20px">A . . . structural issue is to decide how much Premise-addressing (story, if you will) has already occurred before in-play decision-making begins. . . . When the Situation is well-established prior to play and essentially independent of the player-characters, then how they encounter it and become enlisted in its hassles is up for grabs, including when they arrive. The protagonists usually play a catalytic role toward everyone and everything else. Playing <em>Everway</em>, <em>The Dying Earth</em>, <em>InSpectres</em>, <em>Orkworld</em>, <em>The Whispering Vault</em>, and <em>Trollbabe</em> is a lot like this. . . .</p> <p style="margin-left: 20px"></p> <p style="margin-left: 20px">[A] Timid Virgin (sic) effect is a full spin toward Force Techniques in isolated spots, which is less schizoid in terms of the reading experience, but perhaps more confusing in the long run. <em>Sorcerer</em>, <em>Everway</em>, <em>Zero</em>, <em>Prince Valiant</em>, and <em>The Whispering Vault</em> all have this bi-polar problem, which I think characterizes many early-to-mid-90s game texts.</p><p></p><p>The same author notes "Jonathan Tweet's discussion of resolution presented in <em>Everway</em>", which introduced <a href="http://www.indie-rpgs.com/articles/5/" target="_blank">a handy taxonomy of resolution techniques</a>:</p><p></p><p style="margin-left: 20px">These terms describe the mechanical and social means, among the real people, by which an imaginary action or event is determined to occur.</p> <ul style="margin-left: 20px"> <li data-xf-list-type="ul"><strong>Drama</strong> resolution relies on asserted statements without reference to listed attributes or quantitative elements.</li> <li data-xf-list-type="ul"><strong>Karma</strong> resolution relies on referring to listed attributes or quantitative elements without a random element.</li> <li data-xf-list-type="ul"><strong>Fortune</strong> resolution relies on utilizing a random device of some kind, usually delimited by quantitative scores of some kind.</li> </ul><p></p><p>I've never played Everway, but based on what I know if it, and also drawing on familiarity with another Tweet game from the same general era, namely, Over the Edge, I would expect actual play to vary quite a bit both from table to table and at a given table, between highly collaborative approaches and a lot of player-driven RPGing, and a lot of GM power and GM decides with the players along for the colourful ride.</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="pemerton, post: 8953365, member: 42582"] [URL='http://www.indie-rpgs.com/_articles/narr_essay.html']This blog[/URL] - now about 20 years old - does a nice job of putting Everway into its (then) historical context: [INDENT]During the early 1990s . . . a certain approach to numbers and Fortune became apparent across a number of games: [I]Prince Valiant[/I], [I]Over the Edge[/I] (especially in light of Laws' essay), [I]Castle Falkenstein[/I], [I]Everway[/I], [I]Maelstrom/Story Engine[/I], [I]Zero[/I], and [I]The Whispering Vault[/I]. Later, similar games include [I]Sorcerer[/I], [I]Orkworld[/I], and [I]The Riddle of Steel[/I]. All of these texts demonstrate an internal struggle to articulate means of addressing Premise, littered with trip-ups based on assumptions of GM-power and the utter lack of precedent in explaining the whole idea. . . .[/INDENT] [INDENT][/INDENT] [INDENT]A . . . structural issue is to decide how much Premise-addressing (story, if you will) has already occurred before in-play decision-making begins. . . . When the Situation is well-established prior to play and essentially independent of the player-characters, then how they encounter it and become enlisted in its hassles is up for grabs, including when they arrive. The protagonists usually play a catalytic role toward everyone and everything else. Playing [I]Everway[/I], [I]The Dying Earth[/I], [I]InSpectres[/I], [I]Orkworld[/I], [I]The Whispering Vault[/I], and [I]Trollbabe[/I] is a lot like this. . . .[/INDENT] [INDENT][/INDENT] [INDENT][A] Timid Virgin (sic) effect is a full spin toward Force Techniques in isolated spots, which is less schizoid in terms of the reading experience, but perhaps more confusing in the long run. [I]Sorcerer[/I], [I]Everway[/I], [I]Zero[/I], [I]Prince Valiant[/I], and [I]The Whispering Vault[/I] all have this bi-polar problem, which I think characterizes many early-to-mid-90s game texts.[/INDENT] The same author notes "Jonathan Tweet's discussion of resolution presented in [I]Everway[/I]", which introduced [URL='http://www.indie-rpgs.com/articles/5/']a handy taxonomy of resolution techniques[/URL]: [INDENT]These terms describe the mechanical and social means, among the real people, by which an imaginary action or event is determined to occur.[/INDENT] [INDENT][LIST] [*][B]Drama[/B] resolution relies on asserted statements without reference to listed attributes or quantitative elements. [*][B]Karma[/B] resolution relies on referring to listed attributes or quantitative elements without a random element. [*][B]Fortune[/B] resolution relies on utilizing a random device of some kind, usually delimited by quantitative scores of some kind. [/LIST][/INDENT] I've never played Everway, but based on what I know if it, and also drawing on familiarity with another Tweet game from the same general era, namely, Over the Edge, I would expect actual play to vary quite a bit both from table to table and at a given table, between highly collaborative approaches and a lot of player-driven RPGing, and a lot of GM power and GM decides with the players along for the colourful ride. [/QUOTE]
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