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General Tabletop Discussion
*TTRPGs General
At the Intersection of Skilled Play, System Intricacy, Prep, and Story Now
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<blockquote data-quote="pemerton" data-source="post: 8590790" data-attributes="member: 42582"><p>I think RQ and RM combat are my poster children here.</p><p></p><p>In RM, likewise when a skill is used, the system tells us what happened - eg did the speech move the crowd a lot, or a little, or not at all? RM uses various look-up tables for this.</p><p></p><p>Classic Traveller can be approached in a purist for system fashion - its skill system is more discrete than RM's (ie each skill tends to be its own little thing) and it doesn't have all the look-up tables, so sometimes the GM has to establish the "what happens" by extrapolation from the established fiction plus the roll. (I'm thinking of some social checks here, and some vacc suit and vehicle checks.)</p><p></p><p>Burning Wheel has strong purist-for-system technology in it - eg in Fight!, we know who struck when, and which body part they hit, and how serious the wound was - and the PC build is every bit as intricate as RM, RQ or Traveller; but it departs at key points, because it relies on the GM to frame and to narrate most consequences of failure, and in neither case is this to be done by extrapolation from the established fiction. Rather, it's to be done in a fashion that will pull the player into protagonistic and thematic engagement.</p><p></p><p>A system that establishes success or failure, but relies on the participants to fill in the details of what that means in the fiction, won't do the job. What counts as <em>details</em> here is a bit up for grabs - RQ tells you you got hit in the arm, while RM also tells you if you were bruised or which bone is broken etc - but I think D&D hit points are an example of <em>no details</em> and, in most cases, <em>you successfully pick the lock</em> counts as sufficient detail.</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="pemerton, post: 8590790, member: 42582"] I think RQ and RM combat are my poster children here. In RM, likewise when a skill is used, the system tells us what happened - eg did the speech move the crowd a lot, or a little, or not at all? RM uses various look-up tables for this. Classic Traveller can be approached in a purist for system fashion - its skill system is more discrete than RM's (ie each skill tends to be its own little thing) and it doesn't have all the look-up tables, so sometimes the GM has to establish the "what happens" by extrapolation from the established fiction plus the roll. (I'm thinking of some social checks here, and some vacc suit and vehicle checks.) Burning Wheel has strong purist-for-system technology in it - eg in Fight!, we know who struck when, and which body part they hit, and how serious the wound was - and the PC build is every bit as intricate as RM, RQ or Traveller; but it departs at key points, because it relies on the GM to frame and to narrate most consequences of failure, and in neither case is this to be done by extrapolation from the established fiction. Rather, it's to be done in a fashion that will pull the player into protagonistic and thematic engagement. A system that establishes success or failure, but relies on the participants to fill in the details of what that means in the fiction, won't do the job. What counts as [i]details[/i] here is a bit up for grabs - RQ tells you you got hit in the arm, while RM also tells you if you were bruised or which bone is broken etc - but I think D&D hit points are an example of [i]no details[/i] and, in most cases, [i]you successfully pick the lock[/i] counts as sufficient detail. [/QUOTE]
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