Menu
News
All News
Dungeons & Dragons
Level Up: Advanced 5th Edition
Pathfinder
Starfinder
Warhammer
2d20 System
Year Zero Engine
Industry News
Reviews
Dragon Reflections
Columns
Weekly Digests
Weekly News Digest
Freebies, Sales & Bundles
RPG Print News
RPG Crowdfunding News
Game Content
ENterplanetary DimENsions
Mythological Figures
Opinion
Worlds of Design
Peregrine's Next
RPG Evolution
Other Columns
From the Freelancing Frontline
Monster ENcyclopedia
WotC/TSR Alumni Look Back
4 Hours w/RSD (Ryan Dancey)
The Road to 3E (Jonathan Tweet)
Greenwood's Realms (Ed Greenwood)
Drawmij's TSR (Jim Ward)
Community
Forums & Topics
Forum List
Latest Posts
Forum list
*Dungeons & Dragons
Level Up: Advanced 5th Edition
D&D Older Editions
*TTRPGs General
*Pathfinder & Starfinder
EN Publishing
*Geek Talk & Media
Search forums
Chat/Discord
Resources
Wiki
Pages
Latest activity
Media
New media
New comments
Search media
Downloads
Latest reviews
Search resources
EN Publishing
Store
EN5ider
Adventures in ZEITGEIST
Awfully Cheerful Engine
What's OLD is NEW
Judge Dredd & The Worlds Of 2000AD
War of the Burning Sky
Level Up: Advanced 5E
Events & Releases
Upcoming Events
Private Events
Featured Events
Socials!
Twitch
YouTube
Facebook (EN Publishing)
Facebook (EN World)
Twitter
Instagram
TikTok
Podcast
Features
Top 5 RPGs Compiled Charts 2004-Present
Adventure Game Industry Market Research Summary (RPGs) V1.0
Ryan Dancey: Acquiring TSR
Q&A With Gary Gygax
D&D Rules FAQs
TSR, WotC, & Paizo: A Comparative History
D&D Pronunciation Guide
Million Dollar TTRPG Kickstarters
Tabletop RPG Podcast Hall of Fame
Eric Noah's Unofficial D&D 3rd Edition News
D&D in the Mainstream
D&D & RPG History
About Morrus
Log in
Register
What's new
Search
Search
Search titles only
By:
Forums & Topics
Forum List
Latest Posts
Forum list
*Dungeons & Dragons
Level Up: Advanced 5th Edition
D&D Older Editions
*TTRPGs General
*Pathfinder & Starfinder
EN Publishing
*Geek Talk & Media
Search forums
Chat/Discord
Menu
Log in
Register
Install the app
Install
Community
General Tabletop Discussion
*TTRPGs General
At the Intersection of Skilled Play, System Intricacy, Prep, and Story Now
JavaScript is disabled. For a better experience, please enable JavaScript in your browser before proceeding.
You are using an out of date browser. It may not display this or other websites correctly.
You should upgrade or use an
alternative browser
.
Reply to thread
Message
<blockquote data-quote="AbdulAlhazred" data-source="post: 8597735" data-attributes="member: 82106"><p>OK then...</p><p>I would propose a simple game system model. Here's one that is an extrapolation of another game I've run a few times, and could also be thought of as a simplification of games like BW to a degree. Each player constructs a character (presumably there's an agreement on a genre and general milieu, I don't think that stuff is super relevant though). Each character consists of a description including something they believe, something they want, and something/someone they know (and how or why). The player then names 2 traits, which are restricted to being a 3-5 word descriptive phrase. 7 points are divided between the two traits. Each character also starts with an agreed upon number of additional 'free dice'. By convention this is something like, say, five.</p><p></p><p>Once the characters have been constructed, the players alternate framing scenes which relate to the belief, want, or knowledge/relationship of the other player's character. They may choose to place their own PC in frame, or not, but each scene must follow in some logical way from previous fiction (so most anything goes at first I guess). </p><p></p><p>The goal is simple, to have fun challenging each other and yourself. Mechanical resolution is a simple pool. A player declares some sort of intent, and names a proposed level of difficulty required to achieve it within the current scene frame/position. The other player can accept this, or they can spend some of their free dice in order to increase the difficulty. The first player can also add free dice to his pool, which starts at the level of one of his attributes, whichever one he can justify engaging (or if none, then 0). The other player is free to object to this determination, they will have to talk it out. Once the size of each pool is determined, dice are rolled, and the one who gets the most high rolls wins. If the player achieves his intent, then he gets to frame the rest of the scene, showing how he succeeds. If he fails, then the other player gets to describe how his plans go awry. Alternatively the other player can hit the loser with a twist, which is pure fiction, but is persistent (lets say it results in the other player being able to invoke it as a 'misfortune' in the next scene). Finally, he could hit the loser with an 'affliction', which reduces one of his attributes by the loss margin during his next scene.</p><p></p><p>As an incentive, lets say that if you lose in a scene, you get to keep all the dice played in that scene and add them to your free dice. So, there's a real game going on here where the players can help or hinder each other's characters, as they see fit. </p><p></p><p>Now, there should be an additional consideration in this game, a reason why the players would really cooperate on the fiction, or not. In other words there really aren't yet any solid win cons or loss cons. There could be some kind of score kept. Or the players could agree on some parameters for a story arc which includes some kind of win cons, like whomever gets the girl wins, or whoever first fulfills their desire, etc. Honestly I think it should be a bit cleverer than this, but I'm just noodling here.</p><p></p><p>So, I think this can work, though it might not without some tweaking. I'm pretty sure the basic mechanics are workable though. The story building part might be a little rough though, again, it seems like the incentive part of this needs to be highly considered if it is going to really exhibit Story Now reliably. Perhaps the best strategy is to just make things very explicit. Both PCs have to address an agreed upon premise (IE it has to be spoken to in the character description, and the object of framing scenes is to engage it). So, then incentive will be related to how that goes. A character's intent in a scene might well not be particularly to get something they want, but to have a certain type of experience relative to the premise. </p><p></p><p>Anyway... its a rough start.</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="AbdulAlhazred, post: 8597735, member: 82106"] OK then... I would propose a simple game system model. Here's one that is an extrapolation of another game I've run a few times, and could also be thought of as a simplification of games like BW to a degree. Each player constructs a character (presumably there's an agreement on a genre and general milieu, I don't think that stuff is super relevant though). Each character consists of a description including something they believe, something they want, and something/someone they know (and how or why). The player then names 2 traits, which are restricted to being a 3-5 word descriptive phrase. 7 points are divided between the two traits. Each character also starts with an agreed upon number of additional 'free dice'. By convention this is something like, say, five. Once the characters have been constructed, the players alternate framing scenes which relate to the belief, want, or knowledge/relationship of the other player's character. They may choose to place their own PC in frame, or not, but each scene must follow in some logical way from previous fiction (so most anything goes at first I guess). The goal is simple, to have fun challenging each other and yourself. Mechanical resolution is a simple pool. A player declares some sort of intent, and names a proposed level of difficulty required to achieve it within the current scene frame/position. The other player can accept this, or they can spend some of their free dice in order to increase the difficulty. The first player can also add free dice to his pool, which starts at the level of one of his attributes, whichever one he can justify engaging (or if none, then 0). The other player is free to object to this determination, they will have to talk it out. Once the size of each pool is determined, dice are rolled, and the one who gets the most high rolls wins. If the player achieves his intent, then he gets to frame the rest of the scene, showing how he succeeds. If he fails, then the other player gets to describe how his plans go awry. Alternatively the other player can hit the loser with a twist, which is pure fiction, but is persistent (lets say it results in the other player being able to invoke it as a 'misfortune' in the next scene). Finally, he could hit the loser with an 'affliction', which reduces one of his attributes by the loss margin during his next scene. As an incentive, lets say that if you lose in a scene, you get to keep all the dice played in that scene and add them to your free dice. So, there's a real game going on here where the players can help or hinder each other's characters, as they see fit. Now, there should be an additional consideration in this game, a reason why the players would really cooperate on the fiction, or not. In other words there really aren't yet any solid win cons or loss cons. There could be some kind of score kept. Or the players could agree on some parameters for a story arc which includes some kind of win cons, like whomever gets the girl wins, or whoever first fulfills their desire, etc. Honestly I think it should be a bit cleverer than this, but I'm just noodling here. So, I think this can work, though it might not without some tweaking. I'm pretty sure the basic mechanics are workable though. The story building part might be a little rough though, again, it seems like the incentive part of this needs to be highly considered if it is going to really exhibit Story Now reliably. Perhaps the best strategy is to just make things very explicit. Both PCs have to address an agreed upon premise (IE it has to be spoken to in the character description, and the object of framing scenes is to engage it). So, then incentive will be related to how that goes. A character's intent in a scene might well not be particularly to get something they want, but to have a certain type of experience relative to the premise. Anyway... its a rough start. [/QUOTE]
Insert quotes…
Verification
Post reply
Community
General Tabletop Discussion
*TTRPGs General
At the Intersection of Skilled Play, System Intricacy, Prep, and Story Now
Top