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CONAN LIVES! Info on the new Conan RPG
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<blockquote data-quote="N01H3r3" data-source="post: 6684665" data-attributes="member: 6799909"><p>A lot this. I find that many 'traditional' style games (AD&D and its ilk) tend to cast a large divide between Roleplaying and Game, so that they're two distinct activities, and you don't let one impinge upon the other (or vice versa).</p><p></p><p>I disagree with that. I enjoy both the narrative and the mechanical sides of RPGs, and I want to engage with both when I'm playing or GMing.</p><p></p><p></p><p>Alternatively, the latter is "GM as participant".</p><p></p><p>My typical GMing style works under the same assumption as a Joss Whedon show - the player characters are most interesting when they're suffering. When everything is going smoothly, things are boring. When things get complicated, things get interesting. Similarly, in my experience, a difficult and hard-fought victory is more satisfying to the players than coasting from one victory to the next.</p><p></p><p>Threat is the means by which the GM complicates things mid-scene. The GM is free to frame scenes in whatever manner he chooses, with Threat as a counterpoint to the resources that the PCs have. It takes a delicate touch to maintain the pressure on the PCs just right... but the same can be said of traditional GMing, only with Threat, there's a way to quantify it.</p><p></p><p></p><p></p><p>I'll give a telling example from my Mutant Chronicles campaign (same mechanic, different names).</p><p></p><p>The player characters are investigating a murder, when the victim's body begins to move - it had been animated as a Kadaver (a disease-fuelled zombie, extremely resilient to harm). Typically, a lone Kadaver is tough, but otherwise not a particularly challenging foe (they're more effective in groups), but I wanted to amp up the fear and peril of a single foe.</p><p></p><p>The Kadaver has a special rule that means that an attack against it can be ignored by spending a Dark Symmetry point (the Mutant Chronicles counterpart to Threat), unless the attack was fire or a headshot. They're also Troopers, the lowest class of NPC, so they only roll 1d20 for normal tests, making them less effective. I spend most of my starting pool of Dark Symmetry points to boost its attacks up to a more reasonable level, and to ignore the attacks of the PCs until they figured out that headshots were more effective. It didn't take long, but the whole fight lasted three rounds, instead of one, and the player characters were a bit scratched up, where they would have been untouched.</p><p></p><p>The use of ten Dark Symmetry points in that fight wasn't an overwhelming force, but rather a tool to amp up the tension and challenge the players. The intent wasn't to destroy them, but to scare them, and establish the threat of the enemy.</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="N01H3r3, post: 6684665, member: 6799909"] A lot this. I find that many 'traditional' style games (AD&D and its ilk) tend to cast a large divide between Roleplaying and Game, so that they're two distinct activities, and you don't let one impinge upon the other (or vice versa). I disagree with that. I enjoy both the narrative and the mechanical sides of RPGs, and I want to engage with both when I'm playing or GMing. Alternatively, the latter is "GM as participant". My typical GMing style works under the same assumption as a Joss Whedon show - the player characters are most interesting when they're suffering. When everything is going smoothly, things are boring. When things get complicated, things get interesting. Similarly, in my experience, a difficult and hard-fought victory is more satisfying to the players than coasting from one victory to the next. Threat is the means by which the GM complicates things mid-scene. The GM is free to frame scenes in whatever manner he chooses, with Threat as a counterpoint to the resources that the PCs have. It takes a delicate touch to maintain the pressure on the PCs just right... but the same can be said of traditional GMing, only with Threat, there's a way to quantify it. I'll give a telling example from my Mutant Chronicles campaign (same mechanic, different names). The player characters are investigating a murder, when the victim's body begins to move - it had been animated as a Kadaver (a disease-fuelled zombie, extremely resilient to harm). Typically, a lone Kadaver is tough, but otherwise not a particularly challenging foe (they're more effective in groups), but I wanted to amp up the fear and peril of a single foe. The Kadaver has a special rule that means that an attack against it can be ignored by spending a Dark Symmetry point (the Mutant Chronicles counterpart to Threat), unless the attack was fire or a headshot. They're also Troopers, the lowest class of NPC, so they only roll 1d20 for normal tests, making them less effective. I spend most of my starting pool of Dark Symmetry points to boost its attacks up to a more reasonable level, and to ignore the attacks of the PCs until they figured out that headshots were more effective. It didn't take long, but the whole fight lasted three rounds, instead of one, and the player characters were a bit scratched up, where they would have been untouched. The use of ten Dark Symmetry points in that fight wasn't an overwhelming force, but rather a tool to amp up the tension and challenge the players. The intent wasn't to destroy them, but to scare them, and establish the threat of the enemy. [/QUOTE]
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