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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Campbell" data-source="post: 7021373" data-attributes="member: 16586">I don't believe there is anything inherent in the fiction that makes combat more of a shared activity than any other. I also think we need to be careful when we talk about games with "narrative" mechanics. There is a vast ocean of games attempting to create a particular narrative structure, not all of which are meant to be played to lose. Monsterhearts, Masks, and Blades in the Dark are games that fly in the face of both these assumptions. Monsterhearts is probably the most visceral example. It is a game about the emotional turmoil of teenagers. The entire game is built on an economy of strings, which represent having a form of emotional power over someone. All the moves in the game reflect this, even Lashing Out Physically, the only combat related move in the game. Monsterhearts is very much a game that wants you to play to win. It can be uncomfortable at times, or at least it should be, but you should be pushing to gain strings on others, use them to manipulate them, and avoid letting others gain emotional leverage over you. Some players will play to lose, but the entire reward structure is built to encourage playing to win.In Masks you play teenage superheroes who struggle with finding out who they really are in an environment where adults are trying to define that for them. The fundamental struggle of the game is carving out a vision of who you are and fighting to stay that way. Instead of ability scores, Masks uses labels which are a measure of how characters see themselves to determine success. There are a number of moves that interact with a character's labels - shifting one down to shift another one up. Eventually characters can gain the ability to lock a label in, firming their self perceptions. Supervillain encounters are more about challenging perception than drag out fights. Teammates often work together to reinforce their perceptions. It absolutely can be played to win.Blades in the Dark is about a group of daring scoundrels carving their path up the criminal underbelly of Duskwall. In Blades the scoundrels undertake scores for turf, payback, money, and other resources. Between scores we go to a downtime phase with a pretty elaborate economy where the scoundrels angle for advantages on their next score. During this time the various factions of Duskwall move their project clocks forward. Every score has the potential to effect PC standing with the various factions and can cause them to gain heat which may cause trouble for them down the road. During scores there is no significant action economy. Instead there is a stress economy. Stress is used to mitigate consequences as a result of failures. Smart play is all about fictional positioning and choosing which failures to mitigate. Stress can also be used to retroactively prepare for stuff. In Blades whenever something can not be resolved by a single action roll we use variable length countdown clocks. For example, we could have a clock for 'The Blue Coats Are Coming' with 8 segments and another clock called 'Escape The Manor' with 10 segments. PCs would use fictional positioning to either delay the Blue Coats or push forward out of the manor with the degree of success and amount of risk taken of relevant Action Rolls having an effect on both clocks.I'm doing a rather poor job of explaining how Blades works. I'll probably start a new thread to talk about it soon. It's an interesting game. You come for the heists, but the real fun is positioning your crew and dealing with the fallout from scores. My favorite part of the game is that there is no way for you to win anything without someone else losing. It's a game about struggle and taking things.At the end of the day, I believe that you can focus the game on anything that would fictionally make sense as a shared activity. You just need to build an economy and reward structures around that thing. I also believe you can have a game that is built around a particular narrative structure and still allow the players to play to win. Those are my favorite sorts of games.</blockquote>

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