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Icon rolls - improv tool or player freebie?
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<blockquote data-quote="Dungeoneer" data-source="post: 6253105" data-attributes="member: 91777"><p>Believe me, I've read, watched and listened to everything I could find regarding icons!</p><p></p><p>What you're describing still doesn't resolve the basic tension: is it a (possibly delayed) mechanical benefit or is it a storytelling tool? If you pitch it to the players as a benefit, they expect to get something out of it, one way or another. And what you are describing are basically benefits/advantages to the player. But then consider the Blood and Lightning example, where icon rolls determine what faction controls the tower. Pretty much pure storytelling. If the High Druid's faction controls the tower the player connected with her MAY be able to leverage this to their advantage, but there's no guarantee. And the player doesn't know that the tower wasn't originally going to be controlled by the High Druid so the impact of their icon roll may be essentially invisible to them.</p><p></p><p>I understand the 'it can be both' theory, but I think in practice it doesn't work out so well. If icon rolls were clearly primarily intended to be used to grant various advantages to the player, that would be relatively straightforward. If they were primarily supposed to be improv tools, I would explain that to my players and they would go with that and it would be fine. But I think this combination is confusing to them. Heck, it's confusing to me.</p><p></p><p>As a player, you rolled a d6 and got a 5 or 6. What does that 5 or 6 MEAN? What can you expect it to do? Can you expect to get a magical doodad or a one-time combat bonus? Or should you expect that the story for that session will in some way center on your relationship with an icon? I submit that the answer 'both' is a lot to handle for the DM and that 'either' is going to be unsatisfying for some players.</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="Dungeoneer, post: 6253105, member: 91777"] Believe me, I've read, watched and listened to everything I could find regarding icons! What you're describing still doesn't resolve the basic tension: is it a (possibly delayed) mechanical benefit or is it a storytelling tool? If you pitch it to the players as a benefit, they expect to get something out of it, one way or another. And what you are describing are basically benefits/advantages to the player. But then consider the Blood and Lightning example, where icon rolls determine what faction controls the tower. Pretty much pure storytelling. If the High Druid's faction controls the tower the player connected with her MAY be able to leverage this to their advantage, but there's no guarantee. And the player doesn't know that the tower wasn't originally going to be controlled by the High Druid so the impact of their icon roll may be essentially invisible to them. I understand the 'it can be both' theory, but I think in practice it doesn't work out so well. If icon rolls were clearly primarily intended to be used to grant various advantages to the player, that would be relatively straightforward. If they were primarily supposed to be improv tools, I would explain that to my players and they would go with that and it would be fine. But I think this combination is confusing to them. Heck, it's confusing to me. As a player, you rolled a d6 and got a 5 or 6. What does that 5 or 6 MEAN? What can you expect it to do? Can you expect to get a magical doodad or a one-time combat bonus? Or should you expect that the story for that session will in some way center on your relationship with an icon? I submit that the answer 'both' is a lot to handle for the DM and that 'either' is going to be unsatisfying for some players. [/QUOTE]
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