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Message: <blockquote data-quote="AbdulAlhazred" data-source="post: 8967026" data-attributes="member: 82106">I'm not understanding what is unknowable. In some highly technical sense, BitD resolves all conflicts with the same basic mechanics, yes, but the inputs may be quite different, and the choices of which resources can be engaged also can be quite different. The fiction is extremely important here, yes! Are you literally saying you want a game where you can engage any of an array of different mechanical subsystems at any old time? I don't think this is what you, or anyone else who's playing RPGs, wants. You want fictionally appropriate choices with the pros and cons of each sort of approach to be discernible through reasoning on the fiction, along with reasoning about the ludic aspects, the game play. I cannot see how a game like BitD doesn't give you that.I mean, I can see how [USER=29398]@Lanefan[/USER] can state that the way the game focuses narrative attention on the characters doesn't work for him. Its true, these kinds of games do that. But in terms of how they play, there is plenty of GAME there! Trust me, trying to balance out stress, harm, plot complications (devil's bargains, consequences of bad rolls), coin, and loadout/gear is a pretty interesting tactical challenge. Gauging in game terms whether or not a threat in BitD is something you can handle is pretty non-trivial. Nor have I found that situations always play out in similar ways. Quite different tactics can be used, and very different outcomes arise. Beyond that, the larger 'score architecture' is pretty open-ended. One score we did involved trekking through the dead lands, trying to calculate which route would allow us to face the fewest deadly obstacles and which of those we were best equipped to handle. Another we're doing now involves trying to win an election (think old school 19th Century NYC elections where you roust up voters and get them to vote in trade for beer, while the other guy's thugs try to break skulls). One where we took out an ancient vampire was all about highly skilled use of combat resources to beat a superior foe, and then employing some magic to trap him when he tried to flee. Super varied challenges, but all using basically the action roll, resist, push, bargain, and clocks.</blockquote>

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