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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Emberashh" data-source="post: 9508882" data-attributes="member: 7040941">Yeah so if we take to those assumptions, then yes the prank idea wouldn't be right. But I think that also goes down to a couple things that might have contributed to this hiccup we'll call it. As already spoken to, the issue could still just be a vibe issue, not on your part but mine. Under the assumptions, it probably should be pretty clear to me that you've got an angle you're going for in bringing this to the party; while we should both be open to meshing our ideas, if I shoot for what would be the polar opposite of what you were doing, I'm screwing it up. Another angle on it could be that a simple miscommunication, which could happen because we're human and it happens. I might have misread you, you might have just not communicated the scene in a way that made it clear what angle you were going for, whatever the case. Not really anybody's fault. One angle on it though could actually be in the part of the scene you left open-ended: someone's knocking at the door. Thats inviting somebody at the table to step in and be the one who knocks. That could still very well be me coming in to laugh about this sick prank I pulled, but it could also be what you were expecting, or something else. Just depends on who jumps in to add that detail. I think a lot of the initial jolt of me suggesting someone could jump in and say it was a prank is rooted in the fact that with improv, you're establishing facts about a scene simultaneously with acting out whatever is going on. Ergo, if you're more specific about hard details, and take some time to lay those details out, you can make it easier for everyone else to follow you. If you spend time identifying more of the scene, explaining the senses from your perspective, then when people jump in they can more accurately work with you without stepping on your toes. But, thats not the only way this could shake out. Given the contextual assumptions and knowing my own instincts, if you introduced that scene while I was Keeping, I'd probably immediately jump in as the innkeeper or an authority or something, and unless the Party is all in the same room, me and you are probably going to go through some amount of that scene before anybody else is able to jump in, and that's also going to establish the scene much more firmly, which would organically preclude something like the prank angle from being introduced. Re: Kickers, I actually have a specific system, Birthsigns, that I've been developing, which mechanically combines Changeling's Quest/Ban mechanics with DCC style Luck. While the gameworld is dripping with very specific themes about the conflict between destiny and free will, which are reflected in this Birthsign system, what you as a player might explore throughout play isn't strictly that. Instead, it provides a framework to explore many kinds of internal and external conflicts, and to define them for yourself throughout play. To give an example of what a Birthsign looks like:The idea with the mechanic is that as you take actions in the gameworld, you're considering if they fall under the purview of your Fate or Volition. If an action aligns with your Fate, you make a mark, signifying that you'll gain a point of Luck when the session's over. Likewise, if it aligns with your Volition, you'll make a separate mark, and this deducts a point of Luck. The maximum you can have is +/-30. Now, negative Luck doesn't mean you're unlucky; if anything is equivalent to being unlucky, its being at zero. In reality, whether your Luck is negative or positive it has a slew of benefits, some of which are intended to be hidden from players, but the broad strokes are that negative Luck trends towards quantity, whereas positive Luck trends towards quality. Beyond those passive benefits, you have a number of active ones, which are available to you plainly regardless of which end of the scale you're on. The first is the Luck Die, which goes from a d4, earned with your first point of Luck +/-, which grows to a 1d8 at +/-10 Luck, and then a d12 at +/-20 Luck. Each of these threshold points allow you to, optionally, change your Fate and Volition, either to one of the examples, or to something you come up with, with the caveat that, even if you break from the Sign's overall theme, your Fate and Volition should represent a broad internal or external conflict, motivations at cross purposes, to put it another way. The Luck die can be called on for a bunch of stuff by the Keeper, but its core use as a Player is to assist with Skill advancement, as you'd roll it alongside your d20 everytime you go to see if a Skill advanced, which requires you to roll above your current Skill level. As Skills go up to 30, you can't max them out if you don't engage with Luck and maintain it at 20+/-. Beyond that, you also have the ability Twist of Fate, which is essentially Luckburn ala DCC. Burn some points (towards zero, no going over) and add it to any roll you want. The caveat of doing this is that if you burn 5pts or more at once, you're required to change your Fate and Volition. And then you also have the capability to spare yourself from death by burning 15pts, which also requires a change. Though, if one trusts their friends to bring them back, you can accept your death, as then through resurrection you can change your Birthsign. What this system overall does is essentially a more elaborate means of doing what Kickers tried to do, but tied into and integrated with much more of the game, with the expectation that like the gameworld itself, its a living thing that evolves over time, which is mechanically reinforced by the game. Now, I can imagine at this point one would be inclined to question what these things represent within the internal logic of the gameworld; what does it mean to Twist your Fate, and what is even causing the effect and all that? Those are very good questions. Go answer them. <img class="smilie smilie--emoji" alt="😉" src="https://cdn.jsdelivr.net/joypixels/assets/8.0/png/unicode/64/1f609.png" title="Winking face    :wink:" data-shortname=":wink:" loading="lazy" width="64" height="64" />One might also question how this system is consistent with the things I say I don't like, and one should remember that it always comes down to consent, and toys. <img class="smilie smilie--emoji" alt="😉" src="https://cdn.jsdelivr.net/joypixels/assets/8.0/png/unicode/64/1f609.png" title="Winking face    :wink:" data-shortname=":wink:" loading="lazy" width="64" height="64" /></blockquote>

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