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Tension, Threats And Progression In RPGs
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<blockquote data-quote="AbdulAlhazred" data-source="post: 7731467" data-attributes="member: 82106"><p>Quite so, and we can easily see the modern 'Indie' RPG genre (if you can call it one in some sense) as a reaction to that. Gamers saw various kinds of issues in their play and systems like BW, FATE, Cortex+ (insert long list here), have adopted techniques intended to help regulate the application of tension, setting of stakes, doling out of consequences, and structuring of dramatic play, in various ways. In our long and involved discussions and debates about 4e we certainly saw a lot of it center on exactly what was going on there. That game seemed sort of on the edge where it falls short of actual structure, but yet it has many of the tools available. I'm exploring that space in more detail in my own game hacking. </p><p></p><p>Of course, if you have a narrowly focused game, then you can get very explicit in your tool set. You mentioned Traveller, which as a very 'old school' sort of game has a fairly broad focus, the game doesn't presuppose much beyond a genre and a default milieu. It would be easy to imagine a variation on this game where you took Social Standing and broke it off from the other 5 attributes (you could do this with EDU as well if you wanted). Now you could build a game focused around family honor and position, building up your rank in society, etc. and introduce a whole new set of rules which related character actions, either mechanical or fictional in nature, to changes in this stat. Such changes would then of course reflect back on character position, potentially in both fictional and material/mechanical terms. You could probably invent other similar stats too, so maybe Merchant characters focus on a 'Wealth' stat, scientists on EDU, etc. I guess you could have something like 'notoriety' too, though perhaps SS just needs a couple dimensions, etc.</p><p></p><p>I always thought Traveller in particular was kind of begging for this sort of evolution. The milieu easily throws up a wide variety of possible plot situations, and has latent within it a whole vast social structure. Yet the materials of the game, neither rules nor settings and adventures, took much advantage of all that. There are plot hooks and such tossed out now and then to push PCs onto some adventure scenario or other, but mostly the rules focus on things like a subsystem for making money hauling cargo and passengers, and lots of equipment lists, some oddball systems for planet generation and animal life, but very little real color. Its a weird game. I always felt like Marc Miller left most of his cards on the table.</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="AbdulAlhazred, post: 7731467, member: 82106"] Quite so, and we can easily see the modern 'Indie' RPG genre (if you can call it one in some sense) as a reaction to that. Gamers saw various kinds of issues in their play and systems like BW, FATE, Cortex+ (insert long list here), have adopted techniques intended to help regulate the application of tension, setting of stakes, doling out of consequences, and structuring of dramatic play, in various ways. In our long and involved discussions and debates about 4e we certainly saw a lot of it center on exactly what was going on there. That game seemed sort of on the edge where it falls short of actual structure, but yet it has many of the tools available. I'm exploring that space in more detail in my own game hacking. Of course, if you have a narrowly focused game, then you can get very explicit in your tool set. You mentioned Traveller, which as a very 'old school' sort of game has a fairly broad focus, the game doesn't presuppose much beyond a genre and a default milieu. It would be easy to imagine a variation on this game where you took Social Standing and broke it off from the other 5 attributes (you could do this with EDU as well if you wanted). Now you could build a game focused around family honor and position, building up your rank in society, etc. and introduce a whole new set of rules which related character actions, either mechanical or fictional in nature, to changes in this stat. Such changes would then of course reflect back on character position, potentially in both fictional and material/mechanical terms. You could probably invent other similar stats too, so maybe Merchant characters focus on a 'Wealth' stat, scientists on EDU, etc. I guess you could have something like 'notoriety' too, though perhaps SS just needs a couple dimensions, etc. I always thought Traveller in particular was kind of begging for this sort of evolution. The milieu easily throws up a wide variety of possible plot situations, and has latent within it a whole vast social structure. Yet the materials of the game, neither rules nor settings and adventures, took much advantage of all that. There are plot hooks and such tossed out now and then to push PCs onto some adventure scenario or other, but mostly the rules focus on things like a subsystem for making money hauling cargo and passengers, and lots of equipment lists, some oddball systems for planet generation and animal life, but very little real color. Its a weird game. I always felt like Marc Miller left most of his cards on the table. [/QUOTE]
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