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*TTRPGs General
What Do You Think Of As "Modern TTRPG Mechanics"?
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<blockquote data-quote="pemerton" data-source="post: 9773118" data-attributes="member: 42582"><p>As per my reply to [USER=7044566]@thefutilist[/USER] not far upthread, which talks about RM, I think there are limits in that game (and similar games) to how far you can get with <em>committing yourself, as MC/GM, to the game's fiction's own internal logic and causality</em>.</p><p></p><p>I also discovered this with Classic Traveller - and discovered it the hard way, that is, during a session while trying to adjudicate an action. The PCs had left the domed city in their ATV, following their enemies to the latter's base outside the dome. Up to that point I'd been really happy and impressed by the robustness of the resolution rules, especially for a 40 year old game. But now I looked to those rules, and they gave me nothing. The assumption - not clearly spelled out in the rules, but evident in some near-contemporary scenarios - was that I would draw a map and we would then track the PCs' movement on that map. By drawing the map, and making the decision about where the enemy base is, I would thus significantly decide the prospects and likely costs of the PCs getting there. It was terrible! (Both in the moment, and a terrible mechanical framework for a sci-fi RPG that emphasises travelling from world to world.)</p><p></p><p>I can't remember now what sort of kludge I came up with. Thankfully, once the PCs were at the base and trying to sneak up and assault in in their protective suits, the rules kicked back in - the manoeuvring-in-vacc-suit rules worked terrifically, I was able to use the range-of-encounter rules to construct a rough outline of the base, and when the PCs fled in ATVs while being bombarded from orbit by the enemies' starship, I adapted the small craft evasion rules and they worked terrifically too.</p><p></p><p>I'm not going to die in a ditch over the rules that worked being conflict rather than task resolution, though I think that would be one feasible analysis. But the contrast between the gap in the on-world travel/exploration rules, and those other rules, was a real one that I felt the impact of in play. Since then we've not done any on-world exploration, and in the fiction this has been handled by the players just having their PCs travel from point A to point B on a world using their (streamlined) starship. Which is a pity, because I find the image of travelling the world in an ATV pretty compelling, but has avoided the problem.</p><p></p><p>(EDITed for typos.)</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="pemerton, post: 9773118, member: 42582"] As per my reply to [USER=7044566]@thefutilist[/USER] not far upthread, which talks about RM, I think there are limits in that game (and similar games) to how far you can get with [I]committing yourself, as MC/GM, to the game's fiction's own internal logic and causality[/I]. I also discovered this with Classic Traveller - and discovered it the hard way, that is, during a session while trying to adjudicate an action. The PCs had left the domed city in their ATV, following their enemies to the latter's base outside the dome. Up to that point I'd been really happy and impressed by the robustness of the resolution rules, especially for a 40 year old game. But now I looked to those rules, and they gave me nothing. The assumption - not clearly spelled out in the rules, but evident in some near-contemporary scenarios - was that I would draw a map and we would then track the PCs' movement on that map. By drawing the map, and making the decision about where the enemy base is, I would thus significantly decide the prospects and likely costs of the PCs getting there. It was terrible! (Both in the moment, and a terrible mechanical framework for a sci-fi RPG that emphasises travelling from world to world.) I can't remember now what sort of kludge I came up with. Thankfully, once the PCs were at the base and trying to sneak up and assault in in their protective suits, the rules kicked back in - the manoeuvring-in-vacc-suit rules worked terrifically, I was able to use the range-of-encounter rules to construct a rough outline of the base, and when the PCs fled in ATVs while being bombarded from orbit by the enemies' starship, I adapted the small craft evasion rules and they worked terrifically too. I'm not going to die in a ditch over the rules that worked being conflict rather than task resolution, though I think that would be one feasible analysis. But the contrast between the gap in the on-world travel/exploration rules, and those other rules, was a real one that I felt the impact of in play. Since then we've not done any on-world exploration, and in the fiction this has been handled by the players just having their PCs travel from point A to point B on a world using their (streamlined) starship. Which is a pity, because I find the image of travelling the world in an ATV pretty compelling, but has avoided the problem. (EDITed for typos.) [/QUOTE]
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