Really though, I think that boils down to a GM's ability to improvise and boil down the central concept of a story from the threads of what happens to be going on at any time. I'd love to imagine that a system could enhance that, but I can't really imagine one that could compensate when the GM can't.
@Metamaterialgirl You're probably right in that in the end it comes down to if the GM can tell a good story or not. But the system can make that easier (or harder).
On your turn, you draw stones from a bag and choose to put back one colour of stone. The number of stones you have left determines if you help, if you get in trouble, and if you are able to use one of the words on the list.
If you're helping, you write a sentence describing how.
@Metamaterialgirl Also just finished reading your post. If you lived around here, I'd invite you to my game. If nothing else the table split is usually around 50/50 male/female, so there isn't any "OMG a girl!" problems
@Tridus Right, I guess what I was saying is that if there's a system that manages to fill in the narrative gaps when a GM can't quite manage, that would be pretty amazing.
When anyone at the table has seven stones at the end of a round, the story concludes. If between you all, you used all the words on the list, the story ends with everyone happy with you. If not, the story ends with everyone angry at you.
@BESW Agreed that there's a lot to be gained from physical presence during games. I like the written souvenir concept a LOT, especially since I also write about games in a transcription-style way after the fact, if they were worth it.
@BESW I'll examine it. Maybe go for a concept that I could try out with Fate Accelerated for a more traditional approach but see if I could get others interested in the Do method.
Four dice total = twenty-four variations of outcome, right, possibly minimizing OR maximizing both a player's positive and negative contributions at the same time, which could be hilarious.
Not that I'm fond of chaotic evil characters in most gameplay, they tend to be a giant pain in the ass, so I'm not weeping at that.
Right. The scope of the stories could increase, the helping/hindering could have larger consequences, but everyone goes back to the temple at the end of the adventure anyway, so it wouldn't have visceral impact unless the temple itself were affected.
So does the game come with an extensive assortment of letters that are meant to be the bulk of the starting hooks? Or players might homebrew as desired and bring along some options for each game?
The actual purpose and effect of a spell may be contradicted or confused within its own description, or the effect might be very clear but not seem to make sense in the context of the rest of the game's rules and ethos.
I've run into that a lot myself, with the BF, whose patterns of creative thinking are so influenced by the D&D style that it's sometimes hard to remind him that 'this is a world WE'RE creating, we can do what we want' during setting construction discussions.
"No, we must adhere to this poorly-designed and internally inconsistent world inspired by what pop culture a half-dozen guys liked 40 years ago, whether or not it makes sense or we like it."
@BESW The best part is how so much of it is based on "This happened in a book / on TV once." I'm pretty sure if Kolchak chopped the rakshasa with an axe, it would have a whole paragraph about how axes kill it special or something.
I think we need to do something about Vow of Poverty, overpowered or underpowered. Is it an essentially acceptable question? Yes. Has it attracted some good answers? Absolutely. The problem is that every Tom, Dick, & Fistbeard Beardfist that wanders past feels the need to chip in with their two c...
@AlexP Yeah. There's no mystical primary source which it makes sense to adhere to unless you believe in the cult of personality which says that the particular combination of pop culture tidbits Gygax & Friends (airs Saturday mornings at 9!) liked is somehow better than yours.
> Do: Fate of the Flying Temple: The system design is in playtesting right now (including in a classroom or two), running through til April 15th. Once we get there we'll be able to chart the rest of its course; could be we don't need much extra work, could be we need a fair amount, depending on the playtest feedback.
> In Do: Fate of the Flying Temple, the Flying Temple has mysteriously drifted away from its home in the center of the sky. It's up to the Pilgrims to explore the worlds of Do to uncover the mystery. Along the way, they must raise a young dragon left behind after the temple's disappearance.
@Metamaterialgirl Reminds me of a friend who ran a game at a con once, aimed at non-roleplayers, to introduce them to the hobby. Their behavior was consistently saner than the one ex-player in the group, who would always attack, always check for traps, always charge in - and this was a modern-day police-detective game!
But his expectations of What Happens In A Roleplaying Game were shaped by a tragic, tragic case of Early Onset D&D.
Cost: the vampire permanently loses all physical stress boxes. Benefit: Because of my unholy toughness and reflexes, I am immune to all physical stress unless I am surprised by an attack with a wooden stake while a prayer is being recited. Exposure to sunlight deals me 2 shifts of stress each round at the start of my turn.
Jewish religious separates betrothal from actual marriage. Betrothal is signified by an exchange of "something of value" - usually a ring, but can be as little as a single coin, and allows parents to accept that token (and the subsequent betrothal) on behalf of their daughter, even before she is born.
No, betrothal isn't a good translation for what I'm trying to say.
@trogdor no but it was (and still is, while less so) less uncommon for the husband to... enjoy life outside of the marriage than it was/is for the wife. The wife was treated as a husband's property by society
Interestingly enough (and pulling this wayward thread of conversation back on topic), one of the biggest problems I have with roleplaying in historical settings (whether it's medieval Europe or biblical-era Israel, to name two recent ones for me) is the anachronism present in many of our basic assumptions.
It's not only really hard to try to see the world as a medieval person would, it's also that if we were to try to represent the world using those parameters, it would be alien enough to alienate us.
@trogdor Most wouldn't have been allowed to leave their villages, though it's the exceptions that are the interesting ones, male as well as female.
But mainly its coming from a couple of years of study into history and philosophy of science recently, that I see how players will intuitively apply modes of reasoning which weren't common in those times.
That is, of course, a different kettle of fish. Again, studying Science, Technology and Society makes me cringe sometimes at invisible assumptions in fantasy settings. "Access to magical modes of transportation and refrigeration would radically change the economic dependency on locally-grown produce and make the pseudo-feudal system untenable! Aaah!". And then I tell myself to chill down and accept the fantasy setting premise, and relax.
My SOD muscles overpower my analytical instincts. :)
As a player it's not too hard for me to suspend my disbelief, but as a DM, when I write a story... I find it hard to make it plausible without over analyzing (which lead to giving up writing more often than writing a good plausible story)
I have a player who studied history and he writes fantastic scenarios for his players, but he's a pain in the... when he's a player.
I enjoyed the conversation we had here some time ago about how the setting works if you assume all high casters are either totally self-absorbed scholars or busy fighting each other and the other major powers of the multiverse.
No magic is reserved for mundane life improvement.
@Trajan I'd love to run some Weird War 2 stuff, but I have a player who is so anal with his war knowledge that it would be impossible as he'd point out every mistake in the stats of vehicles etc
I've known those guys. If they really can't help themselves - their SOD gets too damaged - then you really have to push things so far out that their real-world knowledge is no longer applicable.
nah, I have a massive list of settings I'd love to run and WW2 is only one of them. The biggest issue is not enough time to run all the things I want to
