[IAWA] Failing to Resolve
Mike Holmes:
Pressure. Yep, that's accurate. I felt pressure not to narrate jumping back in. Probably more from myself than from anywhere else.
And then I too felt pressure to jump back in, and roll again.
Sometimes competing pressures are fun in play. Because you'll be rewarded either way you go. But in this case, I felt like the side I was failing would be punishing me. And I couldn't get out of that, because I had to go one way or the other, and this would happen with both options.
So I chose not to repeat the contest, because I felt I'd be punished less for playing that way. Not punished in the fun, mechanical metric of winning way involved in competition. But in the "You're a bad aesthete" way.
Not optimal. From one perspective it feels very much like a typical GN incoherence thing.
John, I should have said that we didn't do any contests "to death." We may have repeated, but at some point somebody always gave in. Also I think that in your example you would get your scroll off eventually. If the opposing player's character has been reduced to zero, I believe he cannot oppose you. And so you succeed. Now he may be a corpse at this point, if that's how the narration went. So you might only get to modify the appearance of a dead corpse... might not be satisfactory. But he might still be alive by the rules as well. If I'm understanding correctly.
Related to what John is talking about is a lack of ability to enforce agreements. That is, I can get somebody to promise to help me, but apparently they don't have to do so? They can immediately go back on what they said? So... extracting promises from an enemy is pointless really, no? You aren't getting anything from them. Often such promises are all a side has to offer in negotiation, it seems to me. If/when that's the case, I feel strongly inclined to pummel them again instead of accepting such a negotiation.
Mike
lumpley:
Well, I'll accept only so much responsibility for your own internal pressures. But remember that it's the loser insisting on being exhausted or injured who's saying "let's do that one again." ("I think I can win it this time, injured though I am.")
If that's not good enough and you REALLY don't want to repeat, try this: "okay, you're injured, I dislocated your shoulder in the struggle. Now I'm standing over you. What do you do?" Then it's them going for the ring and you trying to stop them, not you repeating your action. I suspect that there are ways you can play by the rules without coming into contradiction with your own aesthetics.
About promises: yeah. You may want to figure out some way to secure your enemy's promises, instead of just trusting them to make good.
-Vincent
lumpley:
Hey, John, Mike, I've just had a long talk with Emily about the conversations and games at Forge Midwest. I think I have a much better idea where you're hanging up. I'm going to start a new thread, give me a few minutes!
-Vincent
Mike Holmes:
Boffo! Thanks Vincent.
:-)
Mike
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