[TRoS] Destiny Spiritual Attribute
Ron Edwards:
Hi Frank,
The first brief game I played was at Origins 2002, with Jake as GM. The setting was essentially Venetian, and Ralph Mazza's character was a rabble-rousing man of the people, whose Destiny was To Be Hanged. As a game, it was a bit of a mess and relied heavily on Jake pretty much shoehorning people into one or another situation, but that was no big deal because we were mostly invested in figuring out the combat mechanics anyway, as well as learning more about the basic dice-based features of the Spiritual Attributes. The character did end up being hanged, but only due to several steps of simply narrated events by Jake. The story came to a climax when some canals flooded, and I think the character was swept along by the water, or maybe fell off a wall or something, and ended up being strangled by his cloak, for a symbolic rather than socially-inflicted hanging.
When I was GM for a more extended game, I think we didn't get to the point of resolving anyone's Destiny (at least one character had it), but it came into play as a source of dice fairly often because its content was relevant to the overall situation. In that sense, Destiny wasn't different from any of the others. I'll have to review the rules to be sure - it's been a while - but as I recall, I think we were assuming that some day, we'd look at one another and say, "Hey, he's fulfilled his Destiny," or play an adventure which in content was very likely to see the Destiny go one way or the other.
As far as the general acquisition of SA points goes, as I recall, in my long-term game, they accumulated steadily by 1 or 2 points across the SAs that saw only a little use in a session, and jumped up fast - sometimes to 5 - in a session or two for SAs that were directly involved in the events. So for us, they were indeed more like TSOY Keys, although not quite that fast. This might be due to my way of preparing sessions, though, which were always aimed very hard at either destroying or providing tempting opportunities for specific Spiritual Attributes.
Other things ... I used the terrain rules a fair amount, and liked them quite a bit because they are so simple compared to what one might expect from a game with such detailed damage/armor rules. I was also dealing with player-characters, and usually foes, with a lot of straightforward combat dice, so I rather liked knocking them all down with fights on treacherous footing. (My visual touchpoint for this, in play, was the long, multi-combatant sword fight on a frozen river in The Four Musketeers.)
I don't want to speak for Jake, but my guess is that he went with the concept that one does not actually evade an arrow, but rather is missed by it. Your solution concerning target values seems consistent with that and very reasonable to me.
Best, Ron
Callan S.:
Quote
The conditions for gaining SAs ware quite strict, it's not enough to just somehow address them in a scene, it usually requires some danger or sacrifice.
As I recall, no, the character just has to try - even if they fail.
But I don't have the text next to me.
It'd be lame if destiny were an exception to all the other SAs and is 'Do X to get Y' - essentially a transaction and doesn't hinge on character expression and instead hinges on a book defined exchange rate. I wouldn't think it was, but I don't have the text near me.
Ben Lehman:
Oh, so to help SAs fire and build, I think that the primary thing is to keep the players informed as the when the SAs add dice, and when they gain dice, and what actions those require. I would encourage not just playing the game without thinking about them and then seeing after the fact whether an SA applies. Rather, make character decisions (as a GM or a PC) with the PC's Spirituals in the forefront of your mind.
The combat rules of Riddle naturally provoke a certain caution. The SA rules provoke a certain degree of recklessness. You need to have them both in hand to play the game well, I think.
Ron Edwards:
This is giving me flashbacks; we used to chat up Spiritual Attributes all the time here at the Forge. Here's the relevant thread I remember best: Give me your SAs!, which also includes links to useful older threads. A search for "Destiny" in the old TROS forum will turn up more, I'm sure.
Best, Ron
Frank Tarcikowski:
Hey guys, thanks for the replies, keep it coming! I had actually prepped the scenario around some of the SAs, but we didn’t get to the point where the characters would actually “defend” or “overcome” something in pursuit of their SAs. I didn’t frame scenes very aggressively because I wanted to take my time and let events flow naturally. Probably I overdid that a little, so we had a lot of dialogue and little action.
I actually didn’t mind the slower pace at all, but I would have liked the players to gain a few SA points along the way. I guess if we continued the game, the next session would get more into the juicy parts of the conflicts and deliver more on the SA side.
- Frank
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