Setting your own Stakes
Moreno R.:
It could be said that in every functional conflict resolution system that use "stakes", they are both "winning stakes" and "losing stakes".
Example: in dogs in the vineyard, or in primetime adventures, let's say that my character is in conflict with a NPC to save the life of his wife.
Now, if he win, she is saved... but if he lose, she is dead! So, it was a "winning" stake... or a "losing" stake?
I suggest that if your "stakes" are not both winning and losing ones, they are not stakes at all. From what I get of your intention, I think you are talking about a resource cost for the character to get into the conflict and to increase his chances to win. It's difficult to say, without some other information.
By the way, the "game development" subforum rules state: "Some available document is absolutely required, preferably through a link. If I don't see that, then your thread gets bumped to the Inactive File, do not pass Go, et cetera.", so if you don't have some document to link to, probably you should ask Ron to move this thread in Actual Play adding some actual play account (maybe what gave you the idea of this design?)
Jason Pitre:
1) Traditionally, what I have seen is that participants in a conflict each define what happens if they win and usually there is no cost associated with victory due to the element of chance. By contrast, this approach is resource expenditure rather then fortune based and consists of defining exactly how much each participant will suffer during the conflict. If D&D style conflicts were run in this way, each participant in a conflict could bid with hitpoints. The participant who chooses to loose the most hitpoints would win a procedural victory and rescue the princess, while the one who bids for less damage would fail on their procedural attempt.
Example 1:
Goal A: Rescue the Princess
Goal B: Repel the invaders
Bid A1: 5 HP
Bid B1: 7 HP
Bid A2: 15 HP
If side B doesn't bid higher, then side A rescues the princess at a cost of 15HP. Side B only pays 7HP but fails to repel the invaders.
2) You are quite right concerning the subforum rules. I had read them and I was in a bit of a quandary. Firstly, this stemmed from discussions of theory and was completely unrelated to actual play. Secondly, this was a relatively preliminary design idea which I was trying to start researching. I could have thrown in a few lines on my blog and linked to that as a "document", but that seemed counter to the spirit of the subforum rules. That said, I could compile my explanation into a brief document and provide a link should Ron wish. Thanks to the discussion thus far in this thread I have fleshed out my idea a bit more and it might be feasible to write it up.
dindenver:
Jason,
With Great Power has a mechanic where you can get more cards by putting one of your super powers at risk.
I haven't had a chance to play it yet, but everyone I know who has played it, loves it.
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