[Within My Clutches] Ronnies feedback
Ron Edwards:
Hi David,
Now that I know that you do not want the self-esteem issue to be the answer to your question or to be the point of play, I have a recommendation which may be too strong for you: eliminate the group scenes entirely.
Your stated premise strikes me as awfully clunky and vague. What's wrong with the crystal-clear first paragraph of the game text? I can't imagine a better phrasing than that.
As for whether the scene and resolution and secondary-scores system works on its own, well, I don't see why not. It looks ready for playtest to me, and for what it's worth regarding one person's opinion, without the group scenes, I'm quite interested in doing so.
Best, Ron
David Berg:
Hi Ron,
Group Scenes
I really want to allow players to offer a take on their goal-seeking outside the process of actually doing it. I'd like to give everyone the opportunity to say how much their supervillain cares about the esteem of their "peers" -- a lot, a little, not at all, actively hates the concept of "peers", etc.
Here's an idea:
There's an abandoned secret lair. It belonged to a hero/villain who's now dead or gone from this time/dimension/planet (group customizes to taste). All the protagonists have access to it, and can communicate with each other. There is a past history of supervillains meeting at this place to hang out.
Either before or after their scene, any player may send out a summons to meet at the Secret Lair. Every other player then chooses whether or not to attend. Those who attend, play out the scene. Anyone at the table can call "time to wrap this up" to close the scene whenever they get bored or feel some urgency to get back to pursuing Wants. After that call is made, everyone in the scene gets to speak once.
Stating the Premise
I'm happy with the text version for handing to players. For discussing the game's design, though, I acknowledge that the text doesn't clearly answer your question about what's open vs determined by the author. My rules are designed to ensure that going full-steam after your wants will saddle your life with lots of stress and complication. So I thought perhaps I should state that explicitly.
For what it's worth, a big part of how I would play this game would be deciding how full-steam to go.
Resolution instructions
If you can tell me where the text is unclear, I will be happy to try to fix it!
Thanks,
-David
Ron Edwards:
Hi David,
What you're suggesting sounds like it's right on target for what you're saying you want to do. I'm trying to stay separated between my own inclinations and what your vision is, which is tough because we're talking about material which is very high on my bestest-favorite list.
Also, I don't claim that your text is unclear, only that I was having a lot of trouble with it, and that's just one person. It may well be that if I were sitting at the table and following the instructions as opposed to sitting by myself and imagining doing so, they'd be fine. So I haven't recommended changing the instructions for just that reason.
Best, Ron
David Berg:
Played this last night.
- Needs a way to either spice up or disincentivize "pursue the same Goal over and over without Committing".
- Needs a way to mechanically integrate the group scenes if there's gonna be more than one of them (our one was amazing).
- Procedure and instructions for writing down each other's Names, Wants and Goals needs streamlining.
Otherwise, awesome.
Ron Edwards:
That is excellent.
I think you have a flair for game design. The entries haven't placed high in the Ronnies either due to some kind of inherent bias of my own, or some aspect of your alpha presentation, or both, but I want to put it out here that your work is clearly doing something at the table that should attract our collective attention. I don't know if it will help (me) for you to write out whatever it is you're doing and saying and then use that as the instructions, but maybe a crack at that, for a playtest-type thread in Game Design, would see different groups trying out your stuff.
Best, Ron
Navigation
[0] Message Index
[#] Next page
[*] Previous page