SYNERGY Role Playing Game Version 1.5
Chris_Chinn:
Hi John,
The rules are very clear and it seems like a really neat game! Two games I would suggest looking at for comparison would be Universalis, as well as 1001 Nights, as games that do the "shifting GM" mechanic, but in different ways.
Some things of note, looking over the rules:
1. Initial trait scores are very low - maximum 6, and the Average Difficulty is 2D6 - which is going to give an average of 7. And if you have any Traits at 1, you can't possibly succeed. Is this correct? It seems like players will have to be angling for very easy difficulties if they want any chance to succeed for a long time.
2. Cards basically are used to; a) take Story Manager role, b) fend off injury, c) dispute a difficulty rating. Any card can be used for fending off injuries, so it looks like players will just dump low cards into healing injuries. Is it mostly a random pacing mechanic whether a player spends the session being more active from a Story Manager side or on the character side?
3. I really like the crossing off Traits for creation, but I'd like to see those Traits come back as part of play later- maybe the first new Traits a character takes are based from the list?
Chris
John Michael Crovis:
Hello Chris,
Thanks for your input!
Quote from: Chris_Chinn on July 03, 2011, 08:18:33 AM
1. Initial trait scores are very low - maximum 6, and the Average Difficulty is 2D6 - which is going to give an average of 7. And if you have any Traits at 1, you can't possibly succeed. Is this correct? It seems like players will have to be angling for very easy difficulties if they want any chance to succeed for a long time.
I'm not so sure that having low beginning scores are a bad thing... After all, they are beginner players. However, you are right about the traits starting out at 1. I may have to make some adjustments to this for the next version of the game. Good catch.
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2. Cards basically are used to; a) take Story Manager role, b) fend off injury, c) dispute a difficulty rating. Any card can be used for fending off injuries, so it looks like players will just dump low cards into healing injuries. Is it mostly a random pacing mechanic whether a player spends the session being more active from a Story Manager side or on the character side?
Cards are also used for d) ending a scene, e) preventing a failure, and f) experience points. Also, remember that whenever the Story Manager changes, everyone heals one injury - this is an added incentive to change Story Manager. However, you are correct; if everybody is happy with the story manager, no one else wants to be story manager, and no one gets injured during the course of game play, then the person who begins the game as story manager will probably remain story manager for the entire session.
Cards are the mechanic through which players can affect the flow of the game. After the Story Manager had been chosen, each player will have 7 cards. The players would need only 15 cards to advance, which means each player has an average of 2 cards per game session to use, if they want to advance their character in 3 sessions. If the player doesn't mind waiting more than 3 session, the player can use more cards. Are the cards you use a sure thing? No, it isn't, nor should it be. Because the card mechanic represents a possible outcome, rather than a definite outcome, players will be less likely to abuse this mechanic, and more likely to compromise. Does that make sense?
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3. I really like the crossing off Traits for creation, but I'd like to see those Traits come back as part of play later- maybe the first new Traits a character takes are based from the list?
That's an interesting idea for another game perhaps, but the purpose behind this mechanic in SYNERGY is as a deterrent from abuse. It's not much of a deterrent if the Traits that were crossed off come back a few sessions later...
John Michael Crovis:
Quote from: John Michael Crovis on July 03, 2011, 12:14:52 PM
I'm not so sure that having low beginning scores are a bad thing... After all, they are beginner players. However, you are right about the traits starting out at 1. I may have to make some adjustments to this for the next version of the game. Good catch.
Okay - I have had a change of heart. The beginning scores will definitely be different in the next version of the game.
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