[Final Hour of a Storied Age] Adding a "relief valve" to my dice mechanic
Dan Maruschak:
A few months ago, one of the listeners of my podcast (Designer vs. Reality, my AP podcast about playtesting roleplaying games by independent game designers) was kind enough to run a playtest of my game Final Hour of a Storied Age and send me an audio recording of the session. One of the things that sets my game apart from most others is that it has a dice mechanic determine which characters and players get focused on at any particular time rather than using round-robin or player judgment to decide this. Listening to the recording really highlighted for me how uncomfortable this element of the game makes some people. The idea that it's theoretically possible to never get spotlighted seems to loom large for people, even if that possibility is statistically unlikely. One of the playtesters seemed to make a joke or comment about this possibility every time he had to roll the dice, indicating that it was really on his mind. I got the impression that it was keeping him, and possibly the others, from fully engaging with the game.
In the latest draft of the game I've decided to add a limited mechanism to override the dice mechanic with some human intervention, basically a few times per game a player can add/subtract some small numbers to their dice in order to win the focus roll (the mechanic is on pages 31 and 32 of the 0.70 draft). My idea is that this mechanic probably won't be used very often, but I'm hoping that including it in the game can function like a psychological like a safety valve to keep people from obsessing about the unlikely theoretical possibilities that could happen with the dice mechanic. I'm hoping that this change doesn't end up overcomplicating the mechanics.
I really want to get some more external playtesters so I can get a better view of how people engage with the mechanics, especially if I can get good data like recordings of the session. While listening to people articulate their feedback and impressions is interesting and useful, I have found that actual observation of the game in play has been tremendously helpful for my design.
Callan S.:
Hi Dan,
How does it work - are they kind of rolling to see if they get a turn? And when do they get to roll - does that have a turn order?
Dan Maruschak:
The full rules doc is available at the download page if you want the complete picture, but here's a quick summary: The game proceeds in chapters, which are sort of analogous to scenes in other games (sometimes a chapter is made up of multiple short scenes instead of one big one). There are two active players per chapter, the viewpoint player (who is determined by every player rolling dice and identifying the highest roll) and the adversity player (who is determined by all the non-viewpoint players rolling dice and identifying the highest roll). The viewpoint and adversity player then play though the chapter, and there's essentially a mechanical budget that influences how long the chapter goes. After the chapter ends the process starts over again with everybody rolling to see who the viewpoint player is. In the 0.70 rules, the basics of this subsystem are explained on pages 27 and 28. The new change gives you a limited ability to tweak your viewpoint or adversity dice by a couple of points after you roll them.
Callan S.:
Dan, have you played under such a mechanic yourself? Is there something in playing underneath it, some feel that you get and that you have it like a dice off, so as to give that feel? Have you played underneath these rules?
If you are shooting for some sort of feel in that dice off (hope that's not a bad name for it) then cool, okay, your shooting for something and it's something you've felt in playing yourself. Indeed in such a case, perhaps this valve adjustment is just watering down that feeling?
But if there is no feel your aiming for, then perhaps this valve adjustment is a relatively pointless watering down? If there is no point, no feel aimed for with the dice off, why have it at all? Why preserve it, with little relief valve concessions to try and make up for something that has no point? As said above, if it gives some feel, one that you'd also get if playing underneath the games rules - even if it's a mild feeling (as long as it seems essential) then it has a point in your design (I'd say). I'm just trying to awkwardly pitch the question of whether it has a point?
Are you just not sure on what other principle to determine viewpoint and adversity player and so you went with an impartial mechanic of dicing off?
Dan Maruschak:
Callan,
No, my design decisions are not pointless. Thanks for suggesting that they are, though.
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