decoupling Reward Systems from broad-scale Story Arcs
Callan S.:
Quote from: David Berg on October 18, 2011, 06:40:53 PM
A document that says, "Players, here's what you need to know up front about what the GM will be doing," is but one component. Rules that make it easy for the GM to create those parameters and for the players to take meaningful action within them would also be required.
From what I read, you don't get to do meaningful action, David? You just get to play as mildly ad libbing actors? Have you played in one of these games? You might be attributing more to them than is actually there?
contracycle:
Theatrix?
There is an RPG net review here that discusses the system.
http://www.rpg.net/news+reviews/reviews/rev_6.html
David Berg:
Thanks, Gareth. I heard a lot of interesting things about this game a while ago, then forgot the name. I'll think on that review and see if I can come up with anything useful to say here.
Paul T:
Dave,
How does Trail of Chthulhu fit or not fit these criteria? I'm asking because I've never played, but many elements of the design sound like they're headed in this direction.
Also, some jeepform games.
Interesting discussion, in any case.
Filip Luszczyk:
David,
I believe Todd's account, decoupled from the accounts of "his" players, is largely unreliable. The fact that it exclusively refers to convention environment gaming doesn't help. We're talking about a heavily time-constrained activity with people he knows barely, if at all, and no real space for involved communication. Knowing little to nothing about Todd himself, there's also no reason to trust his ability to accurately judge people's reactions.
But perhaps I'm posting this only because reading the account makes the described activity feel repulsive to me. With rules like that outlined up front, I believe I would just walk away from the table. Otherwise, based on my past experiences with activities of this sort, I would likely feel a strong urge to totally, totally, oh so totally put my unique stamp on all that - by totally ruining it, just trying to see in how many ways the guy's assumptions could be undermined within established limits. Also, should other players actually have fun during the activity, I believe I would notice at least some of them enjoying GM's charisma more than the actual process itself.
Incidentally, I consistently feel in a similar way reading Fate stuff or even people posting about Fate.
Note that I've been in games largely concerned with moment to moment genre aesthetics (Exalted or Bliss Stage come to mind). Works fine for me, as long as there's some actual gameplay behind it. The activity described in Todd's account appears artificial and pointless to me, this whole minor aesthetic input all things but meaningful.
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