Barf Forth Apocalyptica

the swamp provides => Knife & Candle => Topic started by: RichD on July 16, 2010, 10:10:23 AM

Title: Life is cheap and death inconvenient
Post by: RichD on July 16, 2010, 10:10:23 AM
Now one of the cool bits of Echo Bazaar is that death is temporary and a little time dealing with Death and the beach crowd on the River Styx gets you back in the game.

Is that something that would be workable in the hack or would functional immortality just be too much?
Title: Re: Life is cheap and death inconvenient
Post by: Jeff Russell on July 16, 2010, 01:57:18 PM
I don't really see this as being a problem at all, you just end up telling stories where fear of death isn't a motivating factor in how the stories turn out. I think its place would be taken by other dire consequences (losing your soul, perhaps? horrible mutilation? I dunno), and that the focus of the stories created would probably be more on what difficult achievements you get, and perhaps most importantly, on your achievements *relative to others*.

Old age is still an issue, but that's probably outside the scale of most games.

Hmm, I just had a thought I didn't start this reply with. If violence does not deliver the finality of results it normally does, it kind of puts it more on par with other problem solving approaches. For one thing, you can't finish an opponent by killing him, so you might as well persuade him or evade him or whatever. On the other hand, since he'll come back from it, it's also less of a big deal, so stabbing that guy to show that you didn't appreciate his review of your play might not be regarded as an overreaction.

I think all of this would make things interesting, if perhaps a little more 'light hearted' (in a dark way) than regular AW where death is a very real and constant threat.
Title: Re: Life is cheap and death inconvenient
Post by: DWeird on July 16, 2010, 02:36:53 PM
Well, you *could* always chop your opponent into teeny weeny bits, but that would be terribly impolite, now wouldn't it?
Title: Re: Life is cheap and death inconvenient
Post by: Ariel on July 20, 2010, 02:59:33 AM
I don't think that you'd have a harm meter in K&C. You'd have Menace Qualities instead with threshold events.