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Messages - Simon JB

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46
AW:Dark Age / Re: Session based experience
« on: September 03, 2014, 10:53:14 AM »
Thanks for the input, both of you! I'll let you know!

47
AW:Dark Age / Re: Session based experience
« on: September 03, 2014, 09:12:41 AM »
Hm, I wonder if we should decide to do it when we end a document and move to a new one. It has a similar feel of being a milestone in the social process of play that ending a face-to-face session has, I think (obvious differences aside)...

48
AW:Dark Age / Re: Session based experience
« on: September 03, 2014, 09:09:29 AM »
Great, thanks!

49
AW:Dark Age / Session based experience
« on: September 03, 2014, 07:20:34 AM »
If you would care to say something about the switch from action-based to session-based experience, I would be very glad to hear it.

After just looking at it, I am a bit hesitant as to its qualities, but granted that might be because I almost exqlusively play ongoing via text online, which makes session breaks a bit artificial, and usually much more playing time apart than when sitting down at a table.

50
AW:Dark Age / Re: Denied right
« on: September 02, 2014, 07:08:03 PM »
Haha.

51
AW:Dark Age / Re: Reboot or keep going
« on: September 02, 2014, 09:46:56 AM »
Good to know! :)

52
AW:Dark Age / Reboot or keep going
« on: September 02, 2014, 08:37:50 AM »
Really excited about trying out the new rules.

My group has just started to get to know the characters and the situation using the previous version ("first look"), so we are now discussing whether to ditch that completely and set up play anew using the new rules, with a new situation, or to see how close to the old characters and situation we can get using the new rules and keep playing where we are.

The latter is inviting as we are both fond of the PCs we have and the playtest instructions explicitly ask for people to try alternatives to the holding-centered play. I hesitate because it would basically be us playing a hack of the new rules, and I for one want to try the actual playtest rules as they are.

The situation is a wandering Troll-Killer and a young Outlaw Heir who are travelling the lands to gather allies against the evil brother who sits on the throne. And undead trolls coming out of the deep forest to the north!

That's where my group is at the moment. Thoughts are welcome. Otherwise I'll say how it goes later.

Anyhow: FUN!

53
AW:Dark Age / Re: Initial thoughts/questions from reading the documents
« on: September 02, 2014, 08:22:03 AM »
* The Peasant Beauty's guaranteed 12 moves seem oddly powerful. Guaranteed 12 seems better than any other combat Right that applies to individual combat.

I thought it looked overpowered too, until I noticed that you only get your 12 if the other person attacks you, not if you decide to attack yourself. So it is not so much a "I can win any fight I want" move, as a "Here I am, you sure you wanna do this? Nah, didn't think so" move.

54
Uncharted Worlds / Re: Latest release: 0.83!
« on: September 01, 2014, 08:15:27 PM »
Right, good call.

55
Uncharted Worlds / Re: Latest release: 0.83!
« on: September 01, 2014, 08:17:07 AM »
Quick start rules seem like a very good idea. Especially if they are balanced against fully customized characters, so that they can be mixed in a group (I often play with some RPG newbies and some veterans).

How come you decided to take out the Artificial origin? It's so cool! :)

56
Uncharted Worlds / Re: First play session
« on: July 15, 2014, 01:54:59 PM »
Great read! Thanks!

57
Uncharted Worlds / Re: Design: Careers, Origins, Skills
« on: June 27, 2014, 05:38:12 AM »
Oh no, haha, I didn't mean for each and every roll, unconditionally! My main point was just that it should not be success or failure, specifically, that gives you xp for a thing, but rather doing the thing no matter the outcome.

What I would suggest for this here hack is to keep the milestones as they are written, but use them as keys instead of prerequisites, so that when you reach a milestone, you check it. When you have a set number of checkmarks, say five for now, you improve and get to pick a new skill. And erase all the checkmarks.

Add to this a checkbox for every basic move, because we shouldn't penalize characters who move outside of their career box.

I really think we shouldn't worry that much about characters advancing too easily. You have the potential for powerplaying in regular old AW as well, but in the five years since it came out, I have more or less never seen it become a problem. Sure, sometimes in AW someone might get two improvements in one sesh, but it evens out, since your highlighted stats change every session.

Besides, change and growth is fun! :)

Now, I'm not advocating highlights like in AW here, I think checkmarks would be better. I'm just making the point that easy growth is not necessarily a problem.

Unless of course it stimulates one-sided play too much, but both the checkmarks and the hightlights-from-other-players approaches take care of that.

58
Uncharted Worlds / Re: Design: Careers, Origins, Skills
« on: June 24, 2014, 06:15:48 AM »
Oh, you mean that the XP would be awarded only if a roll fails? That would be less good, I would say. The thing that I'm advocating at least, is to award XP for doing, for trying, completely regardless of whether the roll fails or succeeds.

59
Uncharted Worlds / Re: Social moves
« on: June 23, 2014, 06:27:58 PM »
Yes, I also think that social conflicts, not least between main characters, are completely central to this kind of game. If in doubt, look at the inspirational material for this kind of space opera/SF - Firefly, Battlestar Galactica, Star Trek, Star Wars, Stargate Atlantis, etc, etc. Always these social conflicts between the main characters (and other characters, not-so-main).

And since social conflicts work fundamentally different than shooting people or sneaking och jumping across a gap, I really think you need to put a manipulation move back in there, even if your group specifically doesn't use it that much.

Systematically expecting the players to decide the outcome of a social conflict behind the curtain looks to me like it demands a kind of "crossing the line" on the players part, which might work well enough when it comes organically, but which shouldn't be mandatory. I like my players to be able to drive their characters' agendas as hard as they can, and have the mechanics support them doing it - without sacrificing opposing players' freedom of action in an indecent way.

That is, by the way, where AW's Read a Person and Manipulate work in concert in a way that I have not seen a hack do differently without seriously sacrificing quality of play.

60
Uncharted Worlds / Re: Social moves
« on: June 23, 2014, 08:27:14 AM »
I see. The Getting involved part makes sense, but using Face Adversity for social pressure seems to risk getting either blunt or mind-controlling, since there is nothing in the move's results that involves the opposite player.

Anna's player: "Zofi, please, you have to help me get the captain out of jail!"
Zofi's player: "Forget it. I'm taking the loot and getting out of here."
GM: Okay, Anna, roll+influence for Facing Adversity to overcome the opposition.
Anna's player: Yay, 10! I overcome the opposition! Guess you're coming with me, Zofi.
Zofi's player: "..."

Getting involved makes sense, but as it only supports another move, increasing the result of the roll, we're still left with the strangeness of using Face Adversity to influence somebody.

How has this worked out in play?

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