thread: 2005-05-10 : How Do You Design a Mechanic?
On 2005-05-13, Tobias wrote:
Neel - your example of cooperative combat descriptions mirrors what I wrote down on a piece of paper yesterday frighteningly. (And some old thoughts as well - for instance, giving orders to each other, which translates to a mechanical bonus - thus encouraging both a hierarchy in a 'party' as well as talk/cooperation during combat)).
If you could mail whatever system you have for Leftover Dudes (could find nothing on the internet other than a post on 20/20), I'd greatly appreciate it.
Some other thoughts about RPG's i'm thinking about designing (probably stupid to put this out just before the Chef thing, but if someone steals it well, I'll also be the better for it!).
The 'party' mentality - other than something to rail at, how about exploiting this concept? If roleplaying is meant to share stories with your friends and draw them closer, why not have a game in which a party also is drawn closer (through mechanics). I know Mountain Witch is hot in this regard as well.
Other things I've thought about:
-setting party opposition (potential) as equal (in d6) to the player power potential (in d6). This means an 'average encounter' will sometimes be easily met, sometimes suprisingly hard. When it's hard (opposition rolls higher than players as a group), players can support each other by giving one of their d6's away, which a fellow player can then use as 2d6. The only way people are allowed to do this - is if they describe how their character feels about the other charcter (in the current situation).
-giving a player a reward for both good and bad/weak aspects to his character by giving him some reward for both showcasing the good/bad sides. Success at the good thing means you character gets what he's attempting - a regular 'reward' for the player. A high result on the bad thing means the character does not get what he wants (but 'resolve' instead, which is like fallout)- which is also a reward to the player, considering that achievement without adversity, or light without shadow, is unexciting.
-instead of pre-scripted Screen presence like in PTA, instead I have a number of themes all *players* find interesting in a Bag (here I go again, bringing in the Bag concept). All characters have a (distributable during group chargen) differing stake in the these theme's (some may find it equally important (but differ in opinion), some may not care, etc. At the beginning of a story cycle, all these theme's are put into the bag. There should be about 5-7. Then, 2 themes are drawn - the upcoming 'scene' is about those 2 themes. The themes are not replaced until the bag is empty - ensuring that during a cycle of play, all theme's the players have put in are 'hit' (and each theme should be considered interesting by as many players as possible), and all characters have had the full mechanical impact of their stakes/attributes. You just don't know in advance how it's going to play out, but you're guaranteed some play you like.
As you can see, I try to steal from the best. :)
And my apologies for all the "()".
