thread: 2009-06-09 : Adequacy, Cause and Effect
On 2009-06-09, Christopher Kubsik wrote:
(raises hand!)
In both Sorcerer and Primetime Adventures, players are rewarded with bonuses for adding fictional details (or moments of creative pleasure, which is both fuzzy and kind of more accurate).
Significantly, the fictional details don't have to fit into any kind of channel (as in the two methods you describe above.) A player in PtA can get Fan Mail for, well, anything—a combat move, a funny line of dialogue, whatever. The same is true for Bonus Dice in Sorcerer assigned by the GM.
I have found that this looseness is helpful. If the rules say, "The scene does not continue until each character describes how the moment connects one character to the next," that moment of justifying the desire to move the scene forward tends to trip up the human brain. Suddenly put on the spot to be creative in the "right way" I've seen people freeze.
Compare this to Fan Mail or Bonus Dice, where the creative act happens, and is simply recognized and rewarded. I find this method tends, over time, to engender more and more creative, fictionally rich input from players. It creates a habit of adding details at the table.
I'm curious if this might be a third method to add to list. However, if I'm understanding where you're coming from (and I might not), you're looking for more color attached to tactical moments of play. The details that Bonus Dice and Fan Mail might touch on tactical moments, but are mostly accidental when they do so. Again, it's the pleasure of a creative moment that is rewarded.
Where does this mechanic of Bonus Dice and Fan Mail fall within the methods you are discussing?
