thread: 2009-07-15 : Abstract Actions in Rock of Tahamaat
On 2009-07-16, Vincent wrote:
Oh, here's another thing to notice about this example. As GM, I had Iana's player roll dice when she said "I climb the social ladder," because I judged it to be an action that would bring her into conflict. The game adapted to it, but really I had her roll dice prematurely. Here's how it might better go:
We join the scene in progress...
"There you are!" I say. "The circus-orgy is underway, you can ... hear it. You've eaten. Out here at the third-seating tables, the brandy is watered, the crustaceans are overcooked, and the salad herbs were arranged upon your plate with bare perfunction. You're here amongst your peers and your just-betters. What do you do?"
"I climb the social ladder."
"Okay, sure thing. How do you go about that? You talk to somebody or what?"
"Well, let's see. I leave the third-seating tables and go casually among the second-seating tables. I'm looking for somebody likely, somebody obviously connected, but maybe bored by the event-"
"Sure," I say. "A young man, handsome and very well-dressed, surrounded by people clamoring for his attention but trying not to seem desperate. He's ignoring the circus-orgy, picking over the carcass of his crustacean with his crustacean-needle. Like him?"
"Perfect," she says. "I wait for an opening and sit next to him."
"Do that, you'll be cutting in line," I say. "There's obviously a pecking order. Now and then he'll even glance at one, and they all practically swoon. You want to cut in?"
"Yeah. Screw them."
"Okay! Roll for 'I'm craven.'" Iana's player rolls a 6 and so, indeed, Iana cuts in. "You're blocking them, so now roll for 'I'm desperate.'"
...And from there resolution continues as above.
