thread: 2010-02-16 : Things on Character Sheets (2)
On 2010-02-17, Sydney Freedberg wrote:
On struggling to link the fiction and the mechanics at a level beyond "narrate this appropriately" ("one of the ongoing and outstanding crises in rpg design," in Vincent's words):
For me at least, the problem is the appeal of universal and unified mechanics. Universal is not the same as unified, mind, but pursuing either, especially in combination, seems to push towards designs where, say, "I can hit you with a rock real good +2d6," "I am a member of the Cabot family +2d6," and "I have a cool car +2d6" all have the same mechanics: you can invoke them in the same range of situations, you determine success or failure in the same way, and success or failure has the same range of consequences. HeroQuest is especially fond of this. Dogs in the Vinyard actually does a great deal to make these things different, and different in a way that strikes to the moral heart of the game, but even Dogs leaves you room to trip yourself up.
