thread: 2010-03-01 : Reliable vs Unreliable Currency
On 2010-03-09, Paul T. wrote:
Ryan,
We're on the same page there, totally. Having "Advantage of numbers" as a particular strength in IaWA would, I would imagine, pretty reliably give you game play where characters try to amass groups of followers instead of acting on their own. Whereas, as written, not having any advantage to gain by doing otherwise, characters are more likely to act as individuals, and pursue their passions without "leverage". I can imagine that would kind of get old after a while.
However, I do see two potentially interesting applications of what you're suggesting:
1. Chapter-specific particular strengths that apply "when it makes sense", as you suggest—right-pointing arrows in the fiction.
So, you might say, "This is the chapter where having a group to back you up mattered... it's a d8 particular strength tonight." You could use that to give different chapters a different feel or focus.
(Heck, since this is IaWA, I could see drawing those from a deck at the beginning of every session!)
As I understand Vincent's terms, that would be the introduction of a form of unreliable currency to IaWA, in contrast to:
2. Add a procedure to IaWA where a player can follow some steps to create a temporary particular strength.
In this case, you might, say, cross an instance of your character's name off the Owe List, or maybe spend one Foo point, or make some kind of roll to establish something in the fiction as a particular strength.
For instance, I win a roll against the NPC General, and instead of hurting his dice, I create a new particular strength: "The General's cavalry", which is now on my side, and I can take it forward to use as a bonus in a future action sequence.
That would be reliable currency, if I'm understanding Vincent's distinction correctly.
