thread: 2010-06-14 : A Bit of Hardcore
On 2010-06-19, Rafael wrote:
Jesse: The reason for the consistency in tone is because usually the only thing the system is really "deciding" is the resolution of points of tension[....]
I think I get it, but I'm going to have to try it out to be sure.
I never use mooks. Why? Because mooks aren't about real tension. They're about exposition. They exist SOLELY for the character to "show off" what they're capable of. Since there exists no real tension there's nothing to resolve. Since there's nothing to resolve there's no rolling of dice at all.
I don't think that it restricting die rolls to situations of "real tension" is the One True Way (traditional RPG rules, I think, are based on the assumption that what the players want is to feel like cool pulp heroes, which means focusing on "showing off", which is more satisfying if modelled by the rules; just saying "I kill all the mooks" doesn't feel like an accomplishment, whereas if the rules tell you that, after much struggle, you killed all the mooks, it does), but it's certainly a way that makes sense to me and that I'd like to try (see comment #37).
I think the tools we've been talking about here increase in "superiority" as the content of play becomes more and more emotionally unsafe.
This is an excellent exposition of Vincent's "your mom's dead" / "psychological prop" point.
Most of the time, I think my group avoids this through implicit consensus on either the narrative logic or player psychology. In your serial killer example, given highly detailed characters, there is likely to be a "natural victim"—either because one of the characters has a ten-year old daughter and the others no correspondingly innocent loved ones, or because one character has particularly antagonized the killer, or because one *player* obviously enjoys brutal twists of fate, where they might spoil the enjoyment of another. Randomness in that context would feel arbitrary and false.
However, I see that what you say could work and be valuable, and it's also something I'd like to try.
