thread: 2011-05-18 : Ben Lehman: Rules and their Functions
On 2011-05-23, Jaywalt wrote:
Ben: I agree that it's an interesting thing to think about, no doubt. I guess my issue is more whether the way you've put it here clearly describes what I think you're getting at. And that may just be because you're getting at something that's interesting to you while I'm more interested in something else, sitting near it.
If we're cool on continuous rules occasionally being invoked as immediate rules (in Vx's example: "No, you can't do that, you're Lawful Good," say), are we also agreed that immediate rules can potentially become continuous rules as well?
Say, for example, that we're playing D&D and I've tricked out my PC with all the climbing feats I can get and have magical climbing boots and have gotten my climb skill as high as I can get. I can climb anything with no trouble, no matter the difficulty, and so after a while we've decided that we don't have to roll or invoke a procedure for that anymore. Everybody just knows that my PC can climb anything. That's immediate -> continuous, yeah?
And then, taking it further, here's an edge case: I write a custom character move for Lukas' faceless character, Trench, in my AW game. It says, "When you roll+Hard, don't actually roll. Just treat it as if you rolled a 10+." In the beginning, we're going to have to remember that and invoke it, just like in the above example where we might forget my character is a badass at climbing. But eventually, I would argue, it gets internalized and just happens, at least the rolling part. But then Lukas still has to look at the moves and pick his results, right? He'll get Hold 3 on Seize by force and have to choose 3 of the 4 options. So, unlike the previous example, internalizing part of the procudure (rolling) as a continuous rule doesn't get rid of the other aspects (choosing options) of the move, which still need to be invoked.
Second question: what about, say, highly procedural "freeform" games like Ghost Opera or Mridangam, where freeform is more an aesthetic choice, creating a certain kind of game experience, rather than a preference for continuous rules? Could that also be operating in other freeform styles without calling it something negative like a "cultural prejudice"? What about just a "cultural preference" or "cultural practice"?
