thread: 2012-06-11 : Ask a Frequent Question
On 2012-06-18, Ben Lehman wrote:
Christoph:
Bliss Stage works by (outside of missions) not having any resolution rules 'tall. It doesn't need them!
(Hot Guys Making Out has one resolution rule, but it's very small. Blink and you'll miss it!)
Generally speaking, I think "mechanics are the thing we use to resolve conflicts" is a inherited habit from past design, not a fundamental design principle. These days, when I write a mechanical interaction at a sub-scene level, it's a conflict _creation_ mechanic or a conflict _escalation_ mechanic, rather than a _resolution_ mechanic. I don't want resolving conflicts to be easy or mechanized! But I do want introducing and escalating them to be easy.
When you think about conflict in that sense, conflict vs. task resolution is no longer an issue. i.e. if in Bliss Stage I say "I hit you in the face" whether I hit or you block is not important. What's important is _why I hit you_ and _how we feel about it_. So that's what's addressed in the game.
yrs—
—Ben
P.S. I don't mean to diss systems which resolve with their resolution. (or systems like Apocalypse World which are conflict escalation hiding behind task resolution). If that's your bag, that's cool. This is just my jam right now.
