thread: 2012-06-25 : "Conflict" "Resolution"
On 2012-06-30, Jim Henley wrote:
Vincent, there's also "resolution (3)" - dedication to a course of action, a la New Year's Resolution, a solemn resolution to go back on heroin as soon as humanly possible etc. I think that's important because it's important to me! :)
Some years ago, I realized that all of my favorite moments in RPGs were when characters decided something important. That clarifying moment of choosing mattered a lot. Turning that into the starting point of an exciting contest mattered very little. Making "the clarifying moment of choosing" available only as the outcome of such a contest would actually annoy me. (Ever read or see The Accidental Tourist? If you like that sort of thing, and I do, Macon's decision to choose Miriam or his ex-wife is the whole point. You could make that choice be a mechanical output of an "Anne Tyler RPG" via stakes-setting or conch-fighting or whatever. But that game would leave me cold.)
This is "passionate characters having their passions tested." It's even, kind of, "finding out what happens." It does seems orthogonal to conflict resolution and possibly even at odds with stakes-setting, FWIW.
This makes R go "Yeah, TSoY/SS play was all about those moments of decisions for me, anything else being padding."
OTOH, whatever the focus of a game's design, no good game takes important decisions away from the player(s).
This makes JMW go "Conch fighting!"
That infamous pacific island sport! = narration struggle mechanics?
