thread: 2006-03-15 : A cool old thing made new
On 2006-03-16, Vincent wrote:
Okay. So okay.
You roll your batch of elements. You create PCs and NPCs situated according thereto. You play the situation out.
Some of the PCs win, some lose, at various points along the way, according to some reward system I haven't thought of yet. Anyhow they do, and let's have it that over the course of the story wins will edge out loses, overall. They won't distribute evenly among the PCs - it might be that yours wins twice, mine wins once, and Mitch's wins once, but mine loses three times. Total wins outnumber total loses, but per PC it's wide open. Remember that we're talking reward system here, not resolution: your character may get the living crap kicked out of her, but still rack up a bunch of wins. Okay.
You also have a big sheet of paper with "we owe" written at the top. Whenever a PC wins, write her name under "we owe." Whenever a PC loses, cross the first instance of her name off, if she has any.
At the end of the story, we look at who we owe first. That PC is automatically in the next story. Also, that PC's player gets to pick one thing from the charts, or make something new up, her total free and clear choice, that's automatically in the next story too. Then you roll to fill out the situation.
The other PCs? They get to be in the next story only if their players can work 'em in, according to the newly rolled elements. If you can't work your PC in, or don't care to, you get to make up a new PC that does fit.
So let's say.
Your PC is the hermit priestess. Mine and Mitch's are two of the blasphemer-punishing magician monks. We fight! Your character gets the living crap kicked out of her but racks up a bunch of wins - and the end of the story she's dead, and Mitch and my characters are in possession of the sacred shrine. Under "we owe" it says "priestess, priestess, Mitch's monk."
So now we start the next story. We look at the first name under "we owe": the priestess. She's automatically in it! You choose to represent her thus: "A novice priestess, untried but good-hearted." (And we're like, dude, this story is totally happening in the past! Rock!) Plus you get to choose another element to be automatically in, and let's say that you choose "Events: The flight of a prince and his forbidden lover into hiding. (Wilderness)"
We roll two more: "Locations: The private garden of a noble house. (City)" and "Threats: Six enemy scouts, with spy-glasses and longbows. (Military)"
Do Mitch and I try to work our magician-monks in? Nah. Mitch knows that his guy is going to get a story of his own coming up soon (when we get to him on the "we owe" list), and I didn't like my guy that much anyway. So now Mitch decides to make up the prince's lover as his PC, and I decide to go with the captain of the enemy scouts.
Sprawling, tangled, colorful fantasy like Tanith Lee's or Jack Vance's, all interlocking but acausal stories, easily made.
What do you think?
This makes PB go "What's particularly cool..."
If you choose to change characters, you can't lose the wins assigned to previous characters, no matter how things turn out. Thus you get a story about them soon. But if you keep the same character any losses will bump you further down the line with having a story about you.
This makes VB go "yes indeed."
I also like how if your character dies, her name's still on the "we owe" list. What if she dies again then? Awesome, is what.
This makes NinJ go "Player resources as separate from character wins"
... I don't think we'll be connecting character success with player success and character death with player failure again for a long time. Maybe it'll be useful again at some point, but it's dead to me. Dead!
This makes MB go "So when do we play this and what is it called?"
This makes VB go "it has to wait its turn!"
Which is after like 7 other games. Or, y'know, maybe it gets bumped to the front...
I'm a flighty man, and I lack followthrough.
