thread: 2006-03-20 : Creating Situation: a practical example
On 2006-03-22, Nobody Special wrote:
Thank you for the followup, Vincent.
It leads to one more question. The mathematical limit and the "just don't want to" limit are clear, though the latter might conflict with the feeling when you get to the end of a book and wish it would keep going forever, but escalating stakes are slippery.
No one's initial interest was "survive a snake pit", and survival is a very high stakes conflict. What stops the characters interests reverting to their previous lower stakes state once survival is successfully resolved, other than possibly artificially stating that the survival situation creates a new superceding conflict of interests? Also, how does this apply when a short term "survive a snakepit" interest overlaps a very long term "I need a body of followers" interest? Perhaps I am looking for a mechanical solution when it really comes down to players choosing what they like best? I think I am asking, what happens to lower stakes interests when a higher stakes interest arises and is resolved? Do games which end after the highest possible stakes preclude traditional semi-openended campaign play? Is a campaign merely a series of situations arising and resolving with new (but possibly related) interests shaping the next situation?
One last thing; when you say conflicts of interest arising from conflicts of interest have higher stakes, do you mean they do or they should from the standpoint of good design?
That is far more than the one more question I thought remained. All my conflicts of understanding resolve into higher stakes conflicts of understanding.
