thread: 2006-10-02 : Conflict resolution sans stakes
On 2006-10-05, Rev. Raven Daegmorgan wrote:
Those two mechanisms you mention in particular, Pendragon's and Vampire's, suck bad.
Wait, wait, wait...that "sucks bad"? I don't understand why that is. Let me explain why:
You take a character, you decide "This guy is a lusty cheater and feels guilty as hell about it, but he does it anyways." So you plop down "Lust" on your sheet with some value.
The question the dice resolve is: am I going to cheat on my wife? How is that any different from the dice determining randomly whether you, the greatest swordsman on three continents, successfully strikes the blow against the arch-enemy who murdered your entire family?
If I'm playing a game about a guy who sold his soul and his humanity for power and immortality, and the price is that I having a burning, nigh-uncontrollable hunger to contend with that drives me to murder and drink blood...well, shouldn't the game be dealing with the fact that at any moment the beast in me could rise up, thirsty and murderous, and I may succumb against my wishes to do so?
That's what the game is about: "I have an uncontrollable monster inside me."
Why does dealing with that suck?
After all, by playing a vampire, I am asking for that to be a problem in play. I am asking that my character not do what I necessarily want him to do and get in trouble for it because...that's human nature.
I get angry when I shouldn't, I do things I shouldn't when I know better. Why is my character any different (especially if I'm deciding what those problem areas will be)?
