thread: 2006-10-05 : Reward systems
On 2006-10-18, Vincent wrote:
I'm assuming that is because anything of lasting significance that comes out of a scene will be reflected by a change in situation and probably a corresponding change in player position. Am I understanding that right?
Yep. Astute.
"Probably a corresponding change in player position" is the reward system at work.
So you have these two things developing in parallel, right? The fictional situation and the players' positions. And a reward system is the rules by which changes in the former become reflected in the latter, right?
So here are three different kinds of reward systems I'd like you to imagine:
1) A reward system where, as the fictional situation develops, the rules change the players' positions counter to the forward motion of the situation.
Let's use my character Sister May for example, with a reward system that penalizes me as a player whenever Sister May loses a fight. See how that'd act as a brake on the developing situation? I'd play it cautious, skirting around the issues instead of taking them on, until I have the clear advantage. If you're playing Brother Jed, you'd do the same, and now the conflicts between us aren't about overthrowing the US, they're about who get the advantage in that conflict, which now may well never come.
2) A reward system where, as the fictional situation develops, the rules leave the players' positions unchanged with regard to the forward motion of the situation. They might or might not change the players' positions at all; if they do, they do so orthogonally to the developing situation.
Now the reward system penalizes me whenever Sister May sins, for example. Here's the list of sins and here's the associated penalties, and they're straightforward sins like "sleeps with a guy," "lies," and "steals money or goods." So I don't have her sin - so what? It's irrelevent to her situation.
3) A reward system where, as the fictional situation develops, the rules change the players' positions according to the direction of change in the situation.
Now let's say that the reward system penalizes me whenever I have Sister May give ground without a fight. Fighting and winning is good, fighting and losing is just as good, it's losing without the fight that's bad. Now the reward system is a goad to the situation, see it?
I should be getting awfully close to an answer to your question, here. See the link between reward rules and creative agenda? Narrativist play requires an escalating dynamic situation plus sustained player participation. The reward system is feedback between those two: it can reinforce one with the other, undercut one with the other, or disengage one from the other.
