thread: 2005-05-03 : Creating Theme
On 2005-05-04, Ben Lehman wrote:
I guess what I really want is a mechanism that allows all the players to have input about what the issue will be, and also foster communication between the players and gamemaster about what the issue is. Do you think either or both of these games do that?
All of the games I mentioned do that very very well, which is why I picked them. Let me describe the mechanics simply.
Sorcerer's Kicker mechanic works like this: The player writes a "Kicker," which is a description of the event that boots his character into action at the start of play. It is literally the thing that happens just before play starts, that moves him into action and makes him a character.
Example Kickers:
"I woke up this morning and my dresser was entirely filled with human hands."
"I got a date with the prettiest girl in school"
"The priest-cult of my city-state will execute me at dawn for challenging their power."
Riddle of Steel's Spiritual Attribute mechanic works like this: You have five (5!) "spiritual attributes" which define things that are important to the character's storyline. Mostly these are things that the character cares about, but they can also be things like destiny and conscience. These are the source of your bonus dice (and very significant bonus dice—in a 4-10 scale they can give up to +25!) and your experience points, so SAs are a way of telling the GM "Hey, I will jump at this thing if you give it to me." Also—you can change them on the fly, during play, at no penalty.
Example Spiritual Attributes
Faith: Christianity
Faith: Class Superiority
Drive: Be the best swordsman
Drive: Drive the Moors out of Spain
Passion: Love of Buttercup
Passion: Hatred of the Six-Fingered Man
Destiny: Rule as King
Destiny: Die hungry, friendless, and alone
Destiny: Drive the family to ruin
That sort of thing.
Primetime Adventures... man, someone else take this one. The mechanic is so tightly wound up with everything else in the game it is hard to explain without just rewriting the rulebook. You have an Issue, which must resolve in the course of 5 or 9 sessions, and a Story Arc, which shows exactly how important you and your Issue are to any session in particular. It is genius! Genius!
Do you see how these things work?
yrs—
—Ben
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