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Chris Rice · 07-08-2018, 03:09 AM

Ok, Rick asked for some more information on my views, so here goes:

If we look at Sword and Sorcery fiction (the quoted example was of Fafhrd and the Grey Mouser), but it could easily have been Conan or Elric; the heroes are often faced with life and death challenges which they nearly always somehow manage to overcome by the skin of their teeth. For us to believe that the heroes are in real danger, the challenge they face has to have a high chance of them failing to overcome it. The heroes are of course skilled individuals in their own worlds, but their escapes from tight spots often go beyond mere skill; they are rescued by a powerful Magician, spared by the lascivious Evil Queen, find a hidden Scroll etc. How does this happen? Well, obviously it suits the authors purpose and that of the story, but how do we make our games reflect this?

Many modern RPG designs such as FATE, Barbarians of Lemuria etc have accepted that some sort of means must exist beyond skills/Talents/attributes, and include some sort of Luck/Hero/Karma mechanism which allows the player to overcome bad luck or otherwise influence the story direction in some way. If we allow this survivability to be purely by skill/talents, then logically, the characters must never have faced enough of a challenge in the first place.

Now, Melee/Wizard are renowned as tough games with high casualty rates, which is fine for one-off games, but those of us wanting to run extended campaigns need something else. Of course, the GM can fudge things to keep the characters alive, as I've often done, but wouldn't it be better if the players could fudge things themselves?

Now, sorry for being a bit long winded here, but I'll finish by summarising with two points:

1. I did not say we shouldn't have advanced combat Talents. What I said was I didn't think the solution was to have "lots of Advanced combat Talents." In other words, the problem (if it's felt to be a problem) won't be solved entirely in this way.

2. Having "Karma" points or whatever you want to call them, allows us to more closely follow the kind of things that happen in the stories, enhances player choice and increases character survivability without attribute bloat or massively expanding the Talent system.

07-08-2018, 03:09 AM	#17
Chris Rice Join Date: Dec 2017 Location: London Uk, but originally from Scotland	Re: New Skills Ok, Rick asked for some more information on my views, so here goes: If we look at Sword and Sorcery fiction (the quoted example was of Fafhrd and the Grey Mouser), but it could easily have been Conan or Elric; the heroes are often faced with life and death challenges which they nearly always somehow manage to overcome by the skin of their teeth. For us to believe that the heroes are in real danger, the challenge they face has to have a high chance of them failing to overcome it. The heroes are of course skilled individuals in their own worlds, but their escapes from tight spots often go beyond mere skill; they are rescued by a powerful Magician, spared by the lascivious Evil Queen, find a hidden Scroll etc. How does this happen? Well, obviously it suits the authors purpose and that of the story, but how do we make our games reflect this? Many modern RPG designs such as FATE, Barbarians of Lemuria etc have accepted that some sort of means must exist beyond skills/Talents/attributes, and include some sort of Luck/Hero/Karma mechanism which allows the player to overcome bad luck or otherwise influence the story direction in some way. If we allow this survivability to be purely by skill/talents, then logically, the characters must never have faced enough of a challenge in the first place. Now, Melee/Wizard are renowned as tough games with high casualty rates, which is fine for one-off games, but those of us wanting to run extended campaigns need something else. Of course, the GM can fudge things to keep the characters alive, as I've often done, but wouldn't it be better if the players could fudge things themselves? Now, sorry for being a bit long winded here, but I'll finish by summarising with two points: 1. I did not say we shouldn't have advanced combat Talents. What I said was I didn't think the solution was to have "lots of Advanced combat Talents." In other words, the problem (if it's felt to be a problem) won't be solved entirely in this way. 2. Having "Karma" points or whatever you want to call them, allows us to more closely follow the kind of things that happen in the stories, enhances player choice and increases character survivability without attribute bloat or massively expanding the Talent system.