09-04-2018, 11:30 AM | #11 |
Join Date: Feb 2005
Location: Berkeley, CA
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Re: Lifepaths in Faaantasy!!!
Extra letter in there. Realism doesn't have much of a place in non-fantasy RPGs either.
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09-04-2018, 12:49 PM | #12 | |
Join Date: Dec 2008
Location: I'd like to know too...
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Re: Lifepaths in Faaantasy!!!
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Or so it seems to me, it's been a few years since I read it. The main point of interest was the game system: instead of dices it used Tarots cards in a rather interesting way. Sooner or later I would like to run a couple of one-offs |
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09-04-2018, 01:46 PM | #13 |
Join Date: Aug 2004
Location: Shoreline, WA (north of Seattle)
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Re: Lifepaths in Faaantasy!!!
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09-04-2018, 02:50 PM | #14 | |
Join Date: Jun 2005
Location: Lawrence, KS
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Re: Lifepaths in Faaantasy!!!
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But I think that why you're calling realism may be an exaggerated form of it. It's not unrealistic to write about people with unusual wealth or exceptional abilities, so long as such people do exist in reality; "reality" includes the whole bell curve, not just the middle ±0.5 standard deviations. What makes it realistic is that you figure out the consequences of actions in terms of actual cause and effect and not of "keep the story going" sweeping aside of small details. There was a literary movement, naturalism, that went for the center of the bell curve, telling stories about typical people; it tended to emphasize the struggles and sufferings of average people, and it allowed them very little agency, seeing them as products of society. (A volume of literary criticism I edited two or three years ago pointed out that the authors assume that THEY had agency and could exercise it by reforming society through the publication of unflinching accurate accounts of these ugly details—it didn't occur to them that they too were "products of society.") You could do that in a game by having nothing by lifepath all the way, I guess. But I don't think realism requires that rigid adherence to maximum probability. You can have a realistic rpg if the player characters have to make choices and exercise agency based on probable alternatives.
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Bill Stoddard I don't think we're in Oz any more. |
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09-04-2018, 02:55 PM | #15 |
Join Date: Jul 2007
Location: West Virginia
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Re: Lifepaths in Faaantasy!!!
I've noticed that lifepath systems tailored to the outcome work better. If you say you want to be a Wizard, that's one lifepath system. If you want to be a powerful noble, that's another. It gets you over the simple fact that more than 90% of people in medieval societies were farmers with no other options.
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Per Ardua Per Astra! Ancora Imparo |
09-04-2018, 03:22 PM | #16 | |
Join Date: Jul 2006
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Re: Lifepaths in Faaantasy!!!
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09-04-2018, 04:12 PM | #17 |
Join Date: Jul 2007
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Re: Lifepaths in Faaantasy!!!
Traveller may have been the first RPG with something like lifepaths, with the prior history system. Rather weighted towards military and paramilitary professions at first, and of course not fantasy.
I am a fan of the "Central Casting" series by Jaquays, and the fantasy version Central Casting: Heroes of Legend from 1988.
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-- Burma! |
09-04-2018, 07:15 PM | #18 |
Join Date: Mar 2008
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Re: Lifepaths in Faaantasy!!!
Rolemaster has a semi lifepath system. You get s aet of skills based on race and culture, add choices from a limited set for adolescence then add a set from a training package for a profession. The unspent points from the training package are then spent at the costs for your character class.
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09-05-2018, 02:29 PM | #19 | |
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Join Date: Sep 2004
Location: Southeast NC
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Re: Lifepaths in Faaantasy!!!
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RyanW - Actually one normal sized guy in three tiny trenchcoats. |
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09-05-2018, 03:25 PM | #20 |
Join Date: Jul 2005
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Re: Lifepaths in Faaantasy!!!
How about this:
Central Casting One : Heroes of Legend https://www.thriftbooks.com/w/centra...sbn=0922335001 I have a copy of this in a box somewhere. |
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