10-13-2018, 03:08 PM | #51 | |
Forum Pervert
(If you have to ask . . .) Join Date: Feb 2005
Location: Somewhere high up.
|
Re: Killing PCs
Quote:
But the GM should always have a story they're telling as well. So should each of the players. And the group comes together to tell the story. And we work together to make the story interesting. In Infinite Weirdos Part Deux, the story I'm telling, as the GM, is the coming of the next Dark Age. Whether this is due to the return of an ancient, dead, evil, or the coming of the Angel of Death, is up to the party. Is there a way that the party can prevent both outcomes? Probably not. I don't have one. But, that's not to say that the party doesn't outwit and surprise me by coming up with an awesome plan that I couldn't imagine. #6 of John Wick's 10 commandments is: "change, adapt, modify, edit, remove and erase any pre-conceived plans if your players come up with a better explanation for “what is happening.”" If they outsmart me and come up with a solution that allows them to defeat the ancient dead and prevent the Angel of Death . . . then power to them. I can't figure out how they would do this, but it's a game. And I'm willing to let them try. And, importantly, I won't stop them. But, Saeko's player knows he is going to want to change characters (because she was just an easy character he understood to learn how to play) and is a big fan of her sacrificing herself to save her new friends. That's a good story and one that should be told. So, when he's ready, we'll discuss how he wants her to go out, and set it up. He'll know, so he'll know what to do, and these things will go. The party will react, and the game will continue. I won't be telling him what happens to his character, he'll be doing those things with her. We're collaborating to tell the final part of her story. He wants her to end a certain way, and I'll help him pull that off. The other players and GM are your audience. Entertain them. They'll help. They want to have fun. That's the point. |
|
10-13-2018, 03:22 PM | #52 | ||||
Forum Pervert
(If you have to ask . . .) Join Date: Feb 2005
Location: Somewhere high up.
|
Re: Killing PCs
Quote:
Quote:
Quote:
Quote:
But, just having the notes that he's a King of Hell should tell you everything you would need to know. Any relevant skills or advantages he might need, he would have at a high level. The details are irrelevant for him. Giving him a Law Skill and requiring him to roll against it means he could fail or critically fail the roll, and that's not something a plot device can do. The note that he "always wins cases" is much more relevant than any level of Law (whatever) skill. And it tells you that no matter the skill of the opposing lawyer, they will lose. I'm not telling you not to fully stat our your NPCs and Plot Devices, just that it isn't necessary. Telling me that it is a necessity is incorrect. It may be a necessity for you. But that's just you. |
||||
10-13-2018, 03:33 PM | #53 | |||
Join Date: Mar 2014
|
Re: Killing PCs
Quote:
Quote:
Quote:
No, I haven't said that it is necessary. Just that it is better to have good stats than not having any stats. |
|||
10-13-2018, 03:36 PM | #54 | |
Join Date: Dec 2009
Location: Saint Paul, MN
|
Re: Killing PCs
Quote:
I have only done this a few times on the GM side of things, but it was always a lot of fun to work with the player to figure out the appropriate conflict for their demise. In the most recent one that I can recall (~15 years ago?), we left the details of the actual death to the game, but the player and I knew it was going to happen in a particular encounter. Then it was up to the dice and some improv. The stakes were high. The PC took suitable risks and made sure to burn any obvious get-out-of-jail-free cards (like Luck, FP for spells, etc.) The adversaries amped things up. The rest of the players didn't know that anything was planned, so they were simply having a blast trying to end up not dead. The session stood out for my old group as one of the Best Ever. |
|
10-13-2018, 03:58 PM | #55 |
Join Date: Feb 2005
Location: Berkeley, CA
|
Re: Killing PCs
I have nothing against collaborative storytelling, but RPGs are poor instruments for doing that, because dice have no sense of story. You're better off with something diceless or mostly systemless if your actual goal is a story, rather than a game.
|
10-14-2018, 12:09 AM | #56 | |
Join Date: Oct 2005
Location: Ronneby, Sweden
|
Re: Killing PCs
Quote:
Having stats for everything may make some people feel better about their worldbuilding (I can certainly see the appeal of everything being strictly and consistently defined in detail, but time it limited), but that doesn't make it unqualifiedly better for everyone. |
|
10-14-2018, 12:19 AM | #57 | |
Join Date: Mar 2014
|
Re: Killing PCs
Quote:
Better in general, not necessarily for everyone in every situation. It is certainly possible to think of edge cases where stats doesn't add any value, but in those situations you could just ignore them. Last edited by Andreas; 10-14-2018 at 12:23 AM. |
|
10-14-2018, 12:27 AM | #58 | |
Banned
Join Date: Jul 2006
Location: 100 hurricane swamp
|
Re: Killing PCs
Quote:
* Nor mine. I run pretty much the same way Mark does. |
|
10-14-2018, 12:34 AM | #59 | |
Join Date: Oct 2005
Location: Ronneby, Sweden
|
Re: Killing PCs
Quote:
--- Another problem that I see with detailed stats for big guys (like a Duke of Hell) is that it's easy, as a lowly human, to forget something. And if you add stats on the fly anyway, what was the point of making detailed stats to begin with? For reference I would use a mix of stats and notes for most things, with mostly stats for lower level big things (e.g. Marvel's Thor) going up to just notes for really big things (e.g. the Abrahamic God). |
|
10-14-2018, 12:42 AM | #60 |
Join Date: Mar 2014
|
Re: Killing PCs
Nor do I. From the descriptions I have gotten this far, there does seem to be some value to be had from stats. This is of course just speculation though since Mark hasn't told me enough about that campaign.
|
Thread Tools | |
Display Modes | |
|
|