01-06-2010, 08:55 AM | #511 | ||
Join Date: Dec 2006
Location: Houston
|
Re: Resolved,There is no point to statting up anything that is not a PC
Quote:
Quote:
I see now what the misunderstanding was and I believe I understand how our techniques in GMing differ. In short, my game balance issues are different from your game balance issues because we are fiddling different knobs for difficulty. By setting the 'Standards' for background and scaling encounters on situation and multiplicity of enemies as opposed to individual enemy strength, you save ALOT of work and I see the efficiency of your approach. You all generally keep NPCs similar to troop's tier/level of specialization model with Skills peaking out around 14-16 for NPCs. TO balance that, you seem to keep more 'horizontal' concepts of character advancement (multiplicity of skills, allies, contacts etc). The 'D&D type' comparison is a fair one (in the sense that as the players progress, they tend to grow 'vertically'), and that is the sort of game Im running and, although it gives me fits on balance, it allows my players to feel a sense of progression and accomplishment. Its worth noting that my players are, 13-18 years old, all come from a video game background (as all kids do these days) and all but one are males. Shooting a rope in half with a rifle from 300 yards away is fun for them. :) We play it a bit more open ended on the character side. If my players wish to dump a sizable amount of points in <weapon of choice> skill and run it to the moon, I allow that, with the known and accepted condition that specialization means your chances to perform in those areas are much more limited than a 'rounded' build. They're cool with it, and so am I. Bringing it Back to the OP however, this doesn't excuse us from:
Nymdok |
||
01-06-2010, 09:05 AM | #512 | |
Join Date: Dec 2006
Location: Houston
|
Re: Resolved,There is no point to statting up anything that is not a PC
Quote:
Just because Robin doesn't mention it doesn't mean its not a worthwhile exercise. Its a good book, but its not THE Good Book. :) Nymdok |
|
01-06-2010, 09:14 AM | #513 | ||
Join Date: Dec 2006
Location: Houston
|
Re: Resolved,There is no point to statting up anything that is not a PC
Quote:
Quote:
|
||
01-06-2010, 09:15 AM | #514 | ||
Join Date: Jan 2005
Location: Stuttgart, Germany
|
Re: Resolved,There is no point to statting up anything that is not a PC
Quote:
An NPC sheet is indistinguishable whether or not it was made ahead of time, or developed organically in play. Quote:
I would also bet money, that you yourself, if you were to relax into it, would likely be awesome running such an improv setting. Taking it back to your poetry analogy, just because you can compose in iambic pentameter doesn't mean you can't write in free verse and the beauty you may achieve in free verse may surprise even you. |
||
01-06-2010, 09:22 AM | #515 |
Join Date: Oct 2004
Location: Philippines, Makati
|
Re: Resolved,There is no point to statting up anything that is not a PC
awesome thread you guys, a lot of insight about everyone's game style.
If only there was someone who could compile a summary of what was learned in this discussion into bite sized chunks. |
01-06-2010, 09:27 AM | #516 | |
Join Date: Jun 2005
Location: Lawrence, KS
|
Re: Resolved,There is no point to statting up anything that is not a PC
Quote:
It doesn't even prevent me from doing improv; rather, as I've said, a good character sheet is a great starting point for improv. Bill Stoddard |
|
01-06-2010, 09:31 AM | #517 | |
Join Date: Mar 2006
Location: Iceland*
|
Re: Resolved,There is no point to statting up anything that is not a PC
Quote:
I admit that the possibility of anyone's brain being wired in such an alien manner escaped my notice. If this is truly how you think, I can certainly understand why you'd prefer to write down NPCs using another descriptive language than English*. All the same, I think that more people are wired to think in narrative terms than in binary code. We are, more than anything else, a storytelling species. The thing that makes us human is our ability to turn events that may be only loosely connected into a coherent narrative. So I don't think it's inappropriate to advise new GMs on the basis that they are like most people in this regard and not among the minority, hitherto unconsidered by yours truly, which is simply wired differently. *Though my natural inquisitiveness all but forces me to inquire whether you might in fact achieve better results by simply using whatever computer language you are most fluent with. It's worth trying, at least.
__________________
Za uspiekh nashevo beznadiozhnovo diela! |
|
01-06-2010, 09:42 AM | #518 | |
Join Date: Jan 2005
Location: Stuttgart, Germany
|
Re: Resolved,There is no point to statting up anything that is not a PC
Quote:
On the other hand, some of us prefer doing free verse, with a little haiku thrown in, and we rarely go through what we consider the extra work of doing iambic pentameter. |
|
01-06-2010, 09:44 AM | #519 | |
Join Date: Jun 2005
Location: Lawrence, KS
|
Re: Resolved,There is no point to statting up anything that is not a PC
Quote:
Let me tell you about my best moment ever in GMing. I was running a campaign set in an alternate DC universe where the published heroes had started their careers in the years when they were first published, and had aged realistically since then. I borrowed the White Wolf supplement Midnight Circus for a scenario (adapting from Storyteller to DC Heroes proved surprisingly straightforward). And I had most of the Justice Society trapped in this mystical, sinister circus, until Batman and Green Lantern went in in civvies to rescue their amnesic teammates. Well, the supplement described how the circus was disguised by a "veil of delirium." So I decided that our DC universe included the Endless, and this was the Veil of Delirium, which she had lost eons ago. And one of the mystical PCs was able to perceive its presence, and to use his dream-related powers to call on Dream to ask him about it. Dream suggested that he needed to talk to his cousin Delirium (having recognized it), and called on her, and the PC escorted her back to the waking world . . . where she said, "You found it! I didn't even remember I lost it!" She reached out, and put it on, and I described how her eyes became the same color, and how they felt a wave of change as Delight came back to the cosmos . . . and the players all fell totally silent for a full minute. I could very well spend the rest of my life GMing, and never achieve anything that intense. Now, this isn't really relevant to the primary topic, because I didn't achieve it by having a character sheet for Delirium. A character sheet would have been totally inappropriate, if not impossible: Delirium is Endless, and Delight is Endless. But it's relevant to the question of where the high points of gaming are, and of what gaming is about. Gaming is an art form, and the function of art is to create emotion. Combat and dice rolling create uncertainty, fear, and excitement, which are sources of emotional intensity, and thus useful; but other ways of creating emotional intensity are just as much the point. If your gaming creates only one form of emotional intensity it's not exploring the full possibilities of the medium; if it doesn't create emotional intensity there's no point to it. Bill Stoddard |
|
01-06-2010, 09:45 AM | #520 | |
Join Date: Jun 2005
Location: Lawrence, KS
|
Re: Resolved,There is no point to statting up anything that is not a PC
Quote:
Bill Stoddard |
|
Tags |
crunchy, faq, no-wing, wing |
Thread Tools | |
Display Modes | |
|
|