03-05-2017, 06:45 PM | #51 | |
Join Date: Oct 2006
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Re: Storium - In Nomine
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I would also suggest writing up some Discords as weakness cards and suggesting to storytellers that players who violate their dissonance restrictions too often be required to take a discord weakness. |
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03-05-2017, 06:52 PM | #52 |
Join Date: Oct 2006
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Re: Storium - In Nomine
For the record, here is a quote from an email I got from a Storium representative explaining the situation.
"We do not have a word limit for our worlds, but as mentioned previously we did specify for authors the minimum amount of content that we would accept. Based on my emails with the SJG folks it sounds like there was a misunderstanding that led them to interpret those minimums as limits, and hence they didn't submit as much content as they might have otherwise. Looks like the issue was a combination of contract language and communication issues, so we're both responsible. The good news is that they apparently have more content and are willing to send it our way. When I know more details I will share them with you via email (if you are interested) and will also post them on the Storium forums." So it would seem their is no word limit of any kind, and you mistook minimum for maximum and provided the absolute bear minimum one could provide for Storium. Is that accurate? |
03-05-2017, 07:46 PM | #53 |
Join Date: Nov 2008
Location: Yukon, OK
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Re: Storium - In Nomine
Well this is good news.
It bodes well that the Storium people are willing to work with SJG and that some material was already available but cut for a misunderstood word limit. it is nice wehn companies can keep talking and working with each other and neither seems focused on blaming the other for everything.
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My GURPS publications GURPS Powers: Totem and Nature Spirits; GURPS Template Toolkit 4: Spirits; Pyramid articles. Buying them lets us know you want more! My GURPS fan contribution and blog: REFPLace GURPS Landing Page My List of GURPS You Tube videos (plus a few other useful items) My GURPS Wiki entries |
03-06-2017, 03:35 PM | #54 | |
In Nomine Line Editor
Join Date: Aug 2004
Location: Frozen Wastelands of NH
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Re: Storium - In Nomine
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The current guidelines are, obviously, much more clear about the matter -- but by the time those were up, the material was out of the author's hands and mine, so of course we weren't consulting them.
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--Beth Shamelessly adding Superiors: Lilith, GURPS Sparrials, and her fiction page to her .sig (the latter is not precisely gaming related) |
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03-06-2017, 03:52 PM | #55 |
In Nomine Line Editor
Join Date: Aug 2004
Location: Frozen Wastelands of NH
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Re: Storium - In Nomine
Storium's been being wonderful here, and it's a pleasure to talk to Stephen. Say nice things about them! O:>
__________________
--Beth Shamelessly adding Superiors: Lilith, GURPS Sparrials, and her fiction page to her .sig (the latter is not precisely gaming related) |
03-06-2017, 05:30 PM | #56 | |
Join Date: Aug 2004
Location: Maryland, USA
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Re: Storium - In Nomine
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There's also the matter of the player atmosphere. Storium's general attitude tends to be "trust the players" - which means trusting them not to abuse the abilities the text gives them but which aren't reflected in the card mechanics. This is at odds with the more adversarial approach between players and GMs that many tabletop games employ, and it can be difficult to get used to if you're coming from that milieu. That said, I'm happy to take your suggestions under consideration and I'll do what I can to balance the competing sensibilities.
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"Proud and insolent youth," said Hook, "prepare to meet thy doom." "Dark and sinister man," said Peter, "have at thee." - Peter Pan |
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03-06-2017, 05:51 PM | #57 | |
Join Date: Oct 2006
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Re: Storium - In Nomine
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03-06-2017, 09:45 PM | #58 |
Join Date: Aug 2004
Location: Maryland, USA
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Re: Storium - In Nomine
The themes of In Nomine are readily adaptable; anyone who's written or read fanfiction based on the game has experienced those themes adapted to a framework far less structured even than Storium's! The game mechanics are another matter - but if we wanted all the game mechanics of In Nomine as written, we'd just play tabletop In Nomine.
Adapting a game setting to a new ruleset necessarily requires adopting that new ruleset. Much like GURPS In Nomine didn't break or alter the way GURPS works in order to fit In Nomine in, Storium In Nomine can't break or alter the way Storium works. I'm going to do my best to get more information in - we're still discussing the details - but my first responsibility is to fit the setting and themes of In Nomine into Storium, not to rework Storium to fit In Nomine's game mechanics. Again, I sympathize with your frustration, but if you're tying In Nomine's themes that closely to its mechanics and expecting an In Nomine adaptation to change the way Storium games are played, I'm afraid there's not much I or anyone else can do to resolve that. As an aside, you may be interested to know that I've been playing In Nomine since shortly after its release in 1997, was assistant line editor and Online Roleplaying Coordinator for many years, and have previously written for the game. Whatever shortcomings I may have as an author, I assure you that failure to love or understand the game is not one of them.
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"Proud and insolent youth," said Hook, "prepare to meet thy doom." "Dark and sinister man," said Peter, "have at thee." - Peter Pan |
03-07-2017, 07:44 PM | #59 | |
Join Date: Oct 2006
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Re: Storium - In Nomine
Quote:
When an angel breaks their dissonance restrictions, they risk accumulating dissonance, which risks leading to discord, which risks falling. However, none of that is the GMs decision. It's simulated by dice. But unlike in other games, the dice don't simulate random chance. They simulate God. You see the same thing in the d666 roll, and countless other mechanics. In many RPGs, we say the GM is God, but not in In Nomine. In In Nomine, God is explicitly part of the game, but is simulated by randomness, because his/her will is totally unknowable and ineffable to the players. This is what, to me, makes In Nomine a brilliant, even profound work of art. It is a world where God explicitly exists, everyone knows he/she exists, and yet his/her actions are simulated by randomness. Because that is what it's like to be a believer, to have faith. To believe in a God is to take the seemingly random, purposeless universe you live in and try to ascribe meaning to it. Perhaps there is meaning, God works in mysterious ways, as they say, but whether there is or isn't, you have no way of knowing. But in order to justify that faith, you have to assign meaning to the essentially random. This is what you do in In Nomine, and this is what the faithful do in real life. The creators of In Nomine could have easily told the GM, "Hey, you're God, just do what you think God would do, go nuts!" But they didn't. They told the GM to keep God distant, aloof. To keep God's will unknowable. This puts people in a universe where they players believe 100% in the existance of God, but still struggle deeply to understand what he/she does, because it's random enough to be totally unknowable. That is the perfect metaphor for what it is like to be one of the truly faithful, as well as a perfect simulation of what it's like to have faith for those who don't. Personally, I believe that's what makes In Nomine a brilliant piece of art, and why I think that if you can't find a way to carry at least that aspect of the mechanics over to Storium, then you shouldn't do it. I don't think its adaptable to another framework, and I think the moment you change In Nomine to a system where God's actions aren't determined by random chance, you turn it from a profound, meaningful, brilliant piece of art into just another game. A good game, but one not nearly as meaningful. |
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03-08-2017, 08:42 AM | #60 |
Wielder of Smart Pants
Join Date: Aug 2004
Location: Ventura CA
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Re: Storium - In Nomine
Presumably this is true of any setting with an omnipotent deity (or deities). I don't think that really needs dice to reflect it, or even really needs mechanical translation. For Storium, which works more like fiction, I would think that God is in the emergent properties of shared narrative.
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