Gumshoe, its genus of RPGs, and distancing mechanics

[Agemegos]

Originally Posted by Peter Knutsen

In terms of Sagatafl's Luck Point system, that would have been a mistake

They're supposed to do that in JB007, too – well, or make him or her look heroic. But fortune automatically favours the prepared mind, so I had accumulated over thirty of that on that character and was getting sick of hoarding them. The GM ought to have made me spend a Hero Point for a speedboat to be available just where I wanted it, and I decide to spend it anyway out of fairness.

Of course, perhaps it did benefit the character... Maybe escaping from the bad guys in a red speed boat looks more stylish than if it had been some other colour? Maybe it'll impress other characters more, that way? Maybe it'll increase his chances of getting laid, later that day? All of those can be desirable for the character, from his point of view.

In Australia it is ironically axiomatic that red ones go faster. National in-joke.

And it's not as if it ought to cost a whole lot of LP to alter the colour of a vehicle, when that vehicle is already there, and the colour is fairly normal (for that kind of vehicle).

Specify, not alter. I would "never deny" what the GM established.

"But it amuses me," from the player, is never a valid argument for expending LP.

The hell you say! They're my Hero Points, and I have enough to tear this scenario a new orifice. I'll spend them any way I think makes the game more fun.

The player doesn't exist. The character exists.

Hero Points exist in the same universe that the player does. They do not exist in the universe where the character does, and their effects are supposed to be a causal or at least beyond the character's control in that universe.

Characters in JB007 do not gamble, attempt to seduce striking members of the preferred sex, and get into pointless road races so that they will have luck at their command later on. They do it because they are horndogs and epinephrine junkies. Obtaining Hero Points is an incentive at the player level.

[1] The exception might be a Stylish Luck Trait, which specifically allows the expenditure of LP to affect small-scale world changes that fits the character's style, and makes him truer to concept, makes him cooler or more impressive.

James Bond 007 doesn't have a "stylish luck" trait. It has Hero Points.

[RogerBW]

Originally Posted by johndallman

Are you sure you have that right? RPGs have a fundamental difference from most media, in that they're (more or less) equally about several characters: the PCs. That changes story structure a great deal, and I'd expect someone as well-known as Robin to understand that.

That's certainly the impression I get - the beat analysis in HHP, where it isn't dealing with specific stories (Dr No, Casablanca, Hamlet, the detailed analyses being the bulk of it), either treats the party as a cohesive whole or touches briefly on in-party conflict. It doesn't have anything to say about individual PC spotlight time. (I'll lend you the book.)

[Agemegos]

Originally Posted by whswhs

My experience has been that most campaigns—and most scenarios, in a campaign that is divisible into discrete episodes—have rising action, conflict, and denouement with no formal mechanism for bringing them about.

I have been less broadly fortunate, or probably less skilful, than you in this, in that I used to have that fail to happen. One problem I had was a player who went in for jumping tension (and whom no-one now plays with). The rest I found cures for in a book called How to Write a Damned Good Novel.

Action can rises to a crisis and resolve into a denouement either (a) because the players have a feel for extemporary narrative, or follow genre examples, or because (perhaps informed by literary theory) they consciously construct fathomable characters that are each steadfast to a core motivation, a conflict and a suitable crucible, then follow up the consequences of an initiating incident, while avoiding both jumping conflict and characters acting below capacity, and with action arising out of character in a developing situation until a crisis naturally develops, or (b) because the rules of a dice/card/chip game require one of the players to "narrate a denouement now", like having to finish your glass in a drinking game.

A hand of poker often has conflict, rising tension, and a denouement, in a way, and it can excite and then purge feelings. Perhaps you could modify poker in such a way that each bet and turn of a card imposed on some player an obligation to add something to a story that corresponds to what happened in the poker in a way specified in advance. And perhaps if you were clever the resulting stories would reliably conform to hack formulas. But even if you did (a) the plot would lack narrative causality: incident would not be the result of situation and character action, and (b) the game would distract the players from the story and constantly spoil their suspension of disbelief by forcing an awareness of artifice.