[Circle of Hands] Kickstart begins March 15

[Ron Edwards]

Hi Moreno,

QUESTION: there is some sort of "end game" hardwired in the rules (apart from "everybody is dead", I mean) for the entire campaign, or not?

I don't have anything like that in there. I am more oriented toward each unit of play being itself successful, and something about my process for this game design has rejected any big-scale planning or arc, even if it's emergent. I have no system to show, for example, the effects of a given [whatever it's called] on the realm as a whole.

Which reminds me: Gordon, your paraphrase gave me another sharp pang:

it's interesting that you say as a fact of game design missions can't matter there.

I didn't say that, quite. What I intended to convey, however badly, is that the missions [whatever] probably do contribute successfully to the king's regime and general purpose. But we don't see that or play it or address it in any way as play-content.

Anyway, back to the big-picture arc thing ... I find myself thinking in terms of Kurosawa's ronin movies or the Stars Spartacus series. Each takes place in highly volatile political times, and the characters' plights - and very much, consequently, their sense of lethal purpose coupled with a willingness to suffer for it - are defined by, absolutely embedded in the politics. But the outcomes of the bigger political scenes are the dissolution of the Tokugawa Shogunate, and the failure of the Third Servile War, or actually, given the entire series and the inclusion of a Certain Person in the War of the Damned series, I'd say the fall of the Republic is the biggest relevant setting-arc. The precise outcomes of these bigger events are actually not the point. It's the experience of individuals in extremely violent, dramatic, and heartfelt conflict within the most volatile political moments leading up to those outcomes.

It's that experience which is the heart of the game. So I'm in the position of saying the bigger picture does matter in terms "how we have come to this" for setting up situations, and it does matter in that great realm-changing, setting-redefining events are afoot, but precisely how the stuff we see and the things characters do have a direct impact on those outcomes, is left out of our experiential picture.

Moreno, it strikes me that "venture" is precisely the right word. The Circle knights venture (go) somewhere, and they venture (try) actions/reactions when they get there. To "adventure" is to "go toward a venture," which is a given in this case. So no need for the "ad," and I can focus directly on the "venture." Thank you!

Best, Ron
edited to fix multiple grammatical and format errors - not doing too well with that tonight - RE

[glandis]

Ron, in terms of understanding what you've got going on with the big-picture vs. what, um, endeavors the characters are involved in, I think we're there - and you've had me in the neighborhood from the get-go. That the stuff we see and the things the characters do has some kind of impact on the big picture seems nigh-unavoidable. But saying that details about how that happens is not what we're looking at, that does make sense. Assuming that making connections too directly or in a too focused way ("Spartacus wins 'cause history eventually sees him as right!") is problematic for the game, I'll be interested in how the game design helps us resist that.

But specifically for the crowdfunding feedback ... I think it's all in the (format-screwed) last paragraph of my previous post. A slight, properly-finessed nudge up on the dial showing that these are characters striving for, or at least in search of, something better.

I'm not sure where you're at with the video, but I wanted to add - there's a quality to your closing narration that I hope stays there. I can imagine it being re-filmed/tweaked/improved (part of me found it a bit awkward), but wherever you were at emotionally when you recorded that, stay in the same place. I found it noticeable and powerful.

[Ron Edwards]

Fixed the italics in the post.

Perhaps one day my video-savvy friends will take pity on me and rescue me from crap screencam and Windows Live Moviemaker. "Awkward" isn't the half of it. Partly because I have no other option, I'm going for raw basement sincerity rather than flash. It worked well for Sorcerer and I hope it'll work here too. I don't plan on altering the video unless said rescue arrives.

The nearest video-savvy friend tells me that we can make a movie of playing a fight as part of the campaign promo, perhaps showing it about the halfway point of the 18-day campaign.

I'll see if I can find a good spot for a little text with a glimmer of hope-and-change.

Best, Ron

[Vernon R]

For me I like the grim and the gritty and wouldnt want to lose it or the emphasis on it.  The way I'm reading the info "hope" comes into the games as an answer to why someone would join the circle though maybe not the only reason.  The young king seems to be the hope for a world torn apart by the war between light and dark so if you are looking for somewhere to emphasize the hope element of the game world it would be in supporting him.  If you get mythical, allegorical tied to the real world the battle between light and dark never ends so I can see why not resolving the big picture makes sense in game terms and why not really seeing much result matters to the question of why these characters continue the struggle.  It's easy to keep on fighting if it looks like you are winning.

A characters reason for joining the circle says a lot about them is this reflected in the personality traits for characters? Do they speak towards motivations or are they only descriptive?  Do character backgrounds matter in the game or do you see that as a trap that leads towards predetermined play and not engaging with the current situation?

[Ron Edwards]

Hi Vernon,

A characters reason for joining the circle says a lot about them is this reflected in the personality traits for characters? Do they speak towards motivations or are they only descriptive?  Do character backgrounds matter in the game or do you see that as a trap that leads towards predetermined play and not engaging with the current situation?

I'm really happy about how this exact feature works right now. Character creation has some random elements, some chosen elements, some whole-group elements, and some written/made-up elements. The last bit is to write a couple of sentences called the Key Event, a description of the scene in which the character decided, then or later, to join the Circle. Given the character work before then, it serves as an effective glue and also carries a feeling of inevitability: given all these things, of course this is why they joined. So it's not the Key Event alone as an isolated feature, it's a reliable synergy culminating in writing that event, which I see again and again at the table.

(The Key Event, incidentally, does not include any summarizing, generalizing, or motivational statements about the character. It's strictly only the description of the scene.)

I say with some pride that this feature comes from the original Gray Magick manuscript, long before the Forge and long before such things became common in RPG design. It was probably inspired by the "why you came to the island" feature of character creation in Over the Edge.

Best, Ron