I thnk the divisions ar fine as far as they go. I'd also put a clause in that one of the Guide positions, perhaps Rules or Game or Play, such as, "All powers that do not fall to any other guide specifically, devolve to this Guide." That should settle a number of potential sorts of power problems.
Are you going to include a part somewhere on how they are selected? I'm thinking about his because it occurs to me that as long as you have the powers spread out that you should play on that. Keep any one player from geting too piled up. The Narrator and Persona guides are a little outside of this consideration but for the four remainng types, I'd put in somthing to get them as spread out as possible.
For example, you could have the distributon occur from a list of the four, and players would bid on each as they came up. After a player recieved a Guide role, he would not be able to pick up a new one until all other players had picked up one. Which would mean that with four or more players that you couldn't end up with more than one. Perhaps something like this would make a good option. I can also see allowing duties to stack up on individuals.
BTW, I think that players should definitely have Persona Guide Cards as well as the other Guide cards. The Card would have the character's name on it instead of saying Persona Guide. And the character reference would be on the back. Anyhow, I see play progressing with players waving a card to indicate why they were interupting. If I wave the Rules Gide card, it's a signal to the Play Guide that I need to interject with a rules clarification or something. If I wave a Persona card, that indicates to the Narration Guide that I want to burn a script on behalf of that character. In any case, I should never be holding up more than one card at a time. This way, the other participants will know what character I'm playing the role of, or what non-character role I'm excercising.
The mental picture I have of this is very cool.
Mike
I am REALLY looking forward to seeing this finished product! Bust your ass and finish this mofo!
Mike
Hey, good point about reserving powers not named in the descriptions of
the other Guides to one of them I am thinking umm, Play Guide.
(Suddenly I am writing the Constitution or something;) )
Quote from: Mike Holmes
Are you going to include a part somewhere on how they are selected? I'm
thinking about his because it occurs to me that as long as you have the
powers spread out that you should play on that. Keep any one player
from geting too piled up. The Narrator and Persona guides are a little
outside of this consideration but for the four remainng types, I'd put in
somthing to get them as spread out as possible.
Yeah, I going to include that later in the chapter when I get around to
describing playing an actual session. At the moment, I am thinking that
there are a Big 3 that have to be divvied up during session play, Play,
Game, & Rules Guide. (Setting Guide I currently see as being more active
between sessions and such, and generally decided during Genesis
Session, as well as being easily Sub-divided by subject.)
Obviously, you have to decide on a Play Guide first during a session. I
like your one to a customer rule, while supplies last, as it were. I see,
Play Guide as being needing to be decided, Game Guide maybe player to
his left barring volunteers. And like Rules Guide player to left of Game
Guide, barring Volunteers. Other thing is that I see Rules Guide being
more fluid, kind of left in the middle of table to be grabbed up by whoever
has the most knowledge of that rules area, and going to the left of the
Game Guide, as a default.
Perhaps an additional rule that the PG and GG shift to the left after a
scene or some such. Especially, since I am thinking of having these roles
earning Numen directly out of the Mithal when they are filled, thus
creating a forced reward and a sort of Salary type mechanic.
Quote from: Mike Holmes
BTW, I think that players should definitely have Persona Guide Cards as
well as the other Guide cards. The Card would have the character's name
on it instead of saying Persona Guide. And the character reference would
be on the back.
Another excellent suggestion. You could have the Persona Name, as you
indicate, while on the back you'd record the Initial introduction cost, as
well as the Persona's relevant Persona Expectations via Disadvantages,
Perhaps any Narrative Expectations, as well as the RP rewards associated
with them. (This would be seperate from actual Record, except for simple
extra types, which could have actual game stats on back, or whatever.)
In addition you could simply wave the character card to indicate when you
are speaking as that character. Tieing into some of the Ergo multi-
medium collaborative RP stuff, this card waving could even be
accomplished within IM/IRC type environment by having the players
preface their comments with a role Abbreivation, a character name, or
perhaps with a bid, or just as themselves. So you might have a log like
this.
Rob> PG: Ok Mike, your NG, lets go.
Mike> NG: alright, Elrikan, Norwood, Turk and the 10 members of the
Imperial Patrol are outside Baron Harkomir's Castle, it's night-time, the
moon having just risen, when Elrikan notices a shadow pass over the 3rd
moon.
Rob>Elrikan: Take cover, the Duke has unleashed his Dragonriders on
us!!
Rob> I pay 10 Numen to introduce the squad of 5 dragonriders as Shared
Entity.
Jake>GG: That leaves you with an Anwa of 21 Numen Rob, Mike, that's 5
Numen for you as Design Royalties.
etc., etc.
Quote from: Mike Holmes
The mental picture I have of this is very cool.
Yeah, it is an interesting method to indicate the role/POV shift going on.
Oh, one other thing, when players make a challenge, they would raise
their hand with their Bid, which would represent they are speaking from a
pure player preference, essentially.
To tie into the Vanilla/Pervy thread, and Mainstream threads, it might
even make a game comprehensible to the mythical interested non-role
player. Since the actual abstractions of the game are well represented
and codified. So one might call it Self-Actualized Vanilla, accomplished via
lots of pervy mechanics.
Also on the Pervy thread, if you apply this to the traditional GM+Players
paradigm, you have one guy at the end of the table with five cards
stapled to his head like some indian chief's headress, who may or may
not be hiding a pile of chips behind his funky screen to fudge things with,
leading his faithful tribe of braves, each with a single character card stuck
to their head, to whatever he might be interested in, while trying to keep
them happy enough to stay in the tribe.:)
TFYI
P.S. Gwen, hey I am plugging away, unfortunatley the Design
Frameworks are going to make it a rather hefty project, but
instrumentality continues, or something.:)
Quote from: RobMuadib
(Suddenly I am writing the Constitution or something;) )
There are worse documents to emulate.
QuoteAt the moment, I am thinking that
there are a Big 3 that have to be divvied up during session play, Play,
Game, & Rules Guide. (Setting Guide I currently see as being more active
between sessions and such, and generally decided during Genesis
Session, as well as being easily Sub-divided by subject.)
Hmm. I had assumed that the Setting Guide would interject reguarly with setting details. It's one of the things I really like about the idea. If there is some detail vaccuum, it's his responsibility to create something to fill it. For example, if an inkeeper is needed, the Setting Guide should be responsible for producing the Persona. That seems very cool to me.
QuoteI see,
Play Guide as being needing to be decided, Game Guide maybe player to
his left barring volunteers. And like Rules Guide player to left of Game
Guide, barring Volunteers. Other thing is that I see Rules Guide being
more fluid, kind of left in the middle of table to be grabbed up by whoever
has the most knowledge of that rules area, and going to the left of the
Game Guide, as a default.
Hmmm. I think that these are important enough that you may want to refrain from assigning them in so haphazard a manner (might even make sitting down for the first time a weird exercise). What I'd do, if nobody wanted it is to have a vote or something where a player was elected to the position. That way he'd have the weight of that decision thrust upon him and feel the responsibility more acutely than if it devolved to him randomly.
Even better would be to do something like from the game Republic of Rome in electing consuls. Essentially, the players would debate who wanted to be who, and then after a bit they would take turns going around the table proposing combinations of positions. Bob is Play, Jim is Rules, Eric is Game. If voted down that combination cannot be reintroduced, and the next player must suggest another combination. If it goes around the table once and the group can't agree on a suitable combination, then go to random assignment. Or somthing of that nature. The idea is to get the optimal set for the group.
Also, if the group puts that much effort into assigning, it should essentially remain stable indefinitely. Roles should only change when players want them to. That is, if two players agree, they can trade roles, or give them to other players (if the "spreading it out" rule is in effect a player cannot take one of the Big Three if it would put him out of compliance; he can trade, however). This way the group ensures yet again that only those most interested in the position will have theose responsibilities.
OTOH, a rotation rule for intrepid groups could be fun. In that case I'd just assign the positions all randomly, however.
QuoteTo tie into the Vanilla/Pervy thread, and Mainstream threads, it might
even make a game comprehensible to the mythical interested non-role
player. Since the actual abstractions of the game are well represented
and codified. So one might call it Self-Actualized Vanilla, accomplished via
lots of pervy mechanics.
Hmmm. Not convinced about that one way or the other, personally. But I want this game for me, so I'm unconcerned.
Mike