[The Five Transformations]a conflict resolution mechanic

[Orin]

Recently I have been seduced by all the tasty FiTM stuff the Forge and started experimenting, using Blades & Blossoms, my Asian fantasy setting in the spirit of Croushing Tiger, Hidden Dragon, as my guinea pig.

I have been exploring the I Ching, a Chinese divinatory tool, looking for inspiration that might add flavour and stumbled upon what is referred to as the Five Transformations (Wu Hsing).

The I Ching deals with change primarily, and the Five Transformations are key moments when change is activated in a cycle. I found this fascinating and immediately felt that it might be of use in Blades & Blossoms. The five transformations are represented by the chinese elements; Fire, Wood, Metal, Water and Earth, in the I Ching. Each element has its rather specific and broader interpretations, relating to how change in activated in the aspect of that element.

I want to create a conflictresolution mechanic that would access this interesting concept. I want something that wouldn't simply indicate success or failure but indicate change in varying hue's, based on player interpretation and choice. The dice should activate interpretations or avenues rather than specific outcomes, like succeed or fail.

To this end I have employed a dice pool mechanic using 6d. When a challenge or conflict arises, player selects dice equal to the relevant traits etc. The GM adds danger dice (of a different colour) representing the level of threat or difficulty. The group also have a shared pool of Luck dice of a third colour which they may add if they desire. The player makes a statement of intent such as " I want to get into the forbidden palace"

Any multiple values from 1-5  indicates a result. For instance, if a player rolls 1,2,2,3,6 then 2 is the result. Result in this context refers to specific number which is being generated rather than an in-game outcome. Each result relates to a Transformation.

If there are result ties, players may select which result they prefer.. Otherwise, the set with most multiples is the final result. If there is no result (i.e. no multi's) at all - this indicates misfortune, the player should pick up an additional danger die to add to the pool and roll again. The more multiples there are in the result, the greater the sphere of narrative influence, which will discussed more below.

A single 6 or multiples of 6 award narration to the players. Similarly a 6 on any of the Danger dice award it to the GM. If no 6's turn up narration automatically goes to the GM

The final result (1-5) indicates one of the Five Transformations (Fire, Wood etc) and their associated flavours of change. Additionally if a danger die turns up as one of the multiples in a result for instance 1,2,4,4,4,6, there are complications, the more danger dice in the result the more complications. Similarly if luck turns up there is expedience. Luck in a result and cancels out danger dice.

If player  is awarded narration he may interpret the relevant Transformation in terms of the scene and his intent, he may use it to us advantage or to the disadvantage of his enemies or obstacles. The sphere of influence determines the narrative power of a player. This is determined by the number of multi's which makes up result. The more multi's in a result the greater the sphere of narrative influence. There are certain restrictions (No killing of characters etc)

What I wanted to create here is a mechanic that triggers resolution based on player interpretation and choice. The more dice players have in their pool the more choices they have and the greater their narrative control in the game becomes.

Does this concept deserve further exploration? Do you have any ideas how I can tighten it up more if so?

Kindly,
Chad

[matthijs]

I suggest you have some fairly strict rules for interpretation of the Transformations.

I also suggest the rules specify when you may narrate a success and when the GM may narrate a failure - and that all other results must be something other than failure and success.

This will do several things: It will minimize the possibility for system abuse. It'll also free narrators from the feeling that they have to put limits on themselves; the system does it, so they're completely free within their constraints.

Have you played Everway? It uses a Tarot-like deck for resolution. It's kinda wishy-washy; in effect it easily becomes a tool for Force and Illusionism. If you make sure to have good limits on interpretation, you'll avoid that!

[Orin]

Hi matthijs,

Thanks for the feedback. You are right, on the one hand I want the players to be able to interpret the Transformation so as to generate dynamic change in the plot, giving them authoring power. On the other hand you don't want it too be too woolly so that becomes a free for all.

How I had conceived that it would happen was that it was assumed that when players receive narration rights they are going to find a way to narrate success, even though some of the Transformations such as Water, which indicates reversal, dissipation and dissolution in the I Ching traditionally, could then be used against an opponent or obstacle.

For example, a character is trying to escape through a tunnel and comes to a wooden barricade. The Player states his intent "I want to get past the barricade" and rolls finding Water as his result, he however has also rolled narration, and then narrates :" I examine the barricade more closely and discover it's rotten with age, I find a weak spot and punch a hole through it" – He has effectively used the transformation to his advantage, because he has received narration. Had the GM received the narration, he may interpret the transformation otherwise...The greater the sphere of narrative influence the more broadly he may extend his story telling power, say beyond his person or immediate scene into the greater game world and plot.

The introduction of the danger dice into a result would also alter the result. The GM may narrate a complication into the player described success. "As you complete breaking through the barricade you discover that the strange fungus which has rotten the wood is releasing strangely coloured spores, you are itching..." Similarly if luck dice turn up in a GM narrated resolution players may add an element of good fortune into the story.

At times this seems workable to me and then when I think about it its seems to be too restrictive. Its seem as though I can accomplish this without using the Transformations at all but just by awarding narration rights which is modulated by Danger or Luck.

Are the Transformations superfluous color?
Or as you say, will it promote Force and Illusionism on both sides?

[Eric Provost]

I think the Transformations sound very interesting, and might turn into a very interesting resolution mechanism.  Here's my thoughts:

It might be easier to comment on and help you with if we knew how you were going to interpret the five elements for your game.  How does each one influence the narration?  I agree with Matthijs that there should be specific constraints on how each element should be narrated.

Have you considered not giving narrative control of the result of a roll the GM at all?  It seems to me that if you have a system where the results of the dice say something like;  "Bad fortune.  Violence Results", then the arbitration of a GM is totally unnecessary in that case.

I'm looking forward to seeing where you go with this.

-Eric

[Mike Holmes]

A single 6 or multiples of 6 award narration to the players.

What happens in the case of ties? GM narrates?

I agree with the others that the transformations should be as clearly limited as possible. Clear limits, far from being a hinderance, actually make narration easier.

To clarify, danger dice do not decrease the chances of success? They only increase the chances of complications occuring? That is, as I read it the possible results are:

1) No matches - failure
2) One or more matches, success of a certain hue depending on what matched.

The question of danger dice matching the selected highest group of matching dice simply adds complications to the success or failure?

And the size of the run of matches says what, precisely? It seems that it's not success per se, but may influence success based on the magnitude that it provides. Well I'd like to see the limiters based on the magnitude. These sound, again, pretty subjective. So you're stacking subjectivity on top of subjectivity it would seem.

If you're interested, I did the stats analysis of the system for Godlike, and have the odds on how likely matches are with different size pools.

Just a thought. Why not, in the case of multiple matches of the same level, say that the outcome is "multi-hued." Might lead to some interesting results. Even if the limitations on each resolution are mutually exclusive in terms of what you narrate, if you break it down to steps you probably can find a narration for each part. This if you roll two water, and two fire, you can narrate doing some step of the task in a watery manner, and the latter portions in a firey manner. With the matching danger dice providing complications in the appropriate step.

Mike

[Selene Tan]

This is an idea that just came to me. It's probably half-baked or less. It doesn't address the narration feature you wanted.

Make the number of multiples of an element be the degree of success, and let different conflicts require different degrees. Extra successes are kept as an elemental resource. You can spend this resource to make the 6's elemental -- for your 6's, spend the same element; for the danger 6's, spend an adjacent element. (Probably use the "controlling" cycle.) Elemental 6's count for required degrees of success, but don't give resource for extra successes. Non-elemental danger 6's count against degrees of success.

It would be neat if some other aspect of the characters depended on which element's resource they had the most of.

[Orin]

Hi Eric, Mike and Selene,

Thanks for all the helpful input. I like your suggestion of always giving players narration on a Transformation Eric. It makes sense that if the transformation is structured carefully its unnecessary to have that variable chucked in as well. I think I would want the GM to maintain the danger dice narration so players cant dilute their own complications.

What got my mind ticking about cutting success vs failure out and purely having complication or expedience to modulate the different kinds of flavours of change, was the fact that in my experience the players are meant to succeed. Failure in a sense is just a complication which they will have to resolve anyway, to move forward. In the past the only time I felt failure to be critical is if as a GM I wished to dubiously exert force to have the story go my way.

I see what you are saying about layering subjectivity on subjectivity Mike. Perhaps the narrative power given to player should be limited to a scene and its contents only. Before I was seeing it expanding for each additional match, starting with the scenes material contents then including its cast and finally expanding to include the game world and greater story.

I really like the idea of  tying character into certain Elements Selene. I have thought about that before and the idea really appeals. Perhaps you roll a Transformation which is your characters "sign" so to speak there are certain advantages.

The Five Transformations
Value,   Element,    Possible readings:
1   Water:   Dissolving, downward motion. Its action is levelling, and decreasing.   Reversal, dissolution and disintegration.

2   Fire:   Upward motion, combustion, blazing spreading out. Committed following and force   Aggressive action, conflict, leadership and exerting force.

3   Wood:   Growth, development, to push against. It manifest as the bending and straightening of sprouting plants   Advance, forging ahead, recovery, new developments

4   Metal:   Concentration, focus as well as retraining or holding something in a specific form.    Control, exerting limiting force, restraint, stasis.

5   Earth:   Transformation, exchange,  Its action is Bringing Forth it is the moment of transition.   Transformation, unexpected change, things are not as they seem and turn out to be something else entirely, surprise.


Here is my preliminary look at the elements/transformations and their possible interpretations, based to some extent on the I Ching. I am aiming as much as possible to keep the transformations neutral in success or failure sense, and rather have them describe basic dynamics of change. I am not always so sure that its possible, and Water and Metal for instance almost inherently imply some level of negativity.

All the best,
Chad

[BrennaLaRosa]

From my personal angle, only negative in the textbook sense, not really adversarial. More something that acts to control chaos. Without both order and chaos, things go to pieces. What goes up will have to come down, and if it can't, there could be trouble. If I were playing, I might welcome Water and Metal. They can help keep things from going haywire.

Now if you were playing a "anarchy-good, order-bad" game, they would be bad. But if you want a truly balanced game, all the elements could be seen in either light. Growth can go out of control, Aggressive action can cause harm, and change isn't always good.