Tactic: Building Momentum

[TonyLB]

So I was walking along and I realized a tactic I should be using ... like ... all the time.  You'd think I'd have figured this all out by now, right?  But no.

Here's the basic notion:  It is possible to roll inspirations from one conflict to the next without losing them.  It costs debt, so that you have unmatched dice.  If you have a 1+2 vs. 4 and you dump your 6 inspiration in then when you resolve you end up with a monumental lead, and also you can take your six inspiration right back, by having it be the unmatched die.

Now, yes, you're losing one point of inspiration there.  I consider that the "friction" in the system.  So it's not perfect.  But, if you're using the inspirations and also rolling up other dice then what you have is a sort of momentum flowing from one conflict to another.  It gets built up by your own efforts, and dragged down by friction and opposition.  Example:

Gangbuster wins "Goal:  Force Gangbuster to surrender" 5 vs. 2.  He ends up with a 3 Inspiration.

He rolls that 3 inspiration into "Goal:  Prove that I'm tougher than Gangbuster" and wins 3+6 vs. 4.  He ends up with a 6 Inspiration.

He rolls that 6 inspiration into "Goal:  Intimidate people by sheer Gangbuster-ness" and wins 4+6+5 vs. 5.  He ends up with a 5 and a 6 inspiration.

Now all of the above assumes that people do not want to majorly contest Gangbuster's raw bad-assery.  The other players are into it.  They think it's cool that Gangbuster's a bad-ass, and they like the occasional conflict to demonstrate that.  They particularly like the constant influx of Story Tokens that they get from appreciating Gangbuster's bad-ass nature.

Gangbuster's toughness is like a boulder, rolling along.  Now somebody could jump right in front of it and say "No!  I will oppose Gangbuster's bad-ass with everything in me!"  But by the time that's a 6+5 inspiration, that's not the first thing that's going to be crossing their mind.  The first thing to cross my mind (at least) is "Hey, I'm gonna put some obnoxious mooks in front of that boulder and watch it crush them so flat that Story Tokens fall out of them!"

And looking at that I'm thinking ... "Hey ... that's characterization.  That's everyone getting together and appreciating the character's strengths.  That is (dare I propose it?) an advancement system."

So now I'm looking over Zak (for when we come off hiatus on my local Capes game) and I'm thinking "Hey, he's got 'Saved the world' at 6+6+6 ... I shouldn't be saving those for a rainy day, I should be rolling them constantly from one conflict about his heroism to the next, steam-rollering obstacles in order to further build Zak's heroism and pay the other players story tokens."  I'm looking at Doc Achilles in my PBP game and thinking "Hey, she's got 'Smartest person in the room' at a 6 inspiration ... I should be making up conflicts about her smartness, in order to pay people for the opportunity to build that up further."

Did other people already understand this?  Am I the last to this particular party?

[Vaxalon]

you're correct, as long as you are playing conflicts that continue in the same vein, and as long as the other people you are playing with find them interesting.

What happens to the system when someone says, "Yeah, yeah, Gangbuster is a badass.  *yawn*"  Someone rolls up the other side (because they can) with no debt in it, and instead of losing one point to friction, you lose three or four.  They get story tokens (because your momentum won't build unless you split the die) and you get zip.

It sounds like a very easy tactic to step on.

[Eric Sedlacek]

Did other people already understand this?  Am I the last to this particular party?

I've converted inspirations, but obviously not "like...all the time".  It depends on where you think the party starts.

This works.  Eventually you could misread the interest in a conflict and someone will stake debt in it and oppose you, but as you say, as long as people think it's cool for you to keep winning, they will milk it for tokens.  I just wonder how long that will continue to last.  Eventually, the urge to shake things up seems inevitable.  Nobody likes to see an endless cycle.

I also sometimes hang onto inspirations because having something from ages ago come back to be important can also be cool.  Not all inspirations get worse with age.  Sure, converting also wins you a bunch of conflicts, but they are, by definition not very contested conflicts which tend to not be the most satisfying ones.

[TonyLB]

I just wonder how long that will continue to last.  Eventually, the urge to shake things up seems inevitable.  Nobody likes to see an endless cycle.

I'm not sure that's really true though.

Yes, there are people who see (for instance) the whole Dark Knight vision of Batman and want to shatter it just because it's there to be shattered.  But there are also people who simply cannot get enough of Batman terrorizing superstitious, cowardly criminals.  There are people who see Superman and want to drive him to the brink of rampant despair, but there are also people who want to revel in him as a symbol of hope, over and over again.

I think that, maybe, in our game we've been paying so much attention to the times that we can force people to give us Story Tokens (or face the consequences!) that we've blinded ourselves to the times when we can simply volunteer them as part of a tacit bargain.

If we are, all three of us, united on something around the table ... we don't make a conflict for it.  We just don't.  We skip to the stuff where we aren't united.  And that is why we are big, churning, killer story-token machines.

And yet, the giant, humongous Inspiration-winners have been the few times when someone cashed in on something that everyone at the table basically wanted to see happen.  Saura Gul betraying Orouboros.  The universe being saved.  That kinda stuff.  I'm wondering whether there's an equally valid tactic in that direction that we've been overlooking.

Like, how many times would Ransom have to infuriate people by being stuck-up and Victorian before I'd get bored of it?  I don't think I'd ever get bored.  The entertainment value would forever bloom anew with each change of circumstances.  So why shouldn't you be pushing an ever-growing snowball of inspirations (and providing Sydney and I with a steady income of Story Tokens) by constantly making conflicts about that?  Why shouldn't we be constantly putting out short-lived conflicts like "Goal:  Ransom loses his composure" and having you steam-roll them?

[Eric Sedlacek]

I think that, maybe, in our game we've been paying so much attention to the times that we can force people to give us Story Tokens (or face the consequences!) that we've blinded ourselves to the times when we can simply volunteer them as part of a tacit bargain.

Maybe we have.  Maybe this is a lack of self-awareness on my part, but I just expect there to always be that little voice in the back of my head telling me to upset the apple card.  Maybe there won't be, or maybe that's just me and I'm atypical.  I don't know.  I guess we'll find out the next time we play.