Fortune in the Middle vs Stunt Rewards

[Garbanzo]

Tor-

I don't know if I've got it or not, but I *think* I do.  Let's see.


Ok, let's stick with the Robin Hood example, and let's say the game mechanic is that one rolls a dice pool, beating a given difficulty.  Let's further say that the max successes is 6.



Option 1: Hong Kong Action Cinema - up to 6 physical successes.

0 Successes - failure - arrow narrowly misses target
1 Success   - minimal hit - arrow nicks the baddie
2 Successes - moderate hit - arrow hits him in the leg
3 Successes - substantial hit - arrow nails him solidly in the leg
4 Successes - great hit - arrow hits baddie in knee, he falls to ground
5 Successes - superb hit - arrow skewers baddie to tree
6 Successes - absolutely ludicrous hit - arrow blows through baddie's knee, then hits his pal, skewering *him* to the tree


Option 2: Historical Realism - max 3 physical successes

0 Successes - the whiff!
1 Success   - minimal hit - arrow nicks the baddie
2 Successes - moderate hit - arrow hits him in the leg
3 Successes - substantial hit - arrow nails him solidly in the leg
4 Successes - as 3 + some - with the hit, he spills his quiver
5 Successes - as 3 + lots - with the hit, he yells for help, using his pals' names (important clue for party)
6 Successes - as 3 + abagachips - as 5, + everyone who saw is impressed as hell at the PC's shooting.  Deference from allies, enemies quail.




I was expecting the difference to be gamism vs narrativism, but it's not really.  In example 2, the player can use explicit game mechanics to find a rich way to surmount in-game obstacles.  
And it's not really a change of Director Stance either, because a player could (or not) describe for each the way the external environment responds to his/her actions.

It seems more a change of "tone" - describing the way reality behaves.  Scaling the game mechanics to suit the desired *feel* of the game.


Back to Tor, in my take, if a player falls below the limit, no big deal.  That's just a regular success, or a failure, or whatnot.

Low or high limits don't change the magnitude of the act, but determine how the benefits work out.  High limit = split the Goblin King in half with a mighty swing.  Low limit = deal "realistic" damage, with good news raining from above.


Comments?
Fang, is my interpretation about right?

-Matt

[Le Joueur]

Garbanzo wrote:

Comments?
Fang, is my interpretation about right?

Actually, I took this over to Indie Game Design in the thread [SCATTERSHOT:] Transitioning to Gamism (to answer a question), as I will with this response.

Fang Langford

p. s. Who's not looking for trouble for hijacking another thread.

[ This Message was edited by: Le Joueur on 2001-12-28 02:14 ]