CA Classification and Game Systems

[M. J. Young]

Could anyone direct me to an existing game or game mechanic that facilitate Nar play while not breaking actor stance, i.e, helps the narrative flow whilst not intruding too much in freeform roleplaying?

Welcome to the Forge, Marco. I'm going to suggest that you look for whatever's available of Legends of Alyria. I know that playtest files are floating around, and it's an excellent system for promoting narrativist play that doesn't have to break actor stance, from what I've experienced with it, although the scene framing can be a bit shocking to traditional players at times.

Ron wasn't talking about changing your screen name (which is something that he could do without starting a new account, as he's the moderator), but rather about the fact that we've got a "Marco" approaching the thousand posts mark so when people reference what "Marco" wrote or direct a comment to "Marco", we all tend to think of him. It's not a problem. Ron just wanted to know if you'd be bothered by being called "Marco B", so for example in this thread he could address some comments to "Marco" (not you, the other one), and others to "Marco B" (which of course would recognizably be you).

Using real names is applauded and encouraged here; even those who use handles for some reason generally sign their posts with real names, with few exceptions.

--M. J. Young

[MarcoBrucale]

I'm going to suggest that you look for whatever's available of Legends of Alyria. I know that playtest files are floating around, and it's an excellent system for promoting narrativist play that doesn't have to break actor stance, from what I've experienced with it, although the scene framing can be a bit shocking to traditional players at times.

OK, thank you very much. I have just found it on the net, and I'm going to read it asap.

Ron just wanted to know if you'd be bothered by being called "Marco B", so for example in this thread he could address some comments to "Marco" (not you, the other one), and others to "Marco B" (which of course would recognizably be you).

No problem at all! I'll keep this 'real/nick-name' then.

You have to be happy with what you have to be happy with
MarcoBrucale

[Marco]

For example, you don't like TRoS's SAs because you feel that they don't address Premise in the way you'd prefer.  But they're still addressing Premise, and that helps Nar play--maybe not in the ideal fashion for you, but certainly for other people.  I'm guessing that you haven't played a game that facilitates Nar play as you would have it and promotes deep imersion.

Emphasis added.
Hi Tim,
I have played such games. More than one of them and many times. GURPS was one. It's the *setting* (and situation) part of system that promoted the moral element I was interested in in that case rather than, say, a positive modifier dice-pool mechanic.

These conversations often make it looks like setting isn't really part of system until it comes to making some other argument.

The idea that Hero is an "Incomplete Game" because it doesn't come boxed with a setting is, IMO, a reasonable POV for some arguments but then almost every game is incomplete because they usually don't come boxed with situations either (as we're saying on this thread).

Secondly: I don't believe that GURPS (or whatever) is really 'Getting Out of the Way' in terms of premise-addressing. Specifically, although that term is often cited (and reasonably so in some contexts, IMO) it's not how I usually look at mechanics. I presently do not believe game mechanics "get out of the way."

Just like inaudible sounds can constructively interfere and change audible ones, I believe that systemic-representations of SiS always have the facility to reinforce or degrade play depending on how the player responds to them. GURPS, in this fashion, *does* facilitate such play for me by, for example, helping establish the imaginary space that makes the moral question relevant or by establishing character that puts the moral question in context (and I don't mean by a character-hijack disad either--I mean, for example, by telling me how much my character can lift, what skills he has, what his background has been, etc).

There's a reason I prefered GURPS to Hero in some circumstances and I can't definitively say it had to do with "challenge" or "the dream" or "premise"--it had, IMO, to do with all and each of them in different ways--and in every case those ways were intricately related to the situation and setting elements of system.

I wouldn't expect someone to respond to the system in exactly the same way as I do, however.

-Marco