Review up at RPG.net

[matthijs]

Here's my Universalis review - the first of two. This is a review of the game text, the next one will be of actual play.

[Christopher Weeks]

Why does the review say that it's 1$?

[matthijs]

No idea, I'm pretty sure I wrote $15 in the "Price" field. I've posted a note about it now, just in case people get confused.

[Mike Holmes]

I actually talked to Matthijs in PM about the review, but I wanted to thank him in public for putting up so thoughtful a set of commentary.

I'd recommend that people check out the discussion of the review at RPG.net, if they have commentary on it. Ralph has pretty much summed up my ideas on the subject there. (We can be scary alike at times - and then there's others where we're completely different.)

Mike

[matthijs]

I'm really glad that Mike & Ralph have been so positive about this review! I've done a little preliminary playtesting, and the big one will be next weekend at a local con (very local - 10-15 people staying in my house over the weekend). I might try to "push" the game to see what it can do outside of a standard story template, but that depends on the other players too, of course.

[Valamir]

As reviews slip off the page at RPG.net conversation tends to fade.  But there was a pretty interesting thread there that I wanted to comment on, so I'm cross posting it here so it doesn't get overlooked and forgotten.

So it draws on what we've learned about stories. But what if one of the players wants a radically different tale? If he wants to tell a story like "Hunger" by Knut Hamsun, or "A doll's house" by Ibsen, or anything else that doesn't fit into the most basic plot structure? "

An excellent question. What if one of the players wants this...how does the game handle that?

Consider the following possibilities

1) One player wants it, he makes it a tenet, saying "Instead of the usual Hollywood Blockbuster, tonight lets make the story more like Ibsen's 'A Doll's House'". That costs 1 Coin

Ok, what if someone else doesn't like that idea?...they want Die Hard. They Challenge. The players then collectively vote with their Coins: Die Hard-esque, or Ibsen-esque, or some additional option someone comes up with.

So lets say "Ibsen-esque" wins. What does that mean? Well, it means that you, the players, in your group, better have a good idea what "Ibsen-esque" means, because you're right. Universalis isn't going to tell you. Sure I read The Doll's House, but could I create a story that was an intentional homage to Ibsen's style? Probably not. Could you and your group? Do they know enough about what makes this sort of story tick in terms of the nature of the characters, the situation, the tone and mood, etc.? If so...fantastic...you have all of the tools to Frame the Scenes, Create your Components, and Narrate Events that would make you Literature Prof proud. If anyone strays from generally accepted Ibsen convention you have the weight of "Ibsen-esque" as a Fact to use to Challenge them back into line.

What if several in your group don't have that back ground. Lets say you're playing with me and I say..."Ok, that could be cool...but what the heck does it mean...tell me what Ibsen-esque means to you..."

Ok, now you've got a little more work cut out for you. Because again you're right. Universalis expects the players to draw on what we've learned about stories. If you have players with different backgrounds you can't simply rely on common knowledge to get the results you want.

But again, Universalis gives you the tools to create what you need. Let's say you are fully versed in Ibsen-esque. You now have to translate the key elements of what "Ibsen-esque" means to you into Tenets. Things like "Characters should be X but not Y", "Situations should involve A and relate to B but stay away from C". "The Mood should stay primarily L with brief interludes of M and N but never O". Whatever collection of traits define what "more like A doll's house" by Ibsen," means to you.

Those Tenets then serve as guideposts for all of the other players to follow, and again they give added weight to Challenging items that stray from them.


As for Add-ons that make this easy...love to see them. Pick a type of story that's radically different from Hollywood Standard that you're intimately familiar with and craft the set of Tenets that defines it. Maybe you'll need some Gimmicks for scene framing geared to capture a "Stream of Conciousness" feel. Or maybe a Gimmick relating to characters having secrets and being invulnerable to elimination until their secret is revealed...or whatever combination of things would make the story feel like that sort of story.

Write something like that up, and I guarentee it goes up on the Website.