Astral: Rules, and ‘Challenge’ Question

[hix]

Astral. It's a game about out of body experiences. This post describes the stripped down rules.

My big question has been "When do you roll the dice?" At the moment, my answer is the "Challenge" (described in 'IIEE'). I'm wondering if people have other answers on the "when to roll" question, or can see ways to improve the Challenge system?

CONTENTS[/u]
What do you do?
Ratings
Basic Mechanic
Narration
IIEE

WHAT DO YOU DO? [/u]
In Astral, you play a person who's just discovered they can travel outside their body.

There are many hooks for a game of Astral, including: Your origin story. Balancing real-life and astral life. Preventing tragedies. Guiding the Dead. Espionage.

The game explores a sketchy Setting that is created by each group. It's inspired by Robots & Rapiers and Shadows.

RATINGS[/u]
Your character's abilities are measured by 4 Ratings (Attunement, Focus, Ethics & Fear). A Rating is a range of numbers from 0 to 10. At either end there are a pair of antonyms, called Extremes. Character generation = selecting a number for each Rating that you think reflects your character concept.

For example, the Attunement rating measures your ability to travel astrally and do anything a corporeal body couldn't do: fly, walk through walls, survive in space. Its Extremes are whether you're more connected to your Soul (0) or your Body (10). At a rating of 10 you cannot travel astrally. At a rating of 0 you can't return to your body. A character who was completely new to astral travel would have a Rating of 9.

THE BASIC MECHANIC[/u]
Example first: Svend needs to reach the middle of a cloud. He's clearly using Attunement (currently rated at 8).

                         Body  9  [8]  7  6  5  4  3  2  1  Soul

Flying into a cloud uses Soul. But an Attunement of 8 is heavily weighted towards the Body extreme, so Svend is unlikely to succeed.

He now rolls a d10. If he rolls 8,9 or 10 he succeeds and makes the rendevous. If he rolls 7 or below, he fails and gets another (unwanted) outcome[/color] (see 'IIEE').

So success involves rolling between the Extreme opposite to the one you're drawing on and your current score. Failing means rolling between your current score and the ability you're trying to use. ... And if you have any idea how to make that read more clearly or make the mechanic more intuitive, I'd love to know!

[TonyLB]

How about this:  "If you roll on the 'Body' side of your current Attunement then you are thinking as if you were in a Body.  This will mean that you do pretty well at in-body sort of things, and very poorly at Astral sort of things.  Likewise, if you roll on the 'Soul' side of your current Attunement then you are thinking as you need to on the Astral level.  Which would mean embarrassing mishaps if you're applying that logic to the physical world.  If you roll exactly your attunement then you have achieved a zen moment of balance, and may choose which mindset to apply."

EDIT:  Urgh... except that phrasing actually describes the polar opposite of what you're talking about.  Whoops!  Revise where needed.

[hix]

In the above post I hinted at the games you can play about out-of-body experiences, then described Astral's only resolution system. This final post deals with 'who narrates what' and 'the order of play'.

NARRATION[/u]
In Astral the current player narrates what is happening. The GM roleplays NPCs, provides colour and facilitates play by accepting and bouncing off the current player's ideas. This means - if the player wants - she can succeed at everything she intends. In fact, "The player succeeds" is the default assumption for Astral play.

Adversity and scene framing are provided by the other players – and we'll get onto that now ...

IIEE[/u]

Summary: A player's narration is challenged. 2 alternative outcomes are devised. Ratings are adjusted. The player rolls.

1. Intent (see 'Footnotes' for an alternative)
The player narrates until another player says, "Challenge." You only issue a Challenge when a player's actions either require using an astral ability or would affect one of the 4 Ratings. IOW, a Challenge has to be significant.

a) .... The Challenger names the Rating that's affected.
b) .... They say which Extreme of the Rating the current player's intended action leans towards. Then the Challenger names an alternative outcome from the other Extreme. I have an example of this in this post.
c) .... This alternative is discussed until it's satisfactory and exciting to all.
d) .... The current player then shifts the score of this Rating (and any others that are affected by the action) by one point in any direction they choose.

2. Initiative
a) If two players conflict, Ratings are trumped anticlockwise to the order they appear on the character sheet. Attunement trumps everything while Fear trumps nothing.
b)   If two players use the same abilities, the character whose Rating deviates most extremely from the centre will act first.
c) In the event of a tie, simply roll a d10. Highest roll goes first.

3. Execution
a) To determine which outcome you achieve, see 'The Basic Mechanic' above. Success means the current player gets their alternative; failure means they get the Challenger's.

4. Effect
a) If the outcome was undesired, move your Fear Rating one point closer to the Fear Extreme.
b) The turn now switches to the next player. Scenes go clock-wise round the group.
c) When the turn returns to you, play the outcome of the roll.

QUESTIONS[/u]
That's the basics. I'm interested in all your thoughts (and will start other threads as appropriate), but at the moment I'm mainly wondering if people have other answers on the "when to roll" question, or can see ways to improve the Challenge system? Does the current Challenge system seem too confrontational?

Thanks for taking the time to read through all that.


FOOTNOTES
* My original process for the Intent phase meant that making a roll was entirely the player's decision:
a) Announce action. A roll is initiated whenever a player wants to perform an action that either requires the use of an astral ability or has an effect on one of the 4 ratings.
b) Shift scores on any Ratings that are affected.
c) Decide which Rating is the most applicable.
d) Decide on two possible outcomes for the action - one that the player wants and another that she doesn't.

** A rough rough unfinished pre-first draft version of the rules can be found here. And by the way, bear in mind it's rough.

[MikeSands]

And if you have any idea how to make that read more clearly or make the mechanic more intuitive, I'd love to know!

Maybe you need to draw a picture of it? Use a couple of examples, and draw circles around the numbers relevant for each one.

It's probably okay to write a long explanation of it, making it totally clear, because everyone only has to understand it once. The actual idea is pretty obvious, once you see what is supposed to be going on.