[Nine Worlds] "Trick" as a term

[Ron Edwards]

Hello,

Back in [Nine Worlds] Slow and careful rules and examples, this point of mine got lost in the discussion.

Side point: "Trick" is a terrible term. The act it refers to in Nine Worlds has no corollary in card games, and the term Trick in card games refers to a well-known act which does not resemble the Nine Worlds act in any way. This would seem minor (oh, just use it for this in Nine Worlds) except that it has disrupted play on many occasions, especially for our player who is most committed to card games. He very, very reasonably suggests that the term in Nine Worlds should be changed to "points," because that's what they are - points which may be spent in a wide variety of ways.

Matt, I thought we might discuss it here.

Best,
Ron

[Matt Snyder]

Heh. Not much to discuss, really. The argument is pretty convincing.

Originally it was meant as both color and a system term. The ideal, from the onset, was a system that involved actualy taking Tricks as one does in card games like Pitch, Euchre, or Whist, etc. (i.e. a single player plays a single card, and with that card captures all other players' single cards, thus "taking the trick").

But, obviously, the game system evolved into a slightly different approach. There still is capturing or "taking" of "tricks" in a sense, but the term overall is pretty misleading if the players are familiar with the card games mentioned above.

Points is probably the simplest route. The game loses a bit of color (so I'm open to other terms for it), but it isn't a big issue, really.

[Ron Edwards]

I'm not sure any Color is being lost, because all the card games from this family (Whist, Bridge, etc) use Points too.

Best,
Ron

[Stefan / 1of3]

Hi.

I know the game is out, I know. (I just read most of the book, and as a fan of Mage: The Ascension and Nobilis, as well as Greek mythology, I enjoyed it immensely.) So this discussion here is probably not of interest anymore.

Nevertheless, if you are still searching, you could try "numen" (plural "numina"). "Numen" is Latin for "nod", especially the "nod of the gods", or the "nod of fate" meaning divine sign / intervention or sometimes the gods or fate itself. As the cards already have Fate, you might try Nods, as well.

Stefan