Providing Focus to the story

[Valamir]

One of the assumptions that Universalis makes is that players will provide their own focus, both initially in setting up the nature of the game to be played, and subsequently through the use of Challenges and Complications to bring the story back into focus when it wanders.

Mike and I have been tossing ideas around for a way to do this mechanically within the game, and recent playtest threads have touched upon it as well.

My thoughts on this are currently along these lines.  This is a very rough idea and all of the permutations haven't been thought through yet, but I figured I'd offer it up as a discussion topic.

1st) be more explicit about identifying the game structure items that should be in place before actual play begins.  Items such as genre, mood, color, setting, level of "realism", etc.

2nd) allow conflicts to be introduced as Game Structure Items.  "who murdered the mayor", "The ork hordes are coming", "can katie get a date for the prom", whatever.  

3rd) Each conflict has a Threshold Rating that must be achieved before the conflict can be resolved.  I'm not totally sure how this Rating would be established but it would probably involve starting at some base number and being bought up with Coins.

4th) Complications would be the only means of reaching that Threshold Rating.  They become literally complications that prevent the conflict from simply being resolved.  If the Complication wins, things get more "complicated" and the Threshold Rating goes up by 1.  If the target's win a Coin is placed in the "conflict pot" (probably just an index card with the Conflict details on it).

5th) When the Coins in the Conflict Pot reach the Threshold Rating that Conflict can now be resolved.  Whichever player added the last Coin to the pot now takes those Coins and uses them to narrate the resolution of that Conflict (possibly includeing the introduction of a new Conflict).


Thats the rough outline.  I have some additional ideas on how to work this, like after every round of play a new Conflict must be introduced or the Threshold of an existing one increased, that sort of thing.

Would the existance of an explicit game goal like this help to give the story additional structure and keep the players focused on actually moving towards some sort of resolution?

[Ayrizale]

Would the existance of an explicit game goal like this help to give the story additional structure and keep the players focused on actually moving towards some sort of resolution?

I believe that it would.  I admit that my opinion is based only on reading through the rules and not on Actual Play, but some of the players that I plan on trying this game out with have had me concerned becuase of certain tendencies.  (One player is very prone to swerving into the Silly category regardless of what everyone else thinks.)

By putting these elements into play early, it might be possible to restrain someone along those lines.  The Threshold Ratings for the Conflicts also sounds like a good idea to me if for no other reason than because it provides a clear, mechanical goal.  And in some cases a mechanical goal is easier to wrap one's head around.

Having said that, I intend to play the first session or two with the rules "as written" to see how they handle.  The only thing that I would almost certainly do when I teach the rules is to emphasize the opening rounds and the structure of the game to be played.  Once everyone has a session or two behind them, I'd like to try both a more free-form version of the game and the more structured ideas you are presenting here.

Lael

[Bankuei]

I don't know how necessary it is to make mechanical reinforcement to the conflict, as much as you should state that all stories need:  Genre, Conflict, and at least 1 character.  From writing, to cinema, conflict must be defined early, even if it turns out not to be the primary conflict.  

Chris