[CotG] Encouraging Narration in a Competitive Game

[Warren]

Hello all,

Even though official judging hasn't finished yet, I know that I have a fairly broken system in my Game Chef '06 entry. It's Champions of the Gods, available here, and is a game of mortal champions wandering around ancient Greece in service to a God in the classical Greek Pantheon.

I wanted a system that would reward cool heroic/epic narration, but as my game is fairly-competitive, a Fan-Mail-esque system wouldn't work. My original system was to reward extra Determination whenever a narration addressed a vulnerability of your champion, but that doesn't really work. I've come up with some other ideas that I like better, but I'm still not sure about this.

a) If I narrate something which will make my champions challenge harder I gain the reward.

b) If I make reference to the another God's domain (sailing, the sea, a hydra, whirlpool, etc for Poseidon. A love affair or a stunning beauty for Aphrodite.) I gain the reward.

And what should the reward be? An extra dice to roll on my side? A free point of Determination? Should the Guardian (or another God) get anything at the same time, like a free die, point of Determination, or a modification to an emotional rating?

I'm tending towards something like b). If I make reference to another God's domain, I gain a Determination and the God's player gains a +1 to a single emotional rating (which - I'm not sure). It is only possible for a champion to address each God's domain once per game.

Do you think that'll work? Are there any flaws that you can see? Do you think this system will reward cool heroic narration?

Thanks,

Warren

[Thunder_God]

I'm afraid I will probably only read this in full tomorrow, but I will say this for now. Give your players credit. The story creation is cooperative, whereas the game itself is competitive. Have the players reward one another, as a way of saying, "Well done", "Touche" and others of the sort, or for creating good stories.
Give them credit, and remind them they're still playing a game and are friends.

[Callan S.]

Hi Warren,

How do you mean, competative? For example, in capes the players engage each others resources fiercely. It could be described as competative, but it's not competative like a sport - at the end of capes, people wont be talking about your system use, for example.

It sounds like your game has room for gamist competitiveness, but then your trying to take the focus off the challenge and into some sort of inter player story creation resource management ("I'll add in your weakness and get a point, and you'll follow by...etc, etc").

[JMendes]

Hey, Warren, :)

Check out these pearls of wisdom from Tony Lower-Basch on a similar query of mine. May be of help.

Cheers,
J.

[Warren]

Callan,
It is very competative in so far as much as if your champion wins a challenge and completes a quest to obtain an artefact significant to another God (player) they will gain Renown. After four quests by each player, the champion with the most Renown wins the game. It's rather "boardgamey" in that way, I suppose.

J,
I've just read through what TonyLB wrote about Project Senate, and what he says is wise indeed. I'm not sure how I would attach a "limited, renewing source of resources" into my system, but I will muse on such a thing. Thanks for the link!

Warren

[dindenver]

Hi!
  Once Upon a Time has a similar dilemna. It seems to overcome it by setting mood and theme. Given the right mood/theme, players can get "into" it and are competitive in a friendly from what Iunderstand. Maybe you should play a fe games before you tweak it too much...

[Callan S.]

Callan,
It is very competative in so far as much as if your champion wins a challenge and completes a quest to obtain an artefact significant to another God (player) they will gain Renown. After four quests by each player, the champion with the most Renown wins the game. It's rather "boardgamey" in that way, I suppose.

Okay, gotcha. 'Boardgamey' isn't nessersarily a negative. In your vision for the game do you imagine, after the game, players talking about who won? Or players talking about the story made?

[Warren]

Oh, the story made I think, although with a certain amount of "You're not going to win next time, Geoff!" banter as well. But I want the "war stories" to be things of the shared fiction, rather than recalling any crunchy mechanical trickiness.

[Callan S.]

a) If I narrate something which will make my champions challenge harder I gain the reward.

Do you mean a mechanical test the champion will make, will be harder? Or that this is granting some other player the chance to narrate some horrible stuff for your PC, through the narration you gave?

Are my questions helping or too off base?

[Warren]

The former. To be honest, I think it would help me more if you read through the document -- all this stuff is answered in there.