[Agora] IRC Playtest

[Shreyas Sampat]

And also, additional narrated facts are crap. If I want to narrate facts, I can play Shadows! In an engaging dice game, I want to win satisfyingly or lose after putting up a good fight.

I'm concerned that this system has a pitfall where it's possible to fail to put up a good fight.

[Josh Roby]

I'm concerned that this system has a pitfall where it's possible to fail to put up a good fight.

This is very possible -- but it's the result of poor decisions on everybody's part.  If I make a supersoldier Legionnaire with all my Resources in fighty things and you, playing my opposition, throw a big diplomatic obstacle at me -- stuff that none of my Resources apply to -- then I'm going to suck it.  Now, I could try and fight it out valiantly, get a lot of fallout and burnout and not win my stakes, a consequence clearly seen from the start, but that makes no strategic sense for me (it may make in-character sense, in which case this will do a number on my Ideals).  The sensible thing for me to do is to simply surrender the stakes early, take my die-up in an Ideal, and move on.  You, running my opposition, get only one d10 since you utterly failed to engage my Ideals.  So, assuming that I'm going to do the sensible thing, why would you throw something at me that I don't even think that I can address?

More and more I'm intrigued by the possibility of rolling your Burnout when you surrender for some sort of consolation-prize action.  That would reward you for standing up for your principles even when you know that you're going to lose.  Thinky...