[Cold City] Operation Holle-Kehle

[Clinton R. Nixon]

The things that in particular that have come out of this thread for me (in relation to the mechanics) are: ...

Malcolm,

There's one other thing I'd like to bring up: consequences. There's too much of them. The reward system for this game is a mash-up of Sorcerer and Dogs in the Vineyard (not to slight the game: I can just see both of them there) and it's way too busy. The giant rolls occur from this as well: successes rolling into new rolls is also in Sorcerer, but the wave crests and dies because it has to be a related roll, instead of just the next roll any time later.

- Clinton

[Malcolm Craig]

The things that in particular that have come out of this thread for me (in relation to the mechanics) are: ...

Malcolm,

There's one other thing I'd like to bring up: consequences. There's too much of them. The reward system for this game is a mash-up of Sorcerer and Dogs in the Vineyard (not to slight the game: I can just see both of them there) and it's way too busy. The giant rolls occur from this as well: successes rolling into new rolls is also in Sorcerer, but the wave crests and dies because it has to be a related roll, instead of just the next roll any time later.

- Clinton

Clinton,

Absolutely no slight taken, your observation is quite correct regarding the influence of Sorcerer and Dogs. Again, this is another good piece of feedback to come out of this thread, which pleases me greatly. I'm very interested in how and why these large rolls come about, something I'll be investigating in my own games to see how they crop up and what the possible solutions might be.

Cheers
Malcolm

[Remi Treuer]

I see where we screwed up, now. What is an attributes maximum? I was playing (and we all might have been) playing with no roof for an attribute. I was wandering around with an Action of 14 at one point.

[Gregor Hutton]

The maximum for a PC is 5 -- almost superhuman (p. 27).

And just to note that success consequences (p. 53) can be spent to temporarily increase an appropriate attribute for only the next conflict involving that attribute, i.e. it doesn't carry and it's not just extra dice. It's not explicit, but I assumed that you couldn't bump an attribute above 5 with consequences, though I've never played or run Cold City myself.

I do think you have hit the nail on  the head though with the setting and system comments. Malcolm creates great settings that are pregnant with gaming potential. The system part is the bit that he is learning on, so feedback threads like this are worth their weight in gold.

[Malcolm Craig]

I see where we screwed up, now. What is an attributes maximum? I was playing (and we all might have been) playing with no roof for an attribute. I was wandering around with an Action of 14 at one point.

Aha, yes, this could be a case of the text not being clear enough to provide guidance at this point. As Gregor has already mentioend, human attributes max out at 5, although I would allow a character with a starting attribute of five to temporarily go up to 6 with a consequence.

I do think you have hit the nail on  the head though with the setting and system comments. Malcolm creates great settings that are pregnant with gaming potential. The system part is the bit that he is learning on, so feedback threads like this are worth their weight in gold.

Thanks Gregor, I think you're quite right there. Setting and place is something I am very confident about creating, whereas mechanical elements are stuff that I feel I still have a lot to learn. I'm very pleased with the overall way Cold City works, but I realise that it does benefit from serious constructive critique such as this, which is very much appreciated. As you say, worth their weight in gold. So, again, Remi, Andy, Clinton and Jason: thanks.

Cheers
Malcolm