[D&D] (Dreamation) "Well Met in Mankara"

[Mel White]

[StefanDirkLahr]

Nifty little summary - especially number 5!

I've been trying to use techniques such as that in all of the Iron Heroes games i've been playing & preparing since buying the book last year, with a certain amount of sucess. Next time i play, i think i'm going to use that Tracking example to help get everyone on the same page - it's seems like a good one!

So a question that goes to that point - How do you resolve situations where setting stakes right to the heart of the conflict interferes with a character special ability (feat, etc)? Have you encountered any?

(In my last game i noticed that one of the other player's characters had an ability, dealing with finding traps, which we kept eclisping in bringing the characters into conflict. Of course, I suppose the solution is simply to not use those traits...)


Also, i like your notion of hooking up a "hero points" system to a character's traits/qualities...

[Bill_White]

The two uses of action points that I thought contributed the most to the success of this adventure, and led to really engaging play, were (1) being able to buy into a scene, which meant that we were paying attention to what was happening to the other guys to see if they needed us, and (2) getting them back by invoking a weakness, trait, or flaw that would make a difference in play (e.g., "I'm frail, so I blow my Fortitude save automatically, okay?  Give me an action point back"), which meant that we weren't automatically doing the tactically optimal thing.  We had more choices in play. And having a stack of chips to toss in, rather than tracking them on paper, helped make that resource concrete.

[Mel White]

So a question that goes to that point - How do you resolve situations where setting stakes right to the heart of the conflict interferes with a character special ability (feat, etc)? Have you encountered any?

[Judd]

Mel,

Could you talk about the gamers at your table.  I'm assuming Shawn is the Shawn I know from too many Dreamation and Dexcon games to mention but what were the others at your table made up of?

Judd

[Mel White]

The players were my brother Bill White, Dave Petroski, Shawn DeArment--as you guessed, Mike Ferguson, who has written some Dungeon Crawl Classics for Goodman Games, and last but not least, Vincent--whose last name I don't recall.  So it was a good group of players who were more than willing to try both the optional rules from the D&D books as well as the more narrative freedom allowed by the action point currency.  Bill and I, of course, played a lot of D&D in high school, as well as The Fantasy Trip (I have to plug TFT) and lesser amounts of games like Traveller and Champions.  We rarely play together anymore--except at conventions.  Bill and Dave worked together on Ganakagok and Technolust.  Dave, Bill and I had played D&D twice before--once at the DEXCON game I mentioned in my first post.  I've played a handful of games with Shawn at DEXCON, Southern Exposure, and earlier at Dreamation.  I didn't know Mike or Vince until the game.  Vince told us that he had played a little bit of D&D but was generally new to RPGs.  I'd guess he was in his twenties...he seemed to enjoy the game.  I hope he did. 
Mel