13 Virtues - Can resource pools be dramatic?

[sdanic]

I love pulp and cinematic action games. I also love resource pools. However, when I see resource pools in practice, characters tend to become less and less heroic as their pools dwindle. This flies in the face of cinematic gameplay.

I've attempted to solve this by allowing a resource pool refresh whenever the character's world-view changes. This can be the result of a new piece of information, or the voluntary dismissal of one of the character's "virtues".

Here's my game: 13 Virtues

(The format is a little different. It's two pages, to be printed single-sided, then folded into two 8-page booklets. For folding instructions see www.pocketmod.com . The first booklet contains the gameplay instructions and one character sheet. The second page is a workbook for building your own setting. )

I'd love to here people's thoughts about whether resource pools can facilitate dramatic action gaming.

...Steve

[sdanic]

Hmm. Try this:
http://www.memes.net-a.googlepages.com/13VirtuesCompleteRoleplayingGame.pdf

[sdanic]

1.) What is your game about?
It's about perseverance. How much a character can take before they give up.

It's a system rather than a setting. It's intended to facilitate dramatic structure with a simple resource pool conflict resolution system.
That said, it should work fairly well for pulp and cinematic gameplay.

2.) What do the characters do?
They persevere until they're drained. They might then discover that things aren't what they seem. Or they might abandon their core values (Virtues).

3.) What do the players (including the GM if there is one) do?
Write down a few things the character likes to do (their virtues), then use a deck of cards to represent the resource pool and handle conflict resolution.

[Reprobus]

So you know the BIG Three. What about the Power 19? (http://socratesrpg.blogspot.com/2006/01/what-are-power-19-pt-1.html)

[andrew_kenrick]

I like resource pools too, and agree that there is always the danger that a player gets too caught up into resource management, and is reluctant to spend them.

I think the answer you've adopted is a good one, but how often do you expect their world view to change? And is there the risk that they will change their world view just to get a refresh?

I think the key is definitely giving players the power to refresh their pools - that way they feel they have control to refresh when they want, and therefore are more likely to spend points as they feel in control. But attach some sort of price or fee to the refresh - they can refresh when they want, if they pay the price.

How about tying the level of the pools to the cinematic action? So the fewer the points they have, the more meaningful and influential each one becomes, giving players an incentive to keep spending rather than hoarding. Or make the "bottom" of the pool tempting in some way, so something happens when they hit 0, good or bad.

[Filip Luszczyk]

Hmm, I'm getting some errors when I try to open the document.

As for the price of refresh, if it's about changing one's worldview, remember that the character most probably does not live in a social void. There may be people he's connected to who are going to react to the character's change of beliefs once these become obvious. E.g. a newly reformed revolutionary will probably find his former comrades hostile towards him when he tries to change their ways or starts supporting the government (the government officials in turn probably won't be immediately friendly towards him). You could toy with giving characters some relationships/connections tied to his views - and every change of beliefs could change the nature of these ties (maybe there could be some rules for proving oneself to former enemies and rivals after reformation and the like).

[sdanic]

I think the answer you've adopted is a good one, but how often do you expect their world view to change? And is there the risk that they will change their world view just to get a refresh?

I expect a refresh once or twice per game, tied to dramatic trigger events. Originally I conceived a single plotline with a typical climax event, but now I realize that each character has their own plotline with different triggers, reversals and climaxes. Therefore, some characters may wallow in despair longer than others.

I think the key is definitely giving players the power to refresh their pools - that way they feel they have control to refresh when they want, and therefore are more likely to spend points as they feel in control. But attach some sort of price or fee to the refresh - they can refresh when they want, if they pay the price.

Originally, I allowed a refresh anytime they dropped a virtue, but virtues are gained so easily that I might change it to "drop your highest ranked virtue".

...make the "bottom" of the pool tempting in some way, so something happens when they hit 0, good or bad.

Great idea! Perhaps a free virtue gain (XP) when they bottom out. Or possibly a free virtue inversion. "do this thing" becomes "don't do this thing".



I'm not sure why google pages is having a hard time serving the pdf.
You can try this: http://www.memes.net/13VirtuesCompleteRoleplayingGame.pdf
Although I suspect it will be similar. I'll have to look for a new host.

[Valamir]

As an alternative to using situational refreshes to counter the dwindling pool problem you might use a debt system.

Frex:  you start with 10 points, you've dwindled down to 2, you need to spend 6.
the problem is that its unheroic that a hero doesn't have the points to spend 6.

So let them spend 6.  Its just that the extra 4 points...come back to haunt you later.  That's the Karmic debt your character owes the Universe and the Universe (i.e. the GM) will collect.

So when Ulysseus gets lost on his way home from Troy its because he incurred tons of this debt pulling the Tojan Horse out of his hat, and the GM nailed him with it.

When your hero defeats his enemy on the wall of the holy city, he returns home to find his wife has been killed and his home burned. 

That way the player has the heroic choice...I *need* to succeed here...but how much future pain am I willing to heap on myself (or worse, my friends and family) as a result. 

And I think the collateral fall out on friends and family is key...the Universe doesn't care about fair; its going to collect its debt from someone.  So you wind up with the player not only making choices that effect others, but you then have the potential for the hero himself to become a pariah for the harm he brings others..."people tend to get dead around you"...Elric being a great example.

[joepub]

Steve, did you want me to post a playtest report/discussion in the Playtesting thread?

I can recount the feedback me and Chad gave you, and maybe add some stuff about the text and physical format.

The things that I really like about the game:
-suit narration
-Due to the whole suit narration thing and Perseverance Damage thing, you can really allow the outcomes to change and evolve depending on who wins each flip with what suit.

During my Inquisition scene, when I won with Hearts I was like, "How do I turn an interrogation, where I just put a drillbit through the guy's stomach, into an emotional win?" Everytime this kind of thing happened, it made the game more interesting, and it shifted the stakes.

[sdanic]

Thanks Joe. It would be fantastic if you post your playtest feedback!

I'm going to modify the game to include much of it.

"Stakes" aren't really necessary if each risposte is narrated by the victor.