[No Greater Love] Power 19

[Troy_Costisick]

Heya,

But I see that if you tempt the players with any mechanical continuation or any possible enjoyment after quiting, then, there could be other reasons to quit that the real question, and you don't want that.

Well, they are not totally out of the game.  If another player chooses, they can bring that character back into the story for a short time.  In fact, I imagine that will happen quite often it a person chooses to walk away.  There is a nice bonus for including other people's characters in your story.

Peace,

-Troy

[Arturo G.]

OK. This is more or less what I was expecting or looking for, and I was missing. The players who part away are not controlling the game as previously, they cannot initiate active play. But they are still around and can be summoned by other players to participate on their scenes. And you have already include an incentive for this to happen.

Now it is pretty clear to me.
Thanks, Troy!

[Mikael]

I want the players to feel emotion in this game.  I want them to feel anger, despondence, fear, sadness, and so on.

This struck me as rather harsh. Is the whole point of your game really to make the players feel nothing but negative emotions when playing it? Not a sales pitch that would attract me. I mean, caring is fine, induced emotion and catharsis likewise, but I would still like to retain at least the chance for joy and fun. Do you see your game as some sort of a therapeutic tool?

[Troy_Costisick]

Heya,

I want the players to feel emotion in this game.  I want them to feel anger, despondence, fear, sadness, and so on.

This struck me as rather harsh. Is the whole point of your game really to make the players feel nothing but negative emotions when playing it? Not a sales pitch that would attract me. I mean, caring is fine, induced emotion and catharsis likewise, but I would still like to retain at least the chance for joy and fun. Do you see your game as some sort of a therapeutic tool?

I forgot to list one:  Thankfulness.  Thankful that the beloved is saved and preserved.  Thankful that it's all just imagined.  And thankful that we don't face these situations every day.  I imagine the game will amplify the appreciation the players already feel for whatever they choose as their beloved.  The game does invoke a lot of negatie emotions, but those are contrasted by the knowledge that in real life, those beloved things are with us and not in danger.  They comfort us, and we comfort them.  Thanks for pointing this aspect out.  I should have elaborated on it more.

Peace,

-Troy

[Troy_Costisick]

Heya Malcom!

This all sounds very interesting, but I'd like to hear more about who sets the difficulty level and what the constraints upon it might be. Is it wholly up to the GM, players or the groups as a whole to decide what the level of difficulty in any given situation might be?

I love dystopian (if I can use such a cliche) urban settings, so the brief descriptions of your city sound fascinating. Any chance you'd be able to tell us more about the five areas and how you see them influencing play? On a personal note, this sounds very mcuh like what I should have done years ago with a|state, with a focus on hope and despair!

I'm finally getting around to answering you!  I kept trying to think about the best way to answer your question and explain the resolution stuff to you, but then in came to me.  That's what the game's text does.  Why not just post that?  So that's what I'm going to do.  These are the sections on rolling dice and narrating the end of a contest.

On rolling dice...

In No Greater Love players use six sided dice (d6) to resolve conflicts of interest.  After Intentions are declared and the two players are ready for their characters to act out the conflict, they each roll a pool of dice.  The player of the Antagonist will always go first.  The Protagonist will roll a number of d6 equal to his Faith Pool.  The character opposing the Protagonist will roll a number of dice equal to the Protagonist's Weakness Pool. 

The opposing character's player (usually the GM) will roll first.  He rolls his collection of dice and consults the table below:

-Each die that results in a 1-3, the roll is counted as a Failure.
-Each die that results in a 4-6, the roll is counted as a Success.

For each Success a player gets on a roll, his opponent loses 1 Resolve and he gets to narrate something his character does.  It could be anything from "I throw a punch" to "I shoot him with my pistol" to "I successfully argue that he owes me a favor."  After the opposing player rolls his dice and narrates his character's actions, the Protagonist's player rolls his dice and narrates the actions of his character.  If both characters still have Resolve left in their Pools, then the above process is repeated (again starting with the opposing character).  If any character's Resolve is brought to zero, move on to the next phase of Resolution.

On the limits of narration...

When a character's Resolve hits zero, several things happen.  First, he loses the confrontation.  Second, if the loser was a Protagonist, he gains a Fate Point.  If a Protagonist's Fate Points ever equals his Fate Pool, he fails his quest to save his Beloved and dies (Death is explained later on).  Third, the winning player gets to narrate the result of the confrontation. 

There are some specific rules players must follow when narrating these results.  The death of the Protagonist cannot be narrated by anyone but the Protagonist's player.  So if the GM wins a conflict, he can narrate anything his character does, but he cannot kill the Protagonist.  This doesn't mean he can't mess him up pretty bad, though.  Also, if the winner was not the Protagonist's player, he cannot kill the Beloved.  Harming the Beloved is fine.  Hiding the Beloved is fine.  However, you cannot kill or destroy the Beloved unless the Protagonist dies. 

If the winner was the Protagonist's player, then he has a few more options.  He can narrate almost anything he wants.  He is welcome to dispatch any opposing character or destroy that character's hideout.  He can also go into great detail about how he goes about getting what he wants.  If the Protagonist defeats an Agent, he learns that Agent's Secret- which is usually the location of the Beloved or a person who knows where the Beloved is.  If the Protagonist defeats his Antagonist, he saves his Beloved but dies somehow in the process.

I hope this sheads some more light on your question.  Let me know if you have any more

Peace,

-Troy