Motifs as questions

[Tor Erickson]

The GM dice.  Of course!  Thanks for pointing that out, Mike.   I remember thinking while I was reading the rules that the GM dice would be a great way for the Guide to encourage certain boundaries.

Chris:  so let me see if I understand what you're saying correctly.  You'd require the player to utilize the motif twice: first when they asked for the roll, and then integrated into the MoV/D.  Is that right?

And I read through my Kabuki last night.  Let's see:  Blood, dragon, dead mother, masks, water (rain).  Any others?  Though my list is skewed because it's only the one volume.  

The Watchmen is a great example, though it's been awhile since my last read, and I don't actually own it, but... try these:  Rorschach: sugar cubes, strong cologne; The Comedian: smiley face, scarred cheek;   or just some other random ones: the perfume bottle, time, the recurring literary themes, the list goes on.

-Tor

[Tor Erickson]

Okay, something else:

Armed with this thread and a copy of TQB I started doing full character writeups last night for the game this weekend.  And I realized something.  It's really hard to incorporate "crescent" into your character story.  I found myself having to really work to figure out how to get in the motifs that I wanted, which leads me to believe that I'm doing it backwards.

What I'm going to try now is to get a list of motifs first, and then write a character story, not worrying too much about whether or not all the motifs make it in.

-Tor

[Bob McNamee]

There are some of James' TQB character examples on the Yahoo indie-netgaming Group site.
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/indie-netgaming/
In the message area, there are Player Character message posts for the write-ups that are being used in the current TQB game James is running.

Landreth, Briant, and Belenus (Agravain is one of James example characters)

[Paganini]

Tor,

Not that there's really a wrong way to do it . . . but . . .

What you're describing isn't really how you make characters, at least not in TQB's default mode. In TQB, the Romance is central. You're creating your character's Romance via play. The existing portion of the Romance is just the part that's already writen, so you can be sure to start someplace interesting.

To create a TQB character, you write a Romance. It's a story. Then you identify the important elements from the story. Those are your motifs. You don't have to work hard to come up with motifs; you don't have to work hard to force motifs into the Romance. It's a very organic process. You write a story, you find the important elements of that story, and you give them dice, based on your perception of their relative importance. Q.E.D. ;)

[Bankuei]

Hi Tor,

Chris: so let me see if I understand what you're saying correctly. You'd require the player to utilize the motif twice: first when they asked for the roll, and then integrated into the MoV/D. Is that right?

Conflicts begin with people deciding which motifs/traits will get used and end when someone(GM or players) describes how the conflict ends.  A motif can get used at the beginning, and perhaps not again, but probably should show up a second time.

I'd definitely back up what Paganini is saying here.  Motifs basically "push" the theme of the game.  

The way I used motifs was a slight drift: I'd include family motifs, crests, group motifs, area motifs, etc. to help players work off of. Such as if the family has the Lion motif, a character may have the "Black Lion" motif or something playing off of it.

Chris

[James V. West]

Hey, great thread!

I'm still re-reading some of these responses. I'm always amazed at how clearly everyone else is able to explain something I created. Will you folks write the game for me? Please? ;-)

The version of TQB that's up right now is, unfortunately, quite poorly written. It's a rough draft. The current draft-in-progress is, hopefully, much better.

At least one of the changes has already been pointed out. In the new rules, you have to declare an Intent before rolling dice. Intent includes very general description of what you want out of a MOV and a MOD. It's working out great in playtest, clearing up absolutely any confusion about what the heck a failed die roll means.

Another change I've put in place is that all die rolls result from either an Idea or a Conflict. This approach is the result of a lot of earlier debate about wether or not such a rule is needed. I think it is, so I went  with it.
This allows me as Guide to initiate a die roll if I need to urge player participation or if I just have a cool idea of my own. I can throw something at the player and declare a Conflict, a die roll follows and narration. Simple. Players don't have to worry about Conflicts. All they have to do is come up with cool Ideas and roll some dice to narrate.

Btw, I *love* all this discussion of theme and use of Motifs. I've been a huge comics fan and creator for years so the idea of visual motifs resonates with me. I'm glad TQB lets players riff off Motifs the same way a comics creator might. Or a film maker, of course.