Mechanic for narrative games: opinions?

[SGE]

Good day, and I'm a first time poster...be gentle with me!

I have an idea for a mechanic for a purely homebrew mythic Norse game I'm planning, and wondered if anyone here had tried anything similar, or knew of any comparative commercial games which used it.

Task resolution will use runes.  You know the ones, you've probably seen them in bookshops, the rune sets used for telling fortunes.  It occurred to me that therein might be the germ of an atmospheric task resolution system: the player draws a rune from the bag, the meaning is consulted from the accompanying literature (though I'd probably type them up onto quick-reference index cards) and the player gets to decide the outcome of the task based upon the qualities of the rune.

To give an example:

Ivar the Tiny is in combat with three Frankish peasants during a raid.  The Franks have snatched up makeshift weapons.  Ivar is an inexperienced lad, but is armed for war.  The Franks, however, outnumber him and he is seperated from his shipmates.  Ivar's player (let's call him Rob) announces that he'll stab at the eyes of the Frank to the left, and when he backs away swing his sword across to slash at the one next to him. Rob draws a rune from the bag.  It is Issa, which means, "cessation of energy, freezing an issue where it stands, cooling relationships, separation, division."  Rob thinks for a moment, and says that the feint works a little too well.  Not only did the first Frank jerk backwards to avoid the stab, but so did his fellows, clearly spooked by the attack they all backed off and levelled their long-hafted weapons, making it not only difficult to close for another attack, but they thoroughly block Ivar's escape route to his fellows.  The GM approves of the interpretation, but the scene is left hanging.  Rob announces that he will exploit the peasant's obvious fear by letting out a mighty bellow, swing his sword before him and try to scare them into running.  This time, the rune drawn is Mannaz, meaning, "co-operation, teamwork, collaboration, help and aid from others, beginning new projects, especially with others."  Rob states that his shout attracted the attention of his cousin, Kveld-Ulf, and his foster-brother Snorri who were not as far away as he believed.  They come running and the peasants are no match for the three warriors.  The Franks are quickly killed.

It hasn't yet been playtested, but I like the theory.  It does give a great deal of narrative control to the players, which is something I want.

Opinions please?

Steve

[ADGBoss]

Welcome to the Forge.

I am not 100% proficient in the Runes, though I have a friend who is very good with the Runes (she does them often) and I have been witness to this as she does.

I have had some similar ideas with Tarot Decks, but there are a couple problems associated with these.

1) Potential for insult: Certian people will be offended that your using pagan magic items and others could be insulted you are using something very sacred to them for a game.  The Majority will not care I believe but just a heads up on that.

2) The Vague-ness of the Definitions. Your second example I thought went the other way from what I was reading.  I would have interpretted it that the Franks banded together and attacked me harder.  I think even in a Narrative game, A still must = A so that definitions are deep instead of broad. What I mean by this:

Rune X means Escape. YOu escape the current situation. Now you can narrate any number of avenues of escape but you cannot for instance narrarate a sudden Deity intervention. Or You stab with your sword.  Ok you stab with the sword, narrarate it but I do not want to see a fireball coming down from the sky.

Clearly those are extreme examples, but if you narrow the field of each Rune it might make things a little easier.

Now, why is the player the only one drawing Runes? When do the Franks draw Runes? or do they?  With Tarot you have the possibility of Reverse and reverse meanings but with the Runes, that is not necassarily the case.
(I do not think...hmmmm)

Otherwise I think its a good and novel idea.

Sean
ADGBoss

[Jack Spencer Jr]

The is Wyrd which is a Norse epic game. I had often thought of adding rune stones to the mechanic.

[Mike Holmes]

Yeah, I've often said that I think that Futhark or, if you don't want ot offend anyone, some fantasy set of symbols (I wonder if the Glorantha people would let you use their nifty set) could be used to make Wyrd a more colorful game. As it stands there are only black and white stones in that game.

Another game that you ought to look at is Everway. That game uses a sort of "tarot-like" deck for resolution much in the way you describe above. It also uses another deck of "vision" cards for inspiration in things like character generation.

Mike

[SGE]

Welcome to the Forge.

Thank you, good to be here.

1) Potential for insult: Certian people will be offended that your using pagan magic items and others could be insulted you are using something very sacred to them for a game.  The Majority will not care I believe but just a heads up on that.

Yep, gotcha, although this is a purely homebrew system and I know the guys around my table won't care one way or the other, but it's certainly something to be aware of when introducing others...and if there are any pagans on the board, sorry for any insult caused.

2) The Vague-ness of the Definitions. Your second example I thought went the other way from what I was reading.  I would have interpretted it that the Franks banded together and attacked me harder.  I think even in a Narrative game, A still must = A so that definitions are deep instead of broad. What I mean by this:

Rune X means Escape. YOu escape the current situation. Now you can narrate any number of avenues of escape but you cannot for instance narrarate a sudden Deity intervention. Or You stab with your sword.  Ok you stab with the sword, narrarate it but I do not want to see a fireball coming down from the sky.

Clearly those are extreme examples, but if you narrow the field of each Rune it might make things a little easier.

True, but I think making the definitions pretty vague allows them to be applied to any situation, from violence to social interaction to whether the character's wife conceives this season.  I will concede, however, that greater leeway allows for greater potential for abuse.

Now, why is the player the only one drawing Runes? When do the Franks draw Runes? or do they?  With Tarot you have the possibility of Reverse and reverse meanings but with the Runes, that is not necassarily the case.
(I do not think...hmmmm)

Well in this case, a group of Frankish peasants I would treat as a 'mook' encounter...I would allow more important NPCs their own draw.  I'd like to avoid the D&D style 'frame by frame. blow by blow' combat and have the runes dictate the general flow of the conflict resolution.  There's also the possibility of negative results with runes.  I believe that if a rune (and I'm speaking from vagie memory here) is displayed upside-down in a casting it denotes the opposite effect.

Otherwise I think its a good and novel idea.

Thanks Sean.  The more comments/questions/criticisms I receive, the more I'm forced to question the system and (hopefully!) get the bugs ironed out before play.

Steve

[SGE]

The is Wyrd which is a Norse epic game. I had often thought of adding rune stones to the mechanic.

I'll look out for that, Jack.  Cheers!

[SGE]

Yeah, I've often said that I think that Futhark or, if you don't want ot offend anyone, some fantasy set of symbols (I wonder if the Glorantha people would let you use their nifty set) could be used to make Wyrd a more colorful game. As it stands there are only black and white stones in that game.

Another game that you ought to look at is Everway. That game uses a sort of "tarot-like" deck for resolution much in the way you describe above. It also uses another deck of "vision" cards for inspiration in things like character generation.

Mike

I thought about Everway, which I've never seen only heard about.  I may try to track down a copy for inspiration.  I was also thinking of using a three-rune draw for character generation, but that's a way down the line yet.

[Valamir]

True, but I think making the definitions pretty vague allows them to be applied to any situation, from violence to social interaction to whether the character's wife conceives this season. I will concede, however, that greater leeway allows for greater potential for abuse.

I don't think Sean's issue was with the vagary of the detail, but rather the vagary of the outcome.  Although in this case I found your interpretations to be consistant.

For example, the first rune "cessation of energy".  You clearly targeted this rune AT the character who drew it.  Ivar's energy was ceased...what was Ivar's energy being directed towards?  His successful attack against the peasants.  Therefor, the attack failed the issue was "frozen where it stood".

So the more precise definition that Sean (and I) would be looking for if this is to be a key mechanic instead of a flavor generation prop would be something like: "Current activity of the drawer stops, issue remains unresolved".  This would still allow for the flexibility to apply in any situation, but makes the interpretation much more clear.

In the second example cooperation and aid from others is also applied to the drawer (which is where the consistancy came in for me).