I need help coming up with a way in which conflicts (when the rules are used) formally begin and end. I'm just generally unhappy with leaving it purely up to fictional constraints, because that seems a little cheap to me. Right now conflicts begin when someone wants to roll the dice or when the GM can spend points to make them (his points are fixed) and end when no one can think of anything else to roll for. Does this work. Should there be something more overarching.

need more info.

GM spends points to enter conflict?
Who wants to enter conflict and why?

Players want to enter conflict because outside of the dice mechanics the GM trumps them. You can say, I stab at the guy with my sword, and the GM can say, he parries and knocks you down, until you say, "No he didn't" and pick up some dice.

The GM has a score called his Stance that relates to each character. The bigger the Stance the nastier he gets to be towards that character in the narrative, sort of like Bad Stuff in Amber (if you know it). He can lower the Stance to mechanically make bad stuff happens. He does this to try and stop the characters from achieving either the agreed upon group Quest or the character specific mechanically indicated Desires of the individual character.

So if you want to date this chick, its your Desire, the GM can be as hold off-ish and aggressive and saying no to you as he wants, but you can keep trying. The GM can enter into a Conflict in order to force you to surrender that tactic and turn to something else or the player can enter a conflict to make it so the girl falls for his charms already...

This is something I've been trying to tackle for a while through my series of blog entries this year.

The idea is that games can be described by something called "Vector Theory"...the story travels in straight lines and the game elements are decision points that turn the story in various directions. The combination of these form a roleplaying game, with different games drawing on story paths or game choices in different ways.

As a formal game development based on this theorizing, I came up with my recent game FUBAR.

I could bombard you with dozens of pages about the ideas I've come up with regarding this subject, but a quick look at the blog and the game will probably be more helpful.

V

thanks for the info, i'll read through it and see if theres any answers for my game design needs