Topic: the PCs have stats, and everything else is a diff. level
Started by: Matt Wilson
Started on: 11/1/2002
Board: RPG Theory
On 11/1/2002 at 4:41pm, Matt Wilson wrote:
the PCs have stats, and everything else is a diff. level
If anyone's done something like this already (I'm coming to expect it), can you point me to a game to check out?
Anyway, on to this idea...
In this game I'm working on (which I've posted a few bits of), only the player characters have traits/descriptors/etc. Everything else is just a plot-based difficulty level, implemented as an opposed roll. If the player gets successes over that roll, then the player narrates. If the GM gets successes, then the GM asks the player what the general goal was and narrates (GM successes I think will usually imply complications rather than outright failure, but that section isn't in writing yet).
To make it very story oriented, I was thinking that the difficulty level would be based on the scene, not the action, so that in a very dramatic situation, everything the PC does is challenging. Want to climb the wall? It's the same difficulty as talking your way past the guard, or attacking the guard, etc. In a less important scene, the wall wouldn't be as slick, and the guard would be poorly armed or a little slow, but they're all tied together.
The way the system works should prevent the structure above from locking PCs into their "one specialty action," which you might get in a heavily skill-based game like GURPS. If every action is just as hard, then you'd pick one skill and max it, right? Can't do that in this game.
On 11/1/2002 at 4:54pm, Christoffer Lernö wrote:
RE: the PCs have stats, and everything else is a diff. level
Hohoho. I never thought I would reference actual mechanics of THE EVIL, since it's more of a lack of them but... Well THE EVIL does what you're talking about here's the link. It had player narration when succeeding with traits but it wasn't necessary and I thought it would screw up the horror feeling. The original relase with player narration (which never actually was used in play) is here.
It's not the world's most elegant design, but it is what you describe.
On 11/1/2002 at 8:39pm, Mike Holmes wrote:
RE: the PCs have stats, and everything else is a diff. level
Some confusing statements above. Are you saying that for a particular scene all the opposition rolls will be the same level? If so, I'm not sure about the last paragraph. Could you restate?
I think that I remember some system having "scene difficulty", but you know, I can't remember it.
Actually, Chistoffer, I'm not sure what you see as the similar parts. I don't think it's the player narration that he was referring to as the interesting part (that's been around since The Pool, an everybody and their brother uses it these days).
Mike
On 11/1/2002 at 9:57pm, Matt Wilson wrote:
RE: the PCs have stats, and everything else is a diff. level
Mike Holmes wrote: Some confusing statements above. Are you saying that for a particular scene all the opposition rolls will be the same level? If so, I'm not sure about the last paragraph. Could you restate?
Mike
I may not use the "one number" approach, but I think that general numbers will replace most things, like NPC stats, so that going up against a steep wall is the same process as going up against a squad of mooks.
I think the way my system works, it'll be hard to minmax without being really excessive, and if someone makes that effort, then who am I to get in the way of, uh... "fun?"
Seriously, though, it's hard to get really specialized with the system, so that there's a whopping diminished return on descriptors, and how you apply successes requires even more spreading out. When I finish drafting it, I'll post a link. I'm having a hard time summarizing it.