So here are a few updates I've been considering for the mechanix of Scattershot.
Mode Switching
Instead of everything stopping when the dice come out, I'm toying with the idea of converting the current mechanix to a 'silent mode' mechanic. For example, someone is narrating along on their merry way and another player at the table decides that the situation needs some complication. Rather than stopping the discourse, he simply tosses an experience die on the table, a challenge if you will. I need to think out the resolution / application though.
Pull Mechanix
I sorry to say, but I'm really attracted to these kinds of rules. One thought was to prompt players to team up their chara by urging a Pull technique using only people actively involved in the scene. I'm also trying to wrap my mind around the idea of Pull as a form of setting stakes. Mostly I want to get far away from letting dice override a player's choices. (I'd like resource management do that.)
Positive Failure Stakes
I'd also like to get away from one-sided stakes; that is, either you do some complicated thing or nothing happens. The olde gaming false dichotomy. For example (I don't know if it will work like this), when the dice say you don't pick the lock, the result isn't 'the lock stays locked', it would be 'when working on the lock fails, you notice an open second story window.' A positive failure, if you will.
Danger
Some types of gaming allow you to face permanent character death in order to create tension. This only escalates the false dichotomy problem. One bad die roll and you're back to making yet another chara. What is really needed are some kind of mechanix of tension. Instead of failure results, I've been pushing more towards furthering complications. In a way, making a new chara is quite a complication, but it's a bit of an extreme. I'm thinking that a type of clearer stakes might make for a better tension mechanic. If you know that it all comes down to one die throw, the pressure is certainly on. (But often doesn't fit many genre expectations.)
Spotlighting
I'm also playing on the idea I just posted on my Heretic Blog, spotlight time might be a better way of mediating resolution. Perhaps, rather than failing a simple action and thwarting an entire movement, perhaps a dramatic increase in complication is what 'failure' means. Thus, 1) you succeed and do the thing you wanted to varying levels of quality or 2) something goes wrong and dumps you into a hell of complications (the intensity of which would be based on a running tension level). In 1) you get what you wanted and in 2) you get a lot more spotlight time dealing with the new complications. Both are rewards, but I can hide #2 cleverly in the mechanix. (Actually, thinking back, this is how I frequently run.)
Suggesting Complications
While I haven't had many ideas about prompting or the rationale, I have had some ideas about player-introduced complication. So far I've been trying to figure out where it would feel most like a typical game. Interrupting a narrative (as above) is pretty far out there. Creating the complication replacing the typical game's failure is closer. I also considered scene staging might be interesting; the gamemaster asks why your chara is in a certain situation and another player comes up with an interesting story 'hook' you might have been following. (This is also Pullish, right?) I'm not sure that would work; I still need to work out how much 'power' I can steal from the gamemaster before people realize that this isn't your daddy's role-playing game.
Still thinking. More in 14!
Fang Langford
Mode Switching
Instead of everything stopping when the dice come out, I'm toying with the idea of converting the current mechanix to a 'silent mode' mechanic. For example, someone is narrating along on their merry way and another player at the table decides that the situation needs some complication. Rather than stopping the discourse, he simply tosses an experience die on the table, a challenge if you will. I need to think out the resolution / application though.
Pull Mechanix
I sorry to say, but I'm really attracted to these kinds of rules. One thought was to prompt players to team up their chara by urging a Pull technique using only people actively involved in the scene. I'm also trying to wrap my mind around the idea of Pull as a form of setting stakes. Mostly I want to get far away from letting dice override a player's choices. (I'd like resource management do that.)
Positive Failure Stakes
I'd also like to get away from one-sided stakes; that is, either you do some complicated thing or nothing happens. The olde gaming false dichotomy. For example (I don't know if it will work like this), when the dice say you don't pick the lock, the result isn't 'the lock stays locked', it would be 'when working on the lock fails, you notice an open second story window.' A positive failure, if you will.
Danger
Some types of gaming allow you to face permanent character death in order to create tension. This only escalates the false dichotomy problem. One bad die roll and you're back to making yet another chara. What is really needed are some kind of mechanix of tension. Instead of failure results, I've been pushing more towards furthering complications. In a way, making a new chara is quite a complication, but it's a bit of an extreme. I'm thinking that a type of clearer stakes might make for a better tension mechanic. If you know that it all comes down to one die throw, the pressure is certainly on. (But often doesn't fit many genre expectations.)
Spotlighting
I'm also playing on the idea I just posted on my Heretic Blog, spotlight time might be a better way of mediating resolution. Perhaps, rather than failing a simple action and thwarting an entire movement, perhaps a dramatic increase in complication is what 'failure' means. Thus, 1) you succeed and do the thing you wanted to varying levels of quality or 2) something goes wrong and dumps you into a hell of complications (the intensity of which would be based on a running tension level). In 1) you get what you wanted and in 2) you get a lot more spotlight time dealing with the new complications. Both are rewards, but I can hide #2 cleverly in the mechanix. (Actually, thinking back, this is how I frequently run.)
Suggesting Complications
While I haven't had many ideas about prompting or the rationale, I have had some ideas about player-introduced complication. So far I've been trying to figure out where it would feel most like a typical game. Interrupting a narrative (as above) is pretty far out there. Creating the complication replacing the typical game's failure is closer. I also considered scene staging might be interesting; the gamemaster asks why your chara is in a certain situation and another player comes up with an interesting story 'hook' you might have been following. (This is also Pullish, right?) I'm not sure that would work; I still need to work out how much 'power' I can steal from the gamemaster before people realize that this isn't your daddy's role-playing game.
Still thinking. More in 14!
Fang Langford
posted by Fang Langford at 3:37 PM
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