Public Enemy #1: The Fade
I have been running and playing roleplaying games (RPGs) for over thirty years now (I’m old! Mid forties! Argh!) and I have seen my fair share of stories come to an end. Sometimes it’s because the story is done – like a TV show, the players, after several season’s worth of story-telling may decide to conclude the story and move on to a new one. However, much of the time it’s not a planned end – instead it’s cancelled or goes on indefinite hiatus, usually never to return. Sadly, this happens all too often...
commentTotems and Tracking Traits, oh my!
The base mechanic in Dream Factory is the Outcome Check(OC), which you use for, well, determining outcomes – whether it’s the player or the GM that gets to decide how something turns out. In order to win an OC, the player needs to get a higher total than the GM – so the more dice they can roll, the better a chance the player has to do that. Players get extra dice by invoking Traits. Each character sheet has four listed, descriptors of the player’s character’s four most dramatically central aspects, invented by the...
commentDo we need Ding in our RPGs? Part II
Carrying on from the previous post, I spoke about not needing character advancement in a role-playing game – but does not having advancement mean not having ways to award players? Hardly. Take my game for example. In Dream Factory there are two kinds of awards, point based and plot based. You get a Karma point each episode for embracing your character’s personal struggle – whatever that is, whether you succeed or fail – so long as your success or failure is dramatically interesting. You also also are given a...
commentDo we need Ding in our RPGs? Part I
Since the early days, we’ve had character advancement in our role-playing games. The classic example goes something like this: The players stumble upon an encampment of some sort of designated monster race – say, goblins – and then the players proceed to attempt to slaughter them. After a dramatic combat, when the players emerge “victorious”, each killed goblin nets the players a certain amount of “XP” or “experience points”, as does any collected treasure. And the players are hungry for as much XP as...
commentScott Pilgrim, or Dare to Fail
[Multiple spoilers may follow. Just sayin’.] Recently I watched Scott Pilgrim vs. the World for the second time and roundabout the same time I had a friend telling me how very much he didn’t like the movie. But as I was watching it I was mesmerized by the approach to storytelling the movie took. It may well be, at least in this writer’s opinion, the most authentic translation of a comic book/video game to film – certainly the most ambitious. It was a unique and fascinating experience. And yet, for all its...
commentPaving the way versus “earning” it
I was working on a facet of the Dream Factory 2.0 improved Boon system, talking it over with some of my friends and playtesters, when the subject naturally turned to how the acquisition of a new Boon, such as increased wealth, a new magical artifact, or a powerful ally, is justified. And quickly I was presented with one of gaming’s most common conflations – paving the way for a story event or change versus earning it. There are quite a few gamers out there (you know who you are, grin) that are all about the pursuit of...
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