Hi and welcome back to Narrative Control. This episode I yoinked an excerpt from Things We Think About Games. “Take Your Turn Already”
Hosts: Sean Nittner and Eric Fattig[00:26] Intro to the Show and to Eric Fattig
[00:44] Open Design Podcast Promo
[01:18] Welcome 2010 and some bad audio (it gets better soon)
[01:35] I love introducing my co-hosts wrong. Eric Fattig takes the stage.
[02:10] “Take Your Turn Already” – From Things We Think About Games by Will Hindmarch and Jeff Tidball. Also, the audio improves here.
[02:51] Reading time with Sean
[03:24] Classic board game example: Placing settlements in Settlers of Catan
[04:57] How this applies to role-playing games. Mechanical stumbling blocks in crunchy games.
[05:22] This still happens in rules-light games as players hesitate over choices about what to do regarding their character and the plot.
[05:37] Sean’s loathes planning sessions. John Wick’s “Dirty Dungeon” from Wilderness of Mirrors.
[06:22] Our L5R game runs in a round robin style of play so we definitely see it when someone holds up the game because they can’t decide what to do.
[07:26] All you need to know is “Be Cool”
[08:00] Player agency. How does it apply here? We all want to do something cool, which can cause us to stall when we can’t think of something cool to do.
[09:06] How do board games address “bad decisions”? Catch up mechanics, immediate penalization that corrects behavior, and victory point mechanics that rate performance after the fact.
[10:52] A fear players have that a bad decision will affect them in ways they don’t want for an extended period time.
[11:55] Many games mechanically are forgiving. You can lose a few hit points and keep smacking firbolgs in the face.
[12:54] Story elements however can be less forgiving. There are things the GM can do to encourage people to take chances.
[13:40] Lead by example. Create NPCs that have made mistakes and survived and become more interesting because of it. Make flawed characters the norm.
[17:20] Take things out of game. Let the players know that you will give them a warning if they are about to do something that could make the game un-fun.
[18:42] As an extension of this, negotiate stakes so the players know what will happen before the dice are rolled.
[19:54] The players can also help. If they are rooting for you, you feel a lot safer in taking risks.
[21:50] It’s fun to be spontaneous. It’s not like our characters have forever to decide what to do.
[22:47] In World of Warcraft, My #2 key is bound to Charge just for Arthas.
Direct download: NC_Episode_041.mp3
Great episode! The idea of a 'catch up mechanic' was really interesting. Can you think of any rpgs/story games that have something similar? Seems like the idea might apply to the skill experience system in Mouse Guard where you're failures ultimately help you go up in a skill.
I think in Mouse Guard earning checks is not really a catch up mechanic because you haven't gotten behind. I mean, there are few bad choices in the game and a failed roll just creates more interesting story. The fact that you can impeded yourself with traits to earn checks is more about tailoring the flavor of the story to be one where sacrifices have to be made to win in the end.
If you think I'm on crack though, and do consider Mouse Guard a catch up, then I would say that Full Light, Full Steam has the same mechanic. You have to "charge" your batteries by doing something detrimental before you can use them for something good. Also, Swashbucklers of the 7 Skies allows your character to take Vexing Misfortunes to horribly hose your character for Style Dice you can use to kick butt later in the game.
What I can see as a catch up mechanic is how most games handle player death. If we're playing 25th level Dungeons and Dragons Epic adventures and a character leaves the story, most games will encourage you to replace that with another 25th level character, rather than a frist level peon. Other games like Burning Wheel will tell you that by all means, burn a new character. He or she is going to learn A LOT.
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