Observations of the Fox

  27. Hunger The first thing to come to mind with this prompt is naturally the systems that have evolved in Vampire the Masquerade. The first version that continued from the first incarnations of the game through to the 20th Anniversary Edition (which I still think was the climax of the line) had a point pool system. You'd drink blood to fill up the pool, while waking up, healing and using certain powers would deplete the pool. It was a nice balancing mechanism that really fit well with the genre being emulated, but still had an easily understood way that it functioned in play. The newer incarnations of the system have a diue that is rolled instead of a pool that is gradually refilled and depleted. It makes things a bit more dramatic because you don't know if your character is going to become more ravenous when you use a power, or if they're going to remain stable at this stage. The downside here is that it strips a little more agency away from the player, they don't ha...

 ....some kind of viral infection has taken me down over the last couple of days, so this should have been posted 2 days ago. Sorry 25. Familiarity One of the things I love about being familiar with a bunch of different games is being able to bring across fun game mechanics from one system and use them to tailor the session experience in another. I also love it when different players in a group are familiar with different elements of play, and various members of the group can become the default experts for specific subsystems. This was really apparent in the old LARP campaigns I was a part of (and often ran). There was simply too mush happening for one person to handle, so sub-GMs became necessary, each being familiar with the stuff they knew best... one handled the gods, one handled trade, one handled the town guard, etc... I've seen a few smaller scale tabletop games split GM duties in similar ways, but I haven't necessarily experienced this done successfully in a more intima...

  23. Fortune Chance, randomness, the whims of things outside our control. One of the key elements in many TTRPGs is the way it brings random fortune into the game. There was a lot of talk about "fortune at the end" or "fortune in the middle" back at The Forge, I even remember some folks proposing an idea of "fortune at the beginning", but what does this all mean. Like a lot of my posts, I'm going to paraphrase based on memory as I describe this, and probably modify the original intentions to mesh with my current thoughts about game sessions.  "Fortune at the end" reflects a system where players state their intentions for the upcoming events, perhaps focusing on their characters actions or some other element of the narrative, then they declare everything that will modify the potential outcome in some way. Beneficial factors, problematic ones, positive outcomes, negative results, then the cards are drawn, dice are rolled, tea-leaves are read, ...

  21.Charity A loose definition here might be "giving to those in need", and in a TTRPG context it often means sharing the load of the storytelling, or sharing the limelight with someone who might not have been getting their share. I always try to offer these chances to less active players whether I'm the GM or a player. Similarly, where possible, I'll try to set up scenes and actions that not only give other players the opportunity to influence the session, but offer the ability to highlight aspects of their characters that may not have been revealed yet. I want to help facilitate their escapism, to make the game memorable and fun.  TTRPGs are not a zero-sum game. If every individual member of the group is having fun, then the group's overall fun increases too. I always want players to come back. 22. Grit The amount of grit in a TTRPG can really influence whether or not certain players will respond to the themes within. Gritty TTRPGs often focus on survival again...

(Let's hope we don't get jumbled up again... I must have been tired that day)   19. Desire Desires, goals, motives, needs, things that people want are one of their key defining factors... however, a lot of games ignore this vital part of character development. Perhaps it's left as an element of the fruitful void, which is that part of the game that rules circles around but which is ever addressed in the rules so the players can work it out for themselves at the table. As a bare minimum I give every named NPC a desire, when they need a bit more rounding out, I give them a positive desire (something they are trying to achieve) and a negative desire (something they are trying to avoid). Then I give them a strength and a weakness... most NPCs don't need more than this, but if they become key parts of the story, I might work them up with a full character sheet. At the basic level, the desires of NPCs pull on their narrative, and their web of needs impacts on the player chara...

After the stuff up a few days ago, I'm in the second day of re-aligning the RPGaDay posts. So that means we're getting back to where we should be... (but running a day late) 17. Endurance (which was actually the prompt from day 15) Endurance reminds me of an idea we had for conventions in the 1990s. Australian Freeforms have been mentioned a few times here on the blog. They're basically a style of gaming for 15+ players, sometimes reaching a hundred or more, with various roaming GMs and a co-ordinating GM. They're a very immersive style of play, and can e hard for tabletop gamers to grok. Typically the games start slow with everyone having their own agendas, but one-by-one those agendas become entangled and each players motives start pulling on groups of players, and decisions have to be made.  At those conventions in the 90s we would often hire a venue for an entire long weekend (Sat-Sun-Mon). Registration for games would occur on the Friday evening, sometimes with pr...