DotM: Simplification!
Aug. 2nd, 2008 05:46 pm![[identity profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/openid.png){kind=small}
drcpunk.livejournal.com posting in ![[community profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/community.png){kind=small}
labcatsI like simple. Simple is good.
At the same time, as![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
crash_mccormick pointed out, something that is just fine for a 4 hour larp may be too simple for a weekend long larp.
That said, one of the major concerns both I andzrealm have had about Dark of the Moon is the complexity of the senses system. mnemex has maintained that it's complex from the gms' point of view, as we need to frontload a lot, but simple from the player's point of view. zrealm said that either the system would be a disaster or it would work as mnemex said it would. And there matters rested for a time.
But a few days ago, mnemex found a way to simplify the system. Previously, the plan was to have three levels of senses as follows:
0 level: This is what you should be able to tell about a character just by looking at him or her. No envelopes. This is information encoded on the badge or in a Who's Who sheet that almost everyone gets. I say "almost everyone" because I can forsee that there might be reasons for very specific exceptions.
1 level: This is what you should be able to tell after five minutes of speaking with a character. The character's player gives you an envelope. You read its contents and hand it back so that the player can give it to the next person.
2 level: This is what certain people will be able to find out about certain characters if they use their limited use special senses, whether that's a Sense Trouble, a Dog's Nose, a Great Detective roll or whatever.
What mnemex has suggested is simplifying the 1 level senses as follows:
1 level: If my character already has reason to know your character, I should already have your character's level 1 information in my character sheet. For example, one character has clearly spent at least five minutes prior to the game conversing with his family and the other people they traveled with. Therefore, the information in these characters' level 1 envelopes should appear verbatim in that character's sheet, probably in a What You Know About Whom section.
This should cut down on a lot of annoyance on the players' end.
At the same time, as
crash_mccormick pointed out, something that is just fine for a 4 hour larp may be too simple for a weekend long larp.That said, one of the major concerns both I and
zrealm have had about Dark of the Moon is the complexity of the senses system. mnemex has maintained that it's complex from the gms' point of view, as we need to frontload a lot, but simple from the player's point of view. zrealm said that either the system would be a disaster or it would work as mnemex said it would. And there matters rested for a time.But a few days ago, mnemex found a way to simplify the system. Previously, the plan was to have three levels of senses as follows:
0 level: This is what you should be able to tell about a character just by looking at him or her. No envelopes. This is information encoded on the badge or in a Who's Who sheet that almost everyone gets. I say "almost everyone" because I can forsee that there might be reasons for very specific exceptions.
1 level: This is what you should be able to tell after five minutes of speaking with a character. The character's player gives you an envelope. You read its contents and hand it back so that the player can give it to the next person.
2 level: This is what certain people will be able to find out about certain characters if they use their limited use special senses, whether that's a Sense Trouble, a Dog's Nose, a Great Detective roll or whatever.
What mnemex has suggested is simplifying the 1 level senses as follows:
1 level: If my character already has reason to know your character, I should already have your character's level 1 information in my character sheet. For example, one character has clearly spent at least five minutes prior to the game conversing with his family and the other people they traveled with. Therefore, the information in these characters' level 1 envelopes should appear verbatim in that character's sheet, probably in a What You Know About Whom section.
This should cut down on a lot of annoyance on the players' end.
![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
no subject
Date: 2008-08-04 09:00 pm (UTC)It doesn't really cut down that much on -our- annoyance; since we still need to stuff just as many envelopes (because a level 1 infoblock for player X is not unlikely to be a level 2 infoblock for player Y, not to mention that player Z might be able to get it as a level -1- infoblock using a (resource consuming) magic spell, kinda making it a level 1.5 block. (in fact, sense enhancing / fooling (got to be careful with these, but outright illusion is actually better than invisiblity or "sense deadening" spells, as it makes much more sense that it would involve an attention attracting badge that encourages people to recheck their sense results (and get false info -- or if they're very good, true info); whereas invis and similar spells, if they're interacting with the sense system, -attract- attention just when they're trying to avoid it).
So we have to stuff slightly more paper (but not in an annoying way, since the "extra" paper is just an extra page or two on people's character sheet = 0 extra collating time), but the players get a lot more info frontloaded that they should have anyway, and have to take fewer notes/remember fewer bits.
In an ideal world, (ie, one with everyone having electronic character sheets -- since there's no way in hell we're making people carry around five pounds of paper!) getting durable info like this would mean getting a copy of the info; which would -still- give an advantage to frontloading the "you already know this stuff" info, but avoid the issue of players having to write down/remember everything they learn about people (and in an electronic world, would avoid all the envelope managing annoyance; enter your source senses and the target character, and you get all the associated info pulled automatically, without having to pass around/search through envelopes). But we're not going to be there before we run the game (ok, we're already there, but it's just too much trouble and players aren't expecting it).