Re: Tracking

From: Robin D. Laws <rdl_at_...>
Date: Wed, 22 Nov 2000 11:52:52 -0600


At 02:31 PM 11/22/00 +0100, Andreas Mueller wrote:
>Hi guys,
>
>I've written a piece that should be the base for calculating tracking
>target numbers in the PraxPack scenarios.

The material you've posted follows the simulationist paradigm of most roleplaying games -- you decide what the situation is, and then from that determine how difficult it is to use the ability (in this case, tracking), from that.

HW proceeds dramatically, portraying and resolving events as a writer of a novel or screenplay would do. Here, the Narrator decides how difficult the task needs to be for story reasons, and then comes up with the detail to justify it.

Similarly, the contest system gives you the result of an action, and then calls on the Narrator and players to describe the reasons for that result. Most games proceed from cause to effect. HW establishes the effect, then intuits its cause.

At present, then, your suggestions seem way too detailed and rules-heavy. If the Narrator feels he has to look up these rules in order in order to have Tracking scenes in his game, they're too much. They also dictate too much to the Narrator: he should decide the results of the various levels of success as each situation warrants, not through consultation of a fixed, predetermined chart.

All is not lost, though. If this material were refigured into an essay on tracking, with no numbers attached, Narrators could use it to add detail to their descriptions. You could put much of it in the form of bulleted lists, so that, before or during play, Narrators could easily grab snippets of description to use in their games.

In short: don't crunch numbers; write words.

Hope this helps.

Take care >>> Robin

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