Re: Giving places and game session their own abilities

From: Philippe Sigaud <sigaud_at_...>
Date: Fri, 08 Sep 2006 17:09:43 +0200


Roderick
> If you can find a copy of the old "Torg" rules, they had mechanisms for just
> this sort of thing, except in card form. For example, they had "Subplot
> Cards"
>

Oh, Torg! I played long years with it, right after RQ wasn't to my tase anymore. I guess I still have the books and cards somewhere. By a strange coincidence, right after my last HQ campaign, we did a bit of Torg, just for the trip down memory lane. Much better use of thes cards now than when we were 15 yo :)

> You can add your own subplots, "Pirates!", for example, or "Natural
> Disaster!" or "Wierd Island Ceremony"
>
> When a player takes a subplot, the narrator and he would then jointly decide
> what the exact details would be - he'd have some say "I want Pirate Ninja
> Keets", but *you* would decide how that subplot would manifest. Woudl the
> PNKs invade an island that the heroes were lounging on, or attack their
> ship, or merely be seen in the distance (setting the scene for the PNK
> adventure you already had planned). Would "Romance" be between the hero and
> the Dusky Island Princess (who is, of course, about to be sacarficed to the
> Wamaboo the Volcano God, due to your buddy's use of the Wierd Island
> Ceremony subplot) or with her handmaiden, or a PNK?
Interesting idea! And easily compatible with what I had in mind. I also would like to link it to the normal HQ rules, with TN and such. After all, the rules tells us we can give someone abilities on the fly, as consequences of action, so it's just a generalization of the idea. I also would like to give them some incentive to use them. In Torg, it gave you Possibilities and other cards, right? I will try to get some reward system, like : if you accept this, you get that much HP. I love to bribe players into accepting events. I did this for Nobilis at we had a blast. They also had 'fan mail' points to give each others. Hmm, I could give them HP to give to another players to get him to do something cool.

I may use the animist chart in HQ, the one for buying spirits and charms, to establish the cost of 'external' abilities. I remember using it for something like this. "Hunted by Pirates 10W2" ?, that's 2 HP (or whatever).

Mike:
> These rules sound very much like what's coming out in the most recent
> editions of games made with FATE. Which is to say that it all sounds good
> pretty much just as you have it. Check out FATE (and the rules for scene
> aspects) if you want to see more of such ideas, and/or text that nails these
> concepts down well.
>
>

I got FATE2e on my hard drive. Never had time to do more than browse it rapidly. I'll read it more carefully, thanks!

  Philippe

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