> "I still have some simulationist in me and am thinking about the
> differences between them."
>
> If you mean simulationist as in "I want to have the rules enforce a
> vision of reality" then stop right now or go and play Traveller/Star
> Wars/Space Opera. HeroQuest ends in tears or GM paralysis if you try that.
>
> If you mean "I want the outcome to seem realistic to the participants"
> then you that's cool, you can do it.
>
I am trying to get the "reality" stable, not to enforce one. So it is
far more the second than the first. If I wanted to do the first I would
go with Basic Roleplaying or RuneQuest (2, not Mongoose! LOL).
>
> He asked before that:
>
> "How does combat between very large and small things work..."
>
> The answer to that is the same way everything else works in the game.
> You have a contest between whatever's on either side. As a player and
> GM you've got several (but different) methods of getting the vision of
> reality you want.
>
> Fr players you can help frame the contest by stating your intent and
> choose the ability you use to resolve it. For GMs you can choose the
> type and the difficulty of the contest and frame the scene by
> negotiating with the players what happens when the contest's resolved.
>
> So if a player character is commanding the Millennium Falcon it could
> go something like...
>
> Player: "We're running for it, using the ship's 'Did the Kessel run in
> a measurement of distance, not time'" -- (edit from Bo: ROFL! No kidding!)
>
> GM: "So you just want to get out of there, not firing back, just
> legging it?"
>
> Player: "Yep"
>
> GM thinks: "It's not that dramatic, make it a simple contest. They're
> a lot more agile and the Star Destroyer is trying to disable them and
> not destroy them so..."
>
> GM: "Okay, simple contest, relatively easy, if they hit you they'll
> damage your drives."
>
> At this point roll the dice. If the player gets any level of success
> they get the hell out of dodge and get a lingering benefit of
> something like "Evaded Star Destroyers." If they fail then their
> drives are clunked, lingering penalty for anything to do with
> manoeuvring the ship and GM has the door open to destroy the ship,
> board it, send it flowers, whatever.
>
> There are other ways of handling this though, depending on what's
> happening in the rest of the game. A different interpretation from the
> GM could easily be:
>
> Player: "We're running for it, using the ship's 'Did the Kessel run in
> a measurement of distance, not time'"
>
> GM: "So you just want to get out of there, not firing back, just
> legging it?"
>
> Player: "Yep"
>
> GM thinks: "I really don't want them farting around here, it's more
> interesting where they want to go, okay..."
>
> GM: It's fairly easy to evade them, but if you fail then you'll get
> away but you'll take some sort of damage. How's that?"
>
> Player: "I can live with that!"
>
> Dice are rolled again. Any level of success and they get away without
> damage, getting an appropriate lingering benefit. On a failure they
> get away with some form of damage, perhaps "horrible clunking rattling
> sound (hurt)" or more extremely "Life support knackered (dying)."
>
> This is completely different from:
>
> Player: "We'll turn and fight, bet they're not expecting that."
>
> GM: "Er, no. What ability are you using?"
>
> Player: "'Daredevil pilot'"
>
> GM thinks: "Jesus, what a bunch of muppets. Oh well, they don't stand
> a chance, it's sodding huge with no real vulnerabilities. It's like an
> armed herring taking on a gun nut Blue Whale. But I'll make it an
> extended contest - it may be their last and I want to give them an out
> when they eff-you-see-kay it up."
>
HAHAHA!!! Choice! Thanks! :)
>
>
> GM: "If you're sure then - it's really, really hard. Can I repeat how
> hard it is?"
>
> Player: "Go for it!"
>
> GM: "If they win this you're completely at their mercy, if not a
> rarefied cloud of vapour expanding into the vacuum or space. You
> really happy with that?"
>
> Player: "We'll cope!"
>
> And so on, but at least the players can change abilities after the
> first round and perhaps change the difficulty with clever choices or
> disengage with damage and run for it. With hero points and a few
> assists they might even come out alive.
>
> Phew, sorry for the mouthful.
>
> TLDR version is:-
>
> - Frame the contests according to the players desires and the
> abilities they're using to get those desires
>
> - Choose the contest type and results according to where you feel it's
> most interesting for the story to go
>
> - Set the difficulty from how appropriate the ability they want to use
> is versus the goal they've set themselves
>
> - Give the players as much information as you can before the dice are
> rolled so they can make informed choices about the fate of their
> characters
>
> - Make sure the potential outcomes are interesting and credible. If
> the players look like they've just sucked on a few lemons then
> reconsider before the dice are rolled.
>
> Cheers,
>
> Ash
>
Like I said before, I figured as much, and it was how I planned to do
it. Just having withdrawals! LOL
My initial thought was "Scale adds to the defense of the smaller and the damage of the bigger... add a mastery to each... but then cancel them out... circular logic... Hmmm.... Okay, what does the story need?" So, with that I thought I would ask and see if I missed something.
Apparently not. Thanks all.
Bo
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