Whirly Waffles

I came across a problem like this when I ran an F#...

2009-07-29T15:40:28.842+01:00

I came across a problem like this when I ran an F# campaign. I was asking the players what they were doing and they were giving me details about their first action, like "I shoot at the goblin." After a roll, I was a little bit at a loss about what actually happened, because the detail level hadn't really covered the whole scene.

I checked FATE 2e, because I remembered that it had rules for scene-based resolution and I wanted to see what it had to say. Sure enough, it said that players should state their goals before making their rolls.

I do think that Intent matters, as you're desc...

2009-06-29T14:18:51.949+01:00

I do think that Intent matters, as you're describing here -- it's generally pretty clear in the table-talk in a game.

(However, I agree: I fell down a bit when writing some of the example text in this regard.)

Thanks for your kind comments!

Chad

Hi there! Thanks for your comment regarding Blind ...

2008-09-16T21:17:00.000+01:00

Hi there! Thanks for your comment regarding Blind Date! I'm thrilled to say that I will be doing it at Losoe Moose again in January....and then at the World Stage Festival in Toronto.

http://www.harbourfrontcentre.com/worldstage/blind.cfm

I would LOVE to bring the show to England. I have family there...and if I ever get my act together, I'm eligible for a Brit Passport too! If you know of a company that would be interested in the show...please pass on my contact info to them.

Hope you enjoyed your time with Keith. He's something special!

Rebecca

"setting wide storage system"

Oh, man. Yea...

2008-04-11T15:06:00.000+01:00

"setting wide storage system"

Oh, man. Yeah, "The Great Library" would be a really great name for a retro-sci-fi Internet. Or Wikipedia, at least.

I'm confused. The poll should have ended now, but ...

2008-04-11T06:38:00.000+01:00

I'm confused. The poll should have ended now, but its showing as less than one day remaining. I guess the end time is in another time zone - in which case the are probably in the last few hours.

It does look pretty closely tied again. If it comes out tied I might try to combine them - either bring some EE Doc Smith aspects to Victorian adventure or bringing the undersea world to E.E. Doc Smith like adventure.

"Action Yields Its Own Rewards" and "What Tangled Webs We Weave" do seem to suggest very very different courses of action - one calling for action first and the other calling for detailed planning - but I can think of interesting times when both might be invoked - they're dissimilar but not quite opposites.

"The Great Library" is my favourite aspect. Its could suggest a really cool location which plays a pivotal role in the setting, but could equally well be something people are aspiring to create, or a setting wide storage system. In fact its cool at the moment because it could be so many things, but at deffinately an idea generator.

Looks like Space Opera is edging out Undersea Adve...

2008-04-11T06:01:00.000+01:00

Looks like Space Opera is edging out Undersea Adventure. Good thing you've read so much of Smith's work. You seem singularly well-prepared for that genre.

And the leading three aspects are kind of interesting. "The Great Library" is quite cool, because it suggests an awesome setting feature that could very easily be a central element of the plot.

"Action Yields Its Own Rewards" and "What Tangled Webs We Weave" almost seem to neutralize each other, each one encouraging a very broad but completely different range of choices. I wonder how that'll affect play.

But, hell, questions like that are what this experiment is all about, right?

Well after the genre restart we have in first plac...

2008-04-07T10:13:00.000+01:00

Well after the genre restart we have in first place for Genre:-

E.E. "Doc" Smith style Space Opera

Closely followed by:

Napoleonic-era fantasy
Victorian Undersea Adventure

Hard Sci-fi which was leading before the restart is trailing in 4th place (although 4th out of 30 is very respectable)

Trailing with 'NIL POINTS' we have:

Contemporary Crime drama
Dark Fantasy
Gangsters

Looks like I'll have to read up on my Lensman, Jules Verne and Jonathan Strange and Mr Norrell. I guess noone wants to play at CSI or the Sopranos. Interesting that the genre which suggest a specific set of books seem to be doing better than the more generic genre.

On the Aspect side the front runners are:

Action yields its own rewards
Fight the power!
The Great Library
What tangled webs we weave

All of these are great aspects - and would work well with all three of the leading Genre. It looks like the Great Library has overtaken Labyrinthine Metropolis since Matt posted.

Only one of the 50 aspects has yet to recieve a vote, and ironically its:

There can be only one

I'm trying not to have too many ideas because both polls are actually very close and just a few votes could radically change things.

Voted! Can't wait to see where this goes. The cu...

2008-04-07T06:41:00.000+01:00

Voted! Can't wait to see where this goes. The current front runners (genre: Hard Sci-Fi, and aspects: Action Yields Its Own Rewards, Fight the Power!, Labyrinthine Metropolis, and What Tangled Webs We Weave) definitely suggest a pretty clear, workable, and awesome direction. I'd actually expected you to end up with some much harder-to-reconcile choices.

I've actually been trying to figure out what I'm going to be running next, myself (and here is a long blog post about that). Next time, I think I might have to try something like your experiment (whether or not we're even using Fate or SotC).

Whilst trying to figure out how to describe the ge...

2008-04-04T10:06:00.000+01:00

Whilst trying to figure out how to describe the genre 'American Gods', 'Anansi Boys', 'Monarch of the Glen' and 'Keepsakes and Treasures' fall into, I discovered the Anansi Boys was adapted into a radio play staring Lenny Henry and Matt Lucasfor the BBC World Service, and I missed it :(

Thankfully it will be available on CD from the BBC later this month. I was about to pre-order it until I saw the astounding amount they wanted for postage. Indie Press Revolution charges less to ship full size hardbacks from the USA (I live in the UK). I'll wait for it in the shops.

I'm guessing 'modern day gods' works as a genre name. A lot of Piers Anthony's and Roger Zelazny's works step into this area too - and I'm sure if I checked out the Bibliography for Scion or In Nomine I'd get loads more examples.

Anyway, I'm adding 'Modern Day Gods' to the list. Also from a friend at work I have just gained a few more aspects for the list:

"There can be only one"
Back Doors
Open your eyes and exist
shadows of reality
Great Faith vs. Great Doubt.
Perfection takes time

Well even though Amazon are estimating a 7th April...

2008-04-04T09:36:00.000+01:00

Well even though Amazon are estimating a 7th April delivery, its arriving in the same delivery as 'Small Favour' so its going to end up second on my reading pile. I just can't leave a Dresden Files book siting around. I also ordered "The Freedom Phalanx" to tip the order over into the cheap delivery price band.

Having said that I've read some "Jonathan Strange & Mr Norrell" reviews and I'm really looking forward to it. I decided not to order "The Ladies of Grace Adieu: And Other Stories" until I was sure I liked Susanna Clarke's style.

Oh, yeah, Jonathan Strange & Mr Norrell...

2008-04-04T03:45:00.000+01:00

Oh, yeah, Jonathan Strange & Mr Norrell is entirely badass. It is good, good stuff. It's got some of the best portrayals of magic and (I am serious) fairies that I've ever seen in fiction, and the whole tone in which it's written is hugely fun. Plus, it's got loads of footnotes that amount to additional short stories within the novel.

Wow. Thanks guys. I've just hit an astounding 33 a...

2008-04-02T13:00:00.000+01:00

Wow. Thanks guys. I've just hit an astounding 33 aspects and 22 genre.

I was planning to stop taking suggestions on Monday and start the poll then, but at the current rate of expansion I'm going to have to stop phase 1 early or the list will be incredibly long.

I can't wait to see which are the most popular. Some of the aspects are intriguing, and I'm looking forward to the challenge of working them into the setting, and then the adventure. A couple of the genre I admit I had to look up on Wikipedia…

Aspects:
No One Gets Out Alive
There's Mag...

2008-04-02T12:29:00.000+01:00

Aspects:
*No One Gets Out Alive
*There's Magic Everywhere You Look
*How Do You Know He's Not a Demon?
*Eye for an Eye, Tooth for a Tooth
*The Final Frontier
*"When the Fifth Moon is in the Last House, a Great Hero will be Born"

Genre:
*Gangsters
*Monster Hunters
*Time Travelin' Space Cowboys
*Superheroes
*Street Kid Survival

Aspects:

Don't step on the flowers.
Alwa...

2008-04-02T10:42:00.000+01:00

Aspects:

Don't step on the flowers.
Always respect height.

Genres:

Through the Looking Glass.

Hey Matt, Thanks for the Aspects and Genre suggest...

2008-04-02T06:46:00.000+01:00

Hey Matt, Thanks for the Aspects and Genre suggestions. Its great to wake up and see this blog has born fruit already. Theres some really interesting ideas in there.

I've put them on the game website where I'm throwing together my aspect list and genre list.

I never did get to play Torg although I do have a deck of Torg cards. One of my friends likes to use them for random fortune events in her games. The Torg "World Laws" seem an interesting idea. I'm guessing the aspects we choose when I get to the location phase may end up playing a similar role. I'm definately hoping those location aspects will set a very real feeling to each location - so a place with 'Truth Triumphant' is going to feel very different to the locale with the aspect 'Hells darkest corner'. Of course what those locations may be is a long way off and will hopefully follow from the genre once picked.

Thanks again for my first comments. You'd be surprised how excited seeing my first comments made me.

On a related note, the idea of campaign Aspects re...

2008-04-02T01:33:00.000+01:00

On a related note, the idea of campaign Aspects reminds me of an older roleplaying concept from Torg, of all places. The different sub-settings in that game had properties called "World Laws", such as the Law of Morality--which mandated that everyone entering a certain realm immediately be classified as "good" or "evil", and act accordingly--and the Law of Vengeance--which grants a fate-point-like reward to characters who avenge wrongs done to themselves.

The idea, of course, was to give each sub-setting its own tone of gameplay. I don't think it was very thoroughly implemented, but it's an extremely cool idea.

This sounds like huge fun. I love the hell out of...

2008-04-01T22:51:00.000+01:00

This sounds like huge fun. I love the hell out of collaborative setting development, the FATE system, and the idea of using Aspects everywhere. I am subscribing to this blog.

Also, here's some Aspects.

• Never forgive, never forget.
• Fight the power!
• ancestor worship
• all things in balance
• victory in defeat

And genre suggestions:

• Napoleonic-era fantasy
• Lovecraftian superheroes
• nanotech apocalypse

None of these ideas are really intended to work together, of course.