In the end, it will be your face, what a cliché.
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Destiny as a rule, a dice to rule our destiny. Well, the makinf off that rule isn't anything unusual since the days of Fate and the forums of the forge. The innovation in the moment was related to changes in the rules that directly affected the narrative and interacted in multiple ways with the narrative proposed by the DM.
The player's contribution within the mechanics of the game went beyond the dichotomy of success or failure. Adding their own contribution to the description of how their character failed or how they managed to perform their action successfully added to the narrative.
So, depending on the player's participation in the game's narrative, they could gradually acquire the ability to influence destiny. To change the world, adding new elements not thought of by the narrator, even adding non-player characters or new elements to the world described.
The process of playing with destiny led to more and more games including this type of rule in their system, sometimes changing the role of the narrator and even shifting it among all the participants throughout the game.
In response, it seems to me that an important segment of role-players closed themselves off to innovation in the narrative aspect of gaming. That section of the hobby focused on playing more in the old style (OSR) with titles where each person's participation is fixed and unchangeable.
Which I find a bit narrow in certain cases, because it's also true that many role-players switch between titles and play styles, which I feel is the best approach to these kinds of changes: enjoy them and use them however we want.
A sign is a message that announces the purpose, objective, or particular interest of a space or activity. In the case of role-playing games, the signs that are presented to players tend to be the names of pubs, shops selling magical items, or, in general, institutional or entertainment places that their characters have decided to visit.
The sign can appear as a clue, a bloodstain, traces of stone inside a modern apartment. Cigarette butts along a hospital corridor. When an object that should not be part of a specific location appears in said location, something bad has happened, a simple object becomes a sign.
The orange sky and a ruined building are signs of the kind of world in which an adventure will take place. These are indisputable indications that we are ready to venture into a irradiated land where fierce battles will be fought for gallons of gasoline and fresh water.
Neon signs serve the same purpose in this world as they do in any fictional one: to attract attention, to plant the seed that by walking through the door next to the sign, something we are missing can be found.
Renew a person??? Mmm Sandy Petersen maybe? In terms of his work as a game designer, he has certainly reinvented himself! That's what I mean. If he's very behind in other aspects, well, that's unfortunate.
Since the days of RuneQuest, which introduced the world to Lovecraft, creating a title that has been revamped time and time again in multiple ways on the back of other titles and initiatives, but at the end of the day adding aspects of what he learned as a designer to his next creation, I think it demonstrates his ability renew himself. The products that made me most attached to his authorship and style were The Call of Cthulhu and Cthulhu Wars.
And in the case of the game Risk Meets Cthulhu, well, I feel that it doesn't convey much of the atmosphere or feeling of horror and mystery, but at least from time to time you can feel a little desperate, which can be more or less common in certain tabletop strategy games.
And with The Call...wow, what a great title, for many years my favorite character creation, and although I never knew how to fully use the sanity system, its high mortality rate, and the possibility of shooting a minor creature to death, I add a je ne sais quoi to the game. The game that truly shaped me as a storyteller. It's clear that in terms of hours played, DnD beats any other role-playing game, but in terms of lessons learned, memorable moments, and personal enjoyment, the adventures related to or inspired by The Call are the best.
Overcome rule ...YES
From the beginning of my years as a DM, my relationship with the rules was complicated, mainly because when I was a teenager, the third edition rules seemed very complicated to me. I only began to understand certain aspects thanks to “Never Winter Nights.” Especially about the spell slot system, which I honestly don't even understand because it was so difficult for me to grasp. Back then, the blocks of text in the player's manuals seemed more intimidating to me than they do now. And I think the reason I don't worry about it now is because I'm simply was no longer interested in the fundamental part that plays the rules in a rpg session.
It sounds extreme, like many of my opinions, but at the end of the day, what I want to convey is that when we get together to play with our friends, I prefer to take a relaxed attitude towards everything, because what we are doing is getting together to PLAY, that's what we're doing at the end of the day...PLAYING A GAME!
So yes, it was liberating to overcome the rules of a system that was functional in a big part, but with a big quantity of unnecessary crunch. With the third edition, there was too much going on. The language of the book wasn't my native tongue, and if I had difficulties, the people I was playing with didn't understand a damn thing about the mechanics. To really play role-playing games, do you need to become a law student? Since those years, I've been feeling that discomfort, which is so strong that I immediately lose interest in any role-playing book or adventure that exceeds 80 pages.
In that sense, the types of games available on itch.io feel good, but they didn't add much to my experience when I discovered them, since my liberation from heavy walls had happened a decade earlier.
The confrontation with the rules went at the pace of my different players. If they got bored counting the weight of the backpack and keeping a precise count of the arrows, that was left aside. If they got confused about vertical and horizontal movement, it was left out. If they didn't understand how spell slots worked, okay... then they weren't used, and that was that... although this last part was eventually adapted in the fifth edition, where it was easier for me to stop using certain rules.
In my games, initiative numbers don't matter. In my mind, the balance is clearly on the players' side, and things move quickly, although I often feel the frustration of some players with the rules... Why the hell are we using this? There's Microlite 20 or 74... so many different OSRs... why the hell continue with this?
In general, I think most of my players wouldn't have a problem with this, but there are always a couple who get obsessed with the rules and try to give them weight and importance at the table, which I take into account from time to time, but inside I feel annoyed. Who do they think they are? Imposing rules on my absurd game of dragons and red gnomes!
F!!
Deceptive device...An interesting result that immediately makes me think of DnD Beyond, the huge tables with touch screens, apps, and websites like these with rules, creatures, and optional stats. All of the above is misleading, as you can fall into the trap of thinking that it is necessary to enjoy a role-playing game. Not even the basic manuals and the basic set of dice to play DnD are necessary.
All of the above is misleading, as you can fall into the trap of thinking that it is necessary to enjoy a role-playing game. Not even the basic manuals and the basic set of dice to play DnD are necessary. And it should be clarified that those specific tools aren't misleading because they are negative per se.
The thing is, you don't really need them to play role-playing games, and I'm not going to go so far as to say that storytelling around a campfire is synonymous with role-playing games; it's different. But to play an exploration adventure in a dungeon with a wizard and three explorers, all you need is a basic set of trial-and-error rules.
So you can play with the most basic rules on any system and continue your work as a tomb raider explorer. All you need is for everyone to agree on how the rules work... in this game, we all have 5 lives, we flip a coin, and whichever side comes up in our favor counts as a success. Otherwise, we describe how a heart is lost. It's only in very specific cases that the coin is flipped.
So, it's not that complicated. Nor is it necessary for a person to refuse to use any extra tools they like to add to their game table. Let everyone play however they want, but let it be clear that too many things on the game table are simply extras.
A call of Cthulhu post..great!
So..I think it's difficult, extremely difficult, to establish an aura of mystery in a role-playing game. Whether you're playing something related to Call of Cthulhu or something like D&D, it doesn't matter, creating a space where mystery can develop is no simple matter. Players are generally disorderly and hate anything serious or solemn.
Obviously, this isn't true of all players, but the fact that they're playing a game puts many people in a state where they want to be chaotic or more disorderly than usual, so in general it's difficult to create an aura of mystery amid so much chaos and disorder.
But anyway, leaving aside the specific elements that will only apply in specific cases. In general, the mystery has worked well for me, if we find ourselves with a plot that gradually unveils the BIG REVELATION.
And in general, I see that Cthulhu modules work that way, a creature in a rural village. Dead animals, accidents, unusual weather events. Disappearances or sudden changes in behavior, violent and repulsive deaths. And then the creature suddenly appears, perhaps even ending the existence of an important NPC in front of the group of investigators.
That's usually the method: three forceful presentations in three different scenarios and moments in order to build mystery, plant clues, and then end with a grand curtain call where a tentacle grabs and squeezes the groom to death.
But they can also present a mystery, since all the machinery is already in motion. A campaign begins with Cthulhu standing on the shores of New York, so that his mere presence generates a large number of events.
Similarly, you can start with the classic prison break. Tied to an operating table in a sad, abandoned, smelly place, with a burning pain in your right side.
The mystery may already have been revealed, but its effect can be felt and the actions of the investigators can begin to be set in motion, who will generally fight to survive or to prevent the THREAT from causing as much damage as possible.
Drink and move forward, your other faces await you. With each step you take, you will change, although the period of time between one sett...
