On this episode, Ryan takes a moment from is current interview track to make a dreaded solo episode about some of the lessons he's learned lately as a designer. Specifically, he talks about some things he's been dealing with regarding one of his current projects, Mythender. He talks about some of the inspiration elements and how he re-evaluates them periodically to make sure they're still relevant, about looking closely at the player role in a game as well as the GM role, about having to defend his ideas from critical friends & not letting your friends' desires cause you to make the game you don't want. Then he finishes up with this month's sponsor quote from Fred Hicks.
I was totally engaged by the imagery of fighting across a lava filled cavern fighting some bad-ass monster. Appealed to me visually.
So, I'm very interested (and excited) about the Narrative Wargame part of Mythender. I've been working on my own narrative game, and I'm curious a) what problem you are trying to solve and/or b) what you see as the biggest problems involved with focusing on Narrative in a battle game.
Look at any science-fiction or fantasy wargame (Warhammer, Hordes, etc). The beautifully painted cover depicts an epic struggle. Open it up and you get awe-inspiring illustrations and immersive flavor text which gets you salivating. You are there, on the field of battle. A commander of an army of terrifyingly graceful elves. Leader of battle-worn but tough-as-nails space warriors wearing obscenely huge (but completely awesome looking) power armor. You look proudly into the eyes of the hardened troops who have sworn their lives to follow you...
...And you break out a ruler as you plot out inch by painful inch of their progress across the battlefield. This troop is just a millimeter past being in command radius of his leader. That soldier has to draw a line from his eyes to a point in an enemy model to determine if he can actually "see" the target. Then, a split second moment of violence...which takes us about 10 minutes to determine the outcome as we roll dice back and forth for hits, saves to the hits, damage, saves to the damage and finally determine that no, the shot did not hit.
Wait! Where did my immersion go? I was there and then your rules yanked me right back up. The promise that these games fill me with in their narrative prose and stylistic art is once again a cause for disappointment. There is no story here. Only charts, rulers and dice.
I have some thoughts on how to take my game there, but run into tons of problems at each point. I'm curious how you are getting there (not mechanically, but rather theoretically).
The biggest difference between my battle game and many others -- and this'll not make it to some folks liking -- is that I don't do a map and minis. Mythender is, especially after the playtests at Go Play NW last weekend (after I released the ep), very much a comic book game. You're making a kick-ass fantasy action comic during the battle. To demonstrate the theory, here's a bit of the mechanical flow of battle:
GM: What's your action panel? Player: I raise the tip of my spear, line it up at the beast, and unleash it. As it flies through the air, it draws in the lightning striking around it, glowing white hot. [Player then tags a couple mechanical choices, all on his sheet, rolls dice, collects more dice & tokens. All that takes around 30 seconds, once you get used to the system.] GM: Buying an effect panel? Player: I don't have enough yet. -- or -- Player: Totally! [Throws some accumulated tokens back to the GM.] The spear jabs itself into the giant's eye. He falls back and crushes the mountain behind him, the point of it stabbing into his back! [The GM rolls damage for the giant.]
Since the game is about crazy epic action, I only care about the "critical hits." I assume that every other non-critical hit it a hit of some sort, so every action has you getting some currency that'll let you buy critical hit on an upcoming -- it's all about if you can get it faster than the other side. I don't know if it's so much about "character immersion" that I'm going for as much as it is quick play and unleashed awesome that is appropriate for the genre. I think that'll enable immersion for those who want it.