Reply To: Hobby weekender 17/05/19 – A good tone, tone deaf, dark tone? AtmosFearic!

[horati0nosebl0wer 19649xp 0]

Day one of my move progress done and the majority of my stuff was boxed up prior and moved. Its a pain now to have the remaining stuff that needs to be boxed and moved. It doesn’t help that I’ve stopped to check in on the forum and started writing.

1. I think that for the original 7th Sea, since the game is a fantastic re-imagination of exploration age Europe, the mechanic for using a tarot deck in character creation was quite useful in keeping with the idea of fate. As larger than life dramatis personae, like in Errol Flynn films, the player characters were supposed to be drawn into the magic and mystery of the setting instead of just being min/max-ed to be murder hobos roaming wherever they might. With that in mind the option for creation was based off selecting a defining trait from the major arcana or using a draw from the deck. Giving the core book that mechanic and then expanding it to each Nation Book for the unique flair backgrounds and story elements were taken up from minor arcana. The minor arcana suits depended on the association with the Nation being played. In the game this is based on the prominence of fortune telling by the fate witches of Vodacce (the nation loosely representing Italy) that had such decks and dealt with the powers of fate.

There was a break from this for the Vendel/Vestenmannavnjar (the fantasy representations of the Dutch/Danish/Scandinavian people). This, according to the fluff, is because the Vendel have a deep seated problem with the Vodacce due to a cold trade war. The Vendel receive character creation using a percentile roll that is supposed to be according to intense astrological calculations instead of the tarot deck draw. The Vesten (for short) are the traditionalist people who eschew the change of the ‘modern’ Vendel, as they try to hold on to their culture. and utilize a rune casting that decides the saga concept for the played to work with. There is also another exception, that of the Crescent Empire (Middle Eastern representation), that uses astrology in game and differs quite a bit from the Vendel model for interpretation and play influence.

These things give another layer of immersion through the mechanics to build an entity in game which will act and be acted upon by elements of fate. The creators of the game did a very good job of using the concept from an earlier game titled ‘Crimson Cutlass’ , a rules light high seas game which did their resolution solely through tarot draws, to bring in other devices for tactile play. This was directly given a nod in the equipment list in the player’s handbook with the item “reddish cutlass” which also will give some players a sense of history with the game.

2. When has a game failed to enhance a setting through design? Ehhhh…. can’t say that there was much success with Vampire: Kindred of the East. The idea of yin/yang as elements of the game were good to work under as elements of play which affected a characters being in a sense similar to the Paradox of Mage. The problem came into the Shadow and how that worked. In the game it was the internal antagonist that must always be pushed back on. The problem is that it really tripped the game up as far as getting anywhere sometimes as there might be situations where the control of a character was put to the mercy of the Shadow. Lose self control and literally need to mentally step back and hand the pc over to the GM, much like ‘Being John Malkocvich’, as the worst that could happen to kill a players drive to keep playing. I think that this element might be somewhat useful in extremely small doses but its been reused in the latest release for Geist: Sin Eaters. For that reason I think that there might be some drawback for me to the newer game.

I also found that the continual attempt at spiritual balance to be cludgy in KoE. Its a great notion to play around but underneath it the internal struggle leads to a lack of outward activity. It’d be like having a gaming session for a philosophical dialectic after having spent some time writing up an imaginary character. Yes, it might be interesting to build a caricature of visual imagery but it does drag on if the scenery doesn’t change. The outside world seems to be the actor and eternal antagonist leading the player away from higher mental/spiritual resolution. Perhaps that might be a deeper level of role playing that can be achieved by people brainier than I. As a simple man I like some lowbrow cheap thrills to toss some dice where the players can see effects of their handiwork and actively participate in a gaming world.

3. Having a house rule for enhancing the gaming experience is best in playing Lunch Money. With each attack you need to make some sort of kid-like insult/smack talk. As you describe the attack you then need to add a flavor statement that might add salt to the wound. It definitely fits with a game of little kids beating each other up on the playground. I think that its anathema for modern schools but it might well be realistic for places with a rough and tumble attitude to children sorting out their social pecking order. I also think that having something similar with just back and forth banter in games like ‘Poo’ or ‘Nuts!’ is a definite way to make them more enjoyable.

I pledge that my project will be done by the end of the week for the Spring Clean. I really should find some low/no cost way of getting high quality photos of my figures from somebody who knows what they are doing in photography. With that I will get better pictures to you all here.

I’ll get back to replies as I’m still tossing things in boxes.