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I thought this might be of enough general interest that it was worth flagging in the RPG forum. I scribbled this PDF together entirely last night, sort of as a partial reply to the (RPG's Suck Blog) notion that no-one is doing anything interesting in RPGs these days. Admittedly this isn't revolutionary or anything, and it won't be everyone's cup of tea, but I do kinda like how it turned out. It's a bit different I think and could be easily applied to any fantasy game (and possibly any game generally I suppose).

As an optional extra, I quite like it.

Basically, I decided I wanted to have a go at imposing a simple story structure on a game, so that there would be a clearer and easier way to set up story arcs and a pattern of increasing tension. I've had a go at this by setting up a system where Stories have a Problem (that needs to be solved) and Complications (additional difficulties). When new Complications are added into the story, the Tension increases. At low Tension, Player Characters cannot be seriously hurt or killed. At medium Tension Player Characters can be maimed. At high Tension Player Characters can be killed outright. There are some other elements thrown into the mix to, but Problem, Complication and Tension are the prime elements.

The idea is that this is supposed to mimic the increasing stakes in a story. Early in the story, no-one really expects the protagonists (Player Characters) to die, at least not in heroic stories. Later in the story it becomes a possibility. I've left open the option of running multiple over-lapping stories at once, so that Players wouldn't necessarily know if they are in an event tied to a Low or Medium or High tension story straight away, but would figure it out as the event unfolds.

Anyway, I think this approach better mimics how narrative works in a novel or short story, in particular in the high fantasy literature that Spellwoven is supposed to be mimicking.

Let me know what you think.

http://www.mythopoeticgames.com/pdf/Spe ... Sheets.pdf

A good start, but the problem is that shared stories are generated organically, rather than pre-planned. The goal of the story you set is fixed, and can't be varied. What if the characters decide to ally with their enemies? You may laugh, but I've seen it often enough to know it happens.

Now, I'm usually the one arguing for putting stories on rails, but this is excessive. Declaring the rewards ahead of time? Declaring the characters can't die or even be maimed? These things are better left undiscovered until they take effect. The climax of the story should not cause the possibilty of character death, it should occur because the characters risk death, whenever they choose to do so. Yes, you create a pattern of rising tension, but you do it in such a ham-fisted way. You even cut out the possibility of death raising the tension as a narrative technique. I can't help but wish for the return of hit points, because they achieve the same thing using a simpler mechanic.

In short, it's an idea, but it's a bad one. I encourage you to try again, in the hopes that you'll come up with something better next time.

I can tell that you're writing academically. The long sentences give it away. Don't worry, I've written my share of essays, too. Please forgive my short-winded answers, as I cannot write longer replies (for temporary medical reasons).

The problem I have with your system is that it provides the answers, the solutions, the outcomes. What you want is to provide outcomes over a series of stages or perhaps shape it to the story as it emerges. Take, for example, the hero who has discover information on whether his father is alive or dead. It's better to see this as a process, rather than a goal, to reveal information piece by piece, hinting at a quest the father was on, rather than revealing the father himself.

Varying target numbers may seem to work, but in practice you actually want the characters to succeed more during critical situations. You must take care to create this effect with multiple tries, or making the rolls superfluous to the situation. For example, a successful roll might result in a character killing the Prince, while an unsuccessful roll might injure the Prince gravely, and injure the heroic character in the process. Why? Because the characters went through hell to get to that point. Built a lot of successes and traded in a lot of favours. Why would you risk their failure on a die roll? There's a rule for it in Legend of the Five Rings: he who is willing to sacrifice his life for a cause will generally succeed.

Perhaps that begins to clarify how I'd construct a story, as a collection of driving goals, rather than a series of problems with a solution for each. By not demanding a solution, you open the door to novel possiblities.

My recommendations: modify the story sheets so they don't give solutions. Leave it open-ended as to what will be achieved, or merge it in with the goals as to what is being sought. Providing solutions to the goals implies that the solutions are easily achievable. No matter what you say in the rules text, that gets ignored in favour of the record sheets themselves. Fix the record sheets, fix the problem.

That's what I should have said from the beginning.