321 Codified Rules & What That Does

#1

Brett and I were talking about this, which really stemmed from a live stream I was on one Saturday morning. I think I started with Brett and his outlook on PbtA. How he can implement fail forward and narration (of moves) for other games without having a mechanic in a game like D&D to do it.

Sure. You can. Of course. Absolutely!

However!!
Doing that method, where it’s not codified or a part of the rules/system, may lack consistency or a standardization. Isn’t there something about a game that actually says “this is how this game works” without it just being ‘tacked on’ or house ruled?

Recording tonight on Twitch.tv/gaming_and_bs at 8pm cdt or find us in your podcatcher.

http://gamingandbs.com/321

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#2

Looking forward to giving this one a listen… I’ve always been confused/curious about Brett’s aversion to PbtA. I feel like a lot of it is right up his alley.

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#3

don’t think we dug deep enough into the PbtA side of things - I might have to have a separate discussion into why I’m not a fan.

One of the things I don’t really want to do “on the mic” is to say things about a game/system that would be hurtful or disrespectful to some of our listeners. I know that some of my personal feelings/reactions to the PbtA stuff is a bit harsh and I don’t want to piss people off by saying something rash.

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#4

I think that’s a fair approach and assessment.

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#5

Probably a good approach tbh.

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#6

In response to last night watching the podcast be recorded on twitch. Brett and Sean mentioned how system can change the feel of the game you’re playing and used curse of strahd with 5e vs savage worlds etc. As an example. I started thinking and found myself inspired. Curse of Strahd run with Call of Cthulhu. Weak PCs extremely vulnerable in combat, sanity loss, major investigation and role playing. I even considered the idea of 1920s characters drawn into Ravenloft in some sort of Steven Kings the mist or maybe via Kingsport to make an even stranger twist. Thanks for another great show. Love listening and keep up the great work.

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#7

Niiiiiiiiiiice!!! I like that approach.

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#8

Damn! I should have thought of CoC during the show! @Jason_Wiebe - that’s a wonderful idea! You don’t need to have a Cthulhu/Elder God/etc involved at all - just the lycanthropes, hags, and the vampires and such would be plenty - it has potential to be a wonderful CoC storyline. And, of course, it has the added bonus of a built in Sanity mechanic :slight_smile:

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#9

I’m 100% confident that if I had a small group conversation with say you, @Joe, @Sean, and @Harrigan (hell, any of the BSers really as you all are awesome) it’d be a good discussion about “what doesn’t Brett like about PbtA?” because it’d be a live, multi-person input palaver.

If I just complain about something on the mic then it’s too one-sided and wouldn’t help anyone understand my position, and wouldn’t help me to perhaps amend my position based on the real-time feedback.

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#10

Agreed. I think adding the mythos to it would cheapen the horror aspect. I think the idea of not being able to defeat things easily (if at all) via combat would completely change how players would interact with the story.

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