>>5887818In my GALERNE setting, which I consider my best designed game, I provided the choice to kill the starting quest giver (and dramatically alter the game purpose). The "enemy" was chosen from player character options.
GALERNE
https://archived.moe/qst/thread/5094509/#5094509https://archived.moe/qst/thread/5094509/#5095691(choice to kill starting quest giver)
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>WHERE The X COMES FROMIn ttrpgs the gameplay condenses down to a set of action words / verbs: dnd skill checks, lockpicking detect traps stealth or Blades In The Dark: Insight (hunt, study, survey, tinker); Prowess (finesse, prowl, skirmish, wreck); Resolve (attune, command, consort, sway). The action words are rooted in attributes, parameters defining the dimensions of player capability, the possibility of interaction and success potential in the imaginary game world.
Importantly: the attributes are nearly always monotonically increasing. If you get a str or dex penalty temporarily because of a negative crippling spell effect, the assumption is still the narrative trajectory is higher and upwards; all actions lead to improvement.
Is this what real life resembles? People get inexorably more and more powerful with age? People never undermine themselves? Is this even what stories/drama narrative tells us?
In ttrpgs the gameplay consists of the players speaking some intention, the DM categorises, reformulates the player intent into those action words, looks up the dice rule for the intent-action; roll dice, repeat endlessly grinding until you "win" the mission and achieve xp to unlock a slightly better probability dice roll for the same set of action words.
I have read a more freeform approach to rpgs called
" tactical infinity - x "
tactical infinity refers to the idea that you can perform any action, anything that you imagine can be done.
The dm makes a FREEFORM ruling as to likelihood and the players should negotiate by "imagining" into the world situations things, circumstances memories or motivations / justifications that improve their success likelihood. "Minus x" refers to things that are not permitted to be imagined because of the fictional genre and setting (eg cowboy spaceships into my historical medieval simulation) and yes, if you are so inclined, the checklist here lol
>>5886576>>5882673I am interested in a dramatic mechanism that might reward players to fail or endanger themselves in a meaningful storytelling sense for catharsis (see the picture here
>>5880641 ) I think the Blades In The Dark Devil's Bargain GM idea is interesting (but in reality, even designer John Harper himself recoils from inflicting painful consequences).
How do you encourage this player "dramatic masochism"
>>5886394>>5886465>>5886469(lol not these pictures) in a meaningful way?
How do you shift player mindset from roll to gain xp more power to roll to endanger / imperil myself for meaningful dramatic suspense?