NEW GAMING SYSTEMS
(Posted 2007-09-13 15:28:47 by ArchPaladin)

I really don't mean to make it 6 to 7 days between posts.  Sometimes I
don't post because I have nothing to say (because life has been boring that
week), but sometimes I do have something to say and just don't post because
things are busy.  So today I'm going to do two - one right after the
other.

I have recently ordered and received a corebook for another gaming system
outside of Vampire: Sorcerer [ http://www.sorcerer-rpg.com/ ]
[sorcerer-rpg.com].  I've been rather excited about this system from
reading about it, as it seems to fit my tastes in gaming perfectly: small
ruleset (the corebook is small - only a couple hundred pages if that, and
not standard gaming book size), widely configurable setting, has a strong
grounding in theme, and can (but not necessarily has to) use a lot of many
different sides of dice.  On top of that, the game's theme is based around
an exploration of morality, which I also enjoy.  So yes, I have been rather
excited about it.

I have also recently found and purchased the corebook for the Amber
Diceless RPG (I've been on a new gaming system binge, if you can't tell). 
The Amber system is based on the Amber book series by Roger Zelazny, which
I thoroughly recommend to anyone who hasn't read it (ten books in all, very
high fantasy, political intrigue and all that).  I've been looking into
purchasing the corebook for a while, but the entire system is out-of-print
and the only way I could have gotten it was online as a PDF document, which
is not very useful in a tabletop setting.  However, by chance or fate I
found it in book form in the comic store I occasionally visit and decided
not to let the opportunity pass by.

Our gaming group is looking into running two sessions a week instead of
only one.  If we do branch out, then one night we will probably reserve for
Vampire and the other session will be for something else.  We know that we
want to try Amber first (as I've already started reading the book) and may
take up Sorcerer after Amber is over, or in conjunction with it, or
something like that.

So anyway, I mention this all here partly because it's something that's
been going on and partly because I've come across an interesting concept
that didn't occur to me before as I was reading the Amber corebook.  Part
of the Amber system is that as a player creates a character, they have a
chance to assign part of their pool of points used in the creation process
to things called "Good Stuff" and "Bad Stuff".  A character can only have
one kind of stuff, and the kind (and amount) they take determines how much
trouble they tend to get into on a regular basis.  A character with a lot
of Good Stuff would be well received at functions, have people willing to
help him out, and carry a good demeanor, while a character with Bad Stuff
would be the opposite.

Here's where the revelation comes in.  Part of the corebook's descriptions
of these things included an example of a GM describing the same scene in
the game to players with different amounts of this karmic stuff.  In each
description, the details changed to reflect the player's worldview and
their individual types of stuff.  Now, having been a GM a couple of times I
know that the players are dependent on you to describe everything to them,
but the way the descriptions were altered placed different emphasis on
certain things to make the player form different impressions about a scene.
 For example, a character walks into a bar and sees a bunch of people
around a table laughing.  For a character with Good Stuff, the GM might
indicate that the people are laughing over some menial joke, but if the
character has Bad Stuff, the GM might indicate that the people are laughing
at the character.  Note that the GM doesn't have to indicate what the
people are actually laughing over, more that they guide the player to form
their own impressions which may or may not be accurate.

Like I said, I am aware that the GM has to provide the details of the
surroundings to the players, and that they are dependent on the
descriptions given to form their perceptions of what's going on.  However,
I've always approached that with a "give them the facts and let them
decide" sort of attitude, where I would only give strict factual details. 
It didn't occur to me that I might be able to shape the actions of the
players by varying my descriptions in such a way that it colors their
perceptions.  Thinking about this a little bit, I can use this to draw the
player into having their characters commit some inappropriate act out of a
misunderstanding, or lead them better in certain directions to shape the
plot of the story in one way or another.  I may have done these things as a
GM in the past, but if I have I don't think I've ever really done it
consciously.

I am rather looking forward to trying out this approach with Amber, but all
the more so with Sorcerer.  Since Sorcerer is a thematic, moral-exploratory
game, I suspect this kind of description manipulation will come in very
handy.

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