HazelnutMudslide
Supporter
Posts: 129
Preferred Game Systems: L5R, 7th Sea, TriStat, WoD, D&D5e
Currently Playing: Nothing (LFG)
Currently Running: Nothing (LFG)
Favorite Species of Monkey: grease, never know when you'll need one to fix things.
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Post by HazelnutMudslide on Nov 2, 2017 20:59:56 GMT -8
How come there's no thread about last week's show yet? Thanks gina for stepping in to host, Maire and Kurt for showing up and Stork for.... being Stork!
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Post by ayslyn on Nov 2, 2017 22:16:20 GMT -8
It sorta spun out of the cancelation post for the same day.
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Post by jazzisblues on Nov 7, 2017 11:43:47 GMT -8
So, about social mechanics …
We have social mechanics for exactly the same reason that we have combat mechanics, to give our characters a common and fair way to adjudicate actions that we may not be good at ourselves. If I want to make a face character, I’m going to desperately need some way for him to be charismatic because that sure as crap isn’t coming from me. The real problem, as I see it, with social mechanics is one of granularity. In how many games is a fight resolved with a single die roll? (The answer in case you were wondering is, “Not many.”) but social mechanics, persuasion, and such resolve with a single die roll, or at most two opposed die rolls.
At the same time, we can’t just take them out, otherwise someone who’s persuasive in real life, charismatic and such, runs roughshod over the rest of us plebs who are doing well to string two sentences together.
So, how do we fix this? Well, we have choices. We can choose how we want to handle social mechanics, we can choose when to implement them at all, and finally, when to call for dice on the table.
I like to take a somewhat organic view of social mechanics. Meaning, that I like to let the role play evolve organically and if we reach a point of impasse or debate about something I’ll let the player (or one of the players) be the one to call for dice (generally). So, let’s say we have two characters, Bob, and Nob, and they’re arguing about where to go next. Bob wants to go to the nearby village to help the refugees from the border wars, but Nob wants to go loot the ancient crypt of the Whosit for fun and profit. They wrangle about it for a bit until one of them decides to put dice down. Now, as the gm depending on the system you may or may not have much in the way of granularity about this, and I’m not going to go into alternative systems of social combat here. In most systems, someone is putting dice down and someone is going to win out, and get their way in this instance. What that doesn’t say anything about is how the person who’s having to give in feels about it. Having been intimidated into going to ransack the crypt, Bob may harbor all manner of bad feelings, we don’t know. What the social mechanic does is determine who gets their way, it does not, in any way determine what happens (if anything) later.
We need social mechanics, and we need to implement them for the same reason we implement combat mechanics. Don’t be afraid of them, they are a tool, a mechanism in games to facilitate role play, and to advance the story.
As always, just my 2 krupplenicks worth, your mileage may of course vary.
JiB
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Deleted
Deleted Member
Posts: 0
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Post by Deleted on Nov 7, 2017 14:40:31 GMT -8
Need social mechanics? You should've heard Ken Hite and Robin Laws talking about their 'Jane Austen with Magic' idea, where when you run out of Social, you literally are dead to society/removed from the game
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druggeddwarf
Journeyman Douchebag
Posts: 167
Preferred Game Systems: Anything fun
Favorite Species of Monkey: The one that throws Kamehamehas.
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Post by druggeddwarf on Nov 10, 2017 2:00:50 GMT -8
Sorry, I am a little late to the party, but Did the HJ Crew just recommend Anime?
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andreasdavour
Patron (Supporter)
Posts: 257
Preferred Game Systems: M0, Savage Worlds, Over the Edge, Warhammer FRP 1st ed.
Currently Playing: None
Currently Running: Wandering Heroes of Ogre Gate
Favorite Species of Monkey: Llama
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Post by andreasdavour on Nov 16, 2017 12:41:14 GMT -8
I really liked the ending song by Sportive Tricks!
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Post by chronovore on Nov 19, 2017 21:31:22 GMT -8
Sorry, I am a little late to the party, but Did the HJ Crew just recommend Anime? I thought some of the peeps at HJ are anime fans, no?
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Post by chronovore on Nov 24, 2017 6:29:29 GMT -8
So finally finishing this episode tonight — SCUM AND VILLAINY hack for Blades in the Dark? I am super excited to think about this. Man, a Star Wars Mos-Eisley-esque version of a heist game?
Did anyone else love Timothy Zahn's SCOUNDRELS novel, a heist set in the Star Wars universe -- in the era where Han and Lando are still on the outs? SUPER COOL.
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