tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2657266526705426756.post7094898936018578358..comments2024-03-26T04:58:54.326-04:00Comments on The Wandering Gamist: Jedi Ruin Everythingjedavishttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08586249502818922886noreply@blogger.comBlogger2125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2657266526705426756.post-1567486455725867812014-10-18T17:16:14.961-04:002014-10-18T17:16:14.961-04:00I think I'm OK with them being brute DM-to-pla...I think I'm OK with them being brute DM-to-player knowledge-transfer capabilities. Part of this is due to self-knowledge that I am a very closed DM; most of my descriptions are purely functional, so a description of unclear import would be an immediate tell. I actually rather like divinations in fantasy games, as they permit me to give the players data that they wouldn't otherwise know, without tipping my hand. I don't really see these as functionally different, except that they're plausible within harder-science universes and operate under somewhat different restrictions.<br /><br />Regarding player dissatisfaction, I suspect that this will depend on one's particular player-group. The folks I game with have traditionally shown very little interest in or aptitude for investigation, puzzles, &c; I'm looking at this more as a way to get them actionable intelligence for their ever-pressing "Who are we lasering next?" and "Where's the thing we're trying to steal?" questions.jedavishttps://www.blogger.com/profile/08586249502818922886noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2657266526705426756.post-89127086774416469792014-10-16T10:30:37.984-04:002014-10-16T10:30:37.984-04:00It has to do with the contextual density of the ga...It has to do with the contextual density of the game and the amount of consistency-tracking the GM is willing to deal with. The classic mentat-tropes work only in the sense that they're manipulating facts and realities that exist but that go unnoticed by others, or are too complex for others to successfully manipulate. A super-detective who pieces together a complex plot from six pieces of lint and a haunted look on Tuesday is a standard trope, but it's virtually impossible to create in a sense organic to the game experience. To do so, a GM would actually have to plant these facts in the world, even if they then handed the analysis to the player as a result of their ability. This requires a density of facts and creation far too great for most GMs to handle, which is why such savant-powers usually end up handwaved as brute insertions of fact into the game. The super-detective taps their power, and the GM creates fiction to explain why they're so brilliant. Everyone knows that the fiction and the clues didn't exist before that moment, so it tends to be rather unsatisfying to a lot of players.<br /><br />There's a fundamental difference between abilities that _create_ facts within the game world, and abilities that _exploit_ facts within the game world. The former are always going to be easier to handle, because the GM needs no prep- they just acknowledge the reality that has been created, and keep going. The latter are always going to require far more work from the GM, so much so that most of them end up transformed into reskinned versions of the former, just because it's easier to deal with them that way.Sine Nominehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/18335794366582322514noreply@blogger.com