Game Design Seminar with John Wick (Ep 5)

Origins Award winning designer John Wick talks about task resolution with a firm eye on wrecking the Whiff Factor

Category:

Howto & Style

Tags:

• game
• design
• roleplaying
• games
• John
• Wick
• houses
• of
• the
• blooded

[zulgyan]

I think you are confusing "roleplaying games" with "storytelling games". The last derived from the first and has now it's own set of principals, similar to yours.

[LordStrange]

Can you define your terms? What's the difference between a "storytelling game" and a "roleplaying game?"

[tarboy69]

as a player i love the whiff facter  i think it adds even more drama to the game and takes the story to even higher level drama

[ShubertCVGC]

@evilpilch Actually, you inferred it, not me. But yes, unfortunately it does require a "mature" group of players. While this is practically impossible to achieve, a good Narrator (GM) might be able to keep a *mostly* mature group on course. I'm struggling with this myself at the moment.

[evilpilch]

@ShubertCVGC Of course a story can be derailed. And by derailed I mean abuse, and make no reference to rail-roading. It seems to be that the concept of 'collaborative storytelling' which you seem to infer that Houses is, perhaps something aking to Ars Magica in that respect, does rely on mature players all, or at least most of which have some storytelling capacity. I'd love to play a game like that, but I haven't yet come across a group of players who wouldn't abuse the power to some extent.

[ShubertCVGC]

@evilpilch If your players are just going to min-max the hell out of every game they play, then stick to D&D. Houses is a game where players have a HUGE amount of power and thus are given the trust of the narrator and fellow players that he won't destroy the story by doing retarded things. The idea that a story can be "derailed" seems almost laughable to me. There is no rail in Houses. Everybody is actively building the story in real time.

[evilpilch]

Also, the issue I have with switching the narration, unless it is controlled in some fashion by the GM, the 'story' the GM is trying to deliver could be derailed so swiftly its ridiculous. Imagine with 3 wagers: and I get caught in the effect of a teleport spell cast by a nearby mage, and get teleported to another continent.

[evilpilch]

I'm really interested in this notion of narration switching, but see that too as being potentially open to so much abuse. Imagine again the rooftop jump example above. I begin falling, but I land in the basket of a hot air balloon, and find a magic sword and a ring on invisibility.

[evilpilch]

I have an issue with this so-called 'Whiff Factor'. I'm not sure that, especially in the example of revenge given above, that rolling a 4 would kill the drama. It might actually add to the tension if handled correctly. Spectacular moments of failure are often as dramatic as spectacular moments of success.

[TubeYourTubeOn]

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[TubeYourTubeOn]

all hail discordia

[solvebring]

Great episode I must say.

And by the say, Rush is awesome!

Well, if I say Moving Pictures and 2112 you definitely know what I want to say.

Keep it up!