From: Gbaji@aol.com
Date: Fri 06 Sep 1996 - 06:52:09 EEST
Andrew Behan sez:
> It's great to hear that David Hall has been given responsibility
> for the development of G:tG.
Indeed it is.
> Game design has advanced a lot since Pendragon appeared,
> never mind RQ.
I would say quite the opposite, actually, at least from the standpoint of
game mechanics. Games like Storyteller suffer from an appalling lack of
consistency where mechanics are involved, and each new supplement adds yet
another layer of needless complexity to an already confusing jumble of ideas
appropriated from other games.
As far as the atmosphere invoked, however, they have improved since the early
> I hope G:tG retains Pendragon's elegant simplicity and neat
days of RQ. Pendragon has always been state-of-the-art in that respect, and
G:tG shouldl inherit that.
> traits.
Judging from what I have heard from Greg himself, this is what Chaosium will
be striving for. Of course, I fully expect David Hall will add nuances that
go beyond a mere port of Pendragon mechanics to a Gloranthan setting.
> OTOH it would be nice if G:tG's mechanics were state oif the
> art. [snip] As a fan of powerful minimalist rules I would favour
> some sort of open-ended, difficulty based mechanic a la
> Shadowrun/Vampire.
Please God, no! I was involved in the original playtests of Vampire, and few,
if any, of the original problems concerning the probability skews inherent in
the system have ever been acknowledged by White Wolf, let alone changed. If
you are going to mention a difficulty-based system, at least pick one that
has been marginally well thought-out, like ARIA.
> The GM chooses the die with which the player makes the test,
> any die. A really easy test would be made using a d3 or d4. An
> extremely challenging action might require a success on a d20,
> d30 or d100.
I hate to point this out, but that is the exact mechanic used by Avalon
Hill's incredible flop, Tales From The Floating Vagabond. Being cutesy and
catering to the "weird dice" craze did nothing except doom what might have
otherwise been an amusing game. I think, as an approach to serious rules
design, consistency in the dice used and the protocols and probability
curves involved with dice-rolling are one of the first sign of a solid and
playable game system.
'Nuff said!
Michael Schwartz
------------------------------
gbaji@aol.com
End of Glorantha Digest V3 #174
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