Fluff vs Crunch

It is very common these days to divide RPG material into fluff, text that focuses on the description and story, and crunch, text that focuses on the mechanics and action. When developing the game, it is important to separate the two as cleanly as possible. When actually playing the game, though, the two need to be brought together.

Ennies Awards

So, on the last episode of RPG Circus, we made a slate of Ennies predictions.  Given the results this weekend, I thought I'd do a wrap-up and see how accurate I was.  Also, sincere congratulations to all the winners.  It was definitely a tough field out there this year.

Out of the 42 awards given, I called 24 correctly.  Though, as a note, I gave myself half credit if I picked the right product, but the wrong medal (e.g., I picked it for Gold, but it took Silver).  I did not totally wash out of any category, and was perfect on 5 of the 21 categories.  All in all, not too shabby.

System Wank - Initiative

Last week, Rob Donoghue posted a summary of a few different types of initiative systems as part of his musings on his new system.  Which reminded me of the next mechanic for my System Wank series: the best initiative system I ever used.

(In retrospect, I totally should have ripped off that Best Thing I Ever Ate show from Food Network.)

The 7th Sea game introduced me to a number of really interesting mechanics.  An argument can certainly be made that Wick, Wilson, et al., did more to bring indie ideas into a mainstream game than actually creating novel mechanics.  (Of course, the same can be said about Da Vinci's exhaustive encyclopedia of inventions, and look where that got him.)  But, so far as I know, their initiative system is unique.

You say you want a resolution.... part 5

When taking an action in an RPG, there are five stages: intent, declaration, resolution, effect, and description.  We've already covered intent, declaration, resolution, and effect.  The action ends when someone, most often the GM, describes what just happened.

Harkening back to the discussion on declaration (and foreshadowing the discussion on fluff vs. crunch), there is a difference between the effect and the description of that effect.  Boiling it down, the effect works on the mechanical level, and the description works on the character level.  The description is also important to tie the whole action together, much like the summary section at the end of a paper.

New and Improved Goblins

I was listening to a podcast last week (I can't recall which one) and the subject of flying mounts for small creatures came up.  I had a sudden flash of inspiration, that I want to capture here.  Conveniently enough, it ties in with this month's RPG Blog Carnival topic, which is animals in RPGs.

As a result of Tolkien's influence, we often see goblins riding worgs, or some other kind of large wolf.  What if we extended that connection to other types of animals?  Goblins riding giant bats or even wyverns?  Goblins using trained rats or spiders?  There is a lot of potential here, I think.

You say you want a resolution.... part 4

When taking an action in an RPG, there are five stages: intent, declaration, resolution, effect, and description.  We've already covered intent, declaration, and resolution.  Now we get to the effect.

The effect is usually pretty simple, and predetermined by the system.  If you hit with an attack, you deal damage.  If you succeed with a perception check, you find something.  However, there are some nuances here that both separate one style of gaming from another, and are areas where a good GM can introduce extra layers of awesome.

System Wank - Attributes

The next in my "System Wank" series, in which I highlight mechanics in various games that I've really liked.  Today, I want to point out one of the better collections of character attributes I've played with.  I point you to: The New World of Darkness!