Narritivist reconstruction of MURPG

[quixoteles]

I was thinking that players could get bonuses to their max energy reserve for challenges that they take in game.

Actually I was thinking of removing the action pool all together and accumulating energy reserves based on how much trouble hey are in.

You see, it's like this, someone that is hiding their mutation, is a mutant, politically powerful parents would suffer if the shame of a mutant in the family got out and cannot control their power without a device would get this large pool in order to use their actions in.

The second restructuring I was thinking about was get this, you get return on your energy pool based on role-playing values. You would get returns for being resourceful, taking responsibility, altruism, having the right specialty, pushing an agenda, playing on instincts, confronting an enemy, and certain conditional personality traits like driven or tenacity or plucky or berserker.

In addition to that the could be some conditional bonuses based on stats, like a high durability or high intelligence could affect the refresh and pool size

This is part of an RPG that I am working on, but I was wondering if it would fit for MURPG players. Anyone think that this is a terrible Idea? Have you seen it before?

Please give the response and feed back!

[Brainstem]

Seems similar to how I play, in the whole Free Form respect. Things happen more effectively when its more important that it happen.

However lots of what you're saying seems to be covered by situational modifiers. Energy returns for being resourceful, for example, would really be the same as a +2 sit mod for being resourceful. Unless you mean something beyond that? If so, please explain.

[thepirateking]

quick question... does the GM allocate those free stones for the player or vice-versa and does it all happen on the same panel??

[quixoteles]

sigh, that just it, it will all be sit mods, there is no base pool, the max pool is directly generated from you challenges. the more story a character has the bigger his base pool will be, the better role playing you do the more you'll get back the next round. There is no stat crutches. The hulk is a psychology complex character, all of that baggage makes him in poessession of a enormous pool of energy, you get it?

[beryl]

So what you're saying is, the more problems you have, the more effort you're able to exert? The Rules As Written reflect the spirit of comic books, which routinely demonstrate that nobody is perfect. That's why everyoneid required to have one Challenge. That doesn't necessarily mean that the less-perfect ones (it's oddly difficult to come up with an example, actually) somehow have more energy or stamina. You can't run faster just because the world hates you or something.

Something about it just doesn't seem quite right to me. I mean, it doesn't make sense for Misfit Girl - who has all sorts of problems surrounding her powers - to match or surpass Everlast, who has fewer problems, but is a juggernaut-esque powerhouse.

It also seems rather arbitrary, even for the MURPG. Of course, if there were some kind of system (ie. Take the Challenges in the book and translate them directly into energy pool increases), that would be another thing. Is that what you had in mind?

Not to mention that if you're going to base the energy pool directly on the screw'd-up-ed-ness of the character in question, I'd hope that you'd decrease the cost of Durability, as half of its effects are now nullified.

Another concern I have is how the challenges would be weighted. Even one stone of energy in reserve can save your life. Weight each too heavily, and you'll have characters who never tire. Weight them too lightly, and you'll find that the characters will be forced to saddle themselves with tons of unneccessary and undesirable challenges just to have a decent energy pool.

In short, I don't like it. I'm sure that it could work, if you take the time to think carefully about it. And I'm sure that you could have a great game run this way, but I don't like the flavor of it, or the mechanics.

[quixoteles]

LOL, OK. I'm sure I am not going to convince you but here it goes.

Screwed-up-titude is a factor for deciding the energy pool, but not the only one. Superman would also have a huge engery pool also bacuse of the responsiblities that he takes on every day. Superman litterally feel personally responsible for the entire universe. Every plight and every slight against justice weighs down on his shoulders. He's not a loner mutant deformed psycho. He's loyal and just and responsible, according to this system this will give him a big, big pool. If I am pricing it the way I'd like, it will give him a bigger pool than Angsty, the runaway psycho girl extraordinaire. It not just the stuff surrounding your powers, it's the things that surround you. The way that your character deals with them also effects how you recharge. The better role-play the more returns that you will see.

I do not mean to nitpick, don't misunderstand me, but the levels on the actions decide wether or not you can run faster, it decides how long you can run. the motivations of the characters decide how long that they can run really. For example in the comic global frequency a character, Patel, ran across London in 20 minutes. She was a doing a 18 minute free run across all of London risking her life and covering an almost impossible distance so as to make sure that london would not all fall victim to a deadly biological weapon. She clould do this because she was a three di-mensional character that had good motivations to make sure London did not face Apocalypse. Those motivations, instincts, personal relationships, and so on an so forth drove her to do something amazing. No doubt that her london freerunning action was high around perhaps 4 or 5, but her rescourcefulness, drive, her instincts, that's what made it possible not some stat. The game I am imagining is not one of resource allocation. It is a narritivist game. The idea is for the Mod and you to come up with situations that put a player in "Crisis" and for you to manage the crisis by playing off your characters persona. Is that more clear?

[quixoteles]

beryl said:

So what you're saying is, the more problems you have, the more effort you're able to exert? The Rules As Written reflect the spirit of comic books, which routinely demonstrate that nobody is perfect. That's why everyoneid required to have one Challenge. That doesn't necessarily mean that the less-perfect ones (it's oddly difficult to come up with an example, actually) somehow have more energy or stamina. You can't run faster just because the world hates you or something.

Funny methinks you may have proved my point there

[jimforce]

quixoteles said:

The game I am imagining is not one of resource allocation. It is a narritivist game. The idea is for the Mod and you to come up with situations that put a player in Crisis and for you to manage the crisis by playing off your characters persona. Is that more clear?

It sounds to me like you might have better luck just playing this type of game free form without any rules or character sheets at all. As long as you have stones and a CAD, it's a game of resource allocation. To move to a completely narrativist approach seems like doing away with the rules all together.

Not that here's anything wrong with that...but it doesn't seem like MURPG if you remove resource allocation. To have someone able to run faster than say, Quicksilver, just cause they have a unique motivation to do so is not a bad idea. But once you factor in Quicksilver's motivations and backstory, you're at square one again. Nothing has changed.

Awarding extra stones for good roleplaying is a great idea, but that's what SitMods are to begin with. You're still spending stones, so it's still resource allocation. I say if you want to run with this idea, just drop the stones all together and make it purely narrative.

[quixoteles]

Ah I have peaked you interest. there is gamist aspects going on here. I want people who do not have good motivations and make bad decisions to run out of energy. It will focus not on resource management to crisis management. I want to encourage players to dance in and out of the fire so to speak. the players have this incredible control over the story, time space all of it become relative. I want to craft a game that has decisions as it's main currency. Comic books are about single individuals changing peoples lives, at least superhero comics are.

[beryl]

LOL, OK. I'm sure I am not going to convince you but here it goes.

I don't want you to try and convince me. At this point, I'd just like to try and better understand what it is you're saying, so that I can better offer the feedback that you asked for. ^^

Screwed-up-titude is a factor for deciding the energy pool, but not the only one. Superman would also have a huge engery pool also bacuse of the responsiblities that he takes on every day. Superman litterally feel personally responsible for the entire universe. Every plight and every slight against justice weighs down on his shoulders. He's not a loner mutant deformed psycho. He's loyal and just and responsible, according to this system this will give him a big, big pool. If I am pricing it the way I'd like, it will give him a bigger pool than Angsty, the runaway psycho girl extraordinaire. It not just the stuff surrounding your powers, it's the things that surround you. The way that your character deals with them also effects how you recharge. The better role-play the more returns that you will see.

Okay, fair enough, but it was only an example.

So what I'm hearing you say - please, correct me if I'm wrong, I'm still not quite clear on this - is that because Superman is responsible for these people, he has a larger energy pool, correct?

From my point of view, Superman becomes responsible for those people BECAUSE he has a large energy pool. In other words, because he has the capability to protect them, he becomes responsible. He does not gain the capability because he is responsible.

If I'm misunderstanding you, let me know. Wouldn't be the first time, it seems. :P

I do not mean to nitpick, don't misunderstand me, but the levels on the actions decide wether or not you can run faster, it decides how long you can run.

Yeah, you're right. But if you change my words around, my point should still stand: their abilities aren't what they are because of their surroundings, their responsibilities, the current situation, or their motivations.

the motivations of the characters decide how long that they can run really. For example in the comic global frequency a character, Patel, ran across London in 20 minutes. She was a doing a 18 minute free run across all of London risking her life and covering an almost impossible distance so as to make sure that london would not all fall victim to a deadly biological weapon. She clould do this because she was a three di-mensional character that had good motivations to make sure London did not face Apocalypse. Those motivations, instincts, personal relationships, and so on an so forth drove her to do something amazing. No doubt that her london freerunning action was high around perhaps 4 or 5, but her rescourcefulness, drive, her instincts, that's what made it possible not some stat. The game I am imagining is not one of resource allocation. It is a narritivist game. The idea is for the Mod and you to come up with situations that put a player in "Crisis" and for you to manage the crisis by playing off your characters persona. Is that more clear?

Like Jim Force said, this game is about resource allocation. You put in the effort, you get results. Don't place your stones smartly, and you get beat down. Trying to take out that aspect of the game entirely would be a major change.

However, I don't think it's necessary to take it out to accomplish what you want.

You want people who make good decisions with good intentions to succeed. Situational modifiers can do this. In the above example, her ability is clearly ample (ie. she overcame the difficulty) and the only problem is whether or not she can last long enough to get there in time (ie. overcome the resistance). It's the last shot to save the city, a heroic act, very stylish... a generous GM could give her action a situational modifier of +5 or more from the General Pool. In other words, her limits get pushed in a crisis, and she's able to do greater things than anyone knew she could.

Now, granted, I'd probably be more generous with the sitmods if the player is acting in-character rather than number-crunching, trying to figure it out mathematically, but...

The core rulebook says, flat-out: if it's better for everyone that the PCs succeed, they should succeed. If they're really close, an extra sitmod can push them into the successful range. If they're not even close, well... I don't care how motivated they are, they're not gonna be able to pull it off.

Pulling it out at the last second is what comic books are all about. But MURPG already accounts for this.

[quixoteles]

I hear you, having incredibe physical abilities would surely be accounted for. Nega-sonic Teenage Warhead is a credit to her species, Emma Frost is not, she's made of diamonds, Nega is not Nega dies.

I get you with great power come great responsiblity, not the other way around. But besides that what I am trying to do is set a player p with a framework picked by them to have narrative over the games that they are playing in and reward the player for doing so.

It actually about my vision of the perfect superhero game, where the motivations of extremely potent individuals shape the world around them on a constant basis. Thier simple existence acting as a catalyst for change in thier environment.