[freeroleplay] Thoughts on system design

[Troy Truchon]

On 6/28/06, Samuel Penn <sam at glendale.org.uk> wrote:
>
> On Wednesday 28 June 2006 19:16, Troy Truchon wrote:
> > I have never played Ars but I hear nothing but good things about it.
> > I'll probably hunt it down before too long. The idea sounds very
> > similar to what I was thinking though.
>
> There's sometimes discussion about this style of gaming on the Ars Magica
> mailing list[1]. Archives are available if you're a subscriber.
>
> You can download the 4th Edition rules[2] for free, though it's now in
> its 5th Edition.
>
> The main issues are keeping consistency between GMs. One GM may introduce
> something that they think is cool but which causes problems for others.
>
> Because Ars has various levels of play, particular GMs can concentrate on
> what they like/do best. Maybe someone runs the political Tribunals which
> come up once every 7 years.
>
> You could also split it by geographical region, with each person
> responsible for things happening in their region. You don't even need
> people to run anything - just have them update the doings of major NPCs
> and coming up with interesting events in their region, and the main GM
> works out how it effects the PCs.
>
> Ars Magica is not for everyone. There tends to be a lot of number
> crunching involved in the downtime (learning spells, inventing magical
> items, writing books), but it does add a new dimension to playing a
> wizard.
>
> btw, I've never actually played in a group which used multiple GMs for
> Ars Magica. Those of us running things tend to be either control freaks
> or have plot lines so intermeshed with the world that sharing it becomes
> difficult. Or possible it's a bit of both :-)
>
>
> [1] http://lists.csua.berkeley.edu/mailman/listinfo/ars-magica
> [2] http://www.atlas-games.com/product_tables/AG0204.php

That's pretty much the way I was going into HS. its kinda funny how
your style changes. When i first started with AD&D 2nd ed. I loved
running munchkin settings with lots of numbers and dice flying across
the table. As I entered HS I started into council of wyrms campaigns
that were more about culture and politics and plot lines. Theirs
really no point in a munchkin game about dragons. Then I moved on to
really heavily rules-free story based games, eventually running a
rules-free shadowrun game with a bunch of friends. But slowly it just
degenerated into a boring series of monologues. Basically I want that
fun of the game but with the mental flexing that more story driven
games provide. And I really don't want anyone, myself included, to
feel saddled with running the whole world for everyone else's fun.

> --
> Be seeing you,                         http://www.glendale.org.uk
> Sam.
>               IM: samuel.penn at jabber.org or samuel.penn at gmail.com
>
>
> _______________________________________________
> Discussion mailing list
> Discussion at freeroleplay.org
> http://lists.freeroleplay.org/mailman/listinfo/discussion
>


-- 
Troy J. Truchon
Computer Service Technician