#27: Too Clever By Half

[RPGnet Columns]

http://www.rpg.net/columns/talesfrom...thouse27.phtml

Summary:

Don't waste mechanics.

Go to the column for more information.

[torbenm]

I quite agree with you that complexity in mechanisms must serve a purpose over just being "cool" (and I said as much in my "Roll the bones" column).

As for cards, I have seen several clever uses. One is for character creation: The cards are dealt to the players and each suit represents a particular attribute (or group of attributes). This means that not all characters can have maximum strength (as there is only one card that gives maximum). This way, you ensure a balanced party. The game I refer to (the Saga version of Dragonlance) used 8 suits + a "bad" suit and allowed substitution with another suit at a penalty, but you can do something similar with a normal deck of cards.

You can also during play tie suits to attributes, so when you draw a card of the same suit as the attribute you use in the task, you get a bonus. For example, you can draw cards as long as they match the used attribute.

These two mechanisms exploits the two key properties of cards as opposed to dice: There are suits, and the results are not independent (until you shuffle the deck).

But I don't really like the idea of giving players a hand of cards to choose from. This adds too much meta gaming and gives incentive to "blow" low cards on unimportant actions. If you need a mechanism where you can save extra oomph for the big baddies, hero points or something similar is, IMO, better.

[Tarafore]

Originally Posted by torbenm

I quite agree with you that complexity in mechanisms must serve a purpose over just being "cool" (and I said as much in my "Roll the bones" column).

As for cards, I have seen several clever uses. One is for character creation: The cards are dealt to the players and each suit represents a particular attribute (or group of attributes). This means that not all characters can have maximum strength (as there is only one card that gives maximum). This way, you ensure a balanced party. The game I refer to (the Saga version of Dragonlance) used 8 suits + a "bad" suit and allowed substitution with another suit at a penalty, but you can do something similar with a normal deck of cards.

I hadn't played that, and I hadn't heard that one explained. I think I like it - it sort of echoes the group character creation seen in Amber or Spirit of the Century (though in a different way). That would be interesting, especially if you have only four general "Trait" categories.

You can also during play tie suits to attributes, so when you draw a card of the same suit as the attribute you use in the task, you get a bonus. For example, you can draw cards as long as they match the used attribute.

These two mechanisms exploits the two key properties of cards as opposed to dice: There are suits, and the results are not independent (until you shuffle the deck).

But I don't really like the idea of giving players a hand of cards to choose from. This adds too much meta gaming and gives incentive to "blow" low cards on unimportant actions. If you need a mechanism where you can save extra oomph for the big baddies, hero points or something similar is, IMO, better.

I'm not a huge fan of metagaming anyway, and I agree that holding/building a hand of cards is one of the worst ways to do it. Weapons of the Gods' "River" seems like a better system, overall.