Fun explanations (Belac)

[Belac]

Do people prefer familiar examples for rules explanations or unusual examples that still get the point across well? (Assume equal quality; assume familiar example isn't bland like some, assume unusual example still makes sense.)

I used to come up with the standard boring examples for Elite combats (even using Elite campaign characters was boring.) Then one day, while explaining the system online, I spontaneously came up with a much funnier scenario.

It went something like this.

"Okay, let's say I'm sitting at my computer, and suddenly my monitor decides to attack my speakers because they're playing my Linkin Park CD too loud. Since I don't want to have to replace expensive computer hardware, I offer to settle the dispute by proxy using Elite rules and they agree. Since both the monitor and the speakers are on-the-spot characters without character sheets I, as the Gamemaster, assign them Combat Power Levels. The speakers are much smaller than the monitor, so they probably won't be very strong, but they are probably faster so that makes up for it somewhat; I decide the monitor is Power Level 20 and the speakers are each Power Level 10. I roll initiative and the speakers win. Speaker 1 opens up with a sonic blast attack by turning up its volume to ridiculous levels at a loud part in "One Step Closer" and aiming at the monitor. I'll resolve this as a Full Attack. (and so forth)"

Anyone ever used this in an actual published rulebook, or would it be unpopular?

[Harlequin Jones]

That would be a little weird for me, unless the game was about battling appliances. I would stick to the generic bland examples. If you want to spice them up, you could do what I did and give the characters funny names like "Gnorg the Gnarley" or "Chuck the Barbarian".


(smirk)
HJ
(new forum interprets my old smirks as HTML tags...grr)

[Sarim Rune]

I too would stear clear of this sort of 'silly' example.

Examples can very easily lend to the tone of the game. So if you wanted a silly game, it might be warranted.

My favorite example was from the original Masquerade (live action vampire) book. It had a story that you read and explained when the characters did something (i.e. point to their heart to spend a willpower point). It helped display how subtle the system was supposed to be. they would put any important rules information in brackets. This was one of the more interesting examples that I've read as it was alright writing, showed you the style of the game, and gave you a good series of challenge examples throughout.

But a little humor in a book rarely hurts.

[David Goodner]

I'm really picky about examples. If you need an example, it's because the rule is not clear enough on its own - so now is not the time to impress me with your clever reparte.

First of all, don't use exceptions to the rule in your examples unless you're giving me an example of the exception. (Witchcraft was terrible about this).

Second, make the example easy to understand. Build up gradually. For instance, if a rule has three different permutations, three separate examples is probably better than one single event that embodies all three.

Third, if you really want to be clever, here's something I've wanted to do for a long time. Make every example in your game a tiny portion of a larger story. White Wolf kind of did this in the Vampire: Revised game, and I thought it was just too cool. I want to take it even farther than they did, though.

I wouldn't really attempt to make the examples add up to a coherent narrative, though. It would either be really forced, or it would mean you had to put the rules in a strange order to fit the story, and that would defeat the purpose of having examples (clarifying the rules)

David G.