Jack Spencer
01-11-2002, 10:19 PM
Fortune in the Middle is a type of mechanic that I have been struggling to understand of late. I still don't completely get it, but Seth Ben-Ezra was good enough to let me have a look at his Alyria game, which uses FitM, and I think I understand it a little better now.
Seth asked me to not distribute it, but he didn't say anything about quoting it. Ah, well. Hopefully he'll chalk it up to advertising.
from the Alyria Quick-Start Rules by Seth Ben-Ezra Published by Dark Omen Games
Selena, resplendent in her shimmering evening gown, is attending a ball in the home of one of the Citadel’s High Lords. She is hoping to make use of her influence to affect the current policies towards the Restored in the Citadel. However, her political rival Tenebros is at the ball as well. The two begin to engage in verbal sparring over political matters. After a few pointed exchanges (and a die roll or two), the conversation becomes more heated and Selena wants to disengage. She could use Force (e.g. display a weapon or make a thinly-veiled threat to get Tenebros to back off), Insight (e.g. dazzle Tenebros with a how of wit and sweep away, leaving him spluttering) or Determination (e.g. remain calm while he gradually works himself into a frenzy).
Selena chooses Insight to dazzle her opponent’s wit. With an Insight of Full Moon, Tenebros will have to get lucky and roll a Full Moon to win. In contrast, Tenebros chooses Force to intimidate Selena, but his Half Moon rating should be easy to beat.
Selena knows that Tenebros had a vile temper, rated at New Moon. She decides to provoke him, activating his Temper against him. This drops his effective Attribute to New, making Selena’s chances of success even better.
Tenebros knows that Selena is afflicted with Timidity (Crescent). He states that Selena is losing her cool in the face of his raging temper. In other words, he activates her Timidity Trait. This cancels her activation of his Temper, returning him to a Half Moon rating.
...Tenebros loses his temper and begins railing against Selena. She tries to deflect his cutting words but quails under his verbal assault. Finally, she breaks into tears and rushes from the room, followed by his mocking laughter.
Now, most of this won't make sense to you unless you pick up that Alyria uses a die with moon phases on it. That's why traits are labled such. Anyway...
What seems to be what FitM is all about is rather stating an action, and then failing or succeeding said action, it's about stating a genral intention or desired outcome.
And what is the beauty of FitM is that you can use it for any form of conflict, not just combat as is the typical case. I mean, the above in D&D would've been "simply role-played" which means the players just talking/acting it out. Which is fine, but D&D give you little help in this regard, while Alyria does. (Does d20 still have reaction rolls? I forget) In fact, this form of conflict is fairly well-structured in Alyria. As well-structured as any encounters, I guess.
I'm still wrestling with this concept, though, but I mentioned it in another thread somewhere and thought that the people here might be interested in it, or as much as I understand it, anyway.
Seth asked me to not distribute it, but he didn't say anything about quoting it. Ah, well. Hopefully he'll chalk it up to advertising.
from the Alyria Quick-Start Rules by Seth Ben-Ezra Published by Dark Omen Games
Selena, resplendent in her shimmering evening gown, is attending a ball in the home of one of the Citadel’s High Lords. She is hoping to make use of her influence to affect the current policies towards the Restored in the Citadel. However, her political rival Tenebros is at the ball as well. The two begin to engage in verbal sparring over political matters. After a few pointed exchanges (and a die roll or two), the conversation becomes more heated and Selena wants to disengage. She could use Force (e.g. display a weapon or make a thinly-veiled threat to get Tenebros to back off), Insight (e.g. dazzle Tenebros with a how of wit and sweep away, leaving him spluttering) or Determination (e.g. remain calm while he gradually works himself into a frenzy).
Selena chooses Insight to dazzle her opponent’s wit. With an Insight of Full Moon, Tenebros will have to get lucky and roll a Full Moon to win. In contrast, Tenebros chooses Force to intimidate Selena, but his Half Moon rating should be easy to beat.
Selena knows that Tenebros had a vile temper, rated at New Moon. She decides to provoke him, activating his Temper against him. This drops his effective Attribute to New, making Selena’s chances of success even better.
Tenebros knows that Selena is afflicted with Timidity (Crescent). He states that Selena is losing her cool in the face of his raging temper. In other words, he activates her Timidity Trait. This cancels her activation of his Temper, returning him to a Half Moon rating.
...Tenebros loses his temper and begins railing against Selena. She tries to deflect his cutting words but quails under his verbal assault. Finally, she breaks into tears and rushes from the room, followed by his mocking laughter.
Now, most of this won't make sense to you unless you pick up that Alyria uses a die with moon phases on it. That's why traits are labled such. Anyway...
What seems to be what FitM is all about is rather stating an action, and then failing or succeeding said action, it's about stating a genral intention or desired outcome.
And what is the beauty of FitM is that you can use it for any form of conflict, not just combat as is the typical case. I mean, the above in D&D would've been "simply role-played" which means the players just talking/acting it out. Which is fine, but D&D give you little help in this regard, while Alyria does. (Does d20 still have reaction rolls? I forget) In fact, this form of conflict is fairly well-structured in Alyria. As well-structured as any encounters, I guess.
I'm still wrestling with this concept, though, but I mentioned it in another thread somewhere and thought that the people here might be interested in it, or as much as I understand it, anyway.