[RPG]: Codex: Story Gaming for Creative People, reviewed by Robotech_Master (4/4)

http://www.rpg.net/reviews/archive/12/12412.phtml

Christopher E. Meadows's Summary:

An interesting and well-thought-out game that expands \"bluebooking\" into a game system of its own. It has a few minor flaws, but nothing that would get in the way of a fun play experience provided the players and GM are willing to put in the effort.

Go to the full review for more information.

[Destriarch]

This sounds very niche-y. I know I certainly wouldn't want to be tied down to writing all these little bits of side detail just so I could use them in the game. Still, there's nothing wrong with niche-y stuff, as the more variety there is in the industry the more likely there is to be something that will appeal to everyone. One thing I did wonder though is how feasible it would be to adapt these rules for use on a 'play-by-post' forum arrangement. Not for my own use, mind you, I don't have the space for something like that. I'm just generally curious.

Ash

[Robotech_Master]

Originally Posted by Destriarch

This sounds very niche-y. I know I certainly wouldn't want to be tied down to writing all these little bits of side detail just so I could use them in the game.

You'd be surprised. There are roleplaying collectives out there (I'm a member of one of them) who write lengthy epic stories about what their characters in a MMORPG do, when they can't affect their abilities in that MMORPG through this storytelling at all. For these people, to write stories that can directly affect the game situation in which you roleplay would be like what they already do, only better.

Still, there's nothing wrong with niche-y stuff, as the more variety there is in the industry the more likely there is to be something that will appeal to everyone. One thing I did wonder though is how feasible it would be to adapt these rules for use on a 'play-by-post' forum arrangement. Not for my own use, mind you, I don't have the space for something like that. I'm just generally curious.

Well, as I said in the review, it would be pretty easy to do that already, using linked live-journals for the "books."

The only thing you'd have to change would be the play session itself. Perhaps you would do that simply by writing "green book" entries directly, without an intervening live-action play session for it to be based on. One person starts, others add comments. (Or it might work even better yet to make it a wiki, so it could be easily version-tracked?) Or, of course, you could do your play sessions in a chatserver, log that, and rewrite it...

[Destriarch]

Originally Posted by Robotech_Master

You'd be surprised. There are roleplaying collectives out there (I'm a member of one of them) who write lengthy epic stories about what their characters in a MMORPG do, when they can't affect their abilities in that MMORPG through this storytelling at all. For these people, to write stories that can directly affect the game situation in which you roleplay would be like what they already do, only better.

Hmm, or maybe the point is more that the story can't affect them? i.e. a self-insertion character in a piece of fan fiction is no longer restrained by the rules of the game and, for example, a level 1 Orcish warrior could take down the mighty dragon Onyxia single-handed, whereas in WoW you'd need a raid groud 40 strong full of level 60's. Or in fact make friends with Onyxia and go on a killing spree, which is something that the rigid CRPG stories can't take into account?

Perhaps the author should think about cutting a deal with some of the larger MMORPG clans to advertise on their websites?

Ash

[IMAGinES]

Couple of things I'm curious about:

... skills are developed on the fly; when a situation comes up in play where the skill would be used, the player looks at his Blue Book entries, and other players look at the Green Book entries, to see whether the character's background and adventures give him that skill.

Hmm. I have this vision of players calling five minute time-outs to leaf through their Blue Books because they think they wrote down something applicable thirty (or was it forty?) pages ago. Is this a reasonable expectation of play, and does the text offer any suggestions to speed/side-step this process? And once you bing a skill into play, does it get added to your character's sheet permanently?

And:

Then any applicable Attribute and Skill bonuses are added to the result of a 20-sided die roll, in a simple opposed test vs. the GM.

So, do skills have values, and if so, where do they come from? The review mentiosn a pool of points for Attributes, but nothing for skills. Or are the "skill bonuses" situational?

[Robotech_Master]

Originally Posted by IMAGinES

Couple of things I'm curious about:

... skills are developed on the fly; when a situation comes up in play where the skill would be used, the player looks at his Blue Book entries, and other players look at the Green Book entries, to see whether the character's background and adventures give him that skill.

Hmm. I have this vision of players calling five minute time-outs to leaf through their Blue Books because they think they wrote down something applicable thirty (or was it forty?) pages ago. Is this a reasonable expectation of play, and does the text offer any suggestions to speed/side-step this process? And once you bing a skill into play, does it get added to your character's sheet permanently?

I think there's an expectation of players knowing their blue books more or less by heart, so it's more a question of finding where you wrote something rather than looking to see if you wrote something. Given that you're only allowed one blue book entry per completed gaming session, it should be a while before this becomes a real problem.

Skills are written down "permanently" on the character sheet once they are used for the first time, and it is codified which of the attributes they are based on. If a future blue book entry, or the temporary assignation of a green book entry (unlike the blue book, green book entries can only be used by one particular character at a time, until that character chooses to release it), down the road provides a further bonus, then it's adjusted next time the skill is used.

And:

Then any applicable Attribute and Skill bonuses are added to the result of a 20-sided die roll, in a simple opposed test vs. the GM.

So, do skills have values, and if so, where do they come from? The review mentiosn a pool of points for Attributes, but nothing for skills. Or are the "skill bonuses" situational?

I should probably have been a little more clear about this, but I didn't want to write down everything and not give people a reason to buy the game. Each applicable Blue Book entry is good for a bonus of +1 to a particular skill (and these do stack), each Green Book entry is good for +2. Skills are resolved as Attribute + Skill + D20. (Well, actually Attribute + Skill + Attribute + Skill + D20, as you're allowed to use up to two skills and their associated attributes on a single action, if they are applicable to the situation.)

Say that Bob has a Clan attribute of 5, and his "Fighting" skill is defined based on Clan as having learned to wrestle in the longhouses of his tribe. (It could be defined based on any one of his attributes, it's just up to the player to justify it based on what he writes and so forth.) If one of his Blue Book entries is about a wrestling match, then that entry adds +1 to his fighting skill, for a total of D20 + 6. If another player in the game points to the Green Book entry for a past game session--where this character participated in a pro wrestling match--and says, "Let's let Bob apply that to his Fighting for now," that adds +2, for a Fighting of D20 + 8. In a wrestling competition, Bob rolls his D20 + 8, and his adversary rolls D20 + whatever his skill is, and the higher result wins. (And there are degree of result and wounding rules based on the difference between winning and losing results, too.)

But if down the road, some other character could benefit from that Green Book session--say, Bob's agent, Fred, negotiated Bob's wrestling contract during that session, and could use the +2 to his Negotiation skill for an upcoming negotiation now--Bob can release the Green Book entry to Fred and he's back at D20 + 6, but Fred now has +2 to whatever his Negotiation was until he relinquishes that entry himself.