I have this idea for War In The Heavens. As I have said it is a Fate based game(using Dresden Files and Diaspora as a base). during the course of this I started to think about aspects. I think that I would like to have free floating free taggable Aspects related to emotional states.
Here is how I see that going down. I am a theatre major, and in looking at certain types of theatre from Asia I saw a few trends that I think might be useable, particularly in regards to Kathakali. I really liked the idea of there being a very formalized and limited number of expressible emotions. I plan to provide a listing of emotions that can be free tagged(Love, Rage, Ridicule/Mirth, Fear, Wonder, Valor, Sadness, Disgust). in order to tag them for free, you must make the ritualized expression.
Now the expressions will be picked by the group during the first session. When you do an action later in the game and wish to tag an emotion, you must make the requisite expression. this allows you to tag it, and then for the rest of the scene this can be compelled by the GM.
I think that this idea will work, but I am uncertain how 'fun' it will be. Any thoughts on this would be appreciated.
A side issue I am having is understanding trappings of skills. I understand all the Basic Moves in Fate, but how does one decide which skills do which actions? Is it just arbitrary, or is there a one for one with a skill trapping and a Basic Move? right now I am going with the arbitrary model, but it is unsatisfying.
Still working on my prose for the game, the fluff is harder to work out than I had anticipated at the beginning. still chugging away at it though.
I'm not familiar with the system you're talking about; I've heard it mentioned, but I'm not 100% on 'aspects'.
ReplyDeleteI think that the expressions idea would be a load of fun! Reading up on the link you posted too, and I can see why you would be inspired by it. Just a thought, and feel free to dismiss it, but you could base the success of an emotion on how well it is conveyed. As in, the player cannot tell you what they are trying to do, but if the other players can guess it from expression alone, it works. maybe some kind of sliding scale: one other player figures it compared to the entire table agreeing on the expression.
I think there will be something like that. Basically I saw it as a way to do two things for the game. One, it mechanizes roleplay and emphasizes the highly ritualized world of the noble houses. Two, it give the players permission to be silly, which breaks down the barriers between the players,building a more comfortable game play environment.
DeleteAlso if you want a decent rundown of the basics of it here is the Diaspora SRD http://www.vsca.ca/Diaspora/diaspora-srd.html and the Spirit of the Century SRD http://www.faterpg.com/dl/sotc-srd.html
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