"What is a lyric game?" Wouldn't we all like to know! There might not be much use in trying to define something that, for many, is best left undefined. In their recent article for Dicebreaker [1], Linda H. Codega offers the following heuristic for how to determine if a work might be considered a lyric game: While the genre often defies definition, typically lyric games embody one or more of the following aspects: a removal of the distance between the ‘player’ and the ‘character’, the gamification of everyday experiences, and the reversal of assumptions to impact play . “Lyric games” as a term was coined by John R. Harness in late 2019 but, as it was a definition meant to encompass an emergent genre, many games published before 2019 are now considered lyric. Many lyric games are sold and distributed with anti-capitalist and community-forward priorities - often there will be community copies (copies donated by the author for those experiencing marginalisation or hardship)
Recursive reaction rolls are a great concept I'll try out, but I think the real gem here is your take on applying them to the overworld with haggling and other negotiations, as well as to the Underworld and attempting to recruit monsters.
ReplyDeleteOne feature of reactions in encounters that none of the old tables takes into account is the appearance and disposition of the PCs, the biggest variable of all. A sneaky group of three lightly-armored adventurers will elicit one reaction from a party of ten orcs; a heavily armed, noisy, light-bearing motley band of fighters, wizards, clerics, thieves, and hirelings intruding into a small space will be greeted with another reaction. Then there is other context: Are the monsters cornered? Protecting kin or food supply? Serving a greater power that pays them or punishes them? In need of help against another faction? Monster motivations and PC actions and context seem variable enough in complexity to let GM role-playing be the source of uncertainty in reactions, just as player's choices in role-playing are the main source of uncertainty for the whole game. There are rules with extremely well-developed reaction systems (thinking of GURPS, where reaction +/- are applied contextually), but even these don't cover context. What do you think?
ReplyDeletetotally agree that those factors are too often unconsidered! but i think rather than systematizing every single possible outcome, which would be overwhelming, those are the sorts of things that should be handled (mechanically) by a +/- 1 modifier or by taking the highest or lowest of three dice, like advantage or disadvantage in 5e -- if indeed random chance should remain a factor when, like you said, there's an extent to which a referee could rule justifiably that an NPC's reaction is totally certain! too often, system runs contrary to things being intuitive or making sense.
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