When we first published DS way back in 1996 Susan had some basic concepts built into the game. We made some assumptions about how they would be handled by players and GM's. That assumption led us to fail to clearly elaborate some of those concepts.
Now that the modified 2d6 game system is on the horizon we have an opportunity to delve deeper into some of those concepts. As I was doing dishes this morning my mind began mulling over one such concept. We did not present it strongly enough in the original game. We are going to add a new Guideline to the new games. It is the "Just Try It" concept. There are slight variations here from the DS rules, they represent the Tweaking of the rules that hindsight has provided.
In Susan's concept of the multi-verse the characters are special creatures. Within these characters is the ability to conceive of, and perform, amazing actions, along with, of course, the mundane actions. To allow for this Susan created the 2d6 contest roll where the player rolls 2d6 and adds their bonuses to the roll. This becomes their contest number. The Gamemaster rolls 2d6 for the universe and adds it's bonuses. That becomes the universes contest roll. The higher number is successful. If there is a tie, the GM (Universe) wins the roll.
The question I want to approach in this piece is what a character can actually try to do. We have cards that represent many skills, spells abilities and more, in our crpg systems. When one of these is activated the player is going to get a bonus to their contest roll. That is pretty simple to assimilate. What becomes more complex is when a player wants to perform an action for which they do not have a card. These actions can be anything from climbing a cliff, riding a horse, or singing a bawdy song to distract the listeners. Basically anything the players creativity can think up. How do we make a contest roll for this?
To try to do this will use the standard contest roll. The player will roll 2d6, and, since they have no bonus, add zero to the roll. That will be there contest roll. The complexity in the contest roll comes in the gamemasters end of the roll.
The gamemaster is rolling for the universe, or at least a piece of it, such as the horse, listening crowd or the cliff. The GM will have to think quickly and determine the universes bonus. If the action is an easy one, such as climbing a steep stairway up the cliff, the GM may give the universe a negative bonus, making the action easy. She could even decide that the universe has a -12 bonus and the character succeeds. At the other extreme the GM may look at the action and determine that it is darned difficult. Riding an unbroken wild horse is going to be tough. The GM may, in this case, determine that the universes bonus is as +8. A very tough endeavor, but possible.
The Gamemaster has further decisions to make. How long does the action take? What may be the result of the action? What happens if the player rolls a "2" and has a bad failure? The GM also needs to consider if the 10, 11, 12 success rules apply to this situation. These decisions are done based on factors that the players are unaware of, and may never discover. Due to this confusion, and secrecy, players will sometimes want to protest, not knowing that there are special factors at work.
In the new guidelines the player may invoke an Appeal by expending one of the players actions to make an Appeal. I will cover this in a separate posting. For the moment all I will say is that if something uses game time, it is an action, and the GM's decision after the appeal is final, even if the GM says "You failed, your character, and you, do not understand why".
Now we come to the question of how far all of this may be taken. Throwing reality out of the window allows players to liven the game with their fertile imaginations. What if a peasant character wants to sing a complete opera she once heard? How about casting a teleport spell she once saw a wizard cast? Leaping over a 30 foot ravine? Repairing a war-bots eletronics? All of these may be tried by anyone, however, the difficulty should be extreme. We want role-playing to open the creativity, not limit it. It is all about having fun.
All right, now that I have perplexed my readers, that is all for today, I really should be cleaning house and prepping for GenCon, but this was in my mind. Someday I, or some volunteer, will try to compose this in an understandable commentary. Comments welcomed.
