Tales from the Rocket House
A little history: before there was “The Rocket House,” there was our Tulane gaming group. We started out using White Wolf's (old) World of Darkness games, but once I debuted the proto-Tarafore system, we stuck with it, though several campaigns and different GMs.
Then I graduated, got married, and moved out of town. We finished up the ongoing campaign, but then I was out of the roleplaying loop for a couple of years. During this time I continued to refine my Tarafore System.
During this time, my players stepped up as gamemasters, and new players and GM's joined the group. Partly because of their own creativity, and partly because I hadn't adequately explained how the Tarafore System worked, the Rocket House Version of the Tarafore System developed in its own direction. Then I rejoined the gaming, and found that my game is only partly my game.
One of the biggest changes is that they don't use +/- dice, but are still using the earlier incarnation in which both acting and resisting characters roll a die and add it to their respective Trait scores. While this is mathematically equivalent, I find it slightly less elegant (because it doesn't pt the final results on the same scale as the Traits and Difficulties). In the chat room environment the two methods resolve at roughly the same speed, but I've found that the +/- dice really speed things up in face to face.
Another major change is that they've put a bigger “curve” on the dice by having every roll be “3d10, drop the lowest die and highest die.” This reduces the role of luck without changing the actual minimum and maximum results. This enables them to use a “luck/fate” mechanic in which players can spent 1 point of Luck to take the High die or 1 point of Fate to make their opponent take the Low die on a roll. Spending Luck and Fate is done after the dice have been rolled, so it gives the player a lot of control.
The way characters get Luck and Fate is through “motivations,” a sort of reward for playing in character. I haven't been playing long enough to see how the “motivations” thing works (so far we've spent a little Luck and Fate, but not gotten any back), but the basic mechanic works fine. It's a little White Wolf-ish for my tastes, but what can ya do?
One of my design goals with the Tarafore System has been to enable and facilitate simulationist and immersive play. To that end, I deliberately avoided all metagame mechanics, including any kind of luck or fate points. [1] Only some of my fellow Rocket Housers share that sentiment, and some of them are quite a bit more Narrativist than I. And these systems work to that end.
Well, that's all I've got this month. It's a strange feeling to see my system so similar, and yet so different. It reminds me of the old Sliders episodes where they found a world that was almost home.
1) For the record, none of this game design philosophy prevented me from using a luck point this last session. What can I say, when in Rome, do as the Romans do...
