Author: Sérgio Mascarenhas (---.70.159)
Date: 07-21-2003 02:43
In TToMP, section 4, I present a 4 staged approach to action: Context, Goals and Commitment, Performance, Results. I realised that this requires simplification and fine tooning.
For a start, I can separate context from the rest. Context is to be handled by the GM more often than not so, in terms of rules presentation, it can be left for the GM section.
Yet, the big change of perspective is not there. It's about the rest. Let me explain.
I started to toy with the next idea: What if a game can place the focus in either commitment, performance or results, thus changing the tone and flavour of play?
Think about fiction (movies, books, etc.). You have psychological fiction that focus on what's happening in the minds of the characters. You have action fiction that focus on what the characters do. And there's intrigue and political fiction that focus on the changes resulting from the actions of the characters. (Of course, there's poor quality, cardboard fiction that focus on neither, but I'll forget about it from now on.)
When one focus on the psychological dimensions one handles leisurely the complexities of what makes people act. Think about most Hitchcock movies, for instance. Feelings, emotions, knowledge, values, all take come to the fore. It's at this level that the possible courses of action are placed. What the characters actually do is something that follows from their psychological states according to their capabilities (innate or acquired). The results of their action are important in the sense that they have impact on the psychological situation of the characters.
Think about something like the X Files. The characters handle the unknown and how that unknown affects them psychologicaly. Their performance (what they physicaly do) is cursory and only gets importance when it contributes or distracts from the psychological suspense. Once the psychological battle has been won, everything else falls into place without major complications.
When we focus on action, the psychology of the characters tends to be handled in a more cursory way. All the detail and complexities relate to what the characters do and how they do it. It's at this level that the fuzzyness apears. The results can also be cursory (like what happens with the deaths of foes: Shots always kill; or with the damage suffered by the character: it always disapears after a small time span).
Think about the Rambo series or Teminator or similar movies. Think about most super-heroes stories. The focus is the action. That's what concetrates the energies of the characters (and fiction writers). We are presented with intricate ways of doing things, extensive gadgetry, etc.
When we focus on results what's important is the overall development of the action into a final goal. It may to expose a crime, like in a Sherlock Holmes or Perry Mason book. It may be who wins a power strugle like in the movie Reine Margot. In any case, the focus is on how a certain action changes a balance of resources, be it knowledge, power, money, etc.
Certainly, one piece of fiction may combine several of the types delineated above. The principles still apply, though. Most of the time, what happens is that there is an alteration of action scenes with psychological scenes and intrigue scenes. In fact, almost all fiction shares the three types. What differenciates is where the focus is placed.
Now, what does this have to do with my previous developments in action resolution design? Simple. Instead of having three stages in an action (goal and commitment; performance; result), I can have three focus to the action: Psychology, performance, outcome. All actions have these three aspects but the way they are handled is what signals the difference in focus. Let's see:
For a start, psychological behaviour, action behaviour or results-oriented behaviour, are all processes that combine different traits of the character. Some traits are more specifically connected with each of these types of behaviour but they are present in all of them. For instance, things like courage, self-control, emotional stability, are more relevant in psychological behaviour; skills, knowledge, are more relevant in action behaviour; relationships, social status, economic status, objects and things, are more relevant in results-oriented behaviour. But they all play a role in any type of situation, even if it is a secondary roll.
If that's so, we don't have commitment, performance and results as stages in a single action. Action is a whole to which all of them contribute, but that contribution may vary with where lies the focus.
In any case, we can break up the traits into psychological, performance and resources traits.
Now, for an action there's always what the character thinks and feels - his psychological state -, what he does - his performance - and what follows from it - the outcome. Where we put the focus defines the type of action at stake.
Psychological behviour. The focus is on the mindset. Psychological traits and affects them takes the lead. This is where the fuzziness is important. Performance and outcome can be bundled and treated in a more cursory manner. What happens to them will reflect directly what happened at the psychological level.
Say, you are playing an horror game. The focus is on the build up of the mindstate of the character. How will he react when he sees the zombie, this is the question. That reaction drives what he does and what's the outcome of what he does. He did stand up to the zombie? Good. You will not want to lose time discussing the details of his attack on the zombie.
Action-oriented behaviour. Here what is important is what the character does. That's where the detail and randomness play the majour role. Psychological traits figure as mods to the performance. The outcome is also a direct consequence of the performance.
Your stormtrooper is facing an horde of monsters. Of course he is facing them and does not run away: He is a stormtrooper! You want to know how he jumps from side to side, how he reaches for his gun, how he dives down the table while dispatching a stream of hand grenades. And you want to see bodies falling all aside instead of looking in detail at the effect of hits.
Results-oriented behaviour. Here the focus in a change to the allocation of resources or a change made possible by a certain combination of resources. Psychological and performance traits are mods in the detailed play of resource allocation.
You represent the Fudgi in the city's council. The Kamermeer are your sworn enemies. You need to ensure the fidelity of the Pestoi and the neutrality of the Bihar. How much will it cost? Or should it be left to poison?
So, I'm moving in the sense of a simplified action resolution process with only two stages: action process and action result but where this resolution process is adapted to the nature of the behaviour at hand. For instance, if the action if focused on psychological action, the action process will be concerned with the psychology of the character. The action result will be a change to that psychology. The other aspects (action and outcome) will be treated in a simplified way (either automaticaly or in a deliberate way).
Sérgio
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