Lxndr
12-30-2003, 04:02 PM
http://www.fudgefactor.org/2001/11/01/this_time_its_personal.html
The above article, entitled "This Time It's Personal," was originally written for FUDGE, but has been a source of inspiration for me in a number of games using various systems (FUDGE and HERO being the primaries). With The Artha Wheel (http://www.burningwheel.org/pdf/artha_wheel_r3.pdf), it seems like a good spot to bring the idea back again.
For those unwilling to read the article, in brief it recommends giving XP awards to players for accomplishing specific outstanding goals, either in addition to other XP, or instead of other XP. Now, Artha in Burning Wheel isn't precisely XP, but it's still a reward mechanic, and the advice from the article still seems to apply. Mixing it with the Artha Wheel, and it's obvious that this would be an augment to the Persona portion.
Currently, the Artha Wheel recommends giving a Persona point to a character any time they meet/defeat a goal. But who decides what the character's goals are? I postulate that the process might benefit from the more concrete techniques given in the article: namely, that of defining the goals beforehand. To quote from the article, a sample character's goals might be as follows:
Goals for Thardon, the Warrior
One point - he must return a lucky dagger to his friend in the King's Army.
Two points - he must earn a thousand gold pieces in order to afford a cure for his mother's illness.
Three points - he must locate, challenge and defeat the wizard Arrax, who killed the woman he loved.
Four points - he must locate the Sacred Stone of Seriph, as was foretold by a prophet at the time of his birth.
Now, obviously, these values are for FUDGE. But it seems to me that the reward schedule (1-4 points) could even remain unchanged without disrupting the game unduly. Perhaps instead of 1-4 points, there could be a scale of 1-3 Persona points, with "4" being replaced by "1 Deed Point." I'm going to assume that structure for the rest of this post.
The article warns against a large number of goals overly distracting the party, which I agree. So I propose that each level of the scale be allowed to only hold one goal at a time. Thus, a character might have no more than four goals at any one time, each differing by an order of magnitude. The smallest goal would give but 1 Persona, with the largest, once met, giving 1 Deed.
Furthermore, I propose the following:
1. A player may leave any of his character's goals open for definition in play. Filling in an "open" slot costs the character nothing. However, the GM may veto a goal at any time.
Corrolary to #1: The GM will almost definitely veto a cheatin' move like waiting until just before a potential goal is completed before creating it.
2. A goal that CANNOT be met due to circumstances can be erased without penalty. (i.e. you can't kill the wizard Arrax because someone else did). A goal that your character CHOOSES to change due to circumstances, you must pay a Fate point to change (i.e. you choose not to kill the wizard Arrax because he's your new father in law). This will hopefully keep players from jostling goals around willy-nilly.
This, I think, could be a good system to help quantify what, exactly, a character's goals ARE. Just a thought - anyone have any impressions, comments, criticisms, or vile language?
The above article, entitled "This Time It's Personal," was originally written for FUDGE, but has been a source of inspiration for me in a number of games using various systems (FUDGE and HERO being the primaries). With The Artha Wheel (http://www.burningwheel.org/pdf/artha_wheel_r3.pdf), it seems like a good spot to bring the idea back again.
For those unwilling to read the article, in brief it recommends giving XP awards to players for accomplishing specific outstanding goals, either in addition to other XP, or instead of other XP. Now, Artha in Burning Wheel isn't precisely XP, but it's still a reward mechanic, and the advice from the article still seems to apply. Mixing it with the Artha Wheel, and it's obvious that this would be an augment to the Persona portion.
Currently, the Artha Wheel recommends giving a Persona point to a character any time they meet/defeat a goal. But who decides what the character's goals are? I postulate that the process might benefit from the more concrete techniques given in the article: namely, that of defining the goals beforehand. To quote from the article, a sample character's goals might be as follows:
Goals for Thardon, the Warrior
One point - he must return a lucky dagger to his friend in the King's Army.
Two points - he must earn a thousand gold pieces in order to afford a cure for his mother's illness.
Three points - he must locate, challenge and defeat the wizard Arrax, who killed the woman he loved.
Four points - he must locate the Sacred Stone of Seriph, as was foretold by a prophet at the time of his birth.
Now, obviously, these values are for FUDGE. But it seems to me that the reward schedule (1-4 points) could even remain unchanged without disrupting the game unduly. Perhaps instead of 1-4 points, there could be a scale of 1-3 Persona points, with "4" being replaced by "1 Deed Point." I'm going to assume that structure for the rest of this post.
The article warns against a large number of goals overly distracting the party, which I agree. So I propose that each level of the scale be allowed to only hold one goal at a time. Thus, a character might have no more than four goals at any one time, each differing by an order of magnitude. The smallest goal would give but 1 Persona, with the largest, once met, giving 1 Deed.
Furthermore, I propose the following:
1. A player may leave any of his character's goals open for definition in play. Filling in an "open" slot costs the character nothing. However, the GM may veto a goal at any time.
Corrolary to #1: The GM will almost definitely veto a cheatin' move like waiting until just before a potential goal is completed before creating it.
2. A goal that CANNOT be met due to circumstances can be erased without penalty. (i.e. you can't kill the wizard Arrax because someone else did). A goal that your character CHOOSES to change due to circumstances, you must pay a Fate point to change (i.e. you choose not to kill the wizard Arrax because he's your new father in law). This will hopefully keep players from jostling goals around willy-nilly.
This, I think, could be a good system to help quantify what, exactly, a character's goals ARE. Just a thought - anyone have any impressions, comments, criticisms, or vile language?