Monday, June 8, 2015

Merchanters and Stationers - Take #2

For Merchanters and Stationers, my next project, I need to do something to simulate the brutal edge-of-disaster feel of the C.J. Cherryh books it is emulating. I actually thought about a Jenga tower - yes, Dread - but that, I think, is too dependent on the players' manual skill, and not on the characters. Remember, I'm trad! :D I'm thinking of going with a stress track. Things can add stress, or take it away, but if you let it build too high, fallout is going to happen. There are different ways to implement this, of course! Die rolls, HP-like mechanics, mental problems, all sorts of things. I'm not sure how I want this to go, but stress should be a huge deal in this game!

4 comments:

  1. Sounds good. Reminds me of having to keep track of heat in battletech. You can ignore it but there are consequences. Will you allow for a character who thrives on stress? They would, I imagine, be handicapped in other ways (probably mental at the least). :)

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  2. No-one actually thrives on stress, Bonni. It is always a bad thing. It's just that different people have different limits, and/or are good at relieving that stress before it blows up.

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  3. Well that is true. But they think they are thriving. :)
    Oh Oh. I know I did wrong...you called me Bonni and not BonBon. Isn't that the gaming equivalent of a parent using your middle name? (grins)

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