In this story, the major things that were on the line, you guys won. All three of the harpies could have died. Yes, Zoey was always going to die and Paul was always going to get away. No, three harpies doesn't save their race but, I hope you feel good about saving the lives of innocents. I honestly expected at least one of the harpies, and possibly two of them, to die. It took a group effort by all of you to pull that off.
I will be honest, it is difficult to make challenges in this game that are actually a challenge when all it takes is a drama point to make sure you win them all. Also, I try to avoid creating situations that could be devastating to your characters if you fail a die roll. One bad die roll shouldn't kill or maim a character. This forces me to hold back. There were small bits of info you missed, because of low die rolls. It isn't devastating to the story. There will be other oportunities to learn those things.
Some things you won by default. In other words, on Storium I would've made that get together with Corbin and Bella a social challenge. I didn't want it to rely on die rolls so I didn't really make it a challenge here. Better perception rolls might've provided more info than you got but, that's about it. Instead of just giving you Corbin's gratitude, I could've made you earn it -- and I probably would've given you a bigger reward. It wasn't much of a challenge here, so not as much of a reward.
Getting the info from Ben (your friendly neighborhood morgue attendant) would also have been a challenge on Storium instead of just doing it. I could also have included personal challenges -- will Jack choose to take the weak outcome with his ex-wife so he can save his strengths for other things? Or will he play a strength on Carly in the hopes of repairing things with her -- what is going to be more important to him?
Tom:
And yet, for all of that, Tom failed exactly *one* roll.
To me, that is part of the problem. I must have some scripted failures for the heroes, because that is probably the only way they will ever fail. It is too easy for you to optimize your characters to ensure that a failed die roll will be very, very rare. I think that makes for a less interesting story.
No system is perfect, that includes both Storium and Unisystem. Yes, there are times it can be a challenge to figure out how to apply one of the cards in your hand to a particular task. I have found that this has gotten easier for me the more I have played on Storium. Honestly, I think my creativity and writing skills have improved because of it. It helps to think outside the box in terms of some of your Strengths and Weaknesses.
Some Strengths and Weaknesses don't go away just because you no longer have that card in your hand. They just won't be the primary reason you get a strong or weak outcome. I have a character with a bad leg as one of his weaknesses. He can't suddenly run normally if I've played all my Bad Leg Weakness cards. He still limps. When I play his bad leg card, that will be the primary reason he got a weak outcome. Another Weakness I have is this little dog who hates me. I could play the card for the dog and fail the challenge because the dog was barking loudly. That is the primary reason it failed but, I could write my post that the dog was barking because I tripped over her because of my bad leg. The same goes for Strengths. Your Well-Educated character doesn't suddenly become illiterate because he ran out of cards. It just won't be the primary reason he succeeds at a particular challenge.
If we were to adapt these characters to Storium, I don't think we would need to create a Strength or Weakness for every Quality or Drawback. Hard to Kill is one we just might not need anymore.
If Tom's Cruelty is so rare and circumstantial, maybe it doesn't warrant being a Drawback. It could just be a personality quirk instead of something that gives you advantages or disadvantages regarding stats. In Storium you could use a Wild card to play it on the rare occasion it comes up. I've been playing my Storium character as fairly honorable for most of the game but, I didn't play a card for that trait until just recently. Again, I can be honorable without playing a card and Tom can be cruel without playing a card.
If we decide to try Storium, I would ask that you give yourself time to get the feel of it. As I said, it has gotten easier for me the longer I've played with it. Also, be patient with me. I've never run a game in Storium and it will take time for me to get into the groove of things, too. We would all be learning what works and what doesn't.
If you want to feel like you have more input into the direction the story takes, instead of feeling like all your wins and losses are scripted, I think that is easier to do in Storium than with unisystem.
I'd like to talk more about how we can adapt these characters to Storium but, this post is long enough for now.
This will be our out-of-character thread for player chit-chat. I've named it after the Liar's Club which is a dive bar in Chicago. I intend to use the bar in game as a gathering place for the cast. Grab a seat at the bar and make yourself at home. The beer is cold and cheap.
