Finished my second session.
Finished my second session. I like where it's heading, and I like how easy the mechanics make it to drive the narrative in interesting ways. I haven't really played a game intended for solo play before, but I'm very impressed with the way that lets you play without knowing what's going to happen next, still being strategic, etc. all without someone playing the adversary.
I still haven't burned momentum yet - I'm actually trying to build it up a little now, but it seems challenging to do so. How often are other folks getting to benefit? Also, it's aptly named - you can pick it up when you're doing well to keep doing well. But it seems like maybe the mechanic would be more fun if it could help you break out of a string of bad rolls? It seems like, when things start to go bad, they can spiral quickly. I've had a few times where there have been a couple bad breaks in a row, and if not for a lucky strong hit I'd be in even worse shape than I've already found myself :)
https://drive.google.com/open?id=1TKsM8BK9mAzc6jp2Bq6mbP09f7Un9b2A
https://drive.google.com/open?id=1TKsM8BK9mAzc6jp2Bq6mbP09f7Un9b2A
I still haven't burned momentum yet - I'm actually trying to build it up a little now, but it seems challenging to do so. How often are other folks getting to benefit? Also, it's aptly named - you can pick it up when you're doing well to keep doing well. But it seems like maybe the mechanic would be more fun if it could help you break out of a string of bad rolls? It seems like, when things start to go bad, they can spiral quickly. I've had a few times where there have been a couple bad breaks in a row, and if not for a lucky strong hit I'd be in even worse shape than I've already found myself :)
https://drive.google.com/open?id=1TKsM8BK9mAzc6jp2Bq6mbP09f7Un9b2A
https://drive.google.com/open?id=1TKsM8BK9mAzc6jp2Bq6mbP09f7Un9b2A
HI, joseph deckert. Thanks so much for this!
ReplyDeleteAnd, ouch, yes, that was pretty dire. Thank goodness for the strong hit on Face Death. I would have felt terrible if you rolled a miss.
Regarding momentum .... I certainly hope more playtesting and input will bear out the system or give me some data to tweak if necessary. I defiantly want to try to avoid any unduly frustrating death spiral effects. Your character seems to be having a hard time getting traction, but things probably would be very different were it not for that miss on your original Sojourn move. Everything has been pretty intense, and perhaps coming scenes will give your character an opportunity to get his feet under him.
That said, I think the way the intensity and struggle has been translated into your story has been great, and the way you've brought the personage of death into play is really cool and has me excited for the next part.
Might be a good idea to start a separate thread to talk about momentum generally, and see how it's been working for folks (or not).
"That said, I think the way the intensity and struggle has been translated into your story has been great"
ReplyDeleteIt totally has! It's definitely been failing forward in an interesting way, and I could probably take it easier on myself in some ways. Really, the complications are what makes things fun. I always say, "no good story ends with 'and then everything went according to plan.'"
I'll see about putting my momentum thoughts together in another post.
I just came here to see if anyone had written up a play report with rolls and rule mentions, so thank you for taking the time to post this!
ReplyDeleteHi, Pamela Collins ... and I just added a Play Reports category to make it easier for you to filter on those posts. There's several of them in there. Thanks!
ReplyDeleteShawn Tomkin Awesome! I am super interested in this game, as my anxiety makes it hard to find more people to play games with. I have a steady gaming group, but they're stuck on Pathfinder/DnD5e only, so it'll be nice to play something inspired by PtbA by myself!
ReplyDelete