Tuesday, October 9, 2007

Killing Errol Flynn

The Errol Flynn / Spotlight token thing isn't doing the job I designed it to do. The initial desire that spawned the rule that eventually became the Errol Flynn thing was a desire to give the players a chance to author something dangerous and cool for their character, to gain an advantage in the combat, without having to change arenas.

Technically the EF action does do that. The problem is that once a player has the token, no one is really interested in taking it away from them. It's like the choice dries up. That's no good.

That immediately leads me to the conclusion that the advantage a player recieves from the action cannot be limited. Assuming we're talking about tokens, then what that means is there cannot be a limited number of tokens.

Hrm. I'm hitting a wall with this right now. I'll post this up, stew on it for a bit, and try posting again later on.

5 comments:

Andy K said...

Perhaps the person who has the EF can make a low roll to automatically give it to someone else. The pro-wrestling equivalent of a tap-in, or the sports equivalent of a high five.

-Andy

Unknown said...

Well, that would only solve the issue of getting the resource passed around. Which isn't really the issue I'm concerned with. I'm more concerned that a player's motivation for doing daring stunts and crazy maneuvers dries up.

I want to give players a reason to bring in that crazy narration as often as possible.

Unknown said...

For me, the problem is not that, for instance, Shane acquired the spotlight. It's the problem that, looking at my stats, acquiring the spotlight is a risky maneuver and I'd rather "be effective that round, thank you very much" kinda thing.

Unknown said...

...I'd rather "be effective that round, thank you very much" kinda thing.

Ed Zachery

I want you to be effective. But I also want you climbing trees to jump down onto your enemies in surprise.

Andy K said...

Maybe allow a player to go for the Errol Flynn as a non-combat manuver? In other words, at the top of the turn allow players to roll for the Errol Flynn (if they want it) and then go from there?

That +2 is a big bonus, especially for non-combat focused characters. It's worth the risk to get it before going into a melee. Or hanging back, and doing a stunt to set up another player with it so they can go munch on goblins in your stead.

-Andy