Printer-Friendly Version

« Funky Wonky Monkey | Main | Playing with Dogs »

Another Slice

Law's Game Style

You scored as Tactician. You're probably a military buff who wants to have the chance to think through complex problems. You want the rules, and your GM's interpretation of them, to match up what happens in the real world or at least be consistant. You want challenging yet logical obstacles to overcome.

I play a lot of diceless, freeform games.

A long time ago I said of myself, "I think the problem is that I'm what I call a `story-maker.' Not a `story-teller' because I can ruin a joke by telling it, and a story even more so. Storymakers sponge up information all the time. They *need* input or they start to go crazy. Luckily, not all of the input has to be original and different from everything else...we can re-read books and get more out of them every time, because of other information we have processed in-between readings. We need an outlet, a way to express all of this information, and order it within our heads, connecting it a dozen different ways to other oddities we've picked up. I do it in making stories.. building worlds.. designing confrontations and connections between things."

I'm not a Storyteller. Many of my gaming friends scored as that in the test, indicating (apparently), "You're more inclined toward the role playing side of the equation and less interested in numbers or experience points. You're quick to compromise if you can help move the story forward, and get bored when the game slows down for a long planning session. You want to play out a story that moves like it's orchestrated by a skilled novelist or film director."

I think it's the line that says, "bored when the game slows down for a long planning session," that shows the significant difference. I get bored then, too, usually. Why? Because easily 90% of the time It Doesn't Really Make Much Difference. Either we'll make "the perfect plan" and never come into any contact with "the enemy" or we'll be slogging it die-to-die for hours.

I want a game that lets me, erm... tactate? (Well, what DOES a Tactician do?) Strategize. Strategize the story, though. I want to run through the rules, even if it's the rule of a wolf pack or a fairy tale or even a horror movie, and not in a manner of testing the system, but the possibilities. I want the third time to really be "the charm." I want you to be able to take a drop of someone's blood and utilize the special phrases to determine if they are telling the truth. I want the time you spend making the plans to count and get satisfying results. It only takes a second to say, "I hit it." A fifteen minute plan ought to be worth more than, "You do 8 points damage."

About

This page contains a single entry from the blog posted on August 29, 2005 3:06 PM.

The previous post in this blog was Funky Wonky Monkey.

The next post in this blog is Playing with Dogs.

Many more can be found on the main index page or by looking through the archives.

Powered by
Movable Type 3.34