From: codonill@unix1.tcd.ie (Leprechaun)
Newsgroups: rec.games.frp.misc
Subject: Re: Dumb Moves By Game Companies -- NOT!! (Now Fluid Reality)
Date: 6 Jan 93 13:51:38 GMT
Organization: Trinity College, Dublin

In <1icp8tINNko4@bodie.cs.unc.edu> oliver@cs.unc.edu (Bill Oliver) writes:

>In article <1993Jan5.051557.2297@samba.oit.unc.edu> 
>Ricardo.Sedan@launchpad.unc.edu (Ricardo Sedan) reacts 
>to my second reply the next day with the  highly original but 
>truly bizarre tactical move of re-editing and re-posting his 
>original reply.

>Argument by revision.  High use of bandwidth, but I like it.
Me too...

>Speaking of plausible denial, I was wondering if anyone out there 
>has marketed (or has tried playing) a truly fluid game -- where 
>the players, in fact, cannot count on their past actually having 
>happened, or in the solidity of their present existence.

>A trivial example:  I once ran a fantasy game in which the players,
>ending a long day of travel, go into a roadside country inn.  I hadn't really
>given much thought to the place, and basically fell into the 
>standard fantasy country inn description, with the middle-aged
>obese inkeeper, the slovenly yet voluptuous serving wenches, the 
>sullen and secretive local yokels, etc.

Any roleplaying campagian can be altered, you probably do it all the
time, when the Evil-Arch villian manages (somehow) to return though the
players distinctly remember chopping his head off and dosing it in
"Jubilex's deliquiling(whatever) flesh".

Though however it is possible to have the characters start of with no
memory of what they were before and the DM(GM/CM) inventing their past
as the game proceded. I was fortunate enough to play in a campagian such
as this before, (AD&D I hasten to add) my character woke up with no
memory of his past but with what would be considered "standard"
adventuring equipment. The items that seemed unusual were given great
importance as the my character started to build his new identity around
them, for instance he had a circular charm around his neck, which
reminded him of that big glowing thing in the sky" and he took it to
mean he was a cleric of a Sun god, the DM then started inventing a past
for him that was completely contradictory to his "new found" beliefs.

Unforetunately the game ended quiet suddenly as the party discovered
what gravity was.... (no not really but it make's an interesting
ending!)

>One of the players said something to the effect of "Oh, great! Yet another
>standard inn with a standard inkeeper."

>Fine.  OK, dammit.

>A cloud of mist arises.  It clears, and the inn suddenly becomes 
>a leather bar.  Yes, the only place on the continent to have 
>discovered the secret of black latex, chains, and nipple clamps.  
>You may have noticed that the Village People mysteriously disappeared 
>for 10 years, only recently having arrived  again in public view -- 
>well, this is where they went.
> 
>This actually turned out well, and I started wondering about actually
>trying to incorporate something along these lines into the game 
>mechanics.  In this system, the actions of the players (as PCs, not,
>as in the example above, by their real-life hobby of  
>irritating the game master) could influence the actual fabric of
>existence -- where force of will *could* force the clouds from the
>sky, or where it *was* possible to go back and take the road more
>taken.  


>Here is one game mechanic I ended up giving a shot.  Since I run a
>rather seat of the pants game anyway, I started with a general 
>scenario.  I then drew Tarot cards to guide the events "just around
>the corner" of the players -- I was only a couple of steps ahead of them
>myself. I drew the cards two at a time.  The first card represented 
>what was going on immediately around them, either temporally or 
>physically, while the second card represented what was a little more distant.
>The second card's primary purpose was to provide some sense of 
>continuity -- the first card was a situation fostering a transition
>from the present state to the situation in the second card.

>When the players went into the environment dictated by the first card,
>the second card became the "just around the corner" card.  Instead
>of only drawing one new card to for a new distant future card, however,  
>I drew two more cards.  I then rolled randomly to see if the first
>of the new two cards would replace the old second card.

>Any other similar experiences?

>Bill Oliver

Leprechaun... (In joke...) 

R
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----------- Full well they laughed with counterfieted glee -----------
-------------------------- at all his jokes --------------------------
----------------------- for many a joke had he -----------------------