Sometimes I wonder if the readers would want the story behind all these things, but it doesn't matter. It turns out that I really can't afford to say anything here that makes me look bad, because there are jerks who would immediately start quoting it everywhere in the Internet; or anything that makes anyone else look bad, because there are people who will assume that I'm right; or anything that makes extenuating circumstances look bad, because that's not something the final consumer of a book should care about.
So!
Um. I guess my only note on recent projects is: Rah! Rah! Weapons of the Gods. Also, working with Neph' (separate thing) was fun.
Also, note to self.
I write most games very explicitly so when people sit down, throw together the best character they can, and play kind of twinkily and tiredly, it works out with the kinds of stories I want.
That's what I aim for.
This apparently never comes across.
I should have explicitly said in the Fair Folk mechanics, "Just put together some twinks with some half-cocked fairy tale qualities in a freehold somewhere. Play shaping combat as poker, because it's really all about how far your opponents will go. Flail around playing the equivalent of a paranoid Amber Throne War. The Charm rules are supposed to turn this into a cool story cycle like the Babylonian myths, your other Exalted game, or 24, without you really trying that hard."
Nobilis is about exploring your character's philosophy and Estate and its themes, but that's not how you play it. I should have explicitly said, "The way you play it is sit down, figure out some ideas you'll have fun doing fun weird stuff with a lot, and then do a lot of fun weird stuff, and as long as you try to be cool and get the spotlight without hogging it, doing stupid player stunts, or going into an OOC extended Monty Python riff, you should wind up with all the philosophy and thematic stuff just kind of happening."
Conversely, I should have said in Forest Witches, "Look, this is either the world before Genesis or posthuman fiction; you'll need to think about what you're doing accordingly."
Instead I wind up talking about what the *games* are about, which is very different, and I should stop that.
If people think this is incredibly helpful, I'll talk about what Weapons of the Gods really is. If people think that I'm describing all these games exactly wrong, I won't, 'cause I don't want to impact sales ^_^
Rebecca
Posted by rebecca at February 7, 2005 08:38 AM