What does this move say about how a world works?
Pension: When you seek to collect your pension in a civilized area, roll + Quick. On a 10+, you get what’s yours. On a 7-9, you are offered a gig instead. On a 6-, you get stiffed or offered rehab.
And, if you roll low, what do you do about it?
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Heh. "Commitments from the powerful to the weak cannot be trusted." Particularly in combination with "If you don't pay the mortgage on your ship, there's immediate trouble."
ReplyDeleteGood, goal hit right on the head. Life is hard.
ReplyDeleteNot merely "hard," but also "unjust" in a very specific way.
ReplyDeleteIn an unfun to RPG in?
ReplyDeleteOh, I don't think so. Folks love the fiction in which they overcome injustice through their innate awesomeness.
ReplyDeleteknowing no other context, i see the civilized/(wilderness? barbarian?) dichotomy set up and assume there's some unexamined racism in the culture the character is assumed to be a member of
ReplyDeleteOooh, good catch Adam! I hadn't even spotted that. In a frontier without pre-existing populations it could be classism rather than racism though, yeah?
ReplyDeleteHmmm. I should use a different word than civilized then, yeah.
ReplyDeleteAssumption being if you go ask someone whose not affiliated with your government for your government pension ... they ain't gonna help.
An "Imperial" system?
ReplyDeleteMaybe so. That embeds a lot more -- star systems, and the Empire.
ReplyDeleteI'm a little surprised no one cares that it is rolling with Quick.
ReplyDeletei don't really know what that means, i guess! like, if that's your smarts stat, then, sure, why not?
ReplyDeleteYou're dealing with a government bureaucracy/insurance company, and you roll +Quick? You just broke verisimilitude.
ReplyDeleteYou have to be quick, not the bureaucracy.
ReplyDeleteWhat's the purpose in the story of trying to get a pension? Is it so you can use the money to invest in a spaceship to go do cool stuff? If so, what can the players do if they get stiffed? Can they try to rob the government/insurance company/investment firm to get what's coming to them, and then go buy the spaceship? That might be cool--but if that is not a possible outcome, I wouldn't make this part of the game. If one of the results of the roll is "The story is over and it sucked because now you can't do anything," don't make that roll. Make that an automatic win.
ReplyDeleteI don't need an RPG to tell me Life Is Hard. Already know that. What I want is to learn ways to deal with difficulty. So you should be willing for the players to destroy/get around/overcome any difficulties you throw at them. Any dice roll should have one of two outcomes, with maybe a few side wrinkles: Things just got a lot weirder and harder for you because there's a new complication, but it's still not insurmountable; and you just did something awesome. Life merely sucking or merely not sucking depending on the roll of a die is boring and demotivating.
So I really like the "offered a gig" option. "Stiffed" might lead to some interesting things if there's a way to negotiate/roleplay/sneak/kill your way to a different outcome, but it doesn't seem very satisfying. "Getting what's yours" doesn't seem very interesting, either--it's like the default.
What about roll +Careful. On a -6: the office denies your claim but when you go down to dispute it, you spot a mcguffin on the bureaucrat's desk that could be worth just as much as your pension--but you'll have to break in and steal it later because the bureaucrat sweeps it into his desk drawer and locks it after he notices you eyeing it.
7-9: the office denies your claim but offers you a dangerous mission that pays as much as your pension.
10+: Not only do you get your pension, you also get your choice of one of the above because you're so awesome.
Ron Stanley Largely agreed.
ReplyDeleteGetting a pension is one of several options when you make up a character. Sometimes those pensions are cool, sometimes they suck.
In this case, as in AW, there's first of session lifestyle that you've got to pay. That is, you'll be asked by the MC how you are living and what you use to pay for it. This gives you a means of paying for it without doing direct work, and bears with it a ... problem.
The 10+ means, essentially, that we're gonna move on and you're OK. The 7-9, yeah, means you have access to cool adventure. The 6-, you could for sure burn the place to the ground.
Or, get in your spaceship and raid the place. All sorts of awesome options.
Maybe the 10+ should have a cooler option, it's true.
Okay, I'm with you. I think 10+ means you get the cool adventure, but you don't have to do it if you don't want to, you could do something else cool that doesn't even pay, because you've got your pension. 7-9 means you have to do the cool adventure because if you don't, you're going to be eating SoylentTM for a month. 6- means even if you do the cool adventure, you're going to be eating SoylentTM for a month, so maybe you should figure out something even cooler... like burning the place to the ground. Maybe on a 6- a clerical error has the system showing that you never paid into the pension system, so now you owe them enormous amounts of money and they're threatening to impound your ship.
ReplyDeleteBurning the place to the ground is always an option; doing the cool adventure is also always an option; better rolls mean you have even more options. Maybe there are three cool adventures, but the coolest sounding one doesn't pay because you're helping out a street waif, and the next coolest sounding one is high risk but only a possibility of a payoff. The last one is a definite payoff, and it's still pretty cool, but you'll be working for the man.
Ron Stanley: Oh, I really like the notion at the end of your post. I could write up something like this:
ReplyDeleteFind Adventure: When you breeze into a new place, or are otherwise not yet entangled in immediate trouble, roll +Quick. On a 10+, choose 1 from the following list, on a 7-9 choose 2, on a 6-, choose 3 and simultaneously deal with past trouble catching up with you:
- Whoever needs your help needs to be able to pay
- You have to do this to clear your name, or in secret ... no benefit to your broader reputation
- You have to do this just to tread water against injustice ... it doesn't make the world better than before the problem
- The victims blame you in part for their trouble ... you will not have their gratitude.
Huh. That's a really deliciously broad trigger, Tony.
ReplyDelete