|
| |
This page contains notes about the gaming philosophy employed in running
games in Urath.
- Alignment is a description, not a constraint.
- A character's alignment describes how s/he has been acting, and how the
Player intends the character to act. It is also about allegiance - to the
forces of Anarchy, Darkness, Light, and/or Order. It is about trends, not
single events (unless a particular class, like the Paladin, is especially
sensitive to such). That being said, casting spells tagged as [Chaotic],
[Evil], [Good], or [Lawful] is an action of that type. Repeated use of one
over another will gradually change a character's alignment.
-
- Player Characters are better than others.
- Player characters are more driven, capable, adaptable, courageous, and so
on, than are ordinary citizens. Player Characters are heroes, and earn
experience and treasure for taking risks.
-
- Better does not mean omnipotent.
- Just because some characters are run by players, that does not mean they
cannot be attacked or cannot lose. If the Player Characters insist on staying
too long in a losing battle, or on entering an area more dangerous than they
can handle; some (or all) will die.
-
- "Any technology, sufficiently advanced, is indistinguishable from
magic." - Arthur C. Clarke
- While the origin of that statement is in regard to advanced technology
being identified as magic if it is beyond the current technological
understanding of a civilization, it cuts the other way, as well. Social
advances in the history of the real world often resulted from technological
advances. If magic in the game world is reliable, it would replace
technology in the same role, and similar social advances would be made.
-
- Death is final.
- Raise Dead, Resurrection, Reincarnation, and True Resurrection spells are
not used lightly. There are social repercussions that have to be considered if
these spells are available as readily as the standard rules suggest. The
standard rules are fine if there is no "greater world" in which the action
takes place; like a computer game where you can re-load a saved game, death is
only a short interruption to the action. In Urath, the greater world exists,
and suffers disruption when such spells are used.
-
- Undead are scary.
- Undead are monsters. They are scary. They have the ability to permanently
reduce the power of a character. As such, they are to be feared.
-
- Is it a game ? Is it a story ? Well, then, what IS it ?
- It is a game that tells a story. Neither part is more important than the
other. If it was a story first and game second, then no major character (read:
Player Character) would die permanently and the heroes would never "fail". If
it was a game first and story second, there would be little or no overall
'plot' connecting the adventures.
-
- I am not out the kill the Heroes, but the Villains are.
- The villains are played as "dumb" when they are "dumb", and "smart" when
they are "smart". That means the villains will use reasonable tactics,
depending on the group they are in.
|
