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Message no. 1
From: mamos@*****.com (Mike Amos)
Subject: More about colorful game descriptions
Date: Wed, 4 Dec 2002 13:42:58 -0700
My only thought in response is this, it takes more than one. You could have
the most brilliantly though out character and a thesaurus to your left as
you play, but if your GM and other players are lazy the descriptions will
never be truly colorful. With time even the you will give in. It is very
hard to deliver a paragraph of finely crafted prose only to have the gm say,
"The goon shoots back, he rolls 2 successes so you are hit, now resist."
I am most defiantly in favor of what you propose, and have attempted such
things myself, but the whole group has to be in the same frame of mind or
it'll never get anywhere.
Message no. 2
From: korishinzo@*****.com (Ice Heart)
Subject: More about colorful game descriptions
Date: Wed, 4 Dec 2002 13:06:15 -0800 (PST)
--- Mike Amos <mamos@*****.com> wrote:
> My only thought in response is this, it takes more
> than one. You could have
> the most brilliantly though out character and a
> thesaurus to your left as
> you play, but if your GM and other players are lazy
> the descriptions will
> never be truly colorful. With time even the you will
> give in. It is very
> hard to deliver a paragraph of finely crafted prose
> only to have the gm say,
> "The goon shoots back, he rolls 2 successes so you
> are hit, now resist."
> I am most defiantly in favor of what you propose,
> and have attempted such
> things myself, but the whole group has to be in the
> same frame of mind or
> it'll never get anywhere.

Which is why I am more and more enamored of PBeM. It
is slower, yes, but the text based environment forces
a more desciptive style of gaming. You are right that
it takes more thn one. Speaking as a GM, I think the
onus lies on the GM. Encourage this style of play.
Reward it with karma, within reason. Since you are
trying to make game mechanics transparent, you don't
want to create a Pavlovian link between game mechanics
and verbosity. :) When my players look at me and
say, "I am attacking him with my katana", I tend to
embellish for them. At one time, I did not, as I
viewed such poetic license with their character as an
infringement. Now I do. I might observe their roll,
compare it to mine, and say, "You turn swiftly, blade
singing free in a vicious draw-cut. It scores the
surface of his armored vest with a hissing screech.
You obviously hit armor plates, staggering him. His
counter is weak, off balance (consulting player's body
test). The tip of his nightstick grazes your temple,
crossing your eyes momentarily, but you break free
before he can regain his balance and press the
advantage." Then I'd hand them a note that said 'one
box L Stun'. I keep piles of post-it notepads for
gaming. They are easy to toss, pass, stick to char
sheets, etc. And I can stick notes from players to my
GM screen. Now, the few players I have who refuse to
embrace this style of description, forcing me to
always do it for them, tend to get about 1 less karma
per session. Or 10% less Legend Points. Or
Experience Points. Depending on the game I am
running. One thing I do that help, is call for as
many of the dice rolls from everyone as possible,
taking notes as I go. This gets them out of the way.
This may not work for everyone.

======Korishinzo
--all about flavor text

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Message no. 3
From: mamos@*****.com (Mike Amos)
Subject: More about colorful game descriptions
Date: Wed, 4 Dec 2002 14:14:51 -0700
Your style is very similar to my current GMs style, and believe me I find it
very pleasant. It happens to be an online game, this format seems to lend it
well to this style of play. He accepts rolls and actions from everyone and
rolls them all into one well drafted email that uses much color and style. I
do my best to offer a little color of my own when possible. these games are
a lot more fun and it seems to discourage players from trying to take
advantage of the rules because they seems to become very actively engaged
with their own character. So much so that a perversion of the character for
the sake of numbers isn't even a option for them.

Keep up the good work

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