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Tinydwarfman
2010-07-23, 05:15 PM
How do you determine event outcomes in free-form? When the BBEG sends a magical bolt of pure evil at you, how do you determine if you dodge/resist? etc. I have wanted to play free-form at times, but I have always given up when the going got tough, because well, I don't know to adjudicate these things! How do you do it?

pasko77
2010-07-23, 05:25 PM
Depends on the system you use.
Lots of games have a set of "power" points for each player (GM included).

So, for instance, GM says "the bolt kills you", Player One plays a chip and says "no, I dodge", Player Two puts a chip and says "the bolt bounces and hits PNG #23" and so on, basically when you are out of chips you cannot change the outcomes anymore. These systems encourage story telling instead of players vs. dm scenarios, so it is not unusual to see a player twisting the plot AGAINST themselves, because it makes for a better story.

Sc00by
2010-07-23, 05:28 PM
Good roll = pass; Bad roll=fail.

If failing is terminal them almost anything passes...

Or else you story tell it; the BBEG fires a bolt of pure evil at you [rolls some dice] which you just manage to almost get out of the way, though your left arm may never quite be the same again. The tree behind you took the bulk of the bolt and it has crumbled to the ground in lumps of twisted charcoal...

What do you do?

Project_Mayhem
2010-07-23, 05:52 PM
OK, I responded in the other thread, but this one seems more relevant, so sorry for repeating myself.

Basically, I can't speak for no dice freeform. But we tend to compare character sheets/background and adjudicate based on that. If it's close then we roll.

example: My last Mage character was an exceptional thief (5 dex, 5 larceny in nWoD). If I wanted to pickpocket an average character, it just happened. I was good enough. If I wanted to pickpocket someone who was good at spotting stuff we'd loosely add up modifiers - my dice pool in the system would have been at least 10 if there's was around 7 or less then I'd normally win (although with more difficulty). When it was closer, we'd roll.

arrowhen
2010-07-23, 06:15 PM
Apparently I'm not undertanding the terminology here -- if you're using game mechanics (points, dice, etc), how is that still considered "freeform"?

Nightson
2010-07-23, 06:16 PM
There's no set way to adjudicate this, which is part of making it freeform of course.

"The bolt hits you dead on and you feel the pure evil shred at your soul"

"The bolt barely misses, you feel a wave a nausea rise up from the closeness of it's passing."

"The bolt sails through the air smashing into the wall behind you with a loud crack."

Generally there will be some sort of stat to help determine things, and you can look at the characters dodginess and the villians magicness and decide.

Also good is putting choice into the player's hands. "The villian sends a bolt of dark crackling energy at you, what do you do?"

Project_Mayhem
2010-07-23, 06:29 PM
Apparently I'm not undertanding the terminology here -- if you're using game mechanics (points, dice, etc), how is that still considered "freeform"?

Like I said, we play semi-freeform. Basically WoD minus most dice rolls

arrowhen
2010-07-23, 06:56 PM
OK, interesting; I've always heard "freeform" in terms of play with NO formal system or game mechanics. Basiscally either improv but with narration as well as dialog, or shared fiction with maybe a little stronger sense of character ownership.

tyckspoon
2010-07-23, 07:50 PM
OK, interesting; I've always heard "freeform" in terms of play with NO formal system or game mechanics. Basiscally either improv but with narration as well as dialog, or shared fiction with maybe a little stronger sense of character ownership.

I would call that the difference between a diceless RPG (Amber, some others that aren't as big-name) and a full-on freeform, yes. A Diceless game gives the characters numbers and traits, and uses those to guide conflict and task resolutions but doesn't use a randomizer like dice or cards; if two characters fight in a particular arena, then the one with the higher number wins unless the other one can come up with some convincing way to gain advantage. Full freeform instead runs on at least an implicit understanding between all the players/writers regarding what any given character can do, in order to let the story/game progress and prevent "I was secretly a world-class swordsman and was just pretending to suck at weapons!" situations.

Kylarra
2010-07-23, 11:42 PM
In my experience, it's been left to the player [being attacked] to determine whether or not a given attack hits or not.

Halna LeGavilk
2010-07-23, 11:45 PM
On online free-form, I generally use what Kylarra said, and in real life, it's usually percentage die.