tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1783414180530283286.post4256220304341902895..comments2024-03-26T00:10:45.780-07:00Comments on Adventures, planar in nature: Brief forays into the grim darkness of the 41st milleniumAnonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14474146324979642926noreply@blogger.comBlogger1125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1783414180530283286.post-50236108428329286812015-02-10T13:28:30.530-08:002015-02-10T13:28:30.530-08:00A comment from G+ I made regarding thoughts about ...A comment from G+ I made regarding thoughts about your management of the mystery game, pasted here for historical completeness:<br /><br />This bit from +Peter Smits led me to ponder some aspects of mystery games, and we had a brief discussion thinking about the merits of a 'locality list' relative to the Gumshoe system, where players spend points to find clues which lead them to the next locality of interest in a mystery. Both mechanics serve to keep players from feeling lost, and more importantly, from feeling they don't know what their options are.<br /><br />An issue I've always had with the Gumshoe system is that it seemed to diminish the opportunities for players to connect the dots in a mystery. The list may help here, while encouraging metagaming (which I am neutral about). For example, while in the Gumshoe system, I might simply be told that the shoeprints at the murder scene have a distinctive maker's pattern to the soles, so I should go investigate the shoemaker, in a limited locality list, as a player I'd know the shoemaker's shop might be important, but I would need to find the in-fiction reason to go there, which would certainly lead me to scrutinize shoeprints at a murder scene very closely. If having an 'aha' moment is the true reward, the list would seem like the better option. Its important to stress that the fiction is the same regardless of the mechanics: either way, the players will head to the shoemaker.<br /><br />Ultimately, a mystery game with a limited locality list is really no worse a mystery emulation than a point-and-click adventure with a mystery (like Year 2 of Grim Fandango), and many people enjoy those (myself included).dwbapsthttps://www.blogger.com/profile/17606476387441191531noreply@blogger.com