Over here I introduced the concept of revelation maps in Six Bullets. After the invaluable feedback I've received I've tweaked and changed how it works somewhat, so thought it best to begin a new thread about it all.
Revelations now work like this:
Just like attributes, revelations have a number of dice attached to them, which can be rolled as part of a conflict if you can work them into your narrative. The more dice a revelation has, the more important and integral the players have deemed it to the story, and the harder it is to get rid of.
Revelations can only be created if you win a conflict. They're one of the rewards. Originally I made them one of a list of different rewards, but now I've bumped it so you choose a reward AND add/change a revelation. I'm hoping this promotes them as being integral to the game.
As a reward, you can either create a new revelation (with 1 die in it, plus 1 die for every other rev it links to), add a die to an existing rev or remove a die from an existing rev. Adding or removing dice from revs allows you to change the revelation too, either making it closer to its original meaning or undermining and changing its original meaning.
Whilst creating new revelations and to them no longer feeds back directly as a reward to you, the more you make use of them and include them in your narrative and conflict, the more dice you roll in the conflict and the more likely you are to win AND THEN get rewarded. So it's kinda circular, and hopefully less likely to be abused.
Now my hope is that this iteration of the rev-map sees them as more streamlined, more integrated into the mechanics and more integrated into the core of wha the game is about. Oh, and less open to blatant abuse.
Do you think it achieves these goals? How do you think it compares to the previous incarnation? Do you foresee any big gaping holes?
It's developing nicely
Submitted by Matt on Tue, 16/01/2007 - 20:17.
I think the revelation map in this form becomes a great visualisation of what the group as a whole consider important to the situation. More importantly, as that interest changes, so does the shape of the r-map.
I do wonder if there's a way to make its node-like connectedness more apparent in these rules. Maybe new revelations can only be spawned from existing ones that have reached a level higher than 2dice, and they take one of those with them? That might increase the interconnectedness of things...
I think it might also be better if changing a revelation was harder, as the more they map to "what we care about" the more disruptive changing that is. Not that you shouldn't, but that change should be at a suitable dramatic point.
-Matt
Realms Publishing
>I do wonder if there's a
Submitted by Andrew Kenrick on Tue, 16/01/2007 - 20:26.
>I do wonder if there's a way to make its node-like >connectedness more apparent in these rules. Maybe >new revelations can only be spawned from existing >ones that have reached a level higher than 2dice, >and they take one of those with them? That might >increase the interconnectedness of things...
Actually, that's something I had (briefly) in an earlier form of this r-map - that you'd create a new rev but instead of giving it dice for every connection, you pulled some of those dice from the connected revs into the new rev. There might be some merit in bringing that back as an idea.
>I think it might also be better if changing a >revelation was harder, as the more they map to >"what we care about" the more disruptive >changing that is. Not that you shouldn't, but >that change should be at a suitable dramatic >point.
Yeh, I'm wondering that myself, but thought I'd throw it open to see what you guys think. Perhaps to change a revelation you have to spend a number of dice equal to its dice? That way the more dice a rev has the stronger and more permanent it is.
I've added this as a rule to
Submitted by Andrew Kenrick on Wed, 17/01/2007 - 16:03.
I've added this as a rule to change a revelation (which i'm also limiting to after you win a conflict - too restrictive?):
"To change a revelation you must spend a number of die equal to the number of dice loaded into the revelation."
Love the idea of the map as an in game device
Submitted by Iain McAllister on Sat, 20/01/2007 - 20:19.
Great idea Andrew. I really like visual aides in games at the moment so I think revelation maps are a fantastic piece of design.
You say:
As a reward, you can either create a new revelation (with 1 die in it, plus 1 die for every other rev it links to), add a die to an existing rev or remove a die from an existing rev.
Does the level of revelations matter when considering what is linked? For instance is a 3 die revelation linked to a 4 die revealtion better than having the same 3 die revelation linked to a 1 die revelation. If not, why not? I see revelations as spiralling out through the map, the more powerful they are, the further their affect spreads. So when rolling for the 3 die revelation above the fact it is connected to a 4 die revelation would have a stronger affect than its connection to a 1 die revelation. I may just be totally off the point though:-)
Cheers
Iain
Lead Developer Mob Justice RPG
http://www.contestedground.co.uk
Check out my home brew games like 'Reel Adventures'
http://www.iainmcallister.co.uk
The level doesn't, as
Submitted by Andrew Kenrick on Sun, 21/01/2007 - 12:49.
The level doesn't, as written, but as Matt suggested it might be good to have new revelations pull down some of the dice from connected revelations, in effect spreading their influence and continuing on along the same theme.
Of course it's really one big feedback loop - the more interesting a revelation is, the more it gets used in the story and the more used it is in game, so players are more likely to add to it so it gets more powerful and more used! I see it as a way of encouraging players to work together with the story and to focus on areas they find interesting.