By The Stars Confession — Week Twelve

Twelve Weeks? That’s 3 months! And I don’t have dice mechanics that will make it out of self-testing yet. Why not? Well, there was Halloween to observe, a birthday to commemorate, and family medical situations to address.

Forgive me, By The Stars, I have celebrated. It’s been one week since my last confession.

My only goal for this week was: Try out some new dice mechanics–at least 2 different versions. I statted out two characters and tried out one version of dice mechanics, by myself. It seems promising, but so did the ones that ended up being no fun, so only playtesting will tell for certain.

Perhaps I’m a little too fussy about my dice mechanics. I like it when there are tactical choices in how you play the dice that mirror the thematic choices in what’s happening in the game fiction. I don’t want all the choices front-loaded. I don’t there to always be one ideal strategy. It may be too much to ask. I’ll be honest: I’ve occasionally seen it detract from play of With Great Power… when certain players focus solely on the card game aspects and forget that they’re creating a story at the same time.

Do I appease these people with simpler mechanics that allow for fewer decisions? My gut says “No way.” But my head can’t help but wonder…

Anyway, in the next week I will do a simple mechanics-only playtest with Kat. And I will finish the working outline, including the mechanics section. See you in seven!