I finally got around to actually reading the SCUP rulebook, since I pitched it to my group and it looks like we’re going to tackle it. As such I’m sure to have some feedback eventually, might even record the sessions if that’s the sort of thing you have time to watch.
I’ve just been going off of what was said in the IPMM demo game until now and I’m seeing some obvious changes from one version to the next, which is to be expected but it just makes me really curious on the design decision.
Like what happened to Pull most of all?
I guess in play people found it was just another thing to forget? Is that why Places are gone and Factions have been rewritten?
Anyway, I’m still reading through the text, looking forward to seeing how it actually plays. I’m hopeful, as a weak GM, since it seems to have a lot of great tools for starting the game with, well, Factions and Patrons, to push the story and player interest.
Yo!
So to answer your questions:
(1) Pretty much no one used Pull, like, ever. The IPMM crew did manage to work it in, sometimes, and Tom and I both liked it, but our initial playtests (both ones we ran and ones we heard about that other people ran) tended to find that people were constantly forgetting about it unless the GM was really pushing hard on them to remember. As such, given that people kept telling us they weren’t using it and given that in games we ran we were constantly pushing people to remember it, we decided to cut it.
(2) Factions and places are very different. We got rid of places entirely, mostly because it added too much up front to do. We massively overhauled Factions because (a) we wanted to sort of replace Pull with some sort of thing that had some mechanical meat to it that would let players affect the world and (b) we were trying to simulate both being able to wield power because you are part of a group, but also being at the mercy of that group as well, which we think is at the heart of political fantasy.
For example, imagine Tyrion in GoT. He, undoubtedly, was able to wield power through his status as a Lannister. That gave him a lot of power he was able to mobilize to get things done. Conversely, he KNEW that, and that’s why he constantly felt the need to act on their behalf, even when he didn’t like it. THAT’S the sort of dynamic we were trying to capture with the new Faction rules. The push and pull of responsibility and power that comes from being a part of an influential group.
In politics, representing a group (a movement, a royal family, a political party, a gang) comes with both costs and benefits. We think the new Faction mechanic gets at that in a more interesting way than the old Faction mechanic. And, once again, people weren’t using that one very much and seem to be using this one much more.
We look forward to your thoughts!
Thanks, that’s pretty much what I thought, cool to see how you guys think about it though.