in discussion Contest Discussion / Contest Discussion » Playtesting Forbidden City
Forbidden City was the game in which I saw the most potential. Today's playtest gave glimpses of that, but also showed just how far it has to go before that potential is realized.
The players, who weren't used to the sorts of games that get designed around the story games forums, enjoyed contributing a lot to the story. It proved to be surprisingly cinematic, which I'm not sure was the intent, but it was enjoyed.
The mechanics needed to provide better guidance to shape resolution (degree of success was suggested, but that doesn't quite fit with the game).
It was suggested that, instead of putting dice that come up 6s back into the pool, to put dice that are chosen for success back in. We had an unusual number of rolls where 5 was the highest, and players accumulated dice pretty quickly because of that.
Collecting dice of different colours really gave the players a sense of where their characters were going. The way that players had to tell story to get dice also helped a lot. It took a while to find the right balance of description before a fight, since so much of the decision as to what happens occurs after mechanical resolution. There was also very little sense of risk in the mechanics, which made it harder to build tension in the story.
Wounds were a problem, too, as they didn't seem to do much. One player suggested that, instead of just damage, wound dice should somehow reflect a crisis that the character must face and overcome.
As the Emperor (gamemaster), I felt a little left out of the game, since I didn't actually interact with the mechanics much. Cowardice dice and smoke dice would somehow initially be held and used by the GM and added to the pool as the story progressed.
The lack of background to the game proved a real obstacle. I had my own knowledge of Chinese history and Chinese stories to pull from, but without that, I would have been in trouble.
Losing Control: superfluous. Winning by a method you didn't want effectively does this.
A minor detail. Gold vs. Yellow dice. Yes, it's easy to substitute another colour, but it's better if the rules don't suggest such similar colours.
