From lwl@eniac.seas.upenn.edu Tue Feb 21 01:10:32 1995 Received-Date: Tue, 21 Feb 95 01:10:32 -0500 Received: from red.seas.upenn.edu (lwl@RED.SEAS.UPENN.EDU [130.91.5.147]) by linc.cis.upenn.edu (8.6.9/UPenn 1.4) with ESMTP id BAA13664 for ; Tue, 21 Feb 1995 01:10:32 -0500 Received: by red.seas.upenn.edu id BAA02456; Tue, 21 Feb 1995 01:10:32 -0500 Posted-Date: Tue, 21 Feb 1995 01:10:32 -0500 Message-Id: <199502210610.BAA02456@red.seas.upenn.edu> From: lwl@eniac.seas.upenn.edu (Lydia Leong) Date: Tue, 21 Feb 1995 01:10:31 -0500 X-Mailer: Mail User's Shell (7.2.5 10/14/92) To: vespers@graphics.cis.upenn.edu Subject: Re: VESPERS: Roleplaying style. Status: OR George Heintzelmann (whom some of you might recall as Henrik/Belgarath on Belg, and Linneis on Amber) has joined our little Saga. :) George, the list address, to which mail should be addressed in the future, is vespers@graphics.cis.upenn.edu Please start subject lines with 'VESPERS: ', because it will make my mail sorter happier. :) --- Forwarded mail from George Heintzelman >From georgeh@MIT.EDU Tue Feb 21 00:11 EST 1995 Return-Path: Posted-Date: Tue, 21 Feb 1995 00:11:54 -0500 Received-Date: Tue, 21 Feb 1995 00:11:54 -0500 Received: from CACCIATORE.MIT.EDU by MIT.EDU with SMTP id AA24450; Tue, 21 Feb 95 00:11:38 EST Received: by cacciatore.MIT.EDU (5.57/4.7) id AA00877; Tue, 21 Feb 95 00:11:38 -0500 Message-Id: <9502210511.AA00877@cacciatore.MIT.EDU> To: lwl@eniac.seas.upenn.edu Subject: Questionnaire answers: Date: Tue, 21 Feb 1995 00:11:37 EST From: George Heintzelman Content-Type: text Content-Length: 2758 1) Adventure Content: Character development -- personality, history Character development -- personal power (NB: Mostly for the magus only) Interaction with PCs Intrigue Discovery Interaction with NPCs Participation in historical events Puzzles I note that it's really pretty hard to rank these. Most important to me is finding out about the character and that character's place in the world; often, though, the character's own goals wind up being important to that, which can mean personal power, puzzles (esp. for a Criamon...), intrigue... whatever. Difficulty level: Difficult. Medieval life is not pretty. Civilization is in a struggle against the encroaching darkness, was the common thought of the time, and since I like paradigm, I'd like the saga to reflect that. Bastions of hope are few, crumbling, and vulnerable to the Enemy -- the Church, the Order, the last remnants of the Roman Empire around Constantinople -- yet, with great struggle and effort, and faith, hope, and love, the light may yet shine. Campaign Themes: I'm happy with just about anything, as long as it isn't White Wolf 'Everything is Diabolically corrupted -- die now, while you can still save your soul!' style. Sure, darkness is great fun and full of wonderful pathos (let me tell you some stories from Stormwatch someday), but goodness walks in the world still. Game Mechanics: Minimal. In general, Ars Magica's mechanics are pretty well-thought-out (though I'll send folks a stack of the house rules Stormwatch uses for consideration, if you like), and those that aren't are pretty easy to fudge anyway. But, given the nature of the PBeM beast, it's harder to abide by strict mechanics without dozens of messages a day, especially in action scenes. So, I think mechanics should be used more in the longer-term development of the magi, with the SG running things with a few dice rolls behind the scenes during stories. Historical Detail: Accurate. Though once a Saga-detail is established, it should remain fixed, even if it contradicts later-discovered history. And the SG should feel free to allow PCs to affect history, even torturously indirectly... Preferred style: hmm. I think the players should be given free rein with character and covenant details, and (especially in PBeM) feel free to jump in and add details omitted by the SG, as long as they are not seriously problematic, and aren't always things in the characters favor either! Some equivalent of whimsy cards (I'll mail off a list of 'em if you want) could be used... In PBeM, players should generally state their character's aims and general approach towards them, not exact actions, except in the most detailed of sequences (though those will happen). Hope that covers it... George --- End of forwarded message from George Heintzelman