Tue, 2010-05-04 14:37
Two key features of Untold are Swapping and Downgrading. If you’ve read the Primer, you should have a basic grasp of what they are and how they work.
These two features combine to what I see as the single major difference that Untold offers: it allows a player to dynamically reconfigure a character. In fact, due to Downgrading, it essentially requires it.
By "dynamically reconfiguration", what I mean is that the player has the ability to re-cast the character’s capabilities on demand. It means, within the constraint of swapping rules and story-line restrictions, there are deck manipulations which allow for a character to reconfigure during a session, sometimes even during an encounter. By certain manipulations, the character’s capability in certain areas may even increase, or powers useful to the particular encounter may come to the fore.
This goes well beyond the common abilities from other RPG’s to alter equipment load-outs (“Oops, forgot the cold-iron weapons? This is gonna hurt you then…”) or spell-loads (“Anyone here have Protection from Lawful? Nope?”) between forays, or even beyond retraining skills or feats during advancement. See the posting here (http://www.untoldthegame.com/forum/%E2%80%9Cboosting%E2%80%9D-atk-def) to see an example of this. In this sense, knowing to how to manipulate your character’s capabilities during play in Untold is as important as making capability selections during character creation in other games. It is certainly a skill they player must develop.
The only other role-playing game that I recall that allows for anything like this is R. Talsorian’s Dream Park, which allowed a virtually complete re-working of a character between adventures. But Untold allows such activities, under GM direction, to take place during play.
Tue, 2010-05-04 16:11
#2
On similar pages
I think one of the issues in their 'timidness' is due to how they've been trained by other role-playing games. I think your statement about "changing it later" needs to be closer to front-and-center in the various Primers, and likely expanded upon.
I was looking for and could not find the post about the young man who reconfig'ed himself to help his sister's character -- that was another great example. It really shows how to boost your character for improved effect under duress.
Tue, 2010-05-04 16:51
#3
I agree 100%
Yea, we've really been conditioned to think a certain way when it comes to RPG's. Which is one of the main reasons why I think Untold really and truly lives up to its claim of being revolutionary. :)
Here's the link:
http://www.untoldthegame.com/forum/limiting-swap-deck#comment-1553
Tue, 2010-05-04 23:44
#4
!!!
LOVE LOVE LOVE this article, Bob!!! You struck a central nerve to Untold that makes it AWESOME!!!
It'll be sweet to hear/see/play more stories like the little guy's above--and watch the grins grow across the globe as people discover the flexibility and beauty of swap dynamics.
Wed, 2010-05-05 07:47
#5
Should be able to...
I should be able to pound out an article on this subject soon. :D
Wed, 2010-05-05 14:33
#6
My inspiration
was answering the question for myself: "How is Untold different than other games (specifically DnD 4e) if they were on cards?"
Initially, I thought that DnD 4e could easily be "cardable" based on what I saw with Untold (one for stats, sets for skills, items and feats; they already have powers. Some folks have done homebrews of those).
It was thinking through the extension of the ideas 'inside' Swapping and Degrading that the 'aha' hit about the high flexibility within Untold. It certainly isn't spelled out, and given many folks' experiences from other games ("Once you've bought the prize its yours to keep") it doesn't come naturally.
Wed, 2010-05-05 14:46
#7
Very true...
Very true, but once you've played a game, the light bulb tends to come on - for some sooner than others, of course. We've shown the game to some other designers (names most of you would know) and the moment we explain the fundamentals of Swapping, Downgrading, and the modular card design you can see their eyes light up with all the endless potential.
Imagine a game were you can buy a deck of Powers (for instance, Melee Weapons) and have every card in that set work perfectly *and be balanced* in any future setting... So, your axe works in sci-fi, super hero, fantasy, urban fantasy, whatever. Now, combine that with a very easy way to create characters, change characters on the fly, etc. and you'll begin to get an idea of the "bigger Untold picture". :)
In the above post, Bob said: "In this sense, knowing to how to manipulate your character’s capabilities during play in Untold is as important as making capability selections during character creation in other games. It is certainly a skill they player must develop."
And you know, you've really hit on something here, Bob. I've watched hundreds of players create Untold characters and the vast majority of them are so incredibly tentative during the Character creation process. I think to myself (having played Untold for two + years now):
Why are you so worried - you can change it all later! :P
It's kinda funny - character creation is now something you can do even AFTER you start playing (at least with Untold)! As long as you get your Race Card and any Pre-requisite cards on the table, you're good to go. ;)
Another cool feature that I would say tags in with this is the story-telling aspect - not only can you dynamically reconfigure your character, but doing so actually helps drive the collective story at the table, which to me, is the absolute best icing on the tastiest cake around! :D
Great post Bob!
Untold Co-Creator/Wandering Man!
Facebook Profile // Facebook Fanpage // Twitter // MySpace