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February 02, 2006
Nine Worlds Initial Impressions
Okay, I've been rereading Matt Snyder's game Nine Worlds in preparation for running a game of it. Here's my thoughts so far.
1. If the choice between siding with the gods and making your own way is to be compelling, then it seems clear that there should be upsides and downsides to both choices, so that the players have an interesting decision in weighing them and coming to a decision. So, the gods can't be completely useless amoral f-ckups (my usual style for the powers that be?) -- they have to be compelling enough that a PC can credibly find them sympathetic enough to join, but have enough sharp edges that they can credibly be repulsed. I'll probably try cast the Titans in the worse of two evils role, so that 'needs must' can be deployed as well, unless the players make them sympathetic or something.
2. Muses are the best experience point/luck point system yet designed. They look like they are as much better than Keys as Keys are better than their predecessors (Nobilis-style disads, which themselves were a big advance). The advice on good and bad Muses, in particular, is pure gold.
3. The shifting narration thing along with the (potentially) one-shot conflict resolution suggests that play will be kind of roller-coaster -- conflicts can come and go fast, unlike in Dogs, and the decision to put the narration burden solely on the hand winner means no one has tight control over anything. This is something I'm really looking forward to trying out in play.
(I just realized the one-phase/multi-phase split is a bit like Simple and Extended contests in HQ. Cool.)
4. The stat-manipulation thing with points and Urges leaves me a little cold. The one I'm most interested in is Stasis, simply because it's clearest how to use Stasis points to have a concrete, narrative, in-story effect. I've got some ideas for house rules on this point, but they'll keep until we get some real experience with the system as written.
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Comments
You're missing Riddle of Steel in your geneology, there. I think that both Keys and Muses are direct descendants of Spiritual Attributes. Muses are by far the best form, though, I completely agree.
My favorite Urge is Chaos -- particularly for Talismans. Guns should have a lot of Chaos.
yrs--
--Ben
Posted by: Ben Lehman at Feb 3, 2006 1:36:41 AM
In my play so far, I have not used stat manipulation during conflicts much. The vast majority of my points have gone into muses. That being said, it's still early on, and in the future I'm sure that against the really big bad guys, it will be useful to use it that way.
Posted by: Vaxalon at Feb 3, 2006 7:01:33 AM
Just in case you have not already seen it, Matt is making available the recordings of our Skype game.
Two things of note: Matt is pretty clear, if you ever talk to him about it, that the game is designed in such a way that points won during conflicts are more effeciently spent on boosting Muses than on doing stat manipulations. You may also note that the Metamorophosis Urge is, as written, clearly more powerful than Chaos or Cosmos. (Matt's got some ideas to fix this, one of which we're using in our game now.)
I think the coolest thing in the game to me so far has been the fact that you get different kinds of experience for defying the gods than for supporting them. There's this huge mechanical difference between the two which makes the choice between one and the other that much more interesting.
Thomas
Posted by: Thomas Robertson at Feb 3, 2006 9:37:35 AM
Neel, thanks for the commentary. Ben's right -- Riddle of Steel's Spiritual Attributes are my main, um, muse for Muses. But, of course, Keys are a close relative. I'm not up to snuff on my Nobilis enough to recall the disads, but they sound like a friendly uncle.
To fill in a bit more about Thomas' hint, he helped me come up with a modification of the Metamorphosis rule to help balance it out with other Urges (in terms of ratings manipulation only).
Basically, the modification works like this: The book indicates players can use Metamorphosis to move points around among any number of different characters/entities. Our modification is that Metamorphosis can move points around ONLY on one character (i.e. can't move the points "over" to anyone else at all). It's a pretty simple-to-understand modification. We haven't seen it in action in our Skype game yet, but we I do plan on testing it out there, as Thomas indicates.
Posted by: Matt Snyder at Feb 3, 2006 12:10:52 PM
I just ordered a copy; it looks good enough to be worth it just from the web site info at http://www.chimera.info/nineworlds/ . But can you fill us in on how Muses behave in operation that makes them so wonderful?
Posted by: Brian Sniffen at Feb 3, 2006 1:12:26 PM
Thanks for the correction on the origin of Muses, guys. I've never played TROS -- I picked up a copy, but decided it was too crunchy for me.
I really like that mod for metamorphosis.
One thing I was thinking about, but don't want to try until I see some play and understand the real economy of the game, is to add something I call "The World" to the game.
The World is a list of fictional elements (eg, minor characters, places, and things) which are rated on a 1-3 scale. When you involve them in a conflict, you get to draw their rating in extra cards. Players can also use points to edit the World -- Cosmos adds new elements to The World, Metamorphisis moves rating points around or changes the description, Chaos removes rating points and destroys them, and Stasis can lock elements of the World and prevent their change.
So the World is a communal resource of fictional elements, kind of like a character sheet for the setting. You add stuff to it, and use it to encourage the other players to reuse the stuff you added in their play.
Posted by: Neel Krishnaswami at Feb 4, 2006 2:55:57 PM
