Phoenix

[Choinski, Burton]

The biggest problem that I see P&P "classic" to have is differing rules for
what really could use the same mechanism.  Combat uses one form of die roll
mechanism, while Magic uses a similar method.  Ranged combat has a kind of
odd "bolt-on" flavor.  Skills are resolved with a different mechanism (and
where some are EL based, while others are percentage, how the skills are
handled is also different. Even some skills or abilities (Climbing,
swimming, dodge) have special case resolution mechanisms that make it
unweildy.

I see no reason why a general skill mechanism cannot be figured out that can
apply to all skill tasks. The hard trick has always been to retain the
"cinematic" feel (or "conan-ness", if you prefer) where a PC can take on a
bunch of mooks and have a reasonable chance of making it out (if he is
careful), but not to make it so much so that player characters can
completely run roughshod over the world.

I think a good part of the complexity can be evened out if some of the odd
mechanisms can be collapsed into fewer ones.  An example of this I might
point to is my "target-12" skill variant system, on Wout's site.
         -- Burton



----------------------------------------
Burton Choinski
Principal Software Engineer, Quality Engineering
email: burton.choinski at matrixone.com

phone: 978-322-2135
fax  : 978-452-5764

MatrixOne, Inc.
Two Executive Drive
Chelmsford, Ma 01824
www.matrixone.com

The First in Intelligent Collaborative Commerce
----------------------------------------

-----Original Message-----
From: Albert Sales [mailto:drite_mi at YAHOO.COM]
Sent: Thursday, October 16, 2003 10:28 AM
To: POWERS-AND-PERILS at GEO.CITG.TUDELFT.NL
Subject: Re: Phoenix


Actually, with all the options pulled out, P&P is only moderately complex. A
few minor changes could do a LOT of simplification, with the "complications"
we all love being listed in an "Options" section of the books. Possibly, a
"Starter Book (Book Zero)" could include cut-down basic rules, with the
standard rules being listed in the other books (had anyone here played Star
Frontiers? They used a similar approache, but the system never became very
complex.).
   I've also noticed that my new players have the HARDEST time with
character creation. A pregenerated adventure or two with premade characters
(including an explaination as to how their points were spent) could be VERY
helpful... the best way to learn a system is to play it.

Alex Koponen <akoponen at MOSQUITONET.COM> wrote:

One thing that the reborn P&P would need is an easier way of learning the
system. P&P has too steep a learning curve to be massively popular. While
it is easy enough to learn if someone who already knows the system is
teaching you, learning it by yourself is time consuming and probably quite
difficult for those not already familiar with role playing games. I was
familiar with a lot of games and it took me three weeks to fully grasp how
P&P works. BTW It is a very elegant design, I like it.

Another problem is that some players just cannot (or don't want to bother
to)handle the paperwork involved in creating a character and in keeping
track of expertise for each skill plus CEP et cetera. This reduces the
number of players by more than just that number since many groups of
players will skip the game because a small percentage of th e group reject
the game. (It happened to my group despite two of us being very positive
about P&P and another being okay with it. Two other players effectively
nixed the group continuing to play P&P.)

Alex Koponen

----- Original Message -----
From: "Richard Snider"
> Secondarily, I am considering a return to the battlefield in the near
> future, i.e a rebirth of the P&P Phoenix. If anyone has any comments or
> suggestions I want to hear them.
> Richard L. Snider
> author - Powers and Perils
>


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