Karen J. Cravens wrote:

> On Wed, 8 Mar 2006, Tim Hall wrote:
> 
> TH>I'm not so sure they need to be binary opposites.
> 
> Not as such, but they're two very separate things.  I can't think of any 
> individual rules that affect both, though there might be some.

I was thinking more of complete systems rather than individual mechanics.

> TH>Systems like GURPS or Primetime Adventures represent the opposite ends 
> TH>of a spectrum.
> 
> Pretty close, yeah.  But doesn't GURPS have... uh... some kind of Fudge 
> Point system (I'm blanking here... been too long since I even read GURPS, 
> especially outside the character generation part) somewhere in there?  I 
> see that sort of thing as a sort of a safety system on character-can-do 
> rules.

You're probably thinking of the Luck advantage, which works as a sort of 
Fudge Pointish sort of thing (you can reroll failed rolls so many times 
a session).  I've never encountered any game that's used this Advantage. 
  GURPS doesn't have Narrativist plot coupons as a core mechanic.

> TH>I'm sure it's possible to design a game that reaches a workable balance 
> TH>between the two approaches. But you have to recognise there's a tradeoff 
> TH>  going on, otherwise we'll end up brain damaged ;)
> 
> I still haven't found a workable balance.  I *like* character-can-do 
> rules.  Outright narrative-can-do rules feel like cheating.

The alternative is behind-the-scenes GM fudging, which is even more like 
cheating.  And I'm guilty as hell of doing this; there's a whole scene 
in the Kalyr game on Dreamlyrics which I've been running completely 
diceless, doing things like 'I'll let her succeed at doing that really 
cool psionic combat move without rolling any dice, but she'll catch hell 
later on from the collateral damage.  She's getting her money's worth 
out of the Bloodlust disadvantage'.

> But yeah, maybe I'm brain-damaged...

That blog entry of mine was the #1 Google search result for "Ron Edwards 
Brain Damaged" at one point. Got a good comment by Will Mistretta :) 
"The Ayn Rand of RPGs, indeed".
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