Manbearcat
Legend
The 27th will be the first full session of my Torchbearer 2 group.
The below is the excerpt on page 225 of Torchbearer 2's Scholar's Guide. It beautifully puts out (a) what this game is about and (b) how it achieves it.
Gears and Springs
We designed this game as a series of tight, interlocking mechanisms that incentivize the players to take action while simultaneously putting their characters at risk. Everything in the world of Torchbearer is either out to get the characters or get one over on them. There’s no free lunch.
If the players feel like they are pressed for time or resources, then the system is working as designed. More important, if the players feel their characters are locked in the jaws of impossible decisions, torn between fulfilling their beliefs, accomplishing their goals or living up to their creeds, the system is working as intended.
In fact, all of the clockwork mechanisms of this entire game are designed to push campaign play in this direction. It is not an accident. The point of this game is not to kill things and take stuff. It’s not to make characters wealthy or powerful. The point of this game is to make hard choices. Resources, the grind, beliefs, relationships—they all exist to put a character in dire circumstances so they must make decisions or disappear.
We want the system to build up more and more difficult choices until the characters are in a vice and the players know they must make a decision for which there is no perfect answer. Our goal is to provide the context for that decision. All of the mechanics channel a player to this point and then spit them out and demand they pick a direction—one choice out of many tough options. It’s the most powerful moment in the game when players realize their actions have led them to this point and that their decision in this moment truly matters.
Once they make that fateful decision—and it will be one of many—those gears draw them back into the game as we play out the consequences and churn toward the next soul-crushing decision. It’s fun—at least we think so!
This is fundamentally a statement about table-facing, integrated mechanics with teeth leading to a crucible of consequential decision-points (that you own start to finish...no questions), in turn leading to a character-defining decision-point.
I've run a lot of Torchbearer 1. Torchbearer 2 looks to be a refinement of a lot of various things along with an expansion of things. But at its heart, the above paragraphs perfectly encapsulate Torchbearer regardless of edition.
I figured I'd share this with ENWorld because its about as perfect an expression of the italicized a few sentences above and how people feel about it and its contrast with other designs and design imperatives.
The below is the excerpt on page 225 of Torchbearer 2's Scholar's Guide. It beautifully puts out (a) what this game is about and (b) how it achieves it.
Gears and Springs
We designed this game as a series of tight, interlocking mechanisms that incentivize the players to take action while simultaneously putting their characters at risk. Everything in the world of Torchbearer is either out to get the characters or get one over on them. There’s no free lunch.
If the players feel like they are pressed for time or resources, then the system is working as designed. More important, if the players feel their characters are locked in the jaws of impossible decisions, torn between fulfilling their beliefs, accomplishing their goals or living up to their creeds, the system is working as intended.
In fact, all of the clockwork mechanisms of this entire game are designed to push campaign play in this direction. It is not an accident. The point of this game is not to kill things and take stuff. It’s not to make characters wealthy or powerful. The point of this game is to make hard choices. Resources, the grind, beliefs, relationships—they all exist to put a character in dire circumstances so they must make decisions or disappear.
We want the system to build up more and more difficult choices until the characters are in a vice and the players know they must make a decision for which there is no perfect answer. Our goal is to provide the context for that decision. All of the mechanics channel a player to this point and then spit them out and demand they pick a direction—one choice out of many tough options. It’s the most powerful moment in the game when players realize their actions have led them to this point and that their decision in this moment truly matters.
Once they make that fateful decision—and it will be one of many—those gears draw them back into the game as we play out the consequences and churn toward the next soul-crushing decision. It’s fun—at least we think so!
This is fundamentally a statement about table-facing, integrated mechanics with teeth leading to a crucible of consequential decision-points (that you own start to finish...no questions), in turn leading to a character-defining decision-point.
I've run a lot of Torchbearer 1. Torchbearer 2 looks to be a refinement of a lot of various things along with an expansion of things. But at its heart, the above paragraphs perfectly encapsulate Torchbearer regardless of edition.
I figured I'd share this with ENWorld because its about as perfect an expression of the italicized a few sentences above and how people feel about it and its contrast with other designs and design imperatives.
