Morality in other games helps also mine
TAGS: #MORALITY
In this period I have a very limited time to spend on my hobby: I am writing the quickstart book and this is draining me almost all of the spare time (which is already little…). I don’t want to say that the writing of a book for my game is not time spent on my hobby, I really consider it as a pleasure but I also miss the real spare time, that one which enables you to surf among blogs and topics related to the hobby.
Despite this situation, I had the luck to find a very interesting RPG. To be honest, I have already forgotten how I ran into this game but it doesn’t matter: what is relevant is that this game appealed me… Let’s explain this with a structured explanation: firstly the game is Vow of Honor and I have only read the web page, not the full game but let me give the chance to explain it in few words; the characters in this game are bound to a code of honor, the world is decaying and they are called to stick as much as possible to their vow. Honor in this game is a very close concept of Morality in VI·VIII·X.
This is an interesting game to my eyes since the concept of Morality is stressed out so much that it made me think about what I did in VI·VIII·X. In Vow of Honor I found the author reached the perfection thinking that the morale is one of the (if not the) strongest drivers in the game. Again, I haven’t read the game (I will likely do in the future) but I was impressed by this very focused approach on Morality. If I consider Morality a pillar in my game, then in Vow of Honor it is the bearing framework of the whole game! That is impressive!
Now, a reader of this post could wonder: ‘why on Earth, the author of a game is publishing a post where he admits that in another game he found something better? Is he gone completely crazy?’ …well, I hope not be mad, I have to acknowledge that someone has likely managed in a better an essential topic in my vision. This implies that I admire and respect who did it!
Anyway, I appreciate this moments for several reasons: the first one is that by reading this game I do not feel alone as other people is trying to carve out some features that we are slowly losing with the current trends in the market; secondly, since they make me think about a specific topic, this is somehow fostering my creativity into that direction: I thought and thought again about VI·VIII·X and the Morality until I came to a good idea!
This is a very simple rule: whenever a character is in a position where he runs a risk he wants to avoid at any cost, he can ‘spend’ one or more points of his Morality Index; in this case the GM is called to make up an event like a ‘deus ex machina’ so that the risk is avoided. This can happen as long as there are points to be spent (i.e. until the Morality Index is zero).
Despite the fact that I have a lot ‘advanced rules’ to deploy in the expanded set of rules (which has been rescheduled after the quickstart and the ‘universal core rules’), I believe that this feature could be an interesting option which could grant a kind of ‘cinema-effect’ within the game… It will for sure be considered in the final set of rules…