Quote from: Caesar SlaadWell given the forum I posted this in, I sort of was.

But really, the only major difference I see between mechanic and technique is ink on the page.

Well then, why bother with mechanics at all? I mean, we can just decide who wins combats at a whim...oh and lock picking attempt...and...
Seriously, if I want some sort of mechanics for some player control of the game world, how is that nay different than wanting mechanics for anything else.
-Zam

Quote from: zamielWell then, why bother with mechanics at all? I mean, we can just decide who wins combats at a whim...oh and lock picking attempt...and...
Seriously, if I want some sort of mechanics for some player control of the game world, how is that nay different than wanting mechanics for anything else.

You, good sir, are preaching to the choir with me. Painfully so. Go read my entries in the "robust games" thread in the general RPG forum and get back to me, and consider that perhaps I'm not saying what you think I am saying.

I'm not afraid to step into the designers shoes and add to what I have been given. I am not afraid to borrow techniques from other games.

Quote from: Caesar SlaadAre there any other takes on this? What do you think of the concept?

Streets tells Stories (the LA Sourcepack for Underground)

sort of has a take in it with it's neighbourhood system than means the players actions directly effect the campaign setting via a rule mechanic, it's a bit too detailed for me to explain here however.

In the early days, I didn't have Greyhawk, and there was not yet a box of Forgotten Realms. So one day I drew out my own game world. I invited my neighbor and primary player, Eric Hoffman, to help me name all the places, and then he could have half the world to set his adventures for when I was a player, and I would take the other half of the world to set up mine. That way our characters could meet each other and fight or trade magic items, since we were all on the same world. We divided the Artifacts & Relics in the back of the 1st Edition DMG the same way, so I didn't start writing a module about the sword of Kas only to find he'd based a module around it.

Then he left, and now there are big, gaping holes in my world.
Well, maybe not literally, but there are spots where I know far less about what's going on than I might have otherwise.

Later, I found many players wanted to "add a peice" to the world.
Which would be fine.
Except of course my players are insane.
One wanted to add an incredibly convoluted martial arts combat system so he could play a ninja. And of course, dominate in combat, since he was the only one who understood it.
Another wanted a (sigh) "Jade Eye Knight" because he'd just watched PHANTOM MENACE. A psionic ranger.
and so it goes.

While I appreciate buy-in and cooperative world building, I'm better off setting up solo, and then letting the players in to break things, kill people and take their stuff.