Saibankan wrote: ↑Fri Sep 10, 2021 6:39 pm
What's one thing that you feel the game handled really well?
What's one thing (outside of dueling and strife) that you feels needs to be changed before the next game?
What drew you to Haruhi?
Hey Sai! First of all, thanks for the game, I liked it a lot!
1) I actually think
most things were handled quite well! I enjoyed most events a lot, and I liked the variety of different approaches you used for them. I have one comment on them, but that goes into...
2) So - first things first, I actually hated neither duelling nor strife! Duelling, as you know well, I think could use changes, clarifications, or both (we've been talking about that a lot, so no surprise there). Strife, otoh, I kept thinking about quite a bit, but I actually don't think needs many changes? Mitsuki made some suggestions that might be useful, but I actually like the idea of handling Strife accumulation as part of the game!
That said, and going into things that are *not* duelling and strife, I'd add... three things, I guess.
a) While I greatly liked the variety and the design of most events (see above!), I do think Focus and Vigilance (and maybe also Fatigue!) could be given a greater role in events. I feel many folks are leaving this game with the impression that Composure is the "god stat", but I think the reason may be that the other derived stats didn't come into play as often as Strife/composure did. So I think maybe adding bonuses, TN changes or other things that depended on Vigilance/ Focus more often, and/or have events causing Fatigue (in failed rolls or something as well as strife) might be something to consider for later
b) Somewhat related to strife management, but not only, and also related to VPs: I found it relatively hard to find ways to integrate 'disadvantages being activated' into my threads. Passions too, but less so - and the possibility of using them as Background things helped a lot. I know Mitsuki has a suggestion that would deal with that... but I fear it may tie VPs to events too much, which may be too limiting for high-void characters. I kept wondering if allowing people to have their Anxieties triggering as "background" things, accruing strife and getting VPs at the cost of a Time Slot, may not be an option to avoid 'forcing' people to create threads for the sole purpose of 'roleplaying disadvantages' (or, more honestly, with the purpose of getting a VP). Not sure how you or others feel about this, though!
c) Similarly - I liked agendas as a side-goal, but I feel having to fit something RP-wise to get an Agenda roll in was sometimes a bit odd. I managed to get around that with the whole "Sparrow tells a story" thing that ended up being real fun, and having that extra bit to guide your RP is nice... but I think 'some' ability to do that in the background might be nice too, maybe? Or maybe just 'you can roll for it if you interact with said person during the day', or something like that, again to not 'force' RP decisions to get the roll and points to happen? I do fear that... might lead to other problems, but it's something I've been thinking about.
3) Oh, that's a good question! I was considering trying to get in contact with at least one of the NPCs, and none of the PCs I had interacted with had really 'clicked' that much when I got to look more closely at the NPC profiles. While Senseki came in as more of a woodsman/ herbalist, his sensei being a swordmaster of sorts (which I had *kinda* thought about, not sure how much of that I actually included in the BG?) and the fact that after checking with you the Sparrow tech is actually valid for duels all contributed to my thinking 'ok, he probably admires duelling at least somewhat... and meeting someone who uses a style quite different from his own and who's interested in the 'art' of it, not so much 'proving superiority', seemed kinda fitting for his own peaceful, friendly (and softhearted!) view to things. The fact that there was that line about her having 'peasant-like features' wasn't completely lost on me either
I guess the sparring matches with Mitsuki, in which he found out people actually used *shields* made him even more interested in different styles, so there was that too!