What are you reading Wednesday
Dec. 12th, 2012 10:32 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
jazzfishVia ![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
sartorias, on Book View Cafe.
What are you reading?
I'm currently about forty pages into N.K. Jemisin's The Shadowed Sun. It and the first book (The Killing Moon) have been slow going and I'm not sure why; good characters, fantastic worldbuilding, fine prose. There's just something there that's slowing me down. Might be the need to actively process everything that's going on, because so much is unfamiliar. Regardless I'm enjoying it quite a bit.
I'm also reading chunks of Diaspora, a hard-SF RPG built on the Fate engine. I... am not sure what I think of Fate as described in Diaspora. I'm having a hard time getting my head around the use of Aspects and Fate points. It's possible that story-games aren't my thing, at least not as presented here. I'm also not thrilled by the various combat mini-games. On the other hand, the collaborative world-building of a number of linked star systems seems like a lot of fun.
What did you recently finish reading?
Patrick Rothfuss's The Wise Man's Fear, because semilocal J-- was kind enough to loan me her copy when I mentioned that all the Vancouver library copies were reserved. In sharp contrast to the Jemisin, I breezed through this in the space of about a week. It's very good epic fantasy. About halfway through I realised the word I was looking for was "melodrama," of which it has its fair share-- but I'm willing to accept that because the main conceit is that it's the main character telling his life story to a chronicler. I'm very interested to see where Rothfuss goes with the third book, and even more interested to see what he does next.
What do you think you’ll read next?
Either the last volume of Zelazny's Collected Stories or Nancy Kress's Steal Across the Sky, both of which have been at the top of my TBR shelf for months now. Or maybe something else.
sartorias, on Book View Cafe.What are you reading?
I'm currently about forty pages into N.K. Jemisin's The Shadowed Sun. It and the first book (The Killing Moon) have been slow going and I'm not sure why; good characters, fantastic worldbuilding, fine prose. There's just something there that's slowing me down. Might be the need to actively process everything that's going on, because so much is unfamiliar. Regardless I'm enjoying it quite a bit.
I'm also reading chunks of Diaspora, a hard-SF RPG built on the Fate engine. I... am not sure what I think of Fate as described in Diaspora. I'm having a hard time getting my head around the use of Aspects and Fate points. It's possible that story-games aren't my thing, at least not as presented here. I'm also not thrilled by the various combat mini-games. On the other hand, the collaborative world-building of a number of linked star systems seems like a lot of fun.
What did you recently finish reading?
Patrick Rothfuss's The Wise Man's Fear, because semilocal J-- was kind enough to loan me her copy when I mentioned that all the Vancouver library copies were reserved. In sharp contrast to the Jemisin, I breezed through this in the space of about a week. It's very good epic fantasy. About halfway through I realised the word I was looking for was "melodrama," of which it has its fair share-- but I'm willing to accept that because the main conceit is that it's the main character telling his life story to a chronicler. I'm very interested to see where Rothfuss goes with the third book, and even more interested to see what he does next.
What do you think you’ll read next?
Either the last volume of Zelazny's Collected Stories or Nancy Kress's Steal Across the Sky, both of which have been at the top of my TBR shelf for months now. Or maybe something else.
no subject
Date: 2012-12-12 06:49 pm (UTC)The key mechanic--surrender to the mercy of your Aspects and get a Fate Point, or gain advantages and spend Fate Points (or actions) for the priviledge tends to allow one to pick a story curve that suits your mood while mechanically supporting the existence of a story curve in the first place. The big block people sometimes run into is when a situation is helpful, but has no mechanical effect unless fate points are spent into it (whereas it seems like it should be doing something) -- this can sometimes be best handled by re-modelling the situation as something that isn't an aspect (make it a character, or a Block, or a Threshold, etc); other times the right answer is to make sure there are enough Fate Points to go around and let people just go with it.
no subject
Date: 2012-12-12 09:52 pm (UTC)The base Fate mechanics take up about three pages in Diaspora, so it reads like they're explaining it to someone who already knows the general gist. Kind of like the obligatory "what is rpgs?" section in books from the 90s. I expect that a bit more conceptual info up front would have helped.
On the other hand, I threw money at Fate Core, so maybe that will tell me what I'm looking for...
no subject
Date: 2012-12-12 10:08 pm (UTC)One key piece is that (IMO) you should almost always have enough fate points to win a challenge unless you've been blowing through your Fate Points on things that don't matter constantly (or on refusing plot hook (that is, compel) after compel). It shouldn't ever be about "but I don't have the fate points to turn this one" but about getting positive feedback by taking points for acting according to contract (compels and self-compels; and note that I favor a -very- low bar for self-compels) and then spending the earned plot currency to make things go the way you (you the player) want in conflicts, to have your character avoid that tragic terrible decision that will spell her doom, to add useful/fun details.
The other is that fate points aren't the only currency. Time/actions -- and creative actions on the part of the player, are also significant side currencies that add to the overall economy. So whenever a character spends time changing the situation by making/discovering an aspect, they get a free tag on it (more, in later Fate variants (including Fate Core, IIRC), every aspect except for personal aspects is guaranteed one free tag the first time it's used (including scene aspects that were in the scene when created), so you get credit for helping to emphasize the underlying reality of the scene); for at least Dresden, using info skills to -suggest- an aspect that you "discover" doesn't even cost you an action (instead, adding an element to the game takes the place of the action in terms of paying for the bonus you're about to receive).
Mechanically, it's really all about this give and take. But in play, it doesn't feel much different from any other light mechanics RPG (OTE, UA, etc) except that the frequent currency/pseudo-currency mechanics provide positive feedback for playing according to the game's contract.
no subject
Date: 2012-12-12 08:05 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2012-12-15 06:44 am (UTC)Nothing (on paper) at the moment.
What did you recently finish reading?
Phantom Over Vietnam, a first-person account of flying the F-4 Phantom during the Vietnam War.
What do you think you’ll read next?
Either JS&MN (as recently mentioned) or Jim Gorant's The Lost Dogs, about the dogs rescued from Michael Vick, most likely.
no subject
Date: 2012-12-15 05:00 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2012-12-16 04:14 am (UTC)On the other hand, I may start with Centered Riding and Centered Riding 2, two books about horsemanship skills.