Right so this thread will answer some of the time questions being asked here:
http://www.collective-endeavour.com/node/773
First a little on how much is going on in one 30 min Knot.
The timeline in a game of Stitch is made up of 3 different threads. This means that at each knot there are 3 events to manipulate. When an event is succesfully manipulated the team builds up inconsistency. When they have enough inconsistency the timeline leaves the 'cone of possibility' and the apocalypse is prevented. Inconsistency builds exponentially per thread. The 'table' below shows how much inconsistency they gain if they manipulate several events in the same thread.
Events Inconsistency
1 1
2 2
3 4
4 6
5 8
6 10
At the moment you need 40 points to succesfully manipulate the timeline out of the 'cone of possibility'. This means you need to tackle at least 2 events per knot.
So you can see from this how the team may manipulate one event with some ease, but they really need to get to the second as well and that is where things really become tricky.
The time mechanic stems from a desire to create stress and panic in the players. The fact that the setup requires them to visit at least two events per knot, means that they are going to have to think and act fast. This is going to lead to mistakes being made which just adds to the sense of time fighting against you.
Andrew can probably give you a better idea as to how this feels as a player.
As to the tactical time thing that Ash was proposing, i have to say no. It is a reasonable idea, and I pondered it myself when creating the game, but any pause gives the players room to breath and you don't want that. The GM basically has to be a bit of a bastard, and I am writing some more advice on that tonight.
I admit it is a bit gimmicky but we had a great time playing it. It just needs a bit more work to bring the characters rather than the players to the game.
Oh and the chess clock would need to be digital, an analogue is to fiddly to read ingame. It needs to be big and digital.
I hope I am explaining this ok.
I am happy to email the current version out to anyone for a read.
Cheers
Iain
At the moment you need 40
Submitted by Graham W on Tue, 30/10/2007 - 18:21.
At the moment you need 40 points to succesfully manipulate the timeline out of the 'cone of possibility'. This means you need to tackle at least 2 events per knot.
Iain, sorry, I don't understand. According to that table, wouldn't tackling two events give you two points each, for a total of four?
When you say there's three events per knot, but you need only tackle two, how does that work?
Graham
Sorry I am doing a bad job
Submitted by Iain McAllister on Tue, 30/10/2007 - 19:04.
Sorry I am doing a bad job of explaining this. It is easier with diagrams.
Timeline is made up of 3 threads each containing 6 events. At a knot the three threads meet and form a Knot. The team goes into a knot and jumps between the three threads changing events. The table refers to changing the events over 1 thread.
So if you change the 1st event in thread A you get 1 point of Inconsistency. When you change the 2nd event in thread A you get 2. When you change 3rd event in thread A you get 4 etc. The inconsistency builds over the length of the thread. So if you manipulate the events realting to one thread succesfully you can get a total of 31 inconsistency. This is obviously not enough to bend the timeline so you really need to work on thread B as well. Also acts as a backup if things go wrong.
Does that help or I am doing a horrible job of explaining it?
Cheers
Iain
Mob Justice now available!
'The Giant Brain':Small games, big ideas.
Got it!
Submitted by Graham W on Tue, 30/10/2007 - 19:06.
That's rather good.
G
Phew. I am still trying to
Submitted by Iain McAllister on Tue, 30/10/2007 - 19:35.
Phew. I am still trying to work out how to explain the thing in words. Let me send you a copy tonight and you can have a proper read.
Cheers
Iain
Mob Justice now available!
'The Giant Brain':Small games, big ideas.