Bite-sized thoughts 1

I thought about including these in the last post, but it was already too sizely. These are just some thoughts I've had, which aren't quite big enough to warrant their own post.

-Randomization and the over-use of dice rolls:

The dice only get rolled if a random outcome is necessary. When I played Shadowrun, the GM had us role for the most asinine things. And he was rolling against us, too. Perform a hack attack on a system you've already taken over completely? Roll against me. Drive a car you've had for two years? Roll against me. What the hell, man!

Randomness is a narrative element. Maybe this is me having a book up my ass, but the dice are there to make the story more interesting. Let's use a shootout in Project Sunburn as an example and metaphor. Without dice, you either can or cannot kill an EMPIRE grunt. Without dice, there is only one set of loot you'll get from them. It's not a question of tactics and strategy, it's a grinder that you chug through until you're logically at 1 or 2 HP. Then you take the 8 bandages you looted (as expected), and chew through more of them. No fun.

I briefly considered a "waves" mechanic in PS. I'll roll a die, and the dunes will be that high or low in one particular area, either burying cities and mountains, lowering enough to block access, or coming in at a nice median. It adds danger and uncertainty to the "traveling" elements, and won't kill the players accidentally. I'm still keeping it for another campaign (Sunburn 3, probably), and I think it'll add a nice risk factor. If I, the GM, just narrated the rise and fall of the desert, it would be really hard for me to keep it convincing. I'd either be too easy or too harsh, and I don't have the dice as a scapegoat.

-Dreams

Dreams are the subconscious burbling its thoughts to us. Little messages, translated into wonderful and horrifying images to entertain us in our sleep. But, that takes all the fun out of it.

Biblical passages, ancient myths, and even urban legends are chock-full of dream sequences with serious narrative impact.*

In an ancient or highly mythical setting, dreams would be an excellent environment to expand gameplay. It fits with the setting, and really lets the players snap into character. In a modern setting, and most hard sci-fi, a dream sequence would be out of place. Of course, some stories would demand this (Looking at you, Spirits Within)

The ultimate message? I'm not letting the real world get in the way of my stories. There is nothing real here. But it is entertaining...

*I mean this on a purely surface level; taking a religious text, and looking at the story without the context. I don't mean to offend anyone's religion, and I'm not calling any religious books fictional narrative.