Re: [ORE] Wild Talents: Getting over the hump

On Sun, Apr 1, 2012 at 9:40 PM, Shane Ivey <shane.ivey@gmail.com> wrote:
> So, gamers who have played Wild Talents with newbies, give us your thoughts.
> Where were the stumbling blocks?

The major stumbling block is the cyclomatic complexity of character
creation. The wealth of interconnecting options, in itself, is
discouraging to a normal person.

I'm running a long Kerberos campaign (started in 1798, it's now 1822),
where three players out of five (all newbies) have opted not to
possess substantial superhuman powers. That's great for the setting,
and a valid exercise of player freedom. Being forced to make a choice
in a context one does not understand would be boring. Just inventing
their own Skills was taxing enough for some of these people. A sixth
gave up.

I get the feeling Wild Talents was built on the microeconomic view of
people as rational optimizers. In reality, Herbert Simon's theory of
bounded rationality is closer to the mark. You stumble when you get
the feeling there is too much to take in, the impression that building
something you should be proud of would take work, and you would risk
embarrassment by trying. If you make a choice in that mindset, you
will always be disappointed.

http://www.ted.com/talks/barry_schwartz_on_the_paradox_of_choice.html

The solution, in writing a primer, would probably be to use a prefab
archetype, introduce a _short_ list of Extras and Flaws as if there
were no more, build a _complex_ character with them (graphics showing
connections), and then reveal there are more building blocks. Keep it
brief. Show unnecessary technical definitions in pop-ups.

You can't change the problem, because it is the total complexity of
the product of you're selling, and that is also a selling point, once
they're past the hurdles. Just know your audience: Novices, non-GMs,
more or less ordinary people who do not spontaneously plow through RPG
hardbacks for entertainment, but may one day master and love what
bores or frightens them now, because it is new and requires more
choice than race/class/alignment.

Viktor

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