As someone that's fallen in love with step dice systems to the point I've been slowly kitbashing my own game together, I've never actually considered using it for a rumor table.
I like this idea, it'd be an interesting way of adding another layer of progression for the players/party. I feel like you could do something similar to this in systems that use dice for attributes, as in Savage Worlds. So maybe you have tests based on an attribute where not only is a certain target number required, but depending on your characters stats, you could get different results. So while somebody with a low Smarts could potentially get the bare minimum, maybe a higher Smarts (or if you managed to explode your dice) gives an opportunity to get more information from that same test.
A rumour table though seems like a pretty straight-forward way to handle it, I'd love something like that in Forbidden Lands, which makes use of Rumours.
So its a GM facing mechanic primarily, cool cool. Now I'm wondering if there are games where the mechanics are obfuscated for the GM. How would that even work? Only the players know the mechanics and the GM make shit up?
This is as you say a nice wwäay of gating rumors but under the osmosis section you talk about how this makes it not weird and it simulates the flow of rumors. But does it matter? as I assume the players aren't exposed ro the mechanic, I assume the GM handles it without telling the players the mechanic or letting them look at the tables being rolled on. The players probably won't know the mechanics so they can't get that feeling from the mechanics.
For me, I don’t think the players need to be exposed to a mechanic for it to have value to a game! It can work behind the scenes, like this does, to structure the game in a way that isn’t explicitly mechanical to them but a framework that the GM uses to run their game. Just like encounter checks or faction turns: the experience can be completely diegetic!
As someone that's fallen in love with step dice systems to the point I've been slowly kitbashing my own game together, I've never actually considered using it for a rumor table.
My favorite part of this table: the rumors go physically deeper on the page as players descend deeper into the cave. That's some art-game synergy.
It’s all about the crawl…
This is a fantastic device. Going to tinker around with it
Neat way of handling rumours ... always pondered how a rumour exists for an unknown place
"Wh-what are you doing, step-dice?"
I like this idea, it'd be an interesting way of adding another layer of progression for the players/party. I feel like you could do something similar to this in systems that use dice for attributes, as in Savage Worlds. So maybe you have tests based on an attribute where not only is a certain target number required, but depending on your characters stats, you could get different results. So while somebody with a low Smarts could potentially get the bare minimum, maybe a higher Smarts (or if you managed to explode your dice) gives an opportunity to get more information from that same test.
A rumour table though seems like a pretty straight-forward way to handle it, I'd love something like that in Forbidden Lands, which makes use of Rumours.
So its a GM facing mechanic primarily, cool cool. Now I'm wondering if there are games where the mechanics are obfuscated for the GM. How would that even work? Only the players know the mechanics and the GM make shit up?
This is as you say a nice wwäay of gating rumors but under the osmosis section you talk about how this makes it not weird and it simulates the flow of rumors. But does it matter? as I assume the players aren't exposed ro the mechanic, I assume the GM handles it without telling the players the mechanic or letting them look at the tables being rolled on. The players probably won't know the mechanics so they can't get that feeling from the mechanics.
For me, I don’t think the players need to be exposed to a mechanic for it to have value to a game! It can work behind the scenes, like this does, to structure the game in a way that isn’t explicitly mechanical to them but a framework that the GM uses to run their game. Just like encounter checks or faction turns: the experience can be completely diegetic!