After playing octaNe once and running it twice, I’m a bit concerned with how things work. Not game play, per se...I think that the game itself is pretty cool and seems to work well as a whole. It’s just that there are two things that kinda irk me and I’d like to fix ‘em.

The first is the dreaded order of actions. Right now, players act in order of the Styles they wish to use. So Daring goes first, then Ingenuity, etc. down the line. The thing is, Styles don’t mean squat until *after* the die roll, so the Styles don’t really need to be announced before the dice are rolled. Of course, this means that someone that rolls a 5 or 6 can opt to use their best Style, but why wouldn’t they, right? So I don’t think that’s a problem.

Here’s how I’d change it. Everyone rolls 3d6 (or less if unskilled, or more if spending Plot Points). Then, actions are announced according to the Styles used.

Now the hard one. Might & Magic.

Let’s face it, the implementation for Might & Magic is the weakest part of the game. In fact, Might & Magic *suck*. So how to fix it?

Well, in the last game I ran the player with Might started doing funky things with it (mechanically, that is he wasn’t following the rules because, presumably, he misunderstood them). What he was doing was saying, "I use Might," then he would spend X Plot Points to reduce the Hazard rating by that amount. I went along with it because I knew the alternative was messy, confusing and Not Fun.

So how to revise Might & Magic?

1) Might & Magic become one Style instead of two separate Styles.

2) When using M&M, the player spends Plot Points to reduce a Hazard, with the max. points that can be reduced being equal to the M&M Style. M&M can still be used the normal way (roll 3d6, player narrates on a 4-6, on 5 or 6 the player earns Plot Points).

3) Because M&M goes last, Hazards can only be reduced on the "second round" of the conflict. So "Our Heroes" get their asses handed to them via low die rolls courtesy of a Hazard rating, then M&M Style characters help to win the day in round 2.

4) There’s no roll when spending Plot Points to reduce Hazards. The players spend the points and describe what their characters do but the GM gets to describe how it affects the conflict.

I think that would work a lot better than the current dumb-ass method. Oh yeah, characters can still do the once/game "recharge."

On the other hand, Player-on-Player stunt rolls seemed to work pretty well. So I’m happy with that.

Viva octaNe!