Xanatos Gambits and Roleplaying Games

[wastevens]

So.

A Xanatos Gambit is where a character reveals that, by their antagonist's success, they have themselves made an even greater gain. It's a fairly common reversal in literature, and something I've seen (and used) GMs and STs use with ease- especially for playing up primarily social or intellectual villians. It's actually one of the recommended

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[ridingsloth]

[brain dump. Nonsense, nonsequitors, and off-topic rambling follow

[wastevens]

This has actually led to some of my thoughts on those Wacky Indie Games- a lot of them produce stories that are more fun to tell about later, because the game element is designed to produce such.

But better to tell later isn't neccesarily the same as more exciting to be telling at the table.

As a for instance- Prime Time Adventure, to do the sneaky sneaky thing in, is basically totally divorced from player skill. Now, you can get an engaging story to tell later, about how Dr. Horrible got the Wonderflonium in spite of that jackass Captain Penis^H^H^H^H^HHammer- but it's because the dice fell that way, rather than because of how the plan fell out.

Whereas the Mage game was interesting and fun- but hard to tell others about, since a lot of what was interesting and fun didn't translate to narrative well.