All for this.

Okay a bit pissed off because I had written out an entire reply then the page reloaded when I signed in, but I'll try to re-stipulate my points:

Basically, Yes Yes and Yes. i actually came here to start a thread on the subject before seeing there already is one. I run a Storium game within which there is a Sanity mechanic as well as a Mecha fighting mechanic on top of regular interaction, and I've had to push the Asset card use to its absolute limit - even then, there are a lot of cheats and workarounds myself and the players have to employ. Asset cards not being able to be assigned as positive or negative and simply standing as neutral is one of the main problems - but as a Narrator, being able to set up how certain cards work and make custom systems with them (like a Sanity pool) would be fantastic.

Here are my suggestions for how I'd like the card system to be more malleable for Narrators:

A) Give narrators control over how many of each card the players start the game with.
B) Give narrators control over how many cards can be played per player per scene.
C) GIve ability to adjust parameters of Asset cards - as in, make them Strength/Weakness aligned rather than just neutral
D) Give narrator ability to take away cardds, or ask specific cards in response to a challenge. I.E. regarding my Sanity System (which at the moment is just a stack of Sanity Point cards that players must discard one of when they lose a point, using the 'discard 1 to rename stack workaround', I could require a character to give up one of their Sanity cards on a challenge after a Weak outcome.

E) an overall more malleable card system that can be tweaked and adjusted by Narrators to suit their vision of the game would be amazing.

The perfect RP session would have no defining rules, causing each player to eternally one-up one another(to whose character is the most bad-ass etc..) since theirs no limiting factor to bind them or more properly define them. With that said it comes down to manners you bring to the table.

Also here is my only idea posted here, give it a look: https://storium.uservoice.com/forums/211322-general/suggestions/12462981-several-tiny-intimate-story-combined-creates-one-l

I agree that Storium's baseline mechanics shouldn't be enforced. Narrators and players should be able to spread their wings and change whatever they need.

https://storium.uservoice.com/forums/211322-general/suggestions/5684478

The above link is to the suggestion mentioned below.

yeah this should probably happen

Or, if cards could be tied to specific parts of the character profile. That would give characters a better-rounded set of cards to play.

Yes, most vehemently, yes! In the card selection, there needs to be a nod to reality. The system is way too simple right now. I can understand wanting to have that during the beta, but eventually, I really think people are going to want more variety in their strength and weakness than the cards allow. People use many,, many different skills to handle problems. As it is now, the cards really just get in the way, sometimes. I see that someone is running a cardless game, and I applaud them. I'm thinking of doing likewise.

I agree, too, that this suggestion would greatly add to the game. I think more options - to a point, I s'pose - are always a good thing. Or, rather than everything be fair game, keep the defaults, but still allow for more customisation.

I really like this idea. I created a bunch of strength and weakness cards for a game thinking that players got to choose 3 different strengths, etc, rather than 3 of the same. Allowing 3 different ones would provide more flexibility to a character, make them more well-rounded. Or allowing more powerful characters to have up to 5.

Definitely want to see this. Picking how many cards players can use per scene will really help with pacing. Like if it's just the narrator and one player, being able to expand what that player can do will allow scenes to be more than split seconds long.

I completely support this idea!

According to me Narrators may have the full game parameters control at creation. Choosing how many type of cards players can create will be very helpful, including for voting on challenges.

Even the option to choose from multiple pre-set "difficulty levels" would be very helpful, especially since it can be important for a game's tone (four-color supers should have many options for resolving a challenge, horror games should have very limited resources for survival, etc.).

Agreed! I saw a suggestion elsewhere that is actually a fantastic idea. It was suggested that there be no card limit at all, but a "Lead Limit" that stops players from surpassing anyone by too much.

So, let's say the "Lead Limit" is 3 in this scene. Players cannot exceed the highest total of cards already played (by another player) by more than 3. For example:

- Player 1 has played 6 cards so far in the scene.
- Player 2 has played 5.
- Player 3 has played 0.
- The current Lead Limit for Player 1 would be 8 (3 more than Player 2's five cards).
- The Lead Limit for Player 2 would be 9 (3 more than Player 1's six cards).
- The Lead Limit for Player 3 would also be 9 (3 more than Player 1).
- Once hitting your limit, you would have to wait for another player to play more cards to increase the Lead Limit.

And, obviously, implement a "Move Limit" to stop lazy Player 3 (who hasn't played in 2 weeks) from jumping in and playing 9 cards in one Move.

The freedom to tweak the parameters (ratio of Strength / Weakness cards, number of cards played in a scene, etc.) to suit the players' flavour of story-telling is an important feature. I think we should give players the opportunity to decide where they want their game to land within the spectrum of "soul-crushingly rewarding" and "piece of cake".

As it stands, especially with "Wild Strength" being the only reward for Subplots and Goals, and no "Wild Weakness" rewards to balance it - the default system, for me, is far too focused on this idea that characters succeeding is a good thing for a story.

For me, I've always found the best stories arise out of hardship and difficult choices. So, I would love to be able to set the parameters in a way that Strength cards are rare, cherished commodities; cards that are used when the player absolutely wants something to pan out. Thus, making the success that much sweeter. And also, have a larger card limit, so that I can incorporate more obstacles in one scene, forcing players to make tough decisions (a "fail one obstacle to succeed the other" type of situation, if you will). This will allow the story to be less linear and more driven by player agency.

Everything that can be made customizable, should be.

I fully agree and support this idea!

Yeah, this is really a must, I'm surprised this hasn't been voted higher yet. I'd like to decide how many and how many kinds of Strength cards my players can start with, turn Wild cards on or off or decide whether or not they persist for redraws or have to be improvised every time, or have a random setting for my story that requires my players to take random combinations of cards and be challenged to create a character out of whatever they draw. We can already create any story we want, I'd just like more options to shape the gameplay to better fit each story. Storium's strength is in its combination of gaming with storytelling, but I think it would be even stronger if narrators had more control over how game- or story-focused each project is.

We have a large group playing, and only being allowed to play three cards really limits how much interaction we can have. I can't help push someone else along on their challenge and go for a challenge myself, because then I'm almost guaranteed not to be able to complete anything. I understand that the limit keeps certain types of players from taking everything for themselves, but if the narrator knows his group isn't like that, it would be nice to give him the power to adjust the numbers to make things more fun for everyone.

The fewer constraints, the more room there is for people to use Storium in imaginative ways. I'm in favor of making the platform as flexible as possible.