"Blocking" cards
Here's a weird idea.
"Blocker" cards must be played, at least one per challenge, until they're all gone. You can play a strength or a weakness or an item as well, but until the blocker cards are gone, they must be played. Worse, they count as 'weak'.
However, when you finish the stack, you get a wild strength for each blocker card you played.
What would these be used for? "Chained up". "Drunk." "Dazed". Anything where there's an ongoing, temporary effect that drains a character. Narrators could place them like objects or give them to characters as appropriate.
Sean Riley
shared this idea
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ShushanENA
commented
I think this is definitely a good idea (would erase the need for in-game hassle with assets and goals), but why would a player get a wild strength card for playing the stack?
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Mo
commented
Among my lot on Storium we just use asset cards on this and tell players they have to play them out, and the narrator does the maths of counting them as negative. Given that we have to account for goals, subplots etc as strong/weak depending on situation, it seems to work as well as these 'blockers' would - assume you trust your players to do what you've told them of course, and if you don't... well...
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Robert Mohr
commented
Just as an idea, actually, while this doesn't sound like a bad concept, you could actually simulate this a little bit by using Goals to represent things like injuries or bad conditions. Do short ones, like 2 or 3 cards tops, and when players play through them, they get rewarded with a new wild strength.
For instance, if a character suffered an injury from a previous challenge, hand them a 2 or 3 card goal labeled "Bruised and Battered" or some such. They can use it in the story to show the effects of their injuries, and then when it's done, their character gets a wild strength for that.
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Geoff Spakes
commented
Yes, I love this idea...kind of like giving a character some kind of "stress" they are under, It could represent a physical injury, mental stress or any other kind of temporary hindrance. Have the Narrator be able to add and remove the Stress card as well as dictate "in story" effects. Perhaps the character can play less cards in a scene or can only play cards that don't push a challenge towards a strong outcome.
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chancels
commented
Sometimes, through their own narrations in strong or weak results, a character will become injured, lose something, or encounter a setback of some sort. I've thought about using Assets to represent these problems, but that would just be giving them an advantage, and they would never need to use the card if they didn't want to. Perhaps, if a player has an active Penalty card, he or she cannot play more than 2 cards in a scene until he or she plays the Penalty card in question. Playing the card would then require him or her to address it in some way in their move.