Crafting Agency

Now that both CraftWork and FaeCraft are out, I want to outline or explore what they mean to me as a set, as a pair. A critical analysis of role-playing in general allows for the premise of 'radical agency' to be part of a role-playing, or the role-playing, experience. That is, role-playing allows an individual to conceive of and take actions that would otherwise be inaccessible or impossible for them to take in their reality. This is one thing that makes role-playing games, at their best, so good at creating community and supporting personal and emotional growth.

Exploding the possibilities for character creation and growth was the main impetus behind developing the two volumes. A second motivation was to make this procedural, so that unexpected, rather than preconceived, character development can be possible. Between the two, a player is not locked in to any particular path.

At the same time, the mechanical advantage of having a skill is not so great that it precludes a player from trying anything (using 10 levels, it tops out at +4 or 20%). The character sheet contains flavors, not solutions or answers.

I don't know how many permutations there are in the two books combined, but there are a lot! Character development is a meandering path, and using the tables as a way to prompt, but not dictate, imagination is perhaps the most fun way to use the two. If you have use them, let me know what you came up with!