The power of communication

One of the main takeaways of my very short experience in the publishing industry is at the same time charming and awful: the communication of and idea seems to be even more important that the idea itself... maybe I am ingenuous but I find it surprising!

After some discussions on the main RPG boards I came with the conclusion that I had to try to make some 'marketing' by writing a blurb on DriveThru to attract more interest from a potential customer...

Here below you will find two texts: the first one is 'my version', it is what I produced by myself... it is long and likely boring. The second one is 'true marketing version': this is a text by a really friendly fellow of RPGGeek made up based on the contents of 'my version'... it is definitely like night and day. They're not even comparable! I will never be able to do such a masterpiece in terms of communication!

So, my most appreciated kudos and thanks go to Jamie Hardy who forged the 'perfection' from a mass of mud (such was my text!). It is now clearer and clearer what is the impact of communication nowadays... and this situation leads me to feel myself out of place in such a world... and the whole situation keeps on providing me the combined feeling of attraction and unpleasantness at the same time.


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MY VERSION
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The first question to tackle is what KUP means. It is the acronym (duly reshuffled in order to have a nice sound) of a game model: “keep players uneducated”. This stands for a way to settle down rules and game mechanics so that it is not possible for a player to clearly have all the pieces of information available granting a certain result. The final goal is to avoid that a player knows how in terms of game mechanics application an event has been generated in detail. The basic principle is that any event should be not fully mastered in terms of calculations by a player: the presence of an ‘alea’ in a situation should always be present to keep the tension high.

How a KUP model is granted is the following point: this approach is met by means of several specific mechanics. The main one is that players do not fully know all the stat of their PCs. There are some features known only by the GM and the final result of an event relies on his calculations. Players are in a position to know only a part of the set of information and, based on this partial knowledge, are asked to take their decisions.

There are then other features of this game which differ from D&D, here below some of them:

* A strong presence of moral alignment within the game mechanics to grant the importance of morality during the game, this in particular for experience and divine spellcasting

* A free-form spellcasting for arcane magic, leading to have any desired magic effect in a spell

* The importance of the character’s background to reach a sound consistence in a build during character’s creation

* A new approach to manage the action resolution based on a more ‘strategic’ mechanic which rewards the player who is able to minimize the suffered damage

* A growth mechanic built on the KUP model: a character level-up directly depends on the acquaintance the player has with his PC

* A revision of the reaction/morale rules with the introduction of a dedicated stat in order to stress out its importance within the game

* A damage system which affects in real time the player’s decisions and other similar cases where a rule doesn’t follow the ‘canon’ set by the most famous fantasy RPG

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'TRUE MARKETING' VERSION
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Tired of your players metagaming and max/mining instead of roleplaying? Well, KUP is the system for you. KUP is an RPG that places the game with the GM and the roleplaying with the players. The KUP system goes beyond other games because players are prevented from knowing their current active stats or bonuses. All of this is handled by the GM. Instead, players are provided with descriptive information by the GM.

KUP offers players and GMs the opportunity to roleplay more by freeing them of the confines of other systems. Morality and character background are built into the mechanics of the game. The system provides players with a freeform magic system. Combat is more than just lowering hit points. Instead, damage affects characters as they take damage. Further, all characters have a morale rating that affects characters actions and can even lead to fleeing.

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