PDQ/JotSS questions.

Hello everyone,

I've recently bought Jaws of the Six Serpents this July, and I had some question about the system. Did any of you ever played PDQ or Jaws of the Six Serpents before? If so, I hope you can enlighten me on some areas which are confusing me.

While I can understand the concept behind those "make your own attribute games" as I own a few more of those, I'm a bit confused on how to differentiate between the different ways of describing a quality the character possesses. Let's say one player chooses Good (+2) Strong as an ox, and another player chooses Good (+2) Strength of the bear. Well, it's obvious both characters want to be strong, and yet, they chose very different ways of describing their strength. And this even without opening the can of worm that are synonyms (Agile/Nimble/Lithe/etc.) yet!

The concept of Story Hooks also looks interesting, but I feel it can easily derail a game. Basically, each time a character takes damage, the GM must come up with an adventure hook. Of course, these will most likely take the characters on a side quest, where they may very well get hurt again, which will generate even more story hooks... Well, I think you see the problem here...

I'm also a bit confused as to how Urges work in JotSS. Let's say I make a character with Good (+2) Fire Urge. Now what? Does that means this roll ends up being used on any action related the the qualities listed under Fire Urge? Seems like taking urges is a good way to have a quality which will be used on a lot of different situations, which feels a bit "cheaty"...

Anyways, has anyone ever played a PDQ/JotSS game? How did those things were handled or resolved? Is anyone playing or planning to make a PDQ/JotSS on here? If so, I'd be tempted to join just so I can see how a game like that is handled.

I am not familiar with Jaws of the Six Serpents but I played some Swashbuckler's of the Seven Skies and Zorcerer of Zo back in the day.

So as far as Strength of the Bear vs Strong as an Ox, you could just take it as color. One guy is strong and shaggy and the other is muscled and squat and those are the animals that spring to mind when you see the character for the first time. Or, you could rule that the Penumbra of the quality also encompasses other qualities of the animal besides strength. Maybe the bear guy is also good at climbing, squatting enemies away, and shrugs off the cold. Maybe the Ox guy is especially good as carrying or pulling heavy loads and all fear his charging tackle. PDQ qualities are loose by definition so there is always some push and pull between GM and player to define what falls under it.

As for the Story Hooks, it is like any other game. You pull out Story Hooks when they can contribute something interesting to the game. If a player wants to go after one, great! Invested players are great. If they don't, those lists of Hooks are gifts to the GM, ready made adventure starters already tied into past adventurers and the character's traits. Let them pile up.

I don't know what the equivalent to Urges would be in the other games so I can't help you there.

Thanks. This was great help even if you could not answer the Urges question. I guess I'm not used to "make your own attributes" games and I'm more familiar with games which have a nice list made up.

It does take some getting used to if you are used to more granular systems. In other games if you wanted to play a Musketeer, you would have to max out your dex score, take rapier and musket proficiency, maybe some knowledge skills about the court and the army or social skills of a courtier. In PDQ you write, +2 Musketeer and it is assumed to cover all of that. It makes character creation pretty quick once you get used to it.