Yeah, I have to chime in with the rest and say it's a really solid demo.
In a way Sacred Fire seems to be something I didn't really know I wanted until trying it - what would in other RPGs really just be "roll a skill to see if you succeed and move on" here it's about breaking down the scene itself into individual bits that can go right or wrong. If the opening part with the deer is how we can expect scenes in general to be structured it's granularity at work backed by all those character stats. Now, it also means every individual action is throwing up modifiers on the screen, without even going into things like enforcing Ideas or not, but I liked the overall pacing constantly moving you forward. Except for the combat because I got the impression I could keep sparring with Morl forever as long as dodging was on the table and my character wasn't combat-centric enough to really dish out sufficient damage because I had plenty of MP to burn to affect Control and roll chances through it. This is something I wouldn't put past failing to understand the system on my end, though.
Yes, all the scenes are written out at the granularity level you see in the demo.
Sacred Fire is all about the tactical exploration of a scene and figuring out how to gain an edge, prepare and be smart about things.
Yes, I've played the scenes hundreds of times, when testing and I still get pulled into the 'just one more choice' pacing from time to time.
Thank you for the feedback bits, this is really useful, I appreciate it.
Well the combat is designed this way - you can take the safer but longer path of just wearing your opponent down. But you could easily run out of motivation if you went for actually hitting the opponent and you build is not high on motivation. Or you or your opponent could go berserk, or freeze up putting you into far more risk etc.
But, again, there is a LOT of tactical options how to gain an edge - use the environment, go for a radical attack, pretend fear, etc. Or how to gain extra renown, if you dare to. See, first of all combat can be avoided. And who said that you need to use it to wear the opponents HP down? You can use it to show off and gain renown for doing daring feats, show dominance on the battlefield etc. And then scare you opponent into submission or fleeing.
Right at the beginning of the combat, your character recalls the lessons when sparring with his older brother, warning the player "Do not just trade blows" "Find a weakness" "If there is none, create one".
. I see that as a very good thing in this case though, as it really reinforces that PnP feel.
