tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-24824514130218407382024-03-19T15:14:08.085+11:00Observations of the FoxVulpinoidhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04511600075328621953noreply@blogger.comBlogger2364125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2482451413021840738.post-58959140804249411752024-03-17T11:23:00.003+11:002024-03-18T11:36:10.698+11:00How to Run a Game (Part 14c) - Stringing Vignettes together<p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh3DBcNEbVW6sjbYv6IuYiKo4qP-TjXO0iaTmIaXKGigLh1W2WCXa6b59b-kBXi5aMOFamua9OsvKJEwvIXWghYBQj6aAUHqa568iWtKcROTIMQ7i7N1RCWtRxd5TyV7yLoZAUreiT2fhzB7oeL_Jy20hafD30vNDWVahDjbrnhWNN0F0nYN3tKKZmNnrqe/s3150/Dispatch_N_Page_08.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="3150" data-original-width="2063" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh3DBcNEbVW6sjbYv6IuYiKo4qP-TjXO0iaTmIaXKGigLh1W2WCXa6b59b-kBXi5aMOFamua9OsvKJEwvIXWghYBQj6aAUHqa568iWtKcROTIMQ7i7N1RCWtRxd5TyV7yLoZAUreiT2fhzB7oeL_Jy20hafD30vNDWVahDjbrnhWNN0F0nYN3tKKZmNnrqe/s320/Dispatch_N_Page_08.png" width="210" /></a></div><br />Let's say I have a plan for a story over a couple of sessions. Think of this like a story arc that goes over a couple of episodes in a TV series.<p></p><p>Each session has a "context" act to establish it's events, a "complication" act to build up its tension, a "climax" act to face the issues at hand, and finally a "conclusion" act to resolve the story and pull things back into line.</p><p>Four vignettes scattered across the episodes can help tie sessions that otherwise seem disconnected into a coherent whole.</p><p>If we're going with the four act story structure, there are a few ways we can build a long form narrative while allowing a generally freeform approach to the choices made by characters.</p><p> </p>
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<table class="tg">
<thead>
<tr>
<th class="tg-2x6o">Story Act</th>
<th class="tg-2x6o">Episode Event</th>
<th class="tg-2x6o">Notes</th>
</tr>
</thead>
<tbody>
<tr>
<td class="tg-0lax">E01 Act 1</td>
<td class="tg-0lax">Context: Let the players explore</td>
<td class="tg-0lax">No predefined vignette</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td class="tg-0lax">E01 Act 2</td>
<td class="tg-0lax">Complication: Introduce the immediate story </td>
<td class="tg-z0iz">Optional Acceleration vignette to prompt narrative</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td class="tg-0lax">E01 Act 3</td>
<td class="tg-0lax">Climax: Resolve the immediate story element</td>
<td class="tg-z0iz">Conflict/Dramatic vignette to face the issue</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td class="tg-0lax">E01 Act 4</td>
<td class="tg-0lax">Conclusion: Reveal the aftermath</td>
<td class="tg-0lax">Resolve issues that arose during the episode</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td class="tg-0lax">E02 Act 1</td>
<td class="tg-0lax">Context: Let the players explore, they might start looking to the long term story</td>
<td class="tg-0lax">No predefined vignette, maybe draw in unresolved issues from previous episode</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td class="tg-0lax">E02 Act 2</td>
<td class="tg-0lax">Complication: Bring in a new immediate threat</td>
<td class="tg-z0iz">Acceleration vignette to prompt new narrative</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td class="tg-0lax">E02 Act 3</td>
<td class="tg-0lax">Climax: Resolve the new threat</td>
<td class="tg-0lax">Let players choose the way to resolve this rather than applying a vignette</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td class="tg-0lax">E02 Act 4</td>
<td class="tg-0lax">Conclusion: Start to uncover how the two immediate threats link together</td>
<td class="tg-4aw5">Long-term context vignette comes into play to show how the scenes combine</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td class="tg-0lax">E03 Act 1</td>
<td class="tg-0lax">Context: Players should have developed links to a number of stories by this time</td>
<td class="tg-z0iz">If players haven't built narrative momentum, give them a vignette to kick things along</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td class="tg-0lax">E03 Act 2</td>
<td class="tg-0lax">Complication: The main threat and antagonist shows up.</td>
<td class="tg-4aw5">Long term complication vignette slows things down and reveals the deeper stakes</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td class="tg-0lax">E03 Act 3</td>
<td class="tg-0lax">Climax: The players face the main antagonist, but probably aren't fully ready</td>
<td class="tg-4aw5">Story-twist vignette pivots the narrative in a way that the players don't expect</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td class="tg-0lax">E03 Act 4</td>
<td class="tg-0lax">Conclusion: The players pick up the pieces after learning the truth</td>
<td class="tg-0lax">No vignette, the players are deciding for themselves what to do next.</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td class="tg-0lax">E04 Act 1</td>
<td class="tg-0lax">Context: Another gathering of clues in the mundane world</td>
<td class="tg-0lax">No vignette, probably cleaning up prior issues that may cause problems leading up to the climax</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td class="tg-0lax">E04 Act 2</td>
<td class="tg-0lax">Complication: Facing a series of minor threats to gain new advantages</td>
<td class="tg-z0iz">One or more short-term vignettes building tension as the climax is approached </td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td class="tg-0lax">E04 Act 3</td>
<td class="tg-0lax">Climax: Facing the threat/antagonist on an equal footing</td>
<td class="tg-4aw5">Set piece conclusion, this is probably the most defined of the scenes in the whole narrative</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td class="tg-0lax">E04 Act 4</td>
<td class="tg-0lax">Conclusion: Aftermath</td>
<td class="tg-0lax">This all depends on the fallout of the climax.</td>
</tr>
</tbody>
</table><br /><div>In this table we've got 7 acts with no vignettes, <span style="background-color: #fcff01;">5 with short-term vignettes</span> that affect the immediate story, and <span style="background-color: #01ffff;">4 long-term vignettes</span> that pull the whole sequence together in a whole.</div><div><br /></div><div>Not all games will follow this structure, it's just an example idea.</div><div><br /></div><div>For example, most of the campaigns I've been running lately have unfolded over 10 weeks or so, and in most cases there just hasn't been a chance to play through four complete acts. In the gaming group's lunchtime sessions, we barely get through two or three scenes, and I'll compress an act into a scene or two. For ten weeks, odd weeks have nominally resolved acts 1 and 2 for an episode (building up the tension), while even weeks have resolved acts 3 and 4 (dealing with a climax and picking up the pieces). This gives five two-week episodes, with the extra episode slotting into the structure near the beginning of the sequence to allow a better exploration and understanding of the setting.</div><div><br /></div><div>In the sport sessions of D&D, there is more time to get through an entire episode of the story, but since we randomise players between the sessions from week to week it become more critical to ensure episodes don't carry over from one week to the next. I function as a coordinating narrator here, and I try not to micromanage the other DMs. I allow the other DMs to run their games in their chosen style, but ask that they include two or three events out of a list of four, where these events basically serve the function of vignettes in the long term story. Over the course of ten weeks, three events establish the context for the long term story, three events establish the complications, two events are used to resolve the climax of the term's story, and the final two events describe how the events of the long-term story have impacted the history of the setting. Unless it's a major dramatic event, I specifically don't get individual DMs to narrate elements, and I try to make sure various clues are filtered through different groups in the game. This allows players to talk about their sessions afterward and piece together the deeper macro-level narrative, regardless of what might have occurred at a micro-level in their specific play session. Its a really different way of playing, but it generally seems to be working.</div><div><br /></div><span><a name='more'></a></span><div><br /></div><div>Long story short...</div><div><ol style="text-align: left;"><li>Think about the narrative structure, and whether you need to speed things up, slow things down, or nudge the direction in specific ways.</li><li>Create vignette/scene ideas that don't rely too much on player choices. Build the story around them, and make sure their actions have a noticeable impact on the world, but don't rely on them to take specific actions at specific times. Be flexible, it's all part of the narrative tension pulling on the story.</li></ol></div>Vulpinoidhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04511600075328621953noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2482451413021840738.post-45579554820012489802024-03-17T00:31:00.000+11:002024-03-17T00:31:02.140+11:00How to Run a Game (Part 14b) - Sample Vignettes<p>Alright, so I've indicated that I have this concept called "<a href="https://vulpinoid.blogspot.com/2024/03/how-to-run-game-part-14-vignettes.html">Vignettes</a>". These are basically modular scenes that can be plugged into a session wherever they're needed to have specific dramatic effects on the narrative. </p><p>Back in the day (2010 and 2011) I developed what I called the "<a href="https://vulpinoid.blogspot.com/2011/01/vector-theory-2011-lexicon.html">Vector Theory</a>" of gaming. It worked on the metaphor of an imaginary particle of storytelling, the Narraton. Like a photon when discussing light, various tools could be used by the Narrator, the players and the rules to manipulate the particle's trajectory. The general idea is that the same story could be run a thousand different times, and the path of the Narraton would change in subtle ways each and every time. Lenses and mirrors could change it's direction, gravity and density could change its speed. Unlike a photon moving around in 3D space, a narraton might move left and right depending on how happy or sad the story currently sits, it might move up and down based on how satisfying the current events are (things can be happy and satisfying and everything can fee good with the story, just as much as they can feel hollow if they are happy and unsatisfying... the two axes are independent). You might add other axes to measure the flow of the Narraton through the elements that guide the story... gritty versus fantastic, magical versus mundane... whatever is important s a variable in the story can be used. A key thing is that the narraton is always moving. As soon at it stops, the story has concluded. A good story will have an oscillation between extremes (or a tension where the two sides are in a tenuous balance, while other elements are shifting around them). It all gets a bit cerebral, and like most metaphors it starts to break down if you examine it too closely or take it too seriously.</p><p>At a micro level, every decision made by every player and narrator affects the vector of the Narraton (changing it's speed and/or it's direction with respect the the story axes that we've deemed important). At a macro level, scenes and vignettes are made up of a whole heap of decision points, where a Narraton goes in bounces around a few decision nodes, then shoots out somewhere else before heading onward along its story path.</p><p>From this perspective, a Scene might be considered something that has a lot of moving parts that bounce the Narraton around like a pinball machine. A scene that has been badly designed from a perspective of player agency might only have a single direction for the Narraton to travel in once it emerges from the scene. OK... enough with the metaphors and euphemisms... I'm saying that a bad scene only has two outcomes. Either the story dies in the it (through bad rolls in a system, frustration of the players, or some other reason), or the story continues in a specific single direction. That's basically the way the cut scenes in a computer game work. Better scene designs offer a few choices once they reach their conclusion, those choices may be determined by the outcomes of the randomisers and rule system, or by the players (because the narrator has already introduced their input into the process by determining whether the scene will come into play). </p><p>Let's look at some examples...</p><p><b><u>Slow Down - A Quiet Suburban Street</u></b></p><p><i>The characters have been doing really well with their rolls, they are following the clues and heading to the climax of the story. It's a timetabled four-hour session, and they'll be at the climax an hour early. So we need to slow things down.</i></p><p>The trail leads to a quiet suburban home. Everything is quiet... too quiet. We can slow things down simply by asking for a perception check (or two). Here's where you play on a players instinctive tendency to metagame. Regardless of the roll, a narrator could tell their players that they see nothing, or throw in a bunch of red herrings and clue ideas that might hint toward other ideas <i>(don't worry if these ideas don't tie up neatly in the current session, if you're playing a multi-session campaign, these observations can be linked into later sessions and it looks like you've had the whole thing planned)</i>. As soon as players have made a perception roll, experience shows that they get on edge, they start slowing down and start expecting the worst. You could always spice things up by having a nosy neighbour show up, which will lead to players needing to hide their presence, or deal with the neighbour in some other way...and if they choose violence here, that should lead to trouble later. But you could also add in a few more potential avenues for investigation based on any positive social interactions that the player characters have with the neighbour. </p><p>The same concept could just as easily work with the appearance of a town guard, police officer, security surveillance drone, or even being led into a crowded location where there are too many people to deal with in a hurry. Just use whatever makes sense at the time and place where the characters currently find themselves.</p><p><b>Slow Down - Building Character</b></p><p>There are a variety of game systems where players may make a deliberate choice to make their characters weak in one area in exchange for a bonus in another area. In many of these games, players will deliberately try to angle events in such a way that their strengths more regularly come into play, while their weaknesses are ignored. That's all a part of the creative thinking that I like to see in a session, it's borderline metagaming, but it's also how people work in the real world. Most people have a tendency to avoid the things that will make them look bad, and will regularly be drawn to situation where they will shine. But what happens when people get forced into the types of situations where they have to confront their weaknesses. </p><p><i>I don't remember who came up with the idea that we like characters for their strengths, but we love them for their weaknesses, but it has been a common point of discussion in various academic circles and fan groups for a while. I'm sure there's a famous quote about this idea. </i></p><p>The key element here is that when players are self-identifying with their characters (typically using actor stance), they'll take more care when their characters are at risk. Those using more distant stances, and who often revel in the story of "surviving against the odds", won't really care if their character's weaknesses come into play. If they survive against the weaknesses, this just adds to their story. At it's worst, throwing a weakness into the narrative will serve as a temporary diversion; more often it will help the entire group learn about the characters and what may be important to them.</p><p><i>For a character with a fear of snakes, force them to confront a serpent filled chamber.</i></p><p><i>For a character with a strong religious faith, perhaps they'll need to enter the temple of another faith and not cause a scene (of course this might cause their own deity to become unhappy, and it's this kind of ethical dilemma that I really think makes roleplaying fun).</i></p><p><i>A character who takes care of an orphan finds that the child is injured as a result of recent actions. How do they deal with this?</i></p><p>If you aren't playing a game where strengths and weaknesses have mechanical effects on play, you might instead use moments like these to play on the characters' alignments, or introduce sequences that rely on them using skills and attributes where they haven't prioritised their stats.</p><p><i>A brawler needs to negotiate with a diplomat to get what they want, because they're surrounded by bodyguards.</i></p><p><i>An academic needs to climb a temple wall to read the tiny glyphs on the upper walls.</i></p><p>For purposes like these, I'd generate up one or two vignettes for each character. I'd use one on a character every couple of games, and once it has been used, throw it away then create a new one based on the player's reactions and the vignette's outcome. This way the character can have their own story arc independent of the group's narrative, and this builds a more interesting and complex story.</p><p><b><u>The Other Slow Down - A Fight Scene</u></b></p><p>I don't like having fight scenes as a story pacing mechanism, but they do slow things down. So they do the job, but can be too unpredictable with too many variables suddenly being added into the mix. I don't actively prevent players from initiating their own combat, that's their choice... but whenever a fight does break out, there are later repercussions. Someone who is killed might have had useful clues that would have made things run more smoothly, or maybe they owed people a bunch of favours and now that they're dead the owed parties come looking for someone else to pay them off. Once you throw in things like that, it often makes players think twice before jumping straight into combat again. <i> </i></p><p><b><u>Acceleration - Right Time, Right Place</u></b></p><p><i>The character have been doing badly with their rolls, or maybe they've just headed off on a tangent that's completely unrelated to what you had in mind. Time to inject a few clues into the narrative.</i></p><p>This isn't necessarily a bad thing, but if you're trying to keep to a schedule, or trying to get the characters back involved in the action, you sometimes just have to throw things in the characters' way and hope that it makes a suitable impact on the characters. Have the players meet critical members of the supporting cast, powerful movers and shakers... have them overhear useful conversations. I don't worry about perception rolls here, even though some people might say that if I'm going to use them sometimes, I should probably use them all the time. Characters aren't actively looking for things, they're being fed them (as clues that may be blatant or subtle). I don't force players to take specific actions with their characters, they still have full control over the choices they might make. I just provide a setting and context for the actions to occur within, and throw ideas that prompt activity. Note that I aven't saod that the characters need to be speaking to "Mr. Davidson" to get this information, nor have I said that they can only pick up a certain clue if they are "at the occult bookstore". They key of the vignette is that it can occur at any time, any place, just to prompt things along. </p><p>Part of the problem with accelerating a narrative is that you don't want it to feel like deus ex machina. You don't want it to feel forced, or feel like the characters don't have any agency because everything is being driven by non-player characters and is outside the influence of the player characters. </p><p><b><u>Acceleration - They're getting away </u></b></p><p><i>The characters are planning a heist, they need to get into the castle's dungeon and rescue the prisoner before the following night when the Executioner's transport wagon will be coming to town. They've been discussing plans for the best way to do this over at the local tavern, but things have been stagnating and arguments have started breaking out. The game is grinding to a halt, so the narrator indicates that there is a commotion. The Executioner's wagon has arrived early, and the prisoner might be moving tonight. If they don't rescue him now, they'll face a chase scene with an armed entourage, ad they certainly haven't prepared for that.</i> </p><p>If the "Right Time, Right Place" vignette is a method of luring characters toward a positive goal by giving them a wider range of tools to move forward, "They're getting away" is a threat of taking away tools that might be useful. If the characters don't get motivated quickly they'll lose possible treasure, or access to an easy path. If they screw around and ignore the hints that something is happening, then any goal they may have had become harder. </p><p><b><u>Story Direction Turn - The tension meter</u></b></p><p>Not so much a case of speeding up, or slowing down the narrative, the addition of a tension meter shifts the focus of the game from an existing plotline to something new. I like throwing something as a potential threat in the background that only comes into play once a few bad rolls or bad decisions have been made. A tension meter may have 4, 6 or 8 segments, and every time something goes wrong, or every time a period elapses during the course of play, a segment is coloured in. The level of the problem manifested in the game is generally proportional to the number of segments in the meter. The catch here is to make the tension reflect the narrative in some way. </p><p><i>A door is closing, or a stone block is slowly falling, or maybe a magical portal is starting to glitch and preventing exit if the characters don't act fast. Conversely, a door might be slowly opening, and a major threat might be ready to enter the scene once the opening is wide enough. Can the character's do something to prevent this occuring, or do they vacate the area?</i></p><p><i>Radiation in the area will potentially damage the characters. Every turn that they act, colour in a segment. Roll a die at the end of the scene, and if the die roll is lower than the number of coloured segments then the character will suffer long term effects of radiation sickness (whatever that may be...perhaps level drain, permanent attribute loss, or maybe it's magical radiation and some other effect might occur).</i></p><p><i>Maybe a car chase (or a wagon chase, or run along a rough path through a forest)... The tension meter starts at a mid point with half of the segments coloured. Do opposed rolls, and if the opponents win, colour in a segment, but if the player(s) win erase a coloured segment. If all the segments are coloured, the opponents get away, and if no segments are coloured in they have been caught. </i></p><p><b><u>Story Direction Turn - Let's focus on them for a bit.</u></b></p><p>Sometimes one player is dominating the action and you can see the visible frustration on the faces of other players. There's a concept that was a big deal in game design about two decades ago called "niche protection", where each player would have a specific role in the team. You'd have the fighter, the support, the healer, the academic, etc. Each character would have a narrow area where they were the undisputed best, and maybe another area where they weren't too bad if the main character in that area was taken down. However, I've often encountered sessions where one player tries to be the best at everything, or at least tries to be good at most things and spends most of the session trying to make sure the story is focused on them. These often end badly. Sometimes the narrator just has to thrown in a situation that this character is bad at, and either let them fail (with everyone turning against them), or watch the story pivot to the characters who actually are specialists in the area required by the narrative.</p><p><i>Fighting has only led to everyone with the information ending up dead...now it's time for the forensic specialist to pick up the pieces and assemble the clues into a new path of inquiry.</i></p><p><i>The thief has definitely stolen something (they steal everything that isn't nailed down), but they have no idea what it is and the sorceror is getting some nasty vibes from it.</i></p><p><i>The bard is attracting the wrong sort of attention at the local tavern, and someone's going to have to think quickly to get the characters to safety. </i></p><p><b><u>Chicane - A new path</u></b></p><p>A Chicane is a quick turn in one direction followed by the other, so the final direction is the same but the vehicle is a bit to the left or right of where it was before. So everyone is still aiming in the right direction but they've avoided one obstacle (and might now be faced with a completely different one before the end up at the same general place). </p><p><i>The characters are facing a monster who will obliterate them, but if they are willing to call on a mercenary he can easily take out the beast... the down side is that they'll now owe the mercenary a favour that they might not be able to repay easily. If they try to betray the mercenary, he'll be able to eliminate them as easily as he was able to destroy the beast. What do they do?</i></p><p><i>Dark energies are rippling through the area and the characters don't know what their effects are. They need to get through a particularly intense field to reach their goal, and can take the risk now, wait until the worst of the field has dissipated, or try to find a way around it. Each will end up with them getting to the goal, but do they risk safety, time, or exposing themselves to new threat on the way around the outside as they reach their goal. </i></p><p><br /></p><span><a name='more'></a></span><p><br /></p><p>An important thing to remember throughout all of these examples is the idea that there should always be a way through a scene or vignette. <b>NEVER</b> create a scene where the characters don't have the necessary equipment, skills, or power level to progress through the events and move onward with the tale. I had a terrible experience (mentioned previously in the blog) with a game convention module where my character was designed as an investigator who gathered clues by magically talking to animals, and I should have flown through the game module. However my character didn't have the specific investigation skill mentioned in the module, so the narrator simply wouldn't pass on the clues and the game ground to a halt roughly halfway through the session that we had all paid for. </p><p>If I'm going to introduce a tougher scene or vignette. I'll usually make sure there is some forewarning or foreshadowing for it. I'll get to that in the next post.</p>Vulpinoidhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04511600075328621953noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2482451413021840738.post-49642493089406971442024-03-14T11:40:00.000+11:002024-03-14T11:40:04.870+11:00How to Run a Game (Part 14) - Vignettes<p> When it comes to games, this is a pretty personal one. I don't know how other people run games these days, because it's been a while since I've played in a game run by someone else, and even longer since I've talked game design (and game running) with other folks... but here's a technique I've developed that helps me run semi-structured games that are resilient to players who desperately try to go off the rails.</p><p>It goes back to a group of gamers on the Sydney game conventions circuit back in the 1990s. It was a team that ran under the name of "Demolition". These guys were hated by organised and structured GMs. They would deliberately push the envelope, and derail their sessions by trying to direct stories in ways that the writer of the convention module hadn't intended.</p><p>My easy answer at the time was to not have rails that could be derailed.</p><p>This led to years of running freeform styled games where anything goes, that was basically the late 90s and early 2000s. However, the issue started to arise where my games drifted and lost focus. My players still seemed to be having fun, and I still had groups of players who wanted me to run games for them based on the energy and intensity of the sessions, and general word of mouth through certain gaming communities, but it felt like there was something missing. I was running games that players were enjoying, because they could make decisions to control the destiny of play, but it felt like there was no real focus.</p><p>If I look at the three way tension again, I had seen the idea of Mr. X's games (<a href="https://vulpinoid.blogspot.com/2024/02/how-to-run-game-part-2.html">in the second post of this series</a>), where it was basically the Narrator pulling on one side of the tension, while the rules pulled in the other direction, and the players basically had no agency at all. At this stage of my game running, I had the players pulling at one side of the tension, and the rules pulling at the other side, and I had no real agency... I was just facilitating a smoother flow between the players and rules. </p><p>It worked. </p><p>It worked well.</p><p>But I wasn't feeling it, and it was burning me out because I wasn't having as much fun. Over time, I think some of my players had started to see this too. It was all smoke and mirrors, and people were starting to see behind the curtain.</p><p>I don't specifically remember the moment when I came up with the idea for vignettes, but I started adding them into a few of my sessions as an experiment in the early 2000s as an element of my gaming toolkit.</p><p>The basic idea is simple. A vignette is a fragment of a scene designed to push a story in a direction regardless of which way it might currently be heading. So, even though I'm letting the players make most of the decisions in guiding the story, a vignette gives a nudge in a specific direction toward something that might be more in keeping with the genre of the setting, or might connect existing choices into a larger overall narrative structure.</p><p>A vignette can be applied anywhere, and anytime. It might even get recycled with a different skin in various campaigns. I pull ideas from pop culture references, movies, songs, current world events, anything everything, it really doesn't matter, because if players get the references then they feel like they're "in on the joke" and it helps to work as a shorthand to get players thoughts on track with regard to the story I'd like to try and tell. </p><p>Each vignette is just a temporary tug on the narrative, playing on specific elements of the character concepts that have been revealed so far. If players get hooked on the bait, then I'll know what sorts of vignettes might be effective in future, if they ignore the bait, then I'll try something different next time.</p><p><br /></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgUJ-IdEonK2eBsICHE1hRqkEycbA1tn1kcFu_Hwhd1-ySMQ6H4c0D6LOg187bYt9cMq-Q6aDGwwHJIRss8bdpG-FdGmgl69CChaXmSocZqWHgOlkZ4rp7HKTT_4Fqj-AZfeMFVuwrqERXajOoiOqv5l2fgu7NDbq7uA8VEnb6aW-3KHv2DNvtRZ6q_k7X6/s200/Binary%20Point.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="200" data-original-width="200" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgUJ-IdEonK2eBsICHE1hRqkEycbA1tn1kcFu_Hwhd1-ySMQ6H4c0D6LOg187bYt9cMq-Q6aDGwwHJIRss8bdpG-FdGmgl69CChaXmSocZqWHgOlkZ4rp7HKTT_4Fqj-AZfeMFVuwrqERXajOoiOqv5l2fgu7NDbq7uA8VEnb6aW-3KHv2DNvtRZ6q_k7X6/w200-h200/Binary%20Point.jpg" width="200" /></a></div><p></p><p>An example might be to have the characters encounter a specific situation common to the genre... <i>they might be seeing a homeless person attacked by some thugs, a book filled with arcane writings, evidence of a murder scene, a wild animal racing across the scene, a vigorous discussion between two side characters about issues that might be happening elsewhere in the setting.</i></p><p>Each of these helps to set up the idea of a deeper richer world than the immediate story that the characters are involved in. From a Gamist perspective, this really doens't play too much of a role. From a Simulationist it helps in a number of ways, by pulling the stories back with elements that you'd expect to see in the genre and setting being modelled. From a Narrativist perspective it's a bit more interesting. Each vignette may be used to provide choices to the characters... arguably these could be considered a bit like cut scenes in a computer game... you do your wandering around and fighting things, then once a trigger point is activated, the previously defined scene takes over for a short period.</p><p><br /></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjzzPKKskWVotRCpThuFwj_8Fo0pVnBV8SDhA86Ts8f5SC5gtQYSqNY7ingFfc3EiHQ-paqzLqrv4Kfn4mQyNFsNEWvb8BY_k7eX_JfKF-fJxarI0mQ-cXAuzyvFqpOOCDyYUeYFp_NTzjncrRHx33xO2SUcXNqjt-cNRzl-jRGEkRVEWQcLtoxa0FuXYxa/s600/path_smoke.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="600" data-original-width="300" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjzzPKKskWVotRCpThuFwj_8Fo0pVnBV8SDhA86Ts8f5SC5gtQYSqNY7ingFfc3EiHQ-paqzLqrv4Kfn4mQyNFsNEWvb8BY_k7eX_JfKF-fJxarI0mQ-cXAuzyvFqpOOCDyYUeYFp_NTzjncrRHx33xO2SUcXNqjt-cNRzl-jRGEkRVEWQcLtoxa0FuXYxa/s320/path_smoke.jpg" width="160" /></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><p>I guess in some ways this is also like random encounter tables, but rather than having every scene being a fight scene, and rather than it being completely random, these events push the story in specific predetermined ways, while allowing players to make whatever choices they want along the way. Traditional game modules have events take place at specific locations and drive the action from one set piece to another, but by making the set pieces a bit more loose, and allowing vignettes to change their locations, or change the characters involved in them, the vignettes don't rely on players making certain decisions for their characters. Regardless of what they may do during the course of play, a team like Demolition will still run into the story beats and will still progress through a narrative. </p><p>In the diagram above of the "Path of Clouds" it basically shows a simple path that could be followed through the story, and no matter what choices the players make they basically go through the predetermined story, even though they feel like their making their own choices all the way through. Back in the Forge days, this was basically described as a form of "<a href="http://indie-rpgs.com/archive/index.php?topic=1609.0">illusionism</a>"...but this term, like so many other terms from those days was debated quite a bit. Some claim that illusionism is when a narrator has a completely laid out storyline, and just makes it look like the players have a choice in the ongoing story. I guess that in some cases vignettes can look that way, especially if they follow the linear path depicted, but I try t make sure there is enough room between the vignettes for characters to breathe and for players to make meaningful decisions along the way. I never have a strict progression of scenes that lead from one to the next, and I might have twenty possible vignettes ready to go in a session only meant to last five scenes. The actual vignettes I use will be determined by players choices and narrative requirements. Some might accelerate the story if things are starting to stagnate, some might slow things down if the pace isn't allowing characters to develop adequately, others might redirect the story toward (or away from) specific narrative elements that might twist the game.</p><p><br /></p><p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgNDLFcXIpaVFzKp90e8VajKUquicg33sNAZ2uA5hh9gp9gRwWX_0CkQhjjKA32I5VHr049LTP5KJvNrdQXP8Btmkb0VwlFLV_roe3RtifDNFZCtw5uk6ofIwtXXdPqHT34spPqvhb9_A6yfWBW0BxVQh1phOdnzuOVQ6uJy43EjDEz6VDfUKh7pvEL40-4/s2884/OS_Lizard.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="2884" data-original-width="2316" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgNDLFcXIpaVFzKp90e8VajKUquicg33sNAZ2uA5hh9gp9gRwWX_0CkQhjjKA32I5VHr049LTP5KJvNrdQXP8Btmkb0VwlFLV_roe3RtifDNFZCtw5uk6ofIwtXXdPqHT34spPqvhb9_A6yfWBW0BxVQh1phOdnzuOVQ6uJy43EjDEz6VDfUKh7pvEL40-4/s320/OS_Lizard.jpg" width="257" /></a></div><p><br /></p>The aim is to allow general freedom of narrative movement, but nudge where necessary... nothing more.<br /> <p></p><p> </p><p> </p><p> </p>Vulpinoidhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04511600075328621953noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2482451413021840738.post-58069109432230105432024-03-10T18:06:00.002+11:002024-03-10T18:06:26.443+11:00How to Run a Game (Part 13) - Maps<p>I did a massive series on how to draw maps back in the day. It's the most popular part of the blog based on page views, though that's probably because it was picked up by Pinterest, and a whole heap of shares just keep coming through. <a href="https://vulpinoid.blogspot.com/p/map-tutorials.html">Here's the link to the page</a> if you're interested (but you can also find a link at the top of the page).</p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjHmOLnd7Mn4xw743jbTa9dRsYyYRCAzezMjxEveQCnUUhuH2Yw8lex6HwrSuXK6FKbRsGs97SAHc7gYez_-iV8UOrjH-_VEgBsK8tBvI37ylV9CSLt-mTG0qrWQMaJpylzWA8aKXiLBnJuA0TPxsi7bWV_WkXLbH_DfqaMnQpEJmYDaAncRJJ2teWOs2wR/s1734/vulpinize_3.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1734" data-original-width="1224" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjHmOLnd7Mn4xw743jbTa9dRsYyYRCAzezMjxEveQCnUUhuH2Yw8lex6HwrSuXK6FKbRsGs97SAHc7gYez_-iV8UOrjH-_VEgBsK8tBvI37ylV9CSLt-mTG0qrWQMaJpylzWA8aKXiLBnJuA0TPxsi7bWV_WkXLbH_DfqaMnQpEJmYDaAncRJJ2teWOs2wR/w283-h400/vulpinize_3.jpg" width="283" /></a></div><br /><p>Most of the things I think about maps haven't really changed in the time since I wrote (and drew) that sequence, but I have been planning to do a revision of it a number of times over the years. </p><p>Maps work really well as a guide to the story, helping to immerse players in the world that their characters are exploring. They also help in establishing some of the boundaries of play, as well as providing hooks for characters to latch onto. The map becomes a part of the rules that govern the story, but I'll clarify the previous points. </p><p>Some people are verbal, they use words to establish an imaginary scene (I had this idea reinforced when I wrote my post on anaphantasia). Some people are visual, they use images to establish the scene, and here's where I try to use a combination of maps and words to make sure everyone is trying to visualise the same things happening. </p><p>Words can be made up on the fly, but maps take a little longer, so I'll usually try to ensure a few useful maps have been prepared ahead of time, and then have a portable whiteboard available...one side with a grid, one side plain. You can buy dry erase mapping sheets from a lot of different gaming stores or online (<a href="https://www.ebay.com.au/itm/285710825472?chn=ps&_ul=AU&mkevt=1&mkcid=28&srsltid=AfmBOoqE8j6al-E8QgD0BJxT2lWXg-ya5LnqIvyhu7BwfLL9I_L4yFSQOsU">something like this</a>), it would serve the same general purpose.</p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://i.ebayimg.com/images/g/iQMAAOSwq15iyM8W/s-l1200.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="800" data-original-width="600" height="400" src="https://i.ebayimg.com/images/g/iQMAAOSwq15iyM8W/s-l1200.jpg" width="300" /></a></div><br /><p>Players will generally get the impression that the prepared maps are significant to the story, while the dry erase sketched maps tend to be less important. Players will automatically metagame in this way, it's instinctive. However, if you're going to be cunning, you can have a few prepared maps that are randomly thrown into scenes (a petrol station, a tavern, a temple, a beach, a garden area, a cave), and could have the important places in the story quickly sketched out, so that you can copy them during the course of play. The players will think that the important area is a red herring, while the sidequest locations are key to the story. </p><p>It all depends if you want to mess with your players that way. </p><p></p><ol style="text-align: left;"><li>Regardless of what sorts of maps you use, there's a few key things that need to be present on them.</li><li>You need to know where solid walls are... these are things that the players can't easily move through.</li><li>You need to know where doors and windows are. These are the ways in to (and out of) areas, and immediately have strategic importance. They also help to determine where eye-lines might be when people are looking into a room.</li><li>Other obstacles, whether water, furniture, rubble, or anything else that might impede movement.</li><li>Key objectives in the room. Obvious valuables, things that might be dangerous... anything that might change the outcome of the scene where the location is being used.</li></ol><p></p><p>That's a good start.</p><p>Then work out where everyone is, and place them in the scene.</p>Vulpinoidhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04511600075328621953noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2482451413021840738.post-46582114026162363722024-03-04T20:54:00.004+11:002024-03-04T20:54:50.911+11:00How to Run a Game (Part 12) - Cooperation<p> </p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg4ZTuniWMg6dmIpADJeP2mT5Ry6GXKQAq4eoP3WHwH_s-ZvV6WKIfnZCUwskCdaBQy_jKfiAxc1GVtxgRyzX8SipAbu-xX05Jmo7ubQHJek0n2-nOCjrX-J8hmlOrGQDaVQkdKiC3gicdr4vrdXFJOWJxhHltp7ytYWFWS35xRX14Ud6U1ahkO5Ld6RaxI/s335/430178122_10233013281817664_1416842033430642513_n.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="313" data-original-width="335" height="374" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg4ZTuniWMg6dmIpADJeP2mT5Ry6GXKQAq4eoP3WHwH_s-ZvV6WKIfnZCUwskCdaBQy_jKfiAxc1GVtxgRyzX8SipAbu-xX05Jmo7ubQHJek0n2-nOCjrX-J8hmlOrGQDaVQkdKiC3gicdr4vrdXFJOWJxhHltp7ytYWFWS35xRX14Ud6U1ahkO5Ld6RaxI/w400-h374/430178122_10233013281817664_1416842033430642513_n.jpg" width="400" /></a></div><br /><p></p><p>I didn't write that, and I've saved the image from a post I saw on one of the Non D&D game groups of Facebook. Apparently it's an excerpt from "Fear Itself", a horror-genre game based on the Gumshoe system, but it provides some great advice for all types of gaming groups.</p><p>Generally my observations regarding this are fairly straightforward. I've already described the three-way tension, and have referenced it multiple times during this sequence. If there is only tension or antagonism between the GM/narrator and the players, there is little scope for the story moving forward. <span style="text-align: center;">Instead it stagnates, and both sides get frustrated. Sometimes the players and narrator have to work together to pull the narrative out of a rut, away from the stagnation, or away from the power of the rules. In some cases this might even be the "rule of cool" or "rule zero" which many games have... this rule basically says that if everyone thinks something is good for the story, it can simply be added because it's enjoyable.</span></p><p><span style="text-align: center;">Is this really a point where the Narrator and Players are competing against the system? I'm not sure, especially when the system often says to ignore the rules in favour of a more enjoyable experience.</span></p><p><span style="text-align: center;">Anyway, I guess it's not that important. The aim here is to go with the flow, wherever it may take you. </span></p><p> </p>Vulpinoidhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04511600075328621953noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2482451413021840738.post-31263593937240152122024-02-29T13:35:00.002+11:002024-02-29T13:35:09.375+11:00How to Run a Game (Part 11) - What do other people suggest?<p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjjHurEIc9teGQQecDd90EjoRLE9MbKw7NTekN2d2wVpdI9EyTUA_fZ_BjZ_GfupZFH1xgnGNLd4L3dIVEQ6nFLHaZEmhbhEI-P7mqKheKYG-yR2gvQgBb5XvUhMhdR-aPj3_0JEmRSdO6uKJ_zq2rVRqEmdyLq3RYRuZ2dRSWwkvabz6-A4u1o910xyutY/s799/IMG_5121.PNG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="529" data-original-width="799" height="212" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjjHurEIc9teGQQecDd90EjoRLE9MbKw7NTekN2d2wVpdI9EyTUA_fZ_BjZ_GfupZFH1xgnGNLd4L3dIVEQ6nFLHaZEmhbhEI-P7mqKheKYG-yR2gvQgBb5XvUhMhdR-aPj3_0JEmRSdO6uKJ_zq2rVRqEmdyLq3RYRuZ2dRSWwkvabz6-A4u1o910xyutY/s320/IMG_5121.PNG" width="320" /></a></div><br />It might be the fact that my blog is currently on a similar topic, but Google has started sending me links about things that people can do to improve their TTRPG experience... <a href="https://www.thegamer.com/dungeons-dragons-things-dungeon-masters-dms-do-players-love/">like this one</a>.<p></p><p>Let's consider the points it raises in the context I've described so far.</p><p><b>10. Run a session zero: the right way</b></p><blockquote style="border: none; margin: 0px 0px 0px 40px; padding: 0px;"><p style="text-align: left;">I've already indicated that communication between the players and the narrator is a key to success in any RPG session or campaign. For a single session game, this usually comes in the form of letting players know what they're in for as a part of the one-shot, but for campaigns (the typical mode of play for D&D) then a session zero is something that's a relatively recent phenomenon. This can really make or break a game. </p></blockquote><blockquote style="border: none; margin: 0px 0px 0px 40px; padding: 0px;"><p style="text-align: left;">If we consider the three way tension between narrator, players and rules, a session zero gets everyone on board with how the rules will pull on the story, this happens through the narrator explaining the system or any house rules they might have made to the system. Once everyone is onboard with the way the rules might influence the story, they have less unexpected surprises when certain effects come into play during the course of the story. This also ties into the next one. </p></blockquote><p><b>9. Work cooperatively on character backstories</b></p><blockquote style="border: none; margin: 0px 0px 0px 40px; padding: 0px;"><p style="text-align: left;">This is probably something I don't do enough in my games, especially the ones I've been running at school. I often run rapid-fire games where repercussions for actions can be deadly. I want players to get into the action rather than spending hours on the backstory for a character that probably won't get revealed. Instead I've always found it more valuable to get the character defined in broad brushstrokes (and the setting as well), it's through play that we find out more about the characters and the world they inhabit. If it doesn't come up as a part of play, then it probably wasn't that important to the character to begin with. </p></blockquote><blockquote style="border: none; margin: 0px 0px 0px 40px; padding: 0px;"><p style="text-align: left;">Even if the narrator is planning to spring some surprises on the players and their characters, it can generally be assumed that the characters will have a solid understanding of certain parts of the setting. They'll know where they live, they'll know a few key people, and have some overall understanding of the setting's surface...even if nastiness lies below and awaits the character's movements before it stir into action. If the players know that the general laws of physics apply as they do in our world, they'll have a basic set of expectations about what they can and can't do. If the narrator has an idea of where the characters are coming from, they'll have an idea of what ways they can pull the story to get positive or negative reactions out of the characters and their players.</p></blockquote><p><b>8. Bring back compelling NPCs</b></p><blockquote style="border: none; margin: 0px 0px 0px 40px; padding: 0px;"><p style="text-align: left;">I typically try to ensure there are at least half a dozen NPCs in a story. The base level of 6 is often divided into two factions with three members each, or three factions with 2 members each. </p></blockquote><blockquote style="border: none; margin: 0px 0px 0px 40px; padding: 0px;"><p style="text-align: left;">If we're going with two factions (let's call them black and white), then there will be a leader on each side, and a pair of henchmen each with special abilities but closer in level of the player characters. The player characters interact with the henchmen, and gradually decide for themselves which of the two sides they might want to ally with. Neither side is specifically marked as good or bad, the leaders just have different agendas, and the henchmen have different techniques for achieving those agendas. I don;t necessarily share that the henchmen on each side are connected, and there will be a good chance that henchmen from either side will be friendly with one another, even if their leaders are at odds. I like life to be messy, and for situations to have no clear-cut answers, it makes for more interesting stories. </p></blockquote><blockquote style="border: none; margin: 0px 0px 0px 40px; padding: 0px;"><p style="text-align: left;">If we're going with 3 factions (lets call them Red, Green, and Blue), I might have a leader on each side, but tend instead to focus on a three way tension between the groups. Red will have a pair of characters who tend to work together, but they'll have some aspects that they disagree on. One red member will an ally whom they tolerate on the blue side, and absolutely hate the greens. The other red members will have someone they tolerate on the green side and absolutely hate the blues. This pattern works for the rest of the factions. Everyone has their own agendas, and their own methods for achieving them. Players may share the agendas with certain NPCs, and may have tasks that would be best served by using the methods utilized by certain NPCs... rarely will there be NPCs where the agendas and the methods perfectly align with a character. Everyone has something to like about them, and something to dislike about them. I don't run straight villains or straight allies. </p></blockquote><blockquote style="border: none; margin: 0px 0px 0px 40px; padding: 0px;"><p style="text-align: left;">Once I've got the factional structure in place, I let the PCs run rampant. If they get in the way of one faction, that might make them allies in another. If they make an ally out of an NPC, someone else will take an instant dislike to them. If they kill an NPC, then people who were owed favours by the NPC will come looking for someone else who might be able to pay off the outstanding debts. NPCs are thoroughly integrated into the world, whether the player characters are or not, but as the player characters interact with the NPCs, they will be drawn into the politics of the situation regardless... and if they don't they'll just make enemies out of everyone, and the various people they've met along the way will join forces to take them down. </p></blockquote><p><b>7. Provide inspiration</b></p><blockquote style="border: none; margin: 0px 0px 0px 40px; padding: 0px;"><p style="text-align: left;">I don't railroad. I may allow players to make decisions then react according to those decisions. Or I may give players a chance to attempt tasks, then let the system determine the outcome. This leaves a lot in the hands of the players, and that can be overwhelming for certain players who are expecting a more linear style of play (but kind of leads into number 2 on this list). </p></blockquote><blockquote style="border: none; margin: 0px 0px 0px 40px; padding: 0px;"><p style="text-align: left;">One of the examples that I really like is that I've just started running a Vampire the Masquerade chronicle with my high school gaming group. Most of them have played a range of games, but are most grounded in the patterns of D&D. I'm running a hybrid of V20 and 5th edition Vampire, because there's certain things I like about the new game, and certain things I really don't like. One of the things I do like ties into numbers 9 and 10 from this list, and that's the idea of Lore Sheets. These are basically predefined storylines that players can choose from, and depending on how many points they spend, players can choose how much their characters are linked into these stories. When the Narrator sets up the campaign, they may recommend a couple of lore sheets to indicate the types of stories they'd like to tell, and the rule systems provide the rest of the lore sheets that might be available. The choices of the players and narrator in this regard help to fine tune the types of stories that might be told, and help set the tone for the narrative. If no-one chooses to be linked to a lore sheet relating to a specific vampire elder, then it probably doesn't make sense to revolve the story around that elder. I provided lore sheets about a revenant family, ghouls, occult textbooks, a reborn inquisition, werewolves, and a supernatural nightclub. Each of these give hints about the stories that might revolve around these topics, each gives a range of bonus abilities, backgrounds, merits and flaws that might impact on characters who pursue these stories. None limit the types of characters involved, but they help to prompt stories in certain directions. I like to think of it as a method by which the system helps to motivate the story in a certain direction, rather than forcing it down a premeditated path. </p></blockquote><blockquote style="border: none; margin: 0px 0px 0px 40px; padding: 0px;"><p style="text-align: left;">Now the issue here is that the article is referring to a specific sinystem within D&D which is called "Inspiration", rather than referring to simple inspiration of the players. In Vampire, this is basically akin to having Willpower to spend on a task, which grants you an automatic success on the result (in D&D it's getting a bonus die to improve your result). You get Willpower or Inspiration by doing things that are in character, or that improve the narrative for the table. The general idea rather than providing ideas to guide the players, is facilitating system bonuses that allow player to make more meaningful and satisfying choices in the game. </p></blockquote><p><b>6. Issue a challenge</b></p><blockquote style="border: none; margin: 0px 0px 0px 40px; padding: 0px;"><p style="text-align: left;">The key thing in this part of the article is to make players face difficult choices, not just fights, but choices that will impact them in meaningful ways. This links back to the way I answered the earlier point about NPCs. I think the most interesting parts of a roleplaying session are where we learn about the characters and their values through the decisions they make. This is the bit where we really get the story happening, and the world begins to take life. It's not just playing on the characters' weaknesses, it's adding value to the choices being made and making sure those choices have a significant impact on the world. </p></blockquote><p><b>5. Roll in the open</b></p><blockquote style="border: none; margin: 0px 0px 0px 40px; padding: 0px;"><p style="text-align: left;">One of my earlier posts complained about some of the antagonistic GMs/Narrators I've had in the past. One of the things I found common about them was a tendency to roll dice behind GM screens, sometimes using those die rolls to influence the course of play, and sometimes just rolling for the sake of rolling. Occasionally it felt like one of the GMs would roll their dice and ignore it if it would have been beneficial to the players, or might reveal it if the dice landed in his favour. Whether this was actually the case, we'll never know, but that's how it felt, and that didn't make for a very positive playing environment. Rolling in the open helps everyone understand that the same rules apply across the board, and even though the narrator may be playing with unbalanced encounters, or situations that the players aren't ready for, the open die rolling bring the "play" and "game" elements back into the session.</p></blockquote><blockquote style="border: none; margin: 0px 0px 0px 40px; padding: 0px;"><p style="text-align: left;">As the article suggests, it also shows that the narrator is serious about the choices in the game, and the system has a real pull on the events unfolding (rather than the narrator simply making stuff up all the way along). </p></blockquote><p><b>4. Customise magic items</b></p><blockquote style="border: none; margin: 0px 0px 0px 40px; padding: 0px;"><p style="text-align: left;">I think the point of the article here is that magic items should always feel magical. They shouldn't be formulaic and a part of the everyday mundane existence of a game. For D&D I kind of agree with this, but it really depends on the setting, and in many other games this might not fit thematically. I'd change this to suggest that any kinds of rewards found in game should be appropriate to the story and the setting. It's a bit ridiculous to find a "flaming magical sword of the archangels" that causes instant death if you just happen to kill a couple of giant rats. It;s similarly anticlimactic to eliminate the big bad evil at the end of the campaign and only get a few bits of copper for all your time and effort.</p></blockquote><blockquote style="border: none; margin: 0px 0px 0px 40px; padding: 0px;"><p style="text-align: left;">If you're in an aquatic environment, confronting merfolk and sharks, you might have the standard magical items as rewards, but maybe make a random magical staff now be carved out of coral, a magical sword made from sharks' teeth, or a mystically infused gemstone be a pearl. The story potential is just as important as the magical effects.</p></blockquote><p><b>3. Bring miniatures and maps</b></p><blockquote style="border: none; margin: 0px 0px 0px 40px; padding: 0px;"><p style="text-align: left;">This came up pretty heavily in the discussions about aphantasia. It's also one of those ways that definitely helps keep everyone on the same page about the shared imaginary space that the narrative is unfolding in. I love bringing miniatures to a game, because it gives the feel of an RPG to me. Miniatures are a part pf the ritual, and the setting up of liminal space. In some cases, the presence of miniatures sets the stage for the game and lets plaers know that the formal part ofthe session has begun. In other cases, you know that if the miniatures have come out then the game has shifted gear and the danger is imminent.</p></blockquote><blockquote style="border: none; margin: 0 0 0 40px; padding: 0px;"><p style="text-align: left;">Maps are also great, whether they're wide scale maps of regions or cities, or whether they're more intimate maps of specific building or even rooms. Giving players something to look at to help stimulate their senses adds immersive quality to games and helps break players out of their mundane world to focus on the gameplay. In that regard I think of other props such as and crudely drawn notes, hastily scrawled pages from a madman's notebook, fragments of clip art that depict monsters or people met along the way add a whole lot of depth to the play experience... and now it looks like this sort of thing would really help players with aphantasia as well.</p></blockquote><p><b>2. Allow their wild ideas to work (sometimes)</b></p><blockquote style="border: none; margin: 0px 0px 0px 40px; padding: 0px;"><p style="text-align: left;">Back in point 7 I mentioned that inspiration (or my reading of the title rather than the article details) was key. Here is where that idea probably fits better. Unless a player's suggestion explicitly doesn't work with the laws of physics, or the previously established boundaries of a setting, I rarely if ever say that characters can't attempt something. Instead I say "you can try", then let the dice (or other randomising factor) determine the outcome. This has a few impacts on the session, adds tension, it allows the characters decisions to have more impact on their journey, and it ensures that the system impacts the narrative in ways beyond the combat sequences.</p></blockquote><blockquote style="border: none; margin: 0 0 0 40px; padding: 0px;"><p style="text-align: left;"><i>There's also a really useful addendum at the end of this point. When running a game it can be really important to say "No" at some times. I've mentioned that some of my students have been running games at home, and they're basically doing that early, immature style of gonzo play where anything goes. I don't know if it's a maturity factor, but this style of gameplay just doesn't do it for me anymore. Imagine a game where all of the characters are homebrews from various websites, where their equipment is a mix of stuff made up on the fly by an inexperienced DM and whatever they've managed to find online, where the characters are permitted to attempt anything they want, and the DM has added a bunch of ad hoc rulings into the system. There's nothing wrong with playing the game and pushing things to the extreme, but it does risk unbalancing the experience, and making it disfunctional. It's like making a cheescake and adding Vegemite and pumpkin to the mix, then making the crust of the cheesecake from brisket. Sure, you CAN do it, but should you do it?Is it really chessecake anymore? Are they playing D&D? Simple answer for me...No. One of the players told me that Charisma was an important stat in that style of campaign, I laughed it off... but then he explained how a Sorceror uses Charisma as a casting stat. They don''t get into character, they just use characters to manipulate the world and each other. They're possibly still roleplaying, probably in pawn stance, most likely a gamist environment because they're only real agenda is trying to beat each other characters into submission. It's a valid form of play, just not one that I find appealing. I've even been asked for advice about how to make a character tougher and harder to hit in this type of context, I just had to answer truthfully... this game is now in the hands of the student DM, it's not anything I recognise as D&D anymore, so my advice is useless... there's no real point trying to tie things back into the rules when so many adjustments and moving pieces have been added to the system. You might as well be playing a game where everything is resolved by a single coin flip, or <a href="https://www.rpg.net/reviews/archive/classic/rev_4762.phtml">World of Synnibarr</a>. This could have all been resolved with a little focus, and occasionally saying "No"</i>.</p></blockquote><blockquote style="border: none; margin: 0px 0px 0px 40px; padding: 0px;"><p style="text-align: left;"> </p></blockquote><p><b>1. Keep a tight schedule</b></p><blockquote style="border: none; margin: 0px 0px 0px 40px; padding: 0px;"><p style="text-align: left;">Here's one where I'm lucky. I have a dedicated timeslot of an hour and a half every week where the majority of players are fairly certain to show up. This is the sport D&D session I run. We must generally be doing something right with this, because I know of students who irregularly come to school, but very specifically only come on that day of the week because they love their regular gaming sessions. </p></blockquote><blockquote style="border: none; margin: 0 0 0 40px; padding: 0px;"><p style="text-align: left;">For our lunchtime games, the same kind of thing applies, where we dedicate Mondays to giving a recap of the events that have unfolded, then split the players up into smaller groups that can focus on their individual stories on later days of the week. We've currently got a dozen students regularly taking part in the group, with one day having 5 students, one 4, and the remaining 3 on the last day. Of course students are upset when I'm unable to get to work due to illness or training, so we may have catch-up sessions to make up form those occasions, but we are generally pretty strict about those times.</p></blockquote><blockquote style="border: none; margin: 0 0 0 40px; padding: 0px;"><p style="text-align: left;">I've been a part of a few home groups that have fallen apart when one or two regular members haven't been able to make a session, then the other players do something different because they're away, then there's less motivation to keep things going in later weeks. So, I'll add a bit of an addendum of my own to this one. Even if you've got a tight schedule, make sure that player's don't have to attend every week, but instead make them want to come back. Don't force cliffhangers that suddenly don't make sense if life gets in the way of certain players getting back to the next session. Create story opportunities, but try to resolve the majority of the session with a satisfying conclusion. </p></blockquote><p>On the whole, that article is pretty solid advice. Even if it is focused on 5th edition D&D rather than RPGs in general. I'll probably look at a couple of similar articles over the next couple of weeks while I spend most of the posts expanding on specific techniques that I've found to be successful in the past. </p><p><br /></p><p><br /></p>Vulpinoidhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04511600075328621953noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2482451413021840738.post-18693802383290953482024-02-26T17:22:00.001+11:002024-02-26T17:22:08.472+11:00Further addendum to the Aphantasia post<p>This blog is not called 'Laws of the Fox" or "Decrees of the Fox". I don't claim to know everything, I just try to learn about the world through a bit of observation, some thoughts and theories, then a bit more observation to see if those ideas hold water. If they do, my theories gain a bit more credence, if they don't I look for new ideas. It's basically scientific method, and over the years I've shifted my views on many topics. </p><p>I don't get a whole lot of discussion here, but I shared the post in a couple of Facebook groups and got all sorts of insight. My knowledge about aphantasia has expanded somewhat as a result of these new discussions and observations, but one if the key lessons learnt is that the word "aphantasia" seems to describe a few interrelated conditions that are being conflated, and there is still a lot of research to do regarding mental visualisation and the shared imaginary experience of RPGs (or even play in general).</p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEht7YMzXbUIsS2evk8L5AM2NEmJNfqxxzGh9Nq0msQtIeF6v8Mf7Be_yhLOS7QjkoxC-Ocs_a4GgIT6NiJAyxZlM74F30k6e8oKCCgBfd5Onsc-DmV4XMF1aNn_vPajAH3Z9p0lCFnfgQGa11AeTiUtsuiEuL4RC3L-auav0MynM_6JsNRsKNuvykmbsaOi/s1080/Screenshot_20240225-083051_Facebook.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="546" data-original-width="1080" height="101" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEht7YMzXbUIsS2evk8L5AM2NEmJNfqxxzGh9Nq0msQtIeF6v8Mf7Be_yhLOS7QjkoxC-Ocs_a4GgIT6NiJAyxZlM74F30k6e8oKCCgBfd5Onsc-DmV4XMF1aNn_vPajAH3Z9p0lCFnfgQGa11AeTiUtsuiEuL4RC3L-auav0MynM_6JsNRsKNuvykmbsaOi/w200-h101/Screenshot_20240225-083051_Facebook.jpg" width="200" /></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">Some of the feedback and comments weren't particularly useful.</div><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj88tuWVO3dxxCWhch6SZe3aCjN4EvqX2BkJdOZoedUNfQyuhgzhKqS4Ilu9e9lwzGOBn7wPnHgBnFqkTApJnBnoBxRPgp1yKW8K3URBTjjJkzfYv2XP8xYp5oPVJ2jNq5_WYRJyFoGrUeyY2khDT8UZ-XFYB1kq5C2A2-EaR_a_lgdGy4ncfarehQFrafL/s1070/Screenshot_20240225-082135_Facebook.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="776" data-original-width="1070" height="232" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj88tuWVO3dxxCWhch6SZe3aCjN4EvqX2BkJdOZoedUNfQyuhgzhKqS4Ilu9e9lwzGOBn7wPnHgBnFqkTApJnBnoBxRPgp1yKW8K3URBTjjJkzfYv2XP8xYp5oPVJ2jNq5_WYRJyFoGrUeyY2khDT8UZ-XFYB1kq5C2A2-EaR_a_lgdGy4ncfarehQFrafL/s320/Screenshot_20240225-082135_Facebook.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>Some of the feedback made for some great talking points and conversation. This was actually really good because it has basically forced me to reassess my perspective of aphantasia. This meant that with a number of people indicating that they enjoy roleplaying games with aphantasia, I can no longer really say that the condition prevents people from engaging in the imagined space. A few people offered suggestions on how they manage to engage with the developing narrative, or how people they play with manage to connected with the experience. <div><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiuOWGy2vHXTyhbXtJ2spXPegH4m2JpzO3Pvfe5vnpAGe6iy-aDpmSHWY1HWMdGfxUQ9rN1W6YDaTwdeYNXLYcJUfCAd6BdOvw6EXC96IQJgNcmOs82b5ZUAAK5kzFgc5-T_FeZGMqTe69uzvP7YtsqnirSAkzpgqsqKsUSYOXLwFaI1nAuJeq8W0bCqH0B/s1170/Screenshot_20240225-082155_Facebook.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1170" data-original-width="1080" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiuOWGy2vHXTyhbXtJ2spXPegH4m2JpzO3Pvfe5vnpAGe6iy-aDpmSHWY1HWMdGfxUQ9rN1W6YDaTwdeYNXLYcJUfCAd6BdOvw6EXC96IQJgNcmOs82b5ZUAAK5kzFgc5-T_FeZGMqTe69uzvP7YtsqnirSAkzpgqsqKsUSYOXLwFaI1nAuJeq8W0bCqH0B/s320/Screenshot_20240225-082155_Facebook.jpg" width="295" /></a></div><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgY1Jtx4ihT0Ox52l7inBCQb5ntw1hbQTZMuXqIS54pJWsw1ZERkhQUky1LwBwZrIghUgD0Z-5UeViZv_fCzVM00oG9Py_eTuPZSOg849Qr9tDXhRwqz7n_tNcrhsw943FtvRpAlsyUFJLRyWrmDuFx7BjsmZoEU_1jKHzRjpBVnUUpRYsmUkP1K75U-Tnf/s1080/Screenshot_20240225-082217_Facebook.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="712" data-original-width="1080" height="211" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgY1Jtx4ihT0Ox52l7inBCQb5ntw1hbQTZMuXqIS54pJWsw1ZERkhQUky1LwBwZrIghUgD0Z-5UeViZv_fCzVM00oG9Py_eTuPZSOg849Qr9tDXhRwqz7n_tNcrhsw943FtvRpAlsyUFJLRyWrmDuFx7BjsmZoEU_1jKHzRjpBVnUUpRYsmUkP1K75U-Tnf/s320/Screenshot_20240225-082217_Facebook.jpg" width="320" /></a></div><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgSqBK0Q9e11F0vy90SJt6_n0GiVqaQa7Pq7fi7uasGQeg3nnqgPRzoaw7zp__5KpIkLvZhxUzNcEf_1gNgGJYEeWudWMlNg1zKjjxu8d8MqFGmQIsA7wAtV_8Ptjv9zbdo9fIuIUW8ZSxAaD39UaZ95hBmdttNWkMKhb_vio6rRM4Mr00lT0mFkgetOaxd/s1073/Screenshot_20240225-082239_Facebook.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="352" data-original-width="1073" height="105" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgSqBK0Q9e11F0vy90SJt6_n0GiVqaQa7Pq7fi7uasGQeg3nnqgPRzoaw7zp__5KpIkLvZhxUzNcEf_1gNgGJYEeWudWMlNg1zKjjxu8d8MqFGmQIsA7wAtV_8Ptjv9zbdo9fIuIUW8ZSxAaD39UaZ95hBmdttNWkMKhb_vio6rRM4Mr00lT0mFkgetOaxd/s320/Screenshot_20240225-082239_Facebook.jpg" width="320" /></a></div><div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEikuh7Ei7yZjNaNc6Ru6-NttCQ2W6saqFQHbjlh221OrhZUuC6rrykfFugu8pNjoDmVEuDlNspQYXvqWMP50tfruq8kVyclTaxxmMfi_NYI0Agnh03NnwELsoX8u_4fn2H5m_B3RBm0zhuu7hf96g1zPjCBRfTumT7rC8GM0imaIjJytzqd3gWMssLdKuVU/s1236/Screenshot_20240225-082327_Facebook.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1236" data-original-width="1080" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEikuh7Ei7yZjNaNc6Ru6-NttCQ2W6saqFQHbjlh221OrhZUuC6rrykfFugu8pNjoDmVEuDlNspQYXvqWMP50tfruq8kVyclTaxxmMfi_NYI0Agnh03NnwELsoX8u_4fn2H5m_B3RBm0zhuu7hf96g1zPjCBRfTumT7rC8GM0imaIjJytzqd3gWMssLdKuVU/s320/Screenshot_20240225-082327_Facebook.jpg" width="280" /></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhT9rKtNL9q6xSmMBYjIgKeMZUAfM8nKs93l8ZZAFKi-ZYnnVnF1W3JnU1EOYoR8IM5rVV42ThdAdPkJXGXa49XiAm_281I8bk6yqP0dCXMrowtErSenKYhyphenhyphenD0Lx7VBP4z5IQ8HysBJsqkBIqlwKdFxapa7kTGHpgt_wV353oV0S7B1RrYFO8sbcnWJJAD5/s1080/Screenshot_20240225-082405_Facebook.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="438" data-original-width="1080" height="130" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhT9rKtNL9q6xSmMBYjIgKeMZUAfM8nKs93l8ZZAFKi-ZYnnVnF1W3JnU1EOYoR8IM5rVV42ThdAdPkJXGXa49XiAm_281I8bk6yqP0dCXMrowtErSenKYhyphenhyphenD0Lx7VBP4z5IQ8HysBJsqkBIqlwKdFxapa7kTGHpgt_wV353oV0S7B1RrYFO8sbcnWJJAD5/s320/Screenshot_20240225-082405_Facebook.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>It seems that visual aids seem to be an important mediating step for these players. This may come in the form of maps, miniatures, player handouts, or features that do the visualising for those who struggle to do so. From the "Forge" perspective I'm wondering if this applies to the stances that are being used to engage the imagination space. It is possible for someone who cannot visual the experience to enact "actor stance", are they limited to "pawn stance". The whole thing raises more questions than answers. </div><div><br /></div><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhDouE98xGrTt2h8SNfWO3un6YrSxK6wjOFV_BtLy-1CeS3ocwV_TuPzPhdsotjMipd0VtgSaZdWDT3fgJTp4UCbRBOKq7zcVGx4A8D7eK6uQEta06Epxh01C-1CvcuWLFnh6GkZpNNrr4OFKWthUroQvNBn-gGtYmLxYTJXekXVQ5ghHUpg1AJkPB0mn0A/s1080/Screenshot_20240225-082259_Facebook.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="852" data-original-width="1080" height="252" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhDouE98xGrTt2h8SNfWO3un6YrSxK6wjOFV_BtLy-1CeS3ocwV_TuPzPhdsotjMipd0VtgSaZdWDT3fgJTp4UCbRBOKq7zcVGx4A8D7eK6uQEta06Epxh01C-1CvcuWLFnh6GkZpNNrr4OFKWthUroQvNBn-gGtYmLxYTJXekXVQ5ghHUpg1AJkPB0mn0A/s320/Screenshot_20240225-082259_Facebook.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>I posed the question in a few groups from the standpoint of designing a game for folks with aphantasia, rather than a narrator running games for folks with this condition. This really seems to be where the differences lie, and since I'm a firm believer that there's no "wrong" way to roleplay, it's all about adjusting the play experience to maximize the potential for players like this. So maybe my players that are having trouble engaging the narrative development are having completely different issues. </div><div> <br /><br /><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjUV3VNCTtDrxd8udVJLvZi4VYDcEJiKIbZHy_B7j2jXls5q7KEX5MvoiV1YtZosjl335_RFkLSaxShjQuFzpib9pRVnVtgz9D-EqsIC8fkd4XF3Om0Lnv0q9gkIFt9bqY_0iJLpsyFPmU0V91llE0b2UC5xUbjB3Sk87AmBnQZS1zJEfJDke8EuoRWSR9e/s3110/Screenshot_20240225-082604_Facebook.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="3110" data-original-width="970" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjUV3VNCTtDrxd8udVJLvZi4VYDcEJiKIbZHy_B7j2jXls5q7KEX5MvoiV1YtZosjl335_RFkLSaxShjQuFzpib9pRVnVtgz9D-EqsIC8fkd4XF3Om0Lnv0q9gkIFt9bqY_0iJLpsyFPmU0V91llE0b2UC5xUbjB3Sk87AmBnQZS1zJEfJDke8EuoRWSR9e/w200-h640/Screenshot_20240225-082604_Facebook.jpg" width="200" /></a></div>There's a lot to unpack in the one above. Yes, school tends to stifle creativity, but a lot of this comes down to the whole nature versus nurture debate. How much of a player's inability to engage the narrative comes from genetic conditions and hardwiring of the neural circuitry, and how much is lost opportunity for the development of these skills. </div><div> <br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhTz4KmTWKPESksnadXnRfb0zHC-WlUjIRs9vm6XgnnWBwIcZHjb-r0eNFDBs6SepPIM-sDiLe6hyhgCHMEmeC4UBxjT7iJa-p6Se6HhAN7LJQVSTroE9Ahck8vSWCLLcZioAgPVhQEcHKku1lzhFb2ScDlpbUjanvP3CPRKHbHqsIb6cs3zFIVjFRazj1M/s2484/Screenshot_20240225-082717_Facebook.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="2484" data-original-width="972" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhTz4KmTWKPESksnadXnRfb0zHC-WlUjIRs9vm6XgnnWBwIcZHjb-r0eNFDBs6SepPIM-sDiLe6hyhgCHMEmeC4UBxjT7iJa-p6Se6HhAN7LJQVSTroE9Ahck8vSWCLLcZioAgPVhQEcHKku1lzhFb2ScDlpbUjanvP3CPRKHbHqsIb6cs3zFIVjFRazj1M/w250-h640/Screenshot_20240225-082717_Facebook.jpg" width="250" /></a></div>So, is it "pawn stance", or is it some other kind of immersion that the Forge models just don't accommodate because they didn't consider the idea of immersing through different means. From a different perspective, I've often described Tabletop RPGs as being similar to improvisational jazz. Everyone knows the general rules, but everyone is also able to add their own notes into the mix. Sometimes those notes work, and a riff can send the tune in a new and unexpected direction, sometimes an unexpected note is reined in and becomes an anomaly in the overall structure before the flow goes back to its original course. </div><div><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiYckfsYPCF4tEo-WTqoFgB_zFUOtg3TqaPkkxPw1XAWypFhjZQ158eJ1ivRAvHHjxtEFL5J0PzzDiuhhceSJtV5bEyham4wzBnpNExHrhxFTLJrvphcU3XYoIgFKaxdH4BpWVjKbp-O21bo0DeKb_MNcITkgl5hK31w1XLabffD-XmAa14ocreiK8mrb0X/s2202/Screenshot_20240225-082923_Facebook.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="2202" data-original-width="972" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiYckfsYPCF4tEo-WTqoFgB_zFUOtg3TqaPkkxPw1XAWypFhjZQ158eJ1ivRAvHHjxtEFL5J0PzzDiuhhceSJtV5bEyham4wzBnpNExHrhxFTLJrvphcU3XYoIgFKaxdH4BpWVjKbp-O21bo0DeKb_MNcITkgl5hK31w1XLabffD-XmAa14ocreiK8mrb0X/w282-h640/Screenshot_20240225-082923_Facebook.jpg" width="282" /></a></div><br /><p>There were also a set of side conversations about which types of games might be better adapted to helping those with aphantasia, many of which suggested the best group of games were NOT "Powered by the Apocalypse". </p><p>My ideas were general stabs in the dark based on what I've seen, but I think there's a lot more research to do here.</p></div>Vulpinoidhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04511600075328621953noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2482451413021840738.post-75565270801687253662024-02-22T13:36:00.001+11:002024-02-23T17:11:51.813+11:00How to Run a Game (Part 10) - Dealing with Aphantasia<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEieoOvsjhmgPNpuEYZMHOBXSPVDinz5_n-pBvQ-I8U1hbwNX2vPsdjGeR9ozLAt7nR3RC6MphL8Qm9NRLe9RFZ-bEzciCFsyjcSAsC9ZgnNCpukKNSIOOmTYAAF29SDXVp5fV559In3n1gXqHSfxf87VH8Cn43wKuO3yQ9NpzxrAuc-Qy0NjAycJ7paLeUv/s1000/c22e8-1_bkgca3ti2w5xcfk2c2k1wq.jpeg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="363" data-original-width="1000" height="145" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEieoOvsjhmgPNpuEYZMHOBXSPVDinz5_n-pBvQ-I8U1hbwNX2vPsdjGeR9ozLAt7nR3RC6MphL8Qm9NRLe9RFZ-bEzciCFsyjcSAsC9ZgnNCpukKNSIOOmTYAAF29SDXVp5fV559In3n1gXqHSfxf87VH8Cn43wKuO3yQ9NpzxrAuc-Qy0NjAycJ7paLeUv/w400-h145/c22e8-1_bkgca3ti2w5xcfk2c2k1wq.jpeg" width="400" /></a></div><br /><p><br /></p><p>There's a test that has been going around in recent months. The idea is to visualize a red apple in your mind's eye. Think about what the apple looks like within that imaginary space. Is it a realistic thing, shaded and textured, and does it feel like someone could reach inside your head, pull the apple out and start eating it? Is it a vague placeholder that has some of the elements of "apple-ness" about it, but it's more abstract because you know it's not the real thing and your mind just takes shortcuts to give the impression of an apple? Do you completely struggle with generating an image of an apple altogether?</p><p>I'd be inclined to suggest that folks who engage in roleplaying tend to fall into the lower numbers here, while those with aphantasia tend to fall into the higher numbers. It takes a degree of imagination, an ability to suspend disbelief, and an ability to manipulate imaginary forms to successfully get into the imagined world of an RPG session.</p><p>In my lunch-time roleplaying group, the students present are fairly well curated. I know these students fairly well, they have divided up into groups that have a more gamist agenda, or narrativist agenda (depending on the system we're toying with, some simulationist tendencies have arisen), and generally they tend to be among the brightest and most imaginative students in the school. There's a few students who I think would love the concept of roleplaying games, and I've tried subtly hooking them into the group, but there's only so much time, and only so many students I can spread myself across. I don't think aphantasia is really an issue among a lot of these students. If it is an issue, these students have effectively used pawn stance to stay in contact with what has been happening in the story. </p><p>In the school-sport D&D group, there are a wider variety of students, including some who've just chosen the option because they don't want to engage in the physical activity of other sporting choices. Here's where the aphantasia becomes an issue, and I've noticed it with a few of the students who linger on the edges and don't really want to get involved further. Two particular students I've noticed are willing to sit in the room while a session is being played. One of them was prompted to join, and even though he had watched a few sessions played, laughed at the corny puns, and listened in as dramatic moments came to a head, his response was that he didn't understand how to play, or what he needed to do in the sessions. Even in straightforward turn-based combat encounters, he just didn't get how to engage. He's not a brilliant kid, but he's relatively smart in his keys areas of knowledge (which tend to be more practical, often focused on farming and cars). I've actually seen a few students like this over the years. The second student was simply a bit more introverted and shy. They took a bit of prompting from other students to get involved, but took opportunities to assist other students, and over the course of a couple of sessions started making decisions for themselves.</p><p>It has been encountering folks like this over the years that really made me understand that rolep;aying games just aren't for everyone. I guess I tried to be a tabletop roleplaying game evangelist over the years, especially in late high school and in early university years, but the honest thing is that some people just can't be reached. Thankfully, the kind of audience that looks for escapism but struggles with the visualisation element often finds themselves directed toward online computer roleplaying games (for those with a tendency toward pawn stance), or first-person shooters (for those with a tendency toward actor stance). This is a generalisation, and certainly isn't researched, just the reflections of hearsay and anecdotal evidence.</p><p>Anomalies, possible including Izaac who was mentioned in an earlier post, exist. Such people want to be a part of the game, but struggle to engage in the shared imaginative aspect of it. Actually, this is probably unfair to Izaac, as he may simply have an overactive imagination, but his difficulty may come from struggles to verbalise the imagery in his mind for an outside audience.</p><p>One of the best ways I've found for getting the imagined space into the heads of all players (including those who struggle with internal visualisation) is simply by providing props and maps. If I have time to prepare, I might even pull out 3d mapping, with model obstacles, trees, crates, ruined walls. It instantly helps people perceive things in a similar manner, and limits debate or interruptions. Some people get put off by the "geeky toys", but often these weren't the type of people who'd be interested in engaging the shared imaginary stories anyway.</p><p>Another good technique is having appropriately thematic music play in the background. Music works on the brain in different ways to images, and it can evoke the emotional rather than the analytical parts of the mind. The basically circumvents the aphantasia at some level, but can be a little unpredictable because some people have different memory correlations with certain songs than other people. I don't necessarily think this is a bad thing, because it also reflects that different characters may have a chance of presenting different emotional responses when they encounter a situation.</p><p>Just something else to think about...</p><p><br /></p><p><i>Addendum: In recent years (particularly 2023-24), there has been a rise in the use of AI Text-to-Art generators. This is a massively controversial topic in many circles, so I won't dig too deeply here, but the aphantasia concept applies here. A lot of folks with the condition struggle to visualise images, but I've seen a few people marvel at the idea that they can generate images based on words and concepts...where previously these had been things they just couldn't do before. I don't know that there will be an equivalent for RPGs, perhaps something that will organically generate stories based on the input of multiple users and a set of mechanical formulae. The tech isn't there yet, and it might be too obscure and niche for tech-companies to consider this a profitable area for research.</i></p>Vulpinoidhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04511600075328621953noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2482451413021840738.post-35922546969818219342024-02-22T09:36:00.001+11:002024-02-22T09:36:55.830+11:00How to Run a Game (Part 9) - Clarifying the Shared Imagination Space<p> The term "Roleplaying Games" is made up of three overlapping terms.</p><h2 style="text-align: left;">Role</h2><p style="text-align: left;"><span face="arial, sans-serif" style="background-color: white; color: #202124; font-size: 14px;"> the function assumed or part played by a person or thing in a particular situation.</span></p><h2 style="text-align: left;">Play</h2><p> <span face=""Google Sans", arial, sans-serif" style="background-color: white; color: #4d5156; font-size: 16px;"> </span><span face=""Google Sans", arial, sans-serif" style="background-color: white; color: #040c28; font-size: 16px;">activities that appear to be freely sought and pursued solely for the sake of individual or group enjoyment</span></p><p style="text-align: left;"><span style="background-color: white; font-family: Georgia, "Times New Roman", Times, serif; font-size: 14.4px;">An activity can be characterized as play, or described as playful, to the degree that it contains the characteristics listed here: Play is activity that is (1) self-chosen and self-directed; (2) intrinsically motivated; (3) guided by mental rules; (4) imaginative; and (5) conducted in an active, alert, but relatively non-stressed frame of mind.</span><span style="background-color: white; font-family: Georgia, "Times New Roman", Times, serif; font-size: 14.4px;"> </span></p><h2 style="text-align: left;">Game</h2><div style="background-color: white; color: #202124; float: left; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14px;"> 1.</div><div style="background-color: white; color: #202124; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; margin-left: 20px;"><div class="wHYlTd sY7ric" style="line-height: 16px;"><div class="PZPZlf" data-attrid="SenseDefinition" data-psd="sense_definition~:&an activity that one engages in for amusement or fun."><div data-dobid="dfn" style="display: inline;">an activity that one <span class="AraNOb" style="text-decoration-line: underline;"><a class="rMNQNe" data-ved="2ahUKEwiek5i4z7mEAxXmZvUHHY6wBc4QyecJegQILBAO" href="https://www.google.com/search?sca_esv=5f4639c7c08c1296&rlz=1C1UEAD_enAU1083AU1083&sxsrf=ACQVn0_v4XqeoJ4i2a1bOG6dD0YJB5YYOA:1708421875641&q=engages&si=AKbGX_r0zqXEeLlZhGfi3fbO0QSWn-iIqvv0e4fFJtXKSPVPlKeQAkgQFvPO8_snkjfG30nAL0JPlHUVu2XWyA8CSYVphkcTuw%3D%3D&expnd=1" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.1); outline: 0px; text-decoration-line: none;" tabindex="0">engages</a></span> in for amusement or fun.</div></div></div></div><div style="background-color: white; color: #202124; float: left; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14px;"><br /></div><div style="background-color: white; color: #202124; float: left; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14px;"><br /></div><div style="background-color: white; color: #202124; float: left; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14px;"> 2.</div><div style="margin-left: 20px;"><div class="wHYlTd sY7ric" style="line-height: 16px;"><div class="PZPZlf" data-attrid="SenseDefinition" data-psd="sense_definition~:&a complete episode or period of play, ending in a final result." style="background-color: white; color: #202124; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14px;"><div data-dobid="dfn" style="display: inline;">a complete episode or period of play, ending in a final result.</div></div><div class="PZPZlf" data-attrid="SenseDefinition" data-psd="sense_definition~:&a complete episode or period of play, ending in a final result." style="background-color: white; color: #202124; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14px;"><span style="background-color: transparent;"><br /></span></div></div></div><div style="margin-left: 20px;"><div class="wHYlTd sY7ric" style="line-height: 16px; text-align: left;">Key components of games are goals, rules, challenge, and interaction. Games generally involve mental or physical stimulation, and often both. Many games help develop practical skills, serve as a form of exercise, or otherwise perform an educational, simulational, or psychological role.</div><div class="wHYlTd sY7ric" style="line-height: 16px; text-align: left;"><br /></div></div><br />In combination, it thus seems pretty obvious that a roleplaying game is an imaginative and self-chosen pastime that is governed by a set of rules. The fundamental activity in this sort of game is the portrayal of character roles following a set of mental rules that may involve educational, simulational, or psychological factors. It's a pretty clinical way of saying that a tabletop RPG is a group of people pretending to be characters in a shared world, governed by a set of rules. It basically fits the general premise described so far in the series... but then again, that's what language should do. It should describe the concepts it's trying to convey.<div><br /></div><div>In some ways that definition of roleplaying games covers a variety of things that aren't regularly considered RPGs, including stuff like Live Action RPGs (LARPs) and single-player journaling games. Both expect a player to enter some kind of liminal space separate from the mundane world, where players can engage in their escapism, they just don't play in the same way as a typical tabletop game. I could run entirely different series on those game formats (and might do so in future).</div><div><br /></div><div>I mentioned in an earlier post that the sweet spot for a tabletop game is about 4-6 players... the advantage here is that the story doesn't rely on the imagination of a single person to maintain momentum. The disadvantage is that those people might not be imagining the same things at the same time... and that leads us to the title of this post in the sequence.</div><div><br /></div><div>Ensuring everyone is imagining the same things during a session is one of the key functions for the person running the game. I've seen too many disputes over the years simply because different players have imagined a scene in different ways...</div><div><br /></div><div><span style="color: red;">"I'm attacking the bandits from the left."</span></div><div><span style="color: #2b00fe;">"There's cover to the right."</span></div><div><span style="color: red;">"Oh, then I'm attacking from the right to get the sneak attack bonus."</span></div><div><span style="color: #2b00fe;">"You need to move over to the right, and that will leave you exposed to a ranged attack from the bandits."</span></div><div><span style="color: red;">"But I was always on the right."</span></div><div>....and suddenly the game bogs down into a debate about positioning and minutiae.</div><div><br /></div><div>I like a game to flow, getting caught up in the fiddly details just disrupts the story, and slows down events for players who are waiting for their turn. If things keep running at a fast pace, there isn't enough time to overanalyse the situation. The catch is that if you make things flow too fast, players might not understand what is happening, and any decisions they make with regard to the imaginary world shared by the group start losing context and relevance. It's another way of deprotagonising members of the group, and that leads to a new range of issues and problems. Like many things, there's a balance here, and it will take some practice to learn how much detail is enough, and how much is too much. What might be considered not enough detail for some players might be too much for others.</div><div><br /></div><div>Someone who uses a lot of actor stance might not care about the physicality of the environment, but they'll respond to descriptions about social cues and body language. If you're running a game with this type of player, and you feel comfortable doing it, you might physically act out the scenes. This verges on multi-forming, free-forming, and LARP, but it can really get the vibe of the game focused.</div><div><br /></div><div>Someone who uses a lot of director stance might prefer a vague quantum state of unobserved fluctuation at the start of a scene. A player like this may get more interest from being able to place their own props and set design in the imaginary space if they roll dice well (perhaps a good roll reflects the presence of something that wasn't there, but the player may now add something into the scene that justifies their positive result). As we observe and learn more about the scene, it becomes more rigid, and later actions can make use of the features that have been added as the scene progresses.</div><div><br /></div><div>Someone who uses a lot of pawn stance might struggle with the idea of embodying themselves within an avatar in the game world. They may need more physical and visual cues like maps, miniatures, rulers, and templates as tools to access the same imaginary spaces that other players are imagining internally. </div><div><br /></div><div><i>(Yes, a lot of this is 50c psychology, and might not reflect what's happening at all. I'm just making observations and theorising)</i></div><div><br /></div><div>The general idea here follows the improvisational theatre technique of "Yes, and..."</div><div><br /></div><div>Once a player (or the narrator) adds something to the shared imaginary world, no one else should be able to say "No, get rid of that, I don't like it". Instead they have to accept that this element is now a part of the scene, but the group may not know everything about it. Another player might recontextualise the addition to the scene, and this can add new depth and interest to the events.</div><div><br /></div><div><div><span style="color: red;">"It's a dark dead-end alleyway with a flickering neon light that sporadically leaves pitch darkness or sends shadows across the pavement. The oozing creature of tentacles and amorphous flesh lashes out in the far corner "</span></div><div><span style="color: #2b00fe;">"I carefully approach it, trying to avoid it sensing me. [THE DICE ROLL WELL] It looks like that dumpster on the side of the alleyway is providing me with good cover."</span></div><div><span style="color: red;">"True. [THE MONSTER ROLLS BADLY]. And the smells coming from the dumpster are pretty much stopping anyone from smelling anything in the area as well."</span></div><div><span style="color: #38761d;">"Last time we attacked one of these, bullets just sank into it, and when Carlos hit it with the baseball bat, it just splashed acid all over him. I'm going to throw a molotov cocktail into the dumpster, and then we'll push the dumpster into the creature to see what happens."</span></div><div><span style="color: red;">"OK."</span></div><div><span style="color: #2b00fe;">"[DICE ROLL BADLY] You've got the flaming bottle into the dumpster, but you hear a splash. The flame has gone out due to whatever bad-smelling liquid is in there."</span></div><div><br /></div><div>...and so on.</div><div><br /></div><div>Piece by piece the scene is built up, and everyone knows the important bits of information that will help them continue to make strategic decisions. I guess the key here is to not overwhelm players with too much detail up front, let them discover and explore the world to find things that are specifically relevant to them and what they're trying to achieve. Anything else tends to just be distraction.</div></div><div><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgkDIxyUhn02yegNW3OYwY4guX-YsOr7DymrDbBW4v9pnZOwqUXrrQ50khEB95UgD9vvoK927ssT3_CNgriuALLyjZfLRV3c88wRZK5bICIFGIqJE4559IeGf5_YBcCEE7pE5KTgM0OHt8s50po56G6wqucV2OMzly4CuLOHi5iCa55NC0dj3IBdHr3aQS9/s225/imagesCAYNOLTM.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="225" data-original-width="225" height="225" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgkDIxyUhn02yegNW3OYwY4guX-YsOr7DymrDbBW4v9pnZOwqUXrrQ50khEB95UgD9vvoK927ssT3_CNgriuALLyjZfLRV3c88wRZK5bICIFGIqJE4559IeGf5_YBcCEE7pE5KTgM0OHt8s50po56G6wqucV2OMzly4CuLOHi5iCa55NC0dj3IBdHr3aQS9/s1600/imagesCAYNOLTM.jpg" width="225" /></a></div><br /><div><br /></div><div><br /></div>Vulpinoidhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04511600075328621953noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2482451413021840738.post-9138479727520505822024-02-18T12:17:00.391+11:002024-02-20T18:39:59.916+11:00How to Run a Game (Part 8) - Finite and Infinite Games<p>Games have a variety of dimensions, some of which may be limited in scope, some of which may be open.</p><p>The two most obvious of these are time and protagonism. </p><h2 style="text-align: left;">Time</h2><p>At one end of the scale, there are plenty of tales about games that have gone on <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Robert_A._Wardhaugh">for decades</a>. At the other end of the scale, some games might only last <a href="https://rpgbot.net/dnd5/dungeonmasters/one-hour-sessions/">half an hour.</a> Most games fall somewhere between these extremes. I don't have data immediately available on the average campaign length, but I vaguely remember reading something in the last couple of weeks that suggested the average length of a campaign is about 4 to 6 months. </p><p>If you're playing a one-shot, time is an important factor because you want to tell a self-contained story that gets effectively resolved in the allotted period. If you're playing (or running) an open campaign, this isn't as rigid but it's often still a good ideas to ensure your story gets resolved before other factors get in the way. The kinds of factors I'm thinking of here are the way stories can get disrupted when players don't attend for a session, or when too many characters die (or suffer enough long-term penalties) that the campaign is no longer really viable.</p><p>Think of it like a TV series on Netflix. I like to divide my single sessions into episodes, I try to make sure a complete story fits into the session, just in case a player is unabe to show up for the next session. This way we don't need to explain why a character is suddenly no longer present if their player is no longer there when the next session completes the story. I don't try and fit everything into this single story, it's just a string of scenes that form a small piece of the overall saga. A few of these sessions are combined together into a full story with a satisfying conclusion, taking anywhere from 5 to 10 episode sessions. That's basically a season. If players wan to revisit their characters for another season, then we might pick up immediately after the last story has completed, or we might rejoin the characters at a later time in their lives after a few years have passed. When we think of it like a Netflix TV series, we can consider the idea that the show doesn't get picked u for a new season, and it can be very frustrating to end things on a cliffhanger. We hit the finite time barrier and don't have a satisfying conclusion, and this is not a good thing.</p><p>A finite time barrier is often most appropriate for those who play with a gamist agenda, because this is them a definite end point and a limit here they can determine whether they have "won" or "lost".</p><p>For those who are playing with a simulationist agenda, an endpoint is generally a good thing, because the longer a story goes for the more it needs to divert from the original interests to keep its interest alive. The more you divert from those original ideas, the more you potentially bump into the edges of what is known about the setting, and the more chances you'll run into situations that run counter to a player's understanding of how the setting or story "should" work. You can see this kind of thing with new movies in a franchise, Star Wars fans are notorious for not liking the directions of new media added to the setting, because that's not how they understand specific elements of that galaxy. Similarly, Marvel movies are needing to change up their formulae to avoid getting too stagnant, but that makes certain fanboys lose interest because the movies are no longer what they specifically want in the setting. It's a delicate balancing act and probably works better if the whole thing comes to a conclusion to allow something new to flourish. </p><p>For those playing with a narrativist agenda, the timed endpoint is anathema, it is the worst possible thing because that style of play pushes a continuation of story to see where it will organically develop. This sort of player is always looking for new avenues of exploration, new side quests to uncover, new exploration, and new ways to reveal their inner character in reflection of the outside world. </p><p>Knowing the types of players you have involved in a game session helps you work out what sort of campaign might be most appropriate for them. If you already know that there are time constraints, then this might help you be aware of what issues might arise when certain types of players are present. When we look at the three way tension between narrator, players and rules, the time constraint becomes one of the rules pulling at that side of the tension (it may not appear written in the rule book but it's still a rule that governs the social dynamics of the session).</p><h2>Protagonism</h2><p>The second post in this series mentioned a guy named Mr. X. Back in the day he was what we called a "Big Name Gamer". I mentioned that he was basically a novelist who got players to run through his pre-determined stories, and he didn't really allow a lot of choices from his players... especially ones that might derail his plans. In many gaming circles, this is considered the epitome of railroading. A guided narrative path through a specific story with a predetermined endpoint. </p><p><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh0cPXx8JChXP8Hzb4Q8M-JFzddvo6PhZc9um-Bj9t5z_zp2qF-wShtbCSsDNyvRWqw_Q5uVR2Fah839LOeLGkBgn5kSDwrlSp6oWy739FQvaAdWv3EKJFk248iPYMh3MP_eAwvneMeOFAdNSYnN1YG6Rc-YicYUxtNLsr7uQ5pdyLwhTUcoxrjXfsYwsgc/s600/path_simple.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em; text-align: center;"><img border="0" data-original-height="600" data-original-width="300" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh0cPXx8JChXP8Hzb4Q8M-JFzddvo6PhZc9um-Bj9t5z_zp2qF-wShtbCSsDNyvRWqw_Q5uVR2Fah839LOeLGkBgn5kSDwrlSp6oWy739FQvaAdWv3EKJFk248iPYMh3MP_eAwvneMeOFAdNSYnN1YG6Rc-YicYUxtNLsr7uQ5pdyLwhTUcoxrjXfsYwsgc/s320/path_simple.jpg" width="160" /></a></p><p>A gamist player will chafe at this style of play because there's no real winning or losing. Instead, the players just follow the flow of the narrative. A narrativist player often hates this style of play because they have no meaningful choices, and often no choices at all. A simulationist player may enjoy this type of narrow storyline, especially if it fits their understanding of what the world should be or what the narrative should be.</p><p>I really delved into this quite a bit when I developed my vector theory of gaming back in 2010. The basic idea back then was that a story followed a straight line until a choice needed to be made, choices were made at node points that might be directed by randomising factors like die rolls, or player factors like specific choices about where to go next. Then the story would follow a straight line until the next node point where a new branch might begin. </p><p><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhmbJn82EVd1dR5hdGhyvyJ8sQF6quNk1D-4D7ANi_yCBMkqI_FuYeQR5sn2ey47fNFGyo4hoXOjJEWDS-9ds-7_F8fhOB7he5SYrraAyPMpGe_myExwMqgyD6KKRZQtpq0qFEr4Zu1X-zjpi659r7H3Ac7cE10EzVzNxTkV6KIqyYJG5ruwUXNjERSySpZ/s600/path_branched.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em; text-align: center;"><img border="0" data-original-height="600" data-original-width="300" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhmbJn82EVd1dR5hdGhyvyJ8sQF6quNk1D-4D7ANi_yCBMkqI_FuYeQR5sn2ey47fNFGyo4hoXOjJEWDS-9ds-7_F8fhOB7he5SYrraAyPMpGe_myExwMqgyD6KKRZQtpq0qFEr4Zu1X-zjpi659r7H3Ac7cE10EzVzNxTkV6KIqyYJG5ruwUXNjERSySpZ/s320/path_branched.jpg" width="160" /></a></p><p>A totally open set of choices with no guide to how the story might play out is generally referred to as a sandbox game. In this style of play there is no limit to what can be done, except maybe what the laws of physics dictate, or rules within the setting that might have repercussions (in the form of injury, status loss, or other effects). The choices are still there, but if players deliberately make stupid choices for their characters they find out the results. </p><p>In this style of play, the gamist player tries to make optimal choices that will make later choices easier, or give them greater rewards. The simulationist player makes choices that fit their understanding of the setting or the evolving story within that setting. The narrativist runs free, and doesn't care if they make good or bad choices, as long as the story is interesting as a result.</p><p>There are options between these two extremes, and these tend to be found commonly among the computer games that consider themselves "roleplying games". Over the course of the story, players will be given a series of choices for their character, and the story will follow a range of paths based on those choices made. The kinds of computer game that are considered "linear" will often lead to a pair of endings or cut scenes at the end regardless of the choices made. </p><p><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhe1nfSYhwqlLz3QWGrqoMPg9_OelVRrG1vknpfULsKu5oJK6LwSdRfDsrlb19eNYRIv74poaJYV44805MDh5ZkHdTcMJYNQipeGYN-FHPl6QojEEv6ehgbPrnEZC8V1D_-S1QZAyWs9i4grtj-5TX60Oe2ylkliXOkYIEjSKt6ViYC7lX0ReOgxTg45Tfc/s600/path_interlinked_2.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em; text-align: center;"><img border="0" data-original-height="600" data-original-width="300" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhe1nfSYhwqlLz3QWGrqoMPg9_OelVRrG1vknpfULsKu5oJK6LwSdRfDsrlb19eNYRIv74poaJYV44805MDh5ZkHdTcMJYNQipeGYN-FHPl6QojEEv6ehgbPrnEZC8V1D_-S1QZAyWs9i4grtj-5TX60Oe2ylkliXOkYIEjSKt6ViYC7lX0ReOgxTg45Tfc/s320/path_interlinked_2.jpg" width="160" /></a></p><p>Some of the computer RPGs that are considered "better" often have more end points. </p><p><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjkY4h0uXQjLZH-7QWF5ge9W71fJ59BMKLegiWsO_2BiP80PTJ76jmx6Pz9VKV20fymZgvItCrzhTzFe1oqUBpV6dulSIG1V4qOjtCHdPipr2E-cGdpd2DKXtiF9iKU91rbd7n5h_D4LJah812M-4QFtnStDFtFts9_N2UXCUBG3DudMIYs6aUsrPsIE99F/s600/path_interlinked.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em; text-align: center;"><img border="0" data-original-height="600" data-original-width="300" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjkY4h0uXQjLZH-7QWF5ge9W71fJ59BMKLegiWsO_2BiP80PTJ76jmx6Pz9VKV20fymZgvItCrzhTzFe1oqUBpV6dulSIG1V4qOjtCHdPipr2E-cGdpd2DKXtiF9iKU91rbd7n5h_D4LJah812M-4QFtnStDFtFts9_N2UXCUBG3DudMIYs6aUsrPsIE99F/s320/path_interlinked.jpg" width="160" /></a></p><p>I've been though phases in the past, notably when I was in high school where I thought it would be necessary to plot out every possible outcome. I drew story flowcharts because I didn't like the idea of players not being able to control their fate. However, gradually over time, I came to the conclusion that this was basically a futile endeavor. You can never account for the variety of possible decisions players might make, so it's probably better to have some loose ideas of what could happen in the story, and what trigger events might bring them into play. </p><p>It's a bit like the debate between prescriptivism and descriptivism. Do you define things first and fit your worldview into those definitions (prescriptivism)? or do you follow the flow of the outside world, then try to define what you see based on what has been happening (descriptivism)? I try to find a balance between them, by defining wide sweeping concepts and potential possibilities, then refine those descriptions based on the events that unfold in the story.</p><p>As an example, in the storyline I was developing for our school D&D sessions, I had a vague threat coming from the south, and a range of towns along the foot of a mountain range (to the north). The threat combined undead elements, aberrations, and general corruption (with level draining effects to indicate how severe the threat is on an existential level). Many of the towns had developed their own defenses, and some had cut deals with the southern threat. I didn't really have much more than that planned. I knew that if I included a big bad villain, there would be a possibility that characters could kill them early, or maybe decide to run away from them entirely. Instead I set up a world with interconnected groups that had different responses to the threat and then players could start aligning themselves with (or against) these factions. Each of our D&D sessions is a small sequence of scenes that tells an immediate story but gradually builds to something bigger. We didn't know what that "bigger" was, but we had a few characters and players who were pushing for something Lovecraftian. So I made a climax fight for these players which put them into confrontation with "The King in Yellow". I think I've mentioned earlier that this ended up being a six/seven-week battle unfolding over three or four lunchtime breaks each week. I gave the players the choice to fight The King in Yellow, and they were cocky. They thought they could beat him, but I knew they couldn't necessarily do so unless they played a Hail Mary. </p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://miro.medium.com/v2/resize:fit:1400/1*AQrafLi7dfC88fJzudTf1g.jpeg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="800" data-original-width="800" height="320" src="https://miro.medium.com/v2/resize:fit:1400/1*AQrafLi7dfC88fJzudTf1g.jpeg" width="320" /></a></div><br /><p>One by one the players fell, then the final character sacrificed himself by throwing a portable hole into a bag of holding, and destabilized reality for a 1-mile radius. I allowed the characters to have the win for the campaign, a poignant moment where they realised how bad the villain truly is, and how he outmatched them completely in a straight fight. It was mostly railroad once the fight began, I generally knew how it would end up, but that final choice gave them meaning. The dice did their thing, and the final sacrifice tilted the story vector in an unexpected direction. The game for the characters was over, their season was concluded, but the campaign goes on. </p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><br /><p></p>Vulpinoidhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04511600075328621953noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2482451413021840738.post-5886649014771748372024-02-18T08:51:00.002+11:002024-02-18T11:56:12.461+11:00How to Run a Game (Part 7) - Reading the Room <div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://www.minnetonkabreezes.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/01/yoiknowthesepeople.jpeg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="591" data-original-width="800" height="237" src="https://www.minnetonkabreezes.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/01/yoiknowthesepeople.jpeg" width="320" /></a></div><p>The last post looked at limiting the number of players in your games to make sure everyone gets enough time to interact with the shared collaborative story unfolding amongst the group. It suggested that everyone should get an equal amount of "screen time", but I'll add a side note before I go much further. Some people will try to hog the spotlight regardless of how much time you give them, and other people will prefer to take a back seat. I've played with plenty of both over the years. I generally aim to be pretty democratic in my methodology of running games. I try to make sure the majority of people are having an enjoyable time (even if it means one person is complaining that they're not getting their desired limelight), rather than giving a single person an awesome gaming experience at the expense of the rest of the table.</p><p><i>Yes, I've had players walk away from my games because I didn't let them run rampant in my sessions, but the remainder of the players have often had a better gaming experience once that person left anyway.</i></p><p>Let's look at a few of the students I've got in my school gaming groups, then I'll consider a gamer I played with back in the day (all of their names have been deliberately altered for legal reasons, and to avoid any incrimination). If any of my readers come from my school sessions, they'll probably be able to identify key figures. I'll try to mostly use these example gamers in some of my later posts, but might add in a few others here and there.</p><h3 style="text-align: left;">Tommy</h3><p>Tommy's play agenda is somewhere between gamism and simulationism, like many gamers he has many of the traits that indicate he is on the Autism spectrum and he has been using roleplaying games as a method to experiment with social development. His gamist tendencies see him wanting to create characters who are absolute masters in their field, who have appropriate redundancies to prevent them from encountering their weaknesses. He plays to win. His simulationist tendencies see him thoroughly researching settings, and expecting things to be played right according to those settings (this obsession element factors into a part of his Autism). Tommy wants the game-play experience to reflect the way he understands a game should be run; he likes his dungeons dark and dusty; he likes his dragons chromatic and dangerous. Tommy struggles with social cues, I know this in-game and out-of-game because I have taught the class he is in.<i> (Tommy is in a support class for special needs students, and loves his gaming as a social outlet with mainstream kids)</i> </p><p>Tommy tried to dominate the time in the game, and this became somewhat frustrating for many of the other players. Compounding this issue, he appeared to use <a href="https://vulpinoid.blogspot.com/2024/02/how-to-run-game-part-4-stances.html">pawn stance</a> as he meticulously calculated statistics and bonuses, but underlying it all he was in a form of <a href="https://vulpinoid.blogspot.com/2024/02/how-to-run-game-part-4-stances.html">actor stance</a>. He really identified with his characters, and it could be seen that each of his characters was an idealized version of himself with some kind of power set overlaid on the template. If his character "won" in a session, he'd be happy in the real world for days afterward, if he "lost" or if his character died, he'd go into a depressed state for days. There's a fairly well-researched phenomenon in LARPing called "Bleed", where the barrier between game and world is more of a permeable membrane, and events from one side flow across to the other... it describes what we were seeing in Tommy pretty well. </p><p>When I found that Tommy kept trying to dominate play, I tried limiting the screen time that his characters received. However, at that stage I didn't realize that he had the self-identifying factor the fact that he wanted to bring his character from a home campaign into the school sessions probably should have been a warning sign there). When we limited his character's opportunities to dominate the game, he tended to become really sullen... his characters would either drink at the pub or get involved in brawls (which meant more time because combat is slow), out-of-character he'd either get depressed or sometimes disappear from sessions altogether (with news from other teachers that he was upset). If it was a home game, we might have lost contact with him, or even lost him from the hobby. </p><p>Further background data showed that he had been enjoying the games previously, and was still immersed in his rulebooks, but not getting the play experience he desired. So I tried a new tactic with Tommy. Since most players were playing with random pre-made character sheets, I gave Tommy one of these and let him have a bit more screen time... but I made sure it was the kind of screen time that would be entertaining for the other players. I figure everyone should be having fun, so they could watch something interesting. This would be a learning experience for us all.</p><p>I let him take control, and let the dice dictate what would happen. He couldn't say that I was victimising him, I was just reading the dice in a way that the rules backed me up. At the same time, whenever anyone is having screen time, I make certain that they know that they are the focus of any risks that might be in play. If Tommy wants twice as much time in the spotlight, he gets twice as many risks, and I'm vicious (but funny) with my repercussions. At one stage he lost a string of rolls, so I tore up his random character sheet in the first game. He was shocked out of his state of complacency, the rest of the group got a feel for how dangerous the setting was, and because I described the comedy of errors and untimely death humorously he saw the funny side of it. The rest of the table got a good laugh and for the next week, his epic demise was a story doing the rounds at school. In another session, he had characters lose limbs, and worked through three characters in a two-hour session. </p><p>Over the course of time, Tommy has gotten better, but we're playing a very different game with him where he kind of functions as comic relief for the rest of the players he is with. We're deliberately making sure that he is in on the joke, because otherwise that would be mean. Now he uses his gamist tendencies to try and survive as long as possible, and using the tropes of the game system we're playing through to keep him on his toes. Other players see how deadly a setting is by seeing how long one of Tommy's characters survives in a game. </p><h3>Izaac</h3><p>I guess you'd say that Izaac is gamist to the core, because that's the only option that remotely fits him. His head is full of statistics and mechanical interpretations of play experiences. He might be described as a "murderhobo" in some circles because his gut reaction is to attack supporting characters in the story, and steal their stuff. Izaac lives near me and I saw him outside of school at the local supermarket where he once asked me what D&D level he needs to be before he can be a Dungeonmaster. That's a red flag for "bleed" right away. He also sees me when I'm assigned to playground duties, and tells me how he has calculated a new character who can do twenty five points of damage with his fists every second round, if he's willing to go blind from crying tears of blood in every other round, but that's alright because his skins absorbs fourteen and a half points of damage from every incoming strike. This is still D&D we're talking about, so I'm not sure where the bleeding eyes are coming from, nor the fractional damage amounts. </p><p>There are a few red flags here, and while I didn't think he was ready to run a game at all, I thought it might be interesting to see what happened when our regular student DM wasn't present for sport one day. I picked a cluster of vetern players who wouldn't be too hard on him, and just told them to go along with his game style. If their characters died during the game, it could all be a dream, or something like that. The players weren't too happy, but none of them wanted to step up to run a game so they accepted the offer. I was hoping this would shock him out of his bubble, and show him that there is a lot more to running a game than simply wanting to run a game.</p><p>At the start of our sport sessions, as coordinator for the sport, I let Dungeonmasters run a loose sandbox style of play, but provide them with a sheet including about four different things that should be present in each of the sessions. This helps everyone maintain the feel that it's a shared world, and those elements often build up over time as the sequence reaches a climax in the final week or two of the term. Apparently, it was D&D but he had players rolling d6s and d12s for attacks, he applied penalties arbitrarily on characters whether they had been hit in combat or not, and he didn't include anything from the information sheet. Instead he ran a plane hopping adventure where the characters ended up at various stages in hell or on Earth (despite there being no dimensional travel present in the setting so far). The characters basically went through a string of fragmentary fight scenes, a demon, an insect monstrosity, a dragon, a blobby fungus thing, and lost each and every fight before being whisked away to another realm where the next fight would begin using arbitrary rules. They hated every minute of it (and some of them offered to run games in later sessions as long as they never had to put up with that again).</p><p>I asked Izaac how the session went... he said it was great, and he wants to run more. The imagination is there, a lot of refinement is necessary, and if he reins it in he might reach the level of storytelling we've come to expect from Zack Snyder, but at the moment there's a lot of work to go. I reinforced to him the idea that there is only one thing that makes someone a Dungeonmaster, and that's having players willing to play in a game that you're running. That was actually a part of the inspiration behind this series of blog posts. </p><h3>John</h3><p>John is a smart and imaginative kid, and he's always pushing boundaries. Whenever he comes up with a new idea for any of the games we might play, he pushes the ideas of how it might work in the world, then tries to justify how the ability might work. So I guess he works from a loose simulationist perspective, then follows it up with a bit of gamism (as he works out the rules). He uses a blend of actor stance (sometimes really getting into character), and pawn stance. One of his biggest issues is a tendency to use knowledge that he has acquired outside the game session to influence events within the game. Then, when called out for this he's often quick enough to justify his responses with references to recent in-game events, but there is often a circular logic to those arguments, and other players have started to notice too many coincidences of right-place/right-time for his characters (or strange changes of plans between one session and the next...when critical events have occurred in other interconnected sessions where his character hasn't been present).</p><p>Every time we call out John for his metagaming, he gets sullen and it derails the current session. Since I've already mentioned that I prefer to ensure everyone has a good time in my sessions, or at least make sure the majority have a better time at the expense of the one disrupting things, I had a few tactics to take with John. One was to force him to roll dice every time we caught him bringing that outside knowledge into sessions... "yes, you know that, but does your character?". Another idea was to give his character the knowledge, but reward other players' characters in different ways. John's character gets a network of spies and contacts, Tommy's character gets a random upgrade because he'll probably not last long enough to make use of anything else. John complained that other players were getting advantages that he wasn't, until other players explained that their advantages were just offsetting the advantages he was taking with out-of-character knowledge. It wasn't a perfect solution, and we're still working on some better ideas.</p><h3>Max</h3><p>The best fit for Max's play style is probably somewhere near the narrativist point of the triangle, and his typical method of getting there uses a combination of Actor and Author stance. He just enjoys the story, and follows along with what other players are doing. He doesn't demand time in the spotlight because he spends a lot of his time writing notes for the group and archiving what is happening over the course of the session. Max's value to the group is indispensable because no one else wants to take notes, and I'm usually ad-libbing and riffing off decisions made by players during the course of play. I've got big picture ideas happening, and thinking about how the choices of the characters might impact the overall plot, but Max is working from a small picture perspective and giving the actions of the game a personal story. </p><p>Even though I try to make sure everyone gets fair screen time, it would actually be a distraction and disservice to Max, so I give him a bit less time in the spotlight, but offer him a reward for his low profile services to the game. Regardless of the game we're playing, I'll throw Max a bit of extra experience for his characters. In one case (during sport sessions) I gave him a more resilient shape-shifting character, just to make sure that character would survive and the in-character journals would survive along with him. The key here was to make sure no-one else in the room knew that this was the case, so I took Max aside and let him know that if anyone found out about the different character they would flee the area, and Max would have to go back to playing a regular character. Max managed to keep things secret, and kept making notes and journal entries over the course of a full term of play. I notified the other teacher Dungeon-Master about the situation with Max's character, and also made sure he was never included in the student DM's group (because this could have been a potential information breach that could have disrupted the whole situation). No-one uncovered the truth, and many players came to Max outside of game sessions as a source of in-game information. Unlike previous examples described, this is a type of "positive bleed". When we're hamstrung by short session times, this is a great way to add depth and interest to the campaign. </p><p>Every character at every level should have a chance to influence the story in some way. I don't run a "balanced campaign" where every player is the same level and they face off against carefully balanced encounters, I have no problem placing newbies with veterans, and consider it to be like the Justice League or the Avengers. Hawkeye is an expert marksman, Thor is a verifiable god... but in my games they both have a chance to influence the story in positive ways (and bring their own issues to the table). If a player shows responsibility and adds something to the group's experience, they get rewarded for their services. If Max had revealed their secret to the group, that part of the game would have been over, but various players across the game have been given their own secrets and mysteries, so hidden information is a generally accepted part of the game at my tables.</p><h3>Mary</h3><p>I have some hope for Mary when it comes to running games. She's a part of my lunch-time gaming club and also my sport D&D sessions; Mary also has a home group consisting of players from across the club and sport sessions. Mary's play style is confrontational and she loves her home-brew stuff. So she's probably pretty firmly in the gamist camp, with a side order of simulationism, she doesn't try to embody her characters in any way and sees them as a collection of statistics that she can tell anecdotes about later. When she tells those anecdotes she focuses on what abilities the characters used to achieve certain effects, rather than describing how the scenes and effects might have changed the characters or the world around them. This probably shows pawn stance, and maybe a bit of director stance (especially when she is in Dungeon Master mode).</p><p>Mary has a tendency to come up to me between games with ideas for new characters. I've specifically said during sport D&D games that we're only using the basic rules with limited additions to accomodate the setting we've developed. A bit like the descriptions of Izaac earlier, Mary wants to introduce new home-brew concepts; but unlike Izaac, Mary knows the basic rules of the games really well and wants to find ways to tweak them to her character's advantage. It's all about optimizing the results, and stealing as much of the limelight as possible. As an example, Mary asked if she could use magic to "create water" in an opponent's lungs to instantly cause them to drown. I said that I'd allow it, but as soon as I did so, there would be NPCs capable of using the same tactic on her. Suddenly she didn't like that concept.</p><p>On the positive side, Mary has taken the step toward running her own games. She has taken some inspiration from the way we've been running games at school, as it seems that she has two small groups and is using them to tell interconnected stories. However, I'm hearing conflicting reports on how well she's doing. Key active players seem to be driving the narrative, while other players are happy to play more supportive roles. The downside is that other active players who are trying to be active are being shut out of the story. I heard about a few specific incidents in game sessions that were held over the summer holidays. </p><p>Mary's home game includes John in it, and he's having trouble with the sessions. I don't know how much John was metagaming (or using knowledge from outside the game to influence his character's actions inside the shared imaginary space), but he found a range of clues that led to a quest, and resolved that quest with his group. He was following the story, piecing together clues, and hoping to see the result, only to be told at the end (and I'm paraphrasing based on second-hand hearsay) "No payoff for you, no reward, that's someone else's quest." I can sort of see where Mary was coming from here. Allowing John to finish a quest related to someone else's character really deprotagonises that other character by undercutting their potential choices, but why would Mary give John those clues, and why lead him along if she didn't want him to finish it. There's a disconnect happening in the session. John has one expectation, Mary has another. It could probably have been resolved with a proper "session zero" where expectations were laid out.</p><p>Between this and other stories I've been hearing, Mary is telling stories with her groups of players, but like her attempts to claim as much screen-time as possible during sport D&D sessions, she seems to be fairly dominant in the stories and doesn't like it when things don't go her way when running games. There's probably a lot more to it, but that's how things red on the surface. She's starting to see the limitations in D&D, and I'll probably revisit Mary in some later posts. </p><h3>Steve</h3><p>Here's an example of a player from the long past, maybe 25 years ago. He was a bully at the table, and the kind of person who would do little favours in real life, then ask those favours to be paid back multiple times (conveniently forgetting that the favours had been repaid). He'd blackmail people at the table (and in LARPs), and was very susceptive to bleed. Steve was one of those "take charge" type of players and if anyone challenged his authority he took it personally whether that challenge occurred within the game or in real life. He was gamist in real life as much as he was gamist in his play style, he just wanted to be a winner.</p><p>I played in a couple of games with Steve, but only ever ran one for him. Looking back on each of the games I saw him in, I'd now say he had a solid director stance (always trying to manipuate the environment around his characters to maximise benefits and minimise penalties), but he also treated the other characters in the game as though they were his own sub-characters played in pawn stance by proxy through other players. He couldn't handle people "doing the voices", because that often meant he had less screen time, and it took away what he consider his authority and agency in the session. I've seen a few folks in gaming circles who are similar to Steve, and have seen several groups destroyed by "Steves" over the years. Sometimes it's more effort than it's worth to change a play experience for a group just to accommodate a single player who isn't willing to make changes for the rest of the group. From what I heard, a number of the games that Steve was in quietly disbanded and reformed without him, often going on with more success afterward. </p><p>If I understand correctly, Steve dropped out of the hobby a few years after I stopped associating with him. <i>(Please don't take this example as an attack on everyone who plays with a gamist agenda, I could just as easily have included "Mephisto", the infamous member of the 1990s Sydney goth scene who was a high-bleed simulationist. He had a belief that the lore of Vampire the Masquerade was real, but was probably highly medicated, quite likely delusional, and a major risk to run a game with....bt when we did run games with him, they were intense)</i> </p><p><br /></p>Vulpinoidhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04511600075328621953noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2482451413021840738.post-2642976727228913462024-02-15T21:44:00.000+11:002024-02-15T21:44:09.441+11:00How to Run a Game (Part 6) - Keeping players occupied<p>My most recent experiences running games have been at the high school gaming club I established and as an alternative to school sports. These two forms of play are a very unusual niche style, combining elements of one-shot play and campaign play. </p><p>The gaming club operates with half-hour sessions at lunch-times, and it has about 20 players involved. If I had all of these players playing at the same time, especially in a game like D&D, it might take a quick player 30 seconds to describe what their character is doing (a sentence to describe their intention, some rolling of dice, some interpretation of those dice, and a sentence of event description so everyone else can hear how the die roll has changed the storyline. At 30 seconds for 20 players, a single player will spend half a minute on their turn and have to wait nine-and-a-half minutes until their next turn. That's a maximum of 3 actions per player per lunch break, and many high-school students will get bored and distracted during that time. Things go even slower in combat, and a player might only get one or two actions per lunch break.</p><p>So we break the group of twenty students into four groups of five. These groups share a communal world, and impact one another On Mondays we give a general recap of the previous weeks events, and explain to all the students any repercussions from a specific group's actions that might have impacted the wider world. On each of the other weekdays, each group plays a session. Let's say it takes us a couple of minutes to sort things out at the start of a session, and a couple of minutes to pack things up at the end. That drops a half hour session to 25 minutes, giving every player roughly 5 minutes of "screen time" where they are acting or reacting to events around them... and leaves 20 minutes of observing. If players are working in a pair they get 10 minutes of shared "screen time" and 15 minutes of observing. This naturally encourages players to work together, because they get more chance to guide the story (for their cluster of five students anyway). We'll get back to that shortly...</p><p>The sport group is also about 20 students, although quite often a few of them are away. It's a block of time just under 2 hours (let's call it 2 hours for simplicity), so it's also shorter than many traditional gaming sessions would be, but roughly the timeframe of an action movie. We've got two teachers who contribute to this, which would allow us to divide the group into two groups of 10. If we were to divide the focus evenly between players, that's 10% screen time per player. 12 minutes in the spotlight, 108 minutes waiting for your turn. Working in pairs that goes to 24 minutes sharing the spotlight and 96 minutes waiting for others. Thankfully, we've got a couple of enthusiastic students who've stepped up to the duties of running games, That means subtract a player and add a narrator. Suddenly, with three groups of about six players, everyone gets 20 minutes "screen time" in the spotlight by themselves, or 40 minutes as a shared spotlight pair.</p><p>So we're aiming for the size of a typical home group, and the generally accepted sweet-spot for a group size in a roleplaying game (typically 4 to 6 players). Most convention games I've seen advertised have specifically requested groups of five players, but will run with four, and depending on the person running the game may be capable of adding a sixth.</p><p>Why does this work? I don't specifically know, but can tell you what I've seen. </p><p>As a teacher, and as a long-time narrator and facilitator of gaming experiences, there often needs to be a critical mass of engagement before a natural flow starts to develop. If there aren't enough people contributing to the experience, it can be an uphill battle to keep things moving. If we go back to the three-way tension between the narrator, the players, and the rules, then the narrator ends up doing a lot of the work to keep things flowing. This is especially true in traditional gaming set-ups where most of the players feel like they need to be "entertained by the Dungeon Master". Don't get me wrong, if the players are willing to take some of the slack and help with their own additions to the session, these sessions can really allow the contributors to shine and take charge of the story for themselves. Conversely, if you've got a lot of players things can go one of two ways. If too many people are trying to contribute to the story at once they all end up pulling in all sorts of directions and the story becomes a shambled mess that starts lacking coherence, or just ends up with players at odds and added tnesions within the group. If the contributions are focused to a small part of the group at a time, then the rest of the group will suffer from an inertia and will struggle to get going when their turn to contribute does come. </p><p>New narrators in the hobby will often gauge their abilities by how many players they have in their groups...<br /><br /><i>"I ran a game with five players"... "Yeah, well I ran a game with seven"... "You two are amateurs, I once ran a game with eleven players"</i></p><p>However, the question needs to be raised about how many of those players actually engaged with the session, and for how long. Were the majority of players bored, playing on their phones, or engaged in side discussions that had nothing to do with the game? Was the party split? Are you really running a game for three players, and the rest of the people in attendance are just sitting around socializing with friends? There's nothing wrong with having extra people sitting around and observing; after all, one of the big things in gaming over the past 15 years has been the rise of the gameplay podcast as a concept, where thousands of spectators regularly sit around and watch people play. </p><p>It can be hard for the person running the game to see that players might be losing engagement. Honestly, I know that I was one of those people who always wanted to add one more player into a game, or allow my players to bring one more player into the game when they are having fun with the campaign. I never considered the idea that each extra player would reduce the screen time of the existing members of the group, and would bring their own agendas and aims into the session. </p><p>Sometimes when new players want to come in, you just have to learn to say "NO". As the person running the game, you have to know your limits, and play to your strengths. If I am playing in a game, I'd rather a small game where I can keep track of the action and feel like I've got a significant part to play in the story, rather than be a small one among many just waiting for my turn to make a small incremental difference in the grand scheme of things.</p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://qph.cf2.quoracdn.net/main-qimg-623ef0933bf59f2e9f88dcb7122277a1-lq" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="339" data-original-width="602" height="225" src="https://qph.cf2.quoracdn.net/main-qimg-623ef0933bf59f2e9f88dcb7122277a1-lq" width="400" /></a></div><p><br /></p>Vulpinoidhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04511600075328621953noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2482451413021840738.post-42372111363953126922024-02-15T00:16:00.002+11:002024-02-15T00:16:36.773+11:00How to Run a Game (Part 5) - The beginning of play<p>Here's where things get fragmented. However, a lot of the same concepts still generally apply. </p><p>If you're running a game at a local game store, or at a gaming convention, you want to make sure you attract the right sorts of players to your game. If you're running a game at home, you want to make sure everyone understands what you intend to do with the game so people can decide if they want to participate in your sessions or not. I've spent a lot of time doing both, and have seen a few differences in the way each of these needs to be considered.</p><p>This probably also fits under the idea of getting everyone on the same page in a game, or at least understanding where everyone is coming from when they approach the game and explaining where you'll be heading as you run the game. This is where I'll be deviating away from the Forge terminology, and probably drifting back to some of the <a href="https://vulpinoid.blogspot.com/2011/01/vector-theory-2011-lexicon.html">Vector Theory terminology</a> that I developed here on the blog back in 2010.</p><h2 style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: large;">Conventions and One-Shots</span></h2><p><b>Before the Session</b></p><p>By it's nature a one-shot is a single event, which means there isn't really much time to get everyone on the same wavelength as they prepare for the communal storytelling about to unfold. Traditionally, a one-shot session has players presented with pre-made characters, in a pre-written storyline or predefined setting that is well-understood by the person running the game. If you're going to be the person running the one-shot you need to realise that you don't have time to waste on looking up rules or looking up setting information. There are three ways you can do this; either have really good memory about rules and settings, really good notes that you can quickly reference, or be really good at improvising (and take notes on the fly to ensure consistency as the story unfolds). </p><p><b>Elevator Pitch</b></p><p>At a convention or one-off session at a game store there is often a blurb designed to lure players in. It is a short paragraph, maybe three or four sentences that encapsulate what can be expected in the session. Imagine that you've got less than thirty seconds to sell the session, where you're trying to narrow down the players who will engage with what you're offering (and how you're offering it), and you're trying to get those players excited by what they can expect. A few key questions are generally answered in this might be... </p><div style="text-align: left;"><ul style="text-align: left;"><li>What game system is being used throughout the session? </li><li>What sorts of characters are a part of the story? </li><li>Where is it set? (and when) </li><li>Do you expect the players to have prior knowledge of the system or setting? (or is it simple enough that players will get it without too many problems) </li><li>Are there expected to be any mature themes in the game? (and what might they be)</li></ul></div><p>You don't need to lay out the whole story, because you might have an open play style where the story develops organically, or you might have ideas for twists in the narrative to keep play interesting. Think of enough at this stage to hook the bait, once the bites take hold, that's when you can reel in the players with more details about your intentions. </p><p><b>At the Beginning of the Session</b></p><p>If you have premade characters, give the players a few minutes to read them over before the proper story commences. If you allow the players to make their own characters at the start of the session, offer suggestions for the types of characters that will fit best with your intentions for the story (and if it's a complicated character creation system, you'd be recommended to give the players partially created characters or pre-defined templates to speed up the creation process). If you allow pre-generated characters, give yourself time to read over them, and make sure to ask the players what their characters goals and motivations might be. If you allow these pre-made characters, you might need to modify your story intentions to fit with their aims and agendas. If you're pulling the story one way, and players are pulling the story another way, one of the parties (either you or them) will end up unsatisfied with the outcome... and it's actually more likely that both parties won't be happy. That leads to broken game sessions and disjointed stories. </p><p>Before play begins, remind players about any mature concepts that might arise in the stories. I've seen players walk out of game sessions because suicide was used in a scene to evoke an emotional response from the players, I've similarly seen players walk out because they expected intense characterization in a game session but were instead presented with light-hearted fantasy. You can never be sure what is going to turn a player off, but having them aware of potential of session intentions at the start of play allows everyone to understand what might happen before too much time is wasted in an unsatisfying situation. </p><h2 style="text-align: left;">Campaigns</h2><p><b>Gathering the right people</b></p><p>The first few posts in this series spoke about gamism, narrativism, and simulationism, and the types of stances that different players might use to engage with the collaborative storytelling.</p><p>The first way to look at this is from a top-down perspective. </p><p>If you're planning to tell a confrontational story where you are pitting characters against monsters and situations where they will need a knowledge of game rules and logic to overcome the obstacles you throw up against them, you probably want to avoid too many players who like a narrativist style of play, or players who get too emotionally attached to their characters through regular use of actor stance. If you're aiming for young adult melodrama, a gamist might be a terrible fit, and instead you might want narrativists who love the twists and revelations as stories unfold. If you're planning to weave a tale of romance and political espionage among the courtiers of Venice, you might want gamists who take a cold and calculating perspective, you might want narrativists who want to delve into the secrets and motivations of the world, or you might want simulationists who want to immerse themselves in a rich and dangerous world. Think about the types of stories you want to tell and the types of players who might facilitate those types of stories. </p><p>The other way to look at it is bottom up.</p><p>Think about the types of players you've got access to and the types of stories they enjoy. Instead of choosing players who will fit the types of stories you have in mind, choose stories and game session ideas that fit the intentions of the players. If you know that you've got a group of players who are amateur theatre participants, it's probably going to be better to run a lot of social scenes and dramatic storylines rather than a sequence of combat encounters. Conversely, if you've rounded up a group of miniature wargamers they might feel uncomfortable taking on Actor stance and interacting in character with the story's supporting cast, they might be happier with a string of combat encounters. Remember that if you run the type of game that your players enjoy, your players will keep wanting you to run that style of game...if you don't give players what they want, they'll go and find another person t run a game for them, or leave the hobby all together. </p><p><b>Session Zero</b></p><p>A campaign has more breathing room than a one-shot. this means there is more opportunity for everyone to help set things in motion than a 30-second elevator pitch.</p><p>I like to think of a session as a three-way tension. I'm sure I've mentioned this idea on the blog before, but a quick search isn't showing any results. </p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://i0.wp.com/mrvaudrey.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/08/Pull-Icon-2.jpg?fit=1024%2C768" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="600" data-original-width="800" height="240" src="https://i0.wp.com/mrvaudrey.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/08/Pull-Icon-2.jpg?fit=1024%2C768" width="320" /></a></div><div><br /></div>On the first side, the person running the game is trying to pull the session along the story they have in mind. On the second side, the collective of players is trying to pull the session toward what they consider to be a satisfying story. On the third side, the rules are pulling the story according to their predetermined programming. <div><br /></div><div>As an example, a D&D game is always pulling players toward grander and more epic confrontations, while there are really swingy and erratic mechanisms of play that keep things chaotic and unpredictable. Meanwhile, a Vampire: the Masquerade game runs with a cycle of nihilism and danger with inhuman elders treating the characters like pawns in a war of immortals that has stretched for centuries. </div><div><br /></div><div>In a D&D game, the influence of the rules can be reduced when the person running the game uses a DM screen, and fudges die rolls to drive the storyline toward their intended goals, or by using rulings rather than rules as written in the book. This basically becomes a case of developing a fun gaming experience in spite of the rules, rather than because of them. Similarly, the influence of the players can be minimised when the person running the game has rigorous rules they work with, and when they use concepts like Deus Ex Machina to have their supporting characters perform heroic feats and make world-changing actions rather than leaving these in the hands of the player characters. D&D really isn't designed to minimise the impact of the person running the game, but this can occur in open-world sandbox campaigns where the events of the storyline are driven purely by the choices of the players. <br /><p>Knowing how the different forces will be pulling on the story at the core of the session is an important part of understanding how the play experience will unfold. Some players like to watch things develop around their characters, some will want to be more directly involved in choices that will shape their character's world. Understanding expectations and playing to them will improve the experience for everyone involved.</p><p>Sometimes a player will have a favoured type of story or scene that they like to see in the stories they are a part of. They might love cats and always have their characters look for them in the session. If you get a player like this, they might be a distraction to the rest of the group as they continue to make attempts to feed their obsession. On the other hand, you can use this to your advantage, luring them along with your story by hints that their obsession might be found in clues that happen to align with your intended story goals. You don't want to focus on this player all the time, but it might be a useful tool to keep this player heading in the right direction. Maybe they're a gamist who likes to show off their combat build, or the specific magical abilities they've developed for their character, try to tie these ideas into the story, try to find the player a way to show off their character's abilities that will further the story, because otherwise they'll probably end up trying to play a confrontational game against you which will disrupt the intended story you have in mind. (Yes, I've seen this happen many times). </p><p>Sometimes a player will have a no-go zone. A player who has lost a family member to cancer will probably react badly to a storyline where townsfolk are dying of a horrible wasting disease. A player who has seen relationship trauma, or even abuse in their life will probably react badly to storylines involving torture, rape, or slavery. Avoiding the topics that might cause stress for your players isn't "political correctness", it's common decency. As I said earlier, a lot of people engage in roleplaying for escapism and a bit of empowerment fantasy, introducing the kinds of elements that put them in difficult emotional positions basically victimises them, and this should never be done without explicit consent. Talk to your players first, find out if there might be any issues that they want to avoid in a story, and if they tell you that they feel uncomfortable with a specific type of scene or storyline, respect that choice. </p><p>The narrative should begin to take shape once you know the directions that players will want a storyline to go and directions that they cannot abide, and maybe you'll even get some new ideas that will make your original story plans richer. </p><p>The session zero is the time when all of this is established. It's probably also the time when the starting players in a campaign make their characters, when they work out how their characters are connected to each other, and how they link to the world around them. Each of these connections is important to the ongoing storyline, serving as tools that can be used as leverage throughout the campaign. At this time, players will get to know who each other's characters are, what their strengths and weaknesses are, and how they might pull on the flow of the storyline.</p><p>In addition to laying out the ground rules for a campaign, this is also a good time to establish character background details and provide preludes to the proper campaign. This can help to give players motivations to follow the story you have in mind, or help you to adjust campaign goals to better match what the players might want out of the story. </p><p><b>Beginning Play</b></p><p>After the session zero has established the guidelines of play, the connections of players to each other and the outside world, the campaign has an immediate drive. There are tensions that will pull and push the campaign, and the starting flow will be known. The narrative will twist and turn as new elements are added in, but that stuff will come later. The aim at the start is to make sure things don't stagnate before they've had a chance to even begin.</p><p>If you've done this well, characters will have built-in agendas that push them toward the goals you have in mind for the campaign, or you'll have a campaign built up out of a combination of the various agendas that the players have chosen for the characters. Collaboration is key.</p><h2 style="text-align: left;">General rules of thumb</h2><p style="text-align: left;"><b>Good </b></p></div><blockquote style="border: none; margin: 0px 0px 0px 40px; padding: 0px; text-align: left;"><p style="text-align: left;"></p><p></p></blockquote><blockquote style="border: none; margin: 0px 0px 0px 40px; padding: 0px; text-align: left;"></blockquote><ul style="text-align: left;"><li>Things will usually go better if you know your players</li><li>Things will usually go better if you know their characters</li><li>It helps if you know where you'd like to see the storyline go, but be willing to adjust things to fit player desires and expectations.</li><li>It helps if you know the rules, or know how you're going to modify the rules (and why you're making those modifications)</li></ul><blockquote style="border: none; margin: 0px 0px 0px 40px; padding: 0px; text-align: left;"></blockquote><blockquote style="border: none; margin: 0px 0px 0px 40px; padding: 0px; text-align: left;"></blockquote><blockquote style="border: none; margin: 0px 0px 0px 40px; padding: 0px; text-align: left;"><p></p><p></p></blockquote><div style="text-align: left;"><p><b>Bad</b></p><ul style="text-align: left;"><li>Things tend to go wrong if there are tensions between players in the group </li><li>Things tend to go wrong if characters have agendas that put them at odds (but if everyone is on the same page about this and is happy to have tension within the group, or outright conflict, then this can actually make some really dynamic and interesting stories)</li><li>It doesn't help if you aren't prepared for where the story might go, or if you are too devoted to a specific storyline to the point that the players decisions become meaningless.</li><li>It doesn't help if you aren't sure where the characters are heading in their personal stories or what their goals in the world might be. </li></ul></div>Vulpinoidhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04511600075328621953noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2482451413021840738.post-24765468985295284212024-02-13T20:19:00.001+11:002024-02-13T20:19:44.421+11:00How to Run a Game (Part 4) - Stances<p>In the last post, we looked at the agendas people have behind how they play. Some play to win, some play to discover a story, and some play to immerse themselves in a world. But another thing to consider is how they intend to reach those goals and how these types of players might work together, or see friction, as they aim toward their preferred goal. </p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://encrypted-tbn0.gstatic.com/images?q=tbn:ANd9GcQrNcM7hZKmdFMGZzXu65Oy07HSXpiXV82e9-9ZCgp3_h3oYLsiybZV4oOBtVJfAF2fjJw&usqp=CAU" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="183" data-original-width="275" height="183" src="https://encrypted-tbn0.gstatic.com/images?q=tbn:ANd9GcQrNcM7hZKmdFMGZzXu65Oy07HSXpiXV82e9-9ZCgp3_h3oYLsiybZV4oOBtVJfAF2fjJw&usqp=CAU" width="275" /></a></div><p>One of the key ways to look at this is the player's stance. This is basically how they view the characters in the game. </p><p><i>(These are drawn directly from the Forge Definitions)</i></p><dt>Stance</dt><dd><p><i>The cognitive position of a person to a fictional character. Differences among Stances should not be confused with IC (In character) vs. OOC (Out of character) narration.</i></p></dd><dt>Actor Stance</dt><dd><p><i>The person playing a character determines the character's decisions and actions using only knowledge and perceptions that the character would have. This stance does not necessarily include identifying with the character and feeling what he or she "feels," nor does it require in-character dialogue.</i></p></dd><dt>Author Stance</dt><dd><p><i>The person playing a character determines the character's decisions and actions based on the person's priorities, independently of the character's knowledge and perceptions. Author Stance may or may not include a retroactive "motivation" of the character to perform the actions. When it lacks this feature, it is called Pawn Stance.</i></p></dd><dt>Director Stance</dt><dd><p><i>The person playing a character determines aspects of the environment relative to the character in some fashion, entirely separately from the character's knowledge or ability to influence events. Therefore the player has not only determined the character's actions, but the context, timing, and spatial circumstances of those actions, or even features of the world separate from the characters. Director Stance is often confused with narration of an in-game event, but the two concepts are not necessarily related.</i></p></dd><dt>Pawn Stance</dt><dd><p><i>A subset of Author Stance which lacks the retroactive "motivation" of the character to perform the actions. Often but wrongly identified with Gamist play. </i></p></dd><p><br /></p><p>Yeah, there is a lot of jargon in those descriptions, and because they are specifically derived from the Forge glossary, there are a lot of links to other points in Forge theory that have fallen out-of-favour over the years. Generally, they are an expansion on the theory of writer's stance, but expanded because roleplaying is a very different experience compared to writing. <a href="https://socratesrpg.blogspot.com/2010/11/what-is-stance-theory-part1.html">This blog post</a> on Socratic Design (from back in 2010), really delves into it well if you're interested. People can switch between stances, but they will often have a favoured one. The person running the game typically assumes "Director stance", as they describe the environment around the characters and set the scene, but this doesn't stop players from trying to step up into this kind of stance... examples might include the player of the rogue who wants there to be a bush to hide behind, or the player of the hacker who wants there to be a local wi-fi network to use their skills. If a person suddenly starts talking in a foreign accent and addresses the session's supporting cast by name, they might be adopting "Actor stance" (but it's hard to know what's going on inside someone's head so it can be difficult to definitively determine this). If a player starts talking about their character in the third person, and refers to attributes and abilities in an abstract sense, they might be adopting "Pawn stance". </p><p>Generally, the person running the game guides the types of stances that their players will take. If they use accents, they encourage their players to use accents (and probably adopt Actor stance), but some players are uncomfortable with this and they might resist the idea if forced (especially if they are gamists). If the person running the game tends to talk in numbers and statistics, they'll probably be prompting Director and Pawn stance among their players, which might be great for the gamists and some one the simulationists, but not necessarily the narrativists. Think about what you're trying to do in your game, what kind of play experience you want your players to be a part of. Different stances should be a part of your tool kit, if you have a group that really enjoys engaging in the shared imaginary space using the same stance you can get some really focuused scenes occuring, if you've got players who like different ways of engaging with the session then you can diversify the experience and allow different players to engage in the way they like.</p><p>Note that during this series of posts I will strike to avoid saying that one stance is better than another, but I'll admit that I might be subconsciously influenced by I what in prefer in a game. Every group of players will be different, everyone will run games differently. I'm just providing a bit of background theory, a range of tools to help newcomers find their groove when running games of their own, offering suggestions that might indicate how things can go wrong from my time running and suggesting ways to avoid them, or minimize them through the theory and tools provided. </p><p><br /></p>Vulpinoidhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04511600075328621953noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2482451413021840738.post-52345086767809276302024-02-12T19:59:00.001+11:002024-02-12T19:59:14.240+11:00How to Run a Game (Part 3) - Getting everyone on the same page<p>I mentioned in the <a href="https://vulpinoid.blogspot.com/2024/02/how-to-run-game-part-2.html">previous post</a> that we didn't have the terminology to adequately describe what was happening in games back in the 80s and 90s. We didn't really think we needed it, there were people who were good at running games and there were people who weren't. Some people ran games that meshed with certain groups of players and others just didn't match their running style to the style of the players in their group. If a person running a game had enough tools in their toolkit, they could tailor their style of game to match the players in the group...but then you need to consider whether a person runs a game better because they have more tools at their disposal, or because they are better at using use the tools they've got. </p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhhmu8Il8GQi9Xn3zKnurBajPwcTWn0CjzJXLndt_IEXAWlFX1VmySAF0fIyYOfZ8hEskuPZwMa2QDo0kHLPMfnw8jjNaLqbLV2buKfhoakuJkulgNMk2yhZ29RYRHaOZIobcYSi7elHH-rbAwjuX8n1kGuvBJKXjwJrMQvih2YulUEsO8zYLxBxGHNPtNC/s1152/witches.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="896" data-original-width="1152" height="249" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhhmu8Il8GQi9Xn3zKnurBajPwcTWn0CjzJXLndt_IEXAWlFX1VmySAF0fIyYOfZ8hEskuPZwMa2QDo0kHLPMfnw8jjNaLqbLV2buKfhoakuJkulgNMk2yhZ29RYRHaOZIobcYSi7elHH-rbAwjuX8n1kGuvBJKXjwJrMQvih2YulUEsO8zYLxBxGHNPtNC/s320/witches.png" width="320" /></a></div><br /><p><br /></p><p>Then in the early 2000s came the first real attempt to codify tabletop roleplaying games. This was the web forum known as "The Forge", massively influential in independent gaming circles as certain designers loved the ideas coming out of it, while others went out of their way to steer clear of it. One of the most controversial ideas to come out of the forge was the idea that people play games for one of three reasons. One of the key controversies here was that there was no blending of the three reasons, everyone picked one and one alone. This was considered the gaming holy trinity of "GNS"... (G)amism, (N)arrativism, and (S)imulationism. There are essays about these ideas, and if you want to go down that rabbit hole, <a href="http://www.indie-rpgs.com/forge/index.php">here's the link</a>. However, I've got a looser interpretation of the terms that has served me well over the past couple of decades, and I feel that most players actually do blend the ideas inherent in my interpretation. First I'll describe the pure terms, then I'll describe the ways they blend. </p><p>(G)amism - A player with this mindset wants to win. They enjoy the minutiae of the rules, and they treat every situation in the game as a challenge to be won. The Gamist focuses on maximizing the benefits of their character, and minimising any flaws, conversely they maximize their enemies weaknesses, and minimize their enemies strengths. They tend to have a very mechanical view of the game, and have a tendency to gravitate toward complex rule systems where they can mix and match the elements that play to their strengths best. </p><p>(N)arrativism - A player with this mindset wants to find a story. They don't care too much what happens, because a good story can come from comedy or tragedy. The Narrativist doesn't necessarily want to know how the story will unfold at the start of play, they're in it for the thrill of the ride, the ups are just as important as the downs. This kind of character wants to see their characters and their world develop in meaningful and interesting ways. They tend to have a loose and flowing interpretation of the game, and may be inclined to ignore certain rules and rulings if it is in the interests of the story.</p><p>(S)imulationism - A player with this mindset wants their session experience to reflect a specific paradigm. The Simulationist may gravitate to game settings focused around a licensed media such as a specific television show, comic, or series of novels, and in this case they will focus on rules that reinforce that setting while rebelling against ideas that aren't a part of the setting's established canon. Conversely, the simulationist may have expectations in the storytelling, they'll allow changes to the setting, as long as the format of the session follows a "three-act" structure, or follows scientific realism. They tend to be more focused on ensuring rulings match genre expectations, regardless of whether those rulings make the game fair, or make the story more engaging. </p><p>A blend of Gamism and Narrativism is where players want to win, but they want to tell a good story in the process. They might understand the concept of the heroes journey and may know that a hero needs to face some defeats along the way to ensure that the final victory is sweeter, but for them they need to make sure the ending is satisfying and their choices have made a positive difference for their avatars in the game world.</p><p>A blend of Gamism and Simulationism is where players really don't care about the story, they just want conquest in the terms of the genre they are playing. They don't particularly care about character motivations or ulterior motives, except as puzzles, or elements of background detail that add verisimilitude to the setting where their strategic maneuvering is taking place. Everything can be broken down into numbers, and the numbers reflect the setting where the actions occur. </p><p>A blend of Narrativism and Simulationism is where players want to tell a story within specific genre conventions but don't mind pushing the envelope if that's where the story leads them, or don't mind jarring twists in the story if that's what the setting dictates. This kind of player may enjoy the downward spiral, because it makes for good anecdotes later. </p><p>Some folks blend all three...in fact most people probably waver between the descriptions depending on the game they're playing and the people they're playing with. Someone who is passionate about Star Wars might verge closer to simulationism if they're playing a game with Jedi and Mandalorians, but they might be more narrativist when they're playing a game with a medieval setting (because they have less of a vested interest in seeing the game played according to their preconceived notions). </p><p>So the key is basically to know what sort of players you've got in your group, and tailor your running style to match the players. Or curate your players by only choosing players who suit your running style.</p><p>If you intend to run a confrontational game, then gamists might suit your play style because they'll always be trying to think a step ahead of you and the session will effectively become a game that can be won. This sort of game requires balanced encounters, maybe a few easy ones and a few hard ones, but to get satisfaction out of those players who prefer to play with a gamist mindset. You'll really need to know the rules well if you want this style of game to work, because nothing disrupts the flow of aa confrontational game like minutes wasted looking through pages of rule books for specific mechanisms of play that impact specific situations. </p><p>If you intend to run a carefully plotted game, intended to immerse your players in a specific story that you've preconcieved, gamist players are probably not a good group to work with because you'll have them trying to beat your scenes strategically rather than trying to follow your lead. Narrativists are probably also a bad fit, because they'll want to make meaningful decisions of their own, even if it goes against what you had in mind for a final destination. Simulationists are probably best in this regard, but if you're going to play in an established setting from a well-known media, you'll need to make sure you know the setting at least as well as the players, because the last thing you need is a player pulling out an obscure piece of trivia that might derail your whole plan.</p><p>Suppose you intend to run a political game, with various characters vying for power, and different factions carefully negotiating who they're in conflict with at the moment, and who might be the ally of the hour. In that case, narrativists will get into character and try to reveal the stories within stories that drive the mysteries and intrigue. Gamists will probably struggle in this type of setting because there are no easy answers, and victory against one opponent might lead to unforeseen complications. In this case the simulationists will try to work out the rules governing the politics of play, so you'll need to make sure you have carefully plotted diagrams and relationship maps describing connections across the setting.</p><p>If you intend to run an open-world sandbox game, narrativists will look for ways to take disparate elements in the game and weave them into a coherent storyline, simulationists will try to immerse themselves in the setting as they explore the nuances and try to understand the way the mechanisms of the world weave into a coherent setting, and gamists will try to conquer the whole thing. Each of these will work, but not necessarily at the same time. </p><p>There are numerous other types of game that can be played, and different ways that the various player types will tend to interact with them. So there are a couple of rules of thumb.</p><p></p><ol style="text-align: left;"><li><b>Curate your group.</b> If you've got a group of people who love engaging in character-driven narratives, and someone wants to join the group to dominate the conversation, conquer the world, or make their permanent mark on the group, they might not be a good fit, and you should voice your concerns before they come into play. Similarly, if everyone is competitive and trying to one-up each other, there might not be many opportunities for a player who wants to get into their character's headspace, they simply might not enjoy the session. It's everybody's session, but if you've taken on the role of running the game you've got a stronger vested interest in its success. If you don't think you can accommodate a certain type of player (or if you know there are real-world social tensions between two or more players) feel free to let them know why you don't think things will work. Be open about things like this. Dark secrets and mismatches of player types can fester and ruin a game. </li><li><b>Play to your player's strengths.</b> Players often engage in sessions of roleplaying for a bit of escapism, and a power trip that they just can't get in the real world. If you know a player enjoys immersing themselves in the world and interacting with NPCs, they might tend toward the simulationist experience because they want to feel a part of the setting, or they might tend toward the narrativist experience because they want to push the story forward and see where it leads. Give them opportunities to do this. If you know that Mary loves star trek and you're running a campaign focused on the space station Deep Space 9, let her play a historian, and let her provide details about the setting that you might not know. It doesn't matter if the game system you're using doesn't necessarily facilitate this type of thing, tweak the rules, give her simulationism the chance to shine. If you know that John loves to solve riddles and win in contests of mindplay, give him some puzzles, and let him drive his character into situations where his advantages are key to the ongoing story (even if this is feeding his gamist desires). Everyone likes their moment to shine. </li><li><b>Reward your players (but leave them wanting more).</b> There's a delicate balance here, and one that every person running a game will need to work out for themselves. The main point here is that players should get satisfaction out of attending a game, in much the same way that their characters gain treasures, gold, new levels, or whatever else the game system uses as it's reward system within the game. Give simulationists their rewards for immersing in the world and understanding it's rules. Give gamists the victories they crave. Give narrativists interesting stories and meaningful choices that direct the flow of the tale. </li></ol><p></p><p>Overall, the important thing is knowing what your players want out of the game, and letting them know what each other might want out of the game. As long as everyone understands the general group dynamic, there won't be major surprises and discordant play styles. Then you can start focusing on the details, </p><p><br /></p>Vulpinoidhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04511600075328621953noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2482451413021840738.post-67582837360543870662024-02-11T14:41:00.000+11:002024-02-12T19:59:43.803+11:00How to run a Game (Part 2)<p>Back when I started running game sessions, we did it by instincts. If something didn't work one time, you might try to tweak it before trying it again, and if it didn't work a second time, you might abandon that idea. If something worked, you did it again, you might tweak it to make it better, or you might try to mix things up to keep players on their toes. </p><p>Different people would build up different toolkits of techniques and ideas, and you'd know what to expect from a certain overtones games because they often used the same stories, same methods of enhancing the play experience, and same tweaks to the rules. Going to a convention made for a great crash-course in techniques and methods for running a game. It also helped to highlight some ideas that we didn't really have terminology for at the time. </p><p>I remember being told "hey, you've really got to play one of Mr. X's games. He tells the best stories."... and then when I played one of his games, it was super railroady. He was basically a failed novelist and anyone who deviated from his intended storyline was met by constant blockades. He did the voices and accents, he wove detailed descriptions to rival Tolkein or Robert Jordan, there were moments when you really felt the epic tale weaving around you, but there was no player agency. Either you followed his choices, or you sat back and watched... if you sat back too much, and it was your characters time to do something in his story, he'd even prompt you what to do. It wasn't the type of session I enjoyed, but when various people said he was one of the best I just thought that maybe I was doing it wrong. I later discovered that many other gamers at conventions didn't get the hype about him, and most just agreed he was one of the best, even though they'd given up playing his games because they had a lot of the same issues I did. </p><p><i>(On another note, I saw some of his session notes for running a game, and they were often typed pages, with scenes laid out in order, often dozen pages per scene, with dozen of scenes to play through in a 3-4 hour convention timeslot, or dozens to run through in a multi-session story. So that was often over a hundred pages per session. These actually were novels or screenplays). </i></p><p>Far more recently, I was at a home game. I never get much chance to play, so I jumped at the opportunity to play in a Pathfinder session... because that was the only game going. Similar style, with a positive factor that this time there was a little more freedom, and a negative factor that the GM didn't know the full rules but liked an antagonistic play style. Ebery time a player rolled badly, there would be nasty repercussions, and every time they rolled well there would onlybe a minor advantage generated. Every time a player tried something tricky to escape one of his traps, the whole game would lock up until he had referenced and cross referenced a dozen parts of the rules to work out a way that the player was wrong. I tried talking to some of the other players, and it was all very "Stockholm Syndrome"... they'd just tell me that this was how roleplaying games worked. They didn't particularly enjoy it, but the GM offered more freedom than a computer game. Similarly, they enjoyed watching each other's misery when they weren't currently the victim of the hour. I just had to walk away from that game. </p><p>So I guess my first two points in the series are pretty simple...</p><p></p><ol style="text-align: left;"><li><b>Listen to your players</b>. Be willing to follow their ideas and choices, because they are probably engaging in an RPG for a bit of escapism and some adventure that they can't find in the real world.</li><li><b>Be willing to try new things</b>. Learn from other people's games, experiment in your own games, don't get stuck in a rut, especially one that might be annoying to your players.</li></ol><p></p>Vulpinoidhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04511600075328621953noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2482451413021840738.post-7855445923336470972024-02-09T18:47:00.007+11:002024-02-20T14:08:46.995+11:00How to Run a GameI started running games in the late 1980s. Does that make me an expert? Maybe. I've met a lot of Dungeon Masters, Game Masters, Storytellers, Narrators, and MCs over the years who have been running games for decades, but who honestly aren't very good. Conversely, I've met a few folk who've just instinctively got it, even if they've only run a couple of sessions. I don't think I've ever seen someone do an awesome job on their first attempt, but they might be out there...<div><br /></div><div>I run a high school gaming club (I've written about it a few times on the blog already). I've been running games at conventions since the mid 1990s. My style of running a game isn't for everyone, I admit that, but I try to make sure everyone has fun, and when I was regularly running convention games I had dedicated regulars who would play my sessions whatever I was running... I was also paid DM for a while, and people were happy to come back and keep paying, so I can't be too bad.</div><div><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEirkDybQehVmkXLxPMQPZQl1sD4ja4GKBRptWeBhuAUPDLpWWu3hW-rGzND6ptSH3kvz-8uCeMeQ322xHpBhyphenhyphenTXInUCY2uA19uLqYpTB2_2ZL8Xe7qmo5Xebj8b-RODJaF2209tXbDDgLirbTz6UiyODpGMO9Dyno3Uebg2O0hrd6jV_GTx9t7AtO0jxata/s4032/20240209_120313.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="3024" data-original-width="4032" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEirkDybQehVmkXLxPMQPZQl1sD4ja4GKBRptWeBhuAUPDLpWWu3hW-rGzND6ptSH3kvz-8uCeMeQ322xHpBhyphenhyphenTXInUCY2uA19uLqYpTB2_2ZL8Xe7qmo5Xebj8b-RODJaF2209tXbDDgLirbTz6UiyODpGMO9Dyno3Uebg2O0hrd6jV_GTx9t7AtO0jxata/s320/20240209_120313.jpg" width="320" /></a></div><br /><div><br /></div><div><br /></div><div>But what lessons have I learned over the years? What keeps people coming back, and what stops them coming back?</div><div><br /></div><div>There are so many factors, and so many interconnected elements that I can't fit them into a single post. So I guess it's time for another series. </div>Vulpinoidhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04511600075328621953noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2482451413021840738.post-71892852010925532442024-01-29T10:58:00.000+11:002024-01-29T10:58:30.146+11:00Creating a Game (Part 17) - Grok<p> To "Grok" something basically means to understand something fully.</p><p><br /></p><div class="PZPZlf gBoaXb" data-attrid="EntryHeader" data-psd="headword~:&grok~;&tts_country~:&gb~;&homograph_index~:&" style="background-color: white; color: #4d5156; font-family: Roboto, "Helvetica Neue", Arial, sans-serif; max-height: 999999px; padding-bottom: 16px;"><div class="kVF6d" style="display: table; max-height: 999999px; word-break: break-word;"><div style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0px; max-height: 999999px;"><div class="JgzqYd RES9jf" style="color: #1f1f1f; font-family: "Google Sans", Roboto, "Helvetica Neue", Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 24px; line-height: 32px; max-height: 999999px;"><span data-dobid="hdw" style="max-height: 999999px;">grok</span></div></div><div aria-hidden="true" class="K6GhFd" data-is-bilingual="false" jsaction="BtuVOb:V46pce" jscontroller="jhGntf" style="max-height: 0px; opacity: 0; pointer-events: none; transition: max-height 0.3s ease 0s, opacity 0.3s ease 0s; visibility: hidden;"><div class="b8aKlc" style="max-height: 999999px; padding: 8px 0px 6px;"><a href="https://www.google.com/search?client=tablet-android-telstra-au&sca_esv=601398990&sxsrf=ACQVn0-qkYpbK56DaQJxq71y0ihv4IHIAA:1706188703745&q=how+to+pronounce+grok&stick=H4sIAAAAAAAAAOMIfcRoxi3w8sc9YSndSWtOXmNU5-INKMrPK81LzkwsyczPExLgYglJLcoV4pBi42JJL8rPtmJRYkrN41nEKpqRX65Qkq9QAFSfD9SQqgCSBgDMlTCqUwAAAA&pron_lang=en&pron_country=gb&sa=X&ved=2ahUKEwjR0eyc0PiDAxVbc_UHHZa8CIUQ3eEDegQIKRAI" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.1); color: #1558d6; max-height: 999999px; outline: 0px; text-decoration-line: none;" tabindex="-1"><div class="S5TwIf" style="border-radius: 6px; box-shadow: rgb(218, 220, 224) 0px 0px 0px 1px inset; display: inline-block; max-height: 999999px; overflow: hidden; padding-right: 12px; vertical-align: top;"><g-img class="FamOtd" style="display: inline-block; max-height: 999999px; vertical-align: middle;"><img alt="" class="YQ4gaf zr758c wA1Bge" data-atf="0" data-csiid="3" height="32" id="dimg_1" src="data:image/svg+xml;base64,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" style="border: 0px; display: block; max-height: 999999px; position: relative;" width="32" /></g-img><span class="fe69if" style="margin-left: 10px; max-height: 999999px; vertical-align: middle;"></span></div></a></div></div></div></div><div class="vmod" style="background-color: white; color: #4d5156; font-family: Roboto, "Helvetica Neue", Arial, sans-serif; max-height: 999999px;"><div class="vmod" data-topic="" jsname="r5Nvmf" style="max-height: 999999px;"><div style="max-height: 999999px;"><div class="lW8rQd" style="align-items: center; display: flex; max-height: 999999px;"><div style="max-height: 999999px;"><div class="YrbPuc vdBwhd" style="color: #5e5e5e; font-size: 14px; line-height: 20px; max-height: 999999px; min-height: 20px;"><i style="max-height: 999999px;">verb</i><div style="display: inline-block; max-height: 999999px;"><span class="mQo3nc aztjNb emHvJd" style="background-color: #f1f3f4; border-radius: 2px; color: #001d35; display: inline-block; font-size: 11px; font-weight: 700; letter-spacing: 0.3px; line-height: 16px; margin-left: 8px; margin-top: -1px; max-height: 999999px; padding: 0px 6px; text-transform: uppercase;"><span style="max-height: 999999px;">INFORMAL</span><span class="BkZwPe" style="margin: 0px 3px; max-height: 999999px;">•</span><span style="max-height: 999999px;">US</span></span></div></div></div></div><ol class="eQJLDd" style="margin: 0px; max-height: 999999px; padding: 0px 0px 0px 20px;"><li jsname="gskXhf" style="list-style: none; margin: 0px; max-height: 999999px; padding: 0px;"><div class="vmod" style="max-height: 999999px;"><div class="thODed" style="max-height: 999999px; padding-top: 8px;"><div class="wHYlTd sY7ric" data-topic="" jsname="cJAsRb" style="font-size: 14px; line-height: 20px; max-height: 999999px;"><div style="margin-left: 20px; max-height: 999999px;"><div class="wHYlTd sY7ric" style="line-height: 20px; margin-left: -20px; max-height: 999999px;"><div style="max-height: 999999px;"><div class="PZPZlf" data-attrid="SenseDefinition" data-psd="sense_definition~:&understand (something) intuitively or by empathy." style="max-height: 999999px;"><div data-dobid="dfn" style="display: inline; max-height: 999999px;"><span style="max-height: 999999px;">understand (something) </span><span class="AraNOb" style="max-height: 999999px; text-decoration-line: underline;"><a class="rMNQNe" data-ved="2ahUKEwjR0eyc0PiDAxVbc_UHHZa8CIUQyecJegQIKRAM" href="https://www.google.com/search?client=tablet-android-telstra-au&sca_esv=601398990&sxsrf=ACQVn0-qkYpbK56DaQJxq71y0ihv4IHIAA:1706188703745&q=intuitively&si=AKbGX_okpkrXRdHQwZu4Fe0iRe3uqxvZI2HOfDJYSNcfMkHCEvlr0cdtBg7r9JosQE2Xxq25RkVQCU19MiZcmroYWtglgkCPsyK5Q9KsxawsQg_DGBU_y7w%3D&expnd=1" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.1); max-height: 999999px; outline: 0px; text-decoration-line: none;" tabindex="0">intuitively</a></span><span style="max-height: 999999px;"> or by </span><span class="AraNOb" style="max-height: 999999px; text-decoration-line: underline;"><a class="rMNQNe" data-ved="2ahUKEwjR0eyc0PiDAxVbc_UHHZa8CIUQyecJegQIKRAN" href="https://www.google.com/search?client=tablet-android-telstra-au&sca_esv=601398990&sxsrf=ACQVn0-qkYpbK56DaQJxq71y0ihv4IHIAA:1706188703745&q=empathy&si=AKbGX_r0zqXEeLlZhGfi3fbO0QSWe4Quw3qcRUI7FrkkNJy8fDYmVbQJEK6OBLrVK7BovkTPasoBcC9HS7HCCb_NA5pv5LxDrg%3D%3D&expnd=1" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.1); max-height: 999999px; outline: 0px; text-decoration-line: none;" tabindex="0">empathy</a></span><span style="max-height: 999999px;">.</span></div><div class="vmod" style="max-height: 999999px;"><div class="ZYHQ7e" style="color: #5e5e5e; max-height: 999999px;">"corporate leaders seemed to grok this concept fairly quickly"</div></div></div></div></div></div></div><div style="margin-left: 20px; max-height: 999999px;"><div style="margin-left: -32px; max-height: 999999px;"><ul style="margin: 0px; max-height: 999999px; padding: 0px;"><li class="vmod" data-topic="" jsname="z0mti" style="list-style: none; margin: 0px; max-height: 999999px; padding: 0px;"><div class="csWlI" style="display: list-item; list-style-type: disc; margin-left: 25px; max-height: 999999px; padding-top: 5px;"><div class="wHYlTd sY7ric" style="font-size: 14px; line-height: 20px; max-height: 999999px;"><div style="max-height: 999999px;"><div class="PZPZlf" data-attrid="SenseDefinition" data-psd="sense_definition~:&establish a rapport." style="max-height: 999999px;"><div data-dobid="dfn" style="display: inline; max-height: 999999px;"><span style="max-height: 999999px;">establish a </span><span class="AraNOb" style="max-height: 999999px; text-decoration-line: underline;"><a class="rMNQNe" data-ved="2ahUKEwjR0eyc0PiDAxVbc_UHHZa8CIUQyecJegQIKRAP" href="https://www.google.com/search?client=tablet-android-telstra-au&sca_esv=601398990&sxsrf=ACQVn0-qkYpbK56DaQJxq71y0ihv4IHIAA:1706188703745&q=rapport&si=AKbGX_r0zqXEeLlZhGfi3fbO0QSWireajFVQmkisPLI0SBcRRbDd6txl1Tlu7MlWDfByZrVNtcGq6LWx5SgkEyeVqrDHlaRWFQ%3D%3D&expnd=1" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.1); max-height: 999999px; outline: 0px; text-decoration-line: none;" tabindex="0">rapport</a></span><span style="max-height: 999999px;">.</span></div><div class="vmod" style="max-height: 999999px;"><div class="ZYHQ7e" style="color: #5e5e5e; max-height: 999999px;">"nestling earth couple would like to find water brothers to <b style="max-height: 999999px;">grok with</b> in peace"</div></div></div></div></div></div></li></ul></div></div></div></div></li></ol></div></div></div><p><br /></p><p>There's a psychological concept that crosses through many hobbies and pastimes called "flow", it can kind of be considered a relative to the concept of "grokking".</p><p><br /></p><p><span face=""Google Sans", Roboto, "Helvetica Neue", Arial, sans-serif" style="background-color: white; color: #474747; font-size: 16px;"><b>flow theory</b>—referring to a state of being in which people become so immersed in the joy of their work or activity “that nothing else seems to matter.” </span></p><p><span face=""Google Sans", Roboto, "Helvetica Neue", Arial, sans-serif" style="background-color: white; color: #474747; font-size: 16px;"><br /></span></p><p>To be in a state of flow requires one to fully grok the activity they are engaged in. That often means having a set of rules that intuitively makes sense, which takes a supportive back seat when the storytelling is progressing easily, but is caoable of providing a helpful nudge now and again when the storytelling starts to get bumpy. The rules may be the elements written in words on the pages of a rule book, or they may be the social contract among players to avoid antagonising one anothet unless it will distinctly benefit the story and the enjoyment of other players. </p><p>With a new and different set of rules, it can be hard for new players to grok the designer's intent (esoecially if they haven't explicitly played a session with the game's designer), this means it takes carefully written rules, and often plenty of play examples to show how things work practically.</p><p>I like having a group of players work through the various elements of the game, starting with them creating their characters, and any other elements of play... then working through simple gameplay examples (demonstrating the fundamental concepts), then some of the more complex examples. </p><p><br /></p><span><a name='more'></a></span><p><br /></p><p><i>Sorry I've lost the momentum with posting this series... I've had my computer crash, literally...</i></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiOlxFJ7jty1GXQLh8dywTfVI-cI4yoRlytdvDQlhGXw1UF368qvG3AiUSi5_pdh6WxTGuFHl-SxcpcLYa_FFTGxJnEbwfomZHRCALRGjWcg935leEv7CAPc58f17E8sxRJBvHmUEyDocf1LYuRfwbDTzqArSgUAu5Eej1yucJx9fKCYkEmzgAlkb3VTDf7/s3024/IMG_20240123_130805_711.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="3024" data-original-width="3024" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiOlxFJ7jty1GXQLh8dywTfVI-cI4yoRlytdvDQlhGXw1UF368qvG3AiUSi5_pdh6WxTGuFHl-SxcpcLYa_FFTGxJnEbwfomZHRCALRGjWcg935leEv7CAPc58f17E8sxRJBvHmUEyDocf1LYuRfwbDTzqArSgUAu5Eej1yucJx9fKCYkEmzgAlkb3VTDf7/s320/IMG_20240123_130805_711.jpg" width="320" /></a></div><br /><p><i>So I'm finishing this post on my phone. Hopefully a new, or fixed, computer will let me get back to things soon. The fixed option is preferable because everything about the game is now on a hard drive I can't access.</i></p>Vulpinoidhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04511600075328621953noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2482451413021840738.post-37270454903931415292024-01-24T17:34:00.000+11:002024-01-25T15:00:17.424+11:00Creating a Game (Part 16) - Worldbuilding and Fleshing Things Out <p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjkppZ9_bA1wHb98hPplVt7jv_JKZqz7laDU70_UZ945YhxeNZuUL8QTZukU14TDp0LHO5wEVTdWfszbKvTAvQty0ASqv1fWIywL85Jjc6XPHm3p62LmcEl8NotFkXwKHYt9hyXHa6gQryGQK6FwzdwRT3Ebuj3ouIsmxtmbfzUNkEkbUc52EDtfj_LJZge/s1024/n4Mxd9TijO5a5i9NI6dv--1--a3go4.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1024" data-original-width="1024" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjkppZ9_bA1wHb98hPplVt7jv_JKZqz7laDU70_UZ945YhxeNZuUL8QTZukU14TDp0LHO5wEVTdWfszbKvTAvQty0ASqv1fWIywL85Jjc6XPHm3p62LmcEl8NotFkXwKHYt9hyXHa6gQryGQK6FwzdwRT3Ebuj3ouIsmxtmbfzUNkEkbUc52EDtfj_LJZge/s320/n4Mxd9TijO5a5i9NI6dv--1--a3go4.jpg" width="320" /></a></div><br />Not everything in FUBAR is a threat. This game is the same.<p></p><p>Most things in FUBAR are just interesting elements in the world until actions taken by the characters trn them into potential benefits or penalties, allies or enemies...</p><p>I did a couple of fairly comprehensive sequences on worldbuilding here o the blog a few years back, and most of my ideas are generally the same now as they were then. The Darkhive worldbuildng sequence was fun (<a href="https://vulpinoid.blogspot.com/2015/08/darkhive-worldbuilding-part-1.html">it begins here</a>) and the Worldbuiding 101 sequence played with a bottom-up style of worldbuilding that is more typical of the way I develop settings (<a href="https://vulpinoid.blogspot.com/2014/11/worldbuilding-101-part-1.html">it starts here</a>). However, "Bustle in your Hedgerow" is less about designing a new world from scratch, and more about adding some spices to our exising world, and setting some broad boundaries to work within... boundaries inpired by the heavy folk-rock and blues or a legendary band.</p><p>Much of the worldbuilding in this type of game is inspired by the choices and actions of the players as they guide each story to its completion through their scarecrow characters. Part of this worldbuilding comes through a series of prompts that the players provide at the beginning of each session. </p><p>The sessions of gameplay will gradually build up an environment with a range of people, locations, and objects that gradually accumulate importance and depth in the story. </p><p><b>People</b> - At the start of the first game, each player names two people who could play a part in this particular session. We don't know too much more about them at thi stage except for the fact that they are regular non-supernatural citizens of the world. Give them each a single core-trait, something that they're good at. Through the course of play we might learn a bit more about them, or they might just be a fleeting cameo in a single scene. We don't know if these named characters will be allies, enemies, obstacles on the path to success, or something else entirely. We play to find out who these people are, drawing on the elements that help the story (even if those elements don't help the Scarecrow characters in the story).</p><p><b>Places</b> - The same is done for places, each player starts by indicating the farm that their scarecrow protects, then names one other location in the local area. It could be a pub, a church, an occult bookshop, a war memorial, a forgotten standing stone, a small copse of trees, a railway station, a crossroads, it could be anything. If the group is working with a map of a specific town in the real world, try to find places that physically exist on the map. Anything we know about the location in he real world, applies to the location in the story, but in a world of supernatural beings and magic, there could be far more that we don't know. The idea here is that we're applying a shorthand for the place. </p><p><i>(Oh, it's proably a good point here to mention that the people described in the previous step probably shouldn't be real world folks, and especially not people who are known by members of the playing group. This is for etiquette reasons, and also because overheard conversations about the story could be misinterpreted as real world gossip... I've seen it happen).</i></p><p><b>Things</b> - Finally, in that first session, every player offers some kind of object that will function as a <a href="https://www.masterclass.com/articles/writing-101-what-is-a-macguffin-learn-about-macguffins-in-film-literature-and-popular-culture">macguffin</a>. It generally has no benefits or penalties (that we know of at the start of the story), it's just something that people want, or an object that somehow drives the story in some other way.</p><p>The Narrator also adds pairs of people, places and things to the collection. Players shouldn't necessarily know what each other have written as elements to introduce into the story.</p><p>During the first session, the Narrator randomly picks a number of people equal to the number of players in the session (including themself), and does the same for places and objects. This means that not all of the elements created by the players will play a part in the session, but we'll get to those unselected elements later.</p><p>This method of setting development is a modification to the standard way setting developmnt is establshed in FUBAR. The narrator doesn't have everything on their shoulders, and the other players around the table become more invested in the narrative because they may have written elements coming into play at any time. </p><p>The narrator works their way through each pile, where the elements near the top of each pile drawn may be encountered early in the story, and will probably be resolved before the climax arrives. Those toward the bottom of the pile are far more likely to be present in the climax. If a person is killed (or otherwise removed from the story) eliminate the card that they were written on. If they survived, the narrator adds a dot point, or a sentence describing something new that was learned during the course of the story. This also applies to any objects in the story; if they are destroyed then their card is removed, otherwise something new is added to the known history of the item. Places aren't removed, even if they are burnt down, blown up, or otherwise changed dramatically; the geographic location is still there, but notes about its current status are made on the location's card. </p><p>Since things are random, it's distinctly possible that one or more players won't see the characters they're written (or the places/things). However, these remain in the pile for future sessions.</p><p>In the second session (and subsequent sessions), each player has the option to write a single new person, new place, and new thing. Instead of writing something new, they may select an existing person, place, or thing, then revisit this element. A player doesn't have to choose one of the elements that they wrote... if they really like the element provided by someone else, they can bring that back into the story again. As certain elements come into the story multple times, the group starts to learn more about them, and even if they only seemed a minor factor in the story during their first appearance, they might end up becoming integral parts of the long term chronicle by sheer number of appearances.</p><p> </p><p><br /></p><p> </p>Vulpinoidhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04511600075328621953noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2482451413021840738.post-59035027254583609452024-01-21T13:43:00.000+11:002024-01-23T10:33:24.809+11:00Creating a Game (Part 15) - Lyrical Threats<p>This whole game is meant to be inspired by the lyrics of Led Zeppelin, but aside of our game's name, and the lyric quotes that inspire the powers, we're startig to deviate a but from that core premise. A quickandeasy way to remedy that is to create a few antagonists and scene types that draw on the ouevre of zeppelin lyrics. These include the kinds of characters that are deicted in one or more songs. Like the way we'll be using the mysterious "Dullahan Corporation", these probably work best if they aren't applied to every game, especiallu not multiple threats from this list during the one game.</p><p>Anyway, here's my first batch of threats directly inspired by Led Zeppelin lyrics...many of them occur in two-parts,with a pair of scenes resolving their story.</p><p><b><br /></b></p><p><b>When the Levee Breaks (Monstrous, 2-part)</b></p><p>part one "if it keeps on raining" (4 tokens)</p><p><i>A storm sets in over the town, threatening the farmlands that the scarecrows reside on. Like the song, this is a slowly building and ominous threat that seems relentless. It might be easier deaing with the people who are going to be affected rather than dealing with the storm itself. <b>(Keywords: Slow, Tricky(x3))</b></i></p><p>part two "the levee's gonna break" (+4 tokens)</p><p><i>There's a chance that things wo't get to this level if everything revious has been dealt with, but if even a single "tricky" keyword remains, there's a chance the levee will break and flood the area doing massive damage to those who are unprepared. <b>(Keywords: High Profile, Mystical, Scary, and Vicious are added to any that haven't been resolved so far)</b></i></p><p>(There probably needs to be some kind of river or dam in the setting for this one to be relevant)</p><p><br /></p><p><b>Heartbreaker (Minor) </b></p><p>Her style is new but the face is the same</p><p>As it was so long ago</p><p><i>My initial thought is that the "heartbreaker" is a temprary diversion from the main story, but they could just as easily be a pat f the deeper narrative. They are some kind of immortal fey spirit not necessarily associated wit the faerie who has animated the scarecrows. However they are someone who has been encountered in the distat past, and there is just as much chance that the heartbreaker will either cause problems or help out with them <b>(Keywords: Connected, Talented: Etiquette, Persuasion)</b></i></p><p>(This requires an old character, one who has existed for decades could make it work, but one who has been around for centuries or longer works better)</p><p><br /></p><p><b>In My Time of Dying (Major)</b></p><p>Come on, come on, I can hear the angels singing</p><p>Oh, here they come, here they come, here they come</p><p><i>There are things that the mundane world simply canot fathom, the presence of divine superntaural spirits is one of them, especially the so called "Angels of Death". Scarecrows on the other hand are enchanted beings existing o the cusp of the mundane and the mystical, they often see such creatures in the corner of their eyes. Most angels of death ignore scarecrows snce they aren't living creature in the traditional sense, but confrontations may occur when oe of the allies of a scarecrow, or someone else vital to the story, has been marked for death. An angel may leave the living mortal alone if another apprpriate sacrifice is made. <b>(Keywords: Draining, Mystical (x2), Scary)</b></i></p><p>(This threat might come at a critical moment when a major sacrifice must be made for dramatic purposes in the story)</p><p><br /></p><p><b>Black Dog (Minor)</b></p><p>Eyes that shine, burnin' red</p><p>Dreams of you all through my head</p><p><i>The black dog has become synonymous with depression, but is also a creature from traditional English folklore. It hounds a mortal, slowly driving them insane. Like the angels of death just mentioned, most people don't see the black dogs, but scarecrows do. There may be a few black dogs in a story, they are often symptomatic of other issues in the area.<b> (Keywords: Scary, Mystical)</b></i></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg7osTYlZWSfOFnppGib8ENKVHki5fgoWnYmznlfSzPbpGvTzQmDfAmpVMf8TSQCxj_gm-cy9Bqb3nm5mZ07_EgRzYpOgnQJgzj1IaB7eRJq9rifOu-1sU-9D93emYs5JIntCnwQ73dbkEoPQuvzvyO5XEcl6zF_el8jQFHHqpH2y9Wnwp2DoXJrFvvz590/s1024/3o3ArJmLHnkHIMSYHHID--1--6vpnr.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1024" data-original-width="1024" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg7osTYlZWSfOFnppGib8ENKVHki5fgoWnYmznlfSzPbpGvTzQmDfAmpVMf8TSQCxj_gm-cy9Bqb3nm5mZ07_EgRzYpOgnQJgzj1IaB7eRJq9rifOu-1sU-9D93emYs5JIntCnwQ73dbkEoPQuvzvyO5XEcl6zF_el8jQFHHqpH2y9Wnwp2DoXJrFvvz590/s320/3o3ArJmLHnkHIMSYHHID--1--6vpnr.jpg" width="320" /></a></div><br /><p><br /></p><p><b>Kashmir (1) (Major)</b></p><p>Oh, pilot of the storm who leaves no trace</p><p>Like sorts inside a dream</p><p><i>This unseelie fey entity exists invisibly to both mortals and scarecrows on the physical plane, lingering only in the astral plane aound dreaming mortals, feeding on their emotions and causing a maelstrom of psychic energy around them. The maelstrom causes living dreamers to have erratic slumber, and if they linger too long there will be an epidemic of nightmares and people on edge. It feeds on dreams, and can only be confronted there; the longer it remains unaddressed, the more powerful it becomes. <b>(Keywords: Connected, Mystical, Tricky (x2)) </b></i> </p><p><br /></p><p><b>Kashmir (2) (Minor)</b></p><p>To sit with elders of the gentle race</p><p>This world has seldom seen</p><p><i>The elders of the gentle race are a group of seelie fey, they aren't necessarily bad, but they have agendas that may run at cross purposes to the scarecrows. Generally, these creatures play games with the mortals around them as chess pieces, and these games are convoluted and can play out over years, if not generations. Time means nothing to them, but a carefl disraction or two can see them retreat to the shadows and let thngs play out in the short term, while their long term game plays out. <b>(Keywords: Connected, Slow)</b></i></p><p><br /></p><p><b>Immigrant Song (Monstrous)</b></p><p>We are your overlords</p><p><i>It isn't often that the immortal warriors of the fey descend on the mortal world to engage in the wild hunt, but when they do smart creatures know to stay out of their way. Tragically, most mortals don't believe in the wild hunt anymore, and they are unprepared whn it arrives. Many scarecrows have seen their mortal allies hunted and captured by the hunt over the years. <b>(Keywords: Mystical, Predatory, Protected (Fear, Injury), Scary, Talented (Animal Ken, Hunting, Intimidation, Savagery), Vicious)</b></i></p><p>(With additional tokens spent, the wild hunt may have any gifts that a scarecrow could possess. Typically those from Autumn)</p><p><br /></p><p><b>Ramble On (Minor)</b></p><p>Twas in the darket depths of Mordor</p><p>I met a girl so fair</p><p><i>Not all threats in a story need to e particularly menacing, some might just be disractions to the main storyline. These types of threats might eat away at the time limit for the scarecrows, or might consume resources because they look like they pose more of a complication than they actually do. Sometimes these "threats" might actually be beeficial if a character plays their cards right (pun intended). <b>(Keywords: Connected, Transforming)</b> </i></p><p>(Here's a good example of where drawing inspiration from an assortment of lyrics provides a wide scope for interpretation. I could have easily made this into a major or even monstrous shapeshifting threat, but I figured we just needed a few more low level entries in the mix)</p><p><br /></p><p><b>Going to California (Major, 2-part)</b></p><p>The mountains and canyons started to tremble and shake</p><p>The children of the sun began to awake, watch out</p><p><i>Generally in a session, things should generally be resolved by about 3 or 4 am. This leaves a couple of hours to clean up any mess, so that the humans are none-the-wiser when they wake up at dawn.I like to try to make sure everything is neatly wrapped up at the end of a session, so that way if a player misses the next sessionit doesn't make a major impact on the storyline. In this game it works well, because it just means that different scarecrows are awakened by the fey on different nights. Sometimes, to make things a bit different, I'll activate a cliffhanger that can't be resolved until a future session. That's where a threat like this comes in. If there are enough tokens left over near the end, ready to be activated as a threat, then an earthquake could rock the world. There's no real way to prevent this, just survive it and prevent damage (much like the levee at the beginning of today's sequence) <b>(Keywords: High Profile, Vicious)</b>. The second threat comes when the humans awaken to the chaos, and possibly cause problems of their own as they "try to clean up the mess" <b>(Keywords: High Profile, Slow)</b>. </i></p><p>(Again, interpreting the lyrics in adifferent way could have resulted in the arrival of some kind of supernatural counterpart to the scarecrows who only operate during daylight hours, or entities affiliated to the sun in some other way... there's no particular right or wrong, a lot of the back end design stuff at this point is just going with what feels right)</p><p><br /></p><span><a name='more'></a></span><p><br /></p><p>As I write this, I've just come home from a drive of 600 kilometres or so, and in that time I did plenty of thinking about this project. One of those trains of thought considered how this project might have evolved differently if I used the lytrics of a different band of artist. Any variantlike this would probably need to work with a band (or artist) that has a strong visual element and consistency across their work. </p><p><b>Babymetal</b> - Rather than scarecrows and primal fey imagery, a game driven in this direction would probably tend toward a group of "magical girls" empowered by the energies of an immortal fox spirit who needs jobs done in the mundane world. Instead of a time limit, things would probably ramp up to high levels of danger and adrenaline as a global metalpocalypse threatened. Each session would either end in the fall of the world, or a return to normal, with the mundane world none-the-wiser as it goes about it's boring regularity. While not empowered by the fox spirit, the magical girls would just be regular schoolkids, shop assisants, secretaries, and other low key members of society. </p><p><b>Tom Waits</b> - I actually wrte some ideas for a Tom Waits inspired RPG many years ago...(<a href="https://vulpinoid.blogspot.com/2015/11/rust-city-blues.html">here it is</a>)...a lot of the ideas still hold up, even though it was almost a decade ago. I even went with a card based FUBAR implementation to develop the character concepts back then. I'm thinking it could be tied in well to the game idea I had which plays out on the last night of a ten year deal with a crossroads demon. We have scene flashbacks, explaining how the characters lives unfolded, the gritty underbelly of society, and what led them to this climactic moment.</p><p><b>The KLF</b> - The Ancients of Mu exist outside time and space. The characters are trascendental sleeper agents who astrally project in their dreams where the briefing of the nights issues are held in a mysterious astral white room. They work to resolve the issues in the world only in dreams, and only during the witchig hour of 3am eternal (once the clock reaches 4, everything resets back to 3am if the issues have not been resolved). It's all a bit "Groundhog Day". </p><p><b>David Bowie</b> - The distinct visual style of Bowie changed a few times over the years, so it mght be better to pick a specific period such as the Ziggy Stardust days, or the Alladin Sane days. Of course the problem here is that there isn't as wide a breadth of lyrics to draw from. As a variant, it might be a case that each player draws on a single era of Bowie and builds their characer around the concepts specifically relating to this era. </p><p><b>Lordi / GWAR</b> - Monster bands are an easy translation. </p><p><b>Halestorm</b> - Thereare a couple of common themes running through the songs of Halestorm, often relating to outsiders who have to stick together agaist an oppressive world, so that's already got common ground with the FUBAR system and many of the other ideas in this listing. Like David Bowie, the frontwoman of Halestorm, Lzzy Hale, has expermented with a few personae over the years including a Ms. Hyde identity based on Jekyll and Hyde lore, they've got a comic that I beeie is liked to this concept, but there have been issues with that, so I haven't actually read it so far... she has also appeared in GWAR, so theres crossover potentia with ideas there. </p><p>There are probably plenty more, these were just some of the options that came to mind during the drive.</p><p><br /></p><p><br /></p><p><br /></p>Vulpinoidhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04511600075328621953noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2482451413021840738.post-90001497802059249062024-01-20T01:22:00.002+11:002024-01-21T13:47:24.907+11:00Creating a Game (Part 14) - Variant Threats<p>When I run games, I often have a vague understanding of the various forces in play and how they will react when certain things might occur. I like the agency to be in the hands of my players, and like to make sure a lot of the events in the world happen as reactions to their choices (or to their lack of choices). The FUBAR system faciliates this sort of play. We don't necessarily know whre the story will end up. Instead it is divided ito four acts: context, complication, climax and conclusion. </p><p>The context phase allows exploration of the world, and once enough trigers have been activated (or once adequate worldbuilding has been established for the session) play moves to the complication phase of the game. During the context phase, there isn't a lot of token movement, one or two minor threats might come into play, but they don't really seem to have a lot of impact on the deeper story for the session. This isn't entirely true, the minor threats probably work best as hints of something deeper, or the surface symptoms that are more noticeable while the underlying causes will be addressed later once the characters have begun to understand what's going on. Not every element introduced during the context phase will be linked to the major problems of the session... some might end up being linked to issues in later sessions, other might not be linked to anything at all. The narrator of the game doesn't necessarily know where things are heading, they're just contextualising the actions taken by the characters, and working with the players to create a story that generally makes sense.</p><p>The complication phase is where more prominent threats come into the story. Easy options to introduce such threats might be with foreshadowed elements that were mentioned earlier. Maybe its mentioned in the context phase that there are no cars on the streets tonight, the major threat that comes into play is suddenly revealing that there is a curfew on the town, or a military enfored quarantine. It could be just as possible to have a minor threat from the context phase return with reinforcements...or if that minor threat was killed, maybe their friends come looking for vengeance. Remember that this is intended to be a game about choices and consequences... doing nothing, or hiding, is a choice with it's own consequences. </p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj91GVhREnkRK0gjAW0u9pqGM2gNWY8bVdCwhHxhDx_cdjLlMmyfrPRWpPQbqyefUfnaNdRmSv-T6XYjPRAIo5o5rZDIeCrBlW_FcCkoEHbdaU5EJDHwVuNIX3m1qNJKl23zBc3UfItI96Y17uSBNW93S6nhIxRorpgJxPApmUrgZQZ_U4M8UndSvyk6EwK/s1024/S5Jdsku1czzpYjXTtYco--1--f50em.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1024" data-original-width="1024" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj91GVhREnkRK0gjAW0u9pqGM2gNWY8bVdCwhHxhDx_cdjLlMmyfrPRWpPQbqyefUfnaNdRmSv-T6XYjPRAIo5o5rZDIeCrBlW_FcCkoEHbdaU5EJDHwVuNIX3m1qNJKl23zBc3UfItI96Y17uSBNW93S6nhIxRorpgJxPApmUrgZQZ_U4M8UndSvyk6EwK/s320/S5Jdsku1czzpYjXTtYco--1--f50em.jpg" width="320" /></a></div><br /><p><br /></p><h3 style="text-align: left;">What are the threats?</h3><p>I've aready established that I like my games to have a range of threats. Not everything confronting the scarecrows in this gam should be connected to the Dullahan corporation. I'll be developing a few potential threats that could be thrown into a session, but I also like to create basic systems that can allow players and narrators to develop their own story elements. That's just a part of the way I design. I try to create a framework, then provide examples that work within that framework.</p><p>Generally in the game, a minor threat should be something that a single character should be able to confront witout major threat to their lives or livelihood. In FUBAR, a single story token can be used to force a character to make a test, increase the difficulty of a test they face, or add a trait into the scene that causes complications until it is removed.</p><p>If a character is introduced with one of these tokens, there is usually no need to give them a name or any major defining features, the character is just an obstacle on the way to something, a single successful action can eliminate any probems they might be causing in the story. Such characters add flavour and context, but rarely make an impact unless a player decided to form a bond with them, in which case they may start to develop a name and traits of their own. </p><p>Let''s start by defining a couple keywords that might be applied quickly and easily to threats:</p><blockquote style="border: none; margin: 0px 0px 0px 40px; padding: 0px; text-align: left;"><div style="text-align: left;"><i><b>Connected</b> - A threat introduced later will have knowledge of the characters and what happened when they confronted this one. <br /></i><i><b>Draining</b> - This threat has the ability to drain the enchantment that empowers a scarecrow. It may do this as a regular action as long as it is touching the scarecrow. (or at a single level of penalty if not touching the scarecrow, but within a few metrres)<br /></i><i><b>Gifted (X)</b> - This threat is considered to have one (or more) of the gifts that can be found among the scarecrows. Using this gift, designated by the "X", finctions exactly the same way it would for a scarecrow.<br /></i><i><b>High Profile</b> - Sacrifices against this threat tend to draw the attention of other threats in the area, such as the local authorities (or the Dullahan corporation)<br /></i><i><b>Mystical</b> - Any mundane actions against this threat have their successes reduced by a degree.<br /></i><i><b>Negapsychic</b></i><i> - Any use of gifts or mystic effects against this threat are at a penalty.</i> </div></blockquote><blockquote style="border: none; margin: 0px 0px 0px 40px; padding: 0px; text-align: left;"><div style="text-align: left;"><i><b>Predatory</b> - This threat begins hidden, it will attack the characters if it sees an advantage.<br /></i><i><b>Protected (X)</b> - This threat is protected from a certain type of condition, the first time this condition is applied to the threat ignore it. A threat might be protected from injury, fear, confusion, etc. as designated by the "X".<br /></i><i><b>Scary</b> - Sacrifices gained while confrotning this threat cause a character togain the "scared" condition. </i> </div></blockquote><blockquote style="border: none; margin: 0px 0px 0px 40px; padding: 0px; text-align: left;"><div style="text-align: left;"><i><b>Slow</b> - Every action taken to adress this threat takes 15 minutes, sacrifices may cause another 15 mintes to be wasted.<br /></i><i><b>Talented (X)</b> - This threat possesses one or more non-core traits, as designated by the "X" ()two traits each time this is selected)<br /></i><i><b>Transforming</b> - This threat can change it's form between two different appearances. <br /></i><i><b>Tricky</b> - There is a seperate negative trait that mus be overcome before this threat can be addressed. <br /></i><i><b>Vicious</b> - This threat cannot be reasoned with, and will attempt to harm the characters during each of its actions. </i></div></blockquote><p>Threats aren't necessarily the driving forces for the story, they are mere elements that help contribue to the wider narrative. A good threat isn't always killed or neutralised, and a careful or clever character could turn a threat to their side, and then possible use it to their advantage later in the story.</p><p>Now we'll look at the levels of threats and see how those keywords might work in context. </p><h3 style="text-align: left;">Minor</h3><p>A minor threat is introduced into the game by spending two tokens, so it makes sense that this level of problem would be twice as bad as a typical inconvencience. So we can probably assume that it could cause long term inconvenience, and might not be obvious initially, or maybe there will be some kind of issue that means direct confrontation is slightly harder than first expected.</p><p>A minor threat is roughly equivalent in power to a single player character. In fact a minor threat will have a name and probably a couple of traits to indicate what theyare good in (and what areas they might be weak in). Some minor threat characters could have a character sheet generated up for them that can be used in play to present it's potential against scarecrows.</p><p>A non-character minor threat could be something that causes minor complications across the whole setting of the story, potentially cause a short term injures or penalties a group of scarecrows, or a long term/major problem to a lone scarecrow. The scarecrows will generally face about as many minor threats as there are characters in the game.</p><p>Minor threats will typically have 2 keywords associated wth them. If the threat is a character, at least one of these will be of the "Talented" type. </p><p><i>Examples:</i></p><p><i>The characters find that the next clue in the store is in a secure location like a bank vault, safe, or known by someone currently locked up in a psychiatric ward. It will take at least one fifteen minute slot (probably more) to get that next clue, or risk injuries/notoriety if you try to do it quicker. <b>(Keywords: Slow, Tricky)</b></i></p><p><i>A police detective (or private eye) is looking into the same things that the scarecrows are. While the detective remains active, the characters suffer an ongoing penalty to their investigation rolls if they want to maintain a low profile and avoid detection by the mundane citizens of the world. <b>(Keywords: High Profile, Talented (Allies, Knowledge))</b></i></p><p><i>An animal enchanted by the fey has been causing problems, and will alert the mundane authorities to the presence of the supernatural if it is not dealt with quickly. Chasing down this animal will take a couple of fifteen minute time slots. <b>(Keywords: Mystical, Slow)</b></i></p><p><i>A strange plant is growing on the outskirts of town, it seems to be preventing other plants from flowering or fruiting. <b>(Keywords: Mystical, Slow) </b></i></p><p><i>A storm has swept into the area, any actions occuring outdoors have a penalty associated with them, and there is nothing much the scarecrows can do about it. <b>(Keywords: Tricky, Vicious)</b></i></p><p><i>A security guard starting to learn to much (is he a member of Dullahan) <b>(Keywords: Connected, Talented (Awareness, Firearms))</b></i></p><p><i>(A minor Dullahan threat might be a company surveyor (starting a chain reaction of escalating consequeces if he is allowed to finish his survey, or calling in bigger Dullahan threats if anything bad happens to him) <b>(Keywords: Connected, Talented (Appraisal, Knowledge))</b>.</i></p><h3 style="text-align: left;">Major</h3><p>A major threat is introduced into the game by spending four tokens, so they should probably be twice as dangerous (or problematic) as minor threats.</p><p>Major threats should provide some kind of connection between the reguar events happening in the aream and the underlying issues that the faeries have awakened the scarecrows to address. They shouldn't necessarily be too much of a threat to the characters, but should take at leasts a scene or two to resolve, and should case some injuries and problems for the characters as they learn more about the issues unfolding around them. The scarecrows will generally face no more than half as many major threats as there are characters in the game.</p><p>Major threats will typically have 4 keywords associated wth them. If the threat is a character, a least two of these will be of the "Talented" type.</p><p><i>Examples:</i></p><p><i>A pack of wild dogs is roaming the area <b>(Keywords: Scary, Talented (Awareness, Hunting, Intimidation, Savagery), Vicious)</b></i></p><p><i>A street gang is vandalising property in the area <b>(Keywords: Connected, Predatory, Talented (Intimidation, Melee, Stealth, Survival))</b></i></p><p><i>A power outage has caused the local community to be on edge. <b>(Keywords: High Profile, Slow, Tricky(x2))</b></i></p><p><i>A number of people have started reporting ghostly apparitions in their houses, theyve started alertig the authorities to this and that can't be a good thing. <b>(Keywords: Draining, High Profile, Mystical, Scary) </b></i></p><p><i>A major Dullahan threat might be a security guard with a team of company troubleshooters. They have an idea that something dangerous is in the area but aren't sure what.<b>(Keywords: Connected, Protected (Injury), Talented (Appraisal, Firearms, Survival, Occult))</b> </i></p><h3 style="text-align: left;">Monstrous</h3><p>A monstrous threat is introduced into the game by spending six tokens, so they're another degree more dangerous. I'm not sure if we should do this in a linear manner (in which a monstrous threat is three times as danerous as a minor threat, and 50% more dangerous than a major threat), or whether I should do it in an exponential manner (in which the new level of threat is twice as high as the prevous one, therefore making a monstrous threat four times as dangerous as a minor threat and twice as dangerous as a major threat). I guess the actual implementation in the game is going to be a bit fuzzy anyway, so trying to work out specifics is never going to be perfect.</p><p>Monstrous threats will generally be the climax of a session, these are the reasons behind the problems in the world that they have been awakened to address. The scarecrows will typically face a single monstrous threat in the session, but may encounter a second one (somehow related to the first, as a campaign head toward it's final climax). </p><p>Major threats will typically have 8 keywords associated wth them. If the threat is a character, a least three of these will be of the "Talented" type.</p><p><i>Examples:</i></p><p><i>Property developers have been behind the problems in the area, They are organising to get some prime parcels of land signed into their name in the next few days. <b>(Keywords: Connected, High Profile, Talented (Allies, Bureaucracy, Intimidation, Negotiation, Persuasion, Wealth), Tricky(x3))</b></i></p><p><i>Paranormal investigators have been stirring up issues that would have been better left untouched, and this has caused many of the night's problems. <b>(Keywords: Draining, Negapsychic, Talented (Allies, Awareness, Luck, Melee, Occult, Ritual), Tricky(x3))</b> </i></p><p><i>A temporal distortion is sweeping across the region, and gradually consuming all mystical energy in its wake. The problems in the area have been a backlash against this effect, but only now is its true appearance becoming apparent. <b>(Keywords: Draining, Negapsychic (x3), Slow, Tricky (x2), Vicious)</b></i></p><p><i>A monstrous Dullahan threat migt be a robotic abomination that the company leaves in reserve to take out threats of an otherworldly nature. Once this things hits the story, thing <u>will</u> get messy. <b>(Keywords: Negapsychic, Predatory, Protected (Injury, Fear), Scary, Talented (Hunting, Intimidation, Savagery, Stealth), Vicious)</b></i></p><p><i></i></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><i><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgREgKDWS7wsyZig6ttK7zt7CT3MrtiddNKThM917ZV1wx1wlCD-jQQ_4n3XjsxHsND1XZyeaAmQfoHPiJwSBGIDc9rARgxiaWISr8sdR5ZZiy_fLXc7ykk21b0voGHNHH3AKCV2AIYdFAdkPLUweVe67eDF2eqx_xzkQs2t5eU6vS13mbgf1Bx0f8mdGLD/s1024/8j0kfzzsQ5hkwXWToL7A--1--6lx0h.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1024" data-original-width="1024" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgREgKDWS7wsyZig6ttK7zt7CT3MrtiddNKThM917ZV1wx1wlCD-jQQ_4n3XjsxHsND1XZyeaAmQfoHPiJwSBGIDc9rARgxiaWISr8sdR5ZZiy_fLXc7ykk21b0voGHNHH3AKCV2AIYdFAdkPLUweVe67eDF2eqx_xzkQs2t5eU6vS13mbgf1Bx0f8mdGLD/w400-h400/8j0kfzzsQ5hkwXWToL7A--1--6lx0h.jpg" width="400" /></a></i></div><i><br /><b><br /></b></i><p></p><p><i><b><br /></b></i></p><span><a name='more'></a></span><p><br /></p><p>So far, the idea seems to be working. I guess it's just going to take some playtesting to ensure things actually do work the way I'm envisioning. But something is missing...</p>Vulpinoidhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04511600075328621953noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2482451413021840738.post-18461565846562033372024-01-16T16:40:00.002+11:002024-01-21T09:59:43.619+11:00Creating a Game (Part 13) - Dullahan<p>Dullahan is another name for headless horseman. It is an Irish spirit often considered one of the unseelie fey, as well as being malicious and fierce. This might work well as the source of power behind the mysterious corporation. It will probably also work well as the name of the corporation.</p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjYvFlew4hXTVUcP5pU1MVv-6QGxGt0OZpOTE4DQxkxbM3SQL3EXM9q_S__9Kd_iqGPHHDNEzifua0idYfj39Ay7hJM_R5xsMmXPLbfi9SWGGfW-xpskUx498h6xVXIT1De-M6xJKsJw6oKitk2dYDE5ujTN9S4IzY7d3n8Se08WC9bs-neanH6St6jBoXx/s537/dullahan-3.webp" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="537" data-original-width="417" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjYvFlew4hXTVUcP5pU1MVv-6QGxGt0OZpOTE4DQxkxbM3SQL3EXM9q_S__9Kd_iqGPHHDNEzifua0idYfj39Ay7hJM_R5xsMmXPLbfi9SWGGfW-xpskUx498h6xVXIT1De-M6xJKsJw6oKitk2dYDE5ujTN9S4IzY7d3n8Se08WC9bs-neanH6St6jBoXx/s320/dullahan-3.webp" width="248" /></a></div><br /><p><br /></p><p>Given scarecrows are a generally associated with British folklore, the idea might be to have a group of seelie fey who bring the scarecrows to life, while the Dullahan Corporation is driven by the Unseelie.</p><p>However, a bit of research indicates that scarecrows have actually been in use since the time of the ancient Egyptians. This begs the question of whether we push the shadowy backstory of the Scarecrows back further, all the way to Egypt, or whether the first scarecrows to be animated were in fields in the British Islands.</p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhrIiOpYmZ7sHA9GT_88BbBQ7CVK6kQawBA0mJoJLeOz5am98dgVSSdE6QQeSXfchAbtr_m-TQ2YhyphenhyphenGrJH4pcwQl7HU0dT-Q9TZJS-aT7YEuN55pJv7i5H-w0TJntyVSUqla2yiUkPICVkRaWUap94ZiUePTHnWnZ5r0NGmlx83XFBpTSOl_JdcwMICfEvd/s3900/2022_5$largeimg_1363548900.jpeg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="2536" data-original-width="3900" height="208" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhrIiOpYmZ7sHA9GT_88BbBQ7CVK6kQawBA0mJoJLeOz5am98dgVSSdE6QQeSXfchAbtr_m-TQ2YhyphenhyphenGrJH4pcwQl7HU0dT-Q9TZJS-aT7YEuN55pJv7i5H-w0TJntyVSUqla2yiUkPICVkRaWUap94ZiUePTHnWnZ5r0NGmlx83XFBpTSOl_JdcwMICfEvd/s320/2022_5$largeimg_1363548900.jpeg" width="320" /></a></div><p>Do we really need this much shadow history in the game, especially if it isn't going to directly influence play?</p><p>In this setting, maybe the Arabian folk tales of djinn relate to the same types of creatures that are remembered as faeries in European folklore. </p><p>It's possible to tie in all the world's mythology, but as I said earlier, trying to tie everything together too neatly just starts getting trite and feels off. I'm going to leave this game focused on Celtic mythlore. I don't need the recipe to draw in flavours from the whole world.</p><p>I'd rather leave Dullahan as a mystery, dropping a few hints here and there, especially with characters who've been around for centuries remembering things that groups associated with the company might have been responsible for. Was Dullahan connected to the global trade imperialism of the British East India Company? Were they associated with the rum distillery who's liquour was connected to the 1808 Rum Rebellion? Which side of the troubles in Northern Ireand were they sponsoring (or were they behind both sides)?</p><p>The scarecrows don't know all of this, and it's more likely that at the start of play they might not know any of this. Anything they do learn will probably come from unreliable narrators within the story, and nothing about the shadowy adversary will be certain. If I do end up expanding the game, and if I do end up writing a specific sourcebook about Dullahan and it's operations in the world, it will be written as an in-game artifact compiled by a conspiracy theorist. Lots of hints and ideas for play, but nothing definitive for players to argue with the GM about.</p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgVyX88xJSIJBVfwISutLktUatb9zi_fucbJFhyphenhyphen4N3asF1Q92Z8kUHvq09LQChz2WItyHI81ccJ2y0hujrdCvwPUy33sf4t1UriNXSpBlQp2I7K80s8OTNE7KKndrkCzex61jHgTxWuTexnpvRWj6F5e1vtVo2L4jQ9Bn0PJCPh5LqP4N_vSmF4yr2lP6Or/s880/download%20(1).jpeg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="559" data-original-width="880" height="203" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgVyX88xJSIJBVfwISutLktUatb9zi_fucbJFhyphenhyphen4N3asF1Q92Z8kUHvq09LQChz2WItyHI81ccJ2y0hujrdCvwPUy33sf4t1UriNXSpBlQp2I7K80s8OTNE7KKndrkCzex61jHgTxWuTexnpvRWj6F5e1vtVo2L4jQ9Bn0PJCPh5LqP4N_vSmF4yr2lP6Or/s320/download%20(1).jpeg" width="320" /></a></div><br /><p><br /></p><p>This <a href="https://taking10.blogspot.com/2021/10/rage-against-capitalism-pentex-as.html">blog post about Pentex</a> by Neal Litherland, give some ideas for Pentex that would be just as useful when dealing with any mysterious corporate antagonist, like Dullahan.</p><p><br /></p><p> </p><p> </p><p><br /></p>Vulpinoidhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04511600075328621953noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2482451413021840738.post-13899204556575322942024-01-16T11:29:00.002+11:002024-01-18T21:56:56.891+11:00Creating a Game (Part 12) - Global and Local<p>One of the closest analogues I can think of or this game is "Werewolf: the Apocalypse", where primal warriors with cultural lineages fight against a global environmental meltdown driven by an evil global corporation called Pentex, and dark sinister forces from the spirit world are fueling the fight to destroy the world as we know it.</p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiU99VgjVd05CFKcBF69V727jtO8fernbhaFzIEUIMy0wFm2ehBpK1dK9Pab0UaT5AKUnnOhyphenhyphengSZnTjabaTlkiKRU9s9D9tpZP-_Nakuw2CTwcInd_bGwKyo1djzNGw6wT-MqZXRWtrrAlpEtF8lt2Dc6MbPBuu_kF8SSuNacwkrEkH8VZ-sKwLDFlxH7rn/s1826/a3c7c28decf31c845a96bd79162a2a3b.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1826" data-original-width="688" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiU99VgjVd05CFKcBF69V727jtO8fernbhaFzIEUIMy0wFm2ehBpK1dK9Pab0UaT5AKUnnOhyphenhyphengSZnTjabaTlkiKRU9s9D9tpZP-_Nakuw2CTwcInd_bGwKyo1djzNGw6wT-MqZXRWtrrAlpEtF8lt2Dc6MbPBuu_kF8SSuNacwkrEkH8VZ-sKwLDFlxH7rn/w242-h640/a3c7c28decf31c845a96bd79162a2a3b.jpg" width="242" /></a></div><p><br /></p><p>I'm thinking there needs to be some kind of global antagonist for the setting, a shadowy conspiracy that either knows the truth about the Scarecrows, or has enough evidence that it will piece things together soon. This adds a degree of threat to the stories, and such an organisation in the game helps to serve as a measure to prevent players from giving their characters too high a profile. </p><p>This isn't the type of group that can be confronted head on...but it shouldn't be a no-win scenario forthe scarecrows either. I'm thinking that this mysterious corporation is a bit like an "Umbrella Corporation" from Resident Evil, the "Shinra Electric Corporation" from Final Fatasy, or "Weyland Yutani" from the Alien franchise (although it has spilled into other popular culture franchises). The corporation has grand goals and is fighting a war on multiple fronts, it has politicians in its pockets, scientists pushing the envelope of technology (beyond moral and ethical means), and paramilitary soldiers who act as corporate security operating in grey areas outside the law. The majority of the company is shell corporations and fronts, it makes it's money from factories, retail chains, media streaming services, bankers, insurance brokers, and almost everything that conspiracy theorists believe is wrong with the world.</p><p>Driven by a combination of corporate greed, and spiritual defilement, the corporation has massive plans on a global scale. It focuses on the big picture, and anything like the scarecrows are just a minor blip on its radar. At a local level, individual operatives and teams of troubleshooters may know about the scarecrows, but they'll generally be considered crackpots and lunatics. Head office could send money, reources and equipment to confront the scarecrows, but the accountants and analysts want evidence before they commit. Instead, the front line members of the company are sent nebulous goals, such as claiming an area, kidnapping someone, or corporate espionage. The area could be home to a scarecrow, or some kind of mystic site (claim it to gai power for the corporate overlords, or desecrate it to prevent their enemies gaining power). The kidnapped person could be bonded to a scarecrow, or could have information vital to a later plot-line. The corporate espionage might seem to have nothing to do with the scarecrows, but it might affect people and places the scarecrows do have connections to.</p><p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg4xVOsj1EmpWgXz3Qv8AgSNdgw2UKT-YZldh3SmuT1fGSJZ4GP4EfGsLFNFsy9LcvcB8wSzyc3HPG2Y8Y4zftvzv6aQP3kuu1HroohT3RE4PUY77WW-PWWWp_d12yYhHEeqhmIl-HSAls4CACuyp54AotTAU7WzL7eneyX1p759QGKfiEzpw0Y3X9mOs11/s988/d4q65p-0f1ad858-0720-46f8-8c7d-ff838bad9686.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="765" data-original-width="988" height="248" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg4xVOsj1EmpWgXz3Qv8AgSNdgw2UKT-YZldh3SmuT1fGSJZ4GP4EfGsLFNFsy9LcvcB8wSzyc3HPG2Y8Y4zftvzv6aQP3kuu1HroohT3RE4PUY77WW-PWWWp_d12yYhHEeqhmIl-HSAls4CACuyp54AotTAU7WzL7eneyX1p759QGKfiEzpw0Y3X9mOs11/s320/d4q65p-0f1ad858-0720-46f8-8c7d-ff838bad9686.jpg" width="320" /></a></div><br />The corporation should generally find the gothic elements of the setting just as mysterious as the scarecrows...just other elements of strangeness that cause problems with their plans. Note that the members of the corporation probably don't consider themselves evil, they just percieve dangers in the world and want to bring "stability" and control. Enemies of strangeness are not a monolithic antagonist, there are just towing the party line, maybe as bullies, maybe to avoid being bullied. Individuals in the group might want power within the corporation, or a chance to gain wealth in the wider world, but there's also a chance that a specific individual might be a decent person trying to bring down the company from within.<p></p><p>The majority of stories within "Bustle in your Hedgerow" should probably not be about this sinister global corporation. They should probably be about local issues, local people, and local places. However, a shadowy organisation acting as a backer can serve as a foil for certain elements of strangeness that don't fit the mould of the gothic (or explain why local gang members suddenly have access to military level weaponry).</p><p><br /></p><span><a name='more'></a></span><p><br /></p><p>But what name? </p><p> </p><p><br /></p><p><br /></p>Vulpinoidhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04511600075328621953noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2482451413021840738.post-61113938947255746772024-01-16T10:27:00.000+11:002024-01-17T10:48:07.357+11:00Creating a Game (Part 11) - Establishing a Setting<p> According to the stories (and I've been in online conversation with Mark Rein*Hagen to confirm this), the seed of an idea for Vampire: the Masquerade occurred on a cross country road trip, as it passed through the decaying urban environment of <a href="https://thecitylane.com/gary-indiana-a-decaying-city/">Gary, Indiana</a> on the way to a gaming convention. The first writings for the game were done during the nights of that convention. </p><p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://thecitylane.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/04/IMG_3293.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="533" data-original-width="800" height="267" src="https://thecitylane.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/04/IMG_3293.jpg" width="400" /></a></div><br /> <div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://thecitylane.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/04/IMG_3298.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="533" data-original-width="800" height="267" src="https://thecitylane.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/04/IMG_3298.jpg" width="400" /></a></div><br /><p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://thecitylane.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/04/IMG_3304.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="533" data-original-width="800" height="267" src="https://thecitylane.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/04/IMG_3304.jpg" width="400" /></a></div><br /><p>The idea of a world forgotten, of darkness and neglect, of anger at inequality, all seethed under the surface. </p><p>It' a world we're familiar with, but by picking and choosing key elements of it, we can set the tone. We don't need to detail everything, just the changes between the game setting and the real world, the world known by the characters and the world known by the players.</p><p>This game is inspired by the rural communities I've lived in over the past few years. </p><p>It is inspired by the lyrics of Led Zeppelin, with references to British folk-lore, Tolkein, a fantasy America that exists only in dreams, deep raunchy primal energy, and the blues.</p><p>I may have been describing it as "scarecrowpunk", but it is not inspired by the punk band "<a href="https://bunkerpunks.bandcamp.com/album/revenge-e-p">Scarecrow</a>", but in my search for things to write here I came across them and now I have to give them a listen.</p><p>Where I live at the moment is one of the larger inland cities in Australia, specifically the second largest inland city in the state of New South Wales. A city named Tamworth. It's generally known for being the hub of country and western music in Australia, and we're about a week out from the biggest country usic festivals in the southern hemisphere. The current population is about 65,000 (researched as I write this), but there are plans for anextra 10,000 homes, and a push to get the population above 80,000.</p><p>There are bigger cities on the coast, such as Coffs Harbour currently at 77,000 (wth Port Macquarie about the same size), or Newcastle at 460,000 (with the greater Newcastle suburban area over a million), but those are the types of towns that get all the attention when outsiders think of Australia... or even when Australians think about Australia.</p><p>Some of the other towns that I'm thnking about when I write this game are the other places I've lived over the past few years. Some with less only a couple of thousand people, some with only a couple of hundred. Moving house oer the years between these towns, I've stopped overnight in places that seem forgotten by time. Some of these places illuminated by signs of a few streetlights, a beer sign on a pub, and the fridge lights vaguely lighting up the stock in a general store. </p><p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://media.fp-files.com/footprint/5cdf8fd00fee58-09098977/78w6pacomwhyg_l.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="600" data-original-width="800" height="300" src="https://media.fp-files.com/footprint/5cdf8fd00fee58-09098977/78w6pacomwhyg_l.jpg" width="400" /></a></div><div style="text-align: center;">(I couldn't find a picture of this particular town, Urana, at night. But you get the idea...)</div> <p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://cdn.cmca.net.au/cloud/952ab26b-b328-4508-8318-49621d08e114_1556752826537.png" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="800" data-original-width="700" height="400" src="https://cdn.cmca.net.au/cloud/952ab26b-b328-4508-8318-49621d08e114_1556752826537.png" width="350" /></a></div><div><br /></div>These are lands that are losing people as megacorporations buy up the land, and buy up the water rights that farmers need to operate the lands they have tended for generations... but these are also lands with dark histories that have often been deliberately obscured. Indigenous people were driven from the lands so that farmers could take over, and now farmers are being driven from the lands for the multi-nationals. <br /><p><br /></p><p>Combine these ideas with the concept you get in those viral regional gothic posts. Because permeating the underbelly of the setting is a distinct gothic feel, we ae talking about animated scarecrows after all.</p><p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjdP0ludpEMV4GM8aYi7KRuFLYwUHm-7cXkKjEApS1JoBXKmHRUvEZljXhaGhzs0iKWd6jOIC50LFyBIEMC52giBw5zm-ZcqCzNCftSHtzBQYcTa9kKkpjS17P-Oe95LaF2GLXWeaSgwt4-V8b67YS_vFlPimeCp-UadYKl1TedbT3JiLj6UOfUTp4bUavH/s1097/aus_gothic_2.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1097" data-original-width="736" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjdP0ludpEMV4GM8aYi7KRuFLYwUHm-7cXkKjEApS1JoBXKmHRUvEZljXhaGhzs0iKWd6jOIC50LFyBIEMC52giBw5zm-ZcqCzNCftSHtzBQYcTa9kKkpjS17P-Oe95LaF2GLXWeaSgwt4-V8b67YS_vFlPimeCp-UadYKl1TedbT3JiLj6UOfUTp4bUavH/w269-h400/aus_gothic_2.jpg" width="269" /></a></div><br /> <div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhdIv-8zsyeqGif9heC3NBwZHjsQUt_RZyOReFHSE9cxFgaGuJz-Vz1RXfjvXTy0LlET7mcrsIwB73U5j8n3EtHIfaFFtAR1fSH29LYJqtlzbYiTMM3Q2OewYGCwsKoqRrkOuO8GysMvcfcKxjnhxlO_8UolX7Auv63t-hHEBEBHUf0o4_eSKL9jriRnaYS/s960/aus_gothic_1.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="768" data-original-width="960" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhdIv-8zsyeqGif9heC3NBwZHjsQUt_RZyOReFHSE9cxFgaGuJz-Vz1RXfjvXTy0LlET7mcrsIwB73U5j8n3EtHIfaFFtAR1fSH29LYJqtlzbYiTMM3Q2OewYGCwsKoqRrkOuO8GysMvcfcKxjnhxlO_8UolX7Auv63t-hHEBEBHUf0o4_eSKL9jriRnaYS/w400-h320/aus_gothic_1.jpg" width="400" /></a></div><br /><p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhqgikR48Gvt6g40CMCmyAvNQrgIUI3P588eMBjXaA4-mvplVaxGG6vXNW4e2MWTC2gS-1vHEKU3DqRj7MpLBIAP9qwXn6i71kg74kE04azqlu3wnMETlgPS1Iv5PpcurPDWYNlfEnNhVV3B1dn72FVTF6IfuxVWH8LBC6hSgplT4nE-eXCgl67_c68Sn84/s496/gothic_finland.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="496" data-original-width="394" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhqgikR48Gvt6g40CMCmyAvNQrgIUI3P588eMBjXaA4-mvplVaxGG6vXNW4e2MWTC2gS-1vHEKU3DqRj7MpLBIAP9qwXn6i71kg74kE04azqlu3wnMETlgPS1Iv5PpcurPDWYNlfEnNhVV3B1dn72FVTF6IfuxVWH8LBC6hSgplT4nE-eXCgl67_c68Sn84/w318-h400/gothic_finland.png" width="318" /></a></div><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjrxogGZgwaXKlNEwMkO9QMmwYbSvVYJ5X-MYCjxAYL1kHw-Nzu7b5Fn1HoIxyf9LCxMyH_zkwcBSvyU9QQP2gg00yHjzknm-Kad6YxJGr_ISGUycFM85n7u61O5jQxtuy36kxI_02tAP9PPk8CMLWGfVvYhyrQPBqNzMN28GshR1XEOLcTU8PZR-s0XVhQ/s730/gothic_seaside.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="730" data-original-width="564" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjrxogGZgwaXKlNEwMkO9QMmwYbSvVYJ5X-MYCjxAYL1kHw-Nzu7b5Fn1HoIxyf9LCxMyH_zkwcBSvyU9QQP2gg00yHjzknm-Kad6YxJGr_ISGUycFM85n7u61O5jQxtuy36kxI_02tAP9PPk8CMLWGfVvYhyrQPBqNzMN28GshR1XEOLcTU8PZR-s0XVhQ/w309-h400/gothic_seaside.jpg" width="309" /></a></div><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiGQKXnmAA0_TaNlgs7Jz9b3ovsS9NGEML9FEwq_L3mzSsJuBGlW1e7-3RoQfMhz2u1IwTLXewHrVv4GCSmpOM2rpK91OiY53st5qgypCQri7Wv062Q7DeZ5hrmnEBLsmSFegsrQhuBNWwWkPZEzuIIxlW5XJIxx8ixhq78rwIxJv7Oa0ScEvpvhyphenhyphenPe7Rme/s1403/gothic_sml_town.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1403" data-original-width="720" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiGQKXnmAA0_TaNlgs7Jz9b3ovsS9NGEML9FEwq_L3mzSsJuBGlW1e7-3RoQfMhz2u1IwTLXewHrVv4GCSmpOM2rpK91OiY53st5qgypCQri7Wv062Q7DeZ5hrmnEBLsmSFegsrQhuBNWwWkPZEzuIIxlW5XJIxx8ixhq78rwIxJv7Oa0ScEvpvhyphenhyphenPe7Rme/w328-h640/gothic_sml_town.jpg" width="328" /></a></div><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjgHxRsEIIS-EAo4ABPHNfafAnbbYhf-4ycqHbzwAn8R62clpAKsa0pW-mT1dzdtyntmIGBIf03-tikaxXiQWBc_MkFGPqIUNK4t11IB_1ili5zHHBx9p2dLt3t7zR6RNeIOBji7gnDVGJ_fIrWCC-pNbs37amHA2Nrsqxfs4zSNdoVd8npOddDds1lBKdZ/s521/gothic_texas.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="520" data-original-width="521" height="399" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjgHxRsEIIS-EAo4ABPHNfafAnbbYhf-4ycqHbzwAn8R62clpAKsa0pW-mT1dzdtyntmIGBIf03-tikaxXiQWBc_MkFGPqIUNK4t11IB_1ili5zHHBx9p2dLt3t7zR6RNeIOBji7gnDVGJ_fIrWCC-pNbs37amHA2Nrsqxfs4zSNdoVd8npOddDds1lBKdZ/w400-h399/gothic_texas.jpg" width="400" /></a></div><br /><p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjT-NvgjFqDZ3lM6mv0QRDo3_PGaBKlW2-FTAC_yZDgrB8HBscVxNSGbr6ezisUx9qTL7hcQuBLqRXdAzR7Qm6pjIZ5fKn_w3YUJ-uMI6eeeCfSjbVYfRaKnYGZcw9O3U45VQhBAdC2rmMy_1FWGd6cvv7BYIrLrva59fG_cR3QVNKMQpItDtuyt0-WwRTE/s1024/gothic_regional.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="768" data-original-width="1024" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjT-NvgjFqDZ3lM6mv0QRDo3_PGaBKlW2-FTAC_yZDgrB8HBscVxNSGbr6ezisUx9qTL7hcQuBLqRXdAzR7Qm6pjIZ5fKn_w3YUJ-uMI6eeeCfSjbVYfRaKnYGZcw9O3U45VQhBAdC2rmMy_1FWGd6cvv7BYIrLrva59fG_cR3QVNKMQpItDtuyt0-WwRTE/s320/gothic_regional.png" width="320" /></a></div><br /><p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div>Mysterious stuff happens, locals take it for granted. It's all a part of the regional charm. Outsiders don't get it, and when it's explained to them it seems more mundane than it first appears, or maybe there ae no rational ecplanations. Not everything needs to be a part of the story, not everything needs to be explained. The gothic lies in the mystery, before the explanation, that's where the magic lies.<div><br /></div><div>I've always described FUBAR as a dadaist system. It's meant to be a bit absurd, it's meant to be a bit Monty Python, there is meant to be strangeness that just makes players think a bit. Everyone should have an idea about the kinds of strange things that might happen in the game, but not necessarily be certain how that strangeness applies and whether that strangeness will be beneficial or problematic. This actually tends to be the way I run most of my games (no matter what system I'm using). The difference in FUBAR is that the game specifically asks for a range of strangeness to be declared by the players befre the game begins. Everyone writes one or two elements of strangeness on a piece of paper, then those papers are shuffled together and randomly drawn during the course of the game. No one knows what strangeness is going to show up when, but the oddity ramps up as the story unfolds.</div><div><br /></div><div>Setting a game in your local region means players will have an idea of what kinds of strangeness exists in the area. However, players in an urban area may not know the distinctly regional strangeness around them unless they've spent some time outside the suburbs. This isn't necessarily a bad thing, but for the purposes of these rules it might be a good idea to write some sample gothic strangeness samples to inspire players. A range of samples is also beneficial when players don't have much inspiration of their own and just want to choose something quickly rather than use their own imagination.</div><div><br /></div><div>Before play begins, each player fleshes out the setting with two locations, two people, two strange happenings, and two mysterious groups. Half of these will probably appear in the first game, then in future games every player creates (or chooses) one more. These elements of the game will often end up being linked to the characters through their bonds, and the elements that resonate strongest with the players will gradually become better described andmore integral to the overall story each time they come into play.</div><div><br /></div><div>It's generally the way a lot of games are run in a variety of systems, but in this one it's formally a part of the rules.</div><div><br /></div>Vulpinoidhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04511600075328621953noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2482451413021840738.post-29947808097982340392024-01-15T16:04:00.000+11:002024-01-16T17:11:14.998+11:00Creating a Game (Part 10) - Night Mode (and then some)<p>Yeah, it didn't take me long, here's the night mode version of the sheet.</p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEglC2qtk4dTUW7PrDgRhr3kA3jMV6bCx2FaoGPaSqI18mugpoQ6RjZ2TvkvIozre1UqVBLNLqZIp6U_gX1G3eD4oXWK6R_wwPq0qBuCEojkM5AFAvTvdeot3BDTfO-oPcrRK_gO75LpzC6W2jaQmzvFRaMfFCvaA4xN9aU9S3xMPyJfqquKWvJF2Nls49nG/s2181/Scarecrow%20Sheet%20Dark.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1496" data-original-width="2181" height="438" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEglC2qtk4dTUW7PrDgRhr3kA3jMV6bCx2FaoGPaSqI18mugpoQ6RjZ2TvkvIozre1UqVBLNLqZIp6U_gX1G3eD4oXWK6R_wwPq0qBuCEojkM5AFAvTvdeot3BDTfO-oPcrRK_gO75LpzC6W2jaQmzvFRaMfFCvaA4xN9aU9S3xMPyJfqquKWvJF2Nls49nG/w640-h438/Scarecrow%20Sheet%20Dark.png" width="640" /></a></div><p>This is the bit of game design that I really like, the bit where yu make things look atmospheric and appropriate to the themes you're trying to convey to your players (and maybe a bit pretty as well). </p><p>I've also generated up the trait cards, some of which will be prewritten and ready to go, wile others will be left like this so they can be filled in with concepts appropriate to the story as it unfolds.</p><p><br /></p><p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEijt_xS-PV1-J_EaxtrSlZ-Sge8Qq3dkda6tZX8n1eCHgqTtMxNH13IMWqY8LzkZaohznIPvVr447YnLNcdDir_CP8KXqwTcKkNfrn6sn1_EpWWXd512UKmVmAVw4JwL4ByW12xEOsu6QF4rhdXwfVMyClXNERvVlfNa3feRnK7Xz2TPzV33xan2zGmEXVB/s1240/Scarecrow%20Trait.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="874" data-original-width="1240" height="226" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEijt_xS-PV1-J_EaxtrSlZ-Sge8Qq3dkda6tZX8n1eCHgqTtMxNH13IMWqY8LzkZaohznIPvVr447YnLNcdDir_CP8KXqwTcKkNfrn6sn1_EpWWXd512UKmVmAVw4JwL4ByW12xEOsu6QF4rhdXwfVMyClXNERvVlfNa3feRnK7Xz2TPzV33xan2zGmEXVB/s320/Scarecrow%20Trait.png" width="320" /></a></div><br />The bottom of the trait card has space for a player to place a paperclip. This can be slid along the edge to indicate how long the trait will remain in play. I've also included a circle in the lower right corner of the trait card, where I'm thinking of adding some symbols that might add some extra complexity to the game system for those who prefer a bit more crunch to their games.<p></p><p>I'm still thinking about the best way to do this, but I've got a few ideas in mind.</p><p>Some of the gifts in the game might be flavoured according to the type of traits they affect. "Gift A" might have a basic ability that only affects people, while "Gift B" has a basic ability that only affects equipment. If you've got The advanced version of "Gift A", it might let you use "Gift B" on people. But how do we quickly make this lear without needing people to slow down the game and read fine print. So we come up with some symbols. </p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgWiCCnvnJLwW03xmBGFxz_NE2xswUmfS8e-5nfz6CVCykI1focwKolbGDNLaOpdOzrWPlfqIKfCKG454ou5eeu5NuFAJO_biQMSGHdV8InafNKsNrCxrkK6PYk8PUf09W5Clba_UjoQCTZWW2_zXQXRtojdD4MhWbg2uJ5iUGZUEyLUZAiQkHYFOV-ixHj/s512/scarecrow.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="512" data-original-width="512" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgWiCCnvnJLwW03xmBGFxz_NE2xswUmfS8e-5nfz6CVCykI1focwKolbGDNLaOpdOzrWPlfqIKfCKG454ou5eeu5NuFAJO_biQMSGHdV8InafNKsNrCxrkK6PYk8PUf09W5Clba_UjoQCTZWW2_zXQXRtojdD4MhWbg2uJ5iUGZUEyLUZAiQkHYFOV-ixHj/w200-h200/scarecrow.png" width="200" /></a></div><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhkDaN8qSLFv8nfUawg8WrmDo_i23fleClMQUp7GaULEqH-nt9fUIvbZc7YKCaxJF5YqGL_RaqtiKYLXWJxthY1y2ltuS66b6ggIzk1xNQRoK09dR3ra6glecZwrw3HTpodsOIXDscQrSEQKY4gOxLiwh1Z-5vpPvmGR2H_WBxxOU5l_bXWmEUlwHNCGDnh/s512/scarecrow%20(2).png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="512" data-original-width="512" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhkDaN8qSLFv8nfUawg8WrmDo_i23fleClMQUp7GaULEqH-nt9fUIvbZc7YKCaxJF5YqGL_RaqtiKYLXWJxthY1y2ltuS66b6ggIzk1xNQRoK09dR3ra6glecZwrw3HTpodsOIXDscQrSEQKY4gOxLiwh1Z-5vpPvmGR2H_WBxxOU5l_bXWmEUlwHNCGDnh/w200-h200/scarecrow%20(2).png" width="200" /></a><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhBvzVqHaXTA-G6RjGxB_RDy3t7zm0B7JXVuR_fIOpW1iaGpBRjwAHVfXVNbePZq-GzJFPz-gMdkislECNAQlNMRdwwiOV_vxAsxtk-4xEIQQTaRumns1vbereFcHLp5g2fT6WP4BKfnzcWmhtXOAM7dc9RuL8PlLLcMbeXO44xHoG7nfL-w2_kWjWA3C0U/s512/scarecrow%20(1).png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="512" data-original-width="512" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhBvzVqHaXTA-G6RjGxB_RDy3t7zm0B7JXVuR_fIOpW1iaGpBRjwAHVfXVNbePZq-GzJFPz-gMdkislECNAQlNMRdwwiOV_vxAsxtk-4xEIQQTaRumns1vbereFcHLp5g2fT6WP4BKfnzcWmhtXOAM7dc9RuL8PlLLcMbeXO44xHoG7nfL-w2_kWjWA3C0U/w200-h200/scarecrow%20(1).png" width="200" /></a></div></div><div><br /></div>Possible example of a trait symbol that applies only to Scarecrows. One of these proviing a bonus (marked with the "+"), one providing a penalty (marked with the "-"), and one which could go either way (marked with a blank).Like many of the symbols I make for my games, I'm using <a href="https://game-icons.net/">Game Icons</a> to do this. <br /><br />Another idea is playing with the idea that some traits might be more resilient, or more effective in play than others. Players in this game have more agency and ability to control their character's destiny than they do in a lot of games. When traits are affecting a task, players draw a number of cards equal to the numer of traits affecting the task, then they get to apply those cards to the traits. High cards in the game always have better effects than low cards, so it makes a dramtic change to the game if you are forced to placed high or low cards on specific active traits.<div> <br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEibAiRgmhu2K3qHY4u85zQAxzdkDMmkXxCpnDUvvT_-ocWy7TZQpoKeYAd-66dIFyPBqoHh_SsreQsmz4-0oZE5SzT3gwsjAeMgxIisDxO3YVYZsKyaPFCl3Pa6bzs_ickEkbQ23DBJwdwens7RmAlwhUQ771Ya2V9MkaBCXKqCUeG-5F6OJ7BFba5jK-4r/s512/poker-hand.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="512" data-original-width="512" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEibAiRgmhu2K3qHY4u85zQAxzdkDMmkXxCpnDUvvT_-ocWy7TZQpoKeYAd-66dIFyPBqoHh_SsreQsmz4-0oZE5SzT3gwsjAeMgxIisDxO3YVYZsKyaPFCl3Pa6bzs_ickEkbQ23DBJwdwens7RmAlwhUQ771Ya2V9MkaBCXKqCUeG-5F6OJ7BFba5jK-4r/w200-h200/poker-hand.png" width="200" /></a></div><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhlTlxaD0xMTFOfESVhrm5bGtlV8z5uh-BKEDA0GkCDutFSq4sgcmyUgX_Weajn8pV34-US7IwbuvG18uLvg3_WLMd8jfP7OuBS69mgRo3ts9XYDy8ojGoYPasV8xew-frZxOtY1AmL8ZPe5K5_f9242VKmE5SyrIjoMzLrh4zraKsPyTVkOHq_lciUbFhyphenhyphen/s512/poker-hand%20(2).png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="512" data-original-width="512" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhlTlxaD0xMTFOfESVhrm5bGtlV8z5uh-BKEDA0GkCDutFSq4sgcmyUgX_Weajn8pV34-US7IwbuvG18uLvg3_WLMd8jfP7OuBS69mgRo3ts9XYDy8ojGoYPasV8xew-frZxOtY1AmL8ZPe5K5_f9242VKmE5SyrIjoMzLrh4zraKsPyTVkOHq_lciUbFhyphenhyphen/w200-h200/poker-hand%20(2).png" width="200" /></a><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhFgZV6hpV4gt9Q_2-r4TFvMDWhbzZPUibTpoRIae58GhFf7fCjHlCeS3_bidapZwol1vjEuTf0U533hzXgfEDyoBvyO_uReCE72UTGqUeaA_YOqwxY6TBSgWEEjVlQkSHLBn8pie1q-UZ5fSghecjrjAxAyxKRdVqqVqlxTFnV1-OVoHm3sAZQW6k1-6NK/s512/poker-hand%20(1).png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="512" data-original-width="512" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhFgZV6hpV4gt9Q_2-r4TFvMDWhbzZPUibTpoRIae58GhFf7fCjHlCeS3_bidapZwol1vjEuTf0U533hzXgfEDyoBvyO_uReCE72UTGqUeaA_YOqwxY6TBSgWEEjVlQkSHLBn8pie1q-UZ5fSghecjrjAxAyxKRdVqqVqlxTFnV1-OVoHm3sAZQW6k1-6NK/w200-h200/poker-hand%20(1).png" width="200" /></a></div></div><div><br /></div>A high card on a penalty trait has no effect (and is exhausted for the rest of the scene, unless reactivate somehow). A mid-ranked card on a penalty trait means it may give it's penalty but if so, it will be exhausted for the rest of the scene. A low card on a penalty trait causes it's probalem to manifest and the card still lingers as active. Forcing high cards onto specific penalty traits means they are quickly eliminated, but it forces other traits to linger. Forcing low cards onto specific penalty traits means they'll cause their problem consistently.</div><div><br /></div><div>I can see how the mechanisms of play should affect things like this, but it will probably take some serious playtesting to determine how the psychology of this modifies the play experence. I've had games ideas in the past plenty of times, where the understanding of the theory just didn't match the experience of play. <br /><p>The final </p></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjNdHNoz4EiQSBu0k6cXlxm-soZoHFxN6sQRTGmx-BPdWoaULz4oiKzkA6Ffva6P0N8RnrXYMFKmGGnc8gKYO9MY0E1ogwQGvqizWAdlxN4I3v1dcIvxPv-7Zcuw2hdpwAle63_zehoe1FMdOZAc_hv_tXLWKW2Wc1GVAaIHzP3NkIQkkZI2Z29ieKcqyyx/s512/triquetra.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="512" data-original-width="512" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjNdHNoz4EiQSBu0k6cXlxm-soZoHFxN6sQRTGmx-BPdWoaULz4oiKzkA6Ffva6P0N8RnrXYMFKmGGnc8gKYO9MY0E1ogwQGvqizWAdlxN4I3v1dcIvxPv-7Zcuw2hdpwAle63_zehoe1FMdOZAc_hv_tXLWKW2Wc1GVAaIHzP3NkIQkkZI2Z29ieKcqyyx/w200-h200/triquetra.png" width="200" /></a><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEih8_TsprgzDCcXeRtv6w5oYQVdFDGaH9InTc2XVBeJLMcfGxpFBUVpxUQxRdokKeEdMDzgSFNxq2NxC_VBUA9OL6ZJcm5DL2-KR6Rvxq-Q5qpgIlfAxKl6ni5JGRL9TnHNVZDH3gXaT1jE8r0bHd3gI8VxNj6CzBp6Z3p7LzVOFmHfIBjkL7zCuCfKvO1L/s512/triquetra%20(3).png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="512" data-original-width="512" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEih8_TsprgzDCcXeRtv6w5oYQVdFDGaH9InTc2XVBeJLMcfGxpFBUVpxUQxRdokKeEdMDzgSFNxq2NxC_VBUA9OL6ZJcm5DL2-KR6Rvxq-Q5qpgIlfAxKl6ni5JGRL9TnHNVZDH3gXaT1jE8r0bHd3gI8VxNj6CzBp6Z3p7LzVOFmHfIBjkL7zCuCfKvO1L/w200-h200/triquetra%20(3).png" width="200" /></a></div></div><br /><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEglV2H-CW73lEeG_0GB_RKP6R8Xx2SwiQ3KGoqWZOF8zx-oT_EWKvvIhdJS563BCuwAxXCWr_SbAxrvkzTAjriMbzMw7NA1oEiiLElyX8KGDiru_usWV18yvGEpSW5Lj0o4QxarTSPwDT-9d2asKPU38zhZKD8FD_6_89HJbNVpqBl8bDCbXDhvU_ztllZe/s512/triquetra%20(2).png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="512" data-original-width="512" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEglV2H-CW73lEeG_0GB_RKP6R8Xx2SwiQ3KGoqWZOF8zx-oT_EWKvvIhdJS563BCuwAxXCWr_SbAxrvkzTAjriMbzMw7NA1oEiiLElyX8KGDiru_usWV18yvGEpSW5Lj0o4QxarTSPwDT-9d2asKPU38zhZKD8FD_6_89HJbNVpqBl8bDCbXDhvU_ztllZe/w200-h200/triquetra%20(2).png" width="200" /></a><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj7KOiZ_OjuEVs9AucdiNrWWmXAZUmc5ImyqrDSQ7sYxWLQ5DnHUw3abGWrrL9qWQZfTflaiRrLndn57AFEBlRFlicD1VO7fP7PS3HKgoDt-A8BnmCWc53rdzNw42Oe4C6u3Ls_dSw3wfCpBggU4rofkE2kdF5Pq7KoTc1NiNbhxD2GAuANTZYPtKND-vE5/s512/triquetra%20(1).png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="512" data-original-width="512" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj7KOiZ_OjuEVs9AucdiNrWWmXAZUmc5ImyqrDSQ7sYxWLQ5DnHUw3abGWrrL9qWQZfTflaiRrLndn57AFEBlRFlicD1VO7fP7PS3HKgoDt-A8BnmCWc53rdzNw42Oe4C6u3Ls_dSw3wfCpBggU4rofkE2kdF5Pq7KoTc1NiNbhxD2GAuANTZYPtKND-vE5/w200-h200/triquetra%20(1).png" width="200" /></a></div><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div>The final idea I've got at the moment would force a player to place a card of a certain suit on a trait, as long as tey had drawn at least one card matching that suit. If you've got a heart aligned trait, and you don't draw a heart then you can put anything there. If you draw a single heart, you have to place it there. If you draw mutliple hearts, you can place any of them on this particular trait. This feels like it has some potential for flavouring certain tyes of action, and by forcing certain types of suit to be placed it automatically makes some traits more suitable for use with certain gifts than others. If you're gift is affiliated with clubs, you probably don't want to be using heart focused traits. <div><br /></div><div>Again, not really sure, and I might just discard this concept if it starts getting too complex. </div>Vulpinoidhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04511600075328621953noreply@blogger.com0