[PtA] How are the narrative authorities working in this scene?
Ron Edwards:
Hi Moreno,
"Yes, but ..."
... it's also worth noting that Arturo's character's Spotlight episode was immediate, right after the pilot episode. I think that's important. I think that indicates that the player is saying, "This character is not going to be some kind of indulgent exercise in playing a Fascist. We are raising this issue in order to deal with it, not to wallow in it." That's very different from someone who's chosen the spotlight to be in the final episode of the season, in which most of the fun of the character is wallowing in the wrong choices they might make.
And as I said earlier, and at the risk of national stereotyping and/or judgments, it's brave and important for this issue to be confronted by a Spanish group. You're right, though, about letting Arturo be the boss about whether this should be discussed here, or at least in this thread. Arturo, let us know what you think.
Best, Ron
Arturo G.:
Sorry for taking so long to answer. I have come back to work after a long time and I'm a little overwhelmed.
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I am forced to comment on how obnoxious your character is! Moreno, are you reading this? It also strikes me as important that this game is being played by citizens of the nation which endured the longest-lasting Fascist regime in Europe
I decided to play a little son of a bitch. But it is becoming much more twisted than I expected. Anyway, the tone of the series is quite satirical. I think we chose Italy fascism to start with because we are not so concern about it. I mean, if this character were coming from the Spanish civil war, we could be also moving to safer/lighter mockery tone when needed. But I'm sure there could be some connotations and situations that would be reflecting on more serious and nearer issues. Perhaps the character will be more extreme and bitter to play. Any joke or mockery could be much more loaded.
Moreno, this character has the approval of all the other players. We all think is disgusting, funny and grotesque, if these adjectives make any sense together in English.
In the other hand, during the scene where Vincenzo was alone with Alfredo, for a moment we were really expecting him to kill Alfredo. As a player I was prepared to accept it. After that we were talking about the possibility of characters to die or get lost and disappear from the series in climatic situations. It is open. I don't know. Perhaps it is our safety valve in case he becomes too much obnoxious.
Although my main concern is on narrative authorities and our way of playing, it is perfectly OK to talk about this issue here. I was not thinking on it previously and it is interesting.
Arturo G.:
It was missing from the previous post.
I would say I was not really understanding what I was doing, but Ron is right. I have already pose what the character is about in this episode. Thus, I don't need and I don't want to make him repeat the same cliché to show how bad is him again and again in other episodes. From now on, Alfredo will be trying to deal with his situation and issue.
However, I think we are not so concern about the theme of fascism as it may look. We are not rigorous at all with history, facts or intentions. We have already modify its essence or treated it in a very abstract way. What is important for us is the kind of character. Not the exact political ideas supporting it.
By the way, the hilarious sentence was indeed a bad literal translation. Although in archaic Spanish may also mean the same and we may make jokes with it, the normal meaning does not implies that our series is for adults only. Well, it seems that the producer is including one scene every episode with some nudes to increase the audience, but it is quite innocent.
Back to the important matters.
Ron, your definitions of Situation and Plot authorities are slightly different from my previous understanding. I think I'm finally filling up the gaps.
First, I was missing the importance of Screen Presence choices at all levels for Situation. Is is indeed very important in PtA play. Second, I was not considering Situation authority also at conflict initiation. I was not having a name for that kind of interactions. About your comments on our play. I completely agree. I was not liking that kind of conflicts. I found them lame. But I had not an idea of the exact problem or what to do to avoid them. In my previous PtA play, a couple of pilot episodes long long ago, I was not having so much trouble with this. They were situation comedies and we were not having many scenes where noticing something or determining who was were was relevant at all. I completely buy your advise about it.
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It seems to me that Pablo did a good job of realizing this, as he made sure that the cards addressed specifically whether Alfredo was hurt.
Pablo has a long tradition of playing RPGs and thinking on how we play very naturally. He instinctively notices where the meat is and goes for it quickly. However, he is also very used to railroading and he thinks that it is needed to some degree to generate coherent fiction without pain. This is another reason I'm glad he is being the producer and experimenting with PtA.
About Plot authority. I'm beginning to see it with a new light. Previously I was associating it directly with the idea of plot-twists in a book-story, which is not totally correct. Now I'm thinking on the differences of its use in RPGs and another media.
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Plot: the input which closes the outcomes of the crisis situations which are set up via Situation Authority, and therefore it occurs as an ongoing, organic personal interaction with the mechanics of resolving conflicts, resolving scenes, and introducing consequences.
The definition was difficult to follow at first. It talks about "outcomes of the crisis" and the "personal interaction with mechanics" and "introducing consequences", which made me think immediately on resolution and Narrative Authority. The sentence that has helped me to understand you was:
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Also, and more subtly, the use of the cards is also subject to judgment, such that a particular point can be made without them as well. That occurs, in this game, when a person decides that the play up to this point has already satisfactorily produced Plot.
Now I have a complete different problem. I'm feeling like an overlap on the way I think about Plot and Narrative authority. As the later seem to be a possible part of the former in the decision making machine to generate plot.
Ron Edwards:
Hi Arturo,
That's not a problem or a misunderstanding, it's an insight! Remember that the four authorities are Techniques in Big Model terms. That means that they can be formalized as rules, in many, many possible combinations or applications.
In the case of PTA, Narrational Authority* is in fact tied to Plot Authority. This is what the design of the game is intended to do. It uses the same logic as Dust Devils toward that end, and Dust Devils was inspired in that feature by The Pool.
However, that is clearly not necessarily the case. In HeroQuest, the GM is called the Narrator, for a reason - he or she narrates, even for outcomes that are generated by other people's characters. In Sorcerer, narration is left completely unconstructed, based on the risky but generally valid observation that anyone's narration is accepted as long as it's engaged with the fiction and with everyone else. Yet both of those games are just like PTA in that Plot Authority lies very strongly with the people playing the protagonists. Also, unlike PTA, in those games, Plot Authority is expressed specifically as how much risk and consequence arises in quantitative terms as the conflicts are resolved.
Now that you have a better idea of what the authorities are, you'll be able to see how different systems formalize and arrange them. For instance, although the GM has Situation Authority in InSpectres, it's the players who have Content Authority through their dice-rolls.
As a final point, sharing is also a Technique. In PTA, Situational Authority is extremely shared, almost to the point of being a blend.
Best, Ron
* Narration, not narrative. Narration = literally saying things; narrative = story as a flow of communication
Arturo G.:
I think I get it much better now. I will do some homework analyzing again games I know to detect how the authorities work.
Thanks!
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