Ribbon Drive: Fuckknows, VA
mcdaldno:
The incident with Rashid forcing Jenni to jackknife the other vehicle... that's super interesting, and I'm working on a detailed, how-to post on Buried Without Ceremony right now to address it. The short answer right now: I don't see this as an authority issue, but rather an issue of traction. Obstacles/Traits aren't the elements you should be looking to in that situation. The things you should note are Futures and the song playing at the time. But, long answer, with techniques to support, coming soon.
Quote from: Graham W on September 04, 2009, 04:29:22 PM
Another example: Jenni goes to get her hair cut. Steve and I decide the haircut goes wrong, leaving Jenni's hair patchy and purple. But are we allowed to narrate that? What I think happened was that Jenni's player, who hadn't roleplayed for a while, capitulated. In retrospect, I'm not sure she was that happy about it.
This, however, is totally an authority issue.
My first suggestion is to ground the subjective statements in a non-authorial perspective (ie, your character's). So, you could either describe the haircut she got without subjective judgment (not super interesting, really), or describe your character's subjective judgment (totally interesting). So, as an example, it would be really good to say, "Charlie sneers when he sees the new haircut, and asks if you really think that's a good image for the band." This gives Paula the super-vital freedom to narrate something like "Well, I like it. The band can deal with it."
My next suggestion is that if you're introducing something that fucks with character autonomy (like deciding how someone's haircut looks), then word it as suggestion instead of hard fact. For example, "What if the hairdresser totally fucks up and leaves it all patchy and purple?" Then, Paula could have said either "oh, sure!" or "actually, I want Jenni to stay classy and sexy, so no."
Perhaps unimportantly, when I go to the hairdresser, sometimes they fuck up my haircut and I am annoyed at this. I don't have control over something like that in the real world, perhaps I don't need to have control over it in the game world either? On the flip side, if it damages how I visualize the character, that might really put me off. Keeping the subjective rooted in perspective, and offering suggestions rather than imposing facts... these can go a long way towards keeping that player happy and engaged.
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Oh, and we had problems when the group went off in different directions. We had a particular problem when a player decided to introduce an Obstacle that seemed to prevent the group getting back together. My feeling is that the characters should generally stay together.
Yeah, that is tricky. In general, I think splitting the group doesn't work well for anything longer than 1-2 scenes. I often have groups split into two when they're at a diner, or a pub, or whatever. This allows for lots of juicy stuff: gossip, bitching about one another, hook-ups, miscommunication and favouritism. Hook-ups clearly being the best option.
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We need some advice about framing interesting scenes. Your comment about force is good. I have a theory you should describe interesting places: we tended to describe traffic jams, where we could have described more beautiful stuff. One question in particular: are most scenes framed while driving or while not driving?
This is going to sound like a dick rhetorical question, because it sort of is: Why were you framing scenes in locations that you found uninteresting?
Now that I've gotten that out of the way, I'd like to point out something really important: there is beauty to a traffic jam. The same applies to a truck stop, and the same applies to a lonely stretch of highway. One of the most important things that's going on in Ribbon Drive is finding the beauty of a given moment in a given place. So, make your traffic jam beautiful.
How do you do that? Good question. I have no idea what that word ("beautiful") means to you. Depending on my Futures and the scene and the song and my own play preferences, it might be:
*observing a small child playing with dinosaur toys in the car next to us, oblivious to what's going on around him.
*witnessing what might be a breakup fight, in mute, because the windows to the car are rolled up.
*intense, thunderous rain with winds that whip newspapers off the street and onto our windshields.
*an old man, tapping an old tune on the steering wheel of an old car.
So, here's how to frame good scenes in Ribbon Drive:
1.) Work in a Trait, in order to activate it.
2.) Find something beautiful in the scene, and introduce it into the narrative in a way that allows others to find their own beauty.
3.) Play close to home.
4.) Don't be afraid of the boring, the mundane or the meandering. Embrace the idea that some of the game will go slowly, without focus.
5.) Take time to describe the things that you find interesting - the way the rain sounds, etc.
6.) Narrate in things that will jostle your Futures (and others' Futures). Think about using internal monologues, open-ended questions and idle reflections to address those Futures.
7.) If the above isn't working, consider a confessionalist emo breakdown montage.
More replies soon!
mcdaldno:
As promised, except one week late, I've posted at Buried Without Ceremony on the topic of resolving conflicts in Ribbon Drive.
Graham W:
Thanks for the replies, Joe. They make things clearer.
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This is going to sound like a dick rhetorical question, because it sort of is: Why were you framing scenes in locations that you found uninteresting?
Because we were framing scenes in locations that seemed natural. It's an obvious way to frame a scene: you think, where would we go next on this road trip? Well, we'd probably stop at a truck stop / be stuck in a traffic jam.
So, although it seems obvious, I think you need to say "Frame scenes in locations you find interesting". I like your advice about finding the beauty in scenes. That's neat.
Graham
Ron Edwards:
Look what I just found when hunting through archived threads for something else: Theme music! Although most of the replies seem miss what Tim proposed, Ribbon Drive seems to fill the bill perfectly. (Tim, the link is long dead ... do you still have the file?)
Best, Ron
Tim C Koppang:
Quote from: Ron Edwards on September 30, 2009, 07:32:01 AM
Look what I just found when hunting through archived threads for something else: Theme music! Although most of the replies seem miss what Tim proposed, Ribbon Drive seems to fill the bill perfectly. (Tim, the link is long dead ... do you still have the file?)
Holy crap. Blast from the past! The file is still on my website actually (link). The formatting is a bit wonky, but still legible.
- Tim
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