PbP: I need some help with structure
Callan S.:
Well, the advice I was giving was along the lines of exploratory designing - playtesting as you go. As to what will definately work, assuming there is such a thing, there may be some posters around with extensive PBP experience who can tell you stuff on that. :)
JoyWriter:
First of all it seems to me you need to stick those guys together, the characters I mean. My first idea was to draw an actual relationship map using some kind of wiki/graph website. The reason for this is that if I'm not mistaken your guys get how to do conflicts now, and turns, but presumably you'll want to draw them into a single story thread. In my recent rustbelt game I've been ticking round the players as you did, but because of the links we built up between them, and a bit of wrangling on my part, (not to mention the mechanics of the game) those separate scenes started to overlay and turn into joint scenes. In other words we blended from the "solo pieces" to the group pieces and back again.
Now one thing I would warn you is that DITV has a specific dynamic for it's solo-scenes, which you haven't replicated; this is that they centre around some personal feature of the character that once resolved, for good or bad, is replaced by the group structure that ties the characters together. You don't have that really, ie the intro scenes weren't framed as "an interlude before the group is formed", they were just someone doing their thing before they hit into the others.
My solution to the structure problem? Either by discussion on a board or via some separate tool like an actual map, decide how the characters are connected, and what their general aims are. Then you as GM chuck in some stuff to make those aims move them towards each other, or at least substantially affect each other. n other words you use the discussion thread and map to replace partially the cues you would use at the table, and to get a feel of what these guys are after, and then juggle away like a champ! You can just flick scenes like your doing, waiting for someone's turn, but having the scenes relate to each other by their shared context and links that you've created. If someone takes too long, you can ask them if they could swap order with someone, so that things can keep moving, but let it be their initiative to suggest that they won't be there, before it get's to you framing their scene. If you're playing with respectful players that shouldn't be a problem, aside from a few hiccups. Then you'll start to find a pace that is as fast as you can casually sustain, speeding up sometimes like when stuff gets pivotal, but usually being maybe a little slower than your starting intros.
Does that help?
Navigation
[0] Message Index
[*] Previous page