How to make sessions/scenes stop dragging?
David Berg:
Just thought I'd chime in with the world's mildest example of what Raven's talking about, as a halfway compromise to not changing anything at all:
Player: "After that harsh speech, I'm rolling to intimidate him." Rolls to Intimidate. Fails.
GM: "He laughs in your face. He was unimpressed, and now intimidating him will be even harder. Say, a -1 penalty."
As far as ways to resolve an interaction go, this could still be very slow, but also nicely detailed and with its own mini dramatic arc. That seems compatible with what you've described of your group's play style.
greyorm:
I find it is easier, when you aren't used to treating failure as interesting, to use explosions as a way to wean yourself off the idea that "you fail and that's just that". Once you get to where you're comfortable doing things with failure, to start moderating it.
It's like learning to throw a baseball. The first thing you learn is to throw it as hard as you can. Once you've got that down, then you concentrate on accuracy. You don't do it the other way around because accuracy doesn't count for shit if you can't even reach the target.
Seriously, I talk about explosions, but look at my example from the 3:16 game: that's pretty low-key. But the point is it changed the situation. The player didn't just "try over" after I said that, he thought about it for a minute, then tried to scavenge parts from their crashed drop pods to build a bigger transmitter before trying again. The failure added flesh to the narrative that wouldn't have existed if the character just sat and played with his radio knobs all night (ie: rolled and re-rolled).
FredGarber:
To make the sessions stop dragging:
I haven't played Houses of the Blooded yet, but it seems to me to be a scenario where people are expected to do a lot of scheming. It could be that the players are taking their time, setting up the many webs within webs within Bold! that the Ven are supposed to do. Setting up the table just right so that they can yank the tablecloth out from beneath it, with Style! It could be that the scheming is their fun, so don't change it.
On the other hand, if you want to interject a faster pace, then "clock" it. Have the actions take up a certain amount time, so that each player gets one action before it is time to dress for dinner. They have time for one key conversation at dinner. Before the Count falls asleep, they can accomplish one thing. During the night, they can accomplish one more action. And so on: they only get so much "prep" time for their schemes, and they have to work them out on the fly. (Instead of planting all the rumors and conversing with all the NPCs as they walk in the door.
To make scenes stop dragging is a different set of Techniques, and I like greyorm's ideas.
-Fred
Dionysus:
Thanks!
The last two from graygorm and Fred are particularly interesting.
I'll definitely try that in our next session.
Noclue:
Quote from: jburneko on January 11, 2010, 03:14:39 PM
This is actually my #1 issue with Houses stated with the caveat that I have never played it. It lacks a resolution system. When you roll dice all you're doing is breaking up "who talks." The dice decide and declare nothing.
The dice are actually supposed to decide who gets to say whether the character succeeds or not. So, the dice roll is intended to resolve things, indirectly. The dice are not just handing the story around.
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