[DFRPG] Occult Toronto
Erik Weissengruber:
The Actual People, Actual Play podcasts on DFRPG raised some points about scenario creation.
At one point in the series, the GM notes that his attempt to create a trail of clues occult mystery was less than satisfying. He set up a mystery but used some compels to get the PCs on track and with 1 simple Research declaration a big mystery was solved. The players complain that this compel took us out of the atmosphere of mystery, and the GM himself said that creating a trail of clues mystery scenario just didn't seem to work:
Episode 36 The Dresden Files RPG: It's a Mab Mab Mab World
http://apap.libsyn.com/episode-36-the-dresden-files-rpg-it-s-a-mab-mab-mab-world
In later episodes the GM talks about creating a scenario simply by putting laying out NPC motivations, goals, personality traits. And then compelling the NPCs and choosing their actions based on that. Working from the overlap between PC and NPC aspects seems to have produced more satisfying play than establishing a set of causally linked clues with an implied sequence of discoveries:
Episode 41 The Dresden Files RPG: From Dusk Til A Fistful of Dollars
http://apap.libsyn.com/episode-41-the-dresden-files-rpg-from-dusk-til-a-fistful-of-dollars
Erik Weissengruber:
Locke has the Aspect "Network of the Unwashed (the Fleet of Feet)"
Her player also talked about bringing two of them along to assisst investigations.
That Aspect was one I wanted to focus on in the scenario. But when the player did not use the Aspect as a simple bonus to a Skill roll, or an Assess/Block/Maneuver/Attack, I was unsure what to do.
Looking back, it was one more area where I should have stuck to the Fate point mechanic
* want that amorphous network to aid a roll, pony up 1 FP
* want to have them in a scene, 1 FP each, for EVERY scene in which you want them to have mechanical efficacy
1st Impulse: Come up with some "GM controlls the backstory and the introduction of NPCs" b.s. reason why they would not want to be there, to cover up the fact that I wanted to have a 1 PC-1 supernatural bad NPC scene.
2nd Impulse: Let them come along but rig the scenes so that the 2 assisting guys could not really do very much
(a.k.a. "passive agressive Illusionist cop-out")
Better Solution. "Right, you want Briggs and Mayor to be there in the confrontation? O.k. 1 FP each to make the Aspect Declarations "Briggs is there" and "Mayor is there." For now, they will function as Aspects. If I get around to statting them up, be prepared for them to complicate your life.
Brining as many decisions as possible into the "Fate Point -- Compel -- Aspect" mechanics is the better way to go.
I used to play FATE with an emphasis on the Skills, and tried to devise scenarios around the Skills characters had picked.
The engine of the game is, I now think, the Aspect/FATE Point economy, with that FP currency connecting decisions about the fiction, scene setting, character efficacy, and task resolution. Backstory is going to stay my GM preserve, but will be firmly within the City Creation parameters set up by the group. Scene framing and NPC behaviour has to be open to currency-powered input from players and sometimes the players have to be open to currency-powered GM input into their NPCs.
Erik Weissengruber:
Sorry ...
GM input into their PC's.
Erik Weissengruber:
To cap this off
My agenda was to explore
* Group setting creation
* Driving scenarios with Aspects from setting creation
* Working with Compels
Point 2 has been talked about.
I can't talk about Point 3 until I step up and play a little harder with the "accept my Compel and get FP / deny the Compel but pay and FP" mechanic. My Compels will have to be more dramatic and fictionally meaningful to justify putting pressure on players' FP bank. The Aspects of City Creation and the NPCs set the parameters of the fiction so if I am Compelling to make Occult Toronto seem real, those Compels should originate from consideration of those Aspects.
Point 1 has been covered in reviews and podcasts. Making cities is FUN! It gets the group on the same page. I had a set of 30+ NPC names and attitudes as a result. Some of the Aspects on the characters and on the city aren't as "Fuego!" as those in the rulebook. Take time to review and rephrase character and City aspects in the first couple of sessions.
Aspect writing gets better with practice, as do writing Beliefs and Instincts in the Burning Games.
The game continues but sessions writeups will be logged elsewhere.
Erik Weissengruber:
The Aspects of City Creation and the NPCs set the parameters of the fiction so if I am Compelling to make Occult Toronto seem real, those Compels should originate from consideration of those Aspects.
I have decided to channel FPs from my infinite GM bank in very particular kinds of compells"
* use them to maintain consistency of fiction (i.e. "Building is on fire" will limit options unless players stump up FP to defy the odds)
* use them to test players' Aspects (If a PC has the Aspect "Greedy" and chooses to take some money to sell out his 2 wizard pals, I will compel that Aspect with a suggestion of the terrible consequences that will befall a person important to all of them. You want to avoid that consequence, buy off the compel.)
I will channel FPs from finite pools assigned to various NPCs to
* compel PCs to further that particular NPC's agenda (a person arguing with a PC might use that PC's "Easily intimidated" Aspect to make the PC unable to do a direct Social attack that round)
* declare an aspect to further that NPC's agenda
To have my supernatural baddies actually bank up Fate points, I will produce Colour and Interstitial scenes where I compel their Aspects.
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