[zero-prep] playtest, jesus, where do I start
stefoid:
Quote from: Callan S. on January 21, 2011, 03:31:14 PM
Hi Steffen,
Have you done a write up of how you imagine an idealised session of play would go?
Asking if there's a way of handling it better seems to be asking us like we know the right way to play your game?
Quote
but she didnt want to
Why didn't she want to?
One thing I'd observe here is if she busts the lock and reads the info, things change. But if she says nah, then...nothing changes at all.
Perhaps when you decided to create a situation, as you did when you made up the locked draw, you need to ensure both yes and no choices result in a change, not just the yes choice. Even if the no result is something as clumsy as "Well, you ignore the draw, but as you look around you bump an oil lamp over and a fire starts in the captains quarters". As long as both "Yes I do it" or "No, I don't do it" result in some sort of change.
She didnt want to create signs of entry -- so I figured rather than just create an arbitrary roll, Id let the player decide how badly she wanted the info. Unsatisfying because she backed out, which effectively neutered the situation for creating further plot down the track.
Callan S.:
Quote
She didnt want to create signs of entry -- so I figured rather than just create an arbitrary roll, Id let the player decide how badly she wanted the info. Unsatisfying because she backed out, which effectively neutered the situation for creating further plot down the track.
Hmmm, well given her overal con job goal, your price for the info kind of undercut the very foundation of the con job. It's a bit of a hard scene, because she's aiming for no apparent change in the situation as part of her goal. That's hard to work out on your own, and the player probably doesn't think in terms of trying to help you with that.
Further, I don't know everything, but I'll go 'tut tut' at your 'tut tut, she backed out'. That's her playing her character. You don't want to undercut that. That's exactly why I suggested having both a change in circumstance happen if she goes for it AND another change in circumstance if she doesn't go for it - so we don't rely on characters doing X for interesting future plot lines, but then start treating it as if they played badly when they do Y instead. 'Backed out' and 'neutered' aren't the tells of approval. I don't think you really want to say that when a player does Y instead of X, you'll undercut your own agenda in the even longer run than a few missed plot lines. But that's just my evaluation. Someone else might have a different evaluation.
stefoid:
It seems that I cant follow my own advice -- this was a 'only one outcome is viable' situation -- that she finds interesting info. I just didnt recognize it as such at the time. According to my doco, in that situation I accept the only viable solution and instead roll for how it is achieved. i.e. at what cost.
"suuure, you can rifle the captains stuff and get this juicy info" -- make a roll for getting in and out undetected. If its good, then its good, if it isnt, then sometime later the cabin boy drops by sand says ' gee, the capn sure would be interested in why you were poking around his cabin the other day... anyway I need a favour...'
win-win
stefoid:
Having had time to debrief, we've come to the conclusion that zero-prep -- as in no preparation at all -- was too ambitious for a first time playtest, and probably even if the game was well familiar. Nailing down the details of setting, initial situation, backgrounds and LTG is very important and we just didnt have time to do that properly on the night. Trying to construct something on dodgy foundations. Next time, all that happens via email before hand, and everybody sits down to play with that info at hand.
And the other thing was I screwed up half the scenes we did manage to play with dud GMing, so that didnt help either.
I guess zero-prep isnt such a good name afterall.
stefoid:
OK, have made the following additions to the doco, in order to underline important discoveries during playtesting:
---------------------------------
CHARACTER CREATION:
Players now create a character that fits into the initial situation somehow. The summary is:
1. Choose the backgrounds of your character.
2. Select one or two Motivations for your character
3. Choose a long term goal for your character
4. Select your characters stats – Body & Soul
5. Choose your character’s techniques
Backgrounds: these are broad descriptions of experience that the character has had in the past, that define how good the character is at doing anything remotely related to that experience. -- the major ‘occupation’ of the character for the period the background covers.
examples might be : Pirate, Nobleman, Prostitute, Street Urchin, Hunter, Thief, Policeman, Nurse, etc...
Players have 8 points which they allocate between 2 and 4 backgrounds. They must allocate at least two dice to any background they select.
i.e. Pirate 5, Nobleman 3
Almost every time the character wishes to do something that the GM feels should be tested -- something for which there is a significant consequence of success or failure -- they roll a number of D10s for the background that best suits that undertaking and pick the highest value rolled. i.e. Could use Pirate or Nobleman to fight (in different styles), but probably only Pirate could be used for nautical flavored challenges, whilst only Nobleman could be used for courtly discourse. In the event that the character has no applicable background experience to draw on, a default of 1 dice is used.
Along with each background, provide a paragraph or two describing the character’s personal history associated with that background – consider answering the following questions for each background:
· How did the character come to be involved in that background?
· Under what circumstances did they leave it?
· Biggest achievement during that time?
· Worst disaster during that time?
· Most significant relationship/interraction with another character during that time?
Motivations:
Just a sentence or so explaining a deep-seated issue, motivation, belief or desire that has a significant impact on your character’s behavior. You can have several of these if you wish.
Long term goal:
How goals are used mechanically will be described later, but for now, give you character a single long term goal. It may be specifically related to the initial setting that has been established, or the information in the characters background, a motivation, or something new. Give the goal a short summary and an accompanying brief description. The goal should be quite specific – ‘kill the 6 fingered man who murdered your father’, rather than general ‘strike it rich!’ –general/vague goals are more suited to being motivations – i.e. vague goals are hard to work towards and its also hard to define when they have been accomplished. Long term goals could easilly derrive from a Motivation – If the character had the Motivation ‘Strike it rich!’, then one specifc plan to make a lot of money would be a natural long term goal -- "rob the first national bank".
Take account of why that is a goal of your character in the brief description. Make sure the goal is practically achievable, given the setting, but it shouldn’t be too easy, or it wont cant be classified as a long term goal. Make a note that you have 5 reward points (explained later) to spend during any Story phase except the first.
At this point, before going on to techniques, players describe their characters to the other players – their backgrounds motivations and their long term goal. This is a collaborative story game, so even private character information is in the public player domain.
ADVICE ABOUT GOALS:
LTGs should be specific, so that the character can make a series of concrete steps towards them, and ultimately achieve them during play. These steps could be either LTG participation during Story phase, or a specific challenge phase STG – it depends on the nature of the step being taken. Some things will be more suited to one phase than the other. Some examples are shown below, but these are not hard rules, just generalizations:
Steps usually more suited to Story Phase:
· Searching or researching for information
· Recovering, training or learning
· Building or inventing
· Travelling from one place to another
· Planning
· Exploring and investigating – it depends on situation. This kind of activity could be Story phase activity (exposition) or a Challenge phase activity if the Exploration or investigation resulted in a confrontation or other dramatic circumstance. It could be both – the exposition part is narrated during story phase and switches to challenge phase at the point where dramatic conflict occurs.
Steps usually more suited to Challenge Phase activity & STGs
· Executing plans: STG – successful execution of a plan, or specific part of a plan
· Confrontations: STG – a specific desired outcome from the confrontation
· Arguments – STG – Convincing, persuading or defeating opponents
· Contests: STG – wining the contest
ADVICE FOR PLAYERS DURING STORY PHASE
Players are encouraged to add new elements to the story, when outlining or elaborating on goals, or just in general, to move the story in a direction they would like it to go:
· Bring in a new character from ‘the past’ or out of left-field.
· Detail a new event or situation that occurs
· Describe their characters thought processes and reactions
· Describe the actions of NPCs that are observed by their characters
· Offer suggestions for other player characters
ADVICE ON CONFLICTSs:
Knowing when to call a roll a conflict and when to simply narrate is probably the most significant skill for a GM. In general, the GM only wants to break out the dice when there is a significant consequence riding on an intended action. Fortunately, player set STGs are like red markers for the GM as they show what is most important to player characters in the upcoming challenge. Try to centre rolled conflicts around parts of the challenge that directly result in a player STG being achieved or not. Other parts of the challenge may involve rolled conflicts, but the GM should think hard about it before picking up the dice – sure, someone or something may be opposing the characters intended action, but is the potential conflict an example of a pointless test or a sitauation with only one viable outcome?
Example: Pirates attack! A player’s pirate character has the stated STG of killing the opposition captain during a raid. To do so, he first has the intended actions of boarding the opposition ship and fighting his way to confront the captain. Obviously the battle with the captain should be a dramatic rolled conflict scenario, but what about the other intended actions? Roll or narrate? Generally, theese would be examples of pointless tests – where is the fun in the character being put out of the contest by hordes of nameless mooks before having a chance to confront the captain? (and having to roll for battle with those mooks). It would be a disapointing result, achieved by a repetitive and tedious process – the opposite of a fast-paced, dramatic action sequence. Far better to either narrate the character chopping through hordes of mooks to reach his target, or maybe classify the situation as a rolled conflict with only one viable outcome – that the character does manage to cut through the mooks -- but roll to determine how the viable outcome occurred (at what cost). i.e. does he do it in fine swashbuckling style, or is his progress delayed in such a way as to give his ultiamte opponent some kind of advantage, or perhaps he sustains an injury, etc…
Example: Another player’s character decides to use the raid as cover to rifle through the pirate captains quarters in order to obtain some significant inforamtion about his past. In general, this type of situation could be best covered during the story phase, but in this case, lets assume there is a good reason for it to occur during a challenge, and that the player has an STG riding on the outcome. Does the GM make an ‘observation roll’ to determine if any such information can be found? No, this is another case of a test where there is only one viable outcome for the story: that juicy significant information be found! But does that mean the player is simlpy handed their STG on a platter? Again, when there is only one viable option, but a roll is still requried, then make the roll about how/at what cost the desired outcome is obtained – without incident, or perhaps the character is confronted sometime later by a secret observer who threatens blackmail? Much better than ‘sorry, you don’t spot anything…’
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