When improvization fails. What do you do when you 'got nuthin'?
stefoid:
Well, maybe turn it around. If your plan is to improvise, what prep do you do to avoid shooting blanks?
I think Chris's suggestion is probably the most important that I can think of - identify the major NPCs and what they want.
Anything else?
Chris_Chinn:
Hi Steve,
I've gotten a chance to look at the rules you've linked, and luckily, you have some really strong tools in there that make it easier to improvise.
First, you've got the rules for players to freely suggest ideas, and use "Tell me more...". (Now, if the players -aren't- using these, you need to talk as a group, and maybe consider if a reward system around those rules would help. etc.) So players -should- be telling you what they're interested in and directing the story with those rules.
Second, you've got a broad range of PC motivations from the jump (I call these things "Flags"). Design your NPC motivations to clash or play on those in interesting ways. For example, an NPC might have a motivation which aligns with one player's belief, and challenges another. Or one that forces one or more players to have to choose sides about it, etc.
Third, and this is actually key: pay attention to what players spend Body & Soul on, especially if it's not about survival. That will tell you what the players' are interested in, the conflicts they absolutely don't want to lose.
I've been running and playing a lot of Primetime Adventures, in which characters have an Issue- a single phrase describing what their story is going to revolve around. But there's a trick I've seen during play- that one Issue is actually a broad direction- and play only gets real good when you narrow down the specific ways in which this player wants to explore this story about this thing.
For example, in one game a player had the Issue of "Where is the line of right and wrong in war? Can war ever be used to save lives?" - It was ok putting him into situations that were hard, but it became a great Issue when I started framing conflicts where he had people he cared about, including family, encouraging him to cross that line, over and over.
The trick to finding that out, though, was paying close attention to both his responses and body language at the table ("Oh, he's really liking/hating this!") and also when and where he'd spend the extra resources in game to make sure he'd win.
This sort of narrowing in on the bullseye, during play, is a crucial step that really makes games sing. When you can get that, the improv becomes a lot easier because each scene and conflict builds momentum - you find the conflicts and events become more and more important and loaded and the players become invested deeper - the group takes on direction and you follow their leads, only needing to nudge here and there.
Chris
stefoid:
Quote from: Chris_Chinn on March 12, 2011, 08:57:56 AM
Hi Steve,
I've gotten a chance to look at the rules you've linked, and luckily, you have some really strong tools in there that make it easier to improvise.
First, you've got the rules for players to freely suggest ideas, and use "Tell me more...". (Now, if the players -aren't- using these, you need to talk as a group, and maybe consider if a reward system around those rules would help. etc.) So players -should- be telling you what they're interested in and directing the story with those rules.
Second, you've got a broad range of PC motivations from the jump (I call these things "Flags"). Design your NPC motivations to clash or play on those in interesting ways. For example, an NPC might have a motivation which aligns with one player's belief, and challenges another. Or one that forces one or more players to have to choose sides about it, etc.
Third, and this is actually key: pay attention to what players spend Body & Soul on, especially if it's not about survival. That will tell you what the players' are interested in, the conflicts they absolutely don't want to lose.
I've been running and playing a lot of Primetime Adventures, in which characters have an Issue- a single phrase describing what their story is going to revolve around. But there's a trick I've seen during play- that one Issue is actually a broad direction- and play only gets real good when you narrow down the specific ways in which this player wants to explore this story about this thing.
For example, in one game a player had the Issue of "Where is the line of right and wrong in war? Can war ever be used to save lives?" - It was ok putting him into situations that were hard, but it became a great Issue when I started framing conflicts where he had people he cared about, including family, encouraging him to cross that line, over and over.
The trick to finding that out, though, was paying close attention to both his responses and body language at the table ("Oh, he's really liking/hating this!") and also when and where he'd spend the extra resources in game to make sure he'd win.
This sort of narrowing in on the bullseye, during play, is a crucial step that really makes games sing. When you can get that, the improv becomes a lot easier because each scene and conflict builds momentum - you find the conflicts and events become more and more important and loaded and the players become invested deeper - the group takes on direction and you follow their leads, only needing to nudge here and there.
Chris
Its very easy to come up with motivations (flags) that arent helpful. These were the first characters that were put together according to my rules and as a result, Ive added a lot more guidance type stuff about character flags. But yeah, these ones are a real mixed bag. Im gaining an appreciation for long lists of examples, which I havent added to my doco yet.
But yeah, concerning improvisation in general, your advice above is sound, and it comes back to prep I think. When you have 4 PCs with a collection of these flags and goals that you have to pay attention to, it becomes easy to loose track. My short term memory is not the best. As part of prep Im going to have to make a short list of character flags that I can leverage.
Natespank:
When I run out of material while DMing:
1. I poll the players for what they want their characters to do. It's a sandbox campaign, so it's really up to them. If they pursue something that I think I can run with, I keep going.
2. If I'm really running out of ideas, I call a 15 minute break. Usually I just close my eyes and nap. In the last 5 minutes I see if any ideas came to me. I'll extend the break 5-10 minutes if I think I can prep something worth running.
3. If I'm out of material and inspiration, I call an end to the game. It affects quality- gotta preserve quality. I'll prep more for next game.
Luckily in a sandbox game it seems like I don't waste much prep. If it doesn't get used in game X, luckily they seem to go to the area game Y, so occasionally when I run out of stuff they solve the problem for me accidentally.
That's just me. I find random encounters with improv is pretty cool sometimes.
stefoid:
Quote from: Natespank on March 12, 2011, 12:25:55 PM
When I run out of material while DMing:
1. I poll the players for what they want their characters to do. It's a sandbox campaign, so it's really up to them. If they pursue something that I think I can run with, I keep going.
Thats a good idea. In my game, the players can explicitly set short and long term goals. in practice, they can set these goals and follow them with varying degrees of intensity. The other night there wasnt a lot of energy devoted to doing either and I could have taken a poll as you suggest - what are your current goals, what are you doing about them, can you think of any new ones?
cheers
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