decoupling Reward Systems from broad-scale Story Arcs
David Berg:
Filip,
Early in my roleplaying career, I tried to use my GM position to tell my stories, and though there were many times when that didn't go so well, there were some times where it went really well for everyone involved. I know I got something unique out of it, and I think the players did too. So I'm convinced that functional possibilities do exist in this direction. How hard they are to design for is another question.
Everyone, I'd prefer that we keep the focus on the "designing for" part here in this thread, please.
Filip and Gareth, if you guys want to explain yourselves to each other, maybe PMs?
Ron Edwards:
Well, and here I was just about to post to say that preferences weren't the topic.
Gareth, notify me next time, please. I'm not saying your concern is not real.
Filip, I think there was more content in your posts than Gareth did, but if you could bring it forward in another post, without the issue of preference, it would help the thread.
Everyone, cool the tempers. Punch a pillow, type in a blog, whatever you need to do.
Best, Ron
David Berg:
There's some interesting stuff here!
Ron,
I like the document you linked and I'm trying to figure out if it provides any takeaways or tools for this discussion. The observations about how certain styles of set-up can interfere with the players getting what they signed up for seems relevant. Todd uses pre-genned characters, so they're as integrated with the setting and plot as he can/wants to make them. I think it's at least one valid approach for Participationist design.
Gareth,
I'm used to GM plans and GM cutaways, but I'm not used to them being one and the same! Any thoughts on what's unique about that specific technique?
Dan,
My first thought is to look at reward system, but I feel kind of unfocused and that the possibilities there are quite broad, so maybe looking at resolution is a good place to start. I will definitely return to this topic. In the meantime, if you have any thoughts on appropriate resolution mechanics
Thanks, guys!
David Berg:
Wow, bad editing by me. That note to Dan should have concluded:
if you have any thoughts on appropriate resolution mechanics, please share!
contracycle:
I'm not precisely saying that plans and cutaways are the same, but rather than cutaways suits planned styles.
What I'm essentially suggesting is that a huge amount of the conflict that potentially arises, and if not conflict then uncertainty and confusion, does so because task res systems assert that you can do anything you could to in the physical world,. While in the GM-story type game, this isn't going to be true, or at least isn't going to be always true.
It can also serve to soften some of the dangers. So if the cutaway reveals to you that the evil Imperials are going to sabotage the starliner, you take rooms that are closer to the escape pods. Which has the convenient result of reducing the odds of a fairly rolled system event killing off characters, and so on. In other words, it facilitates collusion between the players and GM, which is a great deal more elegant and friendly than fudging rolls and denying actions so a favoured NPC can escape, as the classic form of GM control has it.
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