Lamentations of the Flame Princess: my job as GM
stefoid:
Quote from: lumpley on November 08, 2011, 04:02:33 PM
Yeah, no, here in the probability-space of first level, ain't nobody controlling pacing. The dice are, and they've got no dramatic sense whatsoever.
I can accept this or cheat. I accept it. This is the game we signed up to play.
James, this isn't really a planning kind of outfit, at least not yet, so I haven't had to worry about any of that.
-Vincent
Whats dice got to do with pacing? whats pacing got to do with cheating?
lumpley:
Moreno: It's a skill I've been cultivating since starting Apocalypse World. I figure that if what I'm saying entertains me, my enthusiasm will rub off on everyone else, and I won't have to make myself nuts trying to guess what they want. And if it doesn't, well, at least I've had fun! Their having fun is their lookout.
Stefoid: You must be thinking about something other than I am.
I don't control how long a fight lasts, who wins, or whether anyone gets what they deserve. I don't control how long they wait for Phillip before they set out after him, or whether they track him down or get lost trying. I keep up a verbal pace by saying fun things, but I can't control the narrative pacing at all. The only way I could would be to (a) call for die rolls when they aren't appropriate; (b) neglect to call for die rolls when they are; or (c) ignore or fudge the results when we do roll. Cheating!
stefoid:
Quote from: lumpley on November 08, 2011, 05:06:37 PM
Moreno: It's a skill I've been cultivating since starting Apocalypse World. I figure that if what I'm saying entertains me, my enthusiasm will rub off on everyone else, and I won't have to make myself nuts trying to guess what they want. And if it doesn't, well, at least I've had fun! Their having fun is their lookout.
Stefoid: You must be thinking about something other than I am.
I don't control how long a fight lasts, who wins, or whether anyone gets what they deserve. I don't control how long they wait for Phillip before they set out after him, or whether they track him down or get lost trying. I keep up a verbal pace by saying fun things, but I can't control the narrative pacing at all. The only way I could would be to (a) call for die rolls when they aren't appropriate; (b) neglect to call for die rolls when they are; or (c) ignore or fudge the results when we do roll. Cheating!
I think we are more or less in agreeitude about pacing - I do mean narrative pacing, and OK, knowing when to roll is one important element of pacing. But by deciding when you think dice rolls are/are not appropriate is pacing. Two different people are going to have two different ideas about that, unless the game rules are very specific about it (like they are in AW, which is an exception in that regard to most of the games I am familliar with).
Another important aspect of pacing is when you decide to ask players what they are doing, or other similar ways the GM determines the moment to moment focus of the game. Scene selection I guess you might call it.
GM1: OK, so youre heading to Blurkenstopf to see the King? What are you doing?
GM2: OK, so youre heading to Blurkenstopf to see the King? After three days on the road, you arrive in the town. What are you doing?
Two ends of a spectrum - the first GM thinks its appropraite to focus on how the characters get there. The second GM doesnt.
Caldis:
My thoughts on pacing would be on a different angle rather than via the dice. When you are providing opportunties for the players but it's up to them whether they jump or not it seems to me like they have control of the narrative and the pacing.
I'd echo James' thoughts about anti-climax. I always found it tough to find a balance between challenging threats that could really kill the characters and making it so easy that they were never in danger. If they can easily die, play can grind to a halt while they check every nook and crany for traps and monsters etc. and lead to boredom at the other extreme a zillion billion goblins charge forward straight in a line and hack and slash and people get bored of rolling the dice.
*of course i'm not all that familiar with Lamentations so maybe it solves some of these problems that D&D seemed to face.
Eero Tuovinen:
This is interesting to read, do continue reporting on your game. I've been meaning to write about our campaign for ages as well, but seem to never get around to it. Probably something to do with being insanely busy with big conventions and publications.
And indeed, my experience is that one of the key ways my own, pretty hardcore sandbox OSR D&D differs from your bog-standard narrativist game with dramatic coordination is that pacing responsibilities are on the players, not on the GM: as the GM your job is merely to entertain yourself, provide organic setting/situation (barf forth dungeonstuff as someone might say) and referee whatever it is that the players get up to. Whether what they get up to is three hours of bickering over supplies followed by one random encounter, or an efficient delve that accomplishes many encounters, several fights and plentiful treasure, that's definitely up to the players and how they run their party interactions, planning and execution. Last Wednesday we saw the players flub their pacing, and consequently we only ever had time to taste their actual goal before having to stop for the night; last Sunday the players were motivated and aware of the dangers of failed pacing, and thus they were effective in not only executing (and failing in) their Wednesday plan, but they also deviced and executed an unrelated plan, ending up with 11,000 fantasy-Roman sestertius and 4000 talents - a veritable fortune. Players succeeding in pacing is what makes all the difference.
Thinking about it, perhaps one reason I don't have time for session reportage is that we actually played three sessions last week. Heh.
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