"A thin crescent moon hangs sickly pale..."---A thought experiment

[Paul_T (Paul Taliesin)]

This thread is getting a little old now, but I was just rereading because the topic came up elsewhere on the forum (we were discussing Trollbabe, a game where characters are often/mostly separate from each other, so there can be a lot of “downtime”), and I think it might be fun to collect some of the great ideas from the older threads and post them here as well (for the lucky reader). Here are some favourites of mine!

(On a sidenote, I actually quite enjoy how this thread has taken very different directions based on the first reply or two. Here we got into a more theoretical discussion of whether someone wants to or needs to participate in any explicit way, whereas the readers I quote below chose to match the format of my post and label explicit roles, instead.)

These first series of quotes are from the Gauntlet.

Adding minor detail and livelihood to the environment:

in this scenario, i would first reach for the environment and try to shape the action in subtle ways: wind blows something over and the concubine goes to the window.

I am the WIND. I bring heat from the desert or cool breezes from the sea; I bring the smells of the market and the palace; I waft curtains, slam doors, and stir up sand and dust to hide and confuse.

How about switching up roles and authorities?

From a different angle, take an improv approach and have players be able to tap in for another player > and take control of the action for a moment until they get tapped by someone else.

I’m not in the scene which means I’m the SWITCHER. I move the role archetypes around in whatever way interests me in the moment. The three archetypes - Assassin, Concubine and Sultan, represent the social and power dynamics in the situation. The ASSASSIN player is always playing Namkuzu the Killer, whose goal is always to murder the Sultan, but I can give him the Sultan archetype if I want, altering the dynamics of the scene. I can switch all three if I want. Suddenly Young Ajda is the Assassin (still a concubine, but now imbued with the powers of life and death), and Namkuzu the Killer is the Sultan (Still a murderer, but now dominant in terms of secular power), and the Sultan is the Concubine (stripped of secular power, a prisoner of some sort, and persuasive)- what does that mean? What happens?

Or what about finding ways to cross over from the situation of the characters to that of the players, and creating a more detailed or involved experience? Do things in the real world - where you’re sitting, the lighting, the music, the food (as below), who’s standing or moving, who has the dice, etc - affect what’s happening at the table?

I’m not in the scene which means I’m the SERVANT, which is a non-diegetic role that impacts the fiction. I bring the players food and drink, in small but carefully calibrated quantities, and the things I bring them to eat and drink must inform their choices and words. From my culinary palette I bring the ASSASSIN something hard and crumbly and salty, but with a shot of hot, sweet tea. I bring the CONCUBINE something light and delicious that tastes, perhaps, like freedom. I bring the SULTAN something bland, but have something bitter and nasty waiting close at hand.

I’ve also always liked - but never tried - the idea that one person might be in charge of the soundtrack, and that the choice of soundtrack affects the events in the game somehow. (For instance, imagine a game where violence is forbidden, except or unless when the Ominous Music is playing - the player who suddenly introduces that theme and hits “play” on the jukebox will totally change the tenor of a particular scene.)

Of course, simply asking for detail is always a good one:

I am the CURIOUS CHILD. My job is to ask other players in the scene every question that occurs to me (“Why are you trying to kill the Sultan?” “Do you love the Sultan? Enough to warn him?” “Why would you believe the Concubine when it could be a trap?”) and then, no matter what the answer, to gasp, cover my mouth, and nod excitedly.

I am afforded the privilege of DETAIL, which allows me to answer the questions that players have about elements within the scene. Anything short of action is mine to answer. “How many steps is it from the window to the bed?” “What are the guards about the palace armed with?” “Where is the Sultan’s first dream set?” “What nation did the concubine come from?"

It’s also possible to go more in depth and create narrative or thematic devices for the players to use:

I am an EFREETI planting seeds of hate with lies and exaggeration, narrating all the past evil-deeds of the Sultan and everyone else in the scene.

OR

I am a DJINN whispering truths about love and mercy; justice and honor; and forgiveness.

OR

I am an ARCH-ANGEL narrating the events as seen from Heaven.

That’s really quite interesting, isn’t it?

This can create different interactions between players, as well:

The players can only communicate their actions indirectly to each other, through me, as though I were an interpreter; I emphasize different aspects of what they said, or rephrase certain remarks.

Some other options I can think of include:

A narrator (or even an unreliable narrator!), voiceover, or commentator (such as in a sports match, in a documentary film - e.g. David Attenborough! Or the narrator in Arrested Development), art critics commenting on the style or aesthetics, a historian’s “voice” who is recording the events or relaying how differently they would be perceived a thousands years later, in her time… so many options!

(Jason - @JDCorley - had a wonderful thread about doing this in Star Wars a long time ago, in a galaxy far away*)

(*: By galaxy far away, I mean Story Games, of course: SGI :: Story Games Index - link to thread)

[Paul_T (Paul Taliesin)]

I also posted a few ideas myself, including some much more basic or simple methods of interaction.

Such small things can also be quite impactful, or smart ways to get around design issues.

An example:

How do you balance XP gain and the difficulty of resolution? Well, what if you make it a group process?

A friend of mine who ran a Shadowrun hack where any resolution/roll was handled as follows:

• Ask each player around the table: is what this character trying to do easy or hard?

If it’s easy, you give them a bonus die. If it’s hard, no bonus die, but hand them a single XP token.

In this way, each action taken received a democratically-determined, organic “difficulty” and reward.

That’s an interesting process, and can help start conversations or help us get on the same page about the fiction, as well.

I have a similar rule in a game I designed, where the players to the left and right of an acting player can describe why the character has an advantage and give them a bonus die, describe how they’re in a tough position and give no dice, or introduce a new complication or opportunity for the character (which makes their choices more nuanced or complex during resolution). It’s a nice way to flesh out these conflicts and communicate and then build on our reading of the fictional situation together.

Anyway, here are some other suggestions I made in that thread from a more “nuts and bolts” (less conceptual) perspective:

• I determine who is the CENTRAL CHARACTER or PROTAGONIST, at any point in the scene. (The dynamics of the scene are very different if the ASSASSIN is the “viewpoint character”, compared to the SULTAN or the CONCUBINE, and may also have mechanical implications - e.g. if the rule system only makes players controlling PCs roll.)
• I determine which characters will or may recur in future scenes/further in the story. (“That wasn’t the last time we’d see the Sultan…”)
• I determine the dice, difficulty, or stakes of mechanical procedures during the duration of the scene. (“You want to climb up the rope? That will be a DC of 20.” / “On a miss, wolves.”)
• I flag certain moves, elements, or outcomes with mechanical rewards. (“Assassin, I’m highlighting your Hot.” / “The contents of the treasure chest behind the Sultan’s bed are worth 250 XPs.” / “Sultan, if the Assassin gets away, your kingdom’s Rumours of Instability table will be advanced by one row.”)
• I ask each of the players for background information, and frame flashbacks when I’m really curious about their answers.

A few other things I’ve tried in play or design:

• I step into the scene, taking on the role of a character described to be present. I begin to embody (or roleplay) that character in some respect. Perhaps I narrate their dialogue and their actions; perhaps I illustrate their inner thoughts and subtext; or, perhaps I take on their physical comportment, portraying their body language in response to the narration of the other players.
• I assign advantage or disadvantage to certain characters, based on their position in the scene and how I want it to resolve. Perhaps I say that the SULTAN’s position is strong on conspicuous, handing out a large die for the character. It will now be added to any rolls made on the SULTAN’s behalf, or indicates how many experience points others get for doing as he says.
• I help determine the background and history of any given character, asking questions, labeling lacunae (or mysteries, points of important but unknown information), or filling out basic statements about the nature of the character (“the CONCUBINE’s basic outlook is one of paranoia, and her desire is for the survival of her family…”).

This last one is really useful in games where we want to simply jump into a situation while knowing very little about it or the characters involved.

Perhaps one player gets to spot a question (“What reason does the ASSASSIN have to be here - the real reason?”) and then another must answer it, and then finally the scene continues.