YES I like this very much. I just got "For the Queen" and I recently received a bunch of Ben Robbins' games from the "In This World" Kickstarter and I'm super excited to jump into these games, but some friends know some scene-work/scene-creating principles and some aren't as familiar. I'm excited to try out some formulas and guides on how to create a scene, to make it more reach-able faster, by all my friends.
Stay tuned! I am actually like... very very far through the process already, and have the next blog post scheduled for a few days from now. Technically, if you called it a "3 act structure," I already have Act 1 and Act 3 totally complete, and a working model of Act 2 running.
I can't wait to roll this out, please give feedback as I put these posts out!
Yeah, I'll do that! And I'll try the guides out if I can! I play every few weeks at this point in my life, but one of my three groups would probably be down to test things out.
I have a drily amusing, visceral, reaction to this, which is that I don’t want to believe that the techniques and tricks and processes that it has taken me decades to try to get to grips with can be reduced to a flowchart 🫣. More seriously, I think the core analysis here is excellent and it will take a few re-readings before I can contribute anything useful to the discussion.
Well I'll tell you what, I'm actually well into this project and -- I confess -- SCHEDULING these blog posts to be spaced apart, and have gotten into some flow states and started working on it. It's a big struggle to really boil the hell out of certain prompts and concepts. And I still think the result is something foolproof, but rudimentary -- like the "5 Room Dungeon." Simple, if executed in a straightforward manner, but still with tons of room to elaborate and work.
I think I'm gonna roll out this flowchart as a series of blogposts breaking down each chunk at a time!
Looking forward to it. I think your deconstruction of the relationship/distinction between plot and scene is spot on and that your top-level abstraction of the required/desirable contents of a scene is probably correct.
That means a lot to me, since I know you are a very comprehensive and systemic thinker! I'm really trying to get a lot of my first principles right here.
Most kind. As I’ve said elsewhere, I’m not hugely interested in bland consensus - ‘I’m just not in the mood, baby’ as Hitch would have said - but I am always eager to see what people who think seriously about the hobby have to say.
brilliant, a scene mini-game procedure.
Yes, precisely!!
YES I like this very much. I just got "For the Queen" and I recently received a bunch of Ben Robbins' games from the "In This World" Kickstarter and I'm super excited to jump into these games, but some friends know some scene-work/scene-creating principles and some aren't as familiar. I'm excited to try out some formulas and guides on how to create a scene, to make it more reach-able faster, by all my friends.
Stay tuned! I am actually like... very very far through the process already, and have the next blog post scheduled for a few days from now. Technically, if you called it a "3 act structure," I already have Act 1 and Act 3 totally complete, and a working model of Act 2 running.
I can't wait to roll this out, please give feedback as I put these posts out!
Yeah, I'll do that! And I'll try the guides out if I can! I play every few weeks at this point in my life, but one of my three groups would probably be down to test things out.
This sounds exciting. I'm very interested to see this.
Gonna make you playtest it, to. Unlike a full game or adventure, a group of 3-4 people should be able to do this in like, 10 minutes!
I have a drily amusing, visceral, reaction to this, which is that I don’t want to believe that the techniques and tricks and processes that it has taken me decades to try to get to grips with can be reduced to a flowchart 🫣. More seriously, I think the core analysis here is excellent and it will take a few re-readings before I can contribute anything useful to the discussion.
Well I'll tell you what, I'm actually well into this project and -- I confess -- SCHEDULING these blog posts to be spaced apart, and have gotten into some flow states and started working on it. It's a big struggle to really boil the hell out of certain prompts and concepts. And I still think the result is something foolproof, but rudimentary -- like the "5 Room Dungeon." Simple, if executed in a straightforward manner, but still with tons of room to elaborate and work.
I think I'm gonna roll out this flowchart as a series of blogposts breaking down each chunk at a time!
Looking forward to it. I think your deconstruction of the relationship/distinction between plot and scene is spot on and that your top-level abstraction of the required/desirable contents of a scene is probably correct.
That means a lot to me, since I know you are a very comprehensive and systemic thinker! I'm really trying to get a lot of my first principles right here.
Most kind. As I’ve said elsewhere, I’m not hugely interested in bland consensus - ‘I’m just not in the mood, baby’ as Hitch would have said - but I am always eager to see what people who think seriously about the hobby have to say.