This is fascinating because I think it accurately and concisely deconstructs what I do as a player and GM pretty much all the time without even realising it or thinking about it. I think I’d probably have to hold up my hands to the charge that an unexamined habit is a sloppy way of thinking and I’d certainly cough to the fact that it took me a long time to form those habits, which is vastly less efficient than thinking about them practically and systematically in the way you’ve done here. Nice work.
And, I left this out: I totally agree. One thing that's helpful here is that like, I actually have a long-term training in dramatic thinking (I attended a theater conservatory at a young age, I have directed plays, I have read screenwriting books) and so I kind of just GET a lot of this stuff? But my OWN thinking is not systematic or clear even to myself, it's just a jumble of habits and thoughts, and the problem with this is that the cognitive load is huge. Part of this is cleaning up my OWN workflow!
Heheheheheheh. My experience was perhaps kind of the reverse. As a teenager I stumbled on a group of AD&D players in the late 1980s who played very improvisationally without quite realising what we were doing and, as their usual GM, I had to figure out ad hoc tools and techniques before we had a grammar for what we were doing. Many of that old group went on to work as instructors at commedia dell’arte school, teaching theatre games, improvisational theatre and things like that (though I went down a more strictly ‘academic’ route that only featured some acting and directing as a hobby).
Thanks!! Look, the more I think about it, the more I'm like "The goal here is to make training wheels." After doing the entire process only twice, you'd probably have certain chunks of it memorized. That entire flowchart chunk I put in there can be summarized with the sentence "Ok, I need to set the scene, so I gotta pick a quest-related action relevant to my character, and then think of an environment and describe what it's like here."
My DREAM use of this is is that a play group goes "We want more drama in the game. Let's use this flowchart..." and then "Wow, that was fun! Let's break that out next time..." and then "Wow, this thing is flexible, I'm starting to see how it can result in all sorts of evocative outcomes. This is really good for our games!" and then finally "Let's do a scene! No, we don't need the kit anymore, we pretty much get how to do this now."
I think this is great. I'm saving these articles and ideas because I plan to use them in some future games. I like what was said in another comment - this is deconstructing something that I do with some players instinctively and after practice, but I think I can do better at it, too. And I liked the way you talked about training wheels that aren't needed forever, but provide a great way to get started.
I'm reminded of MCDM's upcoming TTRPG Draw Steel, where they want to make a tactical, cinematic, heroic fantasy game. This scene advice really fits into the 'cinematic' part. It makes me hope they have advice like this in the book!
"Cinematic" is so important here as a word, because like... I basically think that many incoming gamers really really WANT this, and they watch actual plays that are like this, but there is often... I'm beating a dead horse here... NO GUIDANCE for really how to do this other than offering lists of connected tips. And so we've all kinda just... learned? Watched videos, watched GMs we like, tried to imagine "Ok, how can we make this like a movie scene" and just improvised?
I think the next step in this process is where you'll really see this come to life, which is the introduction of the Sccene Partner, whose first job is to choose one of the following motives:
to ASSIST in the task
to ADVOCATE your cause
to CONFRONT for change
to offer COMFORT
to PROVE your value
to LEARN something vital
And then we turn back to the FOCUS and use some prompts to be like "Great, now let's make their motive not-very-easy-to-just-get..." Coming soon!
To the extent that I care (I’ve watched perhaps 45 minutes of it) I do think some critics have a point when they say that ‘Critical Role’ (other over-produced and quasi-rehearsed ‘actual plays’ (sic) are available) misleads people new to the hobby or, at least, gives a wildly skewed sense of what an RPG session is like if one assumes one can recreate that feel by ‘just making stuff up’. Is it any wonder that the churn in the hobby is so high - average campaign length is, what? six sessions? - when people are oppressed by such unrealistic expectations? In my more cynical mood I’m tempted to say ‘So what? I’ve found my little tribe and I can get a great game together most days of the week if I chose to.’ But, in my more considered moments, I hope I care enough about the hobby not to let it atrophy, and that needs people who can teach what they have learned. That’s probably not me. I’m too curmudgeonly and impatient and - if I’m brutally honest - have a lot invested in what may well be the sunk cost fallacy that only time and experience can teach these things.
I’m so glad to hear this. I appreciate what the big Actual Plays have done with the hobby, but when I was 5e-only, I dealt with a lot of people being like “Oh man…. I…. thought this would be like what I saw but… it’s kinda not.” I bring a lot of new people in with that dramatic and cinematic promise, but yes, people without certain “2nd order skills” often feel left behind, and there’s gotta be a better way!!
This is fascinating because I think it accurately and concisely deconstructs what I do as a player and GM pretty much all the time without even realising it or thinking about it. I think I’d probably have to hold up my hands to the charge that an unexamined habit is a sloppy way of thinking and I’d certainly cough to the fact that it took me a long time to form those habits, which is vastly less efficient than thinking about them practically and systematically in the way you’ve done here. Nice work.
And, I left this out: I totally agree. One thing that's helpful here is that like, I actually have a long-term training in dramatic thinking (I attended a theater conservatory at a young age, I have directed plays, I have read screenwriting books) and so I kind of just GET a lot of this stuff? But my OWN thinking is not systematic or clear even to myself, it's just a jumble of habits and thoughts, and the problem with this is that the cognitive load is huge. Part of this is cleaning up my OWN workflow!
Heheheheheheh. My experience was perhaps kind of the reverse. As a teenager I stumbled on a group of AD&D players in the late 1980s who played very improvisationally without quite realising what we were doing and, as their usual GM, I had to figure out ad hoc tools and techniques before we had a grammar for what we were doing. Many of that old group went on to work as instructors at commedia dell’arte school, teaching theatre games, improvisational theatre and things like that (though I went down a more strictly ‘academic’ route that only featured some acting and directing as a hobby).
Thanks!! Look, the more I think about it, the more I'm like "The goal here is to make training wheels." After doing the entire process only twice, you'd probably have certain chunks of it memorized. That entire flowchart chunk I put in there can be summarized with the sentence "Ok, I need to set the scene, so I gotta pick a quest-related action relevant to my character, and then think of an environment and describe what it's like here."
My DREAM use of this is is that a play group goes "We want more drama in the game. Let's use this flowchart..." and then "Wow, that was fun! Let's break that out next time..." and then "Wow, this thing is flexible, I'm starting to see how it can result in all sorts of evocative outcomes. This is really good for our games!" and then finally "Let's do a scene! No, we don't need the kit anymore, we pretty much get how to do this now."
I think this is great. I'm saving these articles and ideas because I plan to use them in some future games. I like what was said in another comment - this is deconstructing something that I do with some players instinctively and after practice, but I think I can do better at it, too. And I liked the way you talked about training wheels that aren't needed forever, but provide a great way to get started.
I'm reminded of MCDM's upcoming TTRPG Draw Steel, where they want to make a tactical, cinematic, heroic fantasy game. This scene advice really fits into the 'cinematic' part. It makes me hope they have advice like this in the book!
"Cinematic" is so important here as a word, because like... I basically think that many incoming gamers really really WANT this, and they watch actual plays that are like this, but there is often... I'm beating a dead horse here... NO GUIDANCE for really how to do this other than offering lists of connected tips. And so we've all kinda just... learned? Watched videos, watched GMs we like, tried to imagine "Ok, how can we make this like a movie scene" and just improvised?
I think the next step in this process is where you'll really see this come to life, which is the introduction of the Sccene Partner, whose first job is to choose one of the following motives:
to ASSIST in the task
to ADVOCATE your cause
to CONFRONT for change
to offer COMFORT
to PROVE your value
to LEARN something vital
And then we turn back to the FOCUS and use some prompts to be like "Great, now let's make their motive not-very-easy-to-just-get..." Coming soon!
To the extent that I care (I’ve watched perhaps 45 minutes of it) I do think some critics have a point when they say that ‘Critical Role’ (other over-produced and quasi-rehearsed ‘actual plays’ (sic) are available) misleads people new to the hobby or, at least, gives a wildly skewed sense of what an RPG session is like if one assumes one can recreate that feel by ‘just making stuff up’. Is it any wonder that the churn in the hobby is so high - average campaign length is, what? six sessions? - when people are oppressed by such unrealistic expectations? In my more cynical mood I’m tempted to say ‘So what? I’ve found my little tribe and I can get a great game together most days of the week if I chose to.’ But, in my more considered moments, I hope I care enough about the hobby not to let it atrophy, and that needs people who can teach what they have learned. That’s probably not me. I’m too curmudgeonly and impatient and - if I’m brutally honest - have a lot invested in what may well be the sunk cost fallacy that only time and experience can teach these things.
I’m so glad to hear this. I appreciate what the big Actual Plays have done with the hobby, but when I was 5e-only, I dealt with a lot of people being like “Oh man…. I…. thought this would be like what I saw but… it’s kinda not.” I bring a lot of new people in with that dramatic and cinematic promise, but yes, people without certain “2nd order skills” often feel left behind, and there’s gotta be a better way!!
Very cool diagram and thoughts!