Robin D. Laws - Directed Scenes
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Directed Scenes
In response to comments on a recent gaming hut post, I promised to provide an example of a directed scene. For the original description of this technique, check out Fear Itself.
For the session described earlier, I wanted to focus two of the PCs, choosing a pair that hadn’t yet had any significant defining moments or scenes. I had a starting question for each, but that was the extent of my advance prep.
First up was Alex’s (![[info]](http://l-stat.livejournal.com/img/userinfo.gif) nottheterritory) human warlord. My goal here was simply to flesh him out. I asked Alex to describe the moment where he first decided he was a warlord. In describing this moment, Alex added detail to the setting, as players are empowered to do in this particular 4E game. He placed his character, Heller, as an early teen at an elite school. Heller demanded the right to run the school war games, sure that his extensive book knowledge of tactics would win the day. I assigned Jesse (jscoble11) the role of the older, tougher student from whom he was demanding control, giving him the goal of pushing back against Heller’s wishes. To balance the scene, I gave Justin (thebitterguy) the role of Heller’s buddy, giving him the goal of keeping Heller out of trouble. The three players jumped into the scene, developing the conflict. As Alex argued Heller’s case, we got to see his character in his youth, and understand a bit about him. Jesse, playing the older boy, challenged Heller to a circle combat, which would decide who was in charge. Since this was a flashback illuminating a character’s backstory, I didn’t use the rules to resolve the one-sided fight: I told Alex that the result of the fight was up to him. He decided to follow the scene’s logic, and have Heller soundly trounced. This then, he explained, taught Heller the valuable lesson that he had to learn to back up his tactical knowledge with real fighting capability. So with a few minutes of dialogue and description, Heller went from being a playing piece to a fictional person, one we’d been through a pivotal moment with.
Next up was Jesse’s elven cleric. This directed scene I wanted to tie into the likely theme for coming session—hard choices. So I asked Jesse to describe the time when his character, Xerxes, faced his toughest choice. He decided that this would be the time when he decided to follow an outlander god. I asked Rob (chryx) to play a countervailing character, and Chris (madmanofprague) to take on the role of a supportive character. Rob chose to be Xerxes’ father; Chris, his sister. Chris wound up being able to hang back and lob a few lines into the scene. It played as a strong conflict between the calm and sensible father, and the firebrand son who wanted to follow his calling now. Xerxes was tired of meditating on things for decades before taking action. (Because it suited the improvised scene and heightened the contrast, Rob decided to treat the elves as very long lived. Although this setting detail was more from old school D&D than the current version, it is now true in our game. The dramatic needs of the moment so dictated.) Sometimes during a directed scene I’ll step in to advance the drama. Here, for example, Rob and Jesse had begun to repeat their arguments. So I asked Rob to escalate the stakes in some manner. He did this by saying, in his oh-so-subtle elven father way, that Xerxes would be unwelcome in his community if he ran off and pledged himself to the Raven Queen. So once again the flashback sequence made Xerxes more of a character to us.
Tags: 4e, d&d, gaming hut, gumshoe
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I rally like this flashback style means of giving he characters depth. Thanks for the examples, now I've got the swing of it. I'm especially glad that you highlighted the other characters playing NPC roles in the flashbacks in order to advance the storyline. None of the PCs in my current campaign knew each other before the game so thats a good pointer for someone in my own situation.
I'll have to test it, but on the surface it looks like one of the best new mechanics I have seen for and RPG.
![[User Picture]](http://l-userpic.livejournal.com/17282096/3813106) | | From: | gbsteve |
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| Date: | August 7th, 2008 02:59 pm (UTC) |
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We've done similar things in our games, notably Fear Itself but others two. I think it does a lot more to create the atmosphere of the game than just to announce to the other players who your character is. It also allows a player time to reflect and justify how his character is.
Usually the shared character history is only from after the characters meet. This extends that and adds context to the game.
Dogs in the Vineyard has the great introductory scene which not only introduces the players to the rules but also does all this stuff too. It's a shame in some ways that it's limited to one scene.
A game I'm writing at the moment, Fourpenny Touch, is in effect a collection of flashback scenes which culminate the death of the character. The characters don't necessarily meet but everyone participates in their history.
![[User Picture]](http://l-userpic.livejournal.com/67569233/6847045) | | From: | d_fuses |
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| Date: | August 7th, 2008 03:54 pm (UTC) |
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What bothers me about this is that it tends - as do many chargen systems - to create characters who are extremely fully-formed, and worse, have most of their story all-told. Which so often leaves nothing left to tell. In stories we tend to find out who the characters are by how they interact with the plot, and I like the same thing in my RPGs. But I guess method actor and storyteller types need an idea of who they are to respond correctly/naturally./at all. And there's nothing wrong with that or any of this. It's just not something I enjoy as a player or really get, so I have trouble bringing it into my GMing.
I don't thinkits a matter of the character being fully formed prior to play so much as providing additional perspective on the personality in order to help facilitate RP. Of course, as with all things, your mileage may vary.
In my own game I have three hardcore old school DND gamers, two somewhat experienced players and on total novice in her first game ever. For me this is a terrific tool that I intend to implement.
(NOT trying to devalue your comment, just adding my own perspective)
| | From: | d_fuses |
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| Date: | August 7th, 2008 04:15 pm (UTC) |
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I expanded a lot on this in my LJ post, and indeed, I must stress again that whatever works is awesome! As perhaps a more analytical person if I do these things, I like things to be more spelled out, so rather than determine character in a scene, I'll facilitate RP by writing down key aspects of interaction. You know, like a relationship web. So if Bob is playing a dwarf and I'm playing an elf we'll sit down and talk about what flashpoints we might have and how we'll work them and where they might go. I guess it's more from a writer's POV than a inhabiting-the-character POV. Unknown Armies and D&D4E both do this kind of thing, with players listing how they deal with situations.
I guess thats the difference, I tend towards more of an immersion style game. Since I usually run Planescape/Spelljammer using 3.5 rules the subject matter tends to steer parties towards role playing for the majority of their XP.
I've tried 4e, and while there are a few things I like I will not be making the transition. Pathfinder seems much more in tune with both my play style and my $4K investment in 3.5 books.
Sounds like you have a nice system there, I might even crib some elements of it as well to create my own fusion system. Thanks for the input!
| | From: | d_fuses |
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| Date: | August 7th, 2008 04:27 pm (UTC) |
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Well, as an aside, it's a mistake to think you can't play immersionist games with an authorial stance! And a mistake I see over and over and over again...
Please elaborate, I would love to get your thoughts on this.
| | From: | d_fuses |
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| Date: | August 7th, 2008 04:39 pm (UTC) |
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Immersion comes from many sources. Generally it is preserved by staying "in the zone" which is acting and reacting as if in the game world, taking on avatar roles, inhabiting the character. That doesn't necessarily mean though that anything from outside that world breaks that. After all, if we are not LARPing, the GM is describing things, not showing them to the players. Therefore, there is no time that players have things coming to them that are totally "avatar" based, they are also seeing things as audience members and authors and even gamers. Indeed, immersion happens to us when we read books and watch films - ever had someone shout out "don't open that door!" in a horror film? That's audience immersion. At no point does the audience member think they are the character opening the door BUT they are so caught up in things that the emotional connection is total regardless.
Similar, roleplayers are, at all times, authors, avatars and audience, and all three of these have their own immersion power. This is why i roll dice, because dice tells the players information that description cannot. That's why I like rules, because they also pass on summaries of information that roleplay alone cannot. Rolling a 20 elates the spirit, allowing the player to instantly immerse themselves with the triumph of their character. That's an example of gaming immersion. Authorial immersion happens when the player views his character as a distant, as a piece to be controlled through a narrative but is still so thrilled to see what he is going to write next and so caught up in the action that he can feel what his player is experiencing, just as a writer will wince when he writes his characters into scenes of loss and pain.
That might not be everyone's definition of immersion. Mine is when the boundaries between your character's emotions and reactions blur with your own. To suggest that this can only happen when you're acting as the character is like suggesting you don't cry when Bambi's mother dies unless you're pretending to be Bambi. Which isn't to say that immersion is simply the game effecting you emotionally, it's something similar, but deeper than that. Perhaps this is a light definition of immersion, if so, give it another name!
But I guess method actor and storyteller types need an idea of who they are to respond correctly/naturally./at all.
I'm like that to a great extent...I like to have moments like "Ah, Talia has mixed feelings about this situation because it reminds her of her relationship with her parents."
I agree, though, that it's not helpful to make a character who's already seen and done many more interesting things than anything that's going to happen in the campaign. (Unless, perhaps, you're going for the "wise old mentor" archetype or "world-weary hero comes out of retirement" archetype or somesuch.) |
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