Narrative Control

This week's episode was recorded in EndGame at Oakland during Good Omens Con 3 in July 18th.  Paul Tevis, author of A Penny for My Thoughts played a game of Penny Justin and me and then recorded interview with us about the game.  And now you have it… the story behind Penny.

Hosts: Sean Nittner and Justin Evans

Guest Host: Paul Tevis

Length: 37:55

Show Notes

[00:25] Intro to the show, an interview with Paul Tevis at Good Omens Con.[01:49] Excerpt from "A Penny for My Thoughts" from the Orphic Institute[04:19] The rules are simple, but this piece shows "how" to play this game.[05:18] Design decision: A book that could teach you the game during play.[06:33] The three ingredients for Penny at Game Chef: Currency, Memory and Drug.[07:43] Penny is a very procedural game, so the rules can unfold as you're playing it.[07:59] The trick is making it fun.  Memory triggers and presenting the rules in the fiction.[10:09] Everyone sitting at the table is playing.  One player takes the role of the Reader, but they still play with everyone else.[11:10] Excerpt from play.  Learning the rules.[12:52] Structure of the game divided by ritual phrases.  Inspired by Polaris.  Helps transition into and out of the game.[15:37] The ritual phrases bakes in the reflection scene.[16:07] Keeping things short, specific and evocative. Based on experience with improv.[17:37] Elements inspired by improv: "Yes, and…"  "And" is harder than we think.[19:15] "Yes, and…" also acted as pacing mechanic to string the questions together.    And creates momentum.[20:00] Sometimes "No" means "Yes."  Divining what people want.[21:24] Specific influences for Penny: The Extraordinary Adventures of Baron Munchausen and 1001 Nights.  Creating incentive to do collaborative storytelling.  [22:07] Core principal: Listening to what kind of stories the others want to tell and giving them what they want.[24:07] If the character sheet is a love letter to the GM, Penny is an ongoing dialog.[24:31] Penny engages all the players all the time.  Avoids the turn taking that leaves players out.[25:28] Compared to In a Wicked Age.  The Facts and Reassurances document is analogous to the Oracles.  It makes sure everyone is on the same page about the content of the game AND allows that content to be swapped out for any setting.[28:10] Playing without a net.  I made Paul an international bank robber.[29:09] Publisher hat kicked in.  Support for new settings on the Orphic Institute.  [30:14] Penny as a character creation session.  A rich development of the characters on an emotional level.[31:45] Creating connections between your characters in the memories. [33:12] Design question: How much of explaining the rules and the implications of the rules during the procedural text. [34:11] Some competition to offer the best actions.  "A Smack Talk for my Thoughts".[36:56] Continue this conversation over at orphicinstitute.com or gameslinger-enterprises.com

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Welcome back to Narrative Control – Season Two!  Justin and I took a two month sabbatical to reflect on season one and plan for the new material.    This week we're brining you Ira Glass.  He has a few Youtube videos up on storytelling that both Justin and I really enjoyed.  Here's our take on how his advice applies to gaming.

Hosts: Sean Nittner and Justin Evans

Length: 26:14

Show Notes

[00:32]  Welcome back to Narrative Control.  [01:07] Preview of Season two.  What is the new season all about?[02:16] Intro to this episode: Storytelling by Ira Glass (of This American Life)[02:49] Links to all four clips of Ira: Part 1, Part 2, Part 3, and Part 4[03:27] An excerpt from Ira's clip. The building blocks of a story.[04:19] Our discussion on the antidote.  In RPGs the antidote is a sequence of scenes.[04:59] Made more complicated by every player acting as a storyteller and a protagonist.[07:07] Sons of Kryos talked about "weaving" threads together. [09:31] Passing scenes around like a hot potato. SoK talked about this a well![10:20] An excerpt from Ira's clip. Raising questions and answering them.[10:57] Bait. Asking questions and the implication that you will answer them.   Our discussion.[12:06] What is that bugbear doing? Why is he running? Where is he running to?[12:50] Introducing new "bait" to keep the story interesting.  Mixing short and long term goals together. [13:59] An excerpt from Ira's clip. The moment of reflection.  Why are you listening to this story?[14:21] Out discussion.  Not necessarily present in RPGs.  [14:50] An opportunity for reflection to allow players to understand what is going on in the heads of the other characters.[15:00] With Great Power has the Thought Bubble.[15:12] Sean's L5R Game – Sapphire Magistrates.  Exposition created through character scenes.[17:31] Moments of reflect allow you to give a flag to other players so they can contribute to your fun.[17:53] Some settings make it VERY hard to share the meaning of an event to a protagonist.  This can be used to create suspense if we intentionally hold out on reflection to keep the audience guessing what something means.[18:56] Some systems that build in reflection.  In Inspectors there is the "confessional".   Confessionals can completely change the meaning of a scene you just watched.[20:42] Montsegur 1244.  Everyone knows that the game will end with a reflection scene as the characters explain why they chose to convert or burn at the stake.[21:15] Roanoke has a moment of reflection tied to the Doom of the island at the end of the story.[22:39] Reflection baked into Dogs in the Vineyard.  Each conflict ends with traits changing to reflect on the conflict that just happened.[24:07] Wrap up: The anecdote, question and reflection.

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Hi and welcome back to Narrative Control.  This episode marks the end of Season 1 and offers a glimpse into Season 2.   Following that is the combined mistakes we've made over the last 10 months in a long series of bloopers.  Warning, many of these cuts were originally made because of profanity, so this episode is most definately explicit. Not safe for work or kids.

Hosts: Sean Nittner and Justin Evans

Length: 23:09

Show Notes

Sorry, not for this.  The first five minutes is a wrap up of Season 1 and intro Season 2.  The next twenty is nothing but bloopers.

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Hey all.  This week is a little long.  We've got two guests on the show, a convention to talk about and secrets to spill.  Check it!

Hosts: Sean Nittner and Justin Evans

Guest Hosts: Shaun Hayworth and Kirstin Hayworth

Warning: TMD + Con + NC = Swearing.  Lots of it.  Not safe for work (or kids)

Length: 38:49

[00:27] Intro to the show.  We're at Kublacon with Shaun and Kristin from This Modern Death to talk about secrets in games.[00:41] Where did I just wake up?[01:31] Talking about secrets and segues. [02:07] The games we've been in and how they handle secrets.  [02:33] Sean's Game – The Gift.  Lots of secrets.  We kept them secret from the players and I think it could have been improved if the players knew in advanced.  Actual Play write up here: http://wildljduck.livejournal.com/67833.html (scroll down a bit)[05:29] How did the secrets get revealed.  Some were pushed for, others revealed to just some players,  and one I revealed in the middle of the game. Thus leading to what should have been a secret: A hall full of naked dwarves.[06:30] Justin's Game – Serpents in the Garden, a Fallout 3 LARP.  All of the players had secrets they could afford to trade.  Secrets turned into currency.Comparing open (known by all players) vs. closed secrets.[08:15] The conversation continued on This Modern Death… A link to the forum thread where the controversy started:  http://forum.thismoderndeath.com/comments.php?DiscussionID=202[09:55] How secrets "can" be awesome if the reveal is just right.  How hard is it to make this happen?[11:47] The excitement of everyone knowing the secret and pushing to see it revealed.[13:08] Making a character out of a secret. Where does this go?  Telling stories to yourself.[13:57] Sean's disaster of a segue.  Recapping value of open vs. closed secrets. Getting player buy in to reveal player secrets.[15:41] Assure the players that revealing secrets won't ruin their character.  Also getting an agreement from the other players not to step on each other's fun.[17:02] How this compares between campaign play vs. one shots.  Allows the players to moderate each other.[18:13] When everyone knows about the secrets they are better at determining when they should come up.[18:39] What about the player who enjoys the power of having a secret?  Make it into currency.  Allow them to trade the secrets for power or other secrets.[19:38] As the currency starts flowing, let the secrets come back around.[20:52] Use secrets as actual currency for plot elements.  Buying from the "secrets" vendor.How to make the secrets come out in game[21:46] Give the player a benefit for revealing their secrets.  [22:17] Use that technique in Dread mechanically by allowing them to get free pulls by revealing their secrets.[23:19] Segue to point 4! What are some good ways to make it happen.[24:40] Incentivizing it.  Any system that has cookies you can hand out (fate chips, drama dice, etc).[24:45] The GM can set expectations in advance about how and when secrets will be revealed.   Using an act structure that dictates when secrets must come out.  Also works as part of the pacing mechanic. [26:25] More love for Luke Crane.  In Burning Wheel secrets move at the speed of plot.[28:36] Having secrets revealed in advance, talked about outside of character, will push towards them being revealed in game.[29:07] Confessionals.  Giving space for characters to speak directly to the audience.   [30:43] How will this work in games that it is not genre appropriate?  Featured in Inspectres, but could be used in any game as a confessional scene, an interstitial scene, a journal entry, or as a thought bubble.[32:06] One left… I hate it. Character Goals to get information from another.[33:00] Secrets are best given voluntarily, not because of a malicious action of another player.[33:32] This can work better in a large game like a LARP where secrets are traded around.[33:58] Character goal secrets can also be something you want to reveal instead of hide.[33:38] Going off script here!  What if you want to share a secret but don't know how.[37:50] Our secret goals…

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This week Justin and I are talking about timelines in games (flashbacks and flash forwards) and out (campaign length, how to end games, etc).

Hosts: Sean Nittner and Justin Evans

Length: 28:26

[00:27] Intro to the show. Talking about timelines in game and out.[00:49] Telling stories about our characters.[01:50] One way to tell stories in game is to use flash backs or flash forwards[2:00] Justin pains me with a discussion of Lost[03:10] Talking about timelines on two levels.

Flashing back and flashing forward

[03:30] We display our ignorance to games who incorporate time manipulation in their games.[03:58] A LARP that flashed back and flashed forward throughout.  They worked from the far future and past closer to the present.[06:15] This allows you to start on a very dramatic note.  Starting with tension in the present by using Flashbacks to explain how you got there.[06:52] Flashbacks are very useful for fleshing out the backstory.[07:14] Starting with a normal scene and flashing back (or forward) to a very tense one.[08:06] Allows the group to ask a really specific question about the characters or the story.[08:52] Potential pitfall of a flashback:  Plot immunity.   Opportunity to create relationships or beliefs.[10:13] Flash forwards can tell us what scene we should be building towards. [11:28] Potential pitfalls of flash forward: Players working against the story you are presenting.[11:56] Something that you want to look to your group for buy in.

Structure of games

[13:02] Asking the question. How long to I want this game to run?  How should it end?[13:29] An awkward Highlander reference.[14:22] Prime Time Adventures uses a 5 or 9 episode season.  This works really well with the spotlight dynamic.[15:24] Some games don't pace the number of game sessions but they do work strongly towards and end game.[15:54] The Shadow of Yesterday: Transcendence – Your character is written out of the story.[16:35] Burning Wheel: Emotional Attributes force characters to leave the world in different ways.[17:39] Dust Devils uses  harm  to push towards "The End".[18:29] My Life with Master constantly pushes towards the end of the game (and consequently the end of the characters).[20:32] Creating a good end game… we don't want to let the fun end.[22:27] Taking away the sting of games ending.  Talking about the game afterwards.[24:00] Building in time to debrief games at the end.[25:10] Most LARPS end with all the players sharing their plotlines with each other.[25:39] End long running games with a discussion of what the group will do next.  Removes some of the fear of the "cool" part ending.[27:28] Ending this podcast with an assurance that there will be more cool ones to come, and you can remove the sting by coming to the forums.

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Welcome back to Narrative Control.  This week Justin and I respond to a old post by Vincent Baker on suspense, what cause it and how to add it to a game.

Hosts: Sean Nittner and Justin Evans

Length: 25:08

Show Notes[00:28] Intro to the show.  What causes suspense in stories and how to recreate that in your games.[00:39] RPGPodcast.com promo[00:47] Do you ever doubt Jack Bauer will stop the terrorist in 24?[01:43] What do we learn about in the first 23 hours?[02:10] The question isn't will he make it, but what does he have to do to get there.[02:24] I didn't think of this.  I read it on Vincent Baker's blog. [02:49] Suspense: What will the protagonist have to go through and how will they change?Techniques we have used to create suspense[03:33] Setting stakes that are not directly tied to the character goals.   Make the stakes involve the cost of success. Thank you Mario Brothers and Jim Butcher.[05:18] Negotiating the stakes between GM and the players.[05:56] Using dice cups to prolong the suspense.  Yup, we stole this from Sons of Kryos.[06:51] Use several conflicts that create twists in the plot, still moving towards the final outcome.[07:28] Scarcity of player resources (fate chips, action points, etc).  Players investing their resources for success.[08:24] Using physical tokens to represent resources.  Players can see how they've got let.Specific systems that have suspense building elements[08:59] Gumshoe removes the rolling from investigation, but allows players to invest in their findings.[09:58] Buying success in Wilderness of Mirrors.  Betraying your fellow spies.[11:27] Resource points also act a pacing mechanic by establishing the number of obstacles you'll face.[11:58] Another post of Vincent Bakers: Chalk Outlines, which uses concessions to create twists. [15:23] Schauermärchen. A different take on pass the stick models.  [19:00] Polaris. Players creating twists for each other using a very ritualized format.[20:34] Changes in the fiction are more meaningful than reducing player resources.  Discussion of hit points in Dungeons and Dragons vs. Sanity Loss in Call of Cthulhu. [21:39] A variation of the core Spirit of the Century rules for consequences  instead of stress.[22:25] Mouseguard has both conditions (which are meaningful in the fiction) or twists (which complicates the story)[23:30] Shadow of Yesterday has the option of bringing down the pain to raise the stakes of a conflict.

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This week Justin and I talk about icebreakers, exercise and games to remove inhibitions and get everyone's creative minds moving.

Hosts: Sean Nittner and Justin Evans

Length [28:25]

[00:26] Intro to the show. Talking about icebreakers, getting people comfortable playing together.[00:54] RPGPodcats.com Promo[01:05] Did you go to band camp?[02:01] Why do we care about camp? Oh yeah, because we can rip off ideas from them.[02:55] Links to camp games: http://www.ultimatecampresource.com/site/camp-activities/common-ground-icebreakers.page-1.html, http://www.humanpingpongball.com/[03:39] Games at Gamestorm – camp style[04:39] Scalagrim the Barbarian Prince.  Our Icebreaker routine.[05:22] Part 1 - The Tale of Woe. Practicing "Yes, and…"  (a little over two minutes)[08:17] Part 2 – The Epic Journey.  Practicing reading other players flags and sharing the spotlight. (just over a minute)[10:41] Part 3 – The Oracle's Answer. Practicing not interrupting each other and being flexible. (about a minute and a half)

(Total time for both explanation and performing the exercises, about seven minutes)[12:57] Recap of what we got out of these icebreakers.Games that have Icebreaker exercises built into them[14:56] Prime Time Adventures pitch session.  Gets everyone on the same page about what kind of game everyone wants to play.[15:43] Character creation in Spirit of the Century.  Building on each other's pulp novel.[16:42] Dogs in the Vineyard accomplishment.  Playing out one question you ask about your character.[17:17] Mouse Guard Prologue.  A reward for recapping the previous game.   An icebreaker that also reminds everyone that happened last time and shows what parts they were excited about.[18:35] World of Darkness Preludes.  Often a longer event, but we've done it as a single session where everyone ran their preludes simultaneously.

Games that you could play with people who haven't role-played before

[20:47] Once Upon a Time.  A card game with fantasy tropes.  Mixes card game elements (like Uno) and storytelling.[21:49] Are you a Werewolf.  A very scripted game that gets everyone talking, trying to discover the Werewolves.  Very much like reality TV elimination.Role Playing Games that act as Icebreakers themselves.[24:12] Breaking the Ice.  A game about two people meeting each other, but structured for two people (or more) learning to play a role-playing game.[25:43] Sons of Liberty.  A game that encourages fast play and, like Once Upon a Time has a very visible mechanic that aids you in narration.[26:33] Discussion of common elements in these ice breaker games.  Cards, cues, directions.  Let's throw Zombie Cinema in the mix as well.

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Justin and I heard an episode of HGWT:FAFGM (#34) about structuring stories in RPGs and thought "Huh".  Here's the 25 minutes that followed our monosyllabic revelation.

Hosts: Sean Nittner and Justin Evans

Length: 25:35

[00:28] Introduction to the show.  Talking about story structure. Hippies vs. Engineers.[00:57] Survey: http://www.spookyouthouse.com/survey[01:19] Have Games Will Travel: For a Few Games More: #34.  Story structures. [01:56] Dirty Hippies and Stinking Engineers[02:11] Story Structure: A pattern that we fall into or actively follow when telling stories. [02:47] Hippies: The original gamers playing moment to moment and allowing story to follow from their actions.   Allowing for more surprises, creativity, and immersion.[05:07] Engineers:  A gamer who wants to structure their game and drive towards specific goals in each game.[07:02] Games with known ends: Grey Ranks, Roanake, Polaris.  These games are one step closer to being engineered.[07:36] Montsegur 1244 is very structured.  A story told in four acts.[09:50] Distinction between Hippie Indie Gamers and Story structures Hippies [10:29] Dungeons and Dragons:  A total hippie game. [12:07] Patterns that we can draw on: Plays, TV shows, playing published adventures. [15:15] Another engineered game: Dirty Secrets.  We all know when it will end but now how it will end.[18:00] Zombie Cinema : Also engineered, also without a GM, also uses a board.  Hmmm… are we noticing a trend.[19:49] Did the mechanics restrict the game?  Yes, in a good way.[22:00] A negative experience engineering a game.  Some players really groove the hippie experience.

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This week on Narrative Control Paul Strack, Mike Parker and I talk about monsters in 4th Edition Dungeons and Dragons and what we've learned from the designers of the game.

Hosts: Sean Nittner

Guest Hosts: Michael Parker and Paul Strack

Length: 27:04

Show Notes:

[00:30] Intro to the show.  A sit down with Paul Strack and Mike Parker to talk about how 4E got monsters right.[00:49] A RPG Podcast Survey:  http://www.spookyouthouse.com/survey[01:14] Intro to the guys… some portion of Good Omens (http://www.goodomensgames.com)[01:35] Planning the next Good Omens Convention – July 18th.  http://www.goodomensgames.com/index.php/con/[02:13] 4th Edition does Minions really well.  Seen in other games: Feng Shui, 7th Sea but usually they never pose a threat.[03:15] Not the way mooks are depicted in fiction, which is to heighten the tension of the story.[03:50] Mike's use of Minions to shake up a fight and change expectations.[04:30] The difference is that in other games, everything about a minion is scaled down so not only are they easy to take out, but they also don't pose a threat.   4th Edition breaks that, lowering their damage and hit points but keeping their defenses and attacks on par with the players.[05:33] Usually they have some powers up their sleeve as well.[06:00] Minions can really help the "big bad" giving him advantages… correction though that the 4th edition folks will catch, grab immobilizes and doesn't grant combat advantage, but you get the point.[06:41] Comparing to more recent incarnations of minions.  A Spirit of the Century minion.  [08:02] Mike's adaptation of Minion in his Hunter game.[08:48] Can this scale up with supernatural powers?  How do minions fit into the horror genre?[10:17] How to put it in other games?  One hit kills but they have teeth.[10:39] What about groups of minions? Can they be treated as a unit and still be a threat.[11:44] Making minions complimentary to the Big Bad's plans.[12:27] Prevents the "everyone clobber one guy" phenomenon.[13:35] The Solo monster.  The idea that you would treat a single big boss differently[14:26] In most games the big bad is scaled up in all aspects making him more dangerous but also more frustrating to fight.[15:47] What makes solo bosses work in Dungeons and Dragons and how to we port that into another game?[16:10] They formalize how they break the rules.  If you are big you get extra tricks.[16:54] How about in a very narrative game? Take PTA for example.   Give the big bad a bigger buffer that you would usually have.[18:10] The Spirit of the Century chase mechanics.  A very back and forth system that rolls several conflicts into one.[18:55] Giving the main villain some form of plot immunity.[19:42] What about a stake setting game? Should we negotiate stakes to protect antagonists?[21:49] Polaris and the formalized player negotiation, how to scale the escalation of consequences. [22:40] We get the same things for Solo bosses as we do for minions.  Scale them up on in certain places.[23:30] Monsters are treated statistically different.   In other games we see this break down as powerful villains become incredibly complex to create and to play.[25:00] Save a lot of time for both the GM and the players[25:46] The rule of three.   The bag guy needs 3-4 abilities because that is all the time he's going to live.[26:00] This is a very gamist attitude.  If you can give up on simulation it will be rewarding.

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Hi and welcome back to Narrative Control.  Here's a snippet I cut from last episode about PDF vs. Print media.  It seems like a good conversation to be having right now.

Hosts: Sean Nittner, Justin EvansGuests Hosts: Shaun Hayworth, Kristin Sullivan

Length: 9:29