Tag: podcast

Welcome back to Narrative Control, season 3. This season we’re taking calls from listeners and offering up what advice we can about their gaming conundrums. This week we talked to Austin Smith about hierarchies in game settings.

Hosts: Sean Nittner, Eric Fattig, and Lenny Balsera

Guest Caller: Austin Smith

Length: 52:26

Show Notes

[00:26] Introduction to the show. Brining back Austin Smith from Episode 70.
[01:20] Austin’s games. Built into the game setting was a hierarchy. Problems presented by power.
[03:24] Using hierarchy to reinforce an aspect of the setting. Embrace what it tells you about setting.
[04:43] How we deal with question of hierarchy in fiction is very different from the way we deal with it in life.
[07:25] If someone is pulling rank to get what they want, lots of other things have gone wrong.
[08:21] Orders vs. strong personal convictions. Good hierarchy drama!
[09:10] When we talk about hierarchies in a RPG, we are most often talking about them as they are portrayed in fiction.
[09:50] Authority allow a GM to present different ranked characters with different challenges.
[11:09] Make sure the players are using these potential conflicts to maximize drama between characters.
[11:56] Firefly game – NPC captain who was ignored and wasn’t developed. Another Firefly game, agreed to run without a captain.
[14:59] One way to handle an authority figure NPC. Pass the character around to the players.
[16:35] Ashen Stars handles the issue by giving the captain authority only while on the ship, but authority stops there.
[18:33] Werewolf does the same thing, where each pack member is in charge of their own niche.
[18:51] Authority is contextual. In TNG Picard is always deferring to other people.
[19:34] Difference between rank and status. Improv technique form Keith Johnstone’s Impro: Improvisation and the Theatre.
[21:17] We learn interesting things about character when high ranking characters have low status.
[22:57] In L5R rank was circumvented by having each character be a member of different clans.
[24:13] Hierarchies were avoided in games. Why was this? Avoiding being set up to fail.
[25:35] Dichotomy of wanting strict hierarchies in the setting but not wanting it to affect the game.
[27:18] Choosing how much hierarchy we want to enforce in our setting.
[28:28] Example of how this is handled in a setting. Worf kills Duras. Gets a stern talking to.
[30:23] Authority is best used with discretion in a game. Will it make for an interesting consequence to invoke authority?
[34:01] Lenny’s death haiku “Dude, you really suck.”
[34:17] Difficult to find the balance between actual consequences and making look like there are consequences.
[35:37] Different play styles made it difficult to get a consensus on how an authority figure should act.
[36:00] Example of our Blue Gene game that we have had to stop the game in play to question an action before it happens when it would threaten our ability to justify its acceptance in the setting.
[37:59] Player leader as antagonist? Discuss.
[39:40] System also effects this. Does the system let you force someone to do something, or does it just allow you to put pressure on them?
[41:22] Recap. Discussing the buy into to the authority. How would law enforcement work if mutants existed (ala X-men). How real is realistic?
[42:44] Ask what questions are meaningful in the story. How would normal people deal with having amazing powers? How do you respond to unknowable threats around you?
[44:59] Authority in the face of the unknown. Nobody has the answers. Authority in those cases just means you have a bigger gun to shoot yourself in the foot with.
[46:00] To ask questions, you need to give yourself permission to talk to about these things on a player level.
[47:36] Rich storytelling options to be mined. High ranking characters don’t have the opportunities to see things you can at a lower level.
[48:52] Have NPCs skip levels and not play the game right to cause intrigue.
[50:22] Some examples of mechanics for using authority form Apocalypse World: Leadership and Pack Alpha.

The converstaion continues…Here

Welcome back to Narrative Control, season 3. This season we’re taking calls from listeners and offering up what advice we can about their gaming conundrums. This week we talked to Jamil Walker about presenting non-violent opposition for his PCs. This really touched on a cornerstone of our GMing styles. It’s a good 40 minutes. Have a listen!

Hosts: Sean Nittner, Eric Fattig, and Lenny Balsera

Guest Caller: Jamil Walker

Length: 42.16

Show Notes

[00:26] Introduction to the show. Jamil Walker from http://www.meetup.com/Indie-Gamers-Network/ comes on to talk about non-violent opposition.
[01:08] Explicit warning on!
[01:26] Discussion about GMing styles. How does a player self-identify what kind of GM they are looking for?
[02:59] Diversity in the hobby making the term role-playing game and elusive term.
[05:55] Cons using symbols to designate content of games (legend). Big Bad Con will start using something like this. http://www.bigbadcon.com/
[08:18] Welcome Jamil Walker to the show. Playing Apocalypse world and trying to fight the knee jerk reaction of going straight to violence.
[09:43] Constant violence stalls character development long term.
[10:28] Apocalypse World tools for creating interwoven threats: Fronts!
[11:55] We start the cult discussion.
[12:15] Violence does work as an impetus to action. A threat you can’t ignore.
[13:24] Branching out to find other threats they have to respond to.
[14:00] Cult example, everyone leaving the hold to enter the wasting desert.
[14:42] What do the player characters care about?
[15:09] Real life example: Being blackmailed for breaking company policy, stakes are losing your job.
[16:01] Back to the cult. Threatening to change your home. Arguing with your boon companions…risking becoming a pariah in your own community.
[17:28] Trap with Apocalypse World: The setting depicts people focused only on survival but he process of play proves that image wrong.
[18:11] Start with questions. Find out where the dependencies are and work with those.
[20:04] Connect problems to scarcity – deny things. Have an NPC say “no”.
[22:28] Stop thinking about people in terms of their fantastic characteristics, and think of how people say no to you.
[24:04] Superman’s real Kryptonite – People being afraid of him.
[25:18] Push the denial strongly. Let the players initiate the violence.
[26:37] You can get a lot of mileage out of the repercussions of violence.
[27:35] Make NPCs as fickle as needed to present opposition.
[28:04] Give the players things. Allow them to win. Give them something they care about.
[29:09] Enforcement of denial. How’s it work? Jamil’s notes.
[30:52] Slow your roll there… use the details of the setting.
[33:44] Someone lied. Lies start a chain of consequences.
[35:16] It’s okay for the players to feel on top of the world. It makes defeat that mush more brutal.
[37:00] Letting the players win. Legitimate victories chip away at the problem of “only caring about being alive”.
[37:55] Get excited about their victories and defeats. Put your own emotions on the table.
[41:18] With that knowledge… you should run a game at Big Bad Con.
[41:37] Want to be on the show? Emails us narrativecontrol@gmail.com

Jamil’s notes from the show:

The trap of violence is that it demands action

Threaten What The Value

•      Their peace
•      Their resources
•      Their loyalty
•      Their homes
•      They’re resources

Give them stuff. Love it to death. Then break your own heart

To “Push There”

Threaten something they have (object/relationship/group/resource)

•      Someone wants to destroy it (to rebuilt, to consume, to make example of)
•      Someone wants to change it (to serve a new purpose, to signify something malevolent)
•      Someone wants it for themselves
•      The thing they have disagrees with them
•      The thing they have wants something harmful

And threaten via:

•      Greater numbers (violent or non-violent)
•      Denial of resources (shelter, supplies, protection)
•      A tempting offer (away from the thing being threatened)
•      A direct threat or warning

Someone can’t (or won’t) give them _______ because:

•      someone else says they can’t
•      they don’t think you deserve it
•      they don’t want to do _____ anymore
•      they don’t have it anymore (taken, spoiled, burned up, ran out)
•      they don’t want what your offering in exchange (anymore)
•      their supplier died/moved/cut them off.

The converstation continues…Here