Comments on: Johnny’s Five – Five Ways To Get Your Players Into Shared Narrative When It Isn’t The Focus Of The Game http://www.gnomestew.com/johnnys-five/johnnys-five-five-ways-to-get-your-players-into-shared-narrative-when-it-isnt-the-focus-of-the-game The Game Mastering Blog Sat, 11 Feb 2012 00:00:43 +0000 hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.3.1 By: Kurt "Telas" Schneider http://www.gnomestew.com/johnnys-five/johnnys-five-five-ways-to-get-your-players-into-shared-narrative-when-it-isnt-the-focus-of-the-game/comment-page-1#comment-8366 Kurt "Telas" Schneider Wed, 23 Dec 2009 15:35:57 +0000 http://www.gnomestew.com/johnnys-five/johnnys-five-five-ways-to-get-your-players-into-shared-narrative-when-it-isnt-the-focus-of-the-game#comment-8366 <a href='#comment-8364' rel="nofollow">@Razjah</a> - I run Savage Worlds, and have offered Bennies for narrative input. I've even considered offering <a href="http://jrients.blogspot.com/2009/08/phrase-of-day.html" rel="nofollow">supplementary amounts of wild ass</a>, but nothing seems to get much response. I think three things are to blame: The overfull schedule of the modern adult (with spouse, children, and salaried job), a general lack of confidence, and emotional scars from the rat-bastardy of prior GMs.<div class="comment-remix-meta"><a href="#" class="replyto" onclick="replyto('8366','Kurt \"Telas\" Schneider'); return false;">Reply</a> </div> @Razjah – I run Savage Worlds, and have offered Bennies for narrative input. I’ve even considered offering supplementary amounts of wild ass, but nothing seems to get much response.

I think three things are to blame: The overfull schedule of the modern adult (with spouse, children, and salaried job), a general lack of confidence, and emotional scars from the rat-bastardy of prior GMs.

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]]> By: Pseudo http://www.gnomestew.com/johnnys-five/johnnys-five-five-ways-to-get-your-players-into-shared-narrative-when-it-isnt-the-focus-of-the-game/comment-page-1#comment-8365 Pseudo Wed, 23 Dec 2009 13:40:09 +0000 http://www.gnomestew.com/johnnys-five/johnnys-five-five-ways-to-get-your-players-into-shared-narrative-when-it-isnt-the-focus-of-the-game#comment-8365 Hey Johnny - the game you ran across was 1001 Nights by Meg Baker: http://www.nightskygames.com/ The shared narrative, and the framework of telling stories to appease the sultan are core components of the game. It's a really cool game.<div class="comment-remix-meta"><a href="#" class="replyto" onclick="replyto('8365','Pseudo'); return false;">Reply</a> </div> Hey Johnny – the game you ran across was 1001 Nights by Meg Baker: http://www.nightskygames.com/

The shared narrative, and the framework of telling stories to appease the sultan are core components of the game. It’s a really cool game.

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]]> By: Razjah http://www.gnomestew.com/johnnys-five/johnnys-five-five-ways-to-get-your-players-into-shared-narrative-when-it-isnt-the-focus-of-the-game/comment-page-1#comment-8364 Razjah Wed, 23 Dec 2009 01:32:49 +0000 http://www.gnomestew.com/johnnys-five/johnnys-five-five-ways-to-get-your-players-into-shared-narrative-when-it-isnt-the-focus-of-the-game#comment-8364 @Kurt "Telas" Schneider: I used little bits of XP. 100-200 a session won't really make or break anything, but to players it's a huge deal. My players eat stuff like 25xp like it's candy so I use things like that. Another thing I tried was 500 xp to everyone (not divided- I had to make that a selling point) at the end of a session (6hrs at the time) if the players didn't break character-including talking about tactics. It was amazing watching the smart player with the dumb character trying to justify how he knew how to solve a puzzle.<div class="comment-remix-meta"><a href="#" class="replyto" onclick="replyto('8364','Razjah'); return false;">Reply</a> </div> @Kurt “Telas” Schneider: I used little bits of XP. 100-200 a session won’t really make or break anything, but to players it’s a huge deal. My players eat stuff like 25xp like it’s candy so I use things like that. Another thing I tried was 500 xp to everyone (not divided- I had to make that a selling point) at the end of a session (6hrs at the time) if the players didn’t break character-including talking about tactics. It was amazing watching the smart player with the dumb character trying to justify how he knew how to solve a puzzle.
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]]> By: Kurt "Telas" Schneider http://www.gnomestew.com/johnnys-five/johnnys-five-five-ways-to-get-your-players-into-shared-narrative-when-it-isnt-the-focus-of-the-game/comment-page-1#comment-8363 Kurt "Telas" Schneider Tue, 22 Dec 2009 20:48:07 +0000 http://www.gnomestew.com/johnnys-five/johnnys-five-five-ways-to-get-your-players-into-shared-narrative-when-it-isnt-the-focus-of-the-game#comment-8363 I love this idea, and occasionally try to wrest a bit of narrative from the GM when I'm a player, but some players just aren't cut out for this. Call it unfamiliarity with narration, stage fright, option paralysis, or just indecision, but some players definitely need to walk or even crawl before they can "run with it". Anyone have advice for drawing players out of their shells?<div class="comment-remix-meta"><a href="#" class="replyto" onclick="replyto('8363','Kurt \"Telas\" Schneider'); return false;">Reply</a> </div> I love this idea, and occasionally try to wrest a bit of narrative from the GM when I’m a player, but some players just aren’t cut out for this. Call it unfamiliarity with narration, stage fright, option paralysis, or just indecision, but some players definitely need to walk or even crawl before they can “run with it”.

Anyone have advice for drawing players out of their shells?

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]]> By: Burn_Boy http://www.gnomestew.com/johnnys-five/johnnys-five-five-ways-to-get-your-players-into-shared-narrative-when-it-isnt-the-focus-of-the-game/comment-page-1#comment-8362 Burn_Boy Tue, 22 Dec 2009 20:00:27 +0000 http://www.gnomestew.com/johnnys-five/johnnys-five-five-ways-to-get-your-players-into-shared-narrative-when-it-isnt-the-focus-of-the-game#comment-8362 We do this to an extent in my group. I'm not the most literary inclined person so I'll give a basic outline of something and one of my players will kinda step in and give the scene a bit of extra flair. We also get very into this when we have our "Boss monster" fights. I'm going to test this in my next few quests, I know that most of my players will embrace this, they're very good at taking the freedoms I give them and running with them.<div class="comment-remix-meta"><a href="#" class="replyto" onclick="replyto('8362','Burn_Boy'); return false;">Reply</a> </div> We do this to an extent in my group. I’m not the most literary inclined person so I’ll give a basic outline of something and one of my players will kinda step in and give the scene a bit of extra flair. We also get very into this when we have our “Boss monster” fights.

I’m going to test this in my next few quests, I know that most of my players will embrace this, they’re very good at taking the freedoms I give them and running with them.

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]]> By: Scott Martin http://www.gnomestew.com/johnnys-five/johnnys-five-five-ways-to-get-your-players-into-shared-narrative-when-it-isnt-the-focus-of-the-game/comment-page-1#comment-8361 Scott Martin Tue, 22 Dec 2009 19:41:09 +0000 http://www.gnomestew.com/johnnys-five/johnnys-five-five-ways-to-get-your-players-into-shared-narrative-when-it-isnt-the-focus-of-the-game#comment-8361 The first point is great-- often, stepping from "tell me how much damage you do" to "describe everything" is big enough to confuse people. Specific questions do a great job of nurturing the right level of responses-- so you can get the dramatic leap without having them describe the villain's tactics, altering the scenery-- or whatever limit you're imagining. (If you play with kids-- or even adults new to roleplaying-- often the difficulty comes from getting them to limit their descriptions, rather than having to coax out extra details.) Your second suggestion, "Show me", is great for getting more description-- and is also good for correcting "too enthusiastic" descriptions, where one character tries to do 5 things in one action's time.<div class="comment-remix-meta"><a href="#" class="replyto" onclick="replyto('8361','Scott Martin'); return false;">Reply</a> </div> The first point is great– often, stepping from “tell me how much damage you do” to “describe everything” is big enough to confuse people. Specific questions do a great job of nurturing the right level of responses– so you can get the dramatic leap without having them describe the villain’s tactics, altering the scenery– or whatever limit you’re imagining. (If you play with kids– or even adults new to roleplaying– often the difficulty comes from getting them to limit their descriptions, rather than having to coax out extra details.)

Your second suggestion, “Show me”, is great for getting more description– and is also good for correcting “too enthusiastic” descriptions, where one character tries to do 5 things in one action’s time.

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