Shevy and I met up again on Tuesday and fiddled around with Reel Adventures a bit more. At the moment the playtesting is quite odd as I am trying to put the game together while we are playing, so we are just trying some of my ideas to see what works. We seem to be getting there though.
Since last time I have thrown a lot of stuff out. A hero is now defined by:
Background: Jobs, relationships etc.
Resources: Guns, allies etc.
Damage: How much of a beating he has taken.
I wont talk about damage much as we didn't get that far, but we did start off a story and invented something new. Also the nemesis is now played by one of the players and is not just mechanical. As it stood at the start of the session you get take a development scene to get something new, where you give the nemesis some threat. You can also take an action scene where you stake something, like a resource or background, on the action. you will always get your stake, but the nemesis may get 0 to some threat depending on how succesful your action is.
The immediate problem shevy ran into was that at one point she wanted to merely uncover some plot and wondered if she could stake that on the action scene she was about to do. It seemed reasonable and so we though about how we could implement that in the game. We came up with the 'Plot Fish'.
The 'Plot Fish' is a line on a piece of paper running from beginning to end. Off of this are lines that contain important plot elements, in this case a mysterious amulet, and how it is integrated into the plot, in this case stolen by thieves. At the time we couldn't decide what a win or loss meant specifically in this kind of scene and so we made something up at the time that was satisfactory.
Since that session I have been rewriting the game and think I now know how these 'plot scenes' work:
1) They must contain action
2) A plot scene is basically the heroes trying to uncover the nemesis' plot before he gets to achieve it.
3) With that in mind a win means the players uncover some plot and get a bonus of some sort towards defeating the nemesis.
4) If they lose they still uncover the plot, but it is too late to stop that particular element coming to fruition and the nemesis gains some threat to continue his plans.
How does that sound? I think this plot fish thing, will give the game the focus it needs and also make the game run quicker which I was looking for. Once I have drawn a plot fish in powerpoint i will post it up, and rename it!
Cheers
Iain
I would call it a "Turning
Submitted by stevebarker on Fri, 31/08/2007 - 22:58.
I would call it a "Turning Point" scene: everything comes into focus and either we turn this thing around or it turns out even worse than we thought.
Hee hee hee. Plot fish - you
Submitted by Shevaun on Sat, 01/09/2007 - 09:07.
Hee hee hee. Plot fish - you know the name is going to stick.
The only thing I'd really say here is make the plot fish simple enough to re-create on the fly, so that people don't have to carry around photocopies of it if they wanna play. Makes it much more of a pick-up game that way.
That's interesting. OK. Yes,
Submitted by Graham W on Sat, 01/09/2007 - 09:43.
That's interesting. OK. Yes, plot in action movies does tend to just be a bandwagon: it goes along, in a fairly straight line, gathering momentum until it resolves at the end.
I like the guidelines for plot scenes.
I'm trying to think how you'd expect plot scenes to resolve.
Imagine, say, early on in the plot, the heroes trying to stop the nuclear material being delivered for a bomb. Firstly, you know they can't succeed (the bomb is the whole point). So, if they win, I guess they get to see who takes the material or where it's delivered. If they lose, they're routed and the material gets taken from them. Something like that.
Similarly, if they're trying to find out where the bomb factory is. This time, they have to succeed. So, if they win, perhaps they get lots of information. If they lose, the Nemesis gets tipped off they're coming.
Does that make any sense?
Graham
Hehe. 'Plot fish'. Love
Submitted by Joe Murphy on Sat, 01/09/2007 - 17:54.
Hehe. 'Plot fish'. Love it.
Joe.
That is basically it Graham
Submitted by Iain McAllister on Sat, 01/09/2007 - 18:41.
That is basically it Graham the two conditions will do the following:
Lose: players find out info but it may be too late or the nemesis gains an advantage. Threat goes up.
Win: players find out info and it puts a small dent in the nemesis plans. Maybe threat goes down.
This makes it nice and general which is how i need to keep it so that it runs smooth. If i make it too specific what happens then it is likely that it wont fit all situations.
Anyway I will work out exact details tonight and hopefully get another playtest in next week.
Cheers
Iain
Mob Justice now available!
'The Giant Brain':Small games, big ideas.
Sounds like this is heading
Submitted by Andrew Kenrick on Sun, 02/09/2007 - 20:30.
Sounds like this is heading in the right direction Iain! I like the term Plot Fish too - I think it's staying :-)
Think about what you're saying about winning plot scenes though - the threat in an action movie never goes down until the climax, unless it's some sort of ruse or feint to catch the hero or audience off-guard.
No matter how many clues James Bond uncovers or how many goons John McClane kills, the threat only ever escalates - they never hit the climax at anything less than full speed.
What might change, however, is the advantage that the hero holds. Do they arrive at the climax knowing all the pieces of the puzzle, or will the nemesis catch them off guard with a plot twist at the end?
I'm sure this can be modelled using the same system, just though I'd point out that the term or concept might not quite fit.
That is true enough, though
Submitted by Iain McAllister on Sun, 02/09/2007 - 23:57.
That is true enough, though the threat of the nemesis I imagine will always increase, the old momentum system still playing its part there. I like threat but I rethink on terms might be in order, any ideas?
Cheers
Iain
Mob Justice now available!
'The Giant Brain':Small games, big ideas.