posted by ![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
perldiver at 11:59pm on 25/04/2009 under . gaming, daily_report, gaming.dresden, helpfulhatred
perldiver at 11:59pm on 25/04/2009 under . gaming, daily_report, gaming.dresden, helpfulhatredCarrots: 11
Sticks: 0
Short but intense workout today; lots of upper body. Ran the stairs for the first time in a while; floor 7-8 seems to be the consistent limit on where I can't run any more, and am reduced to walking at best and trudging at worst.
Got up early, got a lot done in terms of cleanup and general prep for visitors, then went down to Chinatown for dim sum. All four players were there, plus a couple of folks from CUGC, and much goodness was consumed by all. From there, we all came back to my place for gaming. Long session; we broke at midnight and people were here cleaning up and reviewing until about 12:30. There is general consensus that things are too fragmented, with not enough players in each scene; I find this tough to manage because it involves a lot of context switching and state management in my head. The players find it frustrating because they aren't involved. Today I tried to address it by having non-present players play the Big Bad of the scene plus the random bystanders; that was ok, but it won't work in all situations.
One player wants to see more convergence (or, perhaps, simplification) in the plot, with the implication of "and it should start immediately". Another player enjoys divergent plot threads that slowly grow together. My preference is to have the game world be a world, not a stage for the PCs--they are free to ignore plot hooks if they want, but if they choose to follow every plot thread that gets trailed in front of them, they end up running to the four winds, and that's the way it is.
So, three more-or-less mutually exclusive viewpoints; not sure how to resolve them without someone losing out. I can definitely stop throwing ou B- and C-plotlines that don't advance the main storyarc. It will make the world feel less believable, but more cinematic; I suppose that's not bad--the point, after all, is fun, not realism.
Oh, we had the first combat today. I had Avram playing the dog-spirit Big Bad, L playing the 7-year-old girl that it had kidnapped, and the other two were, of course, playing their characters. The monster was tough; had it not been for the fact that they fought it off its home ground and in daylight, it probably would have eaten their lunch. As it was, it sent Peter (the wizard) to the ER. Must remember to keep things moving faster in the future...call a "do something within ~30 secs or do full defense" rule. Add this to the "kittens and laptops" rule, enforce it all the time, and maybe we can make future battles go faster.
Looks like we aren't playing next weekend, so I'll have plenty of time to prep for the next session. This is a Good Thing. I should get a new printer (current one doesn't work); that way I could have handout prepared in advance.
Sticks: 0
Short but intense workout today; lots of upper body. Ran the stairs for the first time in a while; floor 7-8 seems to be the consistent limit on where I can't run any more, and am reduced to walking at best and trudging at worst.
Got up early, got a lot done in terms of cleanup and general prep for visitors, then went down to Chinatown for dim sum. All four players were there, plus a couple of folks from CUGC, and much goodness was consumed by all. From there, we all came back to my place for gaming. Long session; we broke at midnight and people were here cleaning up and reviewing until about 12:30. There is general consensus that things are too fragmented, with not enough players in each scene; I find this tough to manage because it involves a lot of context switching and state management in my head. The players find it frustrating because they aren't involved. Today I tried to address it by having non-present players play the Big Bad of the scene plus the random bystanders; that was ok, but it won't work in all situations.
One player wants to see more convergence (or, perhaps, simplification) in the plot, with the implication of "and it should start immediately". Another player enjoys divergent plot threads that slowly grow together. My preference is to have the game world be a world, not a stage for the PCs--they are free to ignore plot hooks if they want, but if they choose to follow every plot thread that gets trailed in front of them, they end up running to the four winds, and that's the way it is.
So, three more-or-less mutually exclusive viewpoints; not sure how to resolve them without someone losing out. I can definitely stop throwing ou B- and C-plotlines that don't advance the main storyarc. It will make the world feel less believable, but more cinematic; I suppose that's not bad--the point, after all, is fun, not realism.
Oh, we had the first combat today. I had Avram playing the dog-spirit Big Bad, L playing the 7-year-old girl that it had kidnapped, and the other two were, of course, playing their characters. The monster was tough; had it not been for the fact that they fought it off its home ground and in daylight, it probably would have eaten their lunch. As it was, it sent Peter (the wizard) to the ER. Must remember to keep things moving faster in the future...call a "do something within ~30 secs or do full defense" rule. Add this to the "kittens and laptops" rule, enforce it all the time, and maybe we can make future battles go faster.
Looks like we aren't playing next weekend, so I'll have plenty of time to prep for the next session. This is a Good Thing. I should get a new printer (current one doesn't work); that way I could have handout prepared in advance.
There are no comments on this entry.