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Productive weekend, this time. Saturday was a flurry of stuff which, while basically boring, was full of stuff I really needed to do. New bank account, moving a whole host of things from my dads to my apartment, ect. It was good to get it taken care of, but I still haven't been able to figure out how to assemble my futon. Seriously, it shouldn't be so difficult, but I wasn't the only one stymied; at one point, myself and three of my friends were staring at it, trying to figure out just what we were supposed to bolt where. No such luck. Over two days, I was never able to reassemble it.
Other then that, I'm not feeling especially great this morning. A trip to the Chicago-style burger joint down the road for lunch will probably solve that problem.
Last Thursday was our latest Abyssal game, and I learned afterwards that it was supposed to be horror themed. Horror, as I've noticed, is especially difficult for rpgs, and Abyssals doubly so, since we're supposed to be the monsters in the first place. The normal things I'd expect to go wrong, then, did so - difficulty communicating created a misinterpretation of events between the ST and the assistant ST we brought in and the AST came down hard on the wrong side of the enabled/helpless line. The last is the razor thin margin of agency and helplessness that you need to be able to straddle to run that genre. I guess the best example is when we were asked to roll for mental defense, and I burned a willpower to succeed versus an uncertain enemy.
When the next round came, I was asked to do so again, and as I picked up the dice, the AST said something like "This scene really isn't important, and you'll just keep defending until the effect generates 9 successes against you, so do you want to just skip the rolls?" My response to that was admittedly pissy, but that's easily the thing that makes me the most unhappy in a game. The rest of the game was actually pretty solid, but if you want to run, there's an example of what not to do.
Anyway, it was a bit of a bummer. One of our players refused to be placated, and our ST was visibly deflated after the game. It's hard to put a lot of effort into something and then feel like you failed. I'm sure the next game will be a lot more solid, since this one would have been just fine without that lapse in communication between the ST and the AST, but that's one of the problems with bringing in a seperate person to run scenes in a game.
Other then that, I'm not feeling especially great this morning. A trip to the Chicago-style burger joint down the road for lunch will probably solve that problem.
Last Thursday was our latest Abyssal game, and I learned afterwards that it was supposed to be horror themed. Horror, as I've noticed, is especially difficult for rpgs, and Abyssals doubly so, since we're supposed to be the monsters in the first place. The normal things I'd expect to go wrong, then, did so - difficulty communicating created a misinterpretation of events between the ST and the assistant ST we brought in and the AST came down hard on the wrong side of the enabled/helpless line. The last is the razor thin margin of agency and helplessness that you need to be able to straddle to run that genre. I guess the best example is when we were asked to roll for mental defense, and I burned a willpower to succeed versus an uncertain enemy.
When the next round came, I was asked to do so again, and as I picked up the dice, the AST said something like "This scene really isn't important, and you'll just keep defending until the effect generates 9 successes against you, so do you want to just skip the rolls?" My response to that was admittedly pissy, but that's easily the thing that makes me the most unhappy in a game. The rest of the game was actually pretty solid, but if you want to run, there's an example of what not to do.
Anyway, it was a bit of a bummer. One of our players refused to be placated, and our ST was visibly deflated after the game. It's hard to put a lot of effort into something and then feel like you failed. I'm sure the next game will be a lot more solid, since this one would have been just fine without that lapse in communication between the ST and the AST, but that's one of the problems with bringing in a seperate person to run scenes in a game.
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From:
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I have never had an AST outside LARP (where I was a co-ST for around 100 people at one point...yikes...) but I was in a game that had one and there was a lot of conferring that honestly seemed to take away from it to me. Plus the main GM handled supernatural plots and the co-gm mundane plots, so you could tell what type it was based on who you were talking to (this in In Nomine).
I understand the GM being deflated though. I try to put together the best damn game I can for my posse, and I hate it when it does not turn out to be what it could be.
From:
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Gaming is tough for horror in the first place. It's not losing a character that creates dread. imo, it's about creating a headspace that effects the player, is relevant to the character, that can't be discounted. My favorite example is House of Leaves when it comes to general print.
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When I run, say, Exalted, It's not that the PCs cannot lose. However, it is unlikely, and the reason is because I do not want them to play careful and conservative. To me, what is cool is to have over the top action, adventure, romance, and stunts in Exalted. If the risk runs too high you get fewer heroics, and possibly a lot of dead characters because a less interesting course of action is just safer and more intelligent.
So to bring it back around, if you play in one of my Scion games, you know you are there to be awesome. It's possible the PCs could fail at something, but usually only if they are badly unprepared or ignore very obvious hints (and I say obvious because I be sure anyone with the skills to do so IC will notice them). With a horror game, those bets are off. They may have a limited time between, say, slasher victims, and they know if they take too long to solve it someone they know will die. They are more conservative, but it provides more the "OK, we have to plan this carefully" my players also enjoy. (which is not to say I have not run Exalted scenarios with PCs surrounding a map and deciding how to deploy forces. I have). And of course character death means needing to roll up a new PC rather then "OK, time to bust 'em out of the Underworld"
Some player types gravitate more toward one of my game styles then the other, but that is all for the good.
I really need to read House of Leaves. It's been cited as a good inspiration for my geist game, and I am gonna borrow it when another player is done with it.
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