Sorry, the plot device is on leave this week
So, here I am, having traveled half a world away. While the primary purpose of my trip is still solid, I had a host of other people to do and things to see while I was here. Or something like that.
So, here I am, having traveled half a world away. While the primary purpose of my trip is still solid, I had a host of other people to do and things to see while I was here. Or something like that.
Thursday is GURPSDay, and below you can find the blog activity from the last seven days. Over the last week, as of 400pmCST today, there have been 49 GURPS-Related posts from our list of 58 blogs that have popped up on the radar screen. That’s better! Plus, we picked up two new blogs! The big…
As noted, I interviewed +Stacy Dellorfano yesterday for Gaming Ballistic’s Firing Squad. It was a good interview, but likely ruined because of issues on my end. In short, I couldn’t get my headset to work, and not wanting to be rude, I plunged right into the interview without it. That . . . did not go well….
One of the features of Third Edition (and sorry, I never played Man to Man, The Fantasy Trip, or GURPS First or Second editions; my first experience was with Third Edition, maybe even 3ed Revised) that was retained as-is into Fourth Edition is that of the half-damage range, commonly abbreviated 1/2D. In third edition, after…
Welcome to Gaming Ballistic, March 2014 host of the RPG Blog Carnival. The topic for March is “Virtual Table-Tops – Impact on Games and Gaming.” As I thought of my history of gaming, first playing with a single friend in 1981 or so (Dungeons and Dragons, of course), through the years I’ve played with groups…
First blog post! Why will anyone care? Mostly, gaming stuff. I’ve got a few things in Steve Jackson Games’ Pyramid, one “real” e23 supplement on the way as soon as the Big Damn Ogre gets out of the way of the publishing queue, and it’s Just Fun to muse about games. Bear with me as…
Work has been a Terribly Dire Polar Bear recently, and today most of all. Fortunately, SJG comes to my blogging rescue by releasing something that was pretty darn interesting in playtest. GURPS Boardroom and Curia is a book all about groups of people. In a word: Organizations. It’s a PC-facing guide to what organizations, from…
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This is exactly the burden that Old School D&D takes off of my game mastering shoulders. With gold-for-xp and an effectively unlimited map (B2 or a scratch-built megadungeon), the players set the objective and take charge of the plot.
For a more narrativistic game… the ability to telescope and fast forward past the tedious parts means annoyances don't have to be boring. Setbacks and failures are the essence of plot and we for some reason have a tendency to want to gloss over those in favor of what we think is "supposed" to happen.
When Plan A can't work for silly logistical reasons… the players might be forced to use an approach that they aren't as optimized for in a time and place that they aren't min/maxed against. If this sort of thing develops as a direct result of player choices and dice results instead of raw GM fiat… so much the better. I say embrace it as a perfectly logical contrast to business as usual.
This can definitely be done well, and it'll add to the plot. If the taxi is late, but you gift them with the presence of another car nearby, whose operator is just idling, they might turn it into a cinematic scene. "I'll give you a hundred and thirty seven dollars if you drive my friend and I to the airport RIGHT NOW."
If the platoon doesn't show up, do you send out scouts, find that they're lost, and start messing with them where they are? Maybe it's a fortuitous decision, as their APC has thrown a tread and if you can lead them away with a well-played strategic withdrawal, you can avoid their heaviest firepower.
I definitely think it can work just fine, no matter if it's GM fiat or from a random roll on a table.
So Doug, you're saying, basically, what if you decide to go see the Mad Wizard of Madwizardistan, and you show up, why is he automatically there? What if the ship is late, the Mad Wizard is sick and can't see you? What if he's late because he's been traveling and isn't back yet?
It's no different than rolling a reaction roll – not how the guy reacts to you, but "can you get there smoothly?" or "is he there when you get there?"
Personally I think this is totally fine. Just gloss over the delay. "He can't see you for an hour" is very different than "Okay guys, sit at the table for an hour and then we'll play out the encounter." It'll matter if they have a time limit in the game, just don't make it suck out of game.
Oh, sure, I'd never make the players sit around. Just wondering how often people use simple (or complex) friction in their games.
I use it whenever I forgot to be prepared for that action. "Sorry, Dave's not here."