tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4353391426294254427.post7094350907826323880..comments2024-03-25T22:48:31.750-04:00Comments on Dreams in the Lich House: Your Villain is Suck - Part 2Johnhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18031181424520125213noreply@blogger.comBlogger7125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4353391426294254427.post-31200630807213220892011-08-25T13:38:02.482-04:002011-08-25T13:38:02.482-04:00@Faoladh: It's a matter of picking the right ...@Faoladh: It's a matter of picking the right tool for the job; it's a true statement that 1st person tools are better in the table-top setting than 3rd person tools (unless you make the cut scenes 1st person by having the player's take on temporary roles as Von suggested). Some of my past groups that had more of a thespian / improv slant loved those opportunities to take on temp roles and ad lib. My intent was to show these techniques are available; I can see folks visiting the Lich House have diverse RPG resumes and have thought about this kind of stuff!<br /><br />In Gothic Greyhawk, I can think of two notable cut scenes the past year - one was the time Strahd interrogated the cleric he abducted mentioned above. The funnier one was from the point of view of the henchmen and hirelings camped out at the bottom of the mountain, after the PC's on the mountain top unleashed the horde of 13,000 hungry undead (that promptly went running down the mountain and overran said henchmen and hirelings). They all died, horribly.<br /><br />On the other hand, the progress of the zombie war would be amenable to cut scenes, but I'd rather keep the players in the dark until they get first hand knowledge. They only things they know are rumors and reports that have trickled in from refugees (1st hand).Johnhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/18031181424520125213noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4353391426294254427.post-33291314931296181002011-08-25T05:22:09.391-04:002011-08-25T05:22:09.391-04:00Advanced Fighting Fantasy. And sorry - I tend to ...Advanced Fighting Fantasy. And sorry - I tend to assume people are talking to me unless they're explicitly tagging their posts with someone else's name, even if I'm in someone else's space and shouldn't make that assumption. Self-centred, I know.Vonhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/12583821960347555993noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4353391426294254427.post-906620497516310362011-08-25T04:19:49.743-04:002011-08-25T04:19:49.743-04:00Von: Oh, yeah. I was sort of replying to the origi...Von: Oh, yeah. I was sort of replying to the original post, though. To me, the cutscene is a useful tool for the particular medium of video games, but I don't like it for tabletop RPGs. Your idea of "semi-interactive cutscenes", in which the "cutscene" is given a setting-related explanation, is an excellent idea. My dislike of the "cutscene" technique is in line with my general dislike of dissociated mechanics.<br /><br />AFF? I'm not sure which game that is.faoladhhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/03691952430041394614noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4353391426294254427.post-12518253956559564322011-08-25T04:10:29.921-04:002011-08-25T04:10:29.921-04:00faoladh, that's kind of my point. I don't...faoladh, that's kind of my point. I don't use cutscenes unless I can immerse the players in them somehow. A cutscene is fine if it's the players using a crystal ball to spy on the evil wizard, or if it's the result of their cunning plan to bribe the local time-mage into sending them back to 1920, or whatever - if it's part and parcel of what the players are doing in the session. Like asking for news, it's a means of expositing information as a result of players taking responsibility and agency. They're more invested in the information because they've had to work to get at it and it's embedded in their actions.<br /><br />I also use 'cuts' to jump from player to player in scene-based play: things like WoD games where 'splitting the party' is sort of supposed to happen as the characters all have their own lives and problems that co-exist with whatever plot you're trying to push, and which have to be represented in play in order to give the supernatural stuff any sort of cost or downside or humanising element.<br /><br />That I use the vocabulary of cinema and computer games to describe these techniques is largely down to convenience. I can say 'cut' to my group of latchkey kids and visual media nerds and they instinctively understand what that means - the focus has shifted, we are now elsewhere, it's someone else's turn. Saying all that in a single-syllable word is a very effective tool, entirely appropriate to the medium.<br /><br />Plus, y'know, I run a lot of AFF, the game so cinematic and so inspired by cinema that it calls its encounters 'scenes' and its GM the 'Director'. That was the first RPG book I encountered and it's had a much stronger influence on me than I realised until just now - but it was so accessible precisely because it imported the terms of a medium that I already understood near-instinctively.Vonhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/12583821960347555993noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4353391426294254427.post-36283720912264557782011-08-24T22:55:17.291-04:002011-08-24T22:55:17.291-04:00I dunno about this. I think that it would be bette...I dunno about this. I think that it would be better to present information like this as reports from NPCs than as an abstract, omniscient POV, disconnected "cutscene". Get the players used to asking for news, and being asked for news, and present the machinations of villainous NPCs as reports from survivors or the like. In my opinion, RPGs should develop tools for presenting information that are appropriate to the medium, not rely on techniques imported from other media.faoladhhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/03691952430041394614noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4353391426294254427.post-67183866284265742011-08-24T11:05:29.171-04:002011-08-24T11:05:29.171-04:00Really good point about the Time Magic - the Harry...Really good point about the Time Magic - the Harry Potter book, Half-Blood Prince, where Harry and the old guy are traveling back through people's memories - perfect examples of using cut scenes to introduce a villain's back story interactively.<br /><br />I've got a bit of the World of Darkness in my gaming DNA as well - spent a lot of time running VTM in the late 90's. My group at the time was thespian Goths and had no problem jumping into NPC roles to improvise within a cut scene on the spot.Johnhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/18031181424520125213noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4353391426294254427.post-11926799619630414292011-08-24T10:30:27.501-04:002011-08-24T10:30:27.501-04:00I'm a big fan of literary techniques, although...I'm a big fan of literary techniques, although I prefer the semi-interactive cutscene - scrying and spying and watching CCTV and things like that.<br /><br />The best villain I've ever run was in a Mage: the Awakening game. Far more powerful than any of the player characters, he could only be beaten if they managed to learn his given name, which would give them some power over him; not as much as learning his true name, but maybe enough to bargain with him. <br /><br />They came up with the idea of using Time Magic to explore his childhood, and spent a session in his past, witnessing the increasingly monstrous series of events that revealed how this power-crazed maniac had come to exist. <br /><br />Could have just been a boring "Von gonna talk at you now" session had elements of the cut-scenes not started interacting with them, giving them the feeling that they were intruding, and being watched in turn.Vonhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/12583821960347555993noreply@blogger.com