{"id":4942,"date":"2003-12-01T15:22:31","date_gmt":"2003-12-01T22:22:31","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp\/?p=4942"},"modified":"2003-12-01T15:22:31","modified_gmt":"2003-12-01T22:22:31","slug":"ding","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2003\/12\/01\/ding.html","title":{"rendered":"Ding!"},"content":{"rendered":"

And yet another gaming post. This amusement never ends. <\/p>\n

One of the biggest meta-gaming problems I run into (both as a GM and as a player) is pacing, in terms of how often one’s character is in the spotlight, vs. not. This problem is most significant in systems that enable PCs to wander off on their lonesome — Nobilis and ADRPG being good examples.<\/p>\n

One approach is to use a timer. People (or groups) get 20 minutes. Or 10 minutes, if you’re trying to wrap things up quickly. Ding!<\/i> Move on to the next.<\/p>\n

There are a couple of problems with that approach. First, it assumes that since all players are equally important, all character activity is equally important. Not always a valid assumption.<\/p>\n

Secondly, it’s more often honored in the breach. I’ve been in games where more time was spent outside of timer time than inside of it. That’s sometimes because of rampant digression (not in and of itself a bad thing, we must remember), and sometimes because of …<\/p>\n

Thirdly, stories just don’t break that way. It would be like saying each chapter of a book needs to be X words or Y pages. You could do it, but you’d trade off good pacing. So while timer time is rarely shrunk (“I yield the rest of my time to the Cleric from Arodnel”) (and this hearkens back to the Firstly), it often has to be expanded until a “good” break point is reached.<\/p>\n

Fourthly, how do you handle folks who are together. It’s a cheat to give a group as much time as an individual (esp. if you want to incent group play), but giving them double the time seems problematic, too, especially as other players wander in or out of the scene.<\/p>\n

An article in the 20×20′ Room addresses the issue of pacing (the N-body problem)<\/a>. It doesn’t solve it, but any means, but it comes up with some interesting suggestions, from a Nobilis perspective, notably:<\/p>\n

The first method discussed is The Ecological Approach<\/b>: Use even amounts of time, but force each player to zero on in things going on that are important, not just time sinks. E.g., rather than ask “What are you doing now?” ask “What’s the most important thing that should happen to your character right now?”<\/p>\n

I’m not sure how well that would work (though changing the question might come up with some interesting answers). One problem is that what’s “important” may not be known to the player (or character), and “important” things may come about serendipitously by the mundane choices of the players hitting a chord in the GM’s brain.<\/p>\n

Secondly, not all players have <\/i>something important to do right at this moment. That’s something that, as a GM, I struggle with (see “Firstly” above). If Jim is in the middle of the Big Scam, and Willy is just sitting in the panel truck keeping the engine warm for a quick get-away, should I come up with interesting make-work things to be happening with Willy, or focus on the key scene with Jim?<\/p>\n

Still, as I said, serendipity has generated some of the most interesting (or entertaining) scenes I’ve run — including (not coincidentally) some ad hoc <\/i>video footage for Margie in the “Willy” role last game.<\/p>\n

Another approach is Free Market Reform<\/b>. Rather than Soviet-style allocation of time and pacing, give each player points to bid on the spotlight during the course of the session.<\/p>\n

This approach leaves out what (or how long) a bid is good for. It does, on the other hand, let someone opt out of playing for a while, or focus all their attention on one key scene. Still, it’s not clear that, with the same amount of money (bidding points) and the same scarce resource (GM focus), you end up with anything different from “centralized planning.”<\/p>\n

(On the other hand, you could incent PCs grouping together by giving a bonus to bids in groups. If, that is, you want to manipulate the players that way.)<\/p>\n

The article also discusses Co-GMing<\/b>. That adds some interesting new logistics. Do you co-plot?<\/i> Do you let a co-GM also play a character? Is there enough to do for a co-GM? How do you deal with plot security issues, but not have the co-GM become merely The Guy Who Rolls for NPCs? How do you deal with everyone being back in the same room? <\/p>\n

And, most importantly, with the folks who GM jonesing to play<\/i>, how do you get more than one of them in a room at a time to wear a GM hat?<\/p>\n

No magic answers here, but some interesting discussion.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

And yet another gaming post. This amusement never ends. One of the biggest meta-gaming problems I run into (both as a GM and as a player) is pacing, in terms…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_seopress_titles_title":"","_seopress_titles_desc":"","_seopress_robots_index":"","_seopress_robots_follow":"","_seopress_robots_imageindex":"","_seopress_robots_snippet":"","_seopress_robots_primary_cat":"","_seopress_robots_breadcrumbs":"","_seopress_robots_freeze_modified_date":"","_seopress_robots_custom_modified_date":"","_seopress_robots_canonical":"","_seopress_social_fb_title":"","_seopress_social_fb_desc":"","_seopress_social_fb_img":"","_seopress_social_fb_img_attachment_id":0,"_seopress_social_fb_img_width":0,"_seopress_social_fb_img_height":0,"_seopress_social_twitter_title":"","_seopress_social_twitter_desc":"","_seopress_social_twitter_img":"","_seopress_social_twitter_img_attachment_id":0,"_seopress_social_twitter_img_width":0,"_seopress_social_twitter_img_height":0,"_seopress_redirections_value":"","_seopress_redirections_enabled":"","_seopress_redirections_enabled_regex":"","_seopress_redirections_logged_status":"","_seopress_redirections_param":"","_seopress_redirections_type":0,"_seopress_analysis_target_kw":"","_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[22],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-4942","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-gaming"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":12142,"url":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2007\/11\/06\/now_theres_a_manly_sport.html","url_meta":{"origin":4942,"position":0},"title":"“Now there’s a manly sport for you, my boy!”","author":"***Dave","date":"Tue 6-Nov-07 11:55am","format":false,"excerpt":"Chessboxing. The rules are simple: six rounds of speed chess interlaced with five three-minute rounds in the ring. Each competitor has 12 minutes in total on the chess timer. Victory...","rel":"","context":"In "Gaming"","block_context":{"text":"Gaming","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/category\/gaming"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":133875,"url":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2017\/07\/17\/gaming-with-pictures.html","url_meta":{"origin":4942,"position":1},"title":"Gaming! With Pictures!","author":"***Dave","date":"Mon 17-Jul-17 10:27am","format":false,"excerpt":"So I need to share (or at least generate a link for myself) some cool pictures +Michael Williams did for the Dungeon World game +Doyce Testerman is running. The first three characters, left to right, are played by our household: Eduard Zitherhands the Bard (me), Torwin the Bold Fighter \/\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "~PlusPosts"","block_context":{"text":"~PlusPosts","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/category\/blogging\/plusposts"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":130880,"url":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2016\/06\/15\/gaming-together.html","url_meta":{"origin":4942,"position":2},"title":"Gaming together","author":"***Dave","date":"Wed 15-Jun-16 10:29am","format":false,"excerpt":"I love gaming with +Margie Kleerup and +Kay Hill.I also love that we're not telepathic.[Original: http:\/\/www.megacynics.com\/2016\/06\/15] \u00a0 View on Google+","rel":"","context":"In "~PlusPosts"","block_context":{"text":"~PlusPosts","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/category\/blogging\/plusposts"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/06\/0008265B15D.jpgimgmax%3D660.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":130116,"url":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2016\/03\/04\/gaming-the-system.html","url_meta":{"origin":4942,"position":3},"title":"Gaming the System","author":"***Dave","date":"Fri 4-Mar-16 10:28pm","format":false,"excerpt":"Heh.(Original: http:\/\/www.smbc-comics.com\/index.php?id=4039) \u00a0 View on Google+","rel":"","context":"In "~PlusPosts"","block_context":{"text":"~PlusPosts","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/category\/blogging\/plusposts"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":132020,"url":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2016\/11\/13\/because-i-could-use-some-distracting-right-now.html","url_meta":{"origin":4942,"position":4},"title":"Because I could use some distracting right now","author":"***Dave","date":"Sun 13-Nov-16 2:54pm","format":false,"excerpt":"I came to the conclusion this morning that I have the MMO itch again. I just don't know how to scratch it. Short of going back in time and fixing it so that my beloved City of Heroes doesn't get canceled (and that never ends well), I'm stuck looking at\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "~PlusPosts"","block_context":{"text":"~PlusPosts","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/category\/blogging\/plusposts"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/11\/psi-clone-and-amorpha-the-last-adventure5B15D.jpgimgmax%3D660.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/11\/psi-clone-and-amorpha-the-last-adventure5B15D.jpgimgmax%3D660.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/11\/psi-clone-and-amorpha-the-last-adventure5B15D.jpgimgmax%3D660.jpg?resize=525%2C300&ssl=1 1.5x"},"classes":[]},{"id":9476,"url":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2006\/06\/28\/failure_is_an_o.html","url_meta":{"origin":4942,"position":5},"title":"Failure is an option","author":"***Dave","date":"Wed 28-Jun-06 5:29pm","format":false,"excerpt":"Doyce linked to this a few days back, from the HeroQuest site: Failure is Always An Option: Character Defeat is Player Victory, Too. 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