I just finished reading another great write up, and it has me thinking, which in turn has me soliciting some input.
I just finished reading another great write up, and it has me thinking, which in turn has me soliciting some input.
All the play tests that I have been reading are awesome, and seem to be... progressing faster per 'session'. They seem to be about the same length or word count, but so much more seems to happen in them.
What am I missing? I just get the feeling now that my play through is kinda... lame or boring. Is it? Honestly. I'm enjoying it, but I haven't really felt any... action, since the initial Scrapper encounter. IDK, just a thought and maybe just a funk I am in.
Happy New Years by the way!
All the play tests that I have been reading are awesome, and seem to be... progressing faster per 'session'. They seem to be about the same length or word count, but so much more seems to happen in them.
What am I missing? I just get the feeling now that my play through is kinda... lame or boring. Is it? Honestly. I'm enjoying it, but I haven't really felt any... action, since the initial Scrapper encounter. IDK, just a thought and maybe just a funk I am in.
Happy New Years by the way!
If you're having fun, you can't really be "doing it wrong" can ya? I spilled thrice the words on a fight scene in my co-op that I did on an entire quest solo. My next solo is shaping up to be wordy and slow as all get out. Just play to find out, and let the dice fall where they may!
ReplyDeleteJosh McGraw said it perfectly. Play to have fun for you!
ReplyDeleteThough for what it’s worth I’m really enjoying your HZD game.
I’ve got some general thoughts on pacing I may bring to the table when it’s not really late at night, lol
Josh McGraw I am enjoying it. I am also, surprising, enjoying sharing it, so want to make sure others enjoy reading it. (that is a lot of enjoying - LOL ) Yeah, the dice are completely driving my train. Maybe that is part of my problem? I, personally, have lost direction? If you recall I had a skeleton of a plan, but the dice and oracle threw that out the window. I'm reactive instead of proactive if that makes sense? Is that okay / how solo is usually played?
ReplyDeleteJustin Gordon Thanks. I would love to hear any thoughts you may have. Maybe it is pacing that I'm missing; introduction, escalation, culmination, end? Maybe I lose that with dice driving the train and not having a... 'plan'?
Couple of thoughts:
ReplyDelete1) There are obviously some awesome play reports here (including yours Josh McGraw!), and I have a mild concern with people feeling pressure to share at that level of detail. In terms of getting feedback, I am totally cool (and thrilled!) to see a few bullet points with comments on how the session went. For my own playthroughs, I have taken to scribbling half-assed notes in a journal. That said, I have been enjoying the heck out of the deep narrative write-ups and don't want to encourage anyone to stop if they enjoy that process and sharing. Just don't feel obligated or that it's the "best way" to play solo.
2) In terms of using oracles and interpreting move results, it's totally cool to just say "this is what I think happens" and go with it. Note that the first option under Pay the Price and Ask the Oracle is to do just that! Leverage your story instincts and what is interesting to you, and let the oracles serve as occasional spice in your narrative recipe. Even then, the oracles are usually abstract enough that you can interpret them in a way that best fits your story. Humans are hardwired to tell stories. Keep the sense of "chaos" in check by leading with those story instincts as you ask questions and interpret the outcome of moves.
/bow... I'm glad y'all have enjoyed my own APs. I should note that good chunk of my Old Ironsworn and the Sea write-up was sort of post-fact; in the moment I was playing out the entire return to port, I was just making moves and jotting down notes. I reworked it into a coherent literary-style narrative in an entirely different setting, so that I wasn't losing momentum/IC focus by switching to my narrator voice. Specifically to John Risus' question, I think that's how I tend to play solo, but I'm actually not a super-experienced solo-RPer or anything. My general philosophy on most everything is "go with what works;" if you're having fun and getting the results you want out of the experience, then you're doing it right. I'd also say there were moments where the dice seemed severely at odds with how I saw the narrative going (more in the co-op play I posted), and in those cases we did sort of "blunt" the effect of the dice a bit for dramatic effect. Playing with our own "skeleton" plan as guardrails, if you will, and letting the dice direct our wandering within that. I'll de/emphasize that at any given moment depending on how strong of an idea I have about the story I'm trying to tell.
ReplyDeleteShawn Tomkin Don't get me wrong, I enjoy the writing of it and hope that my skill improves from it. It's part of the appeal really. Playing and writing as I go, using Oracles exclusively, it is almost as if I am readying / discovering the events for myself as I go. Oracles are a must, and I like the suspense / unsureness of where it will head, but perhaps too much Oracle results in a too random / disjointedness of an adventure? Will there be enough of my input to complete it or direct it enough to reach a conclusion? I am wondering if the rules and oracle have enough 'meat' to facilitate this on their own. It's one of my hopes and goals in play testing to find out. Will the rules and oracle direct me to that allusive ending, I wonder.
ReplyDeleteHaving thought about it a bit, and the previous responses here helping to that end, I think it is a matter of pacing. As a whole, I think it is a pretty good story evolving, but maybe as part of a much larger one. As if it is the slow lead up to a larger climax of a much longer story, it's just that each session doesn't seem to have it's own pace, and I'm afraid it might cause people (readers) to lose interest over the long haul.
I'm playing / writing for me, obviously, but do hope others enjoy it too. So it's not really a rules issue, but a writing and implementation issue for me. Basically, all my posts tell an original journey that I hope will become an epic tale, but if read individually I think they are missing something, where if you read any one session of others here; there is a start, a build up, and interesting end or cliff hanger to each session. I just don't know that I am accomplishing that personally with my own tale.
I guess I am repeating myself, because I don't want anyone to think it is the rules themselves, but it seems to be - in hindsight - more of a writing ability than a shortcoming of the rules. Which I want to improve on, hence the request for input.
Perhaps you are simply telling a single "session" worth of story across multiple plays, if it feels like you're moving "too slow" compared to your own expectations from other APs? I'd actually been batching your APs to read in one sitting later on today, but my initial impression was that I'm kind of PLANNING to move my next solo a lot slower than my previous one. I want to explore this new character's inner life a lot more than I did with the other, and throwing lots of challenges at him too fast would prevent that to some extent.
ReplyDeleteJohn Risus I hear where you’re coming from and, from solo gaming experience, can understand what tou’re saying with respect to Oracles. While they are infinitely useful for generating hooks and planting seeds, they can also become a distraction if they’re not somewhat in service to the overall narrative arc (to the extent there is one).
ReplyDeleteThat’s not to say that they aren’t also useful in generating for you, as the player, a sense of mystery and/or suspense as to what’s going on. They absolutely are and that is a great thing to have in your game! It’s just that, like salt (or, any other spice), you need to know when to use it.
I’ll say this from my experience in solo play - Oracles give a lot of direction in the early stages of the game/narrative. Once you’re in the thick of it, as Shawn Tomkin and Josh McGraw suggest, the gaps in your overall arc will begin to fill and ideas for things like Pay the Price and others where you may need a more or less ‘random’ event will become self-evident.
I believe what you are experiencing is what some folks have felt with Oracle systems such as Mythic GM Emulator, where the system continues to spark events without giving a player the space to resolve whatever conflict and/or plan you have in mind. Also, since you’re involved in solo play, feel free to ignore and/or redirect whenever you feel you are drifting off-topic.
One of the great joys of solo is that you won’t have to negotiate with anyone to change, ret-con, redirect or otherwise modify your tale. It’s just you and the dice - let the game unfold and explore what you want to with it.