[Totem]

Originally Posted by Michael Thayne

Questions for people who've opined here: There seems to be a fairly strong pro-plot consensus here, but what makes a good plot? Similarly, a number of people have said they like puzzle solving, what makes a good puzzle (or mystery to investigate, etc.)? How much guidance is good as to the *approach* you take to solving a given problem? How do you make sure all characters get time in the spotlight, if one player/character turns out to be a lot better puzzle solver or investigator than the others?

(I ask because I'm thinking of starting up another supers game, want some input on these things before I do.)

For this sort of question I would say that it matters a lot on the players. Sometimes players will run in and explore corners of the game that you haven't considered looking at, but other times you present them with definite places to go and explore and nothing happens.

If you're going to run a game with plot then reserving some space in the OOC thread in advance for plot notes to be stored would be an idea. And being ready and willing to reiterate plot details on a regular basis would be handy. Plus warning people in advance...

For puzzles it can be awkward. Some players will spend masses of points on skills and then seemingly fail to look at those skills when you present them with an opportunity to use them which is tailor-made for their character...

Basically, it's damned awkward. The best you can do is let people know in advance what is going to be required of them in terms of paying attention to situations and being creative with their abilities. Some players will jump in and make good use of their skills while others will hang back.

I did ask something like this myself once, regarding Worlds of Fire. I think ultimately the answer is that you need to be ready to adjust things as they go along. The one thing I would really suggest though is not relying on players talking to each other and planning coherently the way that they could around a tabletop (there was a wonderful example of that in one PbP game where, after the setup and discussion of the plan, three players launched into totally separate plans which contradicted each other in big ways).

My introduction to GURPS is described here (and this is the kind of thing that I was expecting when I started playing it):

The guy who introduced me to the idea of GURPS (though not to the game itself sadly; I discovered that several years later) mentioned one situation that he had been in during a game where he was trying to take out someone in a car. For whatever reason, the proposed method of doing this was: a bomb (Demolitions/ Explosives/ Armoury) wired up to an infra-red detonator which was then detonated by his character riding a motorbike (Drive) using the infra-red doohicky on a mobile phone (Computer Operation to program a suitable signal, plus a penalty on Drive for trying to manipulate the phone and the motorbike at the same time). I think it worked...