10-23-2014, 02:58 PM | #31 |
Join Date: Nov 2013
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Re: How are party leaders chosen?
Seems to move around in my group, most have had leaderish roles in different campaigns. Mostly during sessions however they use a semi-organized fashion each taking charge when in their characters area of specalization.
In the current campaign after selecting a grand leader in a vote, they deligated a lot of their responsabilities to seemingly competent NPC's when nothing too interesting happens, so they can go on with personally doing the job of their underlings. :D |
10-23-2014, 03:13 PM | #32 | ||
Join Date: May 2005
Location: Oz
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Re: How are party leaders chosen?
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Decay is inherent in all composite things. Nod head. Get treat. |
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10-23-2014, 03:37 PM | #33 | |
Join Date: Jun 2005
Location: Lawrence, KS
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Re: How are party leaders chosen?
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Bill Stoddard |
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10-23-2014, 03:50 PM | #34 | |
Join Date: Feb 2006
Location: Saskatoon, Saskatchewan
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Re: How are party leaders chosen?
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I've been in a couple of Star Trek campaigns, if briefly. We were all kind of "The Naked Time", if you recall that plot. One chap in particular brought new life to the character of Lt. Kevin Riley. Whether by design or desperation, the GM had our band of miscreants on a lot of Away Missions. Far, far away missions in the shuttle craft. We mostly only paid attention to the command structure/leader stuff "in front of the aliens". I don't want to say we're a bunch of chaotic slobs when we play. The role-playing is rich and fun and the story heartily embraced. We just don't have "leaders".
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============ "HEY, today you're thinking with your whole head!" -- Spike (of "Sugar & Spike") ============ for a rootin' tootin' good read: Home on the Strange: A Brewster and Brewster Adventure |
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10-23-2014, 03:54 PM | #35 |
Wielder of Smart Pants
Join Date: Aug 2004
Location: Ventura CA
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Re: How are party leaders chosen?
It's hard for me to imagine a stable peer-group that lacks any leadership at all. It's also hard for me to imagine a role-playing game where everybody is always doing absolutely their own thing at all times and never going along with a bellwether or consensus-builder. How do you not end up with six totally disparate campaigns?
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10-23-2014, 04:38 PM | #36 |
Join Date: Jul 2007
Location: Omaha NE
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Re: How are party leaders chosen?
In my Sunday group, combat leadership is a no-brainer -- it goes to one of the three former-military members. Default is the guy who is former Intelligence, but since his work schedule was changed last month he's been getting to game late.
If none of them is running a combat-oriented character, it's highly unusual, but the players can still give combat advice to whoever's playing the combat expert. Out of combat, it usually comes down to what character has the most appropriate skills (the team medic can override anyone when it comes to triage). I'm also in an every-other-Thursday group, currently on hiatus due to player schedules. That one, it comes down to who's got the biggest mouth. Luckily, that's a much smaller group. |
10-23-2014, 07:33 PM | #37 |
Join Date: May 2005
Location: Oz
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Re: How are party leaders chosen?
I started a similar conversation in another place, and got one reply that I think is particularly interesting. I'm going to quote it here with permission from its originator, Benj Davis.
In my experience, it works smoothest when you agree amongst the group that the chain of command is exclusively in-character, so while it gives the character of the Captain authority over the character of the Navigator, it doesn't give Carl the player authority over Nathan the player. Agreeing to have the Captain order the Navigator to do things the Navigator doesn't want to do, but Nathan does, works well.
__________________
Decay is inherent in all composite things. Nod head. Get treat. |
10-24-2014, 07:22 AM | #38 | |
Join Date: Feb 2006
Location: Saskatoon, Saskatchewan
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Re: How are party leaders chosen?
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It's just that no gaming group I've been involved would ever "bend a knee" to one of the group. I've never met another player who I felt had such an excess of savvy and keen insight that I'd let him/her make all the decisions of where the campaign story goes. Sometimes the campaign requires a character to be the "leader", and is subsequently stocked up with various strategy & tactics skills. But that character is treated as a specialist the way another character is stocked up with medical skills. Yeah, he's our "leader", but the player no more calls the shots than the player with the doctor character actually treats real-time injuries. It's all done in the democratic method. Most times the decision is obvious and quickly chosen. Other times, miserable amounts of time are spent in debate until the GM snaps and demands a final vote. Perhaps I should add that this isn't just my most recent gang of gaming chums. This scenario has been my general experience thru about thirty years of gaming and dozens of players in a couple of different cities.
__________________
============ "HEY, today you're thinking with your whole head!" -- Spike (of "Sugar & Spike") ============ for a rootin' tootin' good read: Home on the Strange: A Brewster and Brewster Adventure |
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10-24-2014, 08:49 AM | #39 |
Join Date: Feb 2009
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Re: How are party leaders chosen?
I recall one DnD group where we broke deadlocks with opposed Cha checks
The one time I was nominally a leader IRL I smiled pleasantly, held a clipboard, wore business casual and went back and forth between our clients and the collection of hooligans we had actually doing the work. The actual work was accomplished with no intervention or participation on my part, but I had a MBA and could string together an entire sentence without the forum software blocking half of it, so, leadership! |
10-24-2014, 10:32 AM | #40 | |
Join Date: Jul 2005
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Re: How are party leaders chosen?
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Either the 'employer' chooses, which means the referee decides and the players are willing to let him. Or One of the players is willing to take the part and its responsibilities on which means the other players are willing to let him. It only gets tricky when either the Maximum Leader is incapacitated or dead or one of the other players decides its time for them to make a push for power or that the current leader is an idiot or, you know, a bit of both. In the last case it is resolved by role-playing and dice rolling like everything else that comes up in play.
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Michael Cule,
Genius for Hire, Gaming Dinosaur Second Class |
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Tags |
admiral, leader, leadership, party dynamics, roleplaying |
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