09-18-2009, 12:54 PM | #61 |
"Gimme 18 minutes . . ."
Join Date: Sep 2005
Location: Albuquerque, NM
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Re: Information in Prospectuses
When I rule the world as grammar dictator, I will force you to rue this day! STODDAAAAAARDD!!! *Shaking fist at heavens*
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09-18-2009, 06:26 PM | #62 | |||||||||||||||||||
Join Date: May 2005
Location: Oz
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Re: Information in Prospectuses
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Now the question is why you think it is appropriate to require an agreement that the characters be team players, but not appropriate to require an agreement that they be honest. Quote:
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I state up front that a particular game is going to be about bank robbers in the Wild West. Anyone who doesn't want to play a bank-robber is free to vote for a different campaign, or even find another GM. Anyone who does accept an offer of a place in my bank-robbers game has made a contract that he will generate and play a character who will rob banks. A contract with me, also a contract with the other players. Suppose that I offer two games about bank robbers: one in the spirit of Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid, and the other in the spirit of Reservoir Dogs. Then I expect players to declare their preferences, and I sort them into appropriate groups, they generate appropriate characters, play those characters as true to their appropriate motivation, then we get two games with different tones, but each is consistent, and everyone gets the game he bargained for. But if I take the line that it is wrong for the GM to negotiate campaign tone or character motivation or to mention them in the prospectus, then I will fail to collect the information I need to sort the players into two groups. Then I might end up with a "Western bank robbers game" and a "90s bank-robbers game", each containing two players who want Tarantino and two players who want Goldman. Lacking any hint that they are supposed to do otherwise, all eight players will generate characters with motivations appropriate to their expectations. And then instead of two good games in different styles I get two bad games neither with any style at all. I don't have to micromanage character actions to find out what players want. I don't have to micromanage character actions to sort players into compatible groups. I don't have to micromanage character actions to let players know what sorts of characters would be appropriate for them to generate for a given campaign. But to do those things I do have to discuss the sorts of things that PCs are going to do in a given game. Quote:
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So what you are doing here is not advising Sir_pudding about the subject of the thread ("Information in prospectuses"). You are berating him and me about the badwrongfun game styles that you suppose we play. Quote:
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This subthread started when you berated me for suggesting this line in a prospectus: "The PCs will be deputy Imperial marshals who protect the People and combat the corrupt authorities of a bizarre colonial society by diligently enforcing the Imperial Crimes Act (and, occasionally, shooting it out using ultra-tech sidearms)." You objected that "I can't say or force the means on the players. They may diligently enforce the Imperial Crimes Act, or they go all Vic Mackey from The Shield and break the law in order to enforce it." Quote:
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Last edited by Agemegos; 09-19-2009 at 12:11 AM. |
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09-18-2009, 06:54 PM | #63 | |
Join Date: Jun 2005
Location: Lawrence, KS
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Re: Information in Prospectuses
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Bill Stoddard |
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09-20-2009, 10:20 PM | #64 | ||||||
Wielder of Smart Pants
Join Date: Aug 2004
Location: Ventura CA
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Re: Information in Prospectuses
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That is a mongoose. |
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09-20-2009, 10:37 PM | #65 |
Join Date: May 2005
Location: Oz
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Re: Information in Prospectuses
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09-23-2009, 02:31 AM | #66 |
Join Date: Aug 2004
Location: Copenhagen, Denmark
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Re: Information in Prospectuses
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09-23-2009, 03:36 AM | #67 |
Join Date: May 2005
Location: Oz
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Re: Information in Prospectuses
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09-26-2009, 11:53 AM | #68 |
Wielder of Smart Pants
Join Date: Aug 2004
Location: Ventura CA
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Re: Information in Prospectuses
How's this for a revised format:
Title: (Campaign Title) System: (Game system to be used) Genre: (Best approximation of campaign genres or sub-genres) Description: (Short paragraph describing the campaign; intended to be a interesting hook). Setting: (Name of well known setting or brief description of original setting) Fidelity: (Description of the relative realism of the campaign). Characters: (Description of the expected types in the campaign including expected hooks and grommets, character goals, and attitude towards violence.) Combat Deadliness: (Description of the expected deadliness of combat in the campaign) Combat Frequency: (Description of the expected relative frequency of combat in the game) Power Level: (Description of the relative power level of the game either in the terms of the character creation rules (e.g. point total) or abstract terms.) |
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