Unknown USA

[robotnik2004]

We're supposed to be playing Unknown Armies on Monday, and I'm kinda stumped as to what is going to happen.

I've got piles of ideas: weird people to meet and places to go and plots to be embroiled in and so forth. Coming up with that stuff is easy and fun. It's logistics that drive me crazy. How do I herd the PCs to the place where the story kicks in? Will they investigate lead A or lead B? Will they be interested in subplot C or subplot D? Now, I don't think that "railroading" is always the crime that a lot of gamers say it is. My Adventure! game was a massive exercise in consensual railroading and that seemed entirely appropriate for the genre. But it is a lot of work, and I'm not all that interested in doing it week after week after week.

I have this idea, though. If, say, I want to run a session where the PCs are in rural Appalachia searching for the Book of Good Roads, or are being chased by an implacable bounty hunter across the New Mexican desert, why can't I just start the session by saying "You're in rural Appalachia, searching for the Book of Good Roads." Or "You're in the New Mexican desert. A bounty hunter is chasing you." If I was going to run a one-shot, that's what I'd do, and nobody would complain. Couldn't you run an extended campaign this way?

It sounds like I'm robbing the players of their autonomy, and to some extent I am, but all the herding takes place "off screen," between sessions. In a lot of ways the players end up with more "in game" autonomy, because I've already established the situation I want to explore. They now have absolute freedom in how they respond to it. No need to spend half the session asking "What do you want to do? Wouldn't you like to look into that intriguing-sounding McGuffin that NPC muttered about last session? [clatter of dice] You hear rumors it might be in Appalachia..." And of course, if the players say, "but we wanted to go to Minnesota!" then I can always start out the next session with, "You are in Minnesota."

Basically it's the difference between a TV show like 24, where each episode leads directly into the next one, and one like Samurai Jack, where we have no idea how much time has elapsed between epsisodes or even what order the stories come in. The latter probably leads to a more picaresque, episodic story structure, but then that was always part of my plan for this game.

Comments

[editswlonghair.livejournal.com]

I'm a firm believer in dropping PCs off in the middle of a scenario, letting them figure it out, and wrapping up the plot threads. If they have backstory they want to explore, or things they need to accomplish, work 'em in. I think every game I've ever run has been that way... and it doesn't work with some players, they feel like too much is happening and they don't understand it all. Oh well.

As far as Unknown Armies goes, I'd say don't worry. I think it'll play best as an episodic series, as opposed to story-arc series. The characters are so scatterlogical, it requires a huge suspension of disbelief to keep 'em together anyways. I def. see it all as some kind of weird road pic, no explaination of what came before the opening credits, just 'they're five guys in a car...'

I think at this point, you should probably plan on me not being able to make it. I fairly sure I'll be stuck at work a little late becuase I'm going in late (need to take Michelle to the airport). And since Michelle will be out of town, I'll have to head home to walk the dog... so by the time I finish all that and get back out to JP, it probably won't be worth it...

Just have the boys drop off Blind Joe at some bar somewhere and come back for him later. Or maybe he wanders off while walking Scraps somewhere, and they wait for him and finally end up leaving...

[robotnik.livejournal.com]

Cool. Thanks for the vote of confidence.

"Scatterlogical." Hee. Great word.

[bryant]

I agree with the long-haired one; in fact, I think the structure you suggest is more likely to support the mood of the campaign than a more traditional model. We are on occasion a somewhat disjointed bunch, after all.

Also, this'll give me a convenient way to fastforward Reese through a bit of introspection caused by the death of the Baron, which is good.

And I assume if we ever have someplace specific we wanna be, we can go there.

[robotnik.livejournal.com]

Also, this'll give me a convenient way to fastforward Reese through a bit of introspection caused by the death of the Baron, which is good.

What specifically is Reese "introspecting" about? Something about the old man's mutterings and his apparent backstory? Or just the obvious moral issues involved in feeding an apparently helpless old man to a giant alligator?

[bryant]

Yes and yes.

The moral issues... he's kind of OK with feeding the guy to the alligator, but he feels there ought to be compensation. Not in an Old Testament sense, he's not waiting for the world to strike back at him, but he thinks that he ought to do something to rebalance things. This is particularly acute because it seems like the old guy might have been one of his patron saints. Leaving the Ponce de Leon crowd untouched rankles. That doesn't mean that I as a player need to go back immediately, but if Reese ever figures out what to do I might request another Florida trip sometime. It does mean that right after the Florida trip Reese is spending a lot of time muttering to himself, and it'd be good to get that period past him and let time heal a few of the sharp edges.

This also ties in to the answer to your Third Character Question (I haven't forgotten!). Email on that coming soon, I promise.

By the by, is this the sort of talk about gaming that Ron Edwards claims we don't do?

[chadu.livejournal.com]

A half-dozen options off the top of my head:

1. Comte sez: "Go there. Do that thing. Unless you want reality to unravel, you puling bastards."

2. The Trading Game. Look at PCs' obsessions and campaign events. Make up a Macguffin that one or more of them will want. Give Macguffin to GMC of your choice. PCs must retrieve X (raison d'etre of session/scenario) to trade to GMC for Macguffin. Lather, rinse, repeat. (The Bad Man might work here as the GMC; or another Merchant avatar.)

3. Your option: purely episodic scenarios. It's all good, baby.

4. All Memento 'n Sh[BLEEP]: No memories of how they got where they are. They should optimally be holding high caliber handguns to each others' heads when they come to.

5. Ask them at the end of the session what they plan on doing next. Go with what they say. However, if they say "nuthin'," feel free to use option 4.

6. It Came to Me In A Dream: start sending prophetic dreams that drive the PCs to Devil's Tower to play music on a Casio keyboard, trying to summon the Grey Alien Space Brothers.

[robotnik.livejournal.com]

All powerful motivational techniques. Thanks.

5. Ask them at the end of the session what they plan on doing next. Go with what they say. However, if they say "nuthin'," feel free to use option 4.

This would be even more powerful if you did it in the middle of a session:
"So, what do you want to do next?"
"ummm, let's see...."
"Too late! You wake up naked staring down the barrel of a gun! Dinnerware is adhering magnetically to your scalp!"

[jeregenest.livejournal.com]

It all depends on the structrue of the game. If its part of the game outline, and agreed upon by the group, than you can start anyway you want.

In media res, where you last left off, somewhere else in space/time. All these and mroe are valid ways to start a game.

Look at the two games you are in with me.

Ars Magica is very much a one-thing-leads-into another game. Every session stems out of the last one. Forever and ever.

Pantellos is very much like Sandbaggers or Spranos. Each storyarch is a season. Each session an episode that builds on the last. Till the Season finale where we than have a break of off-screen time (which the players aren't using as well as I'd like, a flaw on my part I think) before the next season begins. (We're now starting season 3, with a summer one-episode there tyo boost some ratings).

[robotnik.livejournal.com]

Good analogies.

Pantellos is also like Sopranos in that we have to wait too long between seasons. :) (That email I promised with my Pantellos thoughts is coming soon, I promise, even if nobody else wants to speak up with any ideas.)

[jeregenest.livejournal.com]

You need to get the ball rolling I think. Its how that group works usually.

And Jess and I want to talk to you about a joint UA character.

[robotnik.livejournal.com]

And Jess and I want to talk to you about a joint UA character.

Is this the schizophrenic mystic hermaphrodite she mentioned? I thought she was kidding! But if she's not, I'm all ears.

[jeregenest.livejournal.com]

Quite serious. We figure one of us can always make a session, but not two.

I'm whining ebcause I can't find enough points to do what I want with a street-level character. I'm such a power-gamer.

You may find yourself...

[amberley.livejournal.com]

Wanted to be in Minnesota, find themselves in Appalachia..

"Dammit, Reese, I toldya we should have stopped and asked directions!"

"Whose idea was it anyway to let Blind Joe Biscuit have the map?"

Re: You may find yourself...

[robotnik.livejournal.com]

Hee hee.

Actually, what I really want is to have one of the PCs end up saying, "I knew we should've taken that left turn at Alberquerque!"