Scene 11a of Greta's adventure (Trollbabe)
(Edit: I held on to this AP post for a few days because I was stuck on how to continue the scene after this one.)
During session 9a, I accidentally ignored the new relationship harm rules. I also used my relationship with Joss in a re-roll against him. I am not sure if that is allowed in the rules.
I'm also deciding to cheat this time, and uncheck that relationship reroll. I am allowed to do it immediately after a conflict, but I forgot.
On the solo roleplaying front, I also decided to test a new (?) idea where I try to drive events via the actions of the PC. I try to explain it in this post:
https://plus.google.com/u/0/108395059461267285712/posts/4eXHjfnCWXm
My rule is that I allow myself to write out up to three "ripples" after I throw a "rock" (i.e. take an action as a PC, which can be 'fictional positioning' or rpg mechanical action).
For this session, I forwent the use of the predictive text iOS app (http://solorpggamer.blogspot.com/2016/11/this-is-recommendation-of-ios-app.html).
I wanted to see what it felt like to "wear the GM hat" (as solo roleplayers put it), knowing that I was limiting my output with this rule (3 ripple max). I feel like it made it tolerable, as it made me go back to the PC POV more often, and gave the session more of a gaming feel.
One thing I realized mid-session is that in actual play, I can't just focus on ripples moving forward from the latest PC action (i.e. I can't just ignore ripples from past events). Yet, I can't "throw a rock" back in time, so what to do about past ripples that might reverberate into the present? I want to stay in-character pov, as much as possible, so I decided that if I think of a possible chain of events extending into the present, so does my character. In order to keep within the "rock"--> "ripple" framework, I decided that my character needs to take some sort of action related to it.
So, here is the other rule of thumb:
if she wishes to avoid a consequence stemming from past "ripples", she must take action in the present to prevent it; if mechanics cover the action, then it is a test. If there is no possible action she could take in the present, or if the action fails as a test, then the chain of events materializes into the present as she expected it to happen.
If she is neutral to the chain of events, it happens as the PC would have expected it, if the causal logic is sound. (Forgot to credit Tana S. Pigeon's Location Crafter, which inspired some thoughts with its use of "Expected" as a possible result in a random table.)
In the case that she wants some chain of events to materialize, she needs to start that chain of events from the present, since you can't take action in the past (unless somehow time travel is feasible in the game). Otherwise, the desired chain of events never materializes for X or Y unknown reason.
This worked reasonably well for this scene, but will need more play testing.
Of course, an oracle could take care of this in a different way, but this way forces me to be in character.
PC output is bracketed with "_" characters. GM output is bracketed with "~" characters.
https://forum.rpg.net/showthread.php?793890-Solo-Gaming-Appreciation-Month-2016-Trollbabe-actual-play&p=20684605#post20684605
#ap #actualplay #trollbabe
https://forum.rpg.net/showthread.php?793890-Solo-Gaming-Appreciation-Month-2016-Trollbabe-actual-play&p=20684605#post20684605
I love wearing my gm hat, ha.
ReplyDeleteHave you considered using something like "Conditions" to push your past ripples forward? Like Greta kills soldiers, so she has the Condition "feels guilty" and maybe "being sought for revenge" and whenever you need a complication or danger, you can look at your list of Conditions for suitable ones (or pick one at random from past and present) to crop up. Kind of like ripples but perhaps easier to track/fling in your heroine's face when things are bad so they get REALLY bad?
You could stay probably use this to in character pretty easily, since you'd only be consulting the Conditions briefly and they stem from character and events.
Just a thought.
I always forget to uncheck rerolls with Trollbabe too but I also get mad at the dice and burn those rerolls hard until my hero passes out. I find it very "swingy" and prefer Stranger Things' "1 of 5/5 of 1" reroll categories.
As far as boring results go, you might want to give yourself more permission to fiat change of scene or maybe reframe the questions?
I struggle with this too, but when I'm facing multiple options that don't interest me or "feel right", sometimes it just helps to reframe things from "will this necessary thing happen" (when if it doesn't I've got no idea what to do next) to "it happens, now what are the consequences of this happening and can I avoid them".
Or, you know, hit your hero with a wooden tray by fiat and pick up when he regains consciousness, either way is good. :)
Yeah, haha. It's not so much that I don't like a particular hat. It's more like I want to lessen that awareness of GMing for myself, that makes me feel so much like I'm just writing, and lessens that sense of wonder and surprise I get from another person being the GM.
ReplyDeleteThis helps because it limits my GM role to small surges. Most of the action was driven by PC agency.
I still missed the use of predictive text. I will combine these next, which I think will be very powerful.
Re: condition tags
ReplyDeleteThat's an interesting idea. I've liked tags since reading Remember Tomorrow, but I haven't really given much thought to the how. If I were to tag conditions like that, I'd still want to avoid an OOC pov. So if I were to slap her with a "hunted " tag, she'd need to somehow be aware at that very instant that she is now being hunted.
In RT, you can only remove bad tags when you have a conflict with that explicit goal (one conflict per scene too). Seems like a nice scene framing prompt too... thanks for the idea. I might try it next.