Feedback time

[m-danson.livejournal.com]

Dear Players,

I know that I haven't gotten the last game summary up yet but anyway...

It's feedback time. Tell me what you think about the game, the summaries, the cut scenes, the snacks... whatever. Tell me the good, the bad, and the turnip infested.

We will be entering part III (Tentatively subtitled "War & Redemption" depending on what you folks do... who knows that could change to "Roasting Marshmallows While the GM gets Drunk") after tomorrow's game so if you have anything to say going into the next game arc please do so now.

~ Your GM

Comments

[ironphoenix.livejournal.com]

Game: that's the long part, so we'll do it last.

Summaries: Useful; I have too much on the brain these days to remember everything without the notes!

Cut scenes: Excellent; more pls! (Not just yours, either; the other players' have been great as well!)

Snacks: Plentiful, good, and thankfully not turnip-infested.

Back to Game: This arc has felt like a really big version of the very first one: we have no effin' clue what's really happening, and don't really influence things that much along the way; our bit comes at the end. All the players have agendas we don't understand, and the people we thought were the players are turning out to be merely pawns. It makes a good story, but the play has been a bit frustrating for me at times; I've felt a bit like a spectator, arriving somewhere just in time to watch what I was too late to change. Of course, from the set-up, this coming session is kind of the payoff, where we turn out to be important after all. The story is interesting enough that being a spectator is still pretty good, though. In music, it would be the slow movement between the two more vigorous ones, and it has its place.

[m-danson.livejournal.com]

Ah. That explains something that I was wondering about. I had been wondering why (from my point of view) you seemed to be spending more time watching than acting this arc. I had been attributing that to you playing your cowardice disadvantage well. I haven't been sure how to push you since most of my pushes seem to end up with someone else grabbing the ball and running with it, or lots of rumination and little action. I'm not really sure how to address this one since the normal reaction I get from the group when I present a hook is "discuss to death" or "that looks scary run". Do you have any suggestions?

[ironphoenix.livejournal.com]

Cowardice is a survival strategy for mice amid elephants. We're small-time independents who have somewhat conflicting agendas amongst ourselves, stuck in the midst of gods, (ex)-princes, shadow puppeteers with vast information-gathering resources, and rulers of nations and angel cities, and we're all too aware of it. Most of the time, we have little enough idea of what we can do, and then we proceed to disagree about what we should do on top of it.

I think that for us to be more active in the story, we have to come up to that power level, or the story has to come down to us. Naturally, the bigger story can be the backdrop and cause tension and movement in the adventure. The challenges have to be a bit smaller than the adventurers (so that PC death isn't too common) but look a little bigger, and have an even bigger effect on the large-scale events. Think of the hobbits in Lord of the Rings: mostly off on their own, with the occasional deus ex machina (yes, Gandalf, we are looking at you!), not battling the huge armies at Helm's Deep etc., but dealing with raiding parties, patrols, a skulking Gollum, a giant spider... you get the idea. From a narrative point of view, why the heck didn't they just hitch a ride with the birds that go and rescue Sam and Frodo from the slopes of Mt. Doom after they drop the ring in? Because it wouldn't have been an adventure then, that's why!

[The above was written before yesterday's session]

It now looks like you're scaling up the characters' power level, so we're on the same page, I think.

[ancalagon-tb.livejournal.com]

(first of all, the most important part - am I enjoying the game? hell yes!)

I'm not so sure it's a question of power level, but rather focus/clarity. In many cases, we are sent somewhere to "find or fix something" with no clear idea how we are going to achieve it at all. We could have searched for *years* in Greece for the Oracle - without Dingo's eery talents we wouldn't have found it.

This hasn't always been the case - for example, when we rescued Elle we had a clear goal and a pretty clear way to proceed - it was a desperate plan, but desperate situation require desperate - or heroic - measures.

Now you can't always have clarity like that - balance is clearly needed. But I think lately we've been spinning our wheels a bit too much. I hope that with the new part begining we will have a clearer idea of where we stand and what to do.

cheers,