Podcast #41: Insights from a New Gamer
3
Jul/0713
Jul/0713
We play In A Wicked Age with our pal Monica, and pick her brain about roleplaying.
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2:49 pm on July 3rd, 2007
Nice quick show, guys. If Monica is going to play with you again, I’d love to hear more of her thought processes. How does narrative role-playing differ for her from doing improv or writing a story? Are the mechanics empowering or constraining for her in comparison?
9:58 am on July 5th, 2007
We’ve played three sessions of In A Wicked Age so far, and we do talk to her about her perceptions a bit.
11:35 am on July 8th, 2007
Hey yall! Is it alright for me to answer Chris here?
5:05 pm on July 8th, 2007
Yes, of course! Please do, Monica.
3:51 pm on July 9th, 2007
Awesome, thanks Jason :)
So, I look at it like this: the format of gaming – at least how I’ve experienced it – is indeed more rigid than improv or story-writing. But paradoxically, you can find more freedom within structure than without. Like when you’re writing a poem that has a specific format, you know you *have* to have x number of syllables in a certain line; or you *have* to rhyme one word with another. You don’t have to worry about making exotic choices, because rules are rules, and in a way that’s really comforting, even liberating. So you’re free to dream as much as you like within the boundaries (i.e. rules) of the universe you’re in. You have a limited number of things to worry about.
Improv and story-writing are both much harder, I think, because the rules are so much more bendable. But I enjoy all three. Does that make sense?
5:43 pm on July 9th, 2007
Thanks Monica, that was well-said. I’ve done a little bit of all three and get what you mean about the boundaries liberating you in a certain way. I just haven’t seen it articulated that well before.
Go rules!!
5:44 pm on July 9th, 2007
Oh, and nice pic. Clinton looks like the dorky brother that no one wanted to sneak into the artsy photo of everyone contemplating the mike;’)
9:43 am on July 10th, 2007
Remi stole my chin.
2:29 pm on July 10th, 2007
That was an awesome episode. Thanks for sharing your thoughts as someone new to role-playing, Monica
11:31 pm on July 10th, 2007
Hey Clinton!! Soooo… this is what you were doing while we were MISSING YOU LIKE CRAZY at the Origins Gaming Convention in Columbus, Ohio this year! We were looking for you all over. We went to the Indie Press booth and everything. Well, Clarence and I had a ball, but it would’ve been so much better had we got to game with you again. Oh well… there will be other years, yes? :) Love ya!!! Nay
10:33 am on July 16th, 2007
Hi all,
I wanted to say I love your podcasts, and went to your ‘Wicked Age’ link and love the brevity of the game rules there, but am a bit confused as to when a ’scene’ begins and ends, and how they bridge over to the next set of Oracle elements. Any chance we can hear a podcast of your actual gameplay?
Thanks for reading!
-Scott
11:01 am on July 16th, 2007
Hi Scott! We have a policy of not recording our play. It’s just how we roll, I’m afraid. But we can answer your questions – weigh in here, guys.
For us, scenes end soon after conflicts are resolved – the scene builds to the conflict, you play that out with dice and all, and then the outcome informs the next scene. We rotate around so every character gets a scene in turn.
The four oracle elements are laid out at the beginning and are used to set up the initial situation. We write them all down and then circle every explicit character, then flesh out implicit characters, then put it all together, usually with some agreed-on gloss (”Let’s make it Polynesian!”). We find that some elements get more focus than others, and sometimes two are later conflated into one (”Those three demons could also be the mysterious force!”). It’s pretty casual that way.
10:42 pm on July 17th, 2007
No one told me they were looking at the microphone!
Scott: one thing we do that is unusual, I think, is that scenes start when the person playing the lead character in that scene sets the scene. You’d think that’d be problematic, but it’s not. We’ve got a lot of trust in each other, and we’re all way harder on our own characters than anyone else would be.