@Taskerland Looking at that unsolved mystery with an RPG GM eye it is interesting how the value of the props varies with the previous one I posted about.
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@Taskerland Looking at that unsolved mystery with an RPG GM eye it is interesting how the value of the props varies with the previous one I posted about. There is a lot of fluff - pictures of characters, witness statements. Things that would take a lot of time for a GM or add little to the game. Busy work. Very authentic, very well produced, but at best set dressing - compared to that flyer of a protest in the other game which was packed with information to get going on, and was a single page
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@Taskerland Looking at that unsolved mystery with an RPG GM eye it is interesting how the value of the props varies with the previous one I posted about. There is a lot of fluff - pictures of characters, witness statements. Things that would take a lot of time for a GM or add little to the game. Busy work. Very authentic, very well produced, but at best set dressing - compared to that flyer of a protest in the other game which was packed with information to get going on, and was a single page
@Printdevil I found that a lot if what I produced was set-dressing. Images of places, documents that were carefully written but which contained maybe only a couple of lines of useful stuff surrounded by flavour
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@Printdevil I found that a lot if what I produced was set-dressing. Images of places, documents that were carefully written but which contained maybe only a couple of lines of useful stuff surrounded by flavour
@Taskerland see that is the knack, trying to spend texture time wisely. Or you can suddenly realise you are writing short stories with great production values
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@Taskerland see that is the knack, trying to spend texture time wisely. Or you can suddenly realise you are writing short stories with great production values
@Printdevil As someone who has never written a short story, I am late realising this.
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@Printdevil As someone who has never written a short story, I am late realising this.
@Taskerland They're like longer stories, but shorter, and you can't use hyphens.
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@Taskerland see that is the knack, trying to spend texture time wisely. Or you can suddenly realise you are writing short stories with great production values
@Taskerland It really is easy to go down a rabbit hole with documents to create character motivation for NPCs. That's good for the gm, but it can be very dense for the players, who probably have no idea why the document exists for the dead priest stuffed into Fiat Panda.
I'm not entirely convinced about character art/photos either. They are nice, but constraining, and most people can imagine Derek Nimmo anyway. Buildings in abstract, artistic moors are all good though. Hard descriptive sells
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@Taskerland It really is easy to go down a rabbit hole with documents to create character motivation for NPCs. That's good for the gm, but it can be very dense for the players, who probably have no idea why the document exists for the dead priest stuffed into Fiat Panda.
I'm not entirely convinced about character art/photos either. They are nice, but constraining, and most people can imagine Derek Nimmo anyway. Buildings in abstract, artistic moors are all good though. Hard descriptive sells
@Printdevil I'm writing my thing as an exercise in intentionality... I'm trying to put down on the page how I run things, what I care about, and the type of stuff that I like to run. Unfortunately, this departs from what most people seem to like.
For example, I like maps as objects but when it comes to interiors, I am happy with a flow-chart pointing out which rooms connect to which rooms. If a player wrestles a bug-bear in the public toilets then you can just draw a map of a toilet.
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@Printdevil I'm writing my thing as an exercise in intentionality... I'm trying to put down on the page how I run things, what I care about, and the type of stuff that I like to run. Unfortunately, this departs from what most people seem to like.
For example, I like maps as objects but when it comes to interiors, I am happy with a flow-chart pointing out which rooms connect to which rooms. If a player wrestles a bug-bear in the public toilets then you can just draw a map of a toilet.
@Taskerland @Printdevil I'm often quite happy to go without a map as the way a building is arranged is often not relevant. However I find players tend to prefer them, and if I'm doing a map at all I find it easier to make it map-like. Not sure quite how that psychology works…
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@Taskerland @Printdevil I'm often quite happy to go without a map as the way a building is arranged is often not relevant. However I find players tend to prefer them, and if I'm doing a map at all I find it easier to make it map-like. Not sure quite how that psychology works…
@shimminbeg I need a sense of internal geography but for combat stuff I am generally happy with theatre of the mind even if it doesn't make complete sense.
If everyone is supposedly hiding behind the same potted plant and nobody complains then I'm not going to say anything.
If I do resort to those types of maps, I'll just draw one in the moment and make rulings about 'I dive round the corner' or anything that detailed.
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@shimminbeg I need a sense of internal geography but for combat stuff I am generally happy with theatre of the mind even if it doesn't make complete sense.
If everyone is supposedly hiding behind the same potted plant and nobody complains then I'm not going to say anything.
If I do resort to those types of maps, I'll just draw one in the moment and make rulings about 'I dive round the corner' or anything that detailed.
I quite like "everyone is behind the same potted plant" stuff
I think a willing suspension of disbelief is healthy
