cut scenes

[thol]

I am a big believer in cutscenes... when used correctly.

In the current campaign I am DMing, the metaplot revolves around the ancient Minotaur Empire and its fall 1000 years ago. Their current adventure has taken them into the previously lost temple to the God of Time. I have used cutscenes for two purposes.

The first is in conjunction with their current adventure. They have found a Chronogem, which when used in conjunction with stone hourglasses throughout the temple, allow one to see the past. The PCs have no idea how to control it, so they get visions I deem relevant. These of course are not cutscenes, but between sessions, I have given them tiny snippets of things that happened the fateful day the temple was invaded and the city itself fell to the hordes of chaos. What this accomplishes is a greater involvement of the players in the history of the world. It also gives an interesting dynamic to the PCs and how the player approaches that meta-knowledge. I don't give away crucial clues, or info that makes it easy for the PCs, only info that will make everything click into place at that moment later on when they find themselves 1000 years in the past. At that moment, I want my players to go "Holy crap we're in the middle of this?!?". It will also make them wonder if what they do will change the past, or if it is predetermined. There is debate between the followers of Fate and the followers of Time as to what is the case, so there may be some sort of in-game philosophy question solved there as well.

The second is in conjunction with the megaplot (what I call the plot the PCs will fall into once they break the mid-level barrier). I am introducing certain NPCs by giving them small snippets of what is happening in current times. They have no idea who these NPCs are, and the cutscenes are so vague as to lend them to causing misinterpretation of things. For example, there is one scene that gives them a glimpse into what seems like a powerful wizard and his young female apprentice concerned about evil beings getting their hands on a powerful item, when in fact it is an evil wizard and his demonic patron concerned about it falling into the hands of good. I do not give enough detail for the players to use the info in game, but there will come a point (when it's too late of course) when they will realize what those scenes were, and a sense of irony will come over them when it all clicks.

For the record, I never use cutscenes directly involving the player characters unless it is something that is clearly in the future which may or may not come to pass.

 

[thol]

Something else I forgot to mention.

Years ago, when I played in a Cyberpunk campaign which lasted over a year, our GM made extensive use of cutscenes. In fact, between every "chapter" there was a cutscene. Sometimes it had relevance to our current story, sometimes it had something to do with characters or situations we didn't deal with until months later. He was one of the most creative GMs I ever played with, and those gaming sessions were incredible. They were so anime/video game like in the way the story flowed so well, and the info we got in those scenes could rarely be abused by us, and even when it could, we used that info to play our characters deeper into the story, not to get us out of it easier.

The more cooperative the players are at seeing the opportunities the info from cutscenes provide for them to enhance the story, the better cutscenes will work for a GM.

For example, Instead of a player having his character avoid standing in that spot in the corp's office he knows from a cutscene has a trap door that can be activated from his desk (you thought, and your PC still thinks, he was on your side but he isn't) to prevent him from capturing you, you walk to where you would have normally, and see if you're smart enough to play yourself out of it. And if you can't, you know that you were captured for a reason, and you can start thinking of how to pull a James Bond and escape.

 

[Heathen72]

Great Play!

For example, Instead of a player having his character avoid standing in that spot in the corp's office he knows from a cutscene has a trap door that can be activated from his desk (you thought, and your PC still thinks, he was on your side but he isn't) to prevent him from capturing you, you walk to where you would have normally, and see if you're smart enough to play yourself out of it. And if you can't, you know that you were captured for a reason, and you can start thinking of how to pull a James Bond and escape.

This is great GMing and playing, and an example, I think, of "good metagaming" Better, it's one where the players seem to realize that a game where the PC's and GM cooperate is better than one where they're both trying to "win" all the time. Good Stuff.

 

[Empress]

thol, that reminded me of a game where we, the players, knew that the prince of Chicago had been besieged by the primogen to have us killed, and a cutscene had shown us at least he had agreed that we were "useless".

And then came the summons to the court. We could play our characters being nervous and looking for things they'd done wrong (like when your parents called you), but there was no in-game reason to flee. So we approached our sires, asked them what they knew, and basically made use of our contacts - and then appeared before the prince and the primogen. It was eerie leading your own character to the slaughter.

Soon enough, our characters understood at least that something was afoot (the sneering Brujah tipped us off), and the whole episode was spent with us trying to prove our worth. It was a great episode, and without the cutscene it wouldn't have been as great as it was. (Since, in addition to making us feel awkward, the cutscene also lessened the surprise and gave us, the players, a chance to think of a way out before meeting the prince)