Cut-scenes?

[Cor Azer]

Sometimes I use 'em, sometimes I don't; it depends mostly on the game in question. They are great for giving NPCs (and particularly villains) personality. Since villains and PCs tend to cancel each other out when they make direct contact (or at least, they try to), the only way the players will know that Lord Nastypants has a tender spot for his beloved terrier (for instance) is if they get a chance to see him petting the pooch.

Yup... such is what I mainly strive for when I use cut-scenes... those rare occasions anyways, since I usually forget that I wanted to do a particular cut-scene (the ones I use are for mood setting or fleshing out the versimlitude of the world, so if they're missed, no particular loss happens).

The key thing, I've found, is not to force the players' hand via use of cutscenes. It's one thing to have frost giants cause an avalanche on the party's head ... it's another to say, "You charge the frost giants and are quickly defeated and captured..."

Well, a good cut-scene, in my opinion, should never involve the PCs, with the possible exception of having a third party observing them.

 

[LeapingShark]

Players SHOULD be confused about what is going on! They SHOULD be struggling to fit together pieces of a complex puzzle -- and indeed, pieces that may in fact have nothing to do with each other.

Aha, but that's the beauty of cut-scenes too! The DM doesn't have to give anything away at all! If you were so inclined, you could use a cut-scene to befuddle your group, throw them a red-herring, or show them another obscure piece of a complex puzzle that they don't understand yet, etc.

I prefer to make them mysterious, to leave my options open. For example, I could begin the gaming session with a cut-scene describing an evil-looking dungeon chamber dimly lit by candles and decorated with shackled skeletons on the walls, and a giant curtain across the middle, concealing some unseen section of the room. A flunkie monster of some sort enters the chamber and receives a set of orders from a booming voice coming from behind the curtain.

Flunky: "Master, the adventurers have breached the second level!"
Voice behind curtain: "They're getting closer. Too close. They must be stopped once and for all. It's time we release the Spinecollector..."
Flunky: "No! Not the Spinecollector! Master, it's too dangerous!"

*scene fades*

Then the real gaming session begins....

So the group will have no idea what's behind the curtain, and no idea what's coming to get them. Yet, I've built up some anticipation. They "think" something is coming, something dangerous. When they defeat their next monster, they'll be wondering if it was the "Spinecollecter" or not. Perhaps they're not sure... Perhaps when they enter the evil-dungeon chamber and use metagaming to prep/buff themselves for a climactic battle, nothing is behind the curtain, the mysterious "master" already gone... See? I haven't really spoiled anything!

 

[Laurel]

What are your opinions of cut-scenes? Do your players like or dislike them?

As a player I tend to not like them, since they are things your character does not know.
But I know many more players who love them for the added confusion, the extra story line, the possible question of the DM warning or wanting you to go somewhere, and the like.

 

[Umbran]

As a player, I'm neutral on cut scenes. I've seen them used well, and I've seen them used very poorly.

As a GM, I tend to avoid giving the players much information that the characters would not have - accurate or not, misleading or not. While my players can manage to ignore it, they have to do so actively, which is an added complication.

A good cut scene takes a while to fully describe, and it's something the players cannot interact with. If they're playing fair, it is even something they are forbidden to make use of. Effectively, I'd be engaging in a dramatic presentation of my own that forces the players to be passive, which seems a bit counter-productive in an RPG.

In general, cutscenes are great in books and movies and TV, where the audience is a passive observer of the action. I'm not convinced that they're something that's generally useful in RPGs, where the audience is an active participant in the action. So, I don't go out of my way to put them in my GMs arsenal.

 

[The_Universe]

I used them extensively when we played D6 Star Wars, but they have fallen out of use in DnD. Maybe I'll start using them again...I think it lends the game a cinematic or literary feel, depending on how you do it.

The closest we've used lately is splitting up the group, and allowing one side to be aware of what the other is doing--makes for some excellent simulataneous action.

 

[WaterRabbit]

I have yet to see a GM pull off a cut-scene properly. As a player you are no longer playing, you are watching the GM play with himself.

I have played in a game with co-GMs where they acted out the cut-scene. It too fell flat. I haven't seen the group scripted cut-scene. That might work, but I definetly think it would take the right group.

All of the "value" of a cut scene can be incorporated into normal npc roleplaying. I find ivory tower BBEGs that the party never interacts with until a climatic showdown to be, well boring. It is much more interesting if the party has role-playing encounters with the BBEG. There are many situations that arise in which they can interact without violence.

If the PCs are interacting with the BBEG and his henchmen, that the GM can show his idosynchries without resorting to a cut-scene. If the villian is one or two dimensional to begin with a cut-scene is not going to make him more interesting. If the villian is three dimensional and interacts with the PCs, a cut-scene is really not necessary.

The only real value I can see for a cut-scene (and only if done really well) is to place a time pressure on the party.

 

[derverdammte]

I think cut scenes interfere with verisimilitude if you actually use them in-game. I can't imagine a good way of doing them during play, so when I want something similar, I either use my campaign newsletter and post "news articles" related to the event the PCs need to know about, or I write up a short handout and email it around. It seems to me that time at the table should focus mainly on the PCs.