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[Dread] Jenga beat up my dice! My results from the indie horror RPG.
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<blockquote data-quote="Janx" data-source="post: 6039086" data-attributes="member: 8835"><p>That can be tricky, but sitting here in my comfy chair with the luxury of time, here's what I see to help that next time:</p><p></p><p>Always prepare and remind your players when making their PCs that they need to make characters that would "go on the adventure". Building a party of space scavengers that don't want to scavenge is bad roleplaying, bad gaming, and just defeats the purpose.</p><p></p><p>I also thought the initial hook for Metal Sky left a lot of room for simple bypassing. You can certain pull the "Starfleet regulations state..." clause on the PCs to gull them into investigating. This smells like railroading them, and it is to an extent. I have not shaken the railroading feeling off of my interpretation of how to run the game.</p><p></p><p>You could also have setup the scene more like the beginning of Firefly. Wherein, the PCs are interested in abandoned ships like this, and this is EXACTLY what their character definitions were looking for. Namely, a ship they can loot. Set the tone that this is a "Firefly" type adventure, and once they are aboard, that's when you flip the switch and it turns into "Alien" instead.</p><p></p><p>I certainly think it's an issue in adventure design for one-shot type games. The PCs need to start AT the location as if they had decided to go there, rather than sitting at home all nice and safe with too much caution in the way of actually going anywhere dangerous. </p><p></p><p>The key problem is really that you have players who are deliberately refusing to bite the plot hook. In my group, that is against our group's social agreement. The GM is allowed to present a solitary plot hook that logically appeals to the group, and the group is obligated to bite it, unless it is obviously a screw job for the PCs (as in, the GM is not allowed to present a single choice for the purpose of screwing the PCs over). </p><p></p><p>The process works for normal D&D adventures. Given that a Dread adventure is sort of a screw-job, it has to be recognized by all the players that the point of the adventure is to be one of the survivors at the end, more than simply beating the GM by avoiding danger.</p><p></p><p>That said, with your group, your next option was to have the derelict ship, activate itself and cause it to intercept the PC ship and bring it into its cargo bay, OR cause damage to the PC ship (asteroid hit, or whatever external threat may have initially harmed the derelict ship). So then, the PCs can choose to remain stranded or board the derelict ship to look for parts to repair their own ship and leave.</p><p></p><p>All my solutions are railroady (as in, negating or preventing player choice/options). But I think the initiator to a one-shot adventure kind of needs that. The adventure is about running around a scary ship, not leaving and playing Space Merchants of Venus instead.</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="Janx, post: 6039086, member: 8835"] That can be tricky, but sitting here in my comfy chair with the luxury of time, here's what I see to help that next time: Always prepare and remind your players when making their PCs that they need to make characters that would "go on the adventure". Building a party of space scavengers that don't want to scavenge is bad roleplaying, bad gaming, and just defeats the purpose. I also thought the initial hook for Metal Sky left a lot of room for simple bypassing. You can certain pull the "Starfleet regulations state..." clause on the PCs to gull them into investigating. This smells like railroading them, and it is to an extent. I have not shaken the railroading feeling off of my interpretation of how to run the game. You could also have setup the scene more like the beginning of Firefly. Wherein, the PCs are interested in abandoned ships like this, and this is EXACTLY what their character definitions were looking for. Namely, a ship they can loot. Set the tone that this is a "Firefly" type adventure, and once they are aboard, that's when you flip the switch and it turns into "Alien" instead. I certainly think it's an issue in adventure design for one-shot type games. The PCs need to start AT the location as if they had decided to go there, rather than sitting at home all nice and safe with too much caution in the way of actually going anywhere dangerous. The key problem is really that you have players who are deliberately refusing to bite the plot hook. In my group, that is against our group's social agreement. The GM is allowed to present a solitary plot hook that logically appeals to the group, and the group is obligated to bite it, unless it is obviously a screw job for the PCs (as in, the GM is not allowed to present a single choice for the purpose of screwing the PCs over). The process works for normal D&D adventures. Given that a Dread adventure is sort of a screw-job, it has to be recognized by all the players that the point of the adventure is to be one of the survivors at the end, more than simply beating the GM by avoiding danger. That said, with your group, your next option was to have the derelict ship, activate itself and cause it to intercept the PC ship and bring it into its cargo bay, OR cause damage to the PC ship (asteroid hit, or whatever external threat may have initially harmed the derelict ship). So then, the PCs can choose to remain stranded or board the derelict ship to look for parts to repair their own ship and leave. All my solutions are railroady (as in, negating or preventing player choice/options). But I think the initiator to a one-shot adventure kind of needs that. The adventure is about running around a scary ship, not leaving and playing Space Merchants of Venus instead. [/QUOTE]
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[Dread] Jenga beat up my dice! My results from the indie horror RPG.
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