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<blockquote data-quote="pemerton" data-source="post: 7314329" data-attributes="member: 42582"><p>I'm not sure what you mean by "off-script".</p><p></p><p>In my Traveller game, I have lists of NPCs (although I think they've now mostly all been used) and lists of worlds (although they've nearly all been used as well). But I don't have a script. When I need a world, for whatever reason, I pick one from my list if it will suit the current situation that has generated the need (eg a few sessions ago I needed a nearby world with a naval hospital to fit into the backstory of one of the PCs); if it won't, then I generate one using the world generation rules.</p><p></p><p>That is a type of preparation. But there is no script - as in, no pre-authored sequence of events that are destined to occur in the game.</p><p></p><p>I didn't say there was no preparation. I'm talking about a lack of pre-scripting.</p><p></p><p>Here is an example of one of my NPC writeups, written between sessions after the PCs had landed on a world and were heading out to scout out an enemy bioweapons research base:</p><p></p><p style="margin-left: 20px">Prana Sin (Age 22, sister of the PCs' hired pilot Nela Sin, friends with Achilles [another NPC], maintains the cryo systems; would-be doctor, drafted into Byron air force for family-related reasons)</p> <p style="margin-left: 20px"></p> <p style="margin-left: 20px">4A98A9 (well-educated) Mid Psg</p> <p style="margin-left: 20px"></p> <p style="margin-left: 20px">Commo-1; Mechanical-1; Admin-1; Air/Raft-1</p><p></p><p>Those couple of notes (about her connections to family and friends) were enough to support her use when the PCs encountered her after they'd fatally shot Achilles and recognised her likeness to her sister.</p><p></p><p>But the inconsistencies you are worried about in these cases (to be spotted by players who have "done their homework" because GMs or big fans) are caused by the fact of pre-authorship of the gameworld.</p><p></p><p>That's not a reason not to improvise. <em>It's a reason not to pre-author</em>!</p><p></p><p>Again, this is all very strange.</p><p></p><p>Stories have to be written. In the context of RPGing, there are two (perhaps three) authorial candidates: the players; the GM (and the third is a commercial author whose work the GM relies upon).</p><p></p><p>You seem to approach RPGing with the idea that the GM will author a story in advance of play ("the script") and then play consists of . . . what exactly? The players gradually learning all the stuff the GM wrote as each NPC delivers its single line in turn?</p><p></p><p>I approach RPGing with the idea that the GM and players will generate a story in the course of actually playing the game. So, for instance, NPCs become part of the fiction because either (i) the referee decides to introduce one into the fiction or (ii) the players make the NPC a relevant part of the fiction.</p><p></p><p>An example of (i) from our most recent Traveller session: I rolled the encounter dice, got an encounter with 10 bandits, and so told the players that, when they returned to their ship's boat after hanging out in a town for most of the day, they could see a group of thugs hanging about.</p><p></p><p>An example of (ii) from the previous session: a player declares that his PC is going to hang out at the Travellers' Aid Society hoping to be approached by a patron, and so I rolled the patron encounter dice.</p><p></p><p>A different sort of example of (ii), where the causal role of the players is more intricately mediated by me as GM: the players declare that they are going to land on a world to try and acquire trinkets and artefacts. This requires me to bring various NPCs (shopkeepers and the like) into play. Then the players - who know that the inhabitants of this world have mixed alien and human ancestry - declare that their PCs look out for distinctive trinkets or artefacts that might be of alien origin. I roll a die, it comes up positive, and so I tell them that yes, their PCs do see such a thing. The PCs then ask the shopkeeper about its origin, which I therefore have to make up. The story the shopkeeper tells is that the artefact belonged to the local bishop, but had been sold some time ago to raise funds for the bishopric. (It was already established that this world is under strict religious rule.) Now the local bishop is another NPC who has been created - by me as referee - in response to the players' play of the game.</p><p></p><p>There is no script (and so no "off-script"). And nor is the GM "creating a script on the fly". There is a clear story (of xeno-archaelogists arriving on a world, learning that a bishop once owned an alien artefact, meeting with said bishop, and then - when they later return to their ship's boat - finding it surrounded by thugs whom they have to deal with in some fashion). But it wasn't authored in advance; there was no scripting. It was generated by actually playing the game.</p><p></p><p>(It's very straightforward to play RPGs in this style. I've been doing so since around 1987. <a href="https://isabout.wordpress.com/2010/02/16/the-pitfalls-of-narrative-technique-in-rpg-play/" target="_blank">Here is a good blog post describing the approach.</a>)</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="pemerton, post: 7314329, member: 42582"] I'm not sure what you mean by "off-script". In my Traveller game, I have lists of NPCs (although I think they've now mostly all been used) and lists of worlds (although they've nearly all been used as well). But I don't have a script. When I need a world, for whatever reason, I pick one from my list if it will suit the current situation that has generated the need (eg a few sessions ago I needed a nearby world with a naval hospital to fit into the backstory of one of the PCs); if it won't, then I generate one using the world generation rules. That is a type of preparation. But there is no script - as in, no pre-authored sequence of events that are destined to occur in the game. I didn't say there was no preparation. I'm talking about a lack of pre-scripting. Here is an example of one of my NPC writeups, written between sessions after the PCs had landed on a world and were heading out to scout out an enemy bioweapons research base: [indent]Prana Sin (Age 22, sister of the PCs' hired pilot Nela Sin, friends with Achilles [another NPC], maintains the cryo systems; would-be doctor, drafted into Byron air force for family-related reasons) 4A98A9 (well-educated) Mid Psg Commo-1; Mechanical-1; Admin-1; Air/Raft-1[/indent] Those couple of notes (about her connections to family and friends) were enough to support her use when the PCs encountered her after they'd fatally shot Achilles and recognised her likeness to her sister. But the inconsistencies you are worried about in these cases (to be spotted by players who have "done their homework" because GMs or big fans) are caused by the fact of pre-authorship of the gameworld. That's not a reason not to improvise. [I]It's a reason not to pre-author[/I]! Again, this is all very strange. Stories have to be written. In the context of RPGing, there are two (perhaps three) authorial candidates: the players; the GM (and the third is a commercial author whose work the GM relies upon). You seem to approach RPGing with the idea that the GM will author a story in advance of play ("the script") and then play consists of . . . what exactly? The players gradually learning all the stuff the GM wrote as each NPC delivers its single line in turn? I approach RPGing with the idea that the GM and players will generate a story in the course of actually playing the game. So, for instance, NPCs become part of the fiction because either (i) the referee decides to introduce one into the fiction or (ii) the players make the NPC a relevant part of the fiction. An example of (i) from our most recent Traveller session: I rolled the encounter dice, got an encounter with 10 bandits, and so told the players that, when they returned to their ship's boat after hanging out in a town for most of the day, they could see a group of thugs hanging about. An example of (ii) from the previous session: a player declares that his PC is going to hang out at the Travellers' Aid Society hoping to be approached by a patron, and so I rolled the patron encounter dice. A different sort of example of (ii), where the causal role of the players is more intricately mediated by me as GM: the players declare that they are going to land on a world to try and acquire trinkets and artefacts. This requires me to bring various NPCs (shopkeepers and the like) into play. Then the players - who know that the inhabitants of this world have mixed alien and human ancestry - declare that their PCs look out for distinctive trinkets or artefacts that might be of alien origin. I roll a die, it comes up positive, and so I tell them that yes, their PCs do see such a thing. The PCs then ask the shopkeeper about its origin, which I therefore have to make up. The story the shopkeeper tells is that the artefact belonged to the local bishop, but had been sold some time ago to raise funds for the bishopric. (It was already established that this world is under strict religious rule.) Now the local bishop is another NPC who has been created - by me as referee - in response to the players' play of the game. There is no script (and so no "off-script"). And nor is the GM "creating a script on the fly". There is a clear story (of xeno-archaelogists arriving on a world, learning that a bishop once owned an alien artefact, meeting with said bishop, and then - when they later return to their ship's boat - finding it surrounded by thugs whom they have to deal with in some fashion). But it wasn't authored in advance; there was no scripting. It was generated by actually playing the game. (It's very straightforward to play RPGs in this style. I've been doing so since around 1987. [url=https://isabout.wordpress.com/2010/02/16/the-pitfalls-of-narrative-technique-in-rpg-play/]Here is a good blog post describing the approach.[/url]) [/QUOTE]
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