"72 hours earlier" (flash forward scenes)

[Psion]

Every once in a while I fend off arguments about how RPGs should be like X or Y show pointing out that shows are not games and what is good for a show is not necessarily good for a game.

But here's one convention that, while I'll admit has its drawbacks, could be intriguing to use in a game.

What I speak if is the convention in shows like Alias, wherein the show starts with a short sequence where one or more of the characters is in trouble. Then at the edge of resolving it, the credits run and the show starts with a different scene with the banner "72 hours earlier" (or some other suitable time interval) emblazoned across the screen.

I thought this might prove an interesting way to:
1) Get players right into the action, and
2) Get their attention and have them wondering how the situation evolves.

Of course this has its challenges. The first being, given the nature of RPGs, one or more of the PCs pictured in the scene might not even be alive. This isn't a big issue for me as the way I run things, there's rarely a real chance of fatality until specific scenes designed to be climactic or otherwise dangerous. So, the simple convention would be to set the "flash forward scene" at the first climactic juncture of the session.

Other problems could be player resentment if they feel this means you are railroading, or deliberate sabotaging of the game. But I think with the right group of players, it could prove an engaging technique.

Anyone try something like this?

 

[Vocenoctum]

Slightly different, but in a Shadowrun adventure I had once, the players were driving somewhere, I had them all roll Body. Then I told them they all suddenly wake up on the floor of the hotel room, signs of combat all around, including at least one blast. One of the players had the habit of recording interviews, so they found that his chip had data on it.

Basically, SR had a drug called Laes, it knocked you out and erased the last 6 hours of memory or whatnot. The chip revealed that when they'd returned to their room, they'd talked with a guy, then a team kicked in the door, threw some splash grenades and they blacked out. We just didn't play out the attack. It worked pretty well for freaking the players out, which fit with the scene.

Otherwise, we tend to fast forward through stuff, but nothing like hopping in time and recapping player choices really.

 

[SteveC]

Anyone try something like this?

I sure did, and it was an amazingly successful game. This is an idea that you need to make sure to get buy-in from your players on, because some people do not like it at all.

What I did some time ago was start the campaign at the death of the king of one of the realm's modest-sized kingdoms. Each of the players was there at the funeral, and I described the fact that they had met the king and had been involved with him on a series of adventures. His death was seen by many as a tragic sacrifice of a good man, but I said that I would (obviously) leave it up to them to decide how they felt about it. I gave them the chance to ask some basic questions and gave whatever answers I could without spoiling what was going to happen with him too much (I also wanted to leave things as open-ended as possible for the players to change things).

At that point, I gave each of them the opportunity to make a speech about what the king had meant to them, and to share a memory of a time he had spent with them. I told all of the players that I would do my very best to make those memories and events come to pass.

Well, everyone in the group took to this amazingly well. One of the players was playing a character that was very evil, but maintained the facade of being a noble paladin. They had a particularly ironic memory to share about the noble sacrifice of a good and just man.

Then the last player came up and he said, "I think this entire spectacle has been way too sad, which is a shame, because his majesty was anything but dour, even in dire circumstances. Who among us will ever forget him saying, 'Let's all of us take off our hats!'"

Let me tell you, that was a tough one to put into play, but I did it.

So yes, I like the idea...it should be done sparingly, but if used properly it can make for a fun game, and give people something to look forward to, rather than seem like a straight jacket.

--Steve

 

[Gwaihir]

I tried this recently in the current campaign -- i.e. starting off the session with combat that the party had no idea how they got into, following the battle, I handed out a story of how they got from the ending of last session to the battle. I had told the players that it would be different and it was, in a word,

a dud.

the players were confused during the combat and unsure who to even to fight, since the fight started off during a meeting with an NPC they didn't trust much.

If i were to do it again, I would, well I probably wouldn't.

 

[LostSoul]

Anyone try something like this?

I've done it a few times, mostly in Star Wars. It's always worked for me; SteveC is right when he says you have to get the buy-in from the players.

It's a nice way to start the game off with "Okay, everyone roll for initiative..." when otherwise you might not be able to.

I don't think it has to be too railroad-y if you do it right. And if the players are all on board, they are going to try to make things line up so that they hit that scene.

 

[Klaus]

Every once in a while I fend off arguments about how RPGs should be like X or Y show pointing out that shows are not games and what is good for a show is not necessarily good for a game.

But here's one convention that, while I'll admit has its drawbacks, could be intriguing to use in a game.

What I speak if is the convention in shows like Alias, wherein the show starts with a short sequence where one or more of the characters is in trouble. Then at the edge of resolving it, the credits run and the show starts with a different scene with the banner "72 hours earlier" (or some other suitable time interval) emblazoned across the screen.

I thought this might prove an interesting way to:
1) Get players right into the action, and
2) Get their attention and have them wondering how the situation evolves.

Of course this has its challenges. The first being, given the nature of RPGs, one or more of the PCs pictured in the scene might not even be alive. This isn't a big issue for me as the way I run things, there's rarely a real chance of fatality until specific scenes designed to be climactic or otherwise dangerous. So, the simple convention would be to set the "flash forward scene" at the first climactic juncture of the session.

Other problems could be player resentment if they feel this means you are railroading, or deliberate sabotaging of the game. But I think with the right group of players, it could prove an engaging technique.

Anyone try something like this?

I did this already. In a Masque of the Red Death campaign, I started a game with the characters holed up in an abandoned farm a few miles away from Wonded Knee Creek, ran a few rounds of them shooting hordes of two-headed coyotes coming at them, then proclaimed "it all started two weeks ago..."

 

[crazy_monkey1956]

I did this once as a "we're missing players for the session so we're going to need to do something different" session. I took the players who were there through a dream sequence that was really a possible future for them. When they woke up, they were right where they were before and no time had passed.

Unfortunately, the campaign fell apart before the group got to the point where that possible future could've taken place.

 

[Vocenoctum]

I did this once as a "we're missing players for the session so we're going to need to do something different" session. I took the players who were there through a dream sequence that was really a possible future for them. When they woke up, they were right where they were before and no time had passed.

Unfortunately, the campaign fell apart before the group got to the point where that possible future could've taken place.

I had a Gryphon Hill game like that one time, all based on a fever created by a poison attack. The game broke up before long though, so never got to do it all.

 

[senodam]

Yep, I've done it a few times. Mostly when running supers games- it works really well for them to let the players throw their powers around and foreshadow the powers of the big bad.

I also started my current FR campaign with "Roll for init" and the party fighting Fire Giants...after a couple of rounds I had them thinking "Gods, how did we get into this mess..." cue the 'Six months earlier'. Worked a treat.

 

[Nikosandros]

At a con I played a game of 7th Sea like this... the game begun with the party pursued by guards... later we flashed back to the incident that caused the situation. Of course it required player cooperation: I knew that in the flashback scene my character was supposed to degenerate a discussion into an armed brawl.

Later in the game we had another flashback scene, but that was mostly "background color".