Adventure Summary Incentives

[Rae ArdGaoth]

Okay, so I should stop second guessing myself.

Do we have an accord? Do I need to write up the "official sounding paragraph" with all the links and summary-writing-guidelines before we all vote? I'll be doing that anyway, but I'll do it sooner if it's desired.

 

[Boddynock]

Well, I think you'd better, Rae. I'm now completely lost.

 

[B4cchus]

Yes, Rea, please do.
As a general remark, I feel that DM creds for compilations should be severly capped since actually DM'íng an adventure is far more tolling than writing a compilation of one (as i've come to experienced in my first adventure i'm running here).

 

[Rystil Arden]

Yes, Rea, please do.
As a general remark, I feel that DM creds for compilations should be severly capped since actually DM'íng an adventure is far more tolling than writing a compilation of one (as i've come to experienced in my first adventure i'm running here).

It depends on the adventure. GMing ATfL was actually pretty easy. Low on combat, high on RP. Writing it up would be much more painful. In fact, I think it's inversely proportional, since high-combat adventures will be much harder to run and easier to summarise!

 

[B4cchus]

At first i agree.
A combat heavy situation requires more effort while playing out, but it (generally) requires less preperation.
Heavy RP requires more preperation (thinking/writing out npc personalities, POV, etc) and flows more naturally when playing out.
My (although limited in pbp) experience is that in the end heavy combat only costs slightly more time/effort. YMMV.

 

[Rystil Arden]

At first i agree.
A combat heavy situation requires more effort while playing out, but it (generally) requires less preperation.
Heavy RP requires more preperation (thinking/writing out npc personalities, POV, etc) and flows more naturally when playing out.
My (although limited in pbp) experience is that in the end heavy combat only costs slightly more time/effort. YMMV.

I always think out NPC personalities even when I'm mostly just doing combat (Aglaia, for instance, is highly fleshed out) Plus in ATfL, we eventually dropped down to only one player, so that was easier to keep track.

 

[Trouvere]

Detail-rich adventures like ATfL (which I've not read, sadly) give a DM the chance to directly shape major aspects of the living world which (if the details are made available!) could and should ripple through other games and influence character backgrounds.

If the bonus summary credits for a highly detailed adventure happen to be the same as those for one that merely establishes that there are bears in the woods near Orussus, well, the metacreation is a reward in itself, and surely a bigger one than a few bonus XP for a DM's own character. So I don't think there's a need to develop some complex formula to cover all contingencies and corner-cases. It all evens out in one way or another. And surely summary credits won't ever be the deciding factor for a DM to run or not run a particular type of adventure??

 

[Rystil Arden]

Detail-rich adventures like ATfL (which I've not read, sadly) give a DM the chance to directly shape major aspects of the living world which (if the details are made available!) could and should ripple through other games and influence character backgrounds.

If the bonus summary credits for a highly detailed adventure happen to be the same as those for one that merely establishes that there are bears in the woods near Orussus, well, the metacreation is a reward in itself, and surely a bigger one than a few bonus XP for a DM's own character. So I don't think there's a need to develop some complex formula to cover all contingencies and corner-cases. It all evens out in one way or another. And surely summary credits won't ever be the deciding factor for a DM to run or not run a particular type of adventure??

A deciding factor to run? Never. I'd run without GM credits, though probably not quite as many games (but maybe still this many!). Summarise--heck yes. I'm not planning on summarising ATfL right now. Honestly I never planned to do so. But if you give me a reasonable amount of GM Credits for the amount of work and frustration it would take, I would be tempted.

I may be unusual in that I really really really don't like writing summaries and because I am generally considered by my home players to be a master of improvising (which makes running a game very very easy and summarising it very very hard) and weakest at organisation, summaries, diagrams, and other extras.

 

[Trouvere]

Yes, it's different in the situation of now going back to summarise a long completed adventure. But it's surely not a lot of work to summarise one as it progresses - certainly not for a less improvisational DM.

 

[Trouvere]

Come to think of it, I think I might be unusual in that I probably wouldn't ever spend any DM credits. I might be tempted, particularly when reaching a new level would really help in surviving an adventure, but it would feel really odd to me. If you remember, we talked a while ago about how I didn't feel Conuld had really deserved at least one of his level-ups because he'd contributed little to the events that led to the XP award.
Hey, if I don't even believe in DM credits, what am I doing in this thread? I'm going to bed! Night!