Menu
News
All News
Dungeons & Dragons
Level Up: Advanced 5th Edition
Pathfinder
Starfinder
Warhammer
2d20 System
Year Zero Engine
Industry News
Reviews
Dragon Reflections
Columns
Weekly Digests
Weekly News Digest
Freebies, Sales & Bundles
RPG Print News
RPG Crowdfunding News
Game Content
ENterplanetary DimENsions
Mythological Figures
Opinion
Worlds of Design
Peregrine's Next
RPG Evolution
Other Columns
From the Freelancing Frontline
Monster ENcyclopedia
WotC/TSR Alumni Look Back
4 Hours w/RSD (Ryan Dancey)
The Road to 3E (Jonathan Tweet)
Greenwood's Realms (Ed Greenwood)
Drawmij's TSR (Jim Ward)
Community
Forums & Topics
Forum List
Latest Posts
Forum list
*Dungeons & Dragons
Level Up: Advanced 5th Edition
D&D Older Editions
*TTRPGs General
*Pathfinder & Starfinder
EN Publishing
*Geek Talk & Media
Search forums
Chat/Discord
Resources
Wiki
Pages
Latest activity
Media
New media
New comments
Search media
Downloads
Latest reviews
Search resources
EN Publishing
Store
EN5ider
Adventures in ZEITGEIST
Awfully Cheerful Engine
What's OLD is NEW
Judge Dredd & The Worlds Of 2000AD
War of the Burning Sky
Level Up: Advanced 5E
Events & Releases
Upcoming Events
Private Events
Featured Events
Socials!
Twitch
YouTube
Facebook (EN Publishing)
Facebook (EN World)
Twitter
Instagram
TikTok
Podcast
Features
Top 5 RPGs Compiled Charts 2004-Present
Adventure Game Industry Market Research Summary (RPGs) V1.0
Ryan Dancey: Acquiring TSR
Q&A With Gary Gygax
D&D Rules FAQs
TSR, WotC, & Paizo: A Comparative History
D&D Pronunciation Guide
Million Dollar TTRPG Kickstarters
Tabletop RPG Podcast Hall of Fame
Eric Noah's Unofficial D&D 3rd Edition News
D&D in the Mainstream
D&D & RPG History
About Morrus
Log in
Register
What's new
Search
Search
Search titles only
By:
Forums & Topics
Forum List
Latest Posts
Forum list
*Dungeons & Dragons
Level Up: Advanced 5th Edition
D&D Older Editions
*TTRPGs General
*Pathfinder & Starfinder
EN Publishing
*Geek Talk & Media
Search forums
Chat/Discord
Menu
Log in
Register
Install the app
Install
Community
General Tabletop Discussion
*TTRPGs General
GM DESCRIPTION: NARRATION OR CONVERSATION?
JavaScript is disabled. For a better experience, please enable JavaScript in your browser before proceeding.
You are using an out of date browser. It may not display this or other websites correctly.
You should upgrade or use an
alternative browser
.
Reply to thread
Message
<blockquote data-quote="Celebrim" data-source="post: 7625937" data-attributes="member: 4937"><p>For me, the thing is descriptive whether or not it is prescriptive. Whether you think of them as scenes or not, they are scenes. Thinking of them as locations is true, in the sense that any good sandbox will have locations where no scenes take place, and scenes that take place in locations where no participant knew before hand that there was going to be a scene there. But the scene happens whether you think about it as a scene or not.</p><p></p><p>I don't think there is a formula for making a good movie. I do think you can tell when a movie is made well versus one that is made badly. For example, one thing that seriously hurt the Star Wars prequel trilogy is poor scene framing. Deprived of physical locations, Lucas was left to design how each shot should be seen. And forced to imagine each shot rather than improvise to the constraints of a set, he had a tendency to request the same angles and camera movements over and over again, resulting in a movie that feels subtly wrong and a bit boring. Once you see each scene and each cut described in terms of his camera selection, part of the problem becomes obvious, to the point of being hilarious in a sad sort of way. </p><p></p><p>Similar problems occur in the staging of fight scenes in the sequel trilogy. One of the things that both the originals and the prequels did right was dynamic battle scenes, and particularly battle scenes that play out in 3D in a spectacular way. Take for example the "I know a few maneuvers scene" in ESB, where the Falcon turns against the camera and then begins spiraling down like a falling leaf toward the camera leaving the plane it was fighting on behind. Compare that with the two-dimensionality of the battle scenes in the sequel trilogy.</p><p></p><p>Of course, there isn't an exact relationship between scene framing cinema and scene framing in a tabletop RPG. You can do things in cinema that don't really work in an RPG, and something that are hugely important to cinema (like composition) aren't really important to an RPG. But you can also do things in an RPG that you can't do in cinema.</p><p></p><p>If I could describe what is interesting about the general technique you are outlining, it's that you are trying to keep the camera pointed toward what the player is interested in. You are doing the narration, but you are trying to encourage the player to do the shot selection. And that's cool, and there are certainly appropriate times to do that. Heck, it might even be cool as an overall directorial style. </p><p></p><p>What I'm trying to convey in this conversation, not just to you but to anyone that might follow along, is that as a GM you can put on a director's hat and think about these things and use different ways of framing a scene to achieve different effects. I am very much a "both" sort of person. I like Sandboxes and Adventure Paths. I like "Story Now" and "Process Simulation". I like bouncing back and forth between those techniques. So when you say things like, "if things were different I would have done it differently" or "Drama Sandbox", then I really think we are pretty much on the same page except for some slight differences in preferred style, because that sort of flexible both/and thinking is pretty much what I think is the right approach and the whole trick is knowing when to select what and why.</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="Celebrim, post: 7625937, member: 4937"] For me, the thing is descriptive whether or not it is prescriptive. Whether you think of them as scenes or not, they are scenes. Thinking of them as locations is true, in the sense that any good sandbox will have locations where no scenes take place, and scenes that take place in locations where no participant knew before hand that there was going to be a scene there. But the scene happens whether you think about it as a scene or not. I don't think there is a formula for making a good movie. I do think you can tell when a movie is made well versus one that is made badly. For example, one thing that seriously hurt the Star Wars prequel trilogy is poor scene framing. Deprived of physical locations, Lucas was left to design how each shot should be seen. And forced to imagine each shot rather than improvise to the constraints of a set, he had a tendency to request the same angles and camera movements over and over again, resulting in a movie that feels subtly wrong and a bit boring. Once you see each scene and each cut described in terms of his camera selection, part of the problem becomes obvious, to the point of being hilarious in a sad sort of way. Similar problems occur in the staging of fight scenes in the sequel trilogy. One of the things that both the originals and the prequels did right was dynamic battle scenes, and particularly battle scenes that play out in 3D in a spectacular way. Take for example the "I know a few maneuvers scene" in ESB, where the Falcon turns against the camera and then begins spiraling down like a falling leaf toward the camera leaving the plane it was fighting on behind. Compare that with the two-dimensionality of the battle scenes in the sequel trilogy. Of course, there isn't an exact relationship between scene framing cinema and scene framing in a tabletop RPG. You can do things in cinema that don't really work in an RPG, and something that are hugely important to cinema (like composition) aren't really important to an RPG. But you can also do things in an RPG that you can't do in cinema. If I could describe what is interesting about the general technique you are outlining, it's that you are trying to keep the camera pointed toward what the player is interested in. You are doing the narration, but you are trying to encourage the player to do the shot selection. And that's cool, and there are certainly appropriate times to do that. Heck, it might even be cool as an overall directorial style. What I'm trying to convey in this conversation, not just to you but to anyone that might follow along, is that as a GM you can put on a director's hat and think about these things and use different ways of framing a scene to achieve different effects. I am very much a "both" sort of person. I like Sandboxes and Adventure Paths. I like "Story Now" and "Process Simulation". I like bouncing back and forth between those techniques. So when you say things like, "if things were different I would have done it differently" or "Drama Sandbox", then I really think we are pretty much on the same page except for some slight differences in preferred style, because that sort of flexible both/and thinking is pretty much what I think is the right approach and the whole trick is knowing when to select what and why. [/QUOTE]
Insert quotes…
Verification
Post reply
Community
General Tabletop Discussion
*TTRPGs General
GM DESCRIPTION: NARRATION OR CONVERSATION?
Top