Reply to thread

Message

<blockquote data-quote="spunky_mutters" data-source="post: 319681" data-attributes="member: 5426">I think that if you could graph a playing session on a scale of silly-serious over time, you'd get a series of waves. Where the mean is would depend on the group, but I think every group needs to dip towards silliness at different times in the session, if only for release of the tension. I've found that being able to&nbsp; read these waves helps me to know how to introduce elements into the game. If the players are all laughing over a joke, but I need them to be serious, I'll usually just shut up and let it peter out. Then, when I think it's run it's course, I will throw out some information about what's going on in-game that only those sitting next to me can hear (usually because the others are still loudly discussing some TV show or something). This usually prompts the ones who heard me to snap the others back to attention. In this way I can avoid being the ringmaster.&nbsp; Even within a single combat you can get plenty of waves where things go up and down, but you need to keep control and push things ahead. I find there's always a couple of players who will wander off if you don't keep things moving.</blockquote>

[QUOTE="spunky_mutters, post: 319681, member: 5426"] I think that if you could graph a playing session on a scale of silly-serious over time, you'd get a series of waves. Where the mean is would depend on the group, but I think every group needs to dip towards silliness at different times in the session, if only for release of the tension. I've found that being able to read these waves helps me to know how to introduce elements into the game. If the players are all laughing over a joke, but I need them to be serious, I'll usually just shut up and let it peter out. Then, when I think it's run it's course, I will throw out some information about what's going on in-game that only those sitting next to me can hear (usually because the others are still loudly discussing some TV show or something). This usually prompts the ones who heard me to snap the others back to attention. In this way I can avoid being the ringmaster. Even within a single combat you can get plenty of waves where things go up and down, but you need to keep control and push things ahead. I find there's always a couple of players who will wander off if you don't keep things moving. [/QUOTE]

Verification