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Message: <blockquote data-quote="thefutilist" data-source="post: 9264792" data-attributes="member: 7044566">PART ONEYeah. Note before I begin: I was going to try doing this without theory terms because they can muddy the water, that proved too hard, so if I use a theory term I’ll explain it as it pertains to this specific mode of play.So in collapse play what you as a group (including the GM) are doing, is collapsing a situation. Situation specifically means characters with conflicting interests which are in tension. The collapse is the collapse of the tension, the situation (the characters interests) will change during play such that at some point there is no tension between them any more. I.E the situation has collapsed. This produces a story and probably a theme.So to take a short example. We start with the situation that there are three characters, Bob and Dick. Bob is Dicks son and he is visiting his father to persuade him to visit his dying mother Marge (Dicks ex-wife).Bobs: Interest (get his dad to to see his mom)Dick: Interest (not see Bob’s mom)Marge: Interest to see DickNow we don’t yet know the specifics of why there is a conflict of interest so that’s going to have to be made up within the parameters already set. There’s going to have to have to be a procedure for that, so let’s take some basic improv in character dialogue as the means by which we’re establishing the conflict. We also have to frame a scene, which is someone’s job or maybe reached by consensus, but leave that aside for the moment. Framing a scene means deciding which characters are in a location. Let’s say Bob and Dick.SCENE ONEBob: Mom’s dying and she really wants to see you.Dick: Screw that, she cheated on me, I never want to see her again.Bob: Well then don’t do it for her Dad, do it for me, your son.At this point the conflicting interest is thematically charged. What triumphs? vengeance or filial loyalty.So conflict resolution, in this specific game mode, means the method by which we see which interest wins out. Dick or Bobs. Say we roll a dice and odds Dick, evens Bob. It comes up even.Dick: (sigh) very well son, but I’ll do it for you, you ya hear, not for that lying bi…The scene is resolved but there’s still conflicts of interest, mainly because it seems there’s got be a conflict between Dick and marge.SCENE TWO(we’ll establish and resolve in the same way as before)In the hospital with Dick sitting beside Marge’s hospital bed.Dick: You wanted to see meMarge: The guilt of what I did to you has weighed on me and now I’m dying I want to ask for your forgiveness, this is the last chance I’m going to get.We’ve got a fleshed out conflict right here because we’ve previously established Dick’s priorities. So let’s roll again, evens for Marge, odds for Dick. We get odds, Dick’s vindictiveness has won.Dick: I’ll never forgive you, I hope you die drowning in the guilt. (he storms out)So as a consequence of this interaction, we decide that we still need to resolve Bobs new interest. He’s gone and spoken with his mother and his new interest is telling his father to do screw himself.SCENE THREEDick and Bob at Dicks house.Bob: Mom told me what you said to her.Dick: I just couldn’t do it son, I couldn’t forgive her..Bob: And I can’t forgive you, you’re dead to me (Bob storms out)Now we still to fully resolve Dick’s new priorities, so we have one more sceneSCENE FOURSeveral years later. Dick is sitting alone in his darkened house, looking blankly out the window. For a moment it looks like he is about to cry but then his face distorts into a mask of anger before becoming dead again.Which I think pretty much does it. What’s the theme? I dunno, maybe something about how not being able to let go of anger ruins you, or something. The point is we didn’t have to think about it.Any apologies for the fan fiction level of writing, I’m just trying to belt out whatever comes to mind.</blockquote>

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