This discussion took place a while ago, at the end of February. I wasn’t sure it had enough content to merit posting, but as it turned out, BPG found it to be a breakthrough. We’ve done an intense further session about that, which is tied into the Boiling Pitch seminar and you’ll see it, or a text version, soon.
The first ten minutes concern something else, as he’d just asked me in email about the value I saw in role-playing as an activity, basically, “what good is it, what is the point.” I figured we’d get that out of the way first. Everything after that is about Directions Storyplaying, specifically, what is a meaningful jumping-off point for a group that allows for development and causal events to occur later.
All welcome BPG in visible motion! You unfortunately don’t get to see him role-play here, but I will be re-editing the older videos to include the visuals.
* leading image art by Kristina Alegro, “Alive for Art Inspiration”
4 responses to “Direction starts with momentum”
Directions Storyplaying – Experience Guide
I'm proud to present the Directions Storyplaying – Experience Guide.
For more details, click on the Slide settings > "Open speaker notes" or download the Experience Guide PDF here.
As discussed in the shared consulting sessions, I've took Ron's advice to heart and focused more on teaching the game rather than negotiating rules with an extensive rule book.
As for the system itself, I've thrown out most of the 130 (!) page Reference Guide and focused on what is absolutely essential to the experience of playing Directions Storyplaying. This has been painful at first yet rewarding in the end.
So, now there is only one core resolution mechanic: Random Tables on the Fly:
This is highly engaging and fun to use – and spins the collaborative story into surprising directions during roleplaying.
Also, I've put in a Core Team Sheet instead of individual character sheets. This helps the game in several ways:
1. Start the game much faster and don't need detailed character sheets.
2. Establish right from the beginning that player don't own "their" character.
3. Create cohesion between main characters the players root for & give the core team momentum.
Later on, you can (and probably should) introduce individual character sheets. So this is not a big deal.
Re-introduce Two Scene Questions to the game:
This mechanic was optional for a while. Yet playing with Ron, I saw this is quite central to the experience.
So for each scene, there are two scene questions:
– What Question (Q1): outcome of what actually happens in the scene.
– How Question (Q2): how main characters in scene or their relationship is (emotionally) affected.
For example, you could get what you want from a character (Q1) – yet the relationship could strained by this (Q2)
Anyway, I'm quite pleased with the Experience Guide and look forward to also making it into a youtube video later.
I really enjoyed our last
I really enjoyed our last conversation in which we reviewed and critiqued this. The video became corrupted and I can't post it!! Very aggravating.
Too bad the video is corrupt
Too bad the video is corrupt there was some stuff in the exchange.
This video here…
This video here (Directions 3) has been quite influential for the recent changes (see Experience Guide slides above).
We had an interesting discussion and touched on quite a few good games: Microscope RPG, Archipelago, Ten Candles, Spione, Sorcerer, Firefly RPG, Apocalypse World, Fiasco, Durance, Lasers & Feelings, Shock