Writing, playing, drama
Mar. 24th, 2010 10:17![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
viktor_haagThanks to ![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
toddalcott, we notice Mamet on Drama (more specifically, the writing staff's job of writing the television drama, The Unit). I am not robin_d_laws, so if you want well reasoned theoretical examination of the application of scripted narratives (as for TV, film, theatre) for gaming, you should read his blog.
Two things presented themselves as notable from Mamet's memo;
• Each scene starts with the heroes there because they're trying to get what they need.
• Each scene ends when the heroes fail at this scene's depicted attempt to get what they need.
Also, Mamet's definition of scripted drama is perhaps instructive:
To me, the (his) emphasis on acute is important: if the characters' needs are not acute, then there's little drama to be had in playing out the frustrations in the way of those needs.
What can we take away from Mamet's notions to apply to your game this week?
First, it seems to me that if your PCs don't have an acute need, you don't have anything driving them forward: the need could be one they all share (find the Baron's daughter before she's consumed, or worse, by the local tribe of Orc), or they could be individual needs (Mouser, as you walk down the quay this fine sunny morning, you spy your mortal enemy Brindle waddling down the gang-plank of a recently arrived ship; his head swivels in your direction, his eyes lock with yours, and his hand immediately shifts to his knife...), but in either case, if your PC group doesn't have some immediate, acute need to fill, then you'd better find one to throw at them fast (and thus the "Ninjas burst through the door" solution).
Second, encounters don't exist to provide PCs with success: they exist to frustrate the players and prevent them from resolving their immediate needs: once an encounter resolves a need, you better have a new one to throw on the table.
Thirdly, the latency between the resolution of one need and the arrival of the new one provides the pacing of the narrative (I suspect).
So -- what do you do for this week's game? First, figure out what the heroes' immediate, acute need is. Second, figure out a good way to ensure that they fail and enumerate that way mechanically. (Don't resort to the cheapness of deus ex machinae. The mechanical enumeration step tries to ensure that you know how challenging that insurance is contrary to player ability, so you can signal difficulty for the players appropriately: impossible death traps that players have no hope of avoiding or overcoming are not "enumerated mechanically" ... statting up an impossible death trap is meaningless; you might as well just say "you die". Mechanical enumeration of a frustration ensures that you have an in-game way to afford the players a way to defeat you and your failure insurance.)
At the end of each session, you might try asking your players what their characters need to do next. This might get you a head start on planning for the following sessions.
----
1 You'd think that Mamet would know a restrictive clause when he sees one. I write it off as the kind of slip that happens in passionate email or memo composition all too frequently.
toddalcott, we notice Mamet on Drama (more specifically, the writing staff's job of writing the television drama, The Unit). I am not robin_d_laws, so if you want well reasoned theoretical examination of the application of scripted narratives (as for TV, film, theatre) for gaming, you should read his blog.Two things presented themselves as notable from Mamet's memo;
• Each scene starts with the heroes there because they're trying to get what they need.
• Each scene ends when the heroes fail at this scene's depicted attempt to get what they need.
Also, Mamet's definition of scripted drama is perhaps instructive:
Drama ... is the quest of the hero[es] to overcome those things which1 prevent [them] from achieving a specific, acute goal.
To me, the (his) emphasis on acute is important: if the characters' needs are not acute, then there's little drama to be had in playing out the frustrations in the way of those needs.
What can we take away from Mamet's notions to apply to your game this week?
First, it seems to me that if your PCs don't have an acute need, you don't have anything driving them forward: the need could be one they all share (find the Baron's daughter before she's consumed, or worse, by the local tribe of Orc), or they could be individual needs (Mouser, as you walk down the quay this fine sunny morning, you spy your mortal enemy Brindle waddling down the gang-plank of a recently arrived ship; his head swivels in your direction, his eyes lock with yours, and his hand immediately shifts to his knife...), but in either case, if your PC group doesn't have some immediate, acute need to fill, then you'd better find one to throw at them fast (and thus the "Ninjas burst through the door" solution).
Second, encounters don't exist to provide PCs with success: they exist to frustrate the players and prevent them from resolving their immediate needs: once an encounter resolves a need, you better have a new one to throw on the table.
Thirdly, the latency between the resolution of one need and the arrival of the new one provides the pacing of the narrative (I suspect).
So -- what do you do for this week's game? First, figure out what the heroes' immediate, acute need is. Second, figure out a good way to ensure that they fail and enumerate that way mechanically. (Don't resort to the cheapness of deus ex machinae. The mechanical enumeration step tries to ensure that you know how challenging that insurance is contrary to player ability, so you can signal difficulty for the players appropriately: impossible death traps that players have no hope of avoiding or overcoming are not "enumerated mechanically" ... statting up an impossible death trap is meaningless; you might as well just say "you die". Mechanical enumeration of a frustration ensures that you have an in-game way to afford the players a way to defeat you and your failure insurance.)
At the end of each session, you might try asking your players what their characters need to do next. This might get you a head start on planning for the following sessions.
----
1 You'd think that Mamet would know a restrictive clause when he sees one. I write it off as the kind of slip that happens in passionate email or memo composition all too frequently.
