Code Talk: Three-for-one GMing Post

[gamergeekgirl]

This is only partially code talk; it's also policy talk, and pep talk. We have three topics to cover: players as scene runners/GMs, the Battle Fantasia Origin Story Round Robin, and the Battle Fantasia Youma Repository System. All of these are related to each other.

Comments

[gamergeekgirl]

I believe Mr. Singleton is referring to the idea, in the advancement post, that one requirement to increase in Master Rank is plot justification, but that it isn't a plot you can run yourself; people who GM a lot for other people are more likely to find people interesting in GMing theirs in turn, and the staff intends to prioritize running for people who run a lot of scenes if they can't find anyone to run for them. (Though everyone will get staff help eventually, if they really need it! In an ideal universe with lots of active GMs, this issue won't come up very often.)

There are other, more tangible cookies for running scenes, as well, but we're not going to talk about them right now. People who don't run, and don't get these cookies, will not in any way be less powerful or effective than those who do.

A scene is a scene; the origin round robin, for example, may very well mostly be one on ones. There's nothing wrong with that -- the opposite is true, since with great personalization can come great character development -- and the healthiest games have scenes of many sizes, large and small. There will, however, be diminishing returns on player A and B constantly only running scenes FOR EACH OTHER, and also a minor incentivization to run scenes outside of one's cast/team, when possible, reasonable or desirable.

[sewa]

what of scenes that dont really have a 'gm'? like a social or a 'two characters hang out and talk about something'. that's still contributing--in some ways that's as much if not more of the lifeblood than 'suddenly a demon'. Does that qualify? or a 'hey everybody beach party at the beach' for that matter.

also re: the round robin, will there be something for bad guys to do day 1 besides gming? I guess being a demon who goes nyo ho horon at someone could be great on its own to set em off, but we could also do a start of darkness type deal. I presume that icly speaking, everyone isn't magical girling up on the same day even if oocly they are.

[unclejam]

I imagine if you're a 'bad' magical girl it'd be kind of the same deal, and I would be pleased to run a thing or two along these lines myself. That said I think there are a lot more 'bad' people who don't require origin scenes and the probable reasoning is that there will be less bads than goods (WE SHALL SEE).

[gamergeekgirl]

Heck, Big Bads can have 'origin' scenes run if they really want. Queen Beryl and the fall of the Silver Millennium might be one hell of a large-scale flashback scene, as might the temporary sealing of Lord Dune by Cure Flower or the finale of the previous era's HiME Festival. :)

[sewa]

oh i see, just because bad guys are a minority its ok to pretend they don't exist. I never imagined you were one of those people. I believed in you, sir, I believed in you. I thought you were one of us, a villain, but I see deep down you're a protaganist lover like all the rest.

Well not me! Just because I'm a dark lieutenant doesn't mean I don't have...a heart. Or two. Sticks and stones may break my bones but words can break hearts.

*storms off to make a pool noodle flavored villain*

[unclejam]

e: Experience... BIJ

[gamergeekgirl]

For the purposes of who gets a cookie, GMing means playing something other than your character to help facilitate entertainment for others. If you're playing your character, cookie compensation is unnecessary -- because you're playing your character, and that's what you're here to do!

Bad guys can do whatever they want at launch, just like good guys. They can social, they can run other peoples' origins, they can have their own origins run. They can participate in larger scenes.

The Round Robin will not, presumably, all happen on the same day OOCly; it will happen over weeks. How far into their stories casts want to begin is ultimately up to them. It is certainly true that there is a major IC reason for there to suddenly be a lot more magical girls popping up around the same time, but people are hardly required to app on Day One. That's what flashback RP is for, and much of the Round Robin will likely be exactly that.

[mikuni_oriko]

I am used to GMing elsemu*, so I expect I will need some differences explained before I'm entirely up to speed, here. One concerns the distinction between playing a character and GMing, which it sounds like you're saying is a thing.

I play a Puella Magi. For some Witch scenes, I made up a reason why my character wouldn't be able to attend. For others, I used her to provide the hook, and she is present but not generally on-screen. In the last I recall, she contacted help while explaining that she was trapped, and could not move to deal with the Witch herself without endangering the muggles also trapped with her. This left the main point of the scene (dealing with a Witch) to other players, while letting the character do something narratively important off-screen, thus keeping her in the business of visibly fighting Witches without having to wait for someone else to feel like GMing for the theme.

In another scene on the same MU*, with another character, my alt masterminded a military operation in which she provided the objectives, the entry point, and the extraction, while the players made up an infiltration team. Established circumstances required her to stay outside to make sure that an escape route existed. Even more so than the previous example, the role had narrative importance, and a degree of interaction with the whole op (because my alt was in charge of it in a military capacity), but it left all of the on-screen action (with the exception to the initial entry) to everyone else.

In both cases, I played my character while GMing. How does this fit against the concept of GMing as it will exist in BF? Should this style of GMing be avoided?

[gamergeekgirl]

You can absolutely do either of those things on our game! Those are both /excellent/ GMing strategies. In no way are we trying to discourage that style of GMing, it simply already gives its own reward: one's character being narratively important and involved. The additional 'reward' (which is notably not connected in any way to character advancement in the regular sense of character points and ranks) is for selfless GMing, to incentivize it -- we are going to have magical girls from across dozens of themes, and quite a few of them are likely to have villain casts that are entirely otherwise unplayed.