I think all games need to answer three questions: (a)What, (b)How, and (c)Why.
Hmmm... My standard is we need a setting (where you are, culture, etc) and situation (what's going on). I'd like to breakdown what those two answer.
I think situation is the more powerful of the two "Flagship Atlantis has just been spotted. Your crew of skysailors all have personal reasons they NEED to find her". I think that actually answers all three, but it's weak on the why (“personal reasons”).
Setting: "The Viridese tyrannical rule over the Seven Skies have robbed free men of life, liberty and loot" is a much more compelling why. The bad guy is established as well as how he affects the player's world. This seems like pretty ample why, more so than the situation.
One reason the SAS game flopped was that that when we did the Penny character creation I wanted the 3rd question to be answered with "what horrible scheme are the bad guys doing that you now remember and have to stop." We didn't get that and so I ended up running it without really any situation and floundered.
So, my thought is that people will look at answering those questions in different ways but it's still important that before the game start they are answered in some fashion or another.
Yeah, I'd agree that the What, How, and Why aren't normally asked flat out. It's more of...a checklist, at the end of creating a group of characters (or possibly before creating said group) that should be met.
Hmmm... My standard is we need a setting (where you are, culture, etc) and situation (what's going on). I'd like to breakdown what those two answer.
I think situation is the more powerful of the two "Flagship Atlantis has just been spotted. Your crew of skysailors all have personal reasons they NEED to find her". I think that actually answers all three, but it's weak on the why (“personal reasons”).
Setting: "The Viridese tyrannical rule over the Seven Skies have robbed free men of life, liberty and loot" is a much more compelling why. The bad guy is established as well as how he affects the player's world. This seems like pretty ample why, more so than the situation.
One reason the SAS game flopped was that that when we did the Penny character creation I wanted the 3rd question to be answered with "what horrible scheme are the bad guys doing that you now remember and have to stop." We didn't get that and so I ended up running it without really any situation and floundered.
So, my thought is that people will look at answering those questions in different ways but it's still important that before the game start they are answered in some fashion or another.
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