Another weekend of LARPing, another weekend where I was left sad and angry and disappointed. There were either issues with the character, or issues with the game, or both. ( Read more... )
Plot prioritization is by players, not GMs. As a player you are presented with effectively a menu of possible story options. Which one do you follow, and in what order? Some players ruthlessly triage at game start - "this looks unachieveable / uninteresting / I don't want to go there so I'm just not going to bother". Others just find that one of their plot threads ends up eating all their attention to the exclusion of others. Its not poor game design so much as the limits of player attention.
It's also worth pointing out that some goals are 'ongoing', and many are nebulous / unclear. A couple of games one of my goals was "Hurt other faction", which can range from verbal slapdown to actually killing one of their characters. One of my goals in Insubstantial Pagent was to keep two characters apart. So in some ways there are goals of opportunity, vs goals you actively work towards.
I found my game as Seda was initally very boring. 6 goals. 1) win the tournament - I can't do anything about this until the tournament occurs. 2) Keep Esen away from Amatus - ongoing. 3) Find McGuffin - I was effectively told "we'll tell you when you see it". 4) Hurt rival House - I assessed this as a goal of opportunity, something to do if an opportunity presented itself. 5) Prove to teacher how much you've improved - which I figured would dovetail into goal #1, so didn't take active steps towards. 6) Get information on rivals - which I did, boiled down to several 1 minute conversations. So despite having 6 goals, I didn't actually have much to actively work on.
It's also worth pointing out that some goals are 'ongoing', and many are nebulous / unclear. A couple of games one of my goals was "Hurt other faction", which can range from verbal slapdown to actually killing one of their characters. One of my goals in Insubstantial Pagent was to keep two characters apart. So in some ways there are goals of opportunity, vs goals you actively work towards.
I found my game as Seda was initally very boring. 6 goals. 1) win the tournament - I can't do anything about this until the tournament occurs. 2) Keep Esen away from Amatus - ongoing. 3) Find McGuffin - I was effectively told "we'll tell you when you see it". 4) Hurt rival House - I assessed this as a goal of opportunity, something to do if an opportunity presented itself. 5) Prove to teacher how much you've improved - which I figured would dovetail into goal #1, so didn't take active steps towards. 6) Get information on rivals - which I did, boiled down to several 1 minute conversations. So despite having 6 goals, I didn't actually have much to actively work on.
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