There's a thing in Jay Treat's larp Strange Gravity, which is essentially Star Trek: The larp that I want to steal and normalize and use forever in every game.
Playshops.
In Strange Gravity, first we make characters. There's some good tech there, but not what I want to focus on.
Then, we go around and do character introductions. When you introduce, you say what sort of interaction you want. Anyone at the table can then pop into a small scene -- setup as no more than 5 to 15 seconds, but usually more like 30 -- to show that type of interaction.
These playshops are used as a sort of penumbra for the game. They aren't canon per say, but are used to inform play.
Like trailers before a pilot, or most pilot episodes.
I want to bring this into my pbta games. Instead of just doing Hx, really talk that up into a short scene that tells us how the characters interact.
Whatcha think? Sounds neat, or sound like a bad mixture?
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We finished character set up way too late in our first session of a Monsterhearts campaign recently and basically did exactly that in order to get some use out of our remaining few minutes. It worked really well.
ReplyDeleteVery strong agreement.
ReplyDeleteTo continue your TV metaphor, it's like the in character improv during rehearsals.
Like many of the best ideas, it seems so obvious after you’ve heard it.
ReplyDeleteWhile I wasn't conscious of it at the time, in retrospect it reminds me a lot of something J Li was doing a year ago.
ReplyDeleteThe best tech is always derived.
ReplyDeleteIt works so well in Strange Gravity!
ReplyDeleteIt was a great mechanism
ReplyDeleteOh! I've seen that somewhere else, but can't for the life of me remember where. Yeah, it's great.
ReplyDeleteEdit: oh, yeah, I remember! It was a lesson my actor friends used to prep scenes together.