Post by Paul on Mar 8, 2011 10:55:07 GMT -6
This isn’t an attempt to put anyone else down or place any pressure on future games that will be run. This is more of comparing my past failures to how Jim handled it.
Keep it simple.
Mapping. Maybe Jim didn’t even realize it but the way he handled mapping was awesome. I know the map was not created by Jim and there is nothing wrong with that. He kept it simple. He used standard reasoning in game as to why we had the maps. Just outright giving us the maps eliminated any problems that could happen when using the “fog of war” technique. Look what happened when I tried that in the D&D game. I failed. Jim kept it simple I tried to get fancy and fell on my face.
Encounters. There are a few things that Jim handled nicely during encounters. The first thing that sticks out is his ability to not lose it when the bad guys were getting their ass handed to them. The roof encounter is a good example. PoW WASTED those troops but rather then doing a huge mistake (having more show up – hell even I’ve done it) Jim just rolled with the punches. That isn't a mistake, but just annoying GMing. The encounter with the guy in the room was a lot of fun. This encounter was the “Role” playing highlight of the game. There was a spot where Jim could have made another mistake (er maybe poor GMing choice) but didn’t and that was the man’s pills for his heart condition. Yes I understand we were not “looking” for the pills but Jim quickly changed his “position” once we explained that we probably would have found the pills when we searched the room. I’ve made the mistake in the past that I didn’t change my “position” on situations very similar to that one. It didn't matter much but the point I'm trying to make is the flexibility he showed.
The optional sand box. Jim made the game open ended that if we wanted to venture out during the day we could have. I don’t know if he had anything planned if we ventured out or not and we may never know. He could have easily lead us into a situation by saying “you see this, etc etc.” He let us decide. Granted we did the boring thing and just did recon and stayed in the room. The point I’m trying to make is he didn’t push us into things.
The Double Cross and Chase. I didn’t fully expect the double cross even though the writing was on the wall. The chase was fun, I remember thinking during the search for the scientist that we messed up and missed him. I know there is not supposed to be any “winning” in RPGs but I would have felt like I lost if we couldn’t at least take out the scientist. From a story perspective we were getting desperate. There were a lot of places that guy could have been anywhere. And there he was the light at the end of the tunnel. Get him! The climax story arc went from a valley to a peak. I’ve made mistakes in the past where I left the story in the valley.
The best things Jim did were to just let things go and react to how things happened. It has taken me years to learn that and I still make mistakes from time to time. I wouldn’t really call them mistakes, sometimes the story should end in the valley but it should end at a peak most the time.
Keep it simple.
Mapping. Maybe Jim didn’t even realize it but the way he handled mapping was awesome. I know the map was not created by Jim and there is nothing wrong with that. He kept it simple. He used standard reasoning in game as to why we had the maps. Just outright giving us the maps eliminated any problems that could happen when using the “fog of war” technique. Look what happened when I tried that in the D&D game. I failed. Jim kept it simple I tried to get fancy and fell on my face.
Encounters. There are a few things that Jim handled nicely during encounters. The first thing that sticks out is his ability to not lose it when the bad guys were getting their ass handed to them. The roof encounter is a good example. PoW WASTED those troops but rather then doing a huge mistake (having more show up – hell even I’ve done it) Jim just rolled with the punches. That isn't a mistake, but just annoying GMing. The encounter with the guy in the room was a lot of fun. This encounter was the “Role” playing highlight of the game. There was a spot where Jim could have made another mistake (er maybe poor GMing choice) but didn’t and that was the man’s pills for his heart condition. Yes I understand we were not “looking” for the pills but Jim quickly changed his “position” once we explained that we probably would have found the pills when we searched the room. I’ve made the mistake in the past that I didn’t change my “position” on situations very similar to that one. It didn't matter much but the point I'm trying to make is the flexibility he showed.
The optional sand box. Jim made the game open ended that if we wanted to venture out during the day we could have. I don’t know if he had anything planned if we ventured out or not and we may never know. He could have easily lead us into a situation by saying “you see this, etc etc.” He let us decide. Granted we did the boring thing and just did recon and stayed in the room. The point I’m trying to make is he didn’t push us into things.
The Double Cross and Chase. I didn’t fully expect the double cross even though the writing was on the wall. The chase was fun, I remember thinking during the search for the scientist that we messed up and missed him. I know there is not supposed to be any “winning” in RPGs but I would have felt like I lost if we couldn’t at least take out the scientist. From a story perspective we were getting desperate. There were a lot of places that guy could have been anywhere. And there he was the light at the end of the tunnel. Get him! The climax story arc went from a valley to a peak. I’ve made mistakes in the past where I left the story in the valley.
The best things Jim did were to just let things go and react to how things happened. It has taken me years to learn that and I still make mistakes from time to time. I wouldn’t really call them mistakes, sometimes the story should end in the valley but it should end at a peak most the time.
