Tag: narrative control

Hi and welcome to Narrative Control. This week’s episode is an actual play report from a Burning Wheel game that I played in with the guys from This Modern Death. The game setting is heavily inspired by the HBO show Deadwood and it rocked hard. Warning, as per fitting with the genre, this show has an explicit tag, though truthfully I don’t think we were nearly as bad as we could have been.

Length: 22:47

Hosts: Sean Nittner, Shaun Hayworth, Kristin Sullivan, and Randy Davenport

Liner Notes

[0:30] Thanks for the feedback from last episode
[0:53] Burning Las Vegas got me thinking about Burning Wheel
[1:21] Experimenting with actual play reports
[1:45] RPGpodcats.com Bumper
[1:52] Introduction to the hosts
[2:34] What is Burning Deadwood?
[2:58] Discussion of the show Deadwood
[3:40] Deadwood isn’t setting, its situation
[4:40] Orks be here!
[4:50] Game defined by the character’s motivations
[5:26] A group of players looking to be screwed with
[5:50] Brief background on the game.
[6:11] Levi, the fire and brimstone priest of Zoltek
[6:50] Player vs. Player conflicts built into beliefs: “The wizard must burn!”
[7:02] Role of religion in westerns
[7:48] Woops, the wizard botched his spell and turns a forest to crystal
[8:27] Gunning for a Dual of Wits with a torch in hand.
[8:55] The story is driven by the players but we all got suprised a few times.
[10:00] Seans’s strategy: Rally the congregation against the Wizard!
[11:04] Converting the mother of the son to turn against her child. Evil priest!
[12:00] Oddly anti-climatic ending that was very satisfying
[13:20] Pet peave of Sean’s: Players don’t recognize authority figures. How does it play out differently when they are controlled by the GM vs. another player?
[14:28] Group dynamic. These are people climbing the food chain, not the heroes of the dawn.
[15:06] The mechanics support this. NPCs have some serious weight to throw around.
[16:06] NPCs and PCs use the same tactics, and death is easy.
[16:58] Separate plots advancing during the game.
[17:44] Players opting to screw themselves over made the game rock.
[18:58] Opening scene as a foreshadowing for the themes of the session.
[19:13] Character driven story meant we could split up and move the story forward
[19:37] A very restricted geography keeps the characters running into each other.
[20:58] Burning Wheel mechanics make it unnecessary to have a story scripted, everything moves forward from a starting condition.
[21:39] Thanks to Shaun, Kristin and Randy.

Links

RPGPodcats.com
This Modern Death
Burning Wheel
Deadwood

Download: NC_Episode_006

Narrative Control Episode 5 is up! This week Justin is back and as usual we’re giving our own spin on a much beloved topic. We’re talking with me about hacking systems. Everything from porting games into different settings to combining our favorite mechanics.

Liner Notes

[0:28] Introduction to the show. Hacking systems.
[0:50] The show is a bit long. Let me know if it is too long. Email us: narrativecontrol@gmail.com
[1:42] RPGPodcasts.com bumper.
[1:58] What we mean by hacking systems.
[2:36] Justin’s current game. A hodgepodge of games:
[2:52] Cadwallon – Setting and Dice pools .
[3:28] Wushu mechanics – Detailed bad ass combats on the fly.
[3:52] Fate – Stunts.
[4:04] Shadows of Yesterday – Experience Keys for experience and character flags.
[5:00] How has this been accepted by the players? Pros and Cons
[6:17] Is this play testing a new game?
[7:08] Sean’s accidental hack of Prime Time Adventures with Exalted.
[7:39] Removing screen presence to allow equal importance for con games
[7:53] Allowing every player narration rights.
[8:30] Changes made specifically for the con environment.
[9:07] Change fan mail to allow the producer to grant fan mail.
[9:40] Other reasons to hack games? Games that don’t have strong social conflict mechanics.
[10:38] Hacking Duel of Wits from Burning Wheel.
[10:55] Why? Players want to do actions in a game that involve a complex and fun mechanic.
[11:38] Brining it together. Molding mechanics to fit in the core game so players aren’t learning completely separate systems.
[12:33] Systems that are very easy to borrow from: Wilderness of Mirrors, Fate.
[15:17] Games with great mechanics and situations screaming to be ported into other settings: Dogs in the Vineyard
[15:34] Using In a Wicked Age by swapping out Oracles.
[17:03] A Battlestar Galactica oracle on www.sinistergame.com.
[17:25] Don’t get Sean started on shnotes.
[17:36] My Life with Master has a very thin setting, easy to move. Sean ported it to My Life with Joker.
[18:47] Some games that are tightly coupled with their settings. Value in playing the game as intended?
[19:08] Dozens of setting hacks for Dogs in the Vineyard but the original setting has so much character, don’t discount the value of playing a straight Dogs game.
[22:10] Settings that have benefited from different systems: Exalted using Prime Time Adventures and Wushu/Wuxalted
[23:30] Exalted Unplugged.
[24:12]Shadowrun alternative systems: Prime Time Adventures, Burning Wheel and Don’t Rest Your Head
[29:46] Our parting worlds on hacking systems. Try it!

Links

RPGPodcats.com
Cadwallon
Wushu
Fate
Shadows of Yesterday
Prime Time Adventures
Burning Wheel
Wilderness of Mirrors
Dogs in the Vineyard
Sinister Game
My Life with Master
Exalted
Wuxalted
Shadowrun
Don’t Rest Your Head

Download:NC_Episode_005.mp3

Hi, welcome to Narrative Control. This episode is on Living City, a technique of giving conrol of NPCs to the players and allowing them to bring more life to your world as well as turn the story in the directions they are exited about.

Hosts: Sean Nittner and Justin Evans

Liner Notes

[0:38] Introduction – Living City
[0:40] Source – John Wick’s Play Dirty
[1:28] Justin answers “What is Living City?”
[3:00] How it’s done. John Wick’s example: NPCs given to player.
[4:39] Pitfalls with antagonistic or knowledgeable NPCs?
[5:30] Disseminating information through the players.
[6:00] Sean’s use of a similar techniques in his Mage: The Awakening game.
[8:30] NPC Information: Name, Nature, Aspects and Motivation
[9:47] Bread Crumbs. How changing information on the cards can throw players off balance.
[11:15] The technique gives players who would normally be out of scene a chance to play.
[11:29] How to make up NPCs on the fly: Sins and Virtues cards.
[11:47] Show Notes vs. Schnotes battle returns
[12:23] Back to Sins and Virtues…
[14:55] Why would you create a Living City? New plots, granting players narrative control, more believable NPCs.
[17:50] Some of the most interesting interactions happen between players are taking the roles of NPC.
[18:08] More emotional involvement between PC and NPC vs. PC and PC?
[19:45] Pitfalls. Too much information shared? NPCs not coming to life? GMs gets left out? GM needs to be more prepared.
[21:58] Burning Dresden City Creation. Entire group creates locatoins and personalities.
[23:25] How to contact Narrative Control

Wicked Dead Brewing Company
Shnotes siting – Beware!
Sinister Game
Dresden Files RPG

Download: NC_Episode_002.mp3

Hi, Welcome to Narrative Control. This episode is on Backstory, a quick technique for GMs to use at the start of games to connect characters to each other and to the story

Hosts: Sean Nittner and Justin Evans

Liner Notes

[0:28] Show Introduction – Backstory
[0:48] Source: Brian Isikoff
[1:40] Where we first learned about Backstory
[2:58] This has been talked about before on 2d6 Feet in a Random Direction – Episode 8
[3:44] Sean’s first experience with Backstory – Questions Brian asked me.
[5:40] Backstory is part of the game itself.
[6:45] How this helped resolve the “Leader” role
[8:10] Used to fill a gaps in a long term game
[8:36] Established player buy in
[9:30] Does this give players Narrative Control?
[9:45] What if players throw curve balls at you?
[10:45] Method 1: Roll with it
[12:20] Method 2: Establish the genre in advance, tailor response to fit the theme
[13:54] Where could Backstory present problems in long term games?
[15:21] Paul Tevis and Remi Treuer on limitations of endowments in role-playing
[16:15] How to work in Backstory in a long term game.
[16:40] Other games that incorporate back story like elements: Dread
[19:10] Shaun Hayworth tweaked Dread to be more like Backstory
[20:40] Other games that contain similar character creation elements: Spirit of the Century, Dogs in the Vineyard, Prime Time adventures.

2d6 Feet in a Random Direction, Episode 8
EndGame
This Modern Death
Have Games Will Travel, Episode 98

Dread
Spirit of the Century
Dogs in the Vineyard
Prime Time Adventures

Download: NC_Episode_001

Hi, Welcome to Narrative Control.  This is our first episode.  It focuses on what the show will be about, a continuation of a conversation.  What conversation you ask? Stop reading and go listen to the show.

Hosts: Sean Nittner and Justin Evans

Liner Notes

[0:28] Show introduction
[0:36] Dedication to Kristin Sullivan (of This Modern Death)
[0:58] Main Topic: What is this show about?
[1:16] The But-one-Justin
[1:50] Being a pretentious ass – Name dropping Ryan Macklin of the Master Plan Podcast
[2:52] rpgpodcasts.com (Sean got the name wrong and called it .net, Tool!)
[3:30] Sean: This show is about our gaming experiences and our reactions to those.
[4:38] Justin: One big conversation about a hobby we all love
[5:00] Inspiration from other podcasts
[5:40] Who might be interested in Narrative Control
[6:32] Can we expand on the “Agony and Ecstasy of games”
[8:53] “Show Notes” vs. “Shnotes”
[11:00] Who is Sean? Why is Sean?
[12:38] Good Omens – A group of GMs that Justin and Sean are part of.
[15:57] Who is Justin Evans?
[18:15] Why is Justin podcasting?
[19:39] Geek Philosophers or Pretentious Tools?
[20:42] Justin expands on “keeping the conversation going”
[22:40] We’d like to hear what you have to say
[22:56] Closing

Links

This Modern Death
Master Plan
RPGPodcasts.com
Good Omens

Download: NC_Episode_000