Three thoughts after listening to the Durham3

None of this is new. Just made me think.

  1. Secrets are more fun when all the players know and can drive towards the reveal. Practical application: When running the gift, and telling the Loremaster that he forgot the gift, I’m not going to take him aside. I’m going to tell him in front of everyone! Second application: In my Burning Warcraft game I’m going to ask the players why the traitors are betraying the alliance in the form of a warm up game (see below).
  2. Low trust comes from fear that another player or the GM will step on your fun if you make yourself vulnerable. I want to encourage the players to trust each other and me. Application: In the Burning Wheel game I’m going to have the players tell me an epic journey of one of their characters. Each player will say one sentence followed by the next player who will say “Yes, and…” and then build on the previous players ideas.
  3. A method of finding out what the players want: Ask them (PTA style) for a scene they want to play out. Where, who and what it’s about. As vague as “I want an introduction to Arthas” or as specific as “I want to seduce Jaina and convince her to lay with me in the moonlight”

2 Comments

  1. #1 is pretty controversial it seems. I happen to agree that its more fun if all the players know the secret and work towards revealing it, but there are a lot of players who want to be surprised in their games too…which I can understand. Maybe we need both: public secrets (which can lead toward character growth) and private secrets (for the big whammy moments).

    • True that. I wrote this post with some haste as I had been listening in the car and wanted to get my ideas down on paper (or on screen in this case) quickly.

      I think player secrets are absolutely no fun. There is no building of tension just one player knowing something that others don’t. GM secrets however, can be fun and necessary depending on the game. Most investigation games thrive on that. Still, when I played Dirty Secrets I loved that none of us knew the killer till the end.

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