>I try to do this by working out '100 words' for the scenario (or
series). We
>do this as a group, actually; developing what I call the 'back of dvd text
>that sells the content to the prospective viewer' (I need a sound byte for
>that).
I've sometimes done that. I've also done it in retrospect - had some
idea of the forces in play and their plans, and just improvised around
the characters.
The secret in the second has been going back and checking what happened
against the set up and making sure things fit. Players are like viewers,
leave a glaring loose-end that looks to patched on and they'll tear you
apart for it.
> I've been toying with the idea of a 'series bible' as you put it for some
>time now. Already, for my ongoing campaign, I have used CmapTools
>(http://cmap.ihmc.us <http://cmap.ihmc.us>) to map out the entities in
my campaign; I recommend
>this tool heartily - it helps keep track of everything.
That looks really interesting. And it is multi-platform!
>My idea for what I've been calling a campaign log (your 'bible') was
to have two sections:
>one available to players containing everything they have seen and on
for the
>narrator for everything yet to see. I still fantasise about putting in
>pictures of the important entities - using removable cards that can be
used
>as visual queues in play.
My friend used to make webpages for this. He'd have visuals, important info, etc. He prided himself on his picture gallery, casting famous actors as roles, which gave people a quick gut reaction about them. He could just keep pages they weren't to see unlinked from the main page. I've also seen it done via wiki.
>This method of developing television I think is responsible for the fairly
>long periods during the BSG series where I was confused about what was
going
>on. I mean, I am used to playing follow-the-bread-crumbs when watching
Lost
>but this was different.
Well, they didn't know what any of it meant on Lost, either. I think it was season 3 where they had an epiphany of "oh! We could make it all this, and that would let us tie these things together!". So it seems Lost will end with a certain amount of cohesion, because they picked an ending and are driving for it. Or maybe not, I don't really watch the show.
In BSG, the creators just didn't care where the breadcrumbs went, but they knew their audience liked them, so they kept leaning heavily on them, then decided it was too much work to figure them out and so just hand-waved all of them away.
>Unsurprisingly, I see this happening in our narrativistic roleplaying.
The trick for us and for TV series producers is to avoid these new pitfalls.
I think the secret is to stay true to your premise. Your 100-word story, basically. If the story is about "this situation and how these people react to it", then stay focused on that. If you find yourself drifting, figure out if you actually have a new story.
LC
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