Re: Re: Freeforms

From: Donald R. Oddy <donald_at_grove.demon.co.uk>
Date: Sun, 04 Sep 2005 12:20:46 GMT


In message <20050904025532.61119.qmail_at_web51901.mail.yahoo.com> Alison Place writes:

> So, open questions to everyone who's interested. I
>was wondering about heroquesting in a freeform. I've
>been in some, and they seem very hard to do
>convincingly. "Birth of the Goddess", where it was
>the name and overriding aim of the freeform, comes to
>mind especially. If a character or characters decide
>that they want to re-enact one, what are the best ways
>to stage them? Prep 'em with the whole story of what
>their gods did in the write-ups, and let them get on
>with it? Direct them to get a ref if they want to
>try?

Give them a number of in game sources for the story with minor or maybe major inconsistancies. The GM will need to decide in advance what the likely results of the variations are.

> As a concrete example, what about the LBQ? Has the
>original Godtime quest has ever been completely
>written. If so, then of course the writer would
>really want to have that as a reference. It's one of
>the biggies, and presumably fairly complex, so would
>it be too difficult to run as a subplot?

It would be a heck of a big part of the freeform with several players and a GM doing nothing else for quite a time. What are the rest of the players doing? are they going to find themselves stuck because they need to contact one of the players on the HQ?

Also how crucial is it to the main plot? It's a dangerous quest so what happens if the players succeed? or fail? If it doesn't matter why are the players bothering? If it matters to everyone how are the players who don't go on it involved?

> My personal feeling is that this should be an awesome
>experience for the players, and therefore not
>something tossed off lightly as a two or three minute
>ritual that they duly report to the ref. Yet it could
>be quite a strain on the ref to come up with
>appropriate narration and directions in response to
>the players' actions. Not to mention sucking up a lot
>of ref time.

I think you need to look at it in the context of the game, what does this particular HQ do for the overall plot and individual character plots?

If it's a major part of the main plot you want lots of people involved, quite a bit of ritual (finding the details of which can be a separate subplot for some characters) and a GM to handle it.

If it's important to one or a few characters plots then you're going to have to limit GM time so make the actual HQ short but require the character to get quite a bit of stuff before they need the GM. Then have the GM prepared with some impressive narration/effects.

If it's not important to either then should it really be there at all? I'm thinking of something like the "Arming of Orlanth" HQ preparatory to a fight. That can be reduced to obtaining the right items.

> This does have a practical side, as Ian and I are
>trying to put together a freeform. I'd like to know
>the limits that other gamers have found reasonable.

It might be worth asking on the uk-freeforms yahoo group about how other writers have handled ritual stuff in the past. I know there were a couple at Siege of Troy which worked pretty well. Don't mention Glorantha though as some people are easily frightened.

-- 
Donald Oddy
http://www.grove.demon.co.uk/


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