>Perhaps. I think it's a two-fold problem with newbie players: (1)
>doing it orally makes it hard to hold all the choices in your
>head at once, (2) the proliferation of choices you don't
>understand makes it harder to explain the options.
>
>I perceive (2) as a larger and more fundamental problem than
>(1). With a small number of choices, it becomes easier to explain
>the differences in a meaningful and memorable way for the
>players, and they feel less anxiety about "picking the wrong
>one".
I can't help feeling your players are thinking about it too much. Greg ran a clan questionaire at Convulsion in 2000 with 50 - 60 people split into two clans. He read out the questions and everyone shouted out replies on the basis of what they thought at the time. In each clan whoever made the most noise for their opinion got their way. I did notice one or two people swapped clans because they didn't agree with the decisions.
My approach to the clan questionaire is that it should be an exercise in Orlanthi decision making and leave the results as a GM calculation - i.e. the players don't know what the consequences of the decisions are going to be. Get them to act in character not as 21st Century gamers.
-- Donald Oddy http://www.grove.demon.co.uk/
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