Sinister Wrote:
"I hate those scenarios as they focus on what the NCPs do and take the focus away from the PCs. The PCs are reduced to small cogs and continue to get less and less important.To me the PCs should be the centre of the game play, not side notes to what is happening with the NPCs."
Huh, if that's how those scenarii played, I'd say that they were crap, too. That is, in fact, precisely my objection to the scene-based form of scenario. How can it be about the PCs if it assumes what they're doing and why? One size fits all PCs?
In point of fact, I did say to Chris and Peter during the design process that, in fact, I think that any pre-written scenario is doomed somewhat to this problem, no matter the style. If you really, really want to make play about the PCs, then the scenario should be written up from the PCs. In fact, skip scenarii altogether, and just make and modify the situation based on what happens in play, is my usual technique.
It does leave the problem of what to publish, however, if you're determined to publish a scenario. One solution is to include pre-gen characters. This has the downside, however, of fitting the PCs to the players, which isn't always 100%.
But if you want to make an open-ended scenario, one that players can make characters for and play, then the two in question (Skullpoint and Wos) are distinctly better in this regard than the other format. This is because they are not about a particular way that the scenario must play out, but about how the players will play out the scenario, based on their reading of their characters. In practice, they work quite well, and become entirely PC-centric - think of the NPCs like monsters in a dungeon, there to be dealt with, but not to be what the story is about. I'll admit that this success may well be due in some measure to the techniques that I and my ilk use to run such scenarios. But both are designed to promote this sort of thing naturally. Check out the "how to play" section in WoS, and the WoS in play, to see how they are intended to be used (to say nothing of the essay "The Unwitting Narrativist" which you wouldn't expect to find in most published scenarii, but which makes the intent crystal clear).
If you're still confused as to what these techniques might be, we can discuss that in another thread. Ian has shed some light on the subject already, however. But to claim that these scenarii are NPC-centric is to have missed the point of them entirely.
Mike
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