thread: 2006-01-31 : An Awesome Line of Thought
On 2006-02-01, Michael S. Miller wrote:
Kat and I do a lot of freeform play. One of the techniques we came up with was the "snapshot." If one of us has an idea that we think is cool, but aren't sure if the other person is going to like it, or if it might sap the dramatic tension, we'll say "I'd like to snapshot things here." We then introduce and play out the new idea, with the understanding that if play becomes unfun, we can simply negate everything that's happened since the snapshot and start again. Rather like saving before going into a dangerous area in a video game.
The funny thing is, we hardly ever go back. I think, for us, the snapshots were a safety net to try new, more daring, dramatic twists. They actually drove us toward better play.
Another thing we do, that I was reminded of by Brendon's notes about the psychological uses of RP, is to play the same characters in often very similar starting situations, again and again. It creates great dramatic irony when we know that a certain character is a bad guy in disguise, but our character doesn't. Occasionally, we'll play an almost identical set-up, but switch characters, ending up with totally different story results.
This makes JAK go "Speaking of Snapshot Technology..."
Interestingly enough, I work for Network Appliance, which pretty much started and perfected Snapshot technology for storage equipment. I bet that those guys in their garage back in 1993 didn't consider the ramifications that their technological marvel could have for Mike and Kat's gaming! (^.^)
