thread: 2005-05-03 : Creating Theme
On 2005-05-04, Collin M. Trail wrote:
Ben, Ninja- Thanks for the suggestions. I had heard a little about the Kicker and Spiritual Attribute mechanics, but I didn't know so much about PTA. I look forward to reading more about all three.
I can see how this mechanics can help me reach two of my goals- communication between the players and gamemaster about the issues to be dealt with, and thus give input about what issues will should be addressed.
However, there is one other thing I'd like to do, and I don't see that these mechanics would be enough for it- build some kind of consensus, or at least compatibility, of vision for the game. I don't see anything that would keep the players from each choosing a completely unrelated issue for their character, making it nearly impossible to come up with situations that address them all, and giving the story a schizophrenic feel. I don't mean to attack these mechanics, both because I haven't seen them yet and they may do more than I realize, and because they seem like a huge step forward compared to where I am now, but they don't take me all the way to where I want to be.
One way in which they certainly do help this goal is by fostering communication. If I can see what each player's issue is early, I can try to troubleshoot conflict and encourage communication between the players. I could just try to solve this through normal human communication- we all sit around and hammer out what some fun, compatible issues would be before the game- but the idea seems to be that systems can help smooth these things out, and give a stronger framework to start from, which seems like a good idea.
Also, a comment on something I noticed in some of the above replies- I might have misunderstood the comments, but there seems to be some confusion between what is meant by issues and theme. I've been trying to apply these terms as closely as possible to how I understand Vincent to have used them in his essay. So although it might not be a good idea to define the theme ahead of time, it seems that not much is spoiled by picking a particular issue. When me and my group decide to play a game based around the conflict between a conservative and progressive political faction, we have settled upon a situation, but we have also tightened the issue a little as well. We could even tighten it further, to 'conflict between tradition and justice' or 'when is revolution necessary?' without 'spoiling' anything, or dictating the themes that will be suggested by the game.
