thread: 2005-05-03 : Creating Theme
On 2005-05-04, Collin M. Trail wrote:
Alright, so as a gamemaster (and as a player, hopefully) I keep in mind what I know about the structure of dramatic conflict to make the game meaningful. I can support this through mechanics that encourage addressing the issue, and which communicate the issue clearly between the gamemaster and players. We design characters together in order to communicate the issues we want to address, and hopefully find either a common issue or set of compatible issues to work on together. (Actually, I can see a possible place where a Gamist agenda could conflict here. Desiring not to share a characters goals so as to prevent being controlled by another character. I guess this could also have a Narrativist agenda- fostering tension by concealing information about characters- how could this be resolved?) I'd like to have a better mechanism for coordinating the issues of the characters, but getting them out in the open is a good start- maybe I'll need to innovate my own...
Some other things I'd also like to talk about...
Does it hurt to address too many issues? When does this work, and when doesn't it?
What is all this about dice and how they help and hurt the process?
Do players need to control outcomes in order to determine theme? Or is it sufficient to make choices about priorities? Is judging the decision part of where the rest of the group comes into the process of determining your character's take on theme?
