Xyrop - Mot-clé - GM Tools2024-02-29T08:30:42+00:00urn:md5:a569525ea7dae80655214b43ebf9d4d9DotclearStrategic gamemastering, part 5 : Converting THACOSG links into scenesurn:md5:7f95c6c92fb9353e2e5e21e8390b61c82018-04-09T14:11:00+02:002020-05-10T17:02:39+02:00LudoxgamemasteringGM ToolsOptimizationRPG theoryScenesStrategic gamemasteringTactical gamemasteringTHACO<p>Having performed the prescribed steps of the strategic gamemastering methodology, the strategist GM now has obtained the requisite <a href="https://blog.xyrop.com/index.php/post/2014/08/29/Strategic-Gamemastering-part-2">THACOSG</a>.</p>
<p>Accordingly, this THACOSG provides the GM with :</p>
<ul>
<li>an overview of all objects (Themes, Locations, NPCs & Items) which are common to your players' respective creative agendas ;</li>
<li>a list of all the links that the GM has created in order to increase the number and interdependencies of objects across the player-characters.</li>
</ul>
<p>A question remains : how to switch from a strategic level of gamemastering to a tactical level ? Which concepts should be converted into scenes ? How to create these scenes ?</p>
<p>This post aims at answering these questions.</p> <h2>Main scene drivers : the player-characters (PCs)</h2>
<p>The main scene drivers are, and must be, the PCs. This is basically the whole point of the strategic gamemastering method : catering to apparently incompatible player creative agendas by making each PC action consistent with the creative agenda of his own player, and activate concepts and elements from background & objectives from the other PC. Therefore, most of the scene setup will be provided by the players themselves, by triggering either concepts common to their PC and another player's, or concepts linked by a similar notion (partial synonyms or antonyms) or GM input.</p>
<p>Transforming a link between 2 PCs into a scene requires that :</p>
<ul>
<li>either at least one of these PCs must be present and be active in the scene ;</li>
<li>either a third PC who has an interest in the very link between these 2 PCs must be present and active in the scene.</li>
</ul>
<p>A scene which can unfold without any PC present, or worse, with a PC present but no possibility for the PC to alter the possible outcome of the scene is not interesting to the narration. Note that a PC being present as a watcher and being able to act accordingly, but who chooses to remain passive is perfectly appropriate.</p>
<h2>Determining the appropriate links for conversion to scenes</h2>
<p>As noted earlier, most scenes in the scenario will naturally stem from the exploration of its background or objectives by the player-character. However, the GM may also trigger specific scenes based on his own creative agenda as a gamemaster, which the strategic gamemastering method translates as the GM-driven concept links.</p>
<p>The two main scenes which can be derived from the THACOSG itself are the following :</p>
<h3>High creative agenda potential (HCAP) scenes</h3>
<p>The more often a THACOSG entry occurs in different player-character outlines, the higher the chances that a scene based in part or in whole on this entry will simultaneously fulfill the creative agendas of the relevant players.</p>
<p>It stands to reason to identify HCAP scenes on a purely statistical level, as the scenes based on the THACOSG entries presenting the highest number of occurrences and links to the most player-characters.</p>
<p>Most of the time, HCAP scenes will be triggered not by the GM, but by the player trying to fulfill his own creative agenda, by exploring one or more of the concepts in his own THACOSG outline, which are common to PCs belonging to other players.</p>
<p>Playing a HCAP scene will involve a natural psychological gratification for the participating players : they're getting what they've come to the gaming table for !</p>
<h3>Gamemaster-link (GML) scenes</h3>
<p>The links that may provide the most interesting scenes for the players are the links that the GM has created himself between naturally unrelated objects in the THACOSG.</p>
<p>This stems from the fact that the players may know each other's characters and therefore have an intuitive knowledge of the commonalities of their respective creative agendas, as well as an inkling of the scenes which may therefore unfold during the game itself.
No such intuition is possible with the indirect GM-driven links determined in the latter phases of the strategic gamemastering methodology, because they rise from information which is completely unavailable to the players. They may guess at it, but if the GM did his job correctly, there cannot be any logical connection between the concept that the GM chose to link unless the players have access to the relevant information.</p>
<p>Therefore, GML scenes are usually triggered by the GM, and will probably bring forth narrative elements to the shared imagined space that the players are unprepared for. GML scenes are discoveries, realizations, NPC interventions or betrayals, plot twists, sudden events which move forward the whole narrative.</p>
<p>Being linked to the concepts of their character outlines at a remote, second or even third level, GML scenes are opportunities for the players' to fulfill their own creative agendas in an unexpected, deeper manner - by finding & following the mysterious narrative threads that the GM has sprinkled his plot with.</p>
<h4>Narrative waypoints & lone concepts</h4>
<p>HCAP and GML scenes do not exclude "narrative waypoints", as made manifest through THACOSGs based on already-existing <a href="https://blog.xyrop.com/index.php/post/2015/09/02/Strategic-Gamemastering-part-3-Flags-THACOSG-PlotHooks">scenarios</a> or <a href="https://blog.xyrop.com/index.php/post/2017/11/06/Strategic-Gamemastering%2C-part-4%3A-Matrix-campaigns">campaigns</a>.</p>
<p>Such waypoints, however, will mostly be GML scenes, as they will answer the creative agenda of the scenario/campaign author as expressed through its interpretation by the GM.</p>
<p>Alternately, the GM may choose to trigger an unlinked concept in a character outline, usually based on NPC actions & decisions. For example, the GM may decide that the next scene involves an attack by tribal warriors, triggered by the fact that PC#1s nephew, who had usurped his uncle place as chieftain of the tribes, has sent assassins to remove this PC and any allies of his from the equation.</p>
<p>This is a case of a lone concept in an outline being deliberately used by the GM to fuel a scene.</p>
<h2>Continuous creative agenda load balancing</h2>
<p>When the THACOSG has been correctly filled, and the GM has devised the required conceptual links between characters and between character and plot, then the various creative agendas should automatically be fulfilled through actual gameplay. In the vast majority of cases, <strong>there is no need for the GM to try and achieve a balance</strong> between the various narrative threads for the player-characters in the aim of catering to distinct player creative agendas, because <strong>the strategic gamemastering method itself</strong> is designed to <strong>provide this creative agenda balancing</strong>.</p>
<p>Even if the GM has followed the method faithfully, creative agenda load imbalance may still occur in a case where, for example, one or several players are taking up too much game time to explore the background or objectives of their character, and not leaving enough space for other players to have their fun too.
Though this is not an issue with the strategic gamemastering method itself, this is an issue both for the players and the GM, and there is a need to identify and correct such situations. Fortunately, the strategic gamemastering method makes it very simple to do just that.</p>
<h3>Checking the creative agenda balanced fulfillment status</h3>
<p>When one or several HCAP or GML scenes have been played, the GM may wish to <strong>check the status</strong> of common creative agenda fulfillment. This status checking is by no means mandatory. It is, however, one key indicator that the strategic gamemastering method is functioning in a nominal condition and that the game is unfolding in a manner consistent with the aim of equally fulfilling the players' differing creative agendas.</p>
<p>For example, if 3 out of 4 PCs have "Magical research" as a Theme in the objectives section of their character outline, and the last two scenes have been purely focused on "Magical research", this concept has been activated twice, potentially twice fulfilling the player creative agendas for these three PCs. However, this also means that the creative agenda of the fourth player may not have been fulfilled at all during these last two scenes.</p>
<pre></pre>
<p>Let's take our usual example :</p>
<p><a href="https://blog.xyrop.com/public/Gamemastering/Images/Linked_THACO_GMIntervention.png"><img src="https://blog.xyrop.com/public/Gamemastering/Images/Linked_THACO_GMIntervention.png" alt="" style="display:table; margin:0 auto;" title="Fully completed THACO with GM decisions" /></a></p>
<p>For example, if one scene consists in a nightly, gritty fight against time-traveling thieving murderers, beneath the city walls but with the added stake of avoiding alerting guards, this scene would potentially activate the following concepts :</p>
<ul>
<li>Combat (PC#1)</li>
<li>Assassination (PC#3)</li>
<li>Savagery (PC#1)</li>
<li>City slums (PC#1 & PC#3)</li>
<li>Stealth (PC#3)</li>
<li>Assassins guild contact (PC#3)</li>
<li>Time-travel (PC#4)</li>
<li>Shadows (PC#4)</li>
<li>Thieves guild contact (PC#2)</li>
</ul>
<p>At the outcome of this scene, if the GM performs this concept activation check, he will note that this scene incurs 4 concept activations for PC#3, 3 for PC#1, 2 for PC#4, and only one for PC#2.</p>
<p>The GM may carry on with the unfolding of the plot, during which the various concept activations will probably balance themselves while players roleplay their respective PCs and explore their background & objectives.</p>
<p>For the sake of the example, let's assume that the GM is not confident that the next scene will involve different concepts, and expects a possible imbalance between creative agendas to occur and probably worsen during the game. In that case, he may engage in <em>creative agenda load balancing</em>.</p>
<h3>Creative agenda load balancing operation</h3>
<p>The creative agenda load balancing operation is quite simple and does not incur any significant energy expenditure.</p>
<p>It consists in checking which PC outlines were triggered in the latest HCAP or GML scenes, and if necessary to select concepts belonging to less-often triggered PC outlines for imagining the next scene, in order to restore a balance among the player creative agendas activated during the gameplay.</p>
<p>Continuous creative agenda load balancing is achieved by focusing each successive scene on a concept belonging to the character outline of another character.</p>
<p>Let's take up our usual example again :</p>
<p><a href="https://blog.xyrop.com/public/Gamemastering/Images/Linked_THACO_GMIntervention.png"><img src="https://blog.xyrop.com/public/Gamemastering/Images/Linked_THACO_GMIntervention.png" alt="" style="display:table; margin:0 auto;" title="Fully completed THACO with GM decisions" /></a></p>
<p>Reviewing the nightly assault scene, the GM noted as stated earlier that this scene incurred 4 concept activations for PC#3, 3 for PC#1, 2 for PC#4, and only one for PC#2.</p>
<p>In order to restore a balance between concept activation, the next scene should ideally activate more concepts belonging to PC#2 and PC#4 than to PCs #1 & 3, ideally through a GML scene.</p>
<p>The obvious GML scene common to PCs #2 and #4 rests, of course, on the GM-driven commonality based on the Arcane research and Technology concepts. A scene based on this link would activate the concepts of both these player-characters.</p>
<p>The obvious PC outline concept for PC#2 which could be used in the scene is, of course, Magic.</p>
<p>Additionally, in the PC#2 outline, there is this "Great arcane library" location, which is not linked to any other PC concept. This location uniquely belongs to the objectives of PC#2.</p>
<p>The next scene is therefore an opportunity to make the narration focus on an objective of importance for PC#2 and cater to the PC#2 player creative agenda :</p>
<p>After having defeated the murderous time-traveling thieves, the PCs search the bodies, and find a curious, dog-eared tome in an unknown language, which seems to describe an unusual combination of magic and unfathomable technology in order to create dangerous weapons, which reading plunges the young thaumocracy magician in the depths of perplexity. Strangely, the book itself bears the seal of the forbidden section of the Great arcane library. Has it been stolen from it ?
The activated concepts in this next scene are the following :</p>
<ul>
<li>Magic (PC#2)</li>
<li>Arcane research (PC#2)</li>
<li>Great arcane library (PC#2)</li>
<li>Technology (PC#4)</li>
<li>Technological arms & armor (PC#4)</li>
</ul>
<p>Through remote commonalities & GM-driven links, the following concepts have also been activated :</p>
<ul>
<li>Hyperborean obsidian broadsword (PC#1)</li>
<li>Cursed blade (PC#3)</li>
</ul>
<p>The outcome of this scene restores a relative balance between the PC outline concepts. After the two scenes have unfolded, the GM checks the concept activation status again, and notes that outline concepts activations for the combined two scenes are :</p>
<ul>
<li>PC#1 : 4 concept activations</li>
<li>PC#2 : 4 concept activations</li>
<li>PC#3 : 5 concept activations</li>
<li>PC#4 : 4 concept activations</li>
</ul>
<p>Given the globally balanced concept activations for the various PCs, at the outcome of the second scene, the GM may confidently surmise that the players have experienced a relatively even fulfillment of their respective creative agendas.</p>
<h2>Scene contents</h2>
<p>Once the HCAP scene has been triggered, or the GML scene decided by the GM, the question remains of deciding the precise contents of the scene.</p>
<p><strong>For HCAP scenes</strong>, their manner of unfolding will be determined by the motivations, objectives and actions of the player-characters.</p>
<p><strong>For GML scenes</strong>, the GM will have to provide the following data, in accordance to the various concepts which will be activated.</p>
<p>If the concept that the GM wants to trigger is a character (either PC or NPC) or a theme linked to a character, it will have to be a character whose concepts in its background and/or objectives correspond, in whole or in part, with the concerned PC background or objectives concepts. This character may be another PC, the "big bad" at the end of the adventure, another antagonist, an ally, or may not even be present in the scene yet have a stake in the manner that the scene will unfold : this stake may be the planned actions of the character in the scene, or simply the fact that the scene will bring a revelation or a misleading piece of information about this character.</p>
<p>If the concept which the GM wishes to trigger is a location or a theme linked to a location, the GM may decide that the scene will occur at this location, or the scene will have to provide information about the location which the concerned PC will want to act upon ("<em>- Suddenly, a soot-covered, disheveled man bursts wild-eyed into the tavern. In a wheezing voice, between pants, he gasps 'The Great Arcane Library... By my ancestors... The Library is on fire !</em>'")</p>
<p>If the concept which the GM wishes to trigger is an item or a theme linked to an item, the GM may decide that this item is found / lost / stolen / retrieved / chased after / used / made unusable, or that information (correct or misleading) has been uncovered about this item. During the scene, the GM will have to provide information about the updated data regarding this item to the concerned player-characters.</p>https://blog.xyrop.com/post/2018/04/09/Strategic-gamemastering%2C-part-5-%3A-Converting-THACOSG-links-into-scenes#comment-formhttps://blog.xyrop.com/feed/atom/comments/61Strategic Gamemastering, part 4: Matrix campaignsurn:md5:a879a8d1c10b7632e803ba47ccba0e5f2017-12-14T10:57:00+01:002020-05-10T17:09:31+02:00LudoxCreative agendagamemasteringGM ToolsMatrix campaignsmaîtrise stratégiqueOptimizationStrategic gamemastering<p>You've read <a href="https://blog.xyrop.com/index.php/post/From-RPG-theory-to-Gamemastering-Strategy">all</a> <a href="https://blog.xyrop.com/index.php/post/2014/08/29/Strategic-Gamemastering-part-2">three</a> <a href="https://blog.xyrop.com/index.php/post/2015/09/02/Strategic-Gamemastering-part-3-Flags-THACOSG-PlotHooks">installments</a> of the Strategic Gamemastering posts, and you're telling yourself that while the method certainly could work for one-shot scenarios with strongly divergent characters, you are still in doubt that the THACOSG tool could manage the several pre-written adventures, modules or 50-scenario campaign that you have bought for your favorite game.</p>
<p>Your main issue is that if, in accordance to the process described in <a href="https://blog.xyrop.com/index.php/post/2015/09/02/Strategic-Gamemastering-part-3-Flags-THACOSG-PlotHooks">Part 3 of Strategic Gamemastering</a>, you decompose a single scenario into its base components and enter them into the THACOSG for subsequent exploitation, the player-characters will enter the scenario in a manner certainly consistent with their own objectives or background, but probably not in the manner envisioned by the scenario author but by each following their own creative agendas.</p>
<p>Since player-characters will be entering the narrative threads of the scenario in an uncontrollable and unpredictable manner, there is also a definite possibility that the scenario will unfold in a manner wildly different from the author-driven narrative direction. This, of course, implies a massive uncertainty as to whether the ending of the scenario will match the beginning of the next campaign scenario as envisioned by the campaign designers !</p>
<p>These reservations are quite legitimate. However, the Strategic Gamemastering method also provides for long-winded campaigns and even follow-up campaigns. This post will show you how.</p> <p>Campaigns, in effect, are overarching narrative threads linking together a succession of scenarios which, individually, self-contain their own narrative threads. Since the Strategic Gamemastering method is precisely based on identifying and creating links between base elements, not only the scenarios but the campaign itself can be decomposed in its base components.</p>
<p>In perspective with the objects and concepts of its various scenarios, the Campaign + Scenario THACOSG immediately provides the GM with an overview of the themes which will be important for the overarching campaign for each scenario.</p>
<p>These commonalities can then be shared with the player-character team in order to deduct the salient themes which will lead the PC throughout the campaign and identify any possible difficulties - such as for example a scenario in the campaign which would require a demon-hunter PC to ally with demons...</p>
<p>With the campaign thus organized in the THACOSG matrix, each PC will still have the opportunity to experience the whole breadth of the campaign, by entering each campaign scenario in the PC's own manner. Furthermore, decomposition of the different campaign will also give rise to new narrative threads between the scenarios and even between successive campaigns, allowing a GM to design an overarching meta-campaign if necessary.</p>
<p>Let's take our (awful) kidnapped princess scenario again. Let's say that the next scenario, a completely unrelated one-shot scenario, is based on the rise in the realm of a dark cult worshipping a malevolent hyena-faced divinity, and child abduction and sacrifice. Let's organize all this information back into a THACOSG, and let us generate the various semantic links.</p>
<p><a href="https://blog.xyrop.com/public/Gamemastering/Images/THACO_MatrixCampaign.png"><img src="https://blog.xyrop.com/public/Gamemastering/Images/THACO_MatrixCampaign.png" alt="" style="display:table; margin:0 auto;" title="Matrix Campaign Example" /></a></p>
<p>Of course, both scenarios are obviously magic-heavy.
Other obvious commonalities, such as the hunger for power shared by the corrupt priest, cultist baron and the princess, or the fact that both scenarios involve an abduction & rescue (that of the princess in the first scenario, that of innocent children in the second) immediately arise.
Rebel barons play a role in both scenarios, and both the king and the high priest of the dark tentacle have a scepter of power in their items of interest. A creative GM might want to focus on this strange commonality and decide that these scepters are the manifestations of a greater, hidden, underlying antagonist which will be revealed slowly over the course of the campaign.</p>
<p>Generating the THACOSG for both the unrelated scenarios has already made strong thematic and links appear between them, without any particular expenditure of mental energy from the GM. The GM only took the time to type the various keywords for the scenario, and to color cells with present identical strings.</p>
<p>The next step is for the GM to use his brain and think of other, not-so-obvious links between the two scenarios. Such possible GM-driven links between the two scenarios can be :</p>
<ul>
<li>linking political instability and religious instability seems completely natural, as the baron revolts might also feed, for example, on dissatisfaction with priestly authority abuses ;</li>
<li>linking the royal palace and the clandestine temples seems appropriate, in order to provide a reason for exploring the palace, and a way for the princess to interact with the corrupt cultists. More linking to the clandestine temples would be the city slums (so that PCs who have this location as a component may follow this thread) ;</li>
<li>a GM link with interesting prospects is the link between the princess intrigue thematic, and the fanaticism of the cultists : to which extent can fanatics be manipulated ? Is it possible that the princess might have made a mistake by fostering the cult in the realm ? Would she eventually call for the PCs help to remove the high priest from power or to stop the divinity to be invoked ?</li>
</ul>
<p>Other links could be considered by the GM, but kept unconnected for the moment, and reserved for later exploitation and linking to a new scenario :</p>
<ul>
<li>the vizier and the high priest of the dark tentacle could be one and the same, but this would preculde the possibility of using the already established & known vizier NPC in a later campaign scenario ;</li>
<li>possible connections or interactions between the dragon and the dark hyena divinity ;</li>
<li>a link between the king's old age and the madness thematic of the cultists. Is it possible that the king is not the frail old man that everyone figures, and has allied to some cultists in order to placate the rebel barons and to oppose his daughter attempts to wrest power ?</li>
</ul>
<p>Such linking will allow PCs following their own background and objectives, not only to enter the narrative threads of the first scenario, but also to seamlessly begin encountering the elements and situations which will lead to the unfolding of the next scenarios. It is also very clear that the Time-traveling cleric of the shadows will have a strong role to play in the events of the second scenario, especially with the quite natural links between religion and fanaticism, and the clandestine temple, amongst which, probably, the Temple of the shadows :</p>
<p><a href="https://blog.xyrop.com/public/Gamemastering/Images/THACO_PC_MatrixCampaign_Links.png"><img src="https://blog.xyrop.com/public/Gamemastering/Images/.THACO_PC_MatrixCampaign_Links_m.png" alt="" style="display:table; margin:0 auto;" /></a></p>
<p>The risk would, of course, to create an opposition by considering that PC#4 is a priest of the scenario 2 cult. This would pit PC's against each other immediately. Considering the time-traveling nature of PC#4, a GM might decide that the future shadow religion is a civilized, humane offshoot of the more primitive, dark and bloody hyena god cult, which has to change in some ways, and be eradicated in others if PC#4's shadow religion is ever to exist.</p>
<p>This strong, natural relationship between one of the PC's and the scenario implies that the GM should invest some effort in finding other links to connect the other PCs to the first and second scenarios.
For example :</p>
<ul>
<li>the assassin's guild contact might require PC#3 to investigate ritual assassinations unsanctioned by the guild (link between the NPC and the "<em>Sacrifice</em>" thematic of the High priest) ;</li>
<li>the PC#2 broken magical staff might be a scepter of power comparable to that of the king or the high priest - a mystery to be investigated ;</li>
<li>linking "<em>clandestine temples</em>" to "<em>city slums</em>" will also implicate PCs #1 and 3 into the narrative thread of the second scenario.</li>
</ul>
<p>Thus organized, the scenarios allow for a comprehensive "matrix campaign" view. Regardless of their background or objectives, the PC will explore their own background and objectives, and yet gradually fulfill the narrative threads of the overarching campaign.</p>https://blog.xyrop.com/post/2017/11/06/Strategic-Gamemastering%2C-part-4%3A-Matrix-campaigns#comment-formhttps://blog.xyrop.com/feed/atom/comments/39[Stratégie de maîtrise] Strategic Gamemastering traduit sur PTGPTB !urn:md5:f153727383024bc90bc69ea9fb57dbdb2017-07-06T11:11:00+02:002020-05-10T17:11:03+02:00LudoxCreative agendagamemasteringGMGM ToolsJdRJeu de rôlemaîtrise stratégiquemaîtrisermener une partiemeneur de jeuMJPTGPTBStrategic gamemastering <p>L'équipe de Places To Go, People To Be a eu la bonté (et le courage) de traduire en français intelligible mon <a href="https://blog.xyrop.com/index.php/post/From-RPG-theory-to-Gamemastering-Strategy">premier billet de la série "Strategic Gamemastering"</a>. Qu'ils en soient loués et remerciés !</p>
<p>Voici le lien vers la traduction du billet :</p>
<p><strong>"<a href="http://ptgptb.fr/la-maitrise-de-jeu-strategique" hreflang="fr">La maîtrise de jeu stratégique</a>"</strong></p>
<p>Les billets suivants de la série "Strategic Gamemastering" sont accessibles via les liens ci-dessous :</p>
<ul>
<li><a href="https://blog.xyrop.com/index.php/post/2014/08/29/Strategic-Gamemastering-part-2" hreflang="en">Strategic Gamemastering, part 2: Data organization and exploitation through the THACO</a></li>
<li><a href="https://blog.xyrop.com/index.php/post/2015/09/02/Strategic-Gamemastering-part-3-Flags-THACO-PlotHooks" hreflang="en">Strategic Gamemastering, part 3: Flags, THACO, and plot hook writing practices</a></li>
</ul>https://blog.xyrop.com/post/%5BStrat%C3%A9gie-de-ma%C3%AEtrise%5D-Strategic-Gamemastering-traduit-sur-PTGPTB#comment-formhttps://blog.xyrop.com/feed/atom/comments/40[Tactique de maîtrise] Les descriptions synesthétiquesurn:md5:5af3307903f1b4100c48c0ab229d1a702016-07-25T15:00:00+02:002016-07-25T14:02:58+02:00LudoxAdviceAide de jeuconseilsGamemasteringgamemasteringGMGM ToolsJdRJeu de rôlemener une partieMJOptimizationRPGRPG theoryTactical gamemasteringtactique de maîtrise<p>La mise en œuvre de descriptions captivantes est l'un des piliers d'une
narration réussie. Ce billet explore la manière dont le recours à la
synesthésie peut constituer un outil utile pour raccourcir les descriptions
tout en les faisant s'adresser aux émotions et au ressenti plus qu'à la seule
raison.</p> <p>La plupart des conseils aux conteurs, écrivains ou meneurs de jeu, mettent
l'accent sur l'implication des cinq sens au lieu des deux seuls sens de vue et
de l'ouïe afin d'obtenir des descriptions immersives et captivantes.</p>
<p>Or, certains sens évoquent plus facilement des émotions que d'autres. La vue
et de l'ouïe permettent de percevoir de loin, tandis que les odeurs, le
toucher, le goût, ont tendance à affecter plus directement l'intimité du sujet
de perception.</p>
<p>Ainsi, les parties visuelles et auditives d'une description susciteront
difficilement des réactions émotionnelles, tandis que les parties olfactives,
tactiles et gustatives de cette même description y parviendront plus
facilement.</p>
<p>Le remède habituel à cette difficulté consiste pour le conteur à décrire
également les effets émotionnels des perceptions visuelles et auditives.
Cependant, sauf bien entendu pour les gens de grand talent, capables à la fois
de décrire et de faire avancer l'action, rallonger la description implique de
ralentir l'action.</p>
<p>Le conteur moyen devra nécessairement se contenter, quant à lui, de
pratiquer un arbitrage entre le temps qu'il consacrera à décrire les
perceptions des personnages et le temps qu'il consacrera à narrer l'action,
afin que l'intrigue se poursuive à un rythme acceptable.</p>
<p>C'est là qu'intervient une technique bien utile basée sur la
synesthésie.</p>
<p>D'après <a href="https://fr.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Synesth%C3%A9sie" hreflang="fr">Wikipedia, la synesthésie</a> (du grec syn, avec, union), et aesthesis,
sensation) est un phénomène neurologique par lequel deux ou plusieurs sens sont
associés.</p>
<p>Utiliser la synesthésie dans une description consiste à affecter à une
description visuelle ou auditive des caractéristiques, adjectifs, aspects,
connotations, dénotations, associés normalement à d'autres sens.</p>
<p>Par exemple, une odeur bleue, une couleur nauséabonde, une voix glissante,
un goût strident. Howard Philips Lovecraft ne fait pas autre chose en décrivant
la voix profonde, vide et gélatineuse de la créature dans sa nouvelle "La
déclaration de Randolph Carter".</p>
<p>Ces juxtapositions synesthétiques, apparemment absurdes, ne peuvent être
interprétées directement par la raison. Elles suscitent directement un ressenti
basé sur la combinaison des connotations associées aux mots employés.</p>
<p>Lorsque la juxtaposition directe n'est pas possible, ou que le temps manque
au conteur pour créer un effet (par exemple s'il souhaite improviser), il
demeure possible de décrire de manière synesthétique en procédant à des
comparaisons.</p>
<p>À titre d'exemple, "les remparts de la cité se dressent dans un désordre
harmonieux comme le chant cristallin d'une myriade d'oiseaux à l'aube".</p>
<p>L'emploi de la synesthésie permet donc au conteur de faire des descriptions
plus synthétiques, plus courtes, et néanmoins de conserver un certain impact en
termes de ressenti émotionnel.</p>
<p>Il n'est pas matériellement possible de présenter les infinies possibilités
du langage et de ces juxtapositions synesthétiques.</p>
<p>Cependant, le meilleur outil pour s'aider à réaliser de telles descriptions
sera probablement le recours à un simple dictionnaire des synonymes.</p>https://blog.xyrop.com/post/2016/03/11/Descriptions-synesthetiques#comment-formhttps://blog.xyrop.com/feed/atom/comments/17Strategic Gamemastering, part 3: Flags, THACO, and plot hook writing practicesurn:md5:42bcc614ab0d443ead58e5ae6c22d7682015-09-02T07:13:00+02:002020-05-10T17:27:36+02:00LudoxAdventure writingAdviceCreative agendaGamemasteringgamemasteringGMGM ToolsNPCRPG theoryStrategic gamemasteringTHACO<p>Readers have brought my attention to <a href="https://bankuei.wordpress.com/2015/01/07/flag-framing-1-setting-up-a-campaign/" hreflang="en">several</a> <a href="https://bankuei.wordpress.com/2015/01/09/flag-framing-2-running-the-game/" hreflang="en">articles</a> on <a href="http://www.gnomestew.com/gming-advice/everything-is-a-flag-use-the-whole-buffalo-that-your-players-provide/" hreflang="en">flag framing</a>. Basically, "flags"are all data objects on the character sheet.<br /></p>
<p>If you haven't done so yet, I urge you to go read these insightful articles by experienced gamemasters.<br /></p>
<p>This article aims at clarifying the relationship between flags and systematic strategic exploitation through the THACOSG, and the manner in wich the strategic gamemastering method can be used to design plot hooks for preexisting scenarios.</p> <h3>Flags and cues</h3>
<p>Flag usage, especially as described in the last article in the above paragraph, does cover a lot of the ground also covered by the <a href="https://blog.xyrop.com/index.php/post/From-RPG-theory-to-Gamemastering-Strategy" hreflang="en">first article</a> on strategic gamemastering. Flags, however, are not limited to the character sheet : everything on <ins>and outside the character sheet</ins> is a valid data flag and can be exploited.<br /></p>
<p>Furthermore, the <a href="https://blog.xyrop.com/index.php/post/2014/08/29/Strategic-Gamemastering-part-2">second installment of the strategic gamemastering articles</a> goes further, by:</p>
<ul>
<li>providing a categorization of the cues/flags, which has consequences regarding the manner in which said cues can and will be exploited by the gamemaster</li>
<li>presenting the THACOSG tool as a rational, and systematic management of cues/flags, not only for designing plot hooks and/or an adventure based on player-character data, but also for managing the evolution of said cues/flags over the course of the game and campaign.<br /></li>
</ul>
<h3>The THACOSG in comparison to other tools</h3>
<p>The THACOSG tool is <strong>not</strong> a <a href="https://bankuei.wordpress.com/2014/11/23/designing-conflict-in-play/" hreflang="en">conflict web</a> and has never been designed as such.<br /></p>
<p>The THACOSG is a <ins>systematization tool</ins> designed to represent in a <ins>visual, efficient, and reproductible manner</ins> all GM mental processes related with the Shared Imagined Space at a specific time. The successive THACOSG diagrams over a campaign can show the evolution of the characters as well as that of the setting <br /></p>
<p>The THACOSG incurs consequences for the manner in which the GM creates his adventures.<br /></p>
<p>Being a systematization tool for any game data, not limited to the use of the PC character sheet flags, regular use of a THACOSG tool incurs further consequences in the manner the GM will read adventures & NPC descriptions created by third-parties: <ins>everything is a flag, including any and all data in an adventure and/or NPC fluff & stats</ins>, and the THACOSG-using GM will be decomposing said adventures and NPCs into their constituent objects (flags).<br /></p>
<p>Let's try it with a quite straightforward adventure:<br />
<em>A herald announces that the princess has been kidnapped by a dragon, looking for vengeance after the kingdom's armies drove him from the land many years ago. The aging king offers a reward for whomever will rescue the princess and return her to her sire. Unbekownst to the king, his daughter the princess is in league with the rebel barons. They plot to overthrow the king and crown his daughter, using this kidnapping as a pretext to approach the king in order to assassinate him.</em></p>
<p>Decomposed into a THACOSG and combined with the preexisting character THACOSG rows, then color-coded for obvious commonalities, we obtain this:<br /></p>
<p><a href="https://blog.xyrop.com/public/Gamemastering/Images/THACO_Adventure.png"><img src="https://blog.xyrop.com/public/Gamemastering/Images/THACO_Adventure.png" alt="" style="display:table; margin:0 auto;" /></a></p>
<p>Note that the adventure objects are not decomposed into the Background and Objectives rows, but into "Setting" and "Events to come" rows.<br /></p>
<p>The simple color-coding of identical objects makes the "Youth" thematic appear, which might bring some promising interactions between the two characters of the young mage and the princess. The dragon, of course, is the focal point of many important thematics.<br /></p>
<p>For the next steps of remote linking & GM-decision linking, we've dispensed with the links that had been established between the player-characters, and focused on the links between the PC and the adventure. The result would look like this:<br /></p>
<p><a href="https://blog.xyrop.com/public/Gamemastering/Images/THACO_Adventure_Linked.png"><img src="https://blog.xyrop.com/public/Gamemastering/Images/THACO_Adventure_Linked.png" alt="" style="display:table; margin:0 auto;" /></a></p>
<p>Only a few links are required to immediately perceive which angles might be the most effective to embroil the PCs into the plot. The assassination thematic in PC#3's background row would normally fit the plot by the rebel barons, and could be linked to the adventure "Political instability" theme, but depending on how the PC approach plot, such a link presents a risk of putting the assassin PC directly at odds with the rest of the group: this is an example of "Opposition linking" which I described in the second installment of the Strategic gamemastering article.<br /></p>
<h3>Consequences on plot hook writing practices</h3>
<p>Let's (tamely) fantasize for a moment. What if adventures and NPCs were already decomposed before the strategic GM begins to work on his THACOSG?<br /></p>
<p>Nothing prevents the writer of an adventure or an NPC from taking a few minutes to decompose said adventure or NPC into its elementary components.<br />
These components would not be character cues or flags, but adventure and/or NPC cues.<br />
If the author were to organize these elements in a simple THACOSG, possibly with a color-code for common objects, the GM could then directly add the adventure and NPC rows to his THACOSG.<br />
The point is that this simple and admittedly obvious work, since no one knows the objects composing an adventure, a campaign and/or NPCs better than their inventor, enable the author himself to <ins>dispense with the tedium of having to create and list the plot hooks</ins> to his setting, scenario or NPC.<br />
These plot hooks would become readily apparent as soon as the GM :<br /></p>
<ul>
<li>integrates the relevant object rows to the THACOSG of his own gaming group;</li>
<li>performs the three steps (color-coding, remote linking & decisionary linking) of THACOSG integration.<br /></li>
</ul>
<h3>Conclusion</h3>
<p>The only question that remains is whether adventure & NPC writers will pick up the practice of creating a synthetic table of the THACOSG objects in their own works, in order to speed up the process through which a GM gets hold of said adventure or NPC, and makes the PC interact with the associated plot.<br />
I strongly hope that they do, because decreasing author effort while simplifying the life of GMs seems to be in everyone's interests.<br /></p>https://blog.xyrop.com/post/2015/09/02/Strategic-Gamemastering-part-3-Flags-THACOSG-PlotHooks#comment-formhttps://blog.xyrop.com/feed/atom/comments/4