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Story setups
Nov. 10th, 2018 04:29 pmToday I gave up on my second attempt to watch/listen to Critical Role.
The first time I couldn't be having with them all facing the camera and Staring At Me
so this time I just listened
which is harder than with Audio Adventures because of audio quality and unplanned conversations going over each other a little
but I was tracking fine
but then I realised that cooperative storytelling is Very Stressful
it doesn't have a template and act structures
and people will just Do Stuff you wouldn't have thought of
and of course that is also the good bit
but
somehow stressful.
Also today I was thinking how character builds for rpgs are always incredibly busy compared to iconic characters in other media. Like, Black Canary has one sonic attack in varying strengths, plus martial arts proficiencies and skills, but you can't build a Pathfinder PC that simple. Pathfinder Legends only gave Ezren a handful of recogniseable spells, when he eventually had a Secure Shelter spell, which is level 4, so he could have been doing 4 4 3 2 1 spells per day even without an at least 14 intelligence bonus, all potentially distinct. But it don't make for a satisfying story that way, if he pulls out a new and different spell for every occasion. Audiences want to see what he can do as a setup, find a situation where he can do it, then see it happen as payoff. So Legends Ezren I guess hasn't studied any other spell books and only gets the spells he would automagically learn for that level. And as far as I can tell or remember doesn't have powers from any School. So as a PC he's weirdly limited, because as a PC your setup is the rulebook and your payoff is any time you use a thing, but to be an audio character with no character sheet means that doesn't work. So he repeats a lot.
Expectations set by a setup, managed tension until the situation becomes one they can handle, then, payoff.
Freeform cooperative storytelling does all the parts differently, and apparently this makes me tense.
The first time I couldn't be having with them all facing the camera and Staring At Me
so this time I just listened
which is harder than with Audio Adventures because of audio quality and unplanned conversations going over each other a little
but I was tracking fine
but then I realised that cooperative storytelling is Very Stressful
it doesn't have a template and act structures
and people will just Do Stuff you wouldn't have thought of
and of course that is also the good bit
but
somehow stressful.
Also today I was thinking how character builds for rpgs are always incredibly busy compared to iconic characters in other media. Like, Black Canary has one sonic attack in varying strengths, plus martial arts proficiencies and skills, but you can't build a Pathfinder PC that simple. Pathfinder Legends only gave Ezren a handful of recogniseable spells, when he eventually had a Secure Shelter spell, which is level 4, so he could have been doing 4 4 3 2 1 spells per day even without an at least 14 intelligence bonus, all potentially distinct. But it don't make for a satisfying story that way, if he pulls out a new and different spell for every occasion. Audiences want to see what he can do as a setup, find a situation where he can do it, then see it happen as payoff. So Legends Ezren I guess hasn't studied any other spell books and only gets the spells he would automagically learn for that level. And as far as I can tell or remember doesn't have powers from any School. So as a PC he's weirdly limited, because as a PC your setup is the rulebook and your payoff is any time you use a thing, but to be an audio character with no character sheet means that doesn't work. So he repeats a lot.
Expectations set by a setup, managed tension until the situation becomes one they can handle, then, payoff.
Freeform cooperative storytelling does all the parts differently, and apparently this makes me tense.