| From: | Aristotle antithesis@**********.com |
|---|---|
| Subject: | Independent Characters |
| Date: | Mon, 2 Oct 2000 19:40:59 -0400 |
> story. It is the GM's job to _mediate_ the story.
> The GM is there for the players, not the other way
> around...
</Wordman>
I just had to reply and say that I agree with this completely.
<Wordman> ...You may very well be able to adapt the
> current situation to the story you have prepared.
> Don't force it though...
</Wordman>
I've had this sort of thing happen many times. I used to have a binder
filled with scenarios that my players avoided or just never found. Some
scenarios were whole adventures while others were just single scenes.
Whenever I found the game was in a good place for one of these "lost
episodes" I would throw it in.
My players have seen that things can get incredibly dangerous or
incredibly dull when they decide to go off the beaten path. I write
adventures that challenge the level of the characters, but does not
overwhelm them. Once you leave the safety of the written adventure
though... anything goes. My favorite example however is when the group
spent the entire night wandering through Arizona (post apocalypse) without
a single encounter. I made them roll perception allot, but that only
served to keep them paranoid.
<Wordman> ...If your story contains major events that
> were supposed to involve the players, you might
> consider having those events happen without them.
> For example, say the climax of your story was the
> destruction of the Space Needle. If the runners
> have chosen not to follow your story, you might want
> to have them see the Needle blow up from far away...
</Wordman>
This is a favorite tactic of mine. It works even better when the events
that unfold are something the character/player has already declared he/she
can't stand (death of a child, desecration of a holy place).
just my $0.02,
Travis "Aristotle" Heldibridle
"If the radiance of a thousand suns were to burst at once into the sky,
That would be like the splendor of the Mighty One... I am become Death,
The shatterer of Worlds."
-- The Bhagavad-Gita (quoted by Dr. Robert Openheimer after the first test
of an atomic bomb)
