Requirements for scene progress
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As a ST/GM/plot runner etc, if you had to choose, would you say you have some requirements for success in mind to progress the action of scene, or would you say the scene setting etc is more to give the players a chance to show their characters in the situation. This can be about what you thought or designed the scene direction to be, or wherever the players are going in an unstructured scene or because they are a herd of cats?
Do you see it as likely being the same as a player in a scene?
I have a waggish sense of humor.
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@misadventure I go in with zero requirements. Just a situation.
Here, players, is your situation. There's a 40 story building, a bunch of gunmen, some hostages.
Mixed movie metaphor:
"What do you do? What do you do?"
I don't have any clue how or whether they'll solve it. They tell me what interests them and what they'll try and which if their skills they bring to bear. It's only my job to narrate the consequences of their attempts and to make sure that it's interesting. Sometimes knowing the general shape of what's there makes this predictable to me, but I don't go in married to anything.
He/Him
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@devrex That falls under whatever direction the players are going in.
To use your example, I might ask you would set a difficulty or expertise level for success in a given direction, and if the players don't match it, the situation goes in another direction, perhaps a really bad one? In your mind, is it possible they aren't well-prepared, or just not up to a given route they choose?
Another way to look at the question is are you setting up tasks to resolve, whatever they are, or are you offering some prompts for them to enjoy RPing about?
I have a waggish sense of humor.
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I try to strike a balance somewhere between the extremes of 'do whatever' and 'on rails'.
Let's call it Guardrails.
Usually this is relatively easy to accomplish. I'm a big fan of starting things in media res. This has a couple of benefits:
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We assume that your characters are smart enough to get through the tedious research part and get to the part they should be focused on unless the research / investigation is really tension-y for some reason.
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There is a vastly reduced risk that someone is going to just go off and do whatever thing they want to do if they're already being confronted with the situation.
Example
Player: I want to use research to see if I can dig up any information on Jimmy the Crime Guy.
Standard Way: Great! How are you doing that?
Player: I'm going to go out and divine for patterns in the flights of birds to read the omens and figure out which street corner record scratch
My Way: All of Jimmy the Crime Guy's top lieutenants are fairly untouchable. There's almost no way you're going to get information out of them without spetnaz tactics, and whoever keeps Jimmy's name out of the papers and off of police reports did a really thorough job. Fortunately for you, Jimmy's accountant is a little slip of a man with a nervous disposition that looks like he jumps at his own shadow, and even his shadow thinks it's a little excessive. Which is why you're in a car, outside of his office, with a fast food bag in the passenger seat and rapidly cooling coffee in the center console. The night's already off to a great start...
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@misadventure Oh the latter, just prompts. I don't know, like maybe the flight attendant armed with a sonic toothbrush comes up with some really great idea. That person knows their character's strengths and if they can use them in a way I can't think of for myself then right on. If they can pull off the rolls they gotta pull off, equally right on. If the rolls go bad, I proceed with making their character's day that much more complicated. I might raise an eyebrow when the non-combat glass jaw shows up at a scene that I think looks like heavy combat, but if they can find a reason to be there and a way to contribute, great.
Now what I do get irritated at is when Captain McGlass Jaw gets mad at me for not coming up with some specific way for Captain McGlass Jaw to shine. Like...dude that's your job, I'm over here being the rain and the engines and the guy with the gun, you tell me how you Awesome.
