Is that a Dingus in your Dice Bag? -- Real world Research

[Darcy Burgess]

For the last several months, I've been tackling what amounts to a grand experiment: Shifting my group's focus towards conflict-res, primarily narr-structured games.  Where we were before would probably be best described as task res that mixed up GNS pretty wildly, with the most emphasis on S (from the "staying in character" standpoint).

It really hasn't panned out.  And I'm OK with that -- it was an experiment.  If that stuff isn't my group's cup of tea, so be it.  That's cool.  However, it would be nice to understand why it fell flat every time I tried it.

I've dug through fora, asked for opinions and help, all of the usual routes.  None of it has really answered that nagging "why".

I'd like to take things to the next step -- sort of a "nature show" approach to gaming theory.  I'd like to observe a group that considers itself to run a con-res/narr type of game in a (mostly) functional manner (ie: everybody has fun).

So, here's the doozy: who's got one on the go, wouldn't mind an essentially complete stranger "setting up their duck blind" in a corner somewhere during a session, and finally: runs their game within reasonable driving distance of Ottawa, Ontario (Canada).

The last step's a killer.  I figured I'd put the call out, but I believe that it's an understatement to call my chances "slim to none"  :)

As an afterthought, I suppose that if someone is wild and wacky enough to be able to video and stream their games over the 'net, that would be another way.  Or even volunteering to send a vid file (with sound) of a complete session would be a great start.

Thanks

[GB Steve]

I can't help with the game, I live in the other London, but as for your experiment with the shift from task-res S to conf-res narr, I have a few questions.

The background is that my group usually plays task-res S, primarily GURPS spacey things with the occasional Call of Cthulhu thrown in. This runs fairly smoothly a the moment although we do get the occasional blow up about OOC knowledge and character motives that don't seem, not to everyone anyway, to fit within the S.

On the other hand, when we play conf-res narr games such as Dogs in the Vineyard, My Life with Master and possibly Enemy Gods, none of the problems arise. Possibly because in a narr game motivations are much more in the open and there's less interest in hiding what you are doing from other players so that you get to pull something cool every now and then. The focus is much more on addressing the premise and much less on "look at me".

Such is our particular dysfunctionality.

So, my first question is, have you told them what you are doing?

My second question is, why if things are OK do you want to change them? With the corollary of, does anyone else want to change?

The third is, if the issue is about your group's motivations, how do you think looking other people, whose motivations are probably even less clear to you, will help with your problem (if indeed there is one)?

Finally, google search on this site reveals at least 3 people from Ottawa. Perhaps you could pmail them, if they aren't already in your group.

[M. J. Young]

Two things come to mind.

The first is that it's been said many times that you can't "sneak up on agendum", that is, efforts to shift gradually from what you're doing to what you think you want to try usually produce dysfunctional play. I don't know if that's what you're doing, but that's what I would infer from

Shifting my group's focus

If that's what you're doing, let me suggest that instead you throw that out the window and play a session or a few sessions of one of the games that does what you want to try. Because these are different games with very different systems, they have a much better ability to break the old gaming habits and start new ones--in much the same way that you wouldn't bring your Monopoly expectations into a game of Risk.

The second is that there are a number of games run online, particularly in the IRC area. I haven't been part of that and don't know the details, but for some reason I think Nathan/Paganini has been involved, and might be pleased to have you present either as a participant or a watcher (although I'm not sure of the latter). Find out what's being played and when.

I hope that helps.

--M. J. Young

[Darcy Burgess]

So, my first question is, have you told them what you are doing?

Absolutely.  They're more than aware of what my agenda is.  And MJ -- this pertains to your point as well.  It wasn't so much a shift in the sense that I've been introducing CR/narr stuff into our current games.  It's a shift in the sense of "OK.  Cthulhu is on the backburner, and we're going to try this Pool thing.  Followed by this homebaked thing.  How about some DitV?"

My second question is, why if things are OK do you want to change them? With the corollary of, does anyone else want to change?

Strictly real-world issues.  Out of our group (of 5), only 3 of us are willing  to run games.  One is away in Japan indefinitely, and the other two of us have way too much real world caca going on to allocate the required time to prepping a traditional game.  Something in a narr vein will help distribute the responsibility for keeping the game fresh on to everyone's shoulders.  That's the "why".

how do you think looking other people, whose motivations are probably even less clear to you, will help with your problem (if indeed there is one)?

I'm interested in observing behaviours.  What do these people do that we don't?  Is it strictly an "attitude" thing ("I don't want to like this because it's different than what I know"), or is it something in the big picture that I'm missing?  This sort of observed info is infinitely superior to testimonials or even examples of play -- because I'm witnessing it and picking out what's important to me -- something that a writer would gloss over because of their own particular biases.

Finally, google search on this site reveals at least 3 people from Ottawa. Perhaps you could pmail them, if they aren't already in your group.

Good call.  Thanks for the suggestion.

And MJ -- part of the reason that an IRC game is less appealing (although, I hadn't considered it, to be honest) is that it sort of suffers from the same problems as examples of play -- but not to the same degree.  The other fault is that since we're talking about IRC vs Real World gaming, there are other shifts going on to facilitate the different media.  It's comparing apples and really freaky apples.  But that's still better than comparing apples with *void*.