Long Winded Narration

[LemmingLord]

How much can someone narrate the actions of characters whom they are not playing in a particular scene?

Free narration - assuming player A is playing Archer and player B is playing Bruiser, can player A narrate that Bruiser is doing something?  Can either player narrate characters who aren't being "played."

Action narration - same questions.

Can a player narrate for five minutes during his/her turn; describing a day's worth of battle?

To avoid this, might a valid tactic be to create a time-based objective or event?  "Goal: Archer captures Bruiser before five minutes passes," or "Event:  Five minutes go by."

[Vaxalon]

Yes, in free narrration player A can narrate that Bruiser is doing something.  Player B can pipe up and say, "Hey, don't you think that should be a conflict?"  Player A can then say, "Why yes, I believe it should," and engage the mechanics.

I think that in any minimally functional game group, this is what will happen.  Theoretically, player A could say no.  As time passes, popcorn throwing would become more and more tempting.

i've never seen it happen.  Have you?

Those conflicts wouldn't prevent long-winded narration.  They'd just prevent long-winded narration of a long period of time.

[LemmingLord]

And when it comes to A's turn, can A say "Bruiser is in awe as Archer shoots his arrow right into his face...

[Hans]

Mostly "what Fred (Vaxalon) said".

If someone can narrate for five-minutes straight AND keep me riveted on their every word, then they deserve to narrate for that long.  So therefore we must be talking about people who narrate for five-minutes and can't keep us riveted.

Anytime I sit down to play the game with new players, I state that in my experience narrating roughly what would happen in 1 to 4 panels of a comic book seems about right for the narration associated with any action in the game; a bit more for the resolution of the conflict.  This is not a rule, simply a guideline.  I then stick to this in my own play as an example.

I have had people go on and on and on and on and on in narration in games I have played (I have probably done it myself, despite my own guideline above).  Here is how I deal with it:

* sort of unfocus my eyes and stare at a point just to the left of their head
* after they are finally finished, wait about 15 seconds
* then, shake myself and snap my eyes back into focus saying something like "Oh, sorry, were you finished?"

I don't really do that, but its fun to think I would.  Mostly I just sit patiently and wait for them to finish. 

"Event: Five minutes go by"...what a very strange event.  Its a way to focus down the action of the game into just a very short period of physical time, because until it resolves no one can narrate more than what can happen within 5 minutes.  As Fred said, they could take 30 minutes to narrate that 5, but it still intrigues me. 

I think it would be more interesting if you made it even shorter; "Event: 5 seconds pass by".  This could lead to a whole section of Matix inspired "bullet time" narrations until that event resolves, each narration being one bit of slow motion action; a bullet impacting on Capt America's shield, his body gracefully moving over the heads of a group of toughs, the toughs slowly looking upwards, their eyes widening in fear.   Could be a fun way to really focus the "camera" on a very small bit of business.

[Eric Sedlacek]

A player's first exposure to the open-endedness of narration in Capes can be a lot like that of a kid loose in a candy store.  At first, the response is, "Oh my God!  I can eat all the candy I want!  I can go crazy, and NO ONE CAN STOP ME!!"  

But then, after getting horrifically sick on candy, the joy of unrestricted candy wears thin for the poor child.  If he is smart, he then has a revelation about candy.  Candy is enjoyable because it's a treat.  Candy is not about quantity of experience, it is about quality of experience.   Quality of experience is about being selective.

Sometimes, a first time Capes player, like the child, often has a long history of deprivation.  He has played in a lot of role playing games where he wanted to do things, but he couldn't do them because the GM put up walls to keep him from going there.  GM's can be like over-restrictive parents at worst and even at best are imperfect readers of a player's wants and needs.  It is understandable that after chafing under those sorts of restrictions they he go a little crazy at first.

This leads us to a fundamental truth of Capes narration.  It's almost-complete open-endedness makes narration in and of itself completely meaningless.  You can narrate until the cows come home, and it doesn't mean a thing...except in the enjoyment it gives to you and the others around the table.  The total freedom you think you have is an illusion because the game gives the other players the power to marginalize someone who finds his enjoyment at the expense of the others at the table...like, for example, by being a crushing bore.

I think that in general players naturally ease into realizing this.  Sure, some don't.  Just like some kids will chow down endlessly on candy no matter how sick it makes them because they are trying to fill a need that goes beyond candy, some people bring sufficient psychological or personality issues to role playing that keep them from acting sensibly.  No rule system, be it rules for RPG narration or a big ole lock on the candy cabinet is going to fix the problems these people have.  

The rest of us can just have a blast telling fun stories, bringing just enough of our own psychological and personality issues along for the ride to keep it interesting.  When you do that, everything else works itself out.

[LemmingLord]

So what about narrating characters who are not represented?  In the example we have in the light version I believe there is an objective: harm innocents - but no one is playing an innocent or innocents..  Can these "NPCs" be added ad hoc through narration at any time? 

On a similiar note; can a character who is usually played be on the scene an NPC in another scene?  If so, if that character is an exemplar, do they count as being there for the purposes of introducing the free event?

[Andrew Morris]

Can these "NPCs" be added ad hoc through narration at any time? 

On a similiar note; can a character who is usually played be on the scene an NPC in another scene?  If so, if that character is an exemplar, do they count as being there for the purposes of introducing the free event?

Yes to all.

[TonyLB]

Except the last one.  If a character is not actually being played then they are not an Exemplar for the purposes of playing a free conflict.