100% Blood and Sex... Relationship Maps.

[sirogit]

Is a relationship map in which ALL of the characterss are connected through blood or sex ties more, less, or not conducive to play?

It sounds implausible on paper, but in a sparse few pieces of fiction I can think of it being used: Escaflowne, (Romeo and Juleit Almost) it comes across quite natural, even if neither are my favorite stories.

[Judd]

It is my understanding that the NPC's on the map are related through blood and sex.  The players link to the map can be a working relationship or a rivalry or friendship.  I have found that players have much more invested in the map if they are fully related or having a sexual relationship with someone on the map.

Blood and sex are conducive to play.  Watch how a player will begin to pay close attention to an NPC once they ask for their PC to be related to or in a relationship with them.  Suddenly, they want to know a bit more about 'em and become invested int he map as you talk it over with them.

I have used the map in two (soon to be three) character generation sessions now and it really gels a game together.  It is something that I'll bring over ot my other games.

[Mike Holmes]

Remember that a relationship map is just the list of those particular ties. That doesn't mean that there aren't other NPCs. Just that they're not listed the same way (they might be on with dotted lines, or listed elsewhere), because their conections with the map aren't such that they can be stressed as easily to produce tension. That's not to say that these NPCs can't be important, it's just that the relationships on the map are hard to ignore. For example, if a daughter is assaulted, the father, mother, boyriend, brother, all of these people are also suddenly automatically entagled. The teacher isn't neccessarily.

Mike

[sirogit]

Err... I'm not asking if a Relationship Map can be done with NPCs who are not closely related to it. I know that that can be done.

I'm asking what would the effects be if in a game in which -Every- "named" npc was related through either blood or sex.

[Michael S. Miller]

I'm asking what would the effects be if in a game in which -Every- "named" npc was related through either blood or sex.

I believe the term is "Blood Opera."

I actually just ran a convention game like that. The link is [Sorcerer] Urban Squalor

[Mike Holmes]

Ah, apollogies for the misunderstanding.

I think that the "effects" are pretty intuitive. You'd end up with every event having effects over the entire web. Which makes it only as intense as the GM wants - he can "ignore" some character's responses (maybe they're "away"). What it does mean is that all NPCs have strong motives related to the action at all times, and that means that it's very easy to create more action.

Blood Opera might result, but not neccessarily. That term refers more to when the PCs are designed such that it becomes very likely that they will end up not only inimical to each other, but usually lethally inimical. I can imagine an all-relationship-map setup that didn't have such conditions, especially in the case that the PCs are defined as friends.

Mike