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S&S Praise & semi-Actual Play

Started by Zak Arntson, January 11, 2002, 03:32:41 PM

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Zak Arntson

First off, huge amounts of props (prizops, even) go to you, Ron. I got Sorcerer & Sword from my mother on Christmas (!!), and immediately began reading the thing.

It's an amazing piece of gaming literature. Yeah, it's what I would consider gaming literature, what with all the insight into gaming put down in words.

Which leads to my "semi" Actual Play comments. Years ago I GM'd some D&D for my brother. Just us two. The short of it is: He made a character with a Kicker (he was an eastern-style martial artist arriving in a decidedly western city), began with a kind-of Bang! (You step off the boat! What do you do?), and the entire gameworld developed as we played (a la S&S).

It was one of the most satisfying rpg experiences I've ever had. And then, years and years later I find the methods my brother and I had stumbled upon put into words on paper. And I remember those gaming sessions and thought, "Crap! If I had only known _why_ it was so successful back then, well sheesh!"

So thank you Ron. Now I know why it was such a neat campaign.

Ron Edwards

Hi Zak,

I think one thing that could easily cause problems is the idea that Sorcerer & Sword is about "improvising setting as you go along."

That's not exactly the case. In Chapter 1, I present a series of recommended steps for play, and those early ones are all about setting in a big way. The general guidelines in for Setting in Chapter 3 aren't trivial, and all that stuff is pre-play. What makes it different is enlisting the players' interests and preferences in that step, and the biggie, that details and portions of the setting are reserved for later, pre-scenario prep, rather than all slammed into prep for the first session of play.

Best,
Ron

Zak Arntson

Oops.  When I said "the entire gameworld developed " I lied.

What we did was create the basics of the gameworld and his character before playing. So we knew a little about his "eastern" homeland, especially his people. Why he left, etc.

And I had the general idea of the "western" environemnt. To recreate the fish-out-of-water experience, he didn't have much input here (something I may have changed now that I think about it). I had a general city map, and an idea of the feel of the environment.

The characters and actual locations within the western city were improvised on the spot, though.

Clay

First, it was a great selling point for the game, since I already knew I liked the source literature.

Second, S&S really showed me how to build a game world that matched my own twisted imagination.  We've played in that world, and we'll do it again. Its twistedness was magnificent (unlike my grammar).
Clay Dowling
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