Clockwise or Counterclockwise

[Alan]

Hi Joshua,

I'm going to present Shock at Go Play NW next weekend. I've studied the rules and the recommendations for effective play on the Forge, but I'm confused about something you said about rotation of play.

In [Shock:] 0.2.3 at Dreamation: Trash in the hopper, you wrote:

"We then made the same mistake I've made before: we went clockwise in turns. Let this be a lesson to you, if you want to play Shock; go counter-clockwise. It screws up the pacing otherwise."

In Re: [Shock:] Shadowrun, you wrote:

"...We go around the table clockwise (so you play Antag, then Protag); if someone's story ends early, it's not a big deal; they're still playing Antags and they still have Minutiæ."


So do you recommend Clockwise -- each player plays Antagonist then Protagonist, or
Counter-clockwise -- each player plays Protagonist then Antagonist?

[Joshua A.C. Newman]

Clockwise seems to stick in players' heads better. The important thing is that you play Antag, then Protag. So the person to your left plays your Antag. Dig?

[Alan]

Yeah, Antagonist then Protagonist was the order my thought experiments lead me to believe would work best. It allows the player time to process his last go as protagonist and start focusing on playing antagonist. Then switching to the protagonist would generate a sense of freshness -- a downshift in perspective.

Thanks.

- Alan