Cut-Scenes In RPGs

[jburneko]

As I've been watching various TV Shows and Movies I've noticed something that whole exists in those mediums and does not exist in RPGs.  That element is that the audience is often let in on what the antagonists of the story are up to.  And in some situations, such as Buffy The Vampire Slayer, the story of the antagonists are almost as compelling as the story of the protagonists and sadly, sometimes more so.  Now the reason this element does not exist in roleplaying is obvious.  But I ask if it is an element that can not be used at all?

There are two solutions I've come up with.  Let the PCs be both the antagonists and the protagonists.  I don't mean each player has two characters I mean that some players are playing the heroes and some are playing the villains.

But the second option would be the use of "Cut-Scenes", sections of the game where the GM takes a momment to Narrate the going ons of other characters.  This obviously wouldn't appeal to everyone because of the overflowing amount of out of character information but to those who don't mind out of character information and in fact use it to great effect have you ever tried this?  I've heard of people trying this but I've never heard any of the results?

So how about it?  Anyone have any experience with "cut-scenes" in RPGs?

Jesse

[Bankuei]

  The closest thing I've done is the "Red shirt intro".  I have players create their characters, then hand them some npc type characters to play for the first scene.  Often they are put in a scenario that has them interacting with the antagonists, usually as lackeys, where they get some info as to what is going on, but not all.  It often makes for a very interesting intro, then we switch off to their normal characters.

   Sometimes the switch occurs if the redshirts ever meet up with the actual PC's, at which point, the redshirts then become NPC's while the players take their chosen characters.  I really want to incorporate cut scenes into my games, so I've been really looking at how movies and videogames have utilized them.

Bankuei

[Ron Edwards]

Hi,

Story Engine has extremely explicit and usable guidelines for Cut-Scenes in role-playing, as well as a number of related techniques.

Extreme Vengeance does to a lesser extent, some of which are pretty funny (and very accurate for action movies).

Best,
Ron

[Le Joueur]

jburneko wrote:

As I've been watching various TV Shows and Movies I've noticed something that whole exists in those mediums and does not exist in [role-playing games].  That element is that the audience is often let in on what the antagonists of the story are up to.Quote

Now the reason this element does not exist in role-playing is obvious.  But I ask if it is an element that cannot be used at all?

Is it that<anything that is not known to the player characters<

So how about it?  Anyone have any experience with "cut-scenes" in RPGs?deeply into it<

There are two solutions I've come up with.  Let the PCs be both the antagonists and the protagonists.  I don't mean each player has two characters I mean that some players are playing the heroes and some are playing the villains.egroup<

But the second option would be the use of "Cut-Scenes", sections of the game where the GM takes a moment to Narrate the [goings on] of other characters.  This obviously wouldn't appeal to everyone because of the overflowing amount of out of character information but to those who don't mind out of character information and in fact use it to great effect have you ever tried this?  I've heard of people trying this but I've never heard any of the results?

[contracycle]

Hmm - as mentioned under the Audience stance thread, I do use cut scenes, quite extensively, for exactly these reaosn, and I believe the players to be in Audience stance while I do so.

[Ian O'Rourke]

I've been using cut scenes for years - they're great. I was always a fan of them but my groups hated them until I found a group willing to play WEG's Star Wars (all those years back when it first came out) which had a lot of how I thought I game should be run down in its rulebook.

Used them ever since.