The different stages of preperation when running a game?

[sirogit]

This is an attempt to create a model of the "phases" one would use for preperation while running a game. The main reason for doing so is that I've been absorbing alot of game theory, but It's getting a little confusing to keep so many good ideas in my head at the same time, so I figure if I could organize them into the phases of the game where preperation goes on it would be simpler to recall them.

I'm taking a few liberties and writing specifcly for a narrativist game with a good deal of player involvement in it's creation, but I imagine the model would be fairly standard for most games different types of games, except for the more optional parts.

There's two basic Main-phases, Creation and Play. Creation is when people discuss what they'd like to have in the game etc, creating characters or other components, and Play is where people start making their characters act in the consistant environment. Of course, in a Universalis game these both happen simultanouesly, but that's a rare exception.

This is not counting the time in which you talk with people over pizza or wine, get to know them and what games they want to run, etc etc.

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So, inside of the Creation main-phase, in non-sequential order, you'd have phases for:

1. Thematic Discussion. If the players are involved in any creation process, than I think letting them be very well aware of the theme of the game, or better yet, have the players define the theme, is recomended

2. Setting Creation, if not using a prepackaged setting. Or setting specification, desiging a small piece of the already establish world.

3. Situation Creation. I've read alot into this since I've discovered it somewhat recently and I like what I read very much.

4. Character Creation. Sketching in all the important details about your character, running them through the Chargen system. (Alot can go on in character creation, I could write different sub-phases for it later.)(It's a similar deal for component creation, such as popular in mecha games, though for the most part it can be considered part of character creation.)

5. Social Contract Creation. This is an important aspect that's often ignored.

Inside of the Play main-phase, again in non-sequential order:

1. Scene Framing

2. Task Resolution(Or Scene Resolution), defining this as the part where the players use the system to find out what happens when the characters perform a task.

3. Dialogue

4. 'Bang' Preperation

5. 'Bang' Execution

6. Character Development

7. "Downtime", space in between scenes where more abstract narration may be taking place(Term taken from Exalted)
 
8. Scene Cutting/Transistion

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Am I leaving out many optionial phases, paticurly those that would well serve a narrativist bent? Perhaps a more accurate model already exists? any other comments would be welcome.

[Callan S.]

Personally, I'd suggest some rough draft of a social contract is generated before No#1 or between 1 and 2. At number five it goes from rough to final copy.

It's just that how people behave in real life is more important than the game world details. If you try to put the game world first, and its a back stabbing kind of a world, you might get players backstabbing a bit too much for RL tastes. Err, its a bit hard to describe, excuse my example.

And I'm gunna go do a search on bangs now, since I only have a vague idea of what they are.

[sirogit]

I think I should of emphasized that the steps are by no means presented in what order you do them. I'm not really sure if there is any epicially good orders in which to complete the phases, personally I think in the Creation main-phase that it's best to just sketch out the details in any aspect that you're inspired at the moment, patciularly, just things that you think are cool or intereasting, and than let those changes effect your developmnet of other things.

I.e, start out with nothing but an outline of what makes your characters cool. And than make an situation where those issues are addressed. make a setting that makes sense surrounding and generating that sort of situation.

Now, taking in mind the other characters, the situation and the setting, how would those effect your character?  

Say your character rebels against things that try to dictate what you're supposed to do. Say we want a setting where those issues will come up, in a facist-goverment-cyberpunk thing. So, let's say that the goverment gives everyone cybernetic implanst to control their behavior at certain moments. now go back to character creation, and say that the character has been spending alot of time gtting drugs and surgery to transform that implant on his body into some sort of jammer type device, using it to free others from it's control, whether they choose to or not, so it starts to create a situation.

Not claiming this is anything new, just pointing out the usage of the model.

I think my terminilogy is rather weak, besides sounding bland, "phases" seems to imply completely sequential distinct events. Wheras what I'd like to imply is that these things happen usually in-between the development of another "phase"(I'll use the term until I can think of something better.).

Bangs are explained in the Sorcerer RPG, and as a somewhat new concept it's obvious not nessecary to playing a narrativist or other type of game, but it's very, very useful to me, espicially towards adjusting pacing and understanding what should be the focus of game events as they are presented.

In a nutshell, they're the thing that happens in a scene. They're what a character reacts to and has to make an important decsision based on. I'd highly suggest looking up discussions of them.