Hi,

In my initial glance through the PDF- I see on Page 45, there's the question "What if they're not hooked?" answered by "They should use scene request to get what they think is interesting"(to paraphrase). 

My question is, could this method for producing (Ammo, Stuff that Matters), be easier if the players knew the Stakes from get go and decide how to hook their characters in or not (and if not, to generate some other Stakes that do appeal to them)?

This seems to take the best of Trollbabe's Stakes and Sorcerer's Kickers and mixes them to a fine blend.  For players who need a little kickstart- they can operate on the Stakes itself and run with that.  For players who for whatever reason don't find it interesting, they generate either related Stakes or whatever that is more appealing (ala a Kicker) and still get their play loaded to fire.  Maybe by the end of the discussion, the Stakes have totally changed as the group has come up with something cooler and more relevant?

And, by breaking down this as a procedure of play, you immediately introduce the Scene Request feature, player input into conflict, as well as kibbitzing and riffing from the start.

Thoughts? Ideas?

Chris

Oh, yeah,

It also makes perfect sense to tie this whole thing to the map making process as well. :)

Chris

Wow, Chris... I really like the sound of this. This is very much in the style of game that I'm shooting for.

I don't know if it's the right approach though. It may be! But let's talk it over a bit.

I've been picturing Stranger Things play as a lot like Dogs in the Vineyard (which in turn, is a lot like Trollbabe). With Dogs, the PCs arrive in the middle of a powder-keg situation, and have to deal with it, and judge it, as they see fit. However, the players don't have direct input into the make-up of the town. Rather, they connect with the town created by the GM, delve into its "secrets" (which are not secret to the players for long at all), piece together the big picture, and then act.

I like this model. It gives the GM a solid pre-game task (prepare the town, or in the case of Stranger Things, a knife-edge situation and NPCs). And it gives the players a good beginning task, too: connect to situation, find out what's going on (which is easy because every NPC is dying to spill his guts and rope the Stranger in).

This works pretty well with the map-tile system since the GM decides which tiles the players will choose from, so he can make situations based on the stuff on the tiles.

Now, keeping all that in mind, I love your thoughts about Kickers and player input into situations with scene requests. But how do we reconcile the two methods? Shoud they be merged? I really don't know. I'm going to ponder this some more.

Any thoughts appreciated.

Thought this older thread might be interesting: Who do you hook?

Hi John,

Totally cool.  So then, the two things at hand are-

1) Being able to produce new sets of conflict
2) Making the NPCs all want something from the Strangers

I think between the three usual reactions of "Of course you're on OUR side, you're going to help us, right?", "What the hell are you?!? Shoot it!" and "What are you, a race traitor?!?" getting hooked won't be hard- just make sure to find a way to hand those tools to the GM.

Not being hooked?  That's where you hand the advice to the players- not the GM- "Use your ability to request scenes and create conflict to make things that interest you..."

Question though- can players establish things that previously weren't part of the R-map/conflict setup by way of Conflict declaration?  That is, in Trollbabe I can call for a conflict to avoid being jumped by bandits in the bushes that the GM never had there, and now they're there.  Can a play in Stranger Things say, "Conflict!  She doesn't want to help me because that guy is her secret lover!" ?

Chris

Chris: Yes. That's the stuff.

To answer your question, no, I don't think so. The player can call for a conflict, based on a Goal of the Stranger. Like, "I try to get Sayla to help me destroy Lord Kask." During free-and-clear and narration, though, the player is free to say "She refuses because that guy is her secret lover!" That's totally kosher and encouraged. But I don't think you can frame a conflict that isn't Stranger-goal oriented. I think an example or three would help illustrate this.