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posted by [identity profile] nikotesla.livejournal.com at 09:19pm on 03/02/2005
I think 'plot' is too specific. A big difference between RPGs and, say, novels or scripts, is that they can have any plot.

I don't know if there's a name for 'what one is going for with a good RPG design', but it's not necessarily plot. My Life with Master assumes plot, but most don't. GURPS assumes that you want to generate all the quantitative factors of a character, Dogs in the Vineyard requires you to build a character from hir history and form a moral stance over multiple plots.

I think it's a bigger question: what is the game about, not as in, it's about blowing up the Death Star and defeating the Empire, but as in, it's about learning to use calm observation and iron will, and decisive action to bring peace within families, friends, and society. Figure that out, and you have a skeleton to hang muscles and organs on.
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evilmagnus: (Default)

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posted by [personal profile] evilmagnus at 09:31pm on 03/02/2005
Theme, perhaps? Aim? Goal?

Star Wars Done Right had an eponymous theme, a bunch of tools (NPCs with familiar names but different histories and motives from the movies) and some new characters (the PCs) as the protagonists. There really wasn't a hard-and-fast plot written before the game began, but there was a general idea of where the story would probably go, if the PCs didn't manage to significantly influence events.

But I certainly didn't think "Oh, I want to explore the relationship between democracies and tyrannies, and how one can become the other through the misguided actions of good men". SWDR certainly explores these, and draws parallels to current events, but it wasn't the driving force behind me wanting to run the game.

I wanted to run it because George Lucas is an ass who has pooped all over my childhood. :)

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posted by [identity profile] benlehman.livejournal.com at 09:54pm on 03/02/2005
"Focus" might be a good word for it. "Aim" works, too.

I don't think it has to be conscious. Like you said, you didn't realize that SWDR was about Democracy vs. Tyranny. It just has to be there. You can discover it later on.

yrs--
--Ben
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posted by [identity profile] nikotesla.livejournal.com at 10:07pm on 03/02/2005
So what was the focus of the system? I mean 'system' in the big sense, like, what actions were favored by the GM, the other players, and the rules?

Cuz you don't think that Luke defeated Vader because he had a higher Lightsaber roll, do you?
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posted by [identity profile] nikotesla.livejournal.com at 10:09pm on 03/02/2005
Welllll, as the designer, I suspect it works best if you make it conscious. Otherwise, you make compromises unintentionally, trying to match design specifications that you didn't even know exist.
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posted by [identity profile] fructivore.livejournal.com at 12:21am on 04/02/2005
It's fascinating that the primal motivation for SWDR is such a universal driver. It's with almost therapeutic relief that we finally get to play out a story that everyone knows needs desperately to be retold.

What's even more fascinating, though, is how everyone, with their private versions of how things should have gone, is pretty much on the same thematic page. It amplifies my sense of Lucas' taste being monumentally poor, and not merely different from mine.
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evilmagnus: (Default)

(no subject)

posted by [personal profile] evilmagnus at 12:29am on 04/02/2005
There was certainly enough poop flung around to hit everyone.
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