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Bren
Vice Admiral
Joined: 19 Aug 2010
Posts: 3868
Location: Maryland, USA
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 Posted: Tue Jun 14, 2011 6:24 pm Post subject: |
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| HumanFlie wrote: | | ...A "mistake" I made was getting them to make characters completely independant of each other with some moderately elaborate back stories so the characters ended up being not very like minded. I do need to craft something that will help unite them a bit more. That will come. I also didn't fore see the players making adventurers who weren't into adventuring. |
One thing we have learned is it helps to craft characters together or at least in pairs or groups. The goals are to ensure that every character is connected to at least one or two other characters and to spend a bit of time deciding who, if anyone, is in charge; how they will work together; what they have in common; and possibly even some acceptable areas of friction to allow for some expected or acceptable character conflict.
As an example, a character who is very aggressive can be very disruptive to a party, but if the players agree how this plays out and what can offset the aggression it can be fun with the aggressor basically playing "Hold me back" and the other characters usually talking him out of a mindless attack. Think how Han often has to settle Chewie down. But if the two players had not agreed that Han would usually be able to calm Chewie, think how disruptive that behavior would have been. 
Even though the characters are already created, it may be worth a discussion about how they can all get along and stay motivated.
The article Making Tough Decisions by Rich Burlew has a section called Decide to React Differently (it shows up about half way down the article) that is a nice discussion on ways for characters to choose to get along. He asks the the following questions:
| Quote: | | Have you ever had a party break down into fighting over the actions of one of their members? Has a character ever threatened repeatedly to leave the party? Often, intraparty fighting boils down to one player declaring, "That's how my character would react." |
The article has some nice suggestions on how to break out of this log jam.
http://www.giantitp.com/articles/tll307KmEm4H9k6efFP.html |
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garhkal
Sovereign Protector
Joined: 17 Jul 2005
Posts: 14215
Location: Reynoldsburg, Columbus, Ohio.
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| Posted: Wed Jun 15, 2011 6:08 pm Post subject: Re: Session 3 report |
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| Bren wrote: | | garhkal wrote: | | HumanFlie wrote: | I said 14 a piece total for 2 4 hour sessions. (7 for each session) That is probably a bit much but they did get a lot done.
Sorry about the sloppiness and length of this post. I just quickly typed it out before bed. Thanks for reading! |
Was that 14 for both this AND last session?? Or just this one? |
I infer that when he said 7 a piece, 14 total he meant 14 total for both sessions. |
Should have paid a little more attention.. 
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Praxian
Lieutenant Commander
Joined: 30 Mar 2010
Posts: 190
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| Posted: Thu Jun 16, 2011 12:50 am Post subject: |
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| HumanFlie wrote: |
I think I'm going to do a mix of both. Have some questions prepared for me to answer about what the characters did. Perhaps even tell them things that they missed and could have earned CP's for.
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I personally reccomend -not- telling them what they missed out on. While it's nice to say "Hey, you coulda gone over here and done that for more CP's", I prefer to keep secret what they missed out on, and use it in a future session. After all, if you tell them about it this time, they'll look for it every time.
If you -DON'T- tell them about it - when they stumble across it (you could even give more hints next time) they'll be surprised and happy they found it.
Aside that, sounds like good times!! |
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Bren
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Joined: 19 Aug 2010
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Location: Maryland, USA
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| Posted: Thu Jun 16, 2011 9:26 am Post subject: |
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| Praxian wrote: | | I personally reccomend -not- telling them what they missed out on. |
I tend to agree, but for a different reason. Unless you are trying to help new players learn how to play or trying to have a dialog with very frustrated players, telling playes what they missed just reinforces, to you and to them, that there is one right way to go through an adventure, solve a problem, interact with an NPC, etc. In general I think it is better for the GM to try to adapt to player choices and to let the players be happy with their own solutions (even if I as the GM might think they made suboptimal choices). |
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garhkal
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Joined: 17 Jul 2005
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Location: Reynoldsburg, Columbus, Ohio.
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| Posted: Thu Jun 16, 2011 6:31 pm Post subject: |
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I liken that to secret areas in adnd.. if they don't find it, they dont get rewarded for it..
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