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higgins wrote: Make a game report thread after the first session!

I'm not sure i can, to be honest.

There was very little testing of the actual mechanics, my players didn't really take the game seriously... as my rounds usually do, it kinda devolved into slapstick very quickly.
I learned a few things, like for example how BoB/S&S's mission statement just goes counter to what... "Normie" Roleplaying-Gamers expect. like, my friend here explicitly said he likes the "starting as a noob" thing D&D, TDE, and probably thousand other games do, as well as not having the player characters know each other prior to the first game session...
Another problem seemed to be that people really can't work with a non-standard fantasy world. They don't take the game seriously because they don't know anything about it, hence the devolving into slapstick. Now for me this is a grave realization, because i loathe, loathe, LOATHE "standard"--or should i say kitchen sink style--fantasy.
So all in all i also learned a lot about myself; although my players, and also myself, had a lot of fun, personally i for one thing haven't reached my goals and for another thing realized the problems with what i want to do, problems i don't think i can solve. All in all, i don't see myself running any game again in the foreseeable future.

nemedeus wrote:All in all, i don't see myself running any game again in the foreseeable future.

Ouch.

nemedeus wrote:it kinda devolved into slapstick very quickly. [...] They don't take the game seriously because they don't know anything about it, hence the devolving into slapstick.

We had the same problem when my brother tried to run a session of Degenesis with us...

To be fair, you can actually start as a relative beginner in the rules we currently have available: 3 points into each (maybe 2 points in origin and 4 points in advantages) basically make you the equivalent of a first level adventurer in 3.5. Remember that 3.5 is a game balanced such that it actually models reality quite well if you assume that most of the folks in special forces would be around level 3 and Bruce Lee would probably be a Level 5 Fighter with Improved Unarmed Strike, Weapon Focus (Unarmed Strike), Weapon Specialisation (Unarmed Strike), Improved Grappling, Improved Initiative and Power Attack, and a 16 Strength and 14 Dexterity. At that point, he'd be dealing 1d3+5 with an unarmed strike against an average foe - easily enough to mortally wound any level 1 Commoner he met and probably a decent percentage of level 1 Warriors too (basically a Fighter without max hp at first level or bonus feats, and a d8 instead of a d10 hit die), and with his Dexterity and Improved Initiative he'd usually hit first too. On the other hand, if special forces showed up with guns, they'd mow his ass down.

nemedeus wrote:"Normie" Roleplaying-Gamers expect.

I know what you're talking about. You need a certain kind of players to run a player-driven style game. I tried to run a sandbox game of TRoS set in an analogue of late XV century Florence some ten years ago. And one player just dangled around and kept asking: "So where's the quest?"

In many respects, this is why I always reckon a session 0 is a good idea: both for group character genning, and for making sure that everybody's expectations are roughly aligned.

hector wrote:In many respects, this is why I always reckon a session 0 is a good idea: both for group character genning, and for making sure that everybody's expectations are roughly aligned.

Agreed. I can't stress strongly enough how important it is for everyone around the table to understand what is happening and most importantly why. That's why I always run small introductions with my players (usually one per character) before the actual game begins.

Benedict wrote:

hector wrote:In many respects, this is why I always reckon a session 0 is a good idea: both for group character genning, and for making sure that everybody's expectations are roughly aligned.

Agreed. I can't stress strongly enough how important it is for everyone around the table to understand what is happening and most importantly why. That's why I always run small introductions with my players (usually one per character) before the actual game begins.

This has been an ongoing conversation between Henri and I. We're realizing just how crucial structure and support for this bit actually is to making this kind of game work. It's something that isn't addressed very well in the few games I've seen that have similar goals to ours. The rub with doing a project like this is that a lot of what we have to do isn't just writing and explaining the rules, it's getting people to understand how you actually use them. How this sort of thing is meant to be played. That latter tends to be what makes all the difference.

As a GM one of the things I've been doing for more than 18 years is to approach each game like a story, not a set of rules. The structure I follow is this:

• Prelude (Introduction; per player if required)
  • Chronicle (Made up of Stories)
    • Story (Made up of Acts)
      • Act (Made up of Scenes)
        • Scene (The smallest story-wise time unit)

Then I also use Flashbacks and Interludes to promote the story even further, according to the players wishes and needs that is.

Whether its a sandbox, an established scenario, or a hybrid of the two, it always helped to have a rough diary of shorts to keep things consistent. This method helps me to always remember its about the story. And that in turn helps me to get it across to the players as well. And everyone is happy.

Don't know if this is helpful for you, what works for someone could be rubbish to others.

But I agree that a section that explains to players and GMs alike to what the game is about would be cool, instead of simply a toolbox of good rules for playing the game.

youtu.be/wES5ufXETdE

It's interesting, watching this in the background... because so much of the pro-dramatic stuff he's expounding, we actually do. On the other hand, he inadvertently also demonstrates precisely why I never jumped full-ship into the story-game world. On some level, I still like my role-playing game to have game elements, particularly where random die rolls and things are concerned.

Korbel wrote:

..I always fall for that trick.

Agamemnon wrote:..I always fall for that trick.

Who wouldn't? Imagine what I've being going through, since I share my home with four furry purring warlords.

And thusly, a myth is born.....Beowulf and the Dragon