Working on a two player wandering ronin game in the style of the old Zatoichi movies. One player plays the wandering samurai, the other player plays the world at large (something like Murderous Ghosts). I’ve got an interesting system for the climactic duel, but I’m having trouble making it do… anything else.
The idea is that the player is a wandering samurai who, after walking into the town is presented with a problem that they will then go through a series of challenges to solve. These challenges culminate in a climactic duel against another samurai. What I’m having trouble doing is:
1.) Capturing the slow burn of a good samurai movie where everything progresses towards, and culminates in, a good swordfight.
2.) Reconciling genre conventions against player choice. There is a set pattern to these types of stories. How do I reconcile that highly structured pattern against allowing the player the freedom to make meaningful decisions?
3.) Creating a system that links these little bite sized episodes into a larger narrative.
Any and all help would be appreciated!
Regarding 2): Insert thematic elements into the rules and restrict player choice at key moments to involve these elements.
For example: Maybe the suits (a la Murderous Ghosts) don’t just tell you where to look next, but have some meaning on their own. That gives you 4 themes to pick and direct the story with. Maybe if you change areas (again a la MG) you draw a card and look, it’s hearts and hearts means honor. Next scene is going to involve someone’s honor. Lots of room for interpretation, but you got your themes in.
Thanks Fabian Isert! I figure I must have asked the wrong questions (too broad? Not enough context?) but, with your help, I think I have an idea of how to aproach the problem.
Perhaps the key is providing a situation which is thematically apropriate and charged with the right kinds of conflict, but by letting the players dictate how that conflict resolves.
For instance, if a common trope is that some comoner asks our wandering samurai for help then the key would be to make sure that there are systems in place for creating people with problems that only our hero can solve. Identifying who those people are, and what those problems are, compling them and presenting them to the players is my job. Figuring out how all that shit goes down is the where the players take over.
I think…
Sounds about right to me, but yeah, your questions were a bit general. It just so happens that I’ve been struggling with a similar problem like the one you asked about in your second question for a while as well.^^
I’ve not completely solved it, but looking at how other games dealt with the issue was really helpful.