Being still somewhat new to this particular style of narration gaming I was wandering quite how people built scenes, And how they rated them.
For example, do people think it is okay (generally) to spring a scene on the group, including the players in questions (let’s say we’re looking in on an ad-hoc avengers team having a bit of down time mid adventure, among the team are Moon Knight and Black Widow), that’s worded something like…
“As your resting Your shocked when Moon Knight (staring at the player for moon knight to make it clear it is the character) jumps up, and screams “Your filth, I know you. You were there (indicating Black Widow’s player) you let those people die! Just as suddenly Moon Knight slumps back into his chair, the silence in the room as quiet as the confused look on his masked face is clear…”
Of course the Black Widow does have a ‘secret’ limitation connected to some dark event. While no one is yet aware that Moon Knight has multiple personalities. The idea is then to let the players run with the scene.
Also if this is an okay way to run a scene would this be a soft or hard move in people’s minds?
I think as long as both players tare on board it’d be ok, I think. Though since there are benefits in Worlds in Peril to Burning Bonds and creating conflict in the party, you might want to build the situations around it and let the players address that kind of stuff themselves.
I generally try to leave all the player-facing stuff up to them, whereas I think it’d totally fine to throw them into certain situations and then ask questions – particularly at the start of a game, or after downtime to get back into the swing of things. You could open the game up with Moon Knight dangling a thug off a building and ask the players how it’d gotten to that point, what their looking for. You could open a game up with buildings crashing and blowing up, Hydra busting in, and asking what they were doing at that particular building or event, etc.
I would hesitate before assuming control of other peoples’ characters in a scene though – even with Moon Knight and his multiple personalities, I’d be more inclined to have information of misdeeds or things become known (reveal an unwelcome truth) or allude to events that goes on when he thinks he sleeping or some such thing (show events off screen). Remember that secrets are great, but they often work even better when they’re already on the table. You get dramatic irony, you get players playing off with it, you get more trust at the table, etc. There really aren’t many good things to say about keeping secrets between players and such, there might be a good reveal, but the process in getting there is a tricky tight-rope to walk.
Think of it more like a collaborative story being told together, so everyone knowing all the elements at play is far more fun, and there is more to work with, rather than certain players excluding information (and probably fun) from others.
I think this is one of those areas I’m unsure of, I already do bits of off scene but I’m unsure how you ‘reveal an unwelcome truth’
Take the above examples, do you mean say, a street cam photograph of moon knight active at a time ‘he was asleep’ or an FBI agent arriving to talk to the black widow in a “we understand a friend of yours contacted you about X we found him at the sight of a …… What do you know?
Yeah, it could be something like that. Or it could be just hints at things. Like, “You throw one of your crescent moons out to hit one of the thugs running away; you catch yourself aiming for a kill shot and have to check yourself. But you get this profound sense of deja vu. Something welling up within you…and then it’s gone.” Or “Everyone wakes up feeling refreshed at Avengers mansion, the downtime has made a big difference, it seems. Except for you, Moon Knight, you still feel exhausted. It’s like you never got to bed at all…” All kinds of stuff you could do.
Cool, that makes sense in my head, I’m a fan of off scene foretelling already, gotta love shadowy figures or hands stroking cats.
It’s quite how you approach these sort of things that had me a little curious
Totally, and it’s going to be different for certain groups too, I’m sure!
Something else just came to mind off this while im thinking of it, the above mentioned move about Avengers mansion (“…. Except for you, Moon Knight, you still feel exhausted. It’s like you never got to bed at all…”) I assume this is a “soft move” and a later “hard move” (after a few more “warnings” 😉 ) might be starting a scene with Moon Knight waking up with a badly brusied hand and torn costume on the Avengers mansion floor, or if the EiC is feeling particularly nasty Moon Knight waking up mid fight with a psychic villian who’s casued a personality swap?
Really looking forward to running this now, thanks for teh advice here and else where.