I’m furiously scribbling notes on making Strains – the Impulse Drive version of Fronts or Threats from Apocalypse World. This is the hardest part for me to write since I usually prep very little for my own games and improvise everything from the boiling stew of my brain.
I’m calling them Strains to imply the strain they put on the Crew and their surroundings, but also as Strains of DNA for your games ongoing narrative.
Since ID is designed to emulate the fiction of shows like Firefly, Andromeda, Farscape, Killjoys, and Dark Matter, I’m theming the types of Strains based on their immediacy; scene, episode, and season strains.
Instead of clocks or countdowns, Strains use Fuses. The different types of Strain fuses burn down at different speeds. Fuses can have 3, 4, 5, or 6 burn. These numbers are independent of the types of strain, and their length depends on the speed or complexity of the events the strain describes. I chose fuse and burn for their evocative feel, and for the following line:
“Fuses: what a lovely way to burn”
Scene Strains are for situations that are likely to hit a climax right here and right now. A battle or an argument, or sneaking into a facility. When a scene strain climaxes, you get your crescendo, and the scene resolves now or very soon. A scene fuse burns down per an action. 1 burn for a situation ignored or opportunity missed by the crew, and 2 burn if escalated or exacerbated by the crew.
Episode strains are for stuff that will happen this session. Jobs or missions, or relationship focuses would fit well into an Episode strain. 1 burn for a scene where a complication or problem ignored or opportunity missed by the crew, and 2 burn if a scene has the situation escalated or exacerbated by the crew.
Season strains are for overarching situations or issues the crew can’t deal with in an episode, or is burning away in the background. Season Fuses take 1 burn for an episode where the crew don’t interact with them, or 2 burn when the crew accelerate or escalate them.
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I’d be interested to hear how you are dealing with turning your approach to running the game (that doesn’t seem to rely on a formalised system) into a formalised system. I am having this exact problem with Malleus – I don’t do Front-like prep for it and I honestly barely use Fronts or similar systems for other PbtA games. When I do use them I think it probably does improve my GMing but it feels super disingenuous to me to try and come up with a formal system for the game when I don’t use one myself and frankly, even if I do write one, won’t start using properly.
Dave Sealy this is exactly the problem I’m having when writing them. I’m using it to encourage framing the game like it’s source material – into pulpy TV series scenes, episodes, and seasons. Hopefully this will be useful for me and players/GMs.
I may have to really force myself to play this way – or I will write a paragraph or two on when to use these tools – which will boil down to use them when they help and make sense.
I think making countdowns for certain events explicit to players will light a fire under their butts and encourage more urgent play so it may be useful for that.
I recommend the opposite! Don’t design a way to prep and then force yourself to use it. For goodness sake.
Instead I recommend figuring out what you’re actually doing when you improvise, and designing a system that teaches other GMs how to do the same.
Thanks for the advice Vincent Baker ! It’ll be a challenge to deconstruct my GMing and looking for useful behaviours. Mostly it’s just percolating genre themes and sensibilities and vomiting them out at the table.
Figuring out what I’m tracking for past and concurrent events, when to link back to something from before, when to wrap up a scene or to escalate things. It’s hard to say how or why I do these things at the table.
There’s also the feeling that I’m not necessarily a best practice GM. Improvising works for me with very little paperwork, is it about trusting yourself and the other players to make connections and build as you play?
It’s all a dial, right? Tools that help and inspire you when you need them, that direct you to learning behaviours that create the desired experience, and then you use less and less as you gain experience and confidence.
I think whatever I make, it’s going to be pretty simple, but I want to encourage people to think in terms of scenes, episodes and seasons to get the feel of those TV shows that taught me the pacing, ambiance, and tropes I love and barf forth.