So I’ve ran about a half dozen pbta games over the last two years. All were either Monster of the Week or Spirit of ’77. That’s the extent of my experience with pbta games. But I’ve been a GM for 30 years.
The thing I’m struggling with is spotlight and choosing targets.
It seems the more the spotlight is on a character, either because they are more vocal, proactive or I feel their character deserves the spotlight at the moment, the more they are likely to suffer harm. Whereas someone sitting back is less likely to suffer harm. Or I feel like I’m targeting that individual if a monster goes out of its way to attack, threaten, or whatever.
Not sure if I make any sense. It just feels like every time I run these games the most proactive player usually have their characters die first.
Just looking for advice, podcast episodes to listen to, blogs to read, that kinda thing.
character death is one of my favorite parts.
It’s a matter of diversity in conceqences. The bad thing that happens can happen to someone other than the person rolling. Or happen that effects them all. For example another combatant enters but goes after someone other than the person who rolled. A stray bullet takes out a light giving the enemy cover.
It’s a reaction to put concequences on the player rolling since they failed or partially failed the roll. Think instead about conceqences shared by the party.
I cannot speak to MotW obviously, but one of the reasons we included the XP gained in So77 with a fail was to encourage people to be proactive in taking chances and putting themselves out there more often than not. If you think it’s occurring too frequently, try changing up the DJ’s hard move, either by adding Heat instead of Harm or having a different sort of cost occur.
Spotlight is the main issue I have had with PbtA games. I’m curious how people solve it.
David K. Fair enough. Thing is I’ve only ran one shots and so I haven’t bothered with XP yet.
Eric Lamoureux No worries. Like I said, breaking up the hard move is also helpful because it makes it a fresh challenge for the DJ when adding to the Fiction. Sometimes I aim to go an entire session without causing Harm but choosing to cause other consequences to the player’s failed actions. It’s an interesting thought exercise.
Perhaps vary the consequences for failures/weak hits. Instead of damage pull out different GM moves. Force the more passive players to act by having npcs/monsters act on them.
Spotlighting and engaging shy players can be a challenge.
Two suggestions:
First – When the more proactive players are describing their course of action, call on them to engage a shy player whose character is in a fictional position to assist, or call on the shy player yourself. This is especially easy in MotW when someone rolled a 6 or 9, and another Hunter could push them up to a 7 or 10.
Building off of that, something i’m working on to actively reduce my spotlight as GM is to encourage the players to talk to eachother more, especially but not only in character, instead of always to me. Scenes that are more about their interactions, with my interjections just to stir up drama, tend to be more fun for all of us.
Second – End one spotlight with a cliff-hanger threat against a PC, and then ask the next player what they are doing. If Brutus’ player is proactive, and had led Brutus to a Kick Some Ass against the Monster, i would resolve that move as normal. But when the players look to me so see what happens next, triggering a GM move, i might indicate an imminent threat against Brutus but then call on another player to see how they would get involved.
This sort of tension at a spotlight shift can keep Brutus’ player more engaged in the next player’s actions, and also gives something obvious for the next player to react to, if they so choose.
It is worth noting that the consequences for the next PC”s actions should generally fall on them, helping you spread them around. If the shy PC gets into the scene and fails to save Brutus from the imminent attack, perhaps your GM move is to shift that Monster’s attention to the new PC, as a result of that failure.
Some players are particularly upset when their PCs suffer consequences for another player’s action (though i personally like it).
If the shy player fails to help Brutus, make sure to give Brutus’ player agency in what happens next. Instead of “Well, Tiny didn’t save you, take 4 Harm!” try something softer: “Tiny’s best efforts were… tiny. They were at best a distraction; the Monster’s first swing knocks you on your butt, and you’re gonna bruise. But even worse, the Monster is rearing up to finish you off. What do you do?”
Eric Lamoureux I would strongly advise using the experience rules in PbtA one shots. In MotW I know players can easily get one or two improvements in a game, and people love that. It also encourages making moves to earn the XP, which encourages participation.
For the spotlight thing, all I can advise is that you consider it whenever it’s your turn to speak, and make sure you don’t just include whoever is talking right now.
You almost never have to inflict harm as the GM. Usually unwanted character death is the result of the GM using harm as the default response to anything less than a 10+.
You can also use the talkative players’ misses or partial successes to make things happen to the quiet players. Then turn to them and say “What do you do?”
Jeremy Downey Not sure I follow. If a redcap swings an axe at a guy, he fails to act under pressure. Why wouldn’t I inflict harm?
Because knocking his signature weapon into a pit is more interesting? Because accidentally wounding an animal companion or hireling causes drama? Because alerting the dragon to your presence with the yell you made avoiding the blow makes things worse?
Eric Lamoureux You certainly could inflict harm, but you can also use any of the other GM moves on a miss, and you never want to make any one move too often.
So yes, when the redcap swings its axe, you might simply inflict harm, or you might put someone in trouble: “The redcap swings the axe and… he misses you! Just as you’re about to start thanking whatever deity will listen, though, you feel a rope loop tight around your legs and pull you up into the trees. The redcap cackles and foes a little jig. ‘Me caught food! Me caught food!’” Then you turn to one of the shy players and say, “Owen, you hear the redcap’s jubilant cries in the distance. Sounds like he’s caught something big near where Kurt was searching. You feel an uneasy tingle in your gut. Kurt, do you cry out for help or keep quiet?” Kurt’s player says he cries out for help, and you turn back to the shy player. “Yep, Kurt’s hollering for help. What do you do?”
There. Makes sense, it’s genre-appropriate, and it gives you a natural chance to shift the spotlight.
I personally think the trick to a good pbta is cross concerns between characters. If a story element or npc only matters to one pc, use that element sparingly (perhaps save that element for a hard move). What you really want is elements that 2 or 3 pc’s care about and will respond to, especially if what they want differs. Maybe two pc’s care about the spunky young trouble maker. Maybe one pc wants to keep them safe, and a different wants to mold them into their image. Well what if that npc begs to go with their mentor pc into a dangerous situation. All the sudden the pc’s are at cross purpose, but not in an irrevocable way.
Eric Lamoureux Also remember that any move the GM makes is reactive to the players and their moves (or lack thereof). Presumably the redcap swinging the axe is reactive to something the player did; simply don’t go that direction (telegraphing an attack) if there’s too much harm-trading going on.
Or, you know, telegraph an attack on a quiet player’s PC instead of the player’s that triggered the GM move. Use the GM moves to “cross-pollinate” participation.
Imo, the main flaw with the spotlight mechanic is a lack of an interrupt mechanic. For DW, I always viewed the Hold (or class-based holds for FotF), as the main solution to something like this, but rarely is the Hold able to be used off-spotlight and/or the hold is locked in advanced moves (other than Defend or Thief stuff). In the case of Defending off-turn, it’s a fairly specific instance where this narrative control is given.
A great many good narrative games have ‘bennies’ that allow the player to grab spotlight without a literal verbal interruption. This, to me, is a very important thing… as we are taught from as kids ‘never to interrupt.’
I believe in FotF you can bleed LUC to interject, along with class-based holds? In Headspace they solved this issue by having a “shared mental experience” between players; which, to me, was brilliant… every move that required virtual help from the party, had consequential feedback (automatically involving all the players).
Beyond this, the spotlight is obviously also mitigated by mechanics such as ‘Bond’ (which may force a reaction). However, this seems too abstracted into roleplay to be useful in the strict damage sense.
Ultimately, as usual, it’s up to the GM to make more use of these “mechanics” I suppose. Ideally, they would exist as more than simple GM tricks though, and be baked into the system (like Cortex, FATE, Genesys, etc. seem to do).
Where is the spotlight mechanic in the AW rules? I can’t find it.
It is not really a mechanic. More of a rule of thumb (like everything else AW). Some hacks call for a beanbag or something, being passed/thrown around. In games like Swords w/o Master, it is key… and allows the player to toss it to whomever is relavant in a proactively inclusive way, rather than waiting on a reaction or GM.
I am a big believer in visceral gaming. So beanbags and bennies are key. Use something for your holds, luck, etc., like poker chips and so forth.
All these tricks helps avoid AP and spotlight issues.