Sonnet Trek

[subplotkudzu]

 Looking back over the season I think it went pretty well. One thing that is apparent is how the thee act model plotting style - the structure of hook/plot turn 1/pinch 1/midpoint/pinch 2/plot turn 2/resolution - defined the feel of the games. It's not a structure I use for other games, but the formalization of it is what makes Trek feel like Trek. Just as the rules for a Sonnet are what makes it different from a Haiku. And in many ways the restrictions of the form improved the game: if I couldn't get the idea to conform in some way to the structure I needed to scrap it and start over. There were several plot ideas that died on the table because I couldn't do that, and some (like "who knows what evil lurks" and "Passion" that I consciously left the lines open to improv them once I had the players input, but the better games, such as "Stellar Nursery" where the ones where the structure was all in place. 

While Decipher trek has this wonderful advice on the episode construction, it's discussion of season construction pales before the Buffy the Vampire Slayer rulebook. I expect the next time I put together a TV show themed game I'll make extensive use of both. And now I need to write the essay on how to do that for Comic Books.

Comments

[(Anonymous)]

The three-act structure long has been the mold
for dramas one the stage, TV and screen.
But does it work when players in the scene
are also watching how the tale unfolds?

When characters and audience are one,
The author cannot order them about
And tell them when to run or fight or shout
For taking orders doesn't seem like fun.

And so the author must resort to tricks
To make the story come out as it should;
Rely on genre to provide a fix.

But if the players choose what seems them good
Ignoring genre when they make their picks,
The author struggles then to save the mood.

JLC

[brianrogers.livejournal.com]

The three-act structure long has been the mold
for dramas one the stage, TV and screen.
But does it work when players in the scene
are also watching how the tale unfolds?

Yes.

[(Anonymous)]

Players ride railroad,
All have a good genre time.
No Munchkins aboard.

[brianrogers.livejournal.com]

You're starting to worry me.

I think the main ingredient to getting this to work is that I won't run something like this without the assurance that the players will abide by certain genre conventions - or at least have their characters act along a consistent pattern if we're not in a genre.

I'm hard pressed to call it railroading if I tell everyone "to play in this game you have to act like a Star Fleet Officer" and the players agree. That lets me introduce scenarios which I know that they, as starfleet officers, will have to deal with and that, as startfleet officers, some options are off the table. That eases the burden of trying to predict their actions. The three act model forces me to design plots where the information is doled out in a consistent fashion. yes, the players did sometimes miss things, and sometimes jumped ahead of what I have planned, but that will just accelerate or alter the plot. Since I more or less stopped plotting the Resolution part to let them fill in as they will the player's actions determine how the story ends.

That's not railroading, at least not by my definition. It's just a consensus of the direction the story will take.

[thismustbetheplace-rjs.blogspot.com (from livejournal.com)]

You're just supposed to applaud. :) I haven't done poetic forms since high school....

It makes for interesting reading, at least.