Venture-Captain, Minnesota
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First person omniscient tends to be reserved for people with a godlike view of the story. Maybe they have superpowers. Maybe they are the sole survivor of an apocalypse, but have found a way to read the memories of the dead. Maybe they're pieceing details together and speculating hard on what everyone else is thinking. It's an interesting narrative technique but not used often. The novel, The Book Thief, was first person omniscient that pretended to the third person omniscient for most of the storyline, but that was because the narrator was rather unusual.
To bring this back to the original subject of the thread... I hope to never see first person omniscient in a game by a player character. That would make the phrase, "I know what you're thinking, but listen..." a little creepy. (It might be cool coming from a telepathic monster like a vrock or an animate dream.)
Hmm
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Lamplighter, I do that too! Setting expectations in the beginning of my PbPs let everyone know what they're in for! Actually, come to think of it, I do that a bit in my IRL introductions at tables too.
Hmm
Credit where credit is due, I stole the idea from you when I started PbP Gming again.
EDIT: And while I was posting, you got promoted from Hmm to Venture Agent! Congrats!
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Venture-Captain, Minnesota
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Lamplighter, I do that too! Setting expectations in the beginning of my PbPs let everyone know what they're in for! Actually, come to think of it, I do that a bit in my IRL introductions at tables too.
Hmm
Credit where credit is due, I stole the idea from you when I started PbP Gming again.
EDIT: And while I was posting, you got promoted from Hmm to Venture Agent! Congrats!
You stole the idea from me?
This so totally made my day, Lamplighter! You're one of my heroes. True story: I GMed a certain module where the chief NPC had your face. (Okay, the face of your avatar.) So the group renamed the NPC GM Lamplighter. And when that NPC got in trouble, the group's rally cry was, "We're doing this for Lamplighter, boys! He needs us!"
Yes, the VA promotion is really, really recent. So recent I have not received my download bounty from Paizo. I hear they offer a free hug from Compton* for every scenario that you manage to lasso.
Yee Haw!
Hmm
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*Why, yes, I like to live dangerously!
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Lamplighter, I do that too! Setting expectations in the beginning of my PbPs let everyone know what they're in for! Actually, come to think of it, I do that a bit in my IRL introductions at tables too.
Hmm
Credit where credit is due, I stole the idea from you when I started PbP Gming again.
EDIT: And while I was posting, you got promoted from Hmm to Venture Agent! Congrats!
You stole the idea from me?
This so totally made my day, Lamplighter! You're one of my heroes. True story: I GMed a certain module where the chief NPC had your face. (Okay, the face of your avatar.) So the group renamed the NPC GM Lamplighter. And when that NPC got in trouble, the group's rally cry was, "We're doing this for Lamplighter, boys! He needs us!"
Yes, the VA promotion is really, really recent. So recent I have not received my download bounty from Paizo. I hear they offer a free hug from Compton* for every scenario that you manage to lasso.
Yee Haw!
Hmm
___
*Why, yes, I like to live dangerously!
Now I wanna play in Either a PbP From Hmm or Lamplighter... *stalks the boards*
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For those tables where it 'slows down' the interaction at the table, what has been the experience with the slow-down?
I have GMed for players who seem to have an aversion to doing things the 'ordinary' way, and tend to slow down the story by adding interesting stuff in. Trying to pick fights with friendly NPCs, arguing about whether to do the time critical mission or try to follow the trail of the Aspis agent, that sort of thing -- all of which take time that doesn't progress the scenario. Having the NPC refuse to get involved with (off-topic) arguments and so on tends to elicit complaints of railroading.
It's surprisingly difficult (to me, anyway) to get these players to direct that creative energy toward the story that the scenario has set up. And because all the focus goes to side missions, the combat encounters can feel rather dry. OTOH when players (sometimes the same ones) direct that creative energy in the same direction as the story, I think we do see speed up and the combats and skill check type stuff can be a lot more engaging.
I really enjoy the players engaging with the world, but I struggle for time and interest in the "official" content when that engagement doesn't align with the scenario story. Maybe that's the difference between "goofing off" and "productive" role-playing? I would love a tool to redirect player engagement without making them feel that I'm taking away their agency, but the best we have at the moment is an OOC compromise that sometimes PFS works that way (and occasional unusually long sessions to allow for "bonus content").
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Okay, if it could be construed as 'being a jerk' to make someone sing, however horribly, is it allowed in a Goblins module or is it still a violation of campaign rules?
really? Are you looking to push that?
I have Dmed this 14 times. Never once did I have a person give me a hard time about singing. I start off singing the first song, and then I role play a goblin from the tribe and ask a player I know will sing to sing us his goblin song. I have had people say they are not good at singing and I tell them to just read it then. But even then they try to sing it. Poog's song is not easy to sing.
If you wanna play a table top game and refuse to read something off your character sheet i think you have some issues.
Venture-Lieutenant, Netherlands—Leiden
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Okay, if it could be construed as 'being a jerk' to make someone sing, however horribly, is it allowed in a Goblins module or is it still a violation of campaign rules?
I think the idea you should cultivate to make the singing go over well is "it's not embarrassing if I'm not the only one doing it". They're goblin songs; clearly nobody's expecting you to sing really well. Rather, to help people loosen up a bit and embrace the crazy.
If someone's really uncomfortable, I wouldn't make him/her sing, but if I start off by singing myself, then picking someone else who's okay with it but also doesn't sing very well, I think the ice would be broken. And even someone normally nervous about it might be more willing to.
Still wouldn't press if he/she really didn't want to.
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really? Are you looking to push that?I have Dmed this 14 times. Never once did I have a person give me a hard time about singing. I start off singing the first song, and then I role play a goblin from the tribe and ask a player I know will sing to sing us his goblin song. I have had people say they are not good at singing and I tell them to just read it then. But even then they try to sing it. Poog's song is not easy to sing.
If you wanna play a table top game and refuse to read something off your character sheet i think you have some issues.
I'm not thinking 'for myself' on this one. I'm thinking for the poor eardrums of all my fellow players within a four table radius...
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Contributor
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So when I played We Be Goblins Free, I got captivated by the singing enemy in that mod, and was one round away from being coup de graced. I needed a 19 or higher to save myself. My GM required us to sing the goblin songs to use our rerolls, and so I sang my heart out poorly, just as a goblin should.
I rolled a natural 20 on the reroll.
Always sing the goblin song. ALWAYS.
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Propagate a culture of admiring talented roleplayers and viewing them as desirable models of something to aspire to (even if you're not as good as they are; it's okay so long as you try), that's my advice. I've always been a talented actor who never grew out of his "creative play" stage, but I seriously languished for several years in environments where creative play was downright DISCOURAGED, both passively and sometimes actively even though those were the environments where the above culture should have been the reigning one (World of Wacraft, for starters, but also my college's official gaming group, of all places), so this is something I'd really like to see happen.