| 1 person marked this as a favorite. |
I just posted this on Facebook and thought folks here would get a kick out of it:
So, yesterday, on one of our epic 12-hour dates, my lady friend evinced interest in TTRPGs (tabletop roleplaying games, D&D being the most famous) by way of asking how the Pathfinder game I played Tuesday night went. She had no idea whatsoever what they are, how they work, etc. So I pulled this move I saw online in a video of that red-headed lady from Daredevil pull on a radio interview, where she basically taught the interviewer what it’s all about by running a very free-form encounter for him—walking along a trail at night and being approached by an owlbear (if you don’t know what an owlbear is, I bet you can figure it out.)
I asked Chioma if she wanted to be a wizard or a fighter and she said, “Babe, I AM a wizard.”
So the owlbear attacks and I ask her what she wants to do. And she said, “Can I stop time?” I sort of spluttered and said, “Well, that would number you among the four or five most powerful wizards on the planet. But I guess, sure.”
Then, departing from the script as written by Daredevil lady—is her name Karen something?—I had Chi hear some music up the trail. So instead of stopping time, she turned into a tree, to the owlbear’s confusion, so she could avoid being attacked and see what was going down.
I had a handful of gnomes, goblins, and halflings pushing and pulling along a 1/8th scale replica of a caravel, painted in gaudy colors and hung with fetishes, just scraping it along the trail. They were singing a sea chanty.
The owlbear went after them and I asked Chi what next. And she said (you have to imagine her Caribbean accent): “I will turn back into my true form and save the little men.”
Good instincts, eh?
I was waiting for "I put on my robe and wizard hat"
Hmmm... She does wear hats a lot!
Sounds like a fun time!
Her name is Deborah Ann Woll. "Karen" is a character she plays in Netflix's Daredevil.
She is an absolute treasure!
Huh, when I saw the thread title I thought of the Fantasy Fiction Formula by Deborah Chester.
Huh, when I saw the thread title I thought of the Fantasy Fiction Formula by Deborah Chester.
Interesting! I'm not familiar with that. I know it from descriptions of improvisational techniques, I think.
For just getting into ttrpgs without any idea of how they work? Yeah this approach you did was good, in my opinion. It's improve with paper rules and there's a lot of people who need to relearn how to essentially play pretend, so giving them an example to work as a primer that's straight to the point is good.
Her name is Deborah Ann Woll. "Karen" is a character she plays in Netflix's Daredevil.
She is an absolute treasure!
Oh, hey! Thanks for this!
Sounds like a fun time!
It was, thank you!
For just getting into ttrpgs without any idea of how they work? Yeah this approach you did was good, in my opinion. It's improve with paper rules and there's a lot of people who need to relearn how to essentially play pretend, so giving them an example to work as a primer that's straight to the point is good.
"Improv with paper rules," love that description.
| 2 people marked this as a favorite. |
Huh, when I saw the thread title I thought of the Fantasy Fiction Formula by Deborah Chester.Interesting! I'm not familiar with that. I know it from descriptions of improvisational techniques, I think.
She's a fantasy writer, has over 40 published novels including the above-referenced book about the craft of writing (not limited to fantasy books). She also teached writing classes at college, one of her students, who mentions her often, was Jim Butcher, the writer of the Dresden Files.
The titular "Yea, and..." is something out of the book I mentioned, in regards to how to set up consequences for your protagonists actions, although in The Fantasy Fiction Formula it was more laid out in the sense of "Yes, but..." or "No, and...", i.e. having your hero succeed at this big task without something going wrong will often come off as boring, so it is better if things do go wrong in some way.
| 1 person marked this as a favorite. |
The combination of "Yes, but" and "No, and" are useful storytelling tools for making sure your characters always have interesting challenges still ahead of them so that tension never dips too low, but I have to admit my first assumption regarding the title was more to do with common Improv advice, "Yes and" where you're meant to take whatever your partner just gave you and build on it, rather than trying to change their setup or ignore it entirely to introduce your own narrative.
Of course, "Yes, and" and "No, but" are also their own useful tension management tools for when you need to moderate the tension from getting too high, but that's another topic.