When I need to further imagineer a situation that comes up in play, or get a mental handle on what the situation is, my main technique is:
A) What would happen in a Jack Vance story? When I need to know the character of a village, or the schemes of the NPCs, or any other sort of improvisational jazz, 99% of the time I pretend it's a Jack Vance story and go with what comes to mind. Usually this results in lots of NPC jerks in the campaign, which I think keeps things spicy.
B) However, when dealing with the Weird, the Preternatural, "The Mythic Underworld" and the lands of "Tyranny and Mutation," 99% of the time I think of how things would be in a Clark Ashton Smith story and go with that for how the situation develops. This does not discount Vancian Magic-Users by any means!
Thursday, April 28, 2011
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That's a really good use for the source fiction! Thanks, I'll try this in my next game.
ReplyDeleteNot a bad way of thinking. I've done A) before, but also have a "Brackett mode", mostly influenced by the Skaith books.
ReplyDeleteNice mindset. I do believe I'll try this tack next time. thanks. :)
ReplyDeleteThe only "problem" with this approach is that it requires the referee to have read enough Vance and Smith to be able to draw upon them for inspiration -- but then I probably wouldn't want to game with a ref who hadn't! =)
ReplyDeleteI tend to use CAS for both, it's just that for non-Mythic Underworld areas I use his Averoigne cycle.
ReplyDeleteI'll admit to the large numbers of NPC Jerks in my past campaigns and add in some 'obsessive' types... like people whose beliefs are countered by the reality, but they continue to insist that their beliefs are right and 'reality' is wrong.
ReplyDeleteNice approach. I'd go with Moorcock for both (and, yes, that sounds terrible when I say it in my head).
ReplyDeletewhen in doubt: throw 7 screaming diz busters at them
ReplyDeleteI don't agree. I love Vance's stories but they always end in failure. To emulate that is like some kind of reverse rail-roading where the players are reluctant to "burst bubbles".
ReplyDeleteB. Portly Esq.: There is more to vance than Cugel, you know. :) Read Planet of Adventure and The Demon Princes for examples of vancian plotting where things go right (a lot of the time, at least).
ReplyDeleteMy experience has been that, aside from Cugel, the vaguely sympathetic protagonist generally triumphs, albeit often in an anticlimatic fashion, over the wicked adversary.
ReplyDeleteJust because Blair is "imagineering" a Vancian worldview/NPCs/situation/whatevs, doesn't mean that it's going to turn out remotely the same way. There is player cunning and the roll of the dice to account for as well..
ReplyDeleteI don't really think of author's when I think of where my stuffs going to go, in true Ouroboros fashion, I think, "What would Joesky do? Or J. Rients?"
Portly, do you remember what happened the first time I came and played in Blair's game with you guys? That was the poison flowers TPK.
ReplyDeleteJust sayin'.
I'm calling bullshit on this one. A cursory perusal of the PA summaries on RBV show an alarming number of PCs murderized; Vance never killed anyone as efficiently as Blair.
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