[AP] Two Cities, One Desert

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Re: [AP] Two Cities, One Desert
« Reply #15 on: September 01, 2012, 12:47:16 PM »
On a more positive note, here are some other things I learned and that we discussed at the end of the game that I feel will help me become better and more versatile at roleplaying games:

1.
There are many times when a player says "I do a thing," and I (as MC) will ask for clarification. What I really want is more description, I want a clearer picture of the situation in my mind so that after a roll happens I know what to go back into the fiction with. This can be interpreted as me saying "no" or that it won't work, and shutting players down. Or that I'm demanding more description of tactical positioning, which can put players on the defensive if they think I will use their "mistakes" against them, tactically, when what I really want is a clear picture in my mind so I can easily make decisions from the perspective of NPCs (who are rarely skilled tacticians).

But I'm not trying to say "no," except maybe in situations where I think there's a discrepancy between what I've described and what the player envisions, and even then I just want to clarify stuff that's important and give the player a chance to revise their description. I mean, in one sense, I am asking players to justify their descriptions, but I'm also willing to accept their characters doing awesomely implausible things if that's what they want to describe, and I at least try to be fairly generous in that regard. So I need to work on communicating that attitude better.

2.
Also, I have a tendency to invent a situation, and then only reveal about half of it to the players right away, trusting that the game provides them ample opportunity to discover the rest, through read a thing moves, interacting with NPCs, and just poking around. In some cases, however, it turns out that instead of clearly stating that a situation is odd or difficult for reasons in the fiction that are not immediately clear, and that there is obviously more to this situation than is immediately obvious, it can seem like I am making things difficult because I'm saying "no" like in the first situation, shutting down the players description because I think it's wrong, or because I disagree with someone else's interpretation of a move. So probably I need to work on calling out the significance of stuff that I think is actually significant in the fiction, like situation I have prepared as part of my fronts or threats, and make it clear that I'm not just trying to be difficult.

Re: [AP] Two Cities, One Desert
« Reply #16 on: September 01, 2012, 12:54:27 PM »
Oh, also: I tried to have pictures for all the characters in this game, and for many of them I photoshopped them into 3-tone black, grey, and white portraits. They're pretty much all copyright, so I won't post them, but of you want to see them or use them in your game, email me or PM your email address with a request for AW Desert NPCs and I will send you a pdf with a bunch of them in it.

Re: [AP] Two Cities, One Desert
« Reply #17 on: September 01, 2012, 02:08:35 PM »
Wow. Those insights are superb and match up great with what I've experienced as well, but wouldn't have been able to identify or articulate myself.

All of these final posts are going into the "Apocalypse World Wisdom" file along with John Harper's insights.

Thank you for posting these Johnstone!

Re: [AP] Two Cities, One Desert
« Reply #18 on: September 05, 2012, 01:04:25 PM »
Cool, glad you got something out of it.