I totally agree with you about How We Came to Live Here. I was really looking forward to it and it was okay – there were definitely some cool and sad things that happened, but it still felt a little flat. It can make for a really great one shot, but it’s not a given, and I think that’s partly because the best practices haven’t yet been established.

I learned quite a bit from our session, though, and I’ll be running the same scenario again this Monday so we’ll see if a few changes make a difference. I mean, there’s always going to be a certain amount of the unknowable, but I think I can do some things that will start us out on better grounds, like:

1. Condense conflict rules to one easy-to-reference page.

2. Make sure the Inside/Outside Players (GMs) are paying attention to the players further down the line who have to wait longer for a scene and make sure those players get involved early.

3. Either have brief intro scenes or push the existence of the love triangle as a real thing early on. We should have pushed you guys together harder and let you tear yourselves apart.

Anyway, I’m hopeful that a few small changes will make a big difference.

I have a lot that I want to say about the Jeepform Sampler stuff, too, but I’ll probably add my thoughts at the Structured Freeform forum later tomorrow.

-Rachel.

Also, many players /were/ taking their roles absolutely seriously, but their roles were totally whacky. Do you mean that you’d like to see people /play/ their roles more seriously (less weirdly)?

I thought the exercise bit went fine, and you guys used what you learned later on, so all is well there (nd you don’t suck). I was unhappy with The Butterforger because it went directly to wackytown, and I think the game has a lot of potential for absolutely lethal humor if played with more subtlety, that’s all. If I were to facilitate it again, I’d start by saying “This will be ten times more hilarious if you take your role very seriously and let the humor emerge organically from character and situation.” It’s no big deal – we try things, we learn. Plus I may be totally wrong!