Oak’s Cinematic Execution
“It is important to establish a cadence to the gameplay at the table. A strong balance of setting, description, props, action, dialogue, and more action. Interactivity has the potential to rise and fall. The creation of tension between the moment of the scene and the eventual fallout.”
Mechanics by nature should support cinematic execution. The oration of the narrative, of the story should not override the mechanical potential of the character, and likewise, the mechanical potential of the character should anchor well inside the description of the moment.
Our goal isn't to have a world with a gritty execution. We don't want to burn table time with mechanical survival. We will either ignore these things, or take them as assumed in most cases, unless they are the scenes of the moment. Running a check list is usually a loss of narrative potential.
A Few Guiding Principles
Cinematic Execution needs more than one kind of rhythm to feel good. It needs proper spotlighting. Most of all it needs proper transitions.
Roleplaying Rhythms: When you as the Story Guide are directing the flow of the players, it is best to keep track of a few different elements. First is the Active Phase Order. This is especially important in social engagements. Keeping an initiative and a real time turn counter of at least one minute up to five minutes per player as a framework will keep the overshining of our naturally charismatic or talkative players, and share the stage of our less assertive and ambitious players.
Spotlighting: While one player is chatting up, another could be five finger discount. They could add to the converse. Often Spotlighting isn’t needed. The players have a good amount of awareness to sharing the stage. If this isn’t true. Interact with a quiet player. Shine the light on them. Make them glow.
Transitions: Proper use of transitions is controversial possibly. Many inexperienced Story Guides will definitely know the transition from regular play to a combat engagement. This has to do more with travel. Unless there is a story related reason for travel, I don’t bother with it. A simple hand wave. “It takes the four of you about two hours to walk to the Bastion. The doors have a man on one side and a woman on the other. As you approach, they reach for the handles and open the doors for you.” Adding in all the extra moments can be worth it, but don’t let it slow things down.
Taking Control of Free Play
You are the intermediate as the Story Guide. When a player is hoarding the game time, you have to step up and move the narrative to someone else. When we are in person we can look about the table and judge the attention of our players. Yes, there are times where things are so wild with what is going on with one person the session revolves around them, but if your other players look disconnected or distracted. Shine light on them not with statements of “Pay Attention” or the like, but by interjecting against their inattention. Bring the story to them, engage with them, and move fast between your players. I keep 10 minutes of spot light max on any one player by design. Three minutes is the good ground for attention, just ask the music industry.
Action Outside Active Phase
When we are going around the table watching a combat engagement, our players are engaged. They’re waiting for their turn, sitting ready with their possible actions. They are keeping track of enemy movements, how their allies are getting messed up, and deciding on what they’ll be doing when they’re called on. Outside Active Phase Engagements, we can squeeze in cinematic fights. A quick couple of checks to see if attacks are hits. If they kill or the assailant escapes. Outgrowing the challenge is part of the story.
Outgrowing the Challenge
There is a point where a character is basically guaranteed to be able to execute a supporting character or unit. In these situations, we can let them throw their action in there with the checks and damages and let it be cinematic. Even multiple enemies. We don’t have to pull out the table and run every moment on the table. Sometimes it is fun to chop chop it with the mechanics, but not let setup eat into the flow of the narrative.
The opposite is true as well. If an enemy is too strong, don’t bother putting them on the table or entering an engagement. Not opening the door to tactical combat and laying the narrative weight down so the players can’t perform their shutdowns isn’t a showstopper. With the right finagling this is a stage setter.
Alabaster’s Memoir “Glory Hog”
I remember the first time I had a player approach me about someone else hogging the game. It wasn’t a dynamic I was particularly aware of. From my fourth table, pretty early on, I had a player who would crack jokes, make fun of the people around the table. Real full of crap kind of guy. Thought he was funnier than he was. He always played a so serious it is a joke type character.
The problem was interruptions and telling other players what they should do with their turns. Not that I am against it when the player being talked to asks for advice on what they should do. Unsolicited advice and unwarranted interruptions are what gets me piping down on Glory Hogs. We did eventually resolve the problem by removing the player from the group. I tried dozens of times to talk it out of him. These days I remove problem players immediately on zero tolerance issues. With how easy it is to find replacement players or a new Story Guide’s group to join. My best advice is to stay respectful and don’t test the consent sheet.
