Narration

[Scotty]

Hey All,

How much to you narrate? Do you ever narrate your players characters? Or do you let them role play all scenes?

Do you plan a game down to details? Or do you just have a high level plot and let the characters take it from there?

Thanks for the help!

[Ineti]

I don't narrate for my players, I let them do all the role-playing. Sometimes I'll cut a scene short if it's dragging along or if the players aren't getting to the point. I don't like doing the "Your character does this and that..." The players need to have the free will to play their characters, or at least have the illusion of free will.

As for the episodes I narrate, they're usually planned out with a fair amount of detail, with wiggle room for the inevitable left turn the players make when they really ought have gone right.

Once in a great while, esp. when I'm not as prepared as I'd like, I'll jot down the large plot and ad lib the whole thing. I prefer to have some prep time, though.

[Liz Not Beth]

This message has been removed on request by the
poster

[AslanC]

I may narrate a character into a scene. Instead of saying "Okay where do you go after waking up?" I might say "After a sonic shower and a quick cup of coffee you decide to head to 10 Forward for some breakfast."

Otherwise it is up to the players.

As for the whole preparing thing. Depends, some adventures are written out, most are plot-pointed with npcs written out, but otherwise free-form.

[Siroth]

I pretty much role-play as much as I think it's possible...

For some situations it just isn't appropriate, though. I mean, nobody wants to role-play a ten-hour survey of an asteroid field or so because that's just plain boredom. In those situations I try to get the players to work out some sort of schedule for how they do things.

For instance, if they are in this asteroid field and I know a Romulan ship will enter cloaked in an hour, I ask them what sort of things they do. That's their option to tell me what they do to detect stuff like that. If they don't take any special precautions, they won't discover the Romulans because the Warbird isn't usually detected. It might be by blind luck, but in that case I'd roll a secret check behind my screen and only say something if a good result comes up. Then again, I'm not above fudging dice rolls if I think it has more plot potential. Don't know if that sheds any light...

As for planning details, I gave up ages ago - nothing kills the GM's dedication more than hours upon hours of preparation that comes to naught because the players didn't explore it. I've caught myself trying to rail-road players into my details, and the gaming experience usually suffers as a result.

Instead I began improvizing and discovered (much to my surprise) that I had little trouble running the game like that. It took a little getting used to, but the experience improved as a result. I used to spend hours preparing. Now I can walk to the table with little more than five minutes of ideas at times, though thinking plots trough certainly helps.

It also killed my annoyance when players did something I didn't expect (and trust me - they always do! ), because I don't waste time on details anymore. After all, who cares if the Romulan commander has Intellect 4 or 5 (ICON) or if his Command skill is 3 or 5 ? If it serves my plot to let him roll well, then he will and the dice be damned! On the other hand, if the PCs are in trouble I'd also be inclined to cut them some slack. After all, I'm there to serve the plot and suspence of the game and not to kill them - I'm a game master, not a villain

[Polanski]

Well ...
I let my PCs play and do as they wish...

We tend to have episodes where the 'action' is and then the episodes where they are free to role play every day live if so desired.

I also use cutscenes and personal logs a lot. Rather than have an officer (such as captain) tell them something out of the blue or try to move them towards the discovery of certain event I write a cutscene in which they might be involved or write a personal log for the captain and then read it... it hints them on what might be happening (even if only the players are aware of this and not their characters) and it puts them in the proper mind set.

I also let them write cutscenes in which their characters do something they always wanted to do in that ... just the right way (subject of approval before the session of course).

And I made it a point that a player cannot use his/hers advancement (5 picks in CODA) unless they themselves have written ... and then read in front of the group their personal log.

I have been using this method for the last 12 months (2 seasons) and it works wonders. Imagine having players tell you at midnight that we should really play another 20 minutes because it is so much fun and the story is so good. Or them hunting you down during the weekdays and asking for extra session to take care of this superb sub plot.

I have some cutscenes as an examples if anyone is interested in reading them ... just let me know

[KillerWhale]

I would be interested in those cutscences Polanski! After 70 episodes, I'm in need of new ideas.

Personnally I let the players do whatever they wish but I always have them face the consequences. Of course, I do fast forwards when there are several days of travel for example, just asking them how they occupy themselves (unless there's a good occasion for RPGing, we leave it at that).

I never narrate the PCs - I may however speed things up, if the players have a plan, agreed on it, but actually don't do anything: "OK, we beam down." "Coffee, hot" "Well, I wonder who this spy is." "Ah, remember in season 4 when..." There is some time when I will finally say "OK, guys, you said you wanted to beam down?"

For eps, I do no more than an outline, hardly more than a page - when I do not convert adventures for other RPGs of course.