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Jul. 4th, 2010 08:00 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
dmxratedOnly several entries ago, when I wrote about my chat with Melissa, I mentioned something about Dungeons & Dragons. Jake wondered what that was all about, and shared something with me two nights ago called Big Eyes, Small Mouth, which he said might interest me more than the typical medieval stuff that we're all familiar with. I'll get to that soon enough.
Well, this whole thing has mainly to do with building up the story for part I of Monster Collection Chronicles. From what I researched before, many unrelated adventures played by the same group of people become a campaign, where everyone retains their stat gains for the next adventure. Likewise, MCC part I is going to consist of a bunch of (likely unrelated) missions that our heroes are sent on, the purpose for each being to liberate certain areas, collect Monster Items or other artifacts, rescue someone, or whatever else might come to mind. Most (quite likely all) of these will involve fighting something or another, since that's kinda the point of this whole ficseries.
(Yeah, I did say part I. Even though parts III and IV are also gonna be like this, part I is what takes place mostly in Mon World, which shares the mostly ancient or medieval settings with D&D, albeit not entirely.)
Another thing that interested me about D&D was the concept of using dice to determine outcomes of what anyone does. From what I understand, each player controls one character in the game, and makes that character's decisions. Contrast this with video game RPGs (where one player makes decisions for all playable characters) and non-controlled media, such as anime or books (where all characters act on their own). In a tabletop game, a player can choose between attacking a monster, unlocking a door, etc., and the outcome is decided at the roll of a die. Similarly, when I get around to writing MCC, battles will be played out non-linearly, with each character choosing to attack an enemy physically, cast an attack spell, assist an ally, try to bypass or evade an enemy or attack, or whatever else would be possible. Anything is free to happen, provided it does not conflict with the overall plot.
Now, about Big Eyes, Small Mouth, I've just gotten started reading the instructions to that yesterday. From what Jake told me, though, it's up to the player to provide the settings and scenarios to happen. All BESM provides is some basic guidelines on how to play the game. In a way, this kinda defeats the purpose of why I was interested in a tabletop game, because I was looking specifically for ideas of stuff to make happen.
I understand there's also this whole concept of character creation and classes. Well, yeah, character creation is an essential part of any story. However, most RPGs that I'm familiar with don't have classes, because only a handful of characters even join the party along the way, and they have their own personality, abilities, strengths, and weaknesses anyway. In MCC, we have twelve members for the main party (all human with enhanced physical abilities and magical powers), plus any monsters they can optionally summon to aid them (whom range from humanoid to completely non-human); in a way, everyone already has a class of some kind.
So, in short, I was hoping to find ideas for storybuilding by showing some interest in D&D, or really, any tabletop game that has a similar concept. By having the Game Master come up with his or her own plots, BESM pretty much lacks what I'm specifically looking for.
Well, this whole thing has mainly to do with building up the story for part I of Monster Collection Chronicles. From what I researched before, many unrelated adventures played by the same group of people become a campaign, where everyone retains their stat gains for the next adventure. Likewise, MCC part I is going to consist of a bunch of (likely unrelated) missions that our heroes are sent on, the purpose for each being to liberate certain areas, collect Monster Items or other artifacts, rescue someone, or whatever else might come to mind. Most (quite likely all) of these will involve fighting something or another, since that's kinda the point of this whole ficseries.
(Yeah, I did say part I. Even though parts III and IV are also gonna be like this, part I is what takes place mostly in Mon World, which shares the mostly ancient or medieval settings with D&D, albeit not entirely.)
Another thing that interested me about D&D was the concept of using dice to determine outcomes of what anyone does. From what I understand, each player controls one character in the game, and makes that character's decisions. Contrast this with video game RPGs (where one player makes decisions for all playable characters) and non-controlled media, such as anime or books (where all characters act on their own). In a tabletop game, a player can choose between attacking a monster, unlocking a door, etc., and the outcome is decided at the roll of a die. Similarly, when I get around to writing MCC, battles will be played out non-linearly, with each character choosing to attack an enemy physically, cast an attack spell, assist an ally, try to bypass or evade an enemy or attack, or whatever else would be possible. Anything is free to happen, provided it does not conflict with the overall plot.
Now, about Big Eyes, Small Mouth, I've just gotten started reading the instructions to that yesterday. From what Jake told me, though, it's up to the player to provide the settings and scenarios to happen. All BESM provides is some basic guidelines on how to play the game. In a way, this kinda defeats the purpose of why I was interested in a tabletop game, because I was looking specifically for ideas of stuff to make happen.
I understand there's also this whole concept of character creation and classes. Well, yeah, character creation is an essential part of any story. However, most RPGs that I'm familiar with don't have classes, because only a handful of characters even join the party along the way, and they have their own personality, abilities, strengths, and weaknesses anyway. In MCC, we have twelve members for the main party (all human with enhanced physical abilities and magical powers), plus any monsters they can optionally summon to aid them (whom range from humanoid to completely non-human); in a way, everyone already has a class of some kind.
So, in short, I was hoping to find ideas for storybuilding by showing some interest in D&D, or really, any tabletop game that has a similar concept. By having the Game Master come up with his or her own plots, BESM pretty much lacks what I'm specifically looking for.
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Date: 2019-07-14 05:52 pm (UTC)Huh, I've been writing a rant for the past week that strangely applies to this. I'm gonna post it and see whether you pick up something from it, but for now I'm going to say it again : not just wrong genre, wrong medium. Written story = interactive game. Stating how you're going to spend tedious detail on a continuous string of battles makes it sound terribly boring. Get a plot instead, you only have a premise so far.
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Date: 2019-07-14 05:53 pm (UTC)Plot is written around the characters, but what you're trying to do is build a story around a combat premise, and you still talk about characters as if they're stats, class, dice, whatever. When are you going to talk about their decisions making a difference to the story?
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Date: 2019-07-14 05:53 pm (UTC)To be honest, I think I might need help with developing the characters better and having them make actual choices relevant to the plot. From what I have in the entry with their bios... Well, I guess one example of development would be Drake learning to get along with Mondo better, or Katsuo becoming less prejudiced towards girls as he spends time with the other Knights. If that's part of what you mean.
As for decisions... Well, I don't even have any idea where they'll be going or what they'll be doing (other than finding the Monster Items and liberating parts of the world) anytime before they confront Warp at the end of the fic. To have someone make a decision, you need some kind of situation for them to be in, don't you?
Please feel free to elaborate further if I mis-answered you.
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Date: 2019-07-14 05:55 pm (UTC)These are examples of development, but it's not part of the plot composition yet. Getting them into the plot would be by thinking up which events prompt the change. Say, the group splits up for one reason or another, and (perhaps through both of them having required skills for a certain mission), Drake and Mondo need to work together. Whatever mission this would be would also get the overall goal a little further, such as obtaining a useful item or likewise.
If a battle occurs here, this would be an example where the battle's tone would have to neglect advanced detail on who does what, and focus on Drake and Mondo interacting.
On a similar note, Katsuo's distrust towards the female gender would be a massive impairment in battle, which again would affect combat in a non-stats sort of way. He will probably screw up if he happens to need to trust a female companion. They would have to adapt their group dynamic in battle and outside of it to compensate for it, regardless of whether the new structure is the best or not when looking at stats alone.
Well, I don't even have any idea where they'll be going or what they'll be doing (other than finding the Monster Items and liberating parts of the world) anytime before they confront Warp at the end of the fic.
And this is an epic problem, cause this means you have no plot at all, only a premise. But you can overcome it easily by just starting. It took me about minute to think up the following : they saved a city, but destroyed the harvest storage by accident, and people are now going to starve to death. The Forest Angel's pools have been destroyed/tainted, Utahime isn't available for some reason, so they can't easily fix it. They have to find a monster who controls the green wind. Which characters would, given their personality, volunteer to go on such a mission, and would also have the skills for it? They might have to measure skill with patience here. Boom, decisions.
Now let's say they split up, one group goes onto the relatively docile mission of finding that monster, the others move on to reinforce a rebellion, smuggle some people elsewhere. Both groups think they're doing a low key mission that they're fit for.
Group finding the monster has some of the long-distance magicians, who usually provide cover cause they can't handle overt physical engagement, and they don't expect to do any fighting they can't flee from. Meanwhile, the other group is anticipating only small combat while providing an escort through some anti-teleport area.
Now let the first group encounter something that requires them to engage in open combat, which they aren't all that good at. They have to improvise, use things they're not accustomed to using,etc. The second group meanwhile finds an obstacle they can't resolve with fighting off something, and also have to improvise. Voila, setting for lots of character decisions and interactions.
Do they want to call for help? From whom? What are their options? Is a member perhaps too proud to call for help? Who is in the area, what is in the area, Should they take anything in account while solving either situation? Perhaps another member got afraid of making a mistake like earlier in the village, and lingers when they should act. Or another might overcompensate, and make another mistake.
Last, all these events need to serve a purpose that actually leads directly to confronting Warp. With RPG's, perhaps it is enough to just build stats, but for a story there needs to be a greater connection. Hm, I have a rant about this somewhere too, about final villains and their interaction with the plot. I'll see whether I can fix it up and post it.
Last, perhaps try filling out this for starters (http://fyuvix.deviantart.com/art/Character-Balance-Meme-154832353), learn to know you characters. Once you've got a hang of them, they and the world will help build the story.
no subject
Date: 2019-07-14 05:55 pm (UTC)Nooooooo!
Date: 2019-07-14 05:56 pm (UTC)The chart is a test to get to know you characters, and I recommended it to see how well you know you characters. There's no point in modifying the test cause then you can just tweak it fake your cast being balanced. Then it will be useless.
Re: Nooooooo!
Date: 2019-07-14 05:56 pm (UTC)Well, it's good that the person who created it suggested to leave blank anything that one is unsure of or that doesn't apply wholly. However, this whole thing with numbers... Well, it might be easier for me if I could simply write "yes" or "no" for any that apply, although I do understand that that would leave no room for different degrees of a given trait that two or more characters have in common.
In any case, I also had the idea of creating a post to test myself on how much I remember from the biographies without looking back, and write the stuff down in my own words. I can remember some stuff about most of them, but Davis would be one of the harder ones for me to remember anything about.
Sound like a good idea?
Re: Nooooooo!
Date: 2019-07-14 05:57 pm (UTC)That might be useful to test memory, but if it's actually to test how well you know their personality, try writing a snippet for each of them.