![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
Puppetland
Apr. 23rd, 2011 06:05 pmI finally had a chance to run a game of Puppetland. For those who don't know and have failed to pay attention to my frothing before, Puppetland is storytelling RPG where characters play puppets in a toytown dystopia.
This was only my second attempt at running a game.
The players managed to break things before the game had even started. I failed to explain properly what the puzzle pieces were for. They thought that was where to draw the picture. I also didn't manage to get across that this doesn't need to be a perfect drawing. Just an impression.
I didn't give the players sufficient motivation to chase plot. This is something I'll have to work on for next time.![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
masterofapath fortunately took pity on me and suggested doing something before I was forced to drag one of the players away.
I was surprised how quickly players burned through the plot I had.flannelcat's games seem to take us longer to deal with things. Will possibly have to take notes next time. I was thinking I had enough material for at least three games but used it all up in one.
Hopefully the players didn't feel too railroaded. There was a literal railroad which I hadn't worked out the details of fully but I needed more material so I slotted it in. I did try and work on a principle of if people come up with clever ideas or used their puppet's abilities creatively I'd let them have it.
It's really quite difficult to keep track of where all the players were and where my NPCs were at any given time. You GMs! How do you manage it?
We were hoping to manage a game of Land Of Og. I found a copy of the rules and found the concept sounded like fun (stupid cavemen with limited vocabulary who like hitting things) but the resolution system was a little confusing what with being scattered around several segments of the rulebook, and not explaining at the start exactly what's needed. I'm also not totally sold on the language system (which is the USP of the game). You have 18 words characters might use, but will only understand one or two of them. But that means in order to get across a concept the speaker and listener needs to understand the same word which seems unlikely. Seems some people have played a variant where the cavemen understand all 18 words but can only use one or two of them (either that or I misunderstood and these are the correct rules). This does seem a more useful set of rules and also means players don't have to pretend not to understand concepts.
Will have to try and run a game of this. Cavemen who like to hit things doesn't lend itself to overly complex plots so I should be okay here.
This was only my second attempt at running a game.
The players managed to break things before the game had even started. I failed to explain properly what the puzzle pieces were for. They thought that was where to draw the picture. I also didn't manage to get across that this doesn't need to be a perfect drawing. Just an impression.
I didn't give the players sufficient motivation to chase plot. This is something I'll have to work on for next time.
masterofapath fortunately took pity on me and suggested doing something before I was forced to drag one of the players away. I was surprised how quickly players burned through the plot I had.
flannelcat's games seem to take us longer to deal with things. Will possibly have to take notes next time. I was thinking I had enough material for at least three games but used it all up in one. Hopefully the players didn't feel too railroaded. There was a literal railroad which I hadn't worked out the details of fully but I needed more material so I slotted it in. I did try and work on a principle of if people come up with clever ideas or used their puppet's abilities creatively I'd let them have it.
It's really quite difficult to keep track of where all the players were and where my NPCs were at any given time. You GMs! How do you manage it?
We were hoping to manage a game of Land Of Og. I found a copy of the rules and found the concept sounded like fun (stupid cavemen with limited vocabulary who like hitting things) but the resolution system was a little confusing what with being scattered around several segments of the rulebook, and not explaining at the start exactly what's needed. I'm also not totally sold on the language system (which is the USP of the game). You have 18 words characters might use, but will only understand one or two of them. But that means in order to get across a concept the speaker and listener needs to understand the same word which seems unlikely. Seems some people have played a variant where the cavemen understand all 18 words but can only use one or two of them (either that or I misunderstood and these are the correct rules). This does seem a more useful set of rules and also means players don't have to pretend not to understand concepts.
Will have to try and run a game of this. Cavemen who like to hit things doesn't lend itself to overly complex plots so I should be okay here.
