Okay, so we had a terrible storm last night that knocked out all internet in our area and made it impossible to get anything done. I've spent the last four hours at a coffeeshop across town, because not being able to get anything done online for more than a few hours started giving me the uncontrollable shakes. But in spite of all that, here we are, back and hopefully a little better at vlogging than we were last time!
Today, John and Anne talk about stunting, lighting and our cool t-shirts.
Question: While I am familiar with the concept, I have never played in a game in which stunting was a rule. Could you please lay out for us what your guidelines are regarding stunting and the use thereof?
Question: I am a great stunter. My latest storyteller started out awarding me 2 die stunts or better, but lowered this to 1 Die, or even no reward at all, even though I am still doing great stunts. I realize he is trying to establish an average reward for me, but it just discourages me from trying to be awesome with my stunts. Those things are hard work! What should I do?
It's an ongoing learning process. Things we learned this week: Anne is too pale, our walls are too white, John can't be allowed to hold change while he's talking because he'll jangle it annoyingly for like two straight minutes, and we need a better movie editing program that will let us make subtitles more readable. That or wear more uniformly colored clothing.
As always, in addition to any conversation you want to have about today's topic, let us know if you have suggestions for improvements.
The continuous Backflip stunt hypothetical made me laugh. The idea of a character doing the same stunt over and over until it annoys the ST and (possibly without the player knowing it) begins to ruin the game is familiar to me, though, as I was guilty of that in one game and it made heads fly.
ReplyDeleteI really liked your comment on how to explore mental and social stunts, though. It's been something our group's had trouble with A LOT throughout our time roleplaying. 'I get that doing a lot of awesome physical stuff gets you legend back, but how do you do it for mental or social?' I've always said 'come up with something impressive mentally or socially and I will give you legend back' but it's always come down to the fact that our players are not super geniuses and some of them aren't super social, so it's hard for them to play out impressive stuff in those departments.
One of my REALLY smart players pulled off an AWESOME mental stunt in one game though. There was a bomb hidden somewhere in the room that he could hear beeping, but had no idea where it was. He used the echolocation knack (Spatial Attunement?) in conjuction with Math Genius to emit sound at the same rate as the bomb's beeping and used advanced mathematics in the space of a second to determine the bomb's location in the room and defused it. We were all REALLY blown away. (no pun intended)
That IS a really awesome mental stunt. Kudos to that guy!
DeleteAwesome.
DeleteThat player is thinking with portals. I got an Odison that pulls stuff like that from time to time.
Another excellent video, and the introduction video was sweet and memorable. I hope the vlog continues in this format for the future!
ReplyDeleteI noticed that Anne rarely shifts left/right unless she is getting more comfortable in her chair. John shifts left/right frequently. It may help to put Anne further to the right so John has the range to wobble back and forth without going off frame.
It's true, John's a fidgeter. I'm sure we'll figure out this positioning thing yet!
DeleteThanks - that intro animation is a spellbinding example of my lack of a graphics art degree, but my advanced courses in Faking It Til I Make It.
Maybe get John a shorter chair? Or Anne a taller one? Or some kind of booster seat to keep you both in the frame?
ReplyDeleteMental/Social stunts have the problem of being awesome when used well and hard to conjure correctly. Worse is in situations where the first time is impressive but there're diminishing returns as time goes on. For example, if you stunt Mystery by ripping the skin off your index finger and using the blood to write your questions in Maya hieroglyphs on the surface of your obsidian mirror, and the glyphs boil into thick black smoke through which you peer and see the answers to your questions....
If I do say so myself, that's a very good stunt. But as with backflips, that stunt loses value with repetition. And how could you top that when you need that extra oomph? Cause right now all I have waiting in the wings is possibly kill a live turkey and use its heart's blood for that (the turkey being Tezcatlipoca's second most common animal form and that's who he got the mirror from), moving up to human when turkeys become passe...
Certain stunts can also be difficult to innovate because we tend to look for cause and effect.
DeleteFor example: The first time you rip the skin off your index finger and begin to scrawl in blood, everyone gets the impression you channel Mystery like that. We expect future uses of Mystery to be some variation on that core thematic.
If the next time you channel Mystery in the same story, you grab a hunk of maize and scatter the kernels on the floor to see how many face north, people are going to wonder why you ever needed to scrawl in blood.
"Signature" stunts like that are harder, because you want to always do your signature move (drawing on the mirror in blood, in this case), but you want it to still be cool and innovative each time, which can be difficult. Instead of looking for different ways to use Mystery that don't involve the mirror-writing thing (which is totally rad and should be kept as long as you want it!), try varying the details depending on what you're doing. Getting the blood from a different part of your body based on what you're asking, or getting it from different sources (like turkeys, but also possibly your friends, for example, if some of the questions are theirs) can help; making the effects vary slightly can also add a lot of fun flavor (maybe it's not always peering through black smoke, but sometimes actually looking through the mirror itself or sometimes having the blood reform into new glyphs - get funky with it). When you've got a signature stunt you really like, the challenge is not finding reasons not to use it but finding new and unique ways for it to look awesome each time. We've had a lot of that with Aurora's Mystery runes (Mystery, I think, is a hard one in general because it's kind of a static power and there's nothing to help you stunt but your own creativity), so I definitely know where you're coming from.
DeleteAnd hey, if you have to go maize for some questions and blood for others, those people who don't know what you're doing clearly don't understand the complexities of the magic you're performing. Our mental/social stunters tend to explain the why of their stunts when they do them - "I'm biting off my own tongue in sacrifice to feed my Aztec friend some Legend, because it was my stupid promise to X god that got us into this mess in the first place" - so that usually helps everyone understand the true appropriate coolness of their maneuvers.
Do you think it would be better to film with your curtains in the background? I know the lighting angles would be different, but that might save you from having to hang a sheet up on your wall or something.
DeleteAlso, would putting the camera farther away from you keep John in the frame, or do you keep it close for the mic?
It might be... we were filming during the day, and since our curtains aren't very heavy, even with them closed having our back to them made it look sort of like the light of heaven was streaming in behind us. It was distracting. We could try to find some heavier drapes, though.
DeleteWe do need to be a certain amount of close for the mic, but I think John just fidgets too much and isn't used to staying in a static frame for that long. He's been spoiled by having people with handhelds and dollies following him around in his professional life.
Can only do curtains in the back if we filmed at night. During the day it looks like the sun itself is behind us.
DeleteAnd yes, the camera should be a little farther back. A Microphone might help.
Deletere: signature stunts:
DeleteThe other thing you can do with them is stunt more with what you're thinking/feeling at the moment. You still do your signature stunt, but you add the flavor into HOW you do it, or stunt by talking about your feelings while you do it.
If stuff has happened to make you especially sad before doing it, perhaps your drawing of your own blood is very methodical and painfully slow this time.
Another great video!
ReplyDeleteWhat editing program are you using? I have access to both Final Cut Studio and Adobe Premiere Pro, and I would be happy to edit for you, since those programs cost well into the thousands. I have some 3D graphical programs too. There are basic versions, like Premiere Elements, which is about $150.
You may want to actually refrain from the heavy lightning, since when you use a SD (standard definition, usually DV) camera, it can actually flush you out, as opposed to making it look better. Using natural light is usually better. A slightly darker background may work, too. I wouldn't say totally black, but maybe a dark red or dark blue.
Anyway, if you need more advice, I'm happy to answer any questions: basement.theater@gmail.com
Natural light destroys annes very pale skin. It makes her look like a ghost on camera. Natural light definitely looks better on me though :)
DeleteUp to anne whether she wants to enjoy learning the editing process or not(she does like learning things). I think we're just using windows movie maker. We had dark blue background, but it somehow completely washed all the light out of the frame. In the middle of the video, when it goes all strange colors cuase i moved a bit, thats what it looks like the whole time with dark blue background, and I couldnt figure out why.
Thanks for the advice, will keep in touch about it.
Is anyone else seeing a Vimeo error rather than the video itself?
ReplyDeleteHmm, I'm not, but maybe we went over our bandwidth that day or something? Sorry. :(
DeleteAlso, your captcha, seriously, it's so brutal it's making me wonder whether I might be a bot, after all.
ReplyDeleteWhere do we have a captcha?
DeleteI get it every time I try to leave a comment.
DeleteHmm, I thought it only came up when people were commenting anonymously? Let me see if I can tinker with it.
DeleteYeah I refresh a few times before I find one that is reasonnable to decypher.
Deleteplease let us know if thats something that keeps happening in future videos
DeleteNice video, finally got it to work for me, Yggdrasil art is indeed p. boss, and also I covet that hat's logo on basically anything other than a hat.
ReplyDeleteOne question I have is how you deal with stunting's potential impact on game pacing, since it introduces new, additional steps into every action and requires ST input before resolution of actions can be calculated (because of the extra dice from stunts).
I'm coming to the issue of pacing from a different direction since most of my plan has been online lately, and that brings with it its own pacing problems. My question is, have you had to adjust the way you handle stunts in your game to tweak pacing in any way, and if so, what have you tried?
If it would interrupt pacing, I generally give raise fingers in the air as they roll(if they're still talking when they're about to roll) then they just add those dice into their pool.
DeleteIts more difficult to not interrupt in social situations, so I only add them if there is a pause to roll, otherwise I just keep a tally and give them to people when there is a break in the action.
Generally, the only time the dice part of the dice is "important" is if a roll is about to happen. And if a roll is happening generaly there is a 30 second pause or so where people collect their dice. So I dont think its ever come up where its actually an extra step. Its more a part of the player collecting their dice step.
This was enormously helpful - great post, thanks you guys! :)
ReplyDeleteGlad you liked it. :)
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