I’m a little envious. I’ve played Dungeons and Dragons a few times with my family, but it felt like playing a game with my family. I was really wanting to role play a character!
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Recovering from being sick for two weeks and now I’m trying to decipher the changes I made to my game structure while feverish in the middle of the night. (Why did I do this??)
Exactly. I also think of that ‘yes’ you’re talking about as the very first choice: whether or not to start the game. If you’ve got someone that far, then they’re interested in your adventure.
But there are additional ways to balance the ‘on-rails’ nature of any structured narrative with a few different approaches. Off the top of my head, I’ve seen people:
-Set expectations early with a demonstration of restricted choices. (Samurai of Hyuuga breaks the fourth wall to do this, then lets the player decline through an in-game choice for bonus closure.)
-Compensate the player with other freedoms. (Fallen Hero has a predetermined backstory/goal for the character, but gives the player an enormous number of chances to specify their motive, method, and mindset throughout the story.)
-Allow players to pursue early endings if they really, really want to. (Soul Stone Wars gives players unique game-over slides and achievements for choosing to break the narrative. Making them feel like part of the game instead of mistakes by the player.)
These are the biggest three examples I can think of off the top of my head, but there’s undoubtedly more. And as always, beta testing is your friend: get feedback from as many people as you can and then integrate what you think is possible/worth integrating.
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This one might get tricky with official titles though. I’m not sure if it’s still part of the “House Style”, but CoG generally encourages writers not to add gameovers before the final 15% of the playthrough.
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That’s a good point! I am more familiar with the Hosted Games than the official CoG/HC lineups.
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There are exceptions, though. It’s possible to die in Ch2 of BoHN.
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Hi everybody!
CHAPTER 7 of Sancta Sanctorum is ready! Time to deepen the bonds with the Holy Shroud… And to undergo a bootcamp with Egil and Arian. Will you survive the Martyrs’ training?
I am so happy I wrote so much in so little time! That’s all thanks to your enthusiasm and support!
Thank you people, I love you all 
EDIT: I know/play a lot of TTRPG. I wrote a dozen RPG manuals. Let’s play together, folks!
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Unfortunately that was a one-shot, and most of the campaigns they run are DnD which doesn’t interest me. I did love playing my killer robot dog though.
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If they play dnd suggest them to do a one of in a Stellar plain it is dnd but can include Steam punk and stuff more advanced than usual Faerun or Neverwinter. I suggested a lot for new players made them star in the flying ships raiding the stellar plane seas.
It is fun, it has pirate vibes and is an environment confined enought to make the map easy to new players
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Long shift, but managed to get a good bit of writing done in the quiet hours. We’re back, baby.
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I think there’s only one campaign going on in a standard setting anyway, they’re all these weird pseudo-Finnish bizarreness. That’s not the problem, I just don’t like DnD mechanics. (Yes, I read rulebooks for fun.)
Might give a try next time someone launches Call of Cthulhu though.
@latejack congrats!
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Fay is running a campaign of Last Fleet for me and a couple of our friends at the moment. It’s delightful! I am playing an ex-boyband frontman who broke up his band shortly before the apocalypse and has made a new lease of life as a hard-hitting journalist (but everyone wants him to cover music, which he doesn’t want to bother with).
About early endings -
For me personally, I don’t love early-game endings that trigger due to PCs trying to go outside of the confines of a game premise… I find it breaks my immersion and draws more attention to railroading - if I’m offered a choice to take, I expect it to continue the game.
My ideal setup is that the game is confident in convincing me of its premise so strongly, and with enough breadth to feel a good amount of variety/agency, that my character and I don’t want to reject it.
I get why other people find it more fun than I do, though, and I think with checkpoints it becomes more appealing because it’s much easier to “reload” and try a different direction.
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Yeah, I’ve been debating with myself about this - should I give an option that gives a premature end, where the game repeatedly tells you that it is a bad idea? Or should I somehow activate MC’s plot armor and let it not lead to a premature end?
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In that we are in the opposite sides. I am old school and love Sierra studios deaths.
However, I think in Cog and hosted should be used very rarely except if it is a game based upon dead and revive or time travel.
The engine and the whole creator causes damage in narrative and player engagement.
Dead should be meaningful ans given context and closure doing Yolo deads damage that and overall player replay and love for the world.
But If player is determined to choose a clear understanding dead to prove a point and to get a chance of a chuckle with a playful character to get an additional easter egg and achievement is cool.
Basically, all is in the delivery
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I think that should depend on the level of danger you want the player to feel.
If you make it clear up front that you are playing for keeps and that any wrong call will end their run, then actually backing up that threat might make the player tread more carefully and consider their options more closely - which means closer engagement with the mechanics.
On the other hand, if they don’t have that expectation set for them, or the gameover feels “unfair”, then it’s going to be a “quit” moment for a lot of players - and even if you do set up everything “right”, there will be players who will put the game down and not pick it back up again.
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Personally, I wouldn’t want a choice that leads to a dead end. If it’s that bad of a decision, don’t make it a choice. Or turn it around and make it workable.
But I think some people like the fun of it
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Yes please. I’d like as many eyes on my project as I can get. I’m about to write a big finale and if there are some big changes I should make to the story, I’d rather know it sooner than later.
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One of me! One of me! One of me!
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I got a bunch of World of Darkness materials from Humble Bundle, including the Vampire and Hunter core books, and I have absolutely nobody to play them with. I read them entirely to make myself a better beta tester and not even slightly because I am a lonely nerd with an unfulfilled dramatic streak.
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Yeah, I’ll probably do the latter. I just can’t help myself going “well, if the player wants to do that bad decisions, who am I to deny?” sometimes.
(I swear, I’m already thinking like a GM.)
Why do I feel I just got turned into a Borg?
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Sure!
Basic summary
So the PC ends up in a rofan novel world, but rather than having to avoid her death in the plot, the villainess in this story is actually written to succeed? The female lead (not a White Lotus, but I’ll leave an option for PC to be wary/suspicious of her, since PC won’t know) has a romance with the Crown Prince (the villainess’s fiancé, of course), but will ultimately get sent away from the capital due to the villainess’s schemes and ends up with a sincere and reliable farmer/assistant to a baroness and unbeknownst to him, he’s also the baroness’s illegitimate nephew. So, the PC can try* to follow the original plotline, win against the female lead and become Crown Consort/future Royal Consort (though, if they’re following the plot exactly, the Crown Prince won’t love them), or they can try to create a different future for themself, one way or another.
*I’m not sure how good the PC’s memory will be about how the original plot goes, I’ve been considering the idea of making that customizable as an “Easy Mode”/“Hard Mode” sorta thing. Completely undecided, totally open to ideas/opinions.
Features I'm excited abouuuut
Isekai/rofan webcomics are iconic with the outfits so I definitely wanna let the player customize the PC’s wardrobe. I think that’ll be fun, and the clothing style can also play into the PC’s image in high society, so it’s relevant. I’ve got a set of opposed reputation stats that will start off reflecting the villainess, and at first, everyone treats you based on that, but if you act differently from the villainess’s original personality, your reputation will change, and people will start treating you based on how you present yourself. Right now I have six reputation stats planned (such as Cruel/Kind, Refined/Inelegant, Recluse/Socialite) and the way people approach (or avoid) you at social events will be adjusted based on those. I don’t know yet whether I want/need to track any stats regarding the PC’s true personality behind the reputation they can build, or any skill stats. I’m kinda leaning towards no skill stats.
With all the customization I wanna do, the large supporting cast, and a fair number of major branching paths, future me has her work cut out for her, lol. I’m sure by the time I finish my first project, I’ll be well-equipped enough to really tackle it. 
If you still wanna know more, feel free to DM me! Since it’s staying on the backburner for the foreseeable future, I don’t intend to talk about it much on here.
Lately I’ve been working a tiny bit on my Halloween Jam project, and uh, I can’t find the notebook I was using for my main project, so… oops?
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