I tried a little dry run regarding the use of the newsgroup question & answer method I spoke of in the last post but I'm still not satisfied that it will work here. I like the idea of it and it works well for an actual newsgroup that has multiple members asking questions, but for solo play it just comes across as forced and artificial.
I have an idea that simple prose in the form of a paragraph that describes the current situation would be better in the long run. I wrote just such a paragraph anyway in the first playthrough under the heading Initial Observations as a way of describing what was happening in the poetry before playing it out, which means writing the prose first so that I've something to work with straight away. The poetry part can then be written at leisure, or not at all. This means the worldbuilding and gameplay won't be delayed in any way.
This is how I summed up the current scene that was being described by the poetry in the first session,
'So, the scene is set. It's a classic stand-off it would seem. The beast is protecting her offspring and seems hesitant, not wanting to provoke an attack but standing her ground nevertheless. Traci, on the other hand needs to get to one of the 3 exits, two behind her and 1 up ahead behind the beast. There's also a large opening where there was once a side wall directly to her left which has a large quantity of fallen stone piled up in front of it making it less straightforward an exit than it might at first seem.'
So in future, the prose will come first as a rule, with the poetry being generated from it rather than the other way around. I'm happier with this change already. I think it'll work well.
No comments:
Post a Comment