Re: scenarios vs background & language

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From: David Dunham , via RadioMail (ddunham@radiomail.net)
Date: Sat 06 Nov 1993 - 19:13:56 EET


>From: watson@computing-science.aberdeen.ac.uk (Colin Watson)
>I agree 100%. Background is all very nice, but it belongs in a sourcebook.
>Scenarios should have the bare minimum background required to run them, and
>otherwise should concentrate on plot and characters. The setting should be
>flexible (dare I say generic?). All my Humble Opinion, of course.

I have no complaint about having scenarios in a product -- they can be a perfect example of the advice "don't tell them, show them." Rather than just hear about the River of Cradles, they can travel its length. My complaint is that I can't show my players the background if they all have to create new characters.

IMHO, having all scenarios designed only for outsiders would be better than what we have now, because then the sense of wonder and oddity would be exploited.

>Combined scenario/sourcebooks seem to be the trend. Are they cheaper to
>produce? Are they what the punters want to buy? There must be some reason,
>I guess. For me they make hassle: I have to re-work chunks of the scenarios
>to fit my campaign (or re-work chunks of my campaign); and when I *do* want
>to find some tidbit of background info it's a pain to have to thumb through
>scenarios. Organised, indexed, sourcebooks would be so much more useful.

Yes, an index would be nice. (By the way, this was a very nice feature of RQ Adventures Fanzine #1.)

>From: joe@sartar.toppoint.de (Joerg Baumgartner)
>The language problem you mentioned limit the visitors scenarios to
>dungeon-style roleplaying - a problem I've recently encountered with my
>traveller campaign. And getting visitors involved without getting down
>on them heavily can be the most tricky part of such scenarios.

Um yes. That could be a problem with the outsider approach. (Of course, inability to talk to people has gotten my players into lots of rousing violence.) I probably play a bit loose with language, once there's 10% or so of common language, I figure (with enough time) most of the message will get through. I also make heavy use of Tradetalk as a gaming convenience, ignoring the very reasonable discussions in the Digest about its pidgin nature. And I give language checks for spending time in the company of native speakers.

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