Eliciting Reactions: Cart Meet Horse
So we’re having dinner and she says “When I GM, how do I inspire awe in the players? I want them to look at something and just go ‘wow!'”
GMs ask many subspecies of this question. How do I make them love some character I made? How do I scare them? How do I make them care about X?*
Sure, there are ways to do all of these things. But here’s my heartfelt advice: don’t try.
Instead of scheming to elicit some reaction your script demands, just play and let the players decide how to react. Describe things as they are. Play NPCs honestly. Don’t try to manipulate the players to like some character or hate another. But when you do see them react, embrace it! Don’t gnash your teeth when they loathe the NPC you thought would be their cherished mentor. Rejoice, for now your mill is full of grist.
Deciding how the characters feel is the players’ job, not yours. Your job is to give them things to react to and to respect their reaction.
* Ignore the whole metaphysical question of whether you are trying to evoke these emotions in the player or the character. That’s a different discussion.
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Very different ball of wax. I’m no expert on jeepform (I played The Upgrade and had a lot of fun), but I’d say the whole premise is different from the traditional GM/player relationship. Intentionally so. It just confuses matters that the same word (GM) is being used for very different things.
Is Jeepform the opposite of your philosophy, or is there a distinction I don’t see in their use of “Bird in the Ear” and “Fiat As a Means of Oppression”? Aren’t scenarios like those played at Fastaval trying hard to elicit specific emotions?
I’m curious to see what you think about this style of play. Are they not successful? (I don’t know, I haven’t gamed with them).
(http://jeepen.org/dict)
@ouzelum: If the players are not reacting to anything or not reacting enough, they’re not doing their job.
But I think it’s important for the GM to resist the urge to think the players are obligated to have strong reactions (good or bad) to precisely the things you think they should. They might not care about the “big baddy” and simply fight him dispassionately, but be all about protecting a random town you didn’t think mattered (I’m looking at you, Bayvinn Village). Guess what? That village is now what the game is about. Jump on it.
* Ignore the whole metaphysical question of whether you are trying to evoke these emotions in the player or the character. That’s a different discussion.
When do we get to talk about evoking bleed?
in different? I clearly meant indifferent. The idea beat out the language.
I think the big problem isn’t when your players have the opposite reaction; I think the biggest problem is when your players have no reaction at all. I’d rather have them hate my mentor character– or love my villain character– than be utterly in different to both.