Lady Blackbird and player-driven story
May 21, 2012 12:27:18 GMT -8
Post by kaitoujuliet on May 21, 2012 12:27:18 GMT -8
Last week, none of our regular games were ready to go, so I sprang the fabulous, free, little-to-no-prep game Lady Blackbird on the group. A good time was had by all. There are variations in tone regarding how you can play it, and my group went for what they called "Steampunk Star Wars" as they broke out of the Hand of Sorrow. In fact, they liked it so much that they want to continue the story at our next session!
For those who have never played Lady Blackbird, it's a combination very light rule system and scenario. The packet includes five pre-generated characters, a sketchy outline of the setting, and a starting situation. Everything after that is meant to be improvised at the table, and the directions even say not to plan too much in advance but to riff off of what the players do. But I feel nervous about running a session with nothing planned; I feel like the stuff I come up with on the spur of the moment tends to be cliched unless I'm having a night where I'm really on fire. In particular, I'm not sure that I spot the interesting possibilities of actions the PCs take.
For example: in the last session, an engineer PC decided to try some sabotage in the Hand of Sorrow engine room. When he got there, the crew was already dealing with some kind of emergency. He was grabbed to help out with something, which he did as ineptly as possible, and eventually sent off to fetch some tools, giving him the chance to slip away in the confusion. The whole thing felt kind of flat to me, like it should have had the potential to be a much bigger scene than it was. Maybe I shouldn't have created the "emergency" in the first place, but waited to see what the PC would do?
Anyway, with the next part of the story being even more open (the main goal at this point is to find someone with the coordinates to get them through a tricky asteroid field), I'm feeling more than a little nervous about the next session. So I'm wondering whether anyone here has experience with Lady Blackbird and if you have any suggestions on how to keep the story moving without planning it all in advance like a typical campaign. Or any suggestions for doing that in general, even if you haven't played Lady Blackbird yet.
(And if you haven't, what are you waiting for? Did I mention it's free? ;D )
For those who have never played Lady Blackbird, it's a combination very light rule system and scenario. The packet includes five pre-generated characters, a sketchy outline of the setting, and a starting situation. Everything after that is meant to be improvised at the table, and the directions even say not to plan too much in advance but to riff off of what the players do. But I feel nervous about running a session with nothing planned; I feel like the stuff I come up with on the spur of the moment tends to be cliched unless I'm having a night where I'm really on fire. In particular, I'm not sure that I spot the interesting possibilities of actions the PCs take.
For example: in the last session, an engineer PC decided to try some sabotage in the Hand of Sorrow engine room. When he got there, the crew was already dealing with some kind of emergency. He was grabbed to help out with something, which he did as ineptly as possible, and eventually sent off to fetch some tools, giving him the chance to slip away in the confusion. The whole thing felt kind of flat to me, like it should have had the potential to be a much bigger scene than it was. Maybe I shouldn't have created the "emergency" in the first place, but waited to see what the PC would do?
Anyway, with the next part of the story being even more open (the main goal at this point is to find someone with the coordinates to get them through a tricky asteroid field), I'm feeling more than a little nervous about the next session. So I'm wondering whether anyone here has experience with Lady Blackbird and if you have any suggestions on how to keep the story moving without planning it all in advance like a typical campaign. Or any suggestions for doing that in general, even if you haven't played Lady Blackbird yet.
(And if you haven't, what are you waiting for? Did I mention it's free? ;D )