Please do!
Graham Gentz
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Henry Kissinger is dead.
But he has been dead before.
Can you get him to stay that way?
https://grahamgentz.itch.io/immortal-lich-henry-kissinger
Happy New Year, everyone!
You bet!
I’d say, in general, the Arcadian’s Questions expand the world, the Traveler’s Questions focus it, and the Terror’s Questions tighten it.
Leading questions are always best. The players can cleverly imbed information: Ex, "Who died in the corn field?"; "What lives in the attic?"; "What is the weakness of the Bone Screamer?"
In Example 1, maybe we established a corn field, maybe we didn't. If we didn't, it exists for everyone now. And players are forewarned about a death, and are then prepared to comtribute narrative detail and/or imagry. In Example 2, something lives in the attic. It's a stronger choice than "Does anything live in the attic?" And most importantly, the ultimate payoff will be more exciting. In Example 3, I'm assuming we have established the Bone Screamer (but maybe not!), though no one said it had a weakness. Now it has to have one.
Sometimes the simple "Yes-or-No" question can do the trick, and similarly be foreboding. “Do we ever get out of here?” is not necessarily the most compelling question to drive a Chapter. The results are too binary. But what if the answer does end up being “No”? How did the players come to that consensus? What does that look like in the fiction?
When you’re the Arcadian, you give the environment and their intelligences life. You’re not exactly neutral, but as a player, you have decisions to make and discover about the surreal dream logic of the goings-on.
The Traveler is intended to be a point-of-view character, so your Narrations and Questions are fixed into the first person. How do you react to this world in front of you? How does it make you think about the world you left behind?
The Terror broods and builds. Once you’re, at last, in the driver’s seat, your Opening Question can be brutal. Look to leverage it. It can be a threat or an implication or an inevitability. Try to think of the worst possible thing that could happen. Or the best possible thing for you. Then imbed it into your Question.
I hope this helps!
"Eavesdropping on Ents" is fabulous meta game. Who doesn't want to idly think about what trees say as you take a walk? Incorporating the seasons is a beautiful way to tie together your mental musings of "what the heck does a tree even talk about"? You must understand, it takes a long time to say anything. And they never say anything unless it is worth taking a long time to say.
Great game or greatest game?
Bug Dish has such an excellent handle on what it is. It's a celebration of the aesthetics of cooking reframed with the diminutive perspective of traveling insectoid wonder. "Narrative Crunch" is the name of the game, sending players awash in an ocean of sensory adjectives to collaboratively build your fictitious creations. It is cozy, certainly, but it is also a grand adventure. It is epic but personal. Strange but familiar. There is so much to discover. So much to make for yourself.
Bug Dish gets why TTRPGs are special and how to use them to build new and delightful worlds owned and invested in by the players at the table.