[UA] Feedback on UA-ish convention scenario concept

[Gareth Hanrahan]

On Monday 21 May 2001 09:10, you wrote:
> > -----Original Message-----
> > From: Timothy Ferguson [mailto:ferguson at beyond.net.au]
> >
> > > The main weakness with what you've got, so far, is that there's
> >
> > buggerall
> >
> > > plot as yet. It's a nice framework for a story, but the players
> > > don't have
> > > that much to do. How about making the main narrative a flashback
> > > to whatever
> > > horribly traumatic event caused the psychological disorder?
> >
> > Cliché!
>
> Actually I've been unfair there...huge numbers of people with DID have PTSD
> as well, so if they had flashbacks that would make sense.  The cliché is
> the sort of epiphany where they work out that say, they were abused and
> then suddenly things all clear up.

Well...I know next to nothing about psychology (I presume avidly watching 
Frasier doesn't count for much), so I'm approaching this with the amazing 
gamer ray of trivialisation, which turns any phenonmenon into a stat modifier 
and/or a kewl power. Or, more accurately, I'm nicking bits wholesale from 
books like Powers' Earthquake Weather (Janis/Cody would be my perfect model 
for the protagonist in James' scenario).

I certainly wouldn't suggest that working out what happened sorts everything 
out, but having the initial traumatic event be the climax of the game makes 
sense in terms of story structure. You've only got three hours to run the 
game, so you have to tie as much stuff as possible together. Merging the 
backstory of the PCs into the main plot is one good approach.

Gar

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