In gaming with over 500 people in twenty-four years, I've never seen any "silent appreciation" of any gaming moments. I've seen plenty of cheering and laughing and cursing and congratulations and commenting - but never any silent appreciation.

It's a participatory game where you play by talking. You don't sit there staring in awe. I've just never seen it, it's utterly alien to my experience and that of every gamer I've ever met or discussed gaming with in person.

I don't say it doesn't happen - you say it does for you, so obviously it does. But mate, you're a tiny minority. Stuff like,

Quote from: David R[what's about to hapen in the game will determine many more sessions' course] Normally when something happens and the player in question thinks it's important and wants to give the perfect (in his/her opinion) response, they do the time out sign ad I shift to another player/s scene and return when the player in question has come up with something.

that happens, sure. One player holds their turn while another has their turn. But everyone just sitting and waiting while someone decides? That's called "a slow game". And everyone sitting around in silent appreciation? I dunno what that's called, because I've never seen or heard of it before. I've got this mental image of stoners passing the bong around. Do your sessions involve bongs, TonyLB?

Quote from: JimBobOzDo your sessions involve bongs, TonyLB?

Nope.

Quote from: PakaNeat stuff, Tony.

huh? I'm struggling to see how this is neat or some great revelation about roleplaying. Someone wants time to think? Great, go for it. Seems second nature to me, but then i guess we all play differently. It's better if you can come up with cool stuff while someone else is in the spotlight, but if it's spur of the moment stuff, i'm not going to punish a player for failing to come up with profound (or fun) statements on the hoof. Indeed, i won't reward him either, other than the effect it might have on play or the person he is interacting with.

Seriously, i saw this and just thought huh? That's part of the session as far as i'm concerned - not a technique. Then again, we don't tend to go for 'everything said at the table is what you say' or 'no out of character talk'. I can see it being different if you play along those lines.

Quote from: One Horse Townhuh? I'm struggling to see how this is neat or some great revelation about roleplaying.

Someone is suggesting this is a "great revelation about roleplaying"?

Seanchai

Quote from: One Horse Townhuh? I'm struggling to see how this is neat or some great revelation about roleplaying. Someone wants time to think? Great, go for it. Seems second nature to me, but then i guess we all play differently.

Strikes me that if this was so simple, obvious and noncontroversial, we wouldn't be getting responses like this:

Quote from: J ArcaneFrankly, I don't know what the fuck you're babbling about here.  

What the fuck does stopping in the middle of a goddamn conversation just so some twit can feel clever have to do with any kind of natural flow?

Did you just figure if you babbled a lot of nonsense you'd smokescreen eevryone into not realizing that what you just said not only fails to address my point, but basically has nothing whatsoever to do with it?

But anyway. . .

I personally have often had moments of "dialogue block," where I just can't think of the right thing to say or the right way to say it. I hesitate, stumble, pause, back up and revise, and so on. My group indulges me with varying degrees of patience. But I've never thought of it as more than a failure to "get it together." Perhaps an understandable and inevitable failure, given the nature of the game and the roles we assume. But still, something that "it'd be great if it didn't happen, but it does, so that's too bad."

I'm intrigued by the notion of using this kind of thing as a game feature or tool. I think detractors are quick to dismiss and exxagerate--"ten minutes to think of a snappy comeback" and such. Nobody said anything about a pause on that order of magnitude. What if it was two minutes? What if it was one?

It seem to me that the concept of "sympathy" from Jimbob by way of Adam Smith, is applicable here: If you're all grooving on "human fellow-feeling," then when one person says "wait for it, this'll be good" then wouldn't everybody be happy to bloody well wait? For like, 30 seconds? Then if it's awesome, it's awesome, plus built-in suspense. If it sucks, everybody can groan and tease the guy, and the group moves on good-natured-ly to the next thing. If, however, people are just waiting to take their turn/roll their dice, or chattering obliviously while it's someone's turn to speak (I've sure expreienced that one), then the pause is going to be either unwelcome or ignored. But I think we'd all agree that that would be a sub-optimal environment for this kind of gaming, or indeed any kind of gaming, to occur.

I think this kind of technique, used consciously and confidently, sounds cool.

Peace,
-Joel

FWIW, I used a form of this twice in a game last night, and here's how it worked out:

QuoteWe've already houseruled a resource akin to PTAs FanMail ... little chips that we give each other for cool stuff.  I told people before the game started that I was going to try playing with using them (I had two from last session) as pause markers, rather than bonus dice (as we'd been using them previously).  Folks seemed game, but weren't looking to give up their dice in the same way.

It felt really good to be able to hold up a token and focus people's attention on what just happened.  I was worried that it was going to feel like I was all "Hey!  Look at MEEEEEE!", but it was much more "Whoa ... look at us!"  In both cases (yeah, I spent both, and would have spent more if I'd had them) I did it in a scene where my character was not present.  In both cases, I held the token for a scant ten seconds or so.  What I observed during those ten seconds was that people would, one after the other:

1. Lean back a little (going from "leaning in over the table" to "leaning back in their chairs")
2. Raise their eyes from the mechanics of the table, and look at the faces around them.
3. After they had made eye contact with each other, they would refocus on the table, but from the same relaxed posture.

I'm not trying to be an anthropologist about this ... it's just that the details of the behavior were remarkably similar.  There were no people who (for instance) looked at each other while still leaning over the table.  The motions were the same for everyone.  I don't know whether that means anything, but I thought it was funky.

When people had returned to an attentive but relaxed posture, I would drop the token and we'd resume.  As I said earlier, this took about ten seconds, both times.

As to whether it accomplished anything in the game session ... hard to say.  We had a rockin' session, but I'm quite confident that we also would have done so without this technique in play.  I think it may have helped me personally to be (a) a little more on the lookout for the real stand-out moments in play and (b) a little calmer about letting people make their contributions without trying to kibbitz them.  I'm not terrible at that latter thing, but I do it from time to time, and I could feel that the rate was lower this session than it had been previously.

Quote from: MelinglorStrikes me that if this was so simple, obvious and noncontroversial, we wouldn't be getting responses like this:

Which is why i added that we all play differently. But really, stopping to think isn't simple and obvious?

Actually, Tony posting about this to another board clarified things for me somewhat.

Dan: Yeah, I wasn't so much disagreeing as emphasizing.

Tony: That's really cool.

Quote from: JimBobOzDo your sessions involve bongs, TonyLB?

Mine do...whenever I can manage it.

Quote from: TonyLBI expect there are people for whom speed-of-play is a straight-up priority.  Let me start off, right out front, by saying that I am sure that is the case for some people, and this technique wouldn't apply to them.

I don't think I'm actually one of those people ... despite the fact that I often push to play-play-play without pause.

In my personal play, I think that I have come to perceive a false dichotomy:  Fast, immediate play on one side vs. boring, directionless meandering on the other side.

But, clearly, that false dichotomy has made me ignore a lot of fruitful territory that is not at either of those two particular focal points.  I'll be interested to see what my group and I can find where a slow pace actually contributes in ways that a fast pace cannot replicate.

Sure. I'm not one of those people either, and I prioritize speed of play fairly highly (I'm willing to slow things down to get an important rules call right, to give someone a chance to plan their oration, or to roll on the lantern table).

I like JimBob's "momentum over perfection" formulation -- anything that breaks the momentum should be used in moderation; but that's not the same as not using it at all.

Did you get any feedback from the other players about the 10-second pauses?

Oh, and I finally feel like I understand droog.

Cheers,
-E.

Quote from: droogMine do...whenever I can manage it.

Bongs well with others :raise: Tell me more of your playstyle droog because I think I've been so misreading your posts

Regards,
David R

Quote from: David RBongs well with others :raise: Tell me more of your playstyle droog because I think I've been so misreading your posts

Don't play cute with me, young man. But yes, roleplaying and pot go together like ham and mustard.

I give out the best XP bonuses to players who pause to collect their thoughts before a dramatic scene. As a big fan of Star Trek, I love dramatic speeches. Sometimes players will write down what they want to say.