I've been thinking about private cutscenes a lot since reading pilgrim's post concerning their accidental misuse and potential abuse.
Cutscene integration is a big adjustment for someone unfamiliar with asynchronous roleplay, which is definitely a category I fall into. Initiation etiquette, desynchronized timelines (as described here), and story taking place in an untouchable bubble -- these are all new considerations that hadn't occurred to me prior to interacting with the cutscene system, but which became apparent almost immediately upon use. I think an official guide for best practices would be beneficial, but I also think there's potential for additional aids. For instance, I wondered if it might be good to have a couple of published examples of cutscenes viewable on the website, so that new players can see how it's done and what a 'good' cutscene might look like.
But for the most part, I wanted to spitball ideas for how to further address the last of those three considerations: private cutscene consequences.
I'm a very firm believer in the importance of minimizing the amount of storytelling undertaken in total isolation. Not only for the sake of accountability and opportunities for IC consequences (what's the fun in making bold moves without any real risk attached?) but also because a game in which too many of the juicy bits take place behind closed doors is a very quiet, peaceful, dull game.
The Problem
As it stands, cutscenes can be set as either private or public. Effectively, this means your options are to either entirely obscure an interaction with zero chance for discovery, or total and indiscriminate disclosure, wherein every single word is heard and action is visible to anyone who's interested.
On this subject, pilgrim mentioned:
"What we're considering is possibly a mechanical limitation on the number of private cutscenes that someone could do in a month. That should keep them purposeful and necessary rather than a substitute for in-game plotting -- and still allow people to have as many public cutscenes as they'd like."
My unsolicited $0.02 is that anything which reduces interaction is probably best avoided, but as a stopgap measure, this would certainly have the desired results.
PofZahra made the following suggestion:
"Maybe for now, if someone is doing a private cutscene in a public place, a rumor needs to be made about it? Like, 'OI did you see Zahra whispering with Billy Bob over by his hammock this morning? I wonder what those two were plotting. Whatever it was, Billy Bob didn't seem too happy about it and Zahra left in a big huff.'"
I think this is a serviceable idea and could even be taken a step further. What if ending a cutscene required an IC Rumour post to be created? For example, you finish your private cutscene, click the 'End Scene' button, and are taken to a field to fill out a rumour to be posted. Then only once that's submitted is the cutscene finalized and its log added to your character's Story Overview page.
And then here is where things get a bit pipedreamy, because I don't have a good grasp on what's achievable and what isn't with the codebase, website, and interaction between the two. But...
In all of this, I see an opportunity to create another avenue for investigative skills and stats to have greater relevance. Rather than having private cutscenes visible only to invited participants, you could instead have a list of private cutscenes completed in the last week or so visible to anyone. However, only the name of the cutscene can be seen -- no names of participants, no places, no contents, nothing of the sort. From there, curious individuals could choose a cutscene to investigate, select relevant stats/skills, and receive information about that cutscene based on the success of their roll. They might get a whole name, the contents of one whole post, a time and location, the short description of one participant, a single line of dialogue... you name it.
Alternatively (and perhaps getting a bit too complicated), you could even create an additional step where the investigator can choose which of those things they're most interested in learning, and have the accuracy of the result rely upon their skill/stat check. For example, If they select 'identity,' an excellent roll might give a whole name and physical description, while a bad roll might just return their hair colour. Or if they select 'contents,' an excellent roll might return a whole post, a bad roll might give some garbled dialogue.
I think a system along these lines would also bring the benefit of not only providing spy or investigator-type character concepts with additional opportunities to bolster their role, but also encourage networking with and between them. If a limitation is placed on investigations of this nature, the value of individual pieces of intel increases, and can be shared, bartered for, or bought.
Further thoughts:
- Combine this with pilgrim's solution. Maybe players have a limited number of private cutscenes that they can 'secure' from investigation, while the rest are all fair game to snooping.
- Perhaps investigations cost presence? (Unsure if another presence sink is wanted at this stage)
- A pared-back version of this system would be to have the list of private cutscenes, allow people to select and roll, which then prompts the creator of the cutscene to send the investigator a brief summary of what transpired.
Of course, all this would introduce a whole new set of problems to address and balance, but I figured there's no harm in putting the ideas out there on the off chance that it's useful or sparks other thoughts for problem-solving. Done rambling (for now)!
