#66: Anatomy of a Twist
I. Dear Reader,
Inspired by an event in my Band of Blades game, I want to talk about twists. As a player, I love them. The moment of surprise - letting your jaw drop as you think about what has just been said. It’s great stuff! And if you’re playing a storygame, every miss or mixed success is an opportunity for one. But I’m not sure if I’m very good at them as a GM. So I’ve started paying attention to how I do it when I’m doing it.
As a GM, I’m looking for opportunities to surprise and delight my players. What does that look like? I’m always thinking about what they’re thinking. I’m trying to pin down how they understand a situation and then I kind of feel out how that understanding could be turned upside down. Or to put it another way, I’m looking for their assumptions about what is going on and then I see if those assumptions can be false.
This is how that happened in Band of Blades this week. The characters are attending a dinner party at the home of some mysterious host because they’ve heard that the host has powerful artifacts that they’re willing to trade. This was roughly the sum total of their knowledge. This is what I have to work with: dinner party, host, powerful artifacts, trade deal.
If I want to twist, I undermine one of these assumptions. Right off the bat, I don’t want to undermine the “powerful artifacts” assumption. Because if the treasure isn’t real, that can be a let down. Not necessarily fun. Of the other three, they don’t really know anything about the host so it’s hard to twist there. Any reveal is kinda surprising. There could be no host. That might be interesting but I’m not sure what that means. So we’re down to the other two: dinner party and trade deal. So I thought what is if there’s no dinner. Hmm, what does that mean… Of course, the characters are supposed to bring dinner and if their offering doesn’t impress the host, they’ll become the dinner instead.
It’s a familiar beat but still surprising - and that combination is a great place to land in my book!
Yours surprisingly,
Thomas
PS. If this sounds exceedingly normal, it probably is! I’m not trying to share a new tip as much as lay out what I’m already doing subconsciously in a more explicit fashion.
II. Listen of the Week
A fun episode about Daydreaming about Dragons where Judd Karlmann gives his tips for running a chess match between villains and PCs (or other tense strategy game situations.)
Also, on Actual Play, Judd and Sean Nittner do a live session where they pitch games to each other and figure out what they’re going to play next. It was a really fun conversation to be a fly on the wall for!
III. Links of the Week
Liber Ludorum talks about four games that involve garbage and how they differ. The title, in particular, is pure poetry.
I honestly believe that (sometimes for some people) game design is a substitute for game playing. And this is a sweet article about finding in the fun in making games.
Dicebreaker writes about the 5 Latin American RPGs that are on Kickstarter right now. It’s a really exciting mix of projects from cozy to body horror!
Gnomestew has a nice article on how to get feedback as a GM about how the game is going for your players. I use Stars & Wishes which is a Gauntlet standard but this method - Roses, Thorns and Buds - also seems great.
On the Mothlands blog, a post about the connection between RPGs and fan fiction
IV. Small Ads
All links in the newsletter are completely based on my own interest. But to help support my work, this section contains sponsored links and advertisements. If you’d like your products to appear here, read the submission form.
Luke Gearing is writing a huge hexcrawl and experimenting with an early access pricing model whilst doing it.
Shanty Hunters is a TTRPG about collecting magical sea shanties in 1880! Check it out!
Meanwhile, in the subway is about mundanely extraordinary people having quirky adventures underground a surrealist city. It's a light-hearted game relying heavily on improv and absurd situations!
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Hello, dear readers. This newsletter is written by me, Thomas Manuel. I’m half-man, half-beast, half-journalist, half-game designer.
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