Post by logan9a on Nov 11, 2019 14:44:45 GMT
Most people are not great at true 'open world' aka 'free range'.
That is OK. It is hard to do as it is different from knocking out a mod or in a video game where everything in the world is already prepped - as much as an alpha release that has been for sale long enough that they've had a couple discounted sales on it can be.
So here are a couple notes to help out with people wanting to do 'free range'.
In my mind, there are two different types of free range. One is the completely free type where the players basically can wander around, do various small tasks, check out the edges of what Logan has prepared. This is tricky because the players have to get a feel for when it is time to pull back vs push forward. If they think Logan has more stuff, keep going. If not but it is of interest, express interest in seeing more then go check out some other stuff.
For some people, this 'feels' unfulfilling because they didn't 'accomplish anything'. Usually because they have no personal goals.
This is also known as 'wander around' or 'wander aimlessly'. It is sometimes a very good idea to do this as a way to scout, look for random encounters that might not be so random, etc.
The second type is turning in a 'free range' into a custom mod.
Let the GM know several non-gaming days (or even a week) before playing what their very specific goal is. Since most players don't seem to come up with a very specific goal before playing, this reverts them to 'wandering aimlessly' as detailed above.
Which is fine for me as it is a lot less prep time.
That is OK. It is hard to do as it is different from knocking out a mod or in a video game where everything in the world is already prepped - as much as an alpha release that has been for sale long enough that they've had a couple discounted sales on it can be.
So here are a couple notes to help out with people wanting to do 'free range'.
In my mind, there are two different types of free range. One is the completely free type where the players basically can wander around, do various small tasks, check out the edges of what Logan has prepared. This is tricky because the players have to get a feel for when it is time to pull back vs push forward. If they think Logan has more stuff, keep going. If not but it is of interest, express interest in seeing more then go check out some other stuff.
For some people, this 'feels' unfulfilling because they didn't 'accomplish anything'. Usually because they have no personal goals.
This is also known as 'wander around' or 'wander aimlessly'. It is sometimes a very good idea to do this as a way to scout, look for random encounters that might not be so random, etc.
The second type is turning in a 'free range' into a custom mod.
Let the GM know several non-gaming days (or even a week) before playing what their very specific goal is. Since most players don't seem to come up with a very specific goal before playing, this reverts them to 'wandering aimlessly' as detailed above.
Which is fine for me as it is a lot less prep time.