Some horrible business left for me to attend to ([info]phasmaphobic) wrote in [info]roleplayers,
@ 2008-04-04 20:26:00
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"Rashomon" in a RPG
For an upcoming game session, I will be running a special one-shot of the Cold City RPG. For this scenario, I've decided to take an approach that I've never tried before: the Rashomon story. I plan on having the scenes of the game flash back and forth in time, with present-day scenes involving a current hunting case, and flashback scenes involving personal recounts of a specific event. See, there's a "questionable event" that happened before the game's scenario begins, and each of the characters at some point will have to recount their version of the actual events, playing heavily upon their own agendas, biasses, and levels of Trust.

Anyway, my intention is to have each player take a turn at running a scene in the game. This scene will essentially be the same scene told several times over, with each player getting a turn to GM their character's story of what happened. I want the other players to participate as their characters in this scene, but I'm not 100% sure how to go about it.

Some factors to consider:

* How to handle moments in which the told facts contradict?
* How to express the "author's" prejudices and opinions of the other characters in their actions?

Any advice? Any suggestions? Anything I'm missing?


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[info]broin
2008-04-05 12:36 pm UTC (link)
For the first, make sure the players know they're responsible for joining everything up.

For example, in a recent jeepform LARP, two players knew the sauna scene would later have a cleaner bemoaning the bodily fluids everywhere. One players requested a handjob. The other threw up. Bodily fluids ftw.

For the second, perhaps the characters keep diaries. Or you could have specific 'report' scenes. Maybe a lot of it happens during debriefing, where each character naturally belittles the others.

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[info]uhlrik
2008-04-06 03:39 pm UTC (link)
Well, in Rashomon the facts contradict one another quite a bit and that's perfectly fine. It's part of the point of the story, actually. Even (especially?) the ghost of the murdered man is an unreliable witness. I'm inclined to think that it's perfectly okay to allow events to diverge even somewhat wildly. Somewhat trickier will be to determine what is actually the "truth" of the events in question.

A question though: do the players ever have to actually know what really happened?

Your second question requires a lot of trust on the part of your other players. I think it's important for them to understand what you're really doing here, and to know the viewpoint of each of the other characters involved. So, as each flashback begins, you could have the "viewpoint" character's player give an in-character declaration that leads into the flashback: "The blonde lady cut him down from behind in cold blood, and her eyes were twisted in malice! She's possessed! Possessed I tell you!" and then fade into the flashback. That can help each player know roughly and give them a few cues that will help them play the scene.

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[info]phasmaphobic
2008-04-06 05:52 pm UTC (link)
"So, as each flashback begins, you could have the "viewpoint" character's player give an in-character declaration that leads into the flashback"

This is a fantastic idea. Thanks!


"A question though: do the players ever have to actually know what really happened?"

I really don't think they do. It could be fun to leave it totally unresolved.

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[info]jmkiru
2008-04-07 03:58 am UTC (link)
As an a/state fan let me say, well chosen on the RPG to use :)

Are you going to be involved in the scenes when the player is running the flashback? If you are, you could have the running player hand you the character - since you know the score, you could play up or down on the character, based on what the story needs, though this would require a gentle touch so the players don't assume what you say / do is cannon.

Something you could try is keeping the 'reveal' of each flashback scene secret from the players, so even as they run their own scene they don't really know how it will end - you let the scene play out and it unfolds for the 'GM' just as it does for the players. Depending on the group your playing with, this could result in an excellent Eureka moment for said GM, as the scene reaches the climax and suddenly they gain insight into their own character, even if it wasn't entirely what you planned. For Rashomon theme, this seems strangely appropriate.

The above requires some good staging, but with the right group the results could be fantastic.

When you've run the game, please post a comment on how it works out, what worked for you and what didn't. You have an amazing idea here, and I'm sure I'm not the only one interested in how it goes.

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[info]rpgactionfigure
2008-04-07 04:28 am UTC (link)
Sounds like great fun to me. And thanks for using Cold City for it!

I would just roll with the unreliable narrator stuff and have the truth out at the end. Or maybe not. Maybe the truth is never actually revealed? Or, in the end, perhaps someones version of the truth comes out on top and is accepted as reality, even if it isn't what happened. A Stalinist re-writing of history, with people getting removed from photographs and so forth. Actually, that would be quite coll in a CC game, if someones version did actually ripple through reality. Hmmmm...

Cheers
Malcolm

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[info]phasmaphobic
2008-04-07 04:29 am UTC (link)
"Maybe the truth is never actually revealed?"

I'm heavily leaning toward this. Another idea i have is for the fourth character (an investigator who replaces the dead guy) to possibly piece it together and tell a "final report" at the end, one-on-one with the CO.

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[info]rpgactionfigure
2008-04-07 04:56 am UTC (link)
Maybe the entire thing takes place during that conversation between the CO and a the New Guy? He's about to relate something that happens, then it flashes back and we get the POV of each character, then we flash forward again to the two guys trying to work out what actually happened.

Cheers
Malcolm

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[info]phasmaphobic
2008-04-07 02:42 pm UTC (link)
The idea I'm currently looking at involves two stories being told. One story takes place in the "present," and involves the four members of the team (the three survivors and the new guy) hunting down a creature that escaped from the team. This same creature was somehow involved in The Incident.

The other story is the retellings of The Incident. I've got a list of set definites that much be involved, which the players and characters are given via a report made by an agent assigned to watch them. They must incorporate those definites in their versions of the story. I'm thinking that each re-telling will be done "interview-style" - a character alone in an interrogation room with one of the pre-made COs printed in the book.

My biggest planning obstacle is how to actually handle the playing-out of those scenes. SHould I just left the re-teller temporarily take over the GM reins, with me playing the character and the others each manning up to play stereotypes of their own characters?

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[info]katlyn
2008-04-09 01:49 am UTC (link)
It's always interesting to see the creators of games pop up. :}

While I won't be in this scenario (as Alice was told at the Tea Party, "No room! No room!") I was a part of the initial pickup game. While I could probably pick your brains about the book, I'll just say that while we didn't end up finishing the scenario, I throughly enjoyed the setting.

Thanks for writing it!

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[info]alexmegami
2008-04-07 05:51 pm UTC (link)
I'd establish a few of things as being "for sure", such as blood on the ground, a gun on the desk, things like that. If the player likes, they can change up to ONE of the two for-sures in these items: "there was blood on the wall", "there was puke on the floor", "there was a knife on the desk", "there was a gun on the wall", for example, but NOT "there was a knife in the wall". They can also omit details freely.

The second is more of a rules call: no player is allowed to correct "the GM" while they are running the scene. After hearing the recounting? Sure. During? No.

Maybe also, if you're all playing through as your PCs, you should have "the GM" give them little index cards noting how the player feels about the character, and they can color the dialogue accordingly. PC A loves PC B and hates PC C; PC B can soften their deliveries, seem more 'heroic'/defensive against C; C can come across as harsh, crass, even violent. Meanwhile when B runs the game, there's some ambivalence towards A and a strong dedication to C; this alters the tone of things considerably.

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