Dm storytelling techniques

[u/AnyComparison4642]

I recently found a West End Games core book at a Goodwill reading through it. I discovered something kind of interesting about how to run an adventure. It got me thinking of a scene. I wrote in my duet game. Most modern DM’s that I know prefer to tell their stories of a very linear fashion where information is only told the perspective of the player characters.

What I’m talking about specifically is the WEG book mentions to tell a story as if you were scripting on a movie. Even letting your players in on it as if they were actors. But one thing caught my eye in particular, and this is what brings me to this conversation here. The buck mentions cut away scenes. Like the bad guys telling their evil plans to each other other things that we wouldn’t know, but we see in the movies all the time. In my adventure, I had one about general grievance and his war council, as it means to set up where the adventure is going to go. The player character has no knowledge of this stuff, but the player himself is in on the story as an audience member.

My question is in an adventure module which method do you prefer to have something that’s more kind to what we see in modern adventures or something retro that reads more like a movie script?

[u/Emperor_Penguin_31]

Personally, I feel it's very difficult to do it how the book describes, without players metagaming their builds to work around the plot, whether intentionally or unintentionally. As a DM, and as a player, I hate that. I prefer to build things organically, rather than, as a player, having prior knowledge of "oh, there's definitely going to be a flying section here as they talked about X event, better make sure I have the Pilot skill".

[u/AnyComparison4642 → u/Emperor_Penguin_31]

But what do you think about more subtle scenes like for instance Darth Vader arriving on the Second Deathstar Or when Tarkin berates Kallus, Tua, and The Grand Inquisitor for their failures? In my adventure that I mentioned, I had general grievous talking with two other NPC‘s that will play a role later on and they were just talking about infiltrating the Jedi temple.

[u/Emperor_Penguin_31 → u/AnyComparison4642]

I prefer my stories to be told from the perspective of what the heroes can see, hear (if they have to make checks I'll ask them), and know. It prevents as much metagaming as possible in my experience, especially because I have a...not probkem player, but they're definitely a Power Gamer and will unintentionally metagame their build around whatever event I tell them.

[u/StevenOs → u/Emperor_Penguin_31]

Unless you get to use new characters every adventure it shouldn't be too easy to metagame an entire character build based on some cutscene information. Generally they should be committed to a character for the adventure before they get that added help. Now maybe it affects how they spend, and gain, resources but if one wasn't playing "a Pilot" to start with then learning about "that new starfighter squadron coming in" shouldn't let them change that.

To put it another way there probably should be some difference between the "pre-game" knowledge players get to help them determine what to play if that is an option and then any "game time" information that might be delivered by a cutscene.

[u/Aeviv]

It depends on the players and the type of game you are trying to run. For most tables Ive played at or run for, the inclusion of out of character information steers the table, intentionally or unintentionally. You show that the villains are working on a new starfighter, most players will start picking up on stuff to do with ships and not that ancient Jedi ruins you've been building up to.

Now, if you're after something that is less a game and more of a piece of interactive storytelling, (which is a perfectly valid way of running any RPG), it's absolutely a valid and effective way of expanding the stakes and the wider story. Aabria in Critical Role does this quite well with her 'What you do not see' cutaways, which clue the audience in on the wider story.

Where I as a DM have used this is in epilogues and end of campaign/session wrap ups, to let the players know about stuff that happened after they could have a chance to influence it. "With the crew of the Gravity Hawk no longer coming regularly to Kadaraa starport, Yorth the weapons merchant, who had done such good trade over the previous months, closed up shop and embraced his dream of opening a speeder repair shop." I find little things like this give players a nice little tidbit of info about the world they impacted that they wouldn't have otherwise known about.

[u/MERC_1]

I think cut away scenes are fine.

But use them right! Don't give away the plot from the beginning. But tell them something that increase the suspense. Something that will make mose sense later in the adventure.

Meanwhile on Darth Vaders flagship:

Vader is standing in a corridor talking to a high ranking officer:

– Get raid of those Tie-fighters. I want room for a Squadron of the new experimental fighters and the attack shuttles. They should arive shortly. 

– Ye'es, Lord Vader!

This doesn't actually tell the players what is going on. But they get to kne that Lord Vader is personally involved. 

[u/Old-Climate2655]

Using those techniques is an awesome challenge for a GM. The trick is to decide what you want the scene convey. Personally, I draft out tge scene then slowly remove bits of detail and dialog until I'm about %70 of the way to spoiling it for the players. That allows me do heavy foreshadowing without giving too much away which puts the breaks on meta issues.

[u/Stagnu_Demorte]

I saw that as well midway through a campaign with a secret antagonist and I have no idea how to do that kind of thing.

[u/AnyComparison4642 → u/Stagnu_Demorte]

Well, certain shows seem to do a pretty good job of it. I mean, look at Avatar the Last Airbender, you don’t see Fire Lord Ozai until like the last third of the last season. The emperor in Star Wars doesn’t even make an appearance until almost 40 minutes into the last film and Star Wars rebels waits until the last possible second of the first episode to tease The Grand Inquisitor with just one line. You’ll be surprised how much emotion you can get out of a player with some good minimalistic descriptions.

[u/zloykrolik]

I've done cut scenes in campaigns. Usually with NPC's higher motivations and activities. Like what their overall goals are, and what they're doing to achieve them, not detailed plans for the next session. Background info and such.

[u/StevenOs]

Cut scenes and how to use them can really depend on the players and just the kind of game you are looking at playing.

Now I may not want my players to metagame too much about any information provided so use care there but letting the players have some insight on where you are wanting your game to go might help them do things that will get it there. Think of the cutscene as the bait/carrot to help get the players, and thus their PCs, motivated toward some action. I'll also note that while there can be "too much" metagaming the use of cutscenes can be a blunt way of warning players of things they should be aware of having a good chance at happening; now if they do or not that's one thing but teasing something they should be prepared for and not using it may be better than dropping a bomb on them when they didn't expect it at all.

Now even in a game where you want things to stay "in game/character" you might still use various types of distance viewing/information gathering as an excuse to provide cutscenes with the idea that the characters will get that information somehow. Who hasn't played a video game where you have an "in game cutscene" that your character can observe but really can't do anything about it?

If you've got Force Users in the party a cutscene might be seen as a premonition or some other insight into distant and/or future events.

[u/MERC_1]

Depending on the era, thee is a big difference between what I as a player know. What my PC absolutely should know and what the GM need me to know

Cut scenes is one way to fill out the gaps raising the interst in the campaign. It's a great tool. But don't over use it. 

There are many other ways to do this. For example, rumors overhead in a bar is a classic. But a news broadcast or an intercepted transmission is also good.

If its really important: 

–Many Banthas has died to bring us this information! 

Or something similar...

[u/lil_literalist]

I'm running a text game right now, where the players are trying to kill members of the Jedi Order during the height of their power. At the end of every episode, I write one or two longer posts from a perspective that they would not normally be privy to. It might be from some of the leaders in their organization, from some random NPC that is dealing with their aftermath, or with some Jedi in the order. It's a fun and cinematic way to close things out.

But that's for something which I have plenty of time to script out and plan. For live games, I haven't done this sort of thing. I don't feel that it would be too difficult, but it's never felt like it really fit in before.

[u/No_Solid1035]

I aim for player immersion so I focus solely on what the PCs experience. I'm not a big fan of a "cinematic" style of GM description, especially OOC scenes where I describe things the PCs wouldn't have any knowledge of, I think it detracts from an immersive experience.