Offer 'Sliders' for either characters or stories
Many games explicitly have, or are often described, with the phrase 'sliders' - Much like these UI elements, the idea is that it represents movement back and forth across a continuum of options.
How 'Hard' is the science in our SF game? How much is this game split between Mystery and Horror? How much control of NPC's does the Gm want to cede to players? Of course, you can't think of every one of these continuums, so why not make them an option for Narrators to use when describing their game? These are ubiquitous web elements already, and could be a quick shorthand to let players know you want them to, say, make moves that put words in your NPC's mouth, or want your game to slant towards gallows humor instead of wisecracks.
It's another quick, visual tool for the Narrator to get players on the same page, and express their desires with something more intuitive than any kind of social contract chatter.
Jonathan Perrine
shared this idea
Interesting suggestion, thank you! We will noodle on this…
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Anonymous
commented
You could easily pull all the "sliders" from tvtropes.com :)
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Steve Boardman
commented
It would be useful to be able to add custom sliders to your game that show for potential applicants.
So for example. I might decide that my game has a narrative bias, isn't particularly high on realism and doesn't have much of a heavy gaming element ( card use )
I might set my sliders
Narrativism ---------------> 10
Realism----> 3
Gamism ---> 2As the sliders can also be customised you could easily set up.
Comedy---------> 10
Drama---> 2
Romance---> 0This kind of idea would allow players to see exactly what sort of game they are heading for right from the off.
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Elizabeth Pollock commented
I just joined today and I read the How Tos already so I went to look at what stories were already being played.
My first inclination was to find stories of a particular style or genre, but styles and genres aren't easily identifiable as things are now.
Yes, you can see what world it's in, the players and a blurb, but none of that necessarily introduces what sort of story is being told, if it's light hearted or dark, a mystery or fantasy, etc.
Having the narrator set the genre and/or style, much like they set the starter world or anything else, would make all stories more approachable for both general audiences who want to know what they're getting themselves into, and for those specifically looking for a certain type of story.
Also, this shouldn't be included in the blurb but kept separate, like the world and player information, thus easily identifiable.
Lastly, I think this should be searchable information.