Communities

Writing
Writing
Codidact Meta
Codidact Meta
The Great Outdoors
The Great Outdoors
Photography & Video
Photography & Video
Scientific Speculation
Scientific Speculation
Cooking
Cooking
Electrical Engineering
Electrical Engineering
Judaism
Judaism
Languages & Linguistics
Languages & Linguistics
Software Development
Software Development
Mathematics
Mathematics
Christianity
Christianity
Code Golf
Code Golf
Music
Music
Physics
Physics
Linux Systems
Linux Systems
Power Users
Power Users
Tabletop RPGs
Tabletop RPGs
Community Proposals
Community Proposals
tag:snake search within a tag
answers:0 unanswered questions
user:xxxx search by author id
score:0.5 posts with 0.5+ score
"snake oil" exact phrase
votes:4 posts with 4+ votes
created:<1w created < 1 week ago
post_type:xxxx type of post
Search help
Notifications
Mark all as read See all your notifications »
Q&A

How to find out the purpose of play of a con game?

+5
−0

In a con game, or other one-shot with strangers, I often meet the problem that I don't really know how the game master and the other players are going to approach the game, or would like me to do the same. An archetypal example is Call of Cthulhu. Are we there to...

  • try to, as players, solve the mystery and stop the evil, with success and failure as real possibilities, and our skills and luck as the deciding factor?
  • create and appreciate a story like those by Lovecraft (maybe aside from the blatant racism etc.), trying to stick to the genre conventions and play so as to eventually reveal the horrific?
  • try to get into the headspace of the player characters, immersing ourselves into the roles of more-or-less normal people facing the supernatural and unexplainable?

All of these are possible games and can be interesting, but I do want to know which one I am playing. In my experience, asking directly does not produce results: "do whatever" or "everything at once" are typical answers, but the behaviours of the game master and maybe other people during the game often reveal something else. Call of Cthulhu is just an example here. The same problem applies to D&D and many other games, usually with slightly different alternatives as to what the creative agenda might be.

I suspect the reason is that the game master in question might only know one creative goal and might thus see roleplaying as a singular activity with a fixed goal, rather than seeing the multitudes of creative possibilities the hobby has. Or maybe they just lack the vocabulary to express such issues.

How can I, as a player, effectively find out the creatives goals of a particular con game or similar one-shot?

History
Why does this post require moderator attention?
You might want to add some details to your flag.
Why should this post be closed?

1 comment thread

"Confidence games" != "Convention Games" (2 comments)

1 answer

+1
−0

If the GM won't tell you, either the GM does not know or the GM does not want to tell you.

Inexperienced GMs might not know. Experienced GMs should know. Check into their background.

All the rest of the time, asking the GM is the best move.

History
Why does this post require moderator attention?
You might want to add some details to your flag.

0 comment threads

Sign up to answer this question »