The Great Debate

[woodenbandman]

I had a thought, and I was wondering how you all thought it would go down.

So I had the idea for the World of Wonder (http://brilliantgameologists.com/boards/index.php?topic=4470.0). It turned out okay in respect to the nationbuilding exercise, but I'm not entirely happy with the rest of it. Anyway, in order to make this game more immersive for my players, I had the idea of tossing in a little introductory section mid-way. There's about to be a huge war go down, and I was thinking of rolling up the leaders of each player-created nation, and giving out the character sheets to each of the players, while they have a roundtable debate over the future of the world in which they live. It would last for maybe 15 or 20 minutes, probably with much furious note-passing.

Good idea?

[Aedilred]

Depends whether you think your players are up to the job.

The published campaign module I'm currently running has a section like this where the players are encouraged to take on the roles of NPCs for one scene to get them more immersed. We haven't reached that part yet, and am sceptical about how it will work with my players (whose roleplaying is somewhat patchy) and the format we're using (a very slow PbP). However I've heard several reports of GMs trying it and the group having a great time.

In the situation you describe, it's easier than in mine because you're not getting the players to play NPCs who they've already met, who are major antagonists, who they're going to come into regular contact with, and so on, so forfeiting control as the GM isn't such a big deal. Distance between the "PNPC" and the PCs is also greater, so there's more incentive for the players to throw themselves into the roleplaying rather than worrying about the effects on their character.

I say go for it, and if it's a disaster, well, you don't have to do it again. It might be nice for the players to get a break from their PCs and get a brief chance to try something different, even if only for a few minutes, too.

[woodenbandman]

Thanks for that advice. Anyone got any other tips?

[Myou]

If they have stats the players will just use them to kill eachother.

But maybe that's what you want? XD