Comments on: The DCM10 Wrap Up (finally!)

By: Corey Brown

Corey Brown — Thu, 08 Jan 2009 17:26:07 +0000

YAWN TOWN BEN! UPDATE!

By: Hal

Hal — Mon, 27 Oct 2008 15:06:14 +0000

Time dash – following the same characters in time (usually seeing them later, although it can be in the past).
Analogues – different characters, but playing the same game of first beat.

i.e., first beat is frightened boss who gets pushed around by a bullying employee. A time dash second beat shows those characters in a heightened situation. An analogous second beat might be a pack of dogs where the pack leader gets pushed around by a bullying puppy.

The quote indicates neither way is better.

By: milkshake

milkshake — Sun, 26 Oct 2008 06:24:02 +0000

“There is nothing intrinsically better about doing a time-dash to the second beat of your game over analogous beats for your game”

What does this mean? This seems important and i have no idea what it means. and thanks for taking notes.

By: Doug

Doug — Sat, 25 Oct 2008 17:47:59 +0000

I’ve been waiting for you to transcribe your notes for months!

You hit the nail on the head about what I loved about Code Duello. If you tried to explain what their show was about, it would sound absurd, like the kind of show you’d be embarrassed to bring your friends to. But they made it work! Tigers, rabid cats, time machines…it all seemed so real. I think it’s because their scenes weren’t about those things but they were about the characters’ REACTIONS and FEELINGS about those things. The premise might have been crazy, but the emotions (Hamilton missing his pet cat, for example, Burr getting frustrated that his well-intentioned efforts to help Hamilton weren’t appreciated) were very real. The lesson I took from what they did was to always use the lasso of reality and feeling to pull in the craziness. They did that with aplomb.

By: Ben Whitehouse

Ben Whitehouse — Thu, 09 Oct 2008 20:05:30 +0000

Well especially in the context of game, people get overly cerebral about the way they move from beat to beat. Instead of saying, “What do I think would be fun in this situation?” I feel like a lot of us think, “What is the perfect place to bring this beat?” This of course is an impossible question to answer, because there is no perfect choice, and leads to a lot of scenes that just don’t connect with the improvisers doing them.

By: vinnyfrancois

vinnyfrancois — Thu, 09 Oct 2008 19:05:43 +0000

Great to see you post this. Even late, for those of us unable to attend, it’s still one of our few links into the Marathon.

“I want to find another scenario equally as funny or funnier than the first one. Thinking funnier will naturally raise the stakes.”
I found this line interesting because it’s essentially “riffing off of an idea”. If you give 3 people a theme, each of them will generate their own idea. Players shouldn’t feel the pressure that the second idea needs to top the first one. Each idea at the start was equally worthy of merit. It’s the implementation of the scene’s premise that gives a scene its weight and humour.

Ideas are easy, never be scared of them. Implementation is tough but trust your fellow players to help you out!