And I have a bunch of questions, most of them unrelated.
Scenes: issues about how scenes work, and how it all comes together came up. I sent this out in an e-mail today to my players:
I want to re-interate that scenes should be focused on a specific thing or outcome. If you’re trying to get a half dozen new developments out of a scene, I’d say you’re playing it wrong. Get that one core thing you need right now. Scenes are suppose to be a scarce commodity, and therefore this will make everyone use their scenes wisely.
I sent that out, because I felt that some people were trying to “stuff” their scenes with as much as they could get away with. I still feel there was one scene where a little too much happened.
We played them last night as if the player who was the focus of the scene was a mini-GM, and I would interject. As the GM, how much authority to do I have in another player’s scene? Can I dictate setting, character, color, etc., without calling for a conflict?
A PC was sent to secure a mining outpost with a company of soldiers. He stated that he secured the mining outpost, located a Vaylen base, a criminal ship, and captured a Vaylen sleeper. I’m going to retro-actively scale that back to capturing the Vaylen sleeper and securing a portion of the mining outpost (as that was the meat of the scene). I feel like that was a bit much, and left out lots of crucial setting detail.
And what about rolls? I noticed that building scenes get 3 rolls. Does that mean players get 3 rolls per maneuver (plus conflicts)? Or does that mean they get to dictate 3 rolls to build toward their conflicts, while I as GM can call for rolls whenever I need to? Do FoRKs and help dice count toward that limit?
As the GM, are my scenes tied directly to my Figures of Note? I have about a dozen NPCs in the mix (yes, seriously), and some are only tied to PCs, or are two or three steps removed (relationships of relationships). How do I make the connection to my FoNs to bring those minor characters in for their own scenes?
This is a pretty new way for our group to play, and I just want to get the little bugs ironed out.
Circles tests: last night a player decided he wanted to capture a possible Vaylen sleeper last night while securing a mine. How can players (GM included) bring in new NPCs? Does it always require a Circles test? Or are Circles tests only for contacts? Last night I required to make a Circles test for the scout who captured the sleeper. Now I feel I should have forced the sleeper (and given out the Enmity Clause!), because there was no way the player was going to succeed at the sleeper. But I’m not even sure that’s covered by Circles.
And if that’s the case, how do I handle NPCs as the GM? Do I need to make Circles tests everytime I bring in a new character?
Finally, I want to use the Wiki for my campaign notes. Is that OK? And if so, can post all my NPCs or just my FoNs?
Obviously, I’m still brimming with questions, but I’ll just leave it at that for now. Thanks in advance.