What’s your system for taking turns/order of actions/etc? Like, if a player says an action, do you let that action play out? Or do you ask all of the players what their actions are/what they are doing and they all happen simultaneously?
I’m having a bit of difficulty figuring out an effective system.
I am pretty sure it is a rock paper scissors thing. All reveal at once and stuff happens simultaneously. Given that you are engaged or not, you run through each engagement grouping without worrying what is happeneing in the others until the next roll for engagement comes up.
Is that what you are asking?
Um, I dunno. What do you mean by engagement?
I’m not talking about Fight!, mind you. I’m talking about like… I present a scene to the players. They have things they want to do. Do they happen simultaneously?
I have everyone announce in turn and describe briefly what they will do. Then we roll dice.
I just ask each player individually, “What are you doing?” Usually, I try to set up scenes that will hit at least one player’s Belief, if not a couple (my players are really good about writing Beliefs that tie into eachothers’ characters), so someone usually has an idea of what they want to do within a few seconds of me asking.
If there’s a question of chronology, we sort those out before we play out everyone’s scene. If everybody’s in the same scene, I resolve actions as they’re declared. My table’s tend to be a little chaotic in a friendly way, sometimes.
And the actions happen simultaneously? Or do you allow the players to decide that?
@Shaun: Ah, alright. My players are very used to playing reactively, so they sometimes have a hard time taking initiative. I guess I’ll have to help them be a bit more proactive.
My regular players are pretty proactive, but I tend to run BW for new players a lot, and they tend to be reactive, too. In that case, I just push on their Beliefs as much as I can, until they start taking the fight to the people or situations that are getting in the way of their goals.
Outside of conflicts, BW plays pretty much like any other RPG. Actions are sorted out and played in any order that makes sense for the narrative. If ever there’s a question of whether a PC can complete an action before an NPC, it’s a versus test. If the order of PC actions matters, either let the players coordinate their actions appropriately, or play them “first called, first acted”, as the time constraints of the narrative warrant.
Inside combat/DoW, it’s another story. All actions happen simultaneously in their scripted volleys.
Don’t forget using versus tests to decide the order of PC actions as well - I like how BW handles that, and it’s also a great way to gently shake people not used to the system. “What, we’re fighting? Oh no, infighting in the party, we’re all going to dieee… or?”