Platforms present opportunities to grow consensus through means of use. An early platform holds less competition than mature ones. Identifying which platforms will emerge in the near future identifies opportunity. 

Opportunity is taken through action. Each action is risky but the odds are maximized on emerging platforms and the competition is stiffer the more mature a platform is. 


1. Identify three existing platforms. How do they grow consensus through means of use?

2. What emerging platforms do you use? 

3. What is the largest platform you participate in? 

Ahoy Mythopoeians! 

It has been a year since the plague descended. Over in the United States people are optimistic. The sun is shining. Vaccinations are rolling and the end of quarantine seems in sight. I wanted to write today's post with some lofty title - 'Lessons Learned from Quarantine' - but now in the moment it doesn't seem right. I guess more appropriate would be 'what did you think about during this crazy time and how have things changed?"

See, it's hard to quantify. Everything revolves around the Self, which is already limited in its understanding of the world - a  path down a branch of knowledge known as consciousness. I've been using dashes more recently.  Wonder why.

Are things getting better? Immediate short term problems are solvable. Long term, are we destined to fight forever? There's always an enemy. Always a rebellion. Our understanding of the world warps around conflict. It's baked into the stories we tell. Our very nature.

Violence is easy to understand. We learn about it in our legends and myths and yet do we dare wish for a world where violence is not possible, where the peace can hold just a little longer? 

We were born in the summer years, the slow afternoon of great wars and fragile peace, forged through horrors engineered by monsters.

How long does peace last? Guess we play to find out! 

Ray  

 Hey folks, 

Vince here from Mythopoeia, and boy do I have a story to tell! And yes, this one is about airships :D If you've read up on Skies of Fire, you'll know that I have a fascination (some might say obsession) with airships. 

But the way I came about writing this piece was actually through some work I've been doing for our latest campaign on kickstarter, Pro Patria Mori. It's a WW1 mini-RPG zine that puts you into the shoes of a soldier on the frontlines of the Great War. I knew I had some WW1 related items lying around the house, and was able to find the pin you can see below hidden in a Princess Mary Gift Box (check out that story here). 

Early Beginnings
The First World War was a different kind of war. One where technological advancement changed military philosophy forever. One of these technologies was the Zeppelin airship. Invented by Ferdinand von Zeppelin at the turn of the century, these behemoths of the skies were initially used for civilian transport in Germany.

With the start of the war, their value as observation platforms was quickly utilized and on January 1915, the first airship raid on British soil occurred. Citizens and politicians were horrified at this development. It was unprecedented, and there was no effective defense against such attacks. With airships, no one was safe... 

The British papers called these bombings the Blitz, doled out by the "Zeppelin Terror." And for most of 1915-1916 this was true. Time and time again, airships would come to bomb key military targets, striking fear over the city of London. Dozens of Zeppelins were built and hundreds of crew trained in the art of bombing. 

But it was not meant to last and the days of the airship as a war machine were coming to an end. 

Geoff Gonella, L33: A Night to Remember, 2016
Kenneth Poolman, Zeppelins Against London, 1961 
Arch Whitehouse, The Zeppelin Fighters, 1966

Hey Mythopoeians! 

Over the past year I've run something like 40+ sessions of RPGs in a variety of systems, from one page games like Honey Heist, GMless fare like our The Love Balloon, and slightly more traditional narrativist systems like Blades in the Dark, and of course The Wildsea. I've also had the pleasure of playing under many different GMs during the last year, picking up what I liked and maybe liked less from their respective styles.

In any case, as of February 8th, 2021, this is my procedure for running RPG one shots.

It works for me, and maybe it 'll work for you. 

Icebreakers

First, it's important to get comfortable with your table and players. When a session begins, take the first five to ten minutes or so breaking the ice by making small talk. Ask about your players' day, where they're from, the weather, games - anything really to just get them comfortable and ready to play. This is especially important in one shots where we're playing with strangers. 

The entire process of roleplaying is a social interaction between a group of people. The success of the game ultimately hinges on the participation of all parties, not just the GM. From one angle, the game is a constant feeling out process between players framed by the ritual of a game and the agreement of a set of rules to abide by. That's why home games are always better than public ones - you know your friends, and your friends know you. Nonetheless, the better chemistry you build with your players - the more comfortable they are - the more likely your game is going to be great. 

Safety Tools 

Safety Tools are important, especially when playing with strangers. When I run public games, I always make sure to go over the safety tools I'm using. My go-tos are the X Card, Lines and Veils, and Open Door Policy. I adopted these three from Glendale Story Games, stewarded by Tomer Gurantz, who has always ensured that his communities are open, welcome, and safe places to game. I recommend you use them in your games, especially when gaming with strangers. 

Read more about Safety Tools here. 

Characters & Questions

At a certain point, transition from small talk to Character Creation/Introductions. This is pretty standard - I pass spotlight to players so they can introduce their characters. The most important thing, though, is listening to what they have to say and asking questions that deepen their understanding of who the character is. 

"What is the most beautiful thing you've seen on the waves?"
"Where did you learn how to program / hack?"
"What is the closest you've ever come to death?"

This is what roleplaying is - asking questions and fostering answers from the characters. There's a sweet spot with a question that helps a player deepen their character and one that is either too specific or too broad to answer easily. This is mostly a feel and experience thing - I think of it like a degree or two away from armchair psychologist.

You want questions that helps players understand their characters better but ones that they don't have to spend more than fifteen seconds to come up with an answer. This is variable depending on the player, - some players are very comfortable with improv and coming up with things on the spot, others may be more timid.

Remember, the most important thing is to read your table and adjust accordingly.  The better you know your players, the more you can cater the experience that what they want. 


Breaks 

Don't forget to take regular breaks in your game! I like to take the first break after character introductions and typically take a break about every hour or so of gaming. I might take less breaks for a home group or if the table is particularly riveted - again, read your table and adjust accordingly. 

Breaks serve two main functions:

• They allow us to stretch, use the restroom, and take care of our bodies which have otherwise been sitting for an extended amount of time. Very important. 
• They allow you, the GM, to regroup and think about what comes next.

On the latter, often a quick pause is all you need to compose your thoughts and lead the session through to its next phase. You'd be surprised as to how much stuff you can come up with in just a couple of minutes. Calling for a break can really help unstuck you, so don't be afraid to call for a break if you're stumped! 

Beginnings

Once the first break is over, it's time to begin the game in earnest! Beginnings are very important in any type of roleplaying scenario, but especially so in one-shots. This is your opportunity as the GM to hard frame the situation, set the scene, and propel the narrative forward. 

So what makes a good beginning? I think a good intro... 

• Holds the Player's attention.
• Lets them know it's time to play.
• Engenders an immediate action or reaction. 

What you are trying to avoid is a situation that is unclear or unmotivated from the player's perspective. You don't want characters fapping about talking about the weather or watching NPCs talking to each other. You want to create a scenario that allows them to actively participate and take agency in the scene and propel the story forward. 

If you've crafted an intriguing beginning, that's often all you need to get the entire session going, especially in fiction-first systems that bake in narrative structure into the mechanics. Frame a situation, ask what the players do, and let the story unfold from there. If it doesn't seem like they're doing anything, that means you need to do something to them. This is the balancing act between GMing and 

Time Check

After the second break after about an hour+ of gaming, make sure to check in on your players and their available time remaining to play. The main purpose of this time check is so that you can begin to internally pace and drive towards a satisfying ending. Having, say, two hours left, versus one hour left, should drastically effect how you manage the session. 

Structure

A typical three hour session will typically have no more than 4-6 scenes, with a scene about every 45 minutes. Moments of intense action should be contrasted by more social or reflective, quieter scenes. Try to bounce between the two - external stake, internal stake, external stake, internal, etc. Action / Talky / Action / Talky or Up / Down / Up / Down.

However you split it, don't forget to change things up. Doing so helps ensure there's a variety of scenarios for various types of characters. 

Some systems have built in metanarrative that helps you plan out what happens. Otherwise, you may want to look into scaffolding material like the 5 Room Dungeon which is essentially a narrative structure adapted for RPGs. Again, you'll get better at this with experience, but generally speaking bounce between moments of action and moments of characterization. Too much of one thing leads to a feeling of blandness. 


Twists

One common trope that you might want to incorporate is to present a Twist about 2/3rd through the session. This can be anything from a moral quandary, villainous reveal, or maybe just a straight up escalation of events. 

Either way, the 2/3rd point of the session (keyed by time, hence the Time Check) should mark an escalation point that ramps up the stakes and intensity, driving towards the climax and ending. 

Endings

Beginnings and Endings are the most important part of a session. Beginnings hook the players and spurs good play, while Endings - more than any other aspect - determine how your players feel about a session once it's done. 

What a satisfying Ending looks like depends largely on the story that's unfolded. Your players will be signaling to you through the construction of their characters what they want to see. Your goal is to deliver on some of that right at the end of the session if possible. You don't have to deliver on all of the character's wants. Often, keying in on one or two characters and completing their loop or arc is enough. 

You should be thinking about how to end a session when you have about an hour or so left of game time and begin driving towards that ending. Push if you need to. Have something vaguely in mind, but be flexible enough to change it all the way until the last minute. 

Remember, the most important thing is to read your table and adjust accordingly.  

Try your best to deliver a good ending. Do everything in your power to do this. Nothing kills a session faster than mismanaged time and a player announcing they have to leave before you can pay it all off. Again, that's why you check on time, that's why you keep an eye on the ball, and that's why you start thinking about how to end a session well before it actually ends. 

If you have the end in mind, you can drive towards it, no problem. Don't wait until it's too late to think about it. 

Denouement 

Once you nail the ending, give the players spotlight to narrate what happens to their character. You may want to jump forward in time, but either way the most important thing is they get a sense of closure at this moment. 

Once that's done, thank everyone for playing and give yourself a pat on the back. Congratulations. You did it! You ran a kick ass one-shot! 

- Ray

Ahoy Mythopoeians! 

Happy New Year! I'm a little bit tardy on my January post but here I am! Since starting to blog in January I've been trying to crank out about a post a month just to jot down random thoughts and to keep people afloat as to what we're up to. Here's to continuing blogging in 2021! 

I thought today might be a good time to go over some things I've been enjoying for the past couple of months. These are all just things I've been consuming and enjoying lately, and my thoughts about why. 

​Here we go! 
​

Up first in comics is the Italian pulp horror classic Dylan Dog. Created in the 80's, Dylan Dog follows the eponymous paranormal investigator as he tackles on all matter of strange cases, crimes, and personal entanglements. The Long Goodbye finds Dylan Dog reunited with a childhood flame with a strange past. 

What I love about Dylan Dog is its mastery of pacing. Each page (usually between 4-6 panels) moves the story forward at a brisk pace, unfolding a romance mystery steeped in pulp tradition - old flames, flashbacks, and of course new clues! 

This particular story tells a bittersweet tale of young love, regret, and choices not made. It hit hard in the feels and legitimately made me long for something I can't quite put into words. It's a fantastic comic and one I recommend with full enthusiasm. 
​
Dylan Dog is published by Epicenter Comics​ in the United States, and is in wide syndication all over the world. 

The Crown is a dramatization of the British royal family during Queen Elizabeth II's reign, from her ascendancy following her father King George VI's death up to Princess Diana and Prince Charle's troubled marriage through the early 90's in the current season four. 

I'm a sucker for palace intrigue. Throw me some elaborate costumes and whispers of betrayal and I'm all in. The Crown takes the genre to another level - in terms of storytelling, staging, and dramatization. I'm not sure how true to life the show is, but I can say that watching it feels like watching history. 

The Crown is about as well written of a show currently out there. There's been multiple times while watching where I've audibly muttered to myself "what a scene," especially during the teaser intros. This may sound slightly snooty, but the Crown feels like one of the paradigms of dramatic writing that will be cited, referenced, and drawn from for years to come. I'm willing to bet that much like the historical plays of Bill the Bard, this is a show that will transcend its own time. 

The Crown is executive produced by Peter Morgan and distributed by Netflix. 

I'm sure Cyberpunk 2077 needs no introduction, but I personally just completed my first campaign of the game, going through two of the available endings. I didn't really follow the game through its development cycle and am uninterested in the ensuing drama that the hype / disappointment cycle has fed. 

Cyberpunk 2077 explores themes and motifs that have really matured for me personally over the past couple of years. I'm a newcomer to cyberpunk as a genre, but the events of the global pandemic and political turmoil have really put into focus the themes that the aesthetic explores: transhuman consciousness, corporate megastates, & environmental disaster. 

God is Man and Man is God. 

Without going into spoilers, one aspect of video games that is fascinating to me is that as the medium matures, so too does the exploration of melancholy and/or bittersweet endings. That does tend to lead to a bit of cognitive dissonance as the narrative arcs of these games - The Last of Us, Red Dead Redemption, Almost Human, to name a few - has to ultimately reconcile with the presented gameplay. Some games do this better than others; in The Last of Us, you play a hardened post apocalyptic murderer, and the game leans fully into a bone chilling exploration of what that really means.

Other games struggle; Red Dead Redemption often has you mowing down armies of cowboys only for characters to be laid low during the cut scenes. What Cyberpunk does very well is make it feel like you are but a cog in mechanisms beyond your control. However strong you are, you are but one person grasping at things beyond your reach. That, more than anything, coalesced what the genre expectations of cyberpunk are and has my brain abuzzing about the psychological and philosophical ramifications therein. 

I'm looking forward to playing this game again when all of the various bugs and features are patched over. 

Cyberpunk 2077 is developed and published by CD Projekt Red. 

​

There you go! Three things I liked at the tail end of 2020. Do you have any choice picks? Let us know in the comments below! 

​Ray