As I mentioned in the first installment of Film Banging the problem with using films as fodder for talking about RPG techniques is that it can be very easy for the linear nature of the medium to leak into the discussion. We know that Luke Skywalker is “destined” to go to the Death Star and blow it up because we’ve seen the movie. So if I talk about Obi-Wan saying that he wants Luke to join him on Alderaan as an example of what a scenario hook looks like, am I saying that every scenario hook needs to be a railroad?

So, as before, we’re going to pretend that the outcome of each scene hasn’t been predetermined. And I’ll try to emphasize that by discussing the different outcomes each scene might have.

We started our analysis of The Avengers at the beginning of the film. But it turns out that the beginning of most films look a lot alike: There are a bunch of color scenes setting up the exposition of the film with an occasional conflict scene tossed in to keep things lively. So for Alien we’re going to skip to the middle of the film.

SCENE 1 – BANG: “The communication panel pings. It’s Ash. He says there’s been a change in Kane’s condition: He’s awake.”

The agenda is: What are we going to do about Kane?

(Or, alternatively, the GM can think of it as: Are they going to figure out there’s something wrong with Kane before an alien bursts out of his chest?)

The film actually visits this agenda over and over again through a sequence of scenes following the facehugger latching onto Kane, starting with Ripley facing a choice about leaving the airlock sealed to prevent contamination. (In an RPG the first such scene would probably be the exploration party deciding whether or not to bring him back to the ship at all, but the film skips that decision point.)

You see this technique used frequently in horror stories: When the audience knows (or suspects) the doom that’s coming, the repeated opportunities for the characters to avoid their doom are suspenseful. For the characters, these opportunities are frequently powerful crucibles in their own right and can become points of strong contention after the fact. (“If only you had fucking listened to me, Bobby wouldn’t be dead!”)

So, for example, in this scene there are multiple moments in which a different choice might have resulted in a different outcome: Kane is having problems with his memory… maybe we should give him a medical scan (which would have revealed the creature incubating inside of him)? We’re supposed to go straight to cryo (in which case, Kane would have gotten frozen before the creature burst out of him)… but we’re all hungry and cryo will go easier if we’ve got some food to burn.

This technique can be tougher to use in an RPG because PCs tend to have a more ruthless survival instinct than literary characters. “Nuke it from orbit, it’s the only way to be sure” is their motto. So if you want to offer them repeated opportunities to “escape their doom”, then you need to spike the pot a bit: Make it cost (and cost dearly) to pursue the safer or more expedient course.

SCENE 2 – BANG: “Kane’s chest explodes in a fountain of blood.”

The agenda is: How will the crew react to Kane’s death?

This bang kinda speaks for itself. It’s one of the most famous bangs in film history.

The agenda, you’ll note, is not particularly compelling. (A strong and memorable bang can make up for a pedestrian agenda.) But the other interesting thing about this scene is that it’s about color and not conflict: The alien kills Kane (who I’m assuming is a feature, not a lead), but the only moment that even comes close to conflict is Ash insisting that they don’t fight the creature.

This scene doesn’t end in the dining room: That’s just where the bang is located. The scene (and its agenda) continues through the funeral and the ensuing ordnance discussion (where we’re introduced to the electric prod and the motion detector). We can imagine this scene ending when somebody at the table says, “Okay. Enough talk. We’re leaving the bridge and going bug hunting.” That signals the GM that it’s time to move on to the next scene.

SCENE 3 – BANG: “You can’t understand it. All the power on Deck 3 is out. It’s a black pit down there.”

The agenda is: Can they catch the xenomorph?

Note that the “GM” doesn’t waste time describing a bunch of time in which the search turns up nothing of interest. Instead, he cuts straight to the moment where a discovery has been made. (At a gaming table, we could imagine a Search check being made. Alternatively, a GM could easily ask the PCs what their search pattern is going to be and use that to determine what anomaly they encounter first.)

There’s actually a whole sequence of bangs through this sequence:

• “The motion sensor triggers. There’s something behind the spacesuits.”
• “You find the shed skin of the xenomorph.”
• “You spot the cat hiding behind some crates. It hisses loudly. You realize it’s not looking at you any more. It’s looking over your shoulder.”
• “Water is dripping down on you from the water tanks… Wait. That’s not water. It’s red. It’s viscous. It’s blood.”
• “You hear Brett screaming.”

I mentioned in Film Banging: The Avengers that Whedon used escalating sequences of bangs. Scott and O’Bannon use the same principle here to structure a compelling search sequence.

Consider how similar lessons can be applied to your dungeon design: What’s the bang for each room/encounter? How can the PCs move towards the bang? How can you move play efficiently to the next bang instead of dwelling on material that isn’t compelling or meaningful?

SCENE 4 – BANG: “There’s only one possibility. The alien is moving through the air ducts.”

The agenda is: What’s the new strategy?

‘Cause the old one sure as hell didn’t work. In the movie, this scene gives us the idea of sealing the exits from the air shaft and driving the alien into the airlock. It also gives us flamethrowers.

In an RPG scenario we could imagine this scene going a different way: Maybe the PCs decide to make a break for the shuttle. Or they have someone cover the second entrance to the air shaft instead of sealing it. Or multiple people enter the air duct.

SCENE 5 – BANG: “Dallas! I’ve got a second trace on the motion sensor. It’s in there with you.”

The agenda is: Can Dallas survive?

Finally, we have a pretty straightforward conflict scene. It takes the somewhat unusual form of consisting almost entirely of opposed Stealth and Perception checks. (By the time the xenomorph catches up to Dallas in the air shaft, it’s already too late for him.)

If I was running this scenario at the table, I might embrace the structure of the scene by having Lambert’s player go into another room. She can get useful information from the motion tracker (which I’ll provide by sending her text messages on her cell phone), but she’ll have to shout it. Meanwhile, there’s an egg-timer and Dallas’ player only has 30 seconds to figure out which direction to go next based on his own Perception checks and whatever Lambert is screaming at him. (This is an example of a metagame special effect. But I digress.)

Go to : The Art of Pacing – Film Banging: The Matrix

To explore the concept of bangs with a little more specificity, let’s break down some scenes from popular films. What we’re looking for here is a better understanding of why a particular scene has been chosen and how that particular scene begins.

The danger with this sort of analysis is that we’re looking at a linear medium. Unfortunately, one of the problems with analyzing the techniques of RPG play is that it’s difficult to establish common reference points: Whereas we can all pop in a Blu-Ray and watch the same movie, even groups running identical scenarios won’t necessarily have similar experiences.

For the purpose of this exercise, therefore, we’re going to pretend that these movies aren’t linear experiences. Even though, in reality, the outcome of each scene has already been predetermined we’re going to act as if that isn’t true. I’ll try to emphasize this by discussing the different outcomes a given scene might have.

Let’s start with The Avengers.

THE AVENGERS

At the beginning of the film, an evacuation has been ordered at the tesseract facility. The leads for the first several scenes are Nick Fury, Agent Coulson, and Agent Hill.

SCENE 1 – BANG: “Dr. Selvig read an energy surge from the tesseract. It’s a spontaneous event. We can’t shut it down.”

The agenda is: How is SHIELD going to react?

The agenda of this scene is interesting because of the way that it ties into the entire “Phase II vs. the Avengers Initiative” conflict that lies behind the entire film. It’s expressed most directly through the debate between Agent Hill and Director Fury, but we could also imagine a scenario where Fury reacts to the bang very differently: He chooses not to evacuate the facility because the work on the Phase II prototypes is too important to be disrupted (and the rest of the movie looks very different).

Most of this scene is color.

SCENE 2 – BANG: “There’s a huge burst of energy from the tesseract! Loki appears, wielding some sort of high-tech, spear-like weapon. It looks a lot like a Phase II weapon.”

The agenda is: Can SHIELD stop Loki from stealing the tesseract?

There’s also an interesting secondary agenda: Can they evacuate the compound before it collapses?

Note that both agendas are simultaneously set up with the bang.

This scene is obviously all about conflict and it lasts from Loki’s appearance until he makes his final escape: Martial arts flurry in the lab. Converting the featured characters of Hawkeye and Selvig. Bluffing Agent Hill. Car chase. Helicopter chase. The whole thing.

Let’s take a moment to imagine the agenda questions being answered differently during the actual play of an RPG: Maybe Coulson deprioritizes the evacuation of the facility and with his assistance they’re able to get the tesseract to the helicopter before Loki can get it. As a result, they lose the Phase II weapons (and a lot of their researchers), which will probably have a negative impact on their long-term resources. On the other hand, they’re able to secure the tesseract onboard the helicarrier. (Which is, of course, where Loki will end up targeting it next.)

SCENE 3 – BANG: “Your ruse has worked perfectly: You’re tied to a chair and being ‘interrogated’ by a Russian general. He’s got a couple of thugs flanking him. And there’s a table full of gleaming torture instruments shoved off to one side. You hear a large freight train go rumbling by outside.”

The agenda is: Can Natasha identify the other players in the general’s sale of illegal arms?

Natasha is the lead here, of course. The bang and agenda here are actually inconsequential (although if Natasha had followed up on this information she might have discovered that the thugs Loki was hiring came from this guy’s network). They’re really just providing contextualization for the next bang: “Agent Coulson calls. Barton’s been compromised.” That’s what the scene is really about: Is Natasha going to prioritize her personal commitment to Barton or the time she’s sunk into her current investigation?

Interesting note here. Whedon actually closes the scene with what could be interpreted as another bang: “Oh no. I’ve got Stark. You’ve got the big guy.” This prompts a scene which is actually not found in the movie (during which Natasha plans her operation to recruit Banner), but it’s an example of how effective it can be to deliver a bang and then immediately cut away from it. You’ll leave your players in anticipation of what the resolution of that bang will be.

SCENE 4 – BANG: “As you enter the house, you see the little girl hop out a window on the far side. The whole place looks abandoned.”

The agenda is: Is the Big Guy gonna show up?

The leads here are Banner and Natasha.

Note that you could also express this as, “Will Natasha successfully recruit Banner?” And while there is an element of that in the scene, it’s clearly a less interesting agenda and Whedon knows that. Which is why the question of Banner’s anger is introduced in the second line of the scene, the question of Banner being recruited doesn’t show up for another two minutes, and the scene ends when it’s clear Banner is able to keep it under control.

The important lesson to take away here, I think, is that the agenda of the scene is not always what the characters are talking about on the surface.

We’re also seeing how often Whedon employs escalating bangs throughout his scenes: There’s a girl asking you for help. The girl disappears. A beautiful superspy seems to materialize from behind a wall.

SCENE 5 – BANG: “The Council is demanding to know why you’re trying to reactivate the Avengers Initiative.”

The agenda is: Can Nick Fury convince the Council to activate the Avengers assets as a response team?

Mostly self-explanatory. Note that the conflict in this scene isn’t actually resolved. It is, at best, postponed. Remember that the big agendas will probably only be resolved over the course of multiple scenes.

On a personal note, I found this scene interesting because my initial impulse was to describe the bang as, “Sir. The Council is calling.” This bang is actually used later in the film and it works there because the circumstances of the call make it a big deal. Here, though, Whedon’s instinct is right: He cuts straight to the call.

And that would probably be the right call at the table, too: There’s really no reason to think that Nick Fury isn’t going to take a call from the Council at this point; ergo the decision to “pick up the phone” is not a meaningful choice and a harder frame is almost certainly the stronger, better choice.

Go to : The Art of Pacing – Film Banging: Alien

Quick question: I’m probably going to be releasing an adventure module in the near future. I’m trying to figure out if I should stat it for 3.5 or if I should make the jump to Pathfinder.

You can select both answers on this poll. Basically, if you would buy the module if it was for a particular system you should select that option.

 Loading ...

This is what my chin looks like at the moment:

That’s an MRSA staph infection, complete with swollen lymph nodes. “MRSA” means that it’s resistant to common antibiotics, so I’m on my third set of medications for it and it’s gradually getting better. 2013 has truly been a suck-filled year for me.

Although that’s been slowing me down quite a bit this week, the one thing I did manage to get done was processing a couple large chunks of L&L refunds. Looks like we’re about 50% of the way through that process now. At the moment, we’re waiting for another cycle of cash to clear Paypal and I’ll be able to push on with the next batch. If you’re a backer who has sent me an e-mail and has not yet received your refund, it’ll be on its way as soon as Paypal gets out of the way. If you have any questions or concerns, please don’t hesitate to contact me.

The Struggle – Alex Drummond

As with last week’s piece, this art is drawn directly from the gaming table. In fact, the scene depicted here is taken from me Ptolus campaign. You can read the matching journal entry here:

In the Shadow of the Spire – Prelude 1B: The Lost Vaults

The depictions of Tee and Agnarr, however, are slightly anachronistic. (The scene takes place shortly after they met in the wilderness, but Agnarr wouldn’t have his flaming sword and Tee wouldn’t have her dragon pistol until after they returned to Ptolus.) This is because these characters were appearing in multiple illustrations and I decided to both (a) simplify the art order and (b) potentially create a greater continuity in the book’s interior art by supplying the artist with only a single description. (Plus, this piece is much cooler with the red flames and the cocked pistol.)

This particular piece would have replaced Thor and his hammer on pg. 71 of the Black Book Beta.