filmreroll

Galaxy Quest (Part 2)

Added 2023-09-30 19:06:51 +0000 UTC

Another Galaxy Quest. Having a ton of fun with this one. I love playing characters who have none of the skills they need for the situation they're presented with. And in my case for Galaxy Quest, due to a crit-fail, I don't even understand the situation correctly. There's something freeing about having absolutely no chance. Treated as gameplay it might seem difficult, but as a storytelling exercise it is tremendously fun.

I authentically have no idea where this is going, so I'm not spoiling any future episodes, but I am very curious what Jon's approach is to this split party situation we've ended up in. I was thinking about what I'd do, which would probably be to give Kara and Joz new characters and occasionally cut back to the New-York-Theater-Company storyline, but not give it much screentime. But Jon has gone whole-hog on it. There's something wonderfully pure about this approach, but I have no idea where we're going from here.

It does highlight the role of the DM as a storyteller. My number one goal has always been to tell a good story, but I strongly believe in not controlling the events at all, the characters and the dice decide (obviously I have control over many of the characters as DM, but I try to control them from the perspective of them pursuing their own interests.) Still the DM has a tremendous power as a storyteller in controlling the lens. Which characters do we follow? What characters do I hand out to players? There's a big world out there full of interlocking events that make up the many possible narrative paths. I can't control those events, but I do control the frame through which we look at them.

Anyway, one more Galaxy Quest then we'll switch to Hocus Pocus for Halloween, whether we've finished GQ or not. See you all soon!