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Rogue Two (Part 4)

Added 2023-04-01 06:57:31 +0000 UTC

The hardest thing to wrangle with this story is managing to make the three different parties feel relevant: For instance, if one of the teams loses their death star plans, how do we still make them matter to the overarching story? And also making them feel distinct, after all they all have pretty similar goals, so one pitfall I was working to avoid was making the three storylines feel too samey - just interchangeable space adventures.

There are little things I can do in how I prepare and how I think about the meaning of the story to help avoid these traps, but to a certain degree I think the biggest thing you have to do is trust that you and your team of actors will make it work. I very much believe in player agency: setting up a big world and letting the players do what they will with it. That's kind of core to my approach but it does limit my ability to craft a story. It means that seeing a possible narrative hurdle is much easier than actually clearing it.

But I feel we have cleared those hurdles, the stories have stayed relevant and distinct imo. I couldn't tell you of any specific choice I made that allowed us to do so, it's probably just a lot of small choices made while being mindful of those traps, and a bit of luck. And also framing. I can't really control the story, but I can control how we frame it for the audience, and often that makes all the difference.

Next time our teams will certainly intersect. I have no idea what comes next. That's always the most exciting part for me.