changing focus

To paraphrase JMS of B5 fame, one might consider this the story of a platoon in WWII. Whatever happens to the platoon, the story of WWII goes on, often dwarfing the individual soldier. Perhaps the best one can hope for is to be present at Midway, or help raise the flag on Iwo Jima, or be the bombadier on the Enola Gay.

Regardless, there are two valid choices: either to focus only on one's own mission and interests, or to expand that focus to include the scope and detail of the war in part or in its entirety.

What the player finds entertaining, rewarding, and manageable is often defined by what he or she chooses to be specifically relevant to the character.

Of course, in a party of seven characters, there are seven separate lists of what is relevant. If one is to remain with a party and not go off on one's own -- which would be perfectly acceptable, except that it would result in leaving the game -- there is an argument to be made for being aware of what the other six individuals deem relevant to them. Otherwise, one is watching choices without clear motivation, and the result can be a frustrating chaos. Thus, the list of what one needs to know to function within the story grows a little bit longer. And so on.

By the way, as a general note: If any player starts to feel that his or her character *would*, at some point, decide that it's more logical to leave the party and pursue his or her own agenda, it is perfectly acceptable for the player to create another character that will join the party and take the previous character's place. There's no rule that says you must stay with one character throughout. Once provided with the player's basic guidelines/requests, I would NPC the character Somewhere Out In The World until such a time that the player wanted that character to return. Alternately, the path of the absent character might later intersect with the party again, and for a time the player could play both until one left again (hopefully this would only be a session or two.)

Anway -- just a random thing to toss out there.

Even though it began as a simple mystery of What Happened to Father Castillion, the camera has pulled back far enough now that almost all the world is in play. Thus my interest in launching some side games that occur elsewhere in the world's history.

This post, like many stories, seems to have grown with the telling. I'll stop now.