[HoE] Re: "meta-plot" adventures (Hopler or Goff)

["John Goff" <johngoff@erols.com>]

B.D. asked:
>
> While this is strictly hearsay (in this case, someone posted a "John Goff"
> said in a chat message, and I can't remember if John confirmed), the
> outcome of future "meta-plot" adventures will be determined by the
players.
>  Beginning with "Ghostbusters", IIRC, each of these adventures will
include
> a few questions at the end of the module, such as "Did the Ghost survive?"
> GM's send in their results, and the tallies dictate what happens
> "officially".
>
> John or John, any comments?
>

Yes, yes I did. I can't speak for HOE, but that's my plan for Deadlands. In
general, everyone loves the storyline behind Deadlands, but hates the fact
that it progresses along without them. We're trying to change that. The
Boise Horror was a step, and we've learned a lot from that one already.

In Ghost Busters, we're putting it in the hands of the players. The deal is
this:

Your posse finishes the adventure and you write a short (500 word or so)
story about what happened. There are certain important aspects we want you
to cover (what happened to the main non-player character, etc.), but for the
most part, it's very free-form and open-ended. As much so as is possible to
be. IOW, did "A" happen or not?

Then, we'll take all the write-ups we receive by the deadline (sometime in
summer, probably just before Origins) and pick one at random. That story
determines what the "official party line" on that event (and others
influenced by it) and the posse members detailed in the story get the
credit. In addition, we'll pop the story into an upcoming Epitaph.

Why random? Well, for two reasons, actually.

One, we'd originally intended to do a "majority rules" kind of vote, but
then after some discussion, we realized that means your posse's actions only
matter if the biggest number of players got that result. Individually, no
posse has the chance to make a major impact. By pulling one at random, it
does.

Second,  sort of a corollary to the first actually, it lets a specific group
get credit for progressing the storyline instead of just being a number in a
faceless crowd. The players _know_ they did the deed and get a bit of
ownership in the DL setting. Also, one of the number gets to put their deeds
into print for everyone else to see.

That said, if this idea really blows chunks and everyone hates it, we'll try
another one next time. :-)

John Goff