Scene Framing and THREATening the Heroes

So file this under I didn’t realize this was a thing.  Jared Rascher (of Gnome Stew and Google+ fame, along with his blog) did an…extensive video interview with Kevin Madison (Live from the Sword Coast) last week.

In addition to some very complimentary words about your’s truly’s Cut to the Chase: Dramatic Chase Sequences PDF, he also brought up an interesting point I had never considered before.  Jared believes that “scene framing” is poorly explained in the 7th Sea rulebook, which is one of the things difficult to grasp for new GMs.

No, I have no idea where in the interview they talked about this.  The damn thing is 2 and a half plus hours long.  But its good stuff, so listen to the whole thing.  They get to it eventually.

So I nodded along.  Right, scene framing.  Wait.  What the hell is “scene framing?”  Don’t I just describe the scene and run with it?  Why is that so difficult?  So I asked Jared, because he’s cool and he’s one of the few 7th Sea guys who is ONLY on Google+ (really Jared, we gotta get you over to the Explorer’s FB group – it’s jumpin’).  He gave me some places to start.  So I started looking.

Oh my poor virgin narrative GMing eyes.

If you’ve been playing FATE, FIASCO, In a Wicked Age, or any one of the dozens/scores/hundreds of indie narrative RPGs that have rolled out over the past decade, you may want to keep some Visine handy.  You’re going to be doing some serious eyerolling for a bit.

So…scene framing is a real thing.  It’s mostly limited to games with a serious amount of player agency, where the GM mainly exists to host the players, tell everyone when the game starts and stops, and keeps the Cheetos and Mountain Dews coming.  Because players need boundaries, these RPG bake in some procedures to scene framing.  Let’s use Primetime Adventures (where there is some agreement that “scene framing” was first really codified) as an example.  Where in OD&D you would determine surprise, distance, and reaction at the onset of an encounter, a scene in PTA begins by determining focus (the who or what), agenda (the why), and location (the where).  FATE does much the same thing without the fancy terminology.

7th Sea doesn’t really work like this – despite a fair share of narrative underpinnings, the GM still has a very prominent role in the game.  The GM is expected to drive the opposition and make things difficult for the Heroes, regardless of their own actions.  And while the game gives players resources they can use to exert different degrees of agency in play (stories, hero points, and raises), the GM is the ultimate gatekeeper to all of this.  I can allow as much or as little player agency as I’m comfortable with in play – the mechanics works just fine either way.

So what can we take from all this scene framing discussion?

In Never Unprepared: The Complete Game Master’s Guide to Session Prep, these scene framing components show up as part of the Scene Template, with particular focus on Purpose (the why) and the Closing (because knowing when the scene ends is important).

I’m a sucker for organization templates (even though I almost never use them), but this is an area that I really have never considered necessary.  While I’ve written adventures in terms of scenes for years, the idea of a codified scene framing seems somewhat redundant to me.  But then, I’m not especially familiar with games like this (obviously).  In my experience, scenes simply flow into one another, organically.  The only reason you would need to know when a scene begins or ends is if you are employing cinematic tricks (“The camera zooms in on Steve as he prepares to disarm the trap!”) or if you have resources that recharge between scenes.  Likewise, I’ve never run D&D in terms of turns – though it makes sense why someone would.

7th Sea does have resources that recharge between scenes (like wounds), but more importantly I’ve found that mechanics like Dramatic Sequences do benefit from a bit more structure than the freeform flow than I’m used to employing.  Not a great deal, mind you.  But it helps to keep the players a bit more focused on their goals (the agenda or why) than I would in other games.  So after more experience with Dramatic Sequences in play, I’ve started adding a new element to my notes: THREAT.

THREAT is sort of a catch-all reminder for me.  It could be the stakes of the scene, or what the heroes stand to lose.  But more often, its a reminder of the Villain or NPC’s GOAL in the scene, that may be counter productive to the heroes.  This is what the Villain is going to be spending his Raises to accomplish and, one would assume, the players spending Raises to counter.  This has been a helpful addition in play, when sometimes Dramatic Sequences can start to meander.  I’ve heard some complaints from GMs about Dramatic Sequences, how they simply run out of juice because the players either run out of raises or run out of ideas.  THREAT helps that immensely.  It helps me keep the players on their toes, gives my bad guys something to do, and one more thing to soak up the players’ raises.

But most importantly, this lets me relax and not worry about all the scene framing procedures and jargon.  With one sentence of notes, I can continue on with my go with the flow style while still keeping the scene engaging.  I was already starting to do this prior to reading up on scene framing, but now that I have a better grasp of the concept I’m more confident that adding this is a solid move.

Eventually, I’ll get back to TRIGGERS as well, but that’s going to be a discussion for another time.

For more information on scene framing in RPGs, here are a few links:

• Run a Game: Scene Framing
• Mythcreants: Five Tips for Setting Scenes in your Game
• Norwegian Style: Make a Scene
• FATE SRD: Defining Scenes

What about the rest of you?  How do you handle scene framing in 7th Sea (or other games for that matter)?  Are there any special procedures or GM short hand you’ve baked into the mix to make your scenes more effective and exciting?  Let us know in the comments!