As a fair warning to anyone reading this post, there is likely to be spoilers for The Avengers in this post. If you haven't seen it yet, and don't want it spoiled, then close your browser and head to the movie theater. Trust me, this movie is worth seeing on the big screen.
My question to the rest of you is this: how would your regular play group handle the situations presented in The Avengers?
For me, and perhaps for a lot of people there would likely be some key changes. Namely:
-Hawkeye would likely not have come back to the team alive, or even in one piece.
-Stark would not have shot the tesseract at the end that quickly and likely would've lost a lot of time trying to analyze it with his Tech and Science skills. He also wouldn't have gotten out of his suit to talk to Loki.
-Loki likely wouldn't have survived
-Significantly less "clean" witty dialogue.
How about your group? Any big changes you could see?
The point of this? Well, one it is to have fun, the second is to point out - or remind - that fictional characters often do brash or dumb things because it is entertaining and moves things along. When there is a good explanation ready (impenetrable barrier for Stark vs. Tesseract) we can accept it and move on. Players, on the other hand, are often more focused on problem solving. They also "play to win" a lot more thoroughly. Which means they'll act differently, rarely act brashly - unless they have a stack of legal paper work to show how it isn't their fault - and don't tend to go on to the next problem until the one in front of them is solved.
Identifying where your players fall in between the two (some players are very narratively minded) is important to you as a GM, because it helps you with managing the game and keeping things fun.
How would my group have played out the Avengers?
ReplyDeleteEchoing your points:
-Hawkeye would not have come back to the team alive. Yep!
-Stark would not have shot the tesseract at the end that quickly and likely would've lost a lot of time trying to analyze it with his Tech and Science skills. He also wouldn't have gotten out of his suit to talk to Loki. Again, I'm going with Ditto!
-Loki likely wouldn't have survived without GM fiat to save a well developed bad guy.
-Equivalent witty dialogue. Though less In Character and a whole lot more Out of Character.
Additionally:
-Way more bickering between the heroes on what is the best solution/who has the best idea. Think the first half of the movie vis-a-vis interactions and bring that through all the way to the end. Not to say they wouldn't get the job done, but there'd be more solo actions culminating to a goal than combined and coordinated efforts.
-Most significantly: Far less focus on protecting the civilians and more focus on wanton destruction in an effort to defeat the invading bad guys.
Of course I could be reading them wrong, but that's how I think they'd react.
Hey, all I'm saying is that if everything is NOT on fire, were the PCs really ever there?
ReplyDeleteNot my PCs, that's for sure.
ReplyDeleteAnd if the bad guys throw a city-wide bonfire without inviting the PCs, for some reason the players take it personally.
Finicky and touchy crowd the PC hero team.