DB

In scene work, as discussed before, you support what your scene partner is giving you. There are similar ideas in music, especially when playing in a smaller ensemble and not everyone is playing under a conductor. You start together, and you follow one person in the ensemble. This post was inspired by a cello and piano duet short where it was emphasized that in a repeat, the cello would lead, and then the piano would lead. In a band or symphony orchestra, the entire group would be following the conductor so that you would be synced in. In a smaller group, you don’t necessarily have that happening. You play off of each other.

Sound familiar?

It should. In some groups, you play under a director, conductor, band leader…a game master, a referee…you knew their names. You may have some agency to a point, but there are points where you agree to fall under the GM as the person who has final call in rulings, scene edits, and all sorts of things. In other groups, you don’t have an explicit GM, so you will be following each other, giving and taking as needed. It’s much like improv in that aspect.

These are not unfamiliar ideas, as the GM-less game exists as a valid style of play for a group. In fact, it’s the style that I tend to lean to now, but that may be because I have thoroughly enjoyed improvising as of late.

I would like to play with the idea of repeats and variations.

There is a song that I remember playing in band. “Variations on a Korean Folk Song” by John Barnes Chance is a piece that explores a folk melody, then iterates over it in several following movements that change the tempo and style that it is played in. It was such a fun piece to play, and I am equally sure that it was equally fun to write it!

How can we do this in a game?

Perhaps it’s more of a writing and story exercise than a true game, but I think it might be fun. Take a well known story, or a scene that you remember. Break it down into its key points, and then lead the story as the GM for that movement. Do what you want with it. Totally change the genre, make a few slight changes, or run it as it is. Then, when you are finished, let someone else have their go. Let them lead the story as the GM for that movement. And the next, until everyone who wishes to go has finished. Then, tell the story one last time…summarize it. Bring the ideas together.

Will it be fun? I think it could be a fun way to analytically look at a scene or a story. It is in the same spirit of Marvel’s “What If?” stories, which explore different possibilities. It is in the same spirit of those discussions that I hear happen after improv shows, where you talk about what could’ve gone differently and what you could do. And in most tables, it already exists. You talk about “what if” all the time in the case of dice based games.

That’s the beauty of dice, isn’t it? But sometimes, you’re not playing with dice, or you’re not thinking about “what ifs”. So hey, why not try a Variation? See how it goes!