For my second of N part mini blog series on store-game techniques for OSR/adventure games, I'm going to spotlight a pair of scene-framing procedures from The Gauntlet games like Brindlewood Bay and The Between; these invite more creative collaboration from players, but needn't challenge the sense of legitimacy fostered by prep-informed pawn-stance play (blorb).

Paint the scene

To state it plainly: a Paint the Scene question is a prompt the GM presents to the table (usually but not requisitely pre-prepared) that each player is invited to respond to by adding a fictional detail to elaborate their senses or dressing details: like the layering of paints on a canvas to build up a scene. Here are three examples from different games by The Gauntlet:

It’s a busy time of year at the marina In what ways are the tourists making it difficult for you to conduct your investigation? (Brindlewood Bay)

There were hunters living in Hargrave House before you; trophies from their encounters with the supernatural can be found here. Describe one. (The Between)

A posted flyer warns locals to be on the alert for a saint in the area. The saint is described as highly dangerous, but residents are assured that law enforcement is specially prepared to deal with it—they simply need to be informed if anyone sees something suspicious. What detail makes you believe that this saint is following you and your companions specifically? (Silt Verses RPG)

Observe that these are not just completely open or undirected questions like "what's the tavern's name and why is it interesting," or "describe a beautiful vista." The key to this technique is writing good prompts, which in my estimation are:

• Thematic. The answers should be evocative, sensory, and add colour or texture to the scene - rather than establishing more prosaic or structural details.
• Leading. The prompt is loaded, to both establish the core fiction, but also to make responding easier (restrictions breed creativity and all that).
• Layered. The goal is to flesh out multiple facets of a single item or each item of a set, building up the scene, so there should be room for several answers to mix in together.

These prompts can be deployed to give some light interactivity to an otherwise "empty room" in a dungeon, to help flesh out the ambience and themes of a settlement, or even to elicit player-generated rumours eg. what tall tale have you each heard about a Roc that roosts atop the nearest mountain?

Related reading would include the "unframing" (anti-canonical) questions to open a session in The Wildsea.

Unscenes

Also from a Gauntlet production, specifically The Between: the Unscene is when play is cut away from the protagonists to a group of otherwise unrelated characters engaging in something at most narratively peripheral to the main adventure, while thematically coherent. It's intended to explore the setting as a character, and let players briefly inhabit other character perspectives and have greater narrative authority within a 'walled garden.'

In adventure gaming, this may actually overlap with the classic practices of hirelings and troupe play. This technique can be quite cinematic and is distinguished by:

• Late in, early out. Hard frame the scene to the most interesting moment, and brutally edit to close as soon as the central tension has been released.
• Self-contained. The scene shouldn't need much if any background to become invested in, and not directly impact on the main adventure.
• Iconic. The scene should lean into tropes and genre conventions to be easily framed and resolved, and be emblematic of broader struggles and themes in the setting.

This can be used in lieu of playing out a rest in the dungeon, a camp scene, or any other 'slow' scene that you might not feel moved to foreground, but still want the pacing of an interstitial scene. This is the more 'relaxed' variant.

Conversely, in the original formulation, we cut back and forth with the main characters a few times, and the Unscene sort of functions as a ticking clock: when the Unscene concludes, some looming threat comes to pass for the protagonists. This tighter version may encroach somewhat further in adding a 'meta-game' time limit, but it's worth playing with to find what style suits your table.

A call to arms

I'd love to hear from YOU for the March RPG Blog Carnival: what's something outside the OSR, outside roleplaying, or even just outside gaming (like your day job!) that you think could enrich our collective folk traditions of adventure gaming? Remember to email me or comment on one of these posts so I can include you in the end of month roundup!