Then we get dinosaurs tromping on stage for 90 seconds before someone says "Hey guys! This is a library!" Then we get 5 seconds of quiet dinosaurs. Edit.
OK, that's a perfectly fine group game. But it happens all the damn time.
The formula
- 90% organic pattern matching
- 5% justification
- 5% Pay off (if we didin't end the scene on the justification, that it)
is weak soup. The set up is too long for my tastes. We get stuck in a deadlock of diffused responsibility, no one wanting to "break" the game or no one really sure what the game being played is.
Without an individual making a choice, putting some traction down, the game wastes time. The group needs a platform to heighten from. If that library line happened within 10 seconds of the dinosaurs stamping around, we have an awesome premise to play in. That's something crazy, interesting, and fertile. That's a group game I want to watch. That's a group game I want to play in.
When I was coaching some teams I would do Blind Harolds, a form where people would do a show "in the dark" using only their voices. It was incredible how creative, huge and hilarious the group games got. People had to act and justify immediately. And that's how it always should be. Play organically but make the discoveries strongly and build on them.
The sound-and-motion-pattern-matching thing is great but it can be a crutch. Be agressive! Put grist in that mill. Just like in a scene, you need the context and specifics to grow. Group games should be the time to most take advantage of the fact that you're on a team with people who want nothing more than to make every idea look amazing.
Trust and act, y'all.
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