Player Ratios

MisterBoring

One incentive that I think can help get people interested in running PrPs is to have Staff weave references to the actions in their PrPs into larger metaplot scenes.

Another idea that Staff could do in this regard is build frameworks for PrPs for common events that PCs would likely try to intervene in. For a generic D&D style fantasy game, maybe the area the game takes place in is known for regular bands of bandits preying on the towns because of the machinations of some evil arcanist, so the staff builds a framework for how bandit incursions look in the fiction of the world, and provide some ideas on how to put spins on them.

Roadspike

@MisterBoring We did something like this on The Savage Skies: each adventure, we had a list of area hooks, common antagonists, common allies, current plots, and any specific resources (like Staff Notes that were of particular use for the adventure) to help player-GMs find their footing. It worked okay, we had a few people run some stuff based on that information. We definitely could have provided more of the “what,” “why,” and “how” for the antagonists along with the “who.”

Pavel

@Tez said in Player Ratios:

I’m not happy with just closing the gates on people, and wait lists are an imperfect middle ground.

Unfortunately, there’s the rub. Or one of them, at least. You’re going to have to do things that feel sucky, that’s part of the burden of being in charge. Do you want a solid game of fifteen people or a shitty game of a hundred and fifty? You don’t like saying no. I get that. You will have to do it anyway.

To that end, there’s no ideal storyteller-to-player ratio. It depends entirely on the quality of the storyteller, their activity level, how many different groups of players are involved, etc, etc. If you’ve got Steve over there specifically telling long-running stories exclusively for his little cadre of were-mages, but you’ve also got Candice over there doing one-shots with all and sundry, they don’t math out to be equivalent.

So I would recommend that one establishes what it means to be a storyteller before looking at ratios. Not that you necessarily want to set minimum number of scenes or any of that, but it’s very likely more of a vibe-based idea.

L. B. Heuschkel

We don’t have storytelling staff in the first place. We have a plot that is very easy for players to tell stories in – and we expect them to do so. They do. There aren’t any rewards besides the joy of storytelling itself.

Of course, this works because no one expected our game to ever become more than a small handful of friends hanging out and telling their stories to each other. Keys is a sandbox, a framework for people to go off playing plots and stories of their own making and then returning to the central hub to interact and catch up. It probably wouldn’t work with a very large playerbase – we’re typically sitting around 30-60 active characters at any given time, so we’re hardly taking over the hobby here.

In short, I agree with others above: Players should help drive story and entertain each other. You don’t have to leave it all to them – but even if you were paid to sit online 40 hours a week, storytelling, you wouldn’t be able to keep up with everyone. It’s not unreasonable to expect people to perceive the hobby as a two-way street.

Tez

@Pavel said in Player Ratios:

You don’t like saying no. I get that. You will have to do it anyway.

No.

If you’ve got Steve over there specifically telling long-running stories exclusively for his little cadre of were-mages, but you’ve also got Candice over there doing one-shots with all and sundry, they don’t math out to be equivalent.

Absolutely true. For me, I’m more interested in giving structure for a bunch of Steves to tell for various groups, while giving Candice the freedom and tools she needs. I think both are valuable, but for my purposes I’d structure around little knots of Steves.

I actually think it’s GREAT if there’s a storyteller who just wants to tell stories for their friends, but we as a broader culture have a problem with feeling like someone needs to include everyone.

ETA instead of doubleposting again:

@L-B-Heuschkel said in Player Ratios:

Keys is a sandbox, a framework for people to go off playing plots and stories of their own making and then returning to the central hub to interact and catch up.

I respect the approach, but I like more structured metaplots and the immediacy of a grid. I think your formula works fantastically well for you, though. 30-60 active is actually pretty respectable, and you’ve been around long enough to be notable. There’s clearly an audience for it, and there’s probably something to be learned about what you do to let players feel empowered to tell stories. Portal games carry a sort of ease that other settings will struggle with a bit more.