Discussion: Source material and spoilers

[Basel Gill]

This is something I have been thinking about the last couple of weeks. How far do you normally go as a mod in assuming that your players should already be caught up with the theme? Some players will have never bothered with it and have no interest in the theme, and maybe you might get some that have never even heard of your theme. I don't mind spoilers as a player in these cases, because it's material I don't plan to check out. But then there're the players who have only gotten part of the way through. But is it best to require the use of spoiler tags to protect tender ears, or can this hamper game-related discussion? Where in a series do you draw a line on what should be tagged? I've declined to join some games just because of spoilers, sometimes because I expect them from the players and on occasion when the mod specifically says they have spoilers in the game scenes or setup. I've read through some of those games later on after being more caught up, and it was worth avoiding the spoilers.

 

Then there's a more difficult issue: what do you do if you are modding a game where the players are further along in the source material than you are? As a player, you can avoid stuff that is hidden inside spoiler tags. As a mod, I would feel it necessary to make sure players aren't hiding anything they shouldn't be posting at all (for example, unrevealed game info from a previous role of the same player if someone replaces back in after dying). So requiring spoiler tags would do nothing to protect a mod from spoilers. Is it fair to the players to completely ban talk about the theme beyond a certain point in the source? Or is that getting too dictatorial and heavy-handed in your modding?

[RandA lThor]

I think all mods should be fully through the source material of any game that they start, or do not care for any spoilers that may appear. The mod after all, should be able to follow canon to the highest level.

[Turin Turambar]

Banning any sort of canon discussion that the players may find pertinent would be a mistake imo. I think that if you as a MOD as worried about spoilers in a game that you are running then maybe you should have a different game. Not sure where this would happen. Is there a specific game or games you are talking about Basel?

[Basel Gill]

Banning any sort of canon discussion that the players may find pertinent would be a mistake imo. I think that if you as a MOD as worried about spoilers in a game that you are running then maybe you should have a different game. Not sure where this would happen. Is there a specific game or games you are talking about Basel?

 

Turin, I had the idea hit me for a WoT-based game a while back and it is already vetted and in the advanced queue here. While it will be set much earlier in the series, it occurred to me to wonder how much players would bring in stuff from later books. I'm currently toward the end of TGS, and expect to be somewhere in ToM by the time my turn to mod comes up. I didn't plan for doing a WoT game at this point in time, but inspiration hit me and I just had to get the game worked into the modding line. (Yeah, I'm hooked.)

[peacesells]

Fear of spoilers is solely the players responsibility. If they are worried about them they shouldn't play.

[WWWwombat]

I don't think you can completely eliminate such discussion, but what you can do is make it clear what the time frame is for your game. When I ran my WoT game, I made it clear that only events in books 1-6 would be represented in the game, and I don't remember people discussing the later books but that was a while ago and I wasn't too concerned about spoilers anyways.

[Sakaea]

With my GoT game, because I'm not the greatest at writing scenes, I have no set time frame from the books for the game. I put a spoiler policy of if you think it might ruin something for someone who hasn't read all the books yet, use spoiler tags. And we had to say quit arguing canon because it was affecting the gameplay.

[Red2111]

if your running a themed game, cannon shouldnt be a problem for your game play but you have to expect players to look to the cannon for game related info to put the pieces together.

 

if the series is on goign and your worried about spoilers, this is why we have spoiler tags.

 

if your scared Character Claims will ruin your balance, then make sure the claims aren't safe (ie: make Harry Potter Mafia)

 

 

outlawing cannon talk will only serve to enforce in players that they can rely on cannon as a tool during the game; leave it up to speculation on how close your following cannon then its WIFOM. infact, as scum, if you know the cannon well you can use it to lead the town and as a tool to win tbh, just as town can use it as a tool to sniff out scum.

 

 

if your running a themed game, you need to either be up on all the cannon or not be one to worry about spoilers. for instance, if you running an HP themed game, you need to have read all 7 books to run a game, or else you can't complain about spoilers or just shouldnt run that theme. because as a Mod you do need to read the spoiler tags JIC.

[Sakaea]

Cannon = a big gun

 

Canon = source material

 

[Ithillian Turambar]

Both can be used in Mafia, depending on your Role

 

I hope Basel's WWII game has cannons.

[michellem]

If I start a game with a theme I don't know about, I have three choices:

 

a) Read the book/see the movie to get the story (even if it's a full series; then I gotta get trough all, unless it's specified it's just the first book i.e.)

or

b) Get spoilers

 

So it's up to me what I want to do. If I were to mod something though, I'd make sure I'd know the whole story beforehand.