Wednesday, March 19, 2008

Episode 1 - Screentime and Spotlight

Episode 1 - Screentime and Spotlight

Dan interviews three Game Masters with different techniques for dealing with Screentime and Spotlight in their games.

Here are definitions for 'Screentime' and 'Spotlight', as discussed in the podcast itself:

Screentime
Actual game time in which the players interact with the environment of the game. Essentially the game where the players are involved (ie, not the planning stages or the time that the GM is figuring out what to do next)

Spotlight
During the game time, spotlights inidicate the time in which one or more of the players have the centre stage, generally to the exclusion of the others or the game world. This is often identified by character development, background play (ie preludes), or a time where the character is in a differnt location (and often not in communication with) from the other characters. Spotlights can also indicate where a player has taken centre stage in the planning of the story development or where an individual player has taken the lead in a situation (weather or not their character is present).

Dan hosts this episode, while Liz and Emma play AV tech. Guest GMs are Narayan, Terence, and Jaymz. Music is by Terence.

Links
Screentime and Spotlight discussions on the RPG Meetup forums.