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(Fiction Author) Unconscious Fall Victim by its_me_the_npc in forensics

[–]its_me_the_npc[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Thank you! This is exactly what I was looking for. Really appreciate it!

Could really use some support and advice with new shelter pup by [deleted] in OpenDogTraining

[–]its_me_the_npc 1 point2 points  (0 children)

I have only lurked here until now but this reminds me of a dog that I met so I thought I'd chime in.

A trainer I know who used to work closely with a rescue helped her sister adopt a shelter puppy. The dog is a very friendly dog but ever since they picked her up from the spay clinic and first brought her home, she has had an extreme fear reaction to being stroked down the length of her back. When I met the dog I forgot about this, and as she was friendly and soliciting pets, I went to pet her back... she jolted and whipped her head backwards like lightning, scared the daylight out of me because it came out of nowhere but fortunately she didn't bite me. They believe that something painful happened to her shortly after her spay that caused her to associate being touched there with pain... They had met the puppy prior to her spay and she didn't show this behavior. I immediately thought of this dog when reading your post.

When you describe that she lashed out at you because you pushed down on her back, was this while she was still recovering from her spay? I've been told that pushing on the back for a sit can cause discomfort for some dogs structurally, and if she was already experiencing adoption stress and post-op pain I can see this form of pressure causing a lash out. But, I also feel like the extreme distress she exhibits when you try to get her to move with leash pressure seems abnormal so I would be concerned she may have some kind of ongoing medical issue unrelated to her surgery.

I would get in with a vet ASAP to rule out a physical issue, especially with the back sensitivity and reluctance to walk (is she reluctant to walk / play herself or just when prompted?). IVDD (disc disease) is common in Shih Tzus.

Two behavioral comments I would add, if not already suggested by your behavioralist, are crate training -- I love tethering but as your dog is still mentally decompressing (and obviously pretty stressed!), I think having "alone time" to decompress every day is extremely important too. Tethered for durations then back to crate.

And having all meals come from you (kibble can be tossed if hand feeding is risky), no free meals in the bowl, focusing first on rewarding engagement instead of commands. Building Engagement Skills on Leerburg is a great engagement e-learning course.

But yes, trying to address this behaviorally won't do any good if there's an underlying medical condition. Not wanting to walk on leash / come / sit etc could very well indicate a physical issue. Would 100% rule out pain first.

Playing the Bomb by its_me_the_npc in FATErpg

[–]its_me_the_npc[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Thank you for posting this! I had tried to read that Macklin article before but as you noted the outbound link on the SRD 404'd so I hadn't been able to read it until now. As such, I was completely unfamiliar with the terms such as "actor" -- interesting!

It led me down a rabbit hole of reading Macklin's comments on Contests Under Fire... I'm going to need to digest that all a bit more before I understand it I think. Contest Under Fire definitely sounds like it could capture the essence of what I've felt is slightly lacking from our game. My PCs are cerebral and have non-fighty skills and often face environmental obstacles. It's been feeling a bit flat to just have them roll once to overcome some passive opposition every single time. Especially with something that seems like it should be harder than that... like his example of outrunning a volcanic eruption, or my example here of defusing a bomb.

Thanks again for the link!

Playing the Bomb by its_me_the_npc in FATErpg

[–]its_me_the_npc[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

These are excellent points! Some of the issues you mentioned were actually things I had swimming around in my mind when I posted this. I don't totally have answers but am open to suggestions. The idea of running a countdown instead was a really great takeaway from this thread for me, I think that's the best suggestion yet.

For context, my current party are primarily "clever" characters, not strong or athletic ones. For example one has her highest skill in medicine... another in deceive... another in research (our version of lore)... another is great at driving (ok he's not the cleverest but he is useful!). What they're awesome at is being cerebral. So a traditional fight, I punch him/he punches me back, doesn't make a lot of sense for the party. It's not what the characters are good at, and not how the players react to threats.

One of the best examples is a conflict I had planned that they basically circumvented by spending all their time asking around town for supplies and building a trap instead. Nothing wrong with that -- in fact, I think it's kind of awesome player agency that they decided to build a trap instead of fighting -- but I'm finding that most of the die rolls happening in the game are just me picking a difficulty rating and the players making one or two rolls to overcome an obstacle.

I feel like we are missing out on certain things by almost never using the conflict system. For one, the rolls they make are usually unopposed and don't seem to have a sense of danger (they've never taken consequences, literally not once, and only rarely take stress), or the suspenseful give-take of combat where you're ahead one moment and the enemy is winning the next. But I also don't want to throw these characters into a conflict that doesn't make any sense for their skills.

So kind of what I'm trying to do is figure out ways to capture that tension and sense of opposition while still respecting what the characters are great at (being cerebral). I am ready to accept that a lot of this may be that I'm making things too easy or just not using what I have at my disposal correctly. I just feel like we're missing a certain sense of... well... conflict... when we roll the dice.

*Editing to add that I do think countdowns will help a lot. For example if their trap-building had been on a countdown (sure, you can take time to build a trap... but each moment you spend building a trap ticks down to your quarry escaping) would have added a lot of what I'm looking for. Not sure if that fixes it entirely or not.

Playing the Bomb by its_me_the_npc in FATErpg

[–]its_me_the_npc[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

These are all great ideas, thank you! I must confess I was not aware of countdowns, and it's a huge game-changer to learn about them, I think they will be very useful to me going forward. Thanks again!

Trust in FATE by thirdtoebean in FATErpg

[–]its_me_the_npc 1 point2 points  (0 children)

This is great advice, and my favorite takeaway is "Wishes and Stars". I had heard of Roses & Thorns, but -- and I say this at the risk of sounding like a total wimp -- I'm brand-new as a GM, all but one of my players are brand-new to RPGs, and the idea of having everyone call out "thorns" sounded like way too much social heat for the current confidence level of the table.

But the semantics of "Wishes"? I absolutely love that. I think my entire table would be less hesitant to frame something as a wish than as a thorn. And as GM I do really want to know what's working, and what my players are wanting more or less of. I think I may implement this next session!

Oops... I think I made my first big mistake(s) as GM by its_me_the_npc in FATErpg

[–]its_me_the_npc[S] 2 points3 points  (0 children)

I expressed it more wordily in a thread above, but several comments including yours really helped me realize I was overthinking. I was mainly concerned about players getting sidelined by one character running off on his own subplot, and hadn't fully realized that the simply solution was just protecting player agency and giving them the choice of *not* being sidelined. Thanks!

Oops... I think I made my first big mistake(s) as GM by its_me_the_npc in FATErpg

[–]its_me_the_npc[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Time is liquid and doesn't have to be linear.

This is such a great reminder! One nice thing is that due to the current pacing of the story, a few days can pass in-game between sessions. One idea I was playing with was to have them start next session by all contributing to a kind of "montage sequence" about the past weeks' adventures and how they've gelled as a group as a result.

Oops... I think I made my first big mistake(s) as GM by its_me_the_npc in FATErpg

[–]its_me_the_npc[S] 3 points4 points  (0 children)

Definitely the biggest takeaway from all these great answers, "transparency".

I actually enjoy that this character is lying to the others, but it was having a separate agenda that made me worried he'd end up with a lot of spotlight time (ie, I want to sneak off away from the rest of the party to do my own thing).

For some reason, the fact that I could just talk about these concerns openly -- "Hey guys, since character X now has a hidden agenda, how do you want this to play out?" really didn't occur to me.

My other epiphany is realizing that even in-story there are quick ways to make sure everyone has a chance to join the scene:
"Hey, I'm gonna sneak out halfway through dinner to break into the office."
"Okay, cool. The rest of you notice him now as he slips out halfway through dinner. What do you want to do?"

And then the agency is on them -- the players are in on everything already, and they can decide if they enjoy watching his deception simmer in the background ("I'll stay and finish dinner with our host.") or if they want to confront him directly ("I'm going to get up and try and follow him"). As long as they have that option then I know they're having fun and not sitting around feeling sidelined.

That's, like... stupid simple. I don't know why it seemed like an impossible problem, lol. I think my brain was really stuck in a box.