Cut-Scenes In RPGs

[Blue]

As I've been watching various TV Shows and Movies I've noticed something that whole exists in those mediums and does not exist in RPGs. That element is that the audience is often let in on what the antagonists of the story are up to. And in some situations, such as Buffy The Vampire Slayer, the story of the antagonists are almost as compelling as the story of the protagonists and sadly, sometimes more so. Now the reason this element does not exist in roleplaying is obvious. But I ask if it is an element that can not be used at all?

There are two solutions I've come up with. Let the PCs be both the antagonists and the protagonists. I don't mean each player has two characters I mean that some players are playing the heroes and some are playing the villains.

But the second option would be the use of "Cut-Scenes", sections of the game where the GM takes a momment to Narrate the going ons of other characters. This obviously wouldn't appeal to everyone because of the overflowing amount of out of character information but to those who don't mind out of character information and in fact use it to great effect have you ever tried this? I've heard of people trying this but I've never heard any of the results?

So how about it? Anyone have any experience with "cut-scenes" in RPGs?

[General Lee]

I think that you have a good idea, but I think that it might be diffucult for the average GM.

[Praetorian]

[grimnr]

In a White wolf game we had one GM run Vamps And one GM run Werewolf at the same time. The GM's got together everyweek to fill each other in on what heappened. When the two groups finally crossed paths It became a 2 day slug fest between Fang and fur . A lot of fun, not a lot of sleep.

[grifflik]

"Cut Scenes" brings to mind a mechanic Jared Sorensen used in his game Inspectres (brilliant game BTW) called "Confessionals". During a confessional a player is allowed to introduce plot complications, foreshadow events, lay new story elements, etc.

You can see the free start up rules for the game here to get more detail of what I'm talking about (it's short - go give it a look):


While not exactly the thing you're talking about, something like this could be used to shed insight onto the goings-on of the opposition. Especially if it somehow complicated the player's situation, making it more challenging and interesting. I love mechanics that invest the players with the ability to modify/run with aspects of the plot.

A major obstacle to having a GM provide a "cut scene" for the opposition during play is that (if we're making the comparison of how they are used in TV and movies) most often they set up an obstacle that the players will be walking into. Many players wouldn't be able to detach from the fact that what THEY know from the cut scene is not what their CHARACTERS know.

If you had a system in which the players had to commit to a course of action based on information that they had before actually playing out the outcome, a cut scene could be used as a "reveal" before the action as to wether or not they made the correct decisions.