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The Studio Model

The studio model was invented by Unweaver as part of her method for running character-driven campaigns, from which I learned most of what I know about listening to the players and building the story around them.

The idea is simply that a gaming group is like a movie studio, but every player plays the role of the:-

π—£π—Ώπ—Όπ—±π˜‚π—°π—²π—Ώ - collectively they decide on a genre, tone and theme, and ensure that the story is congruent with those and with the desires and expectations of the audience.

π—ͺπ—Ώπ—Άπ˜π—²π—Ώ - they provide direction to their character, dialogue and descriptions of their character's actions, background, appearance and so on. They also participate in group writing, hypothesizing out of character ideas about what's happening or going to happen in the story, providing the DM with a "writer's room" to take ideas from.

π—”π—°π˜π—Όπ—Ώ - they perform the role of a character (or characters) in the world, and entertain and engage the other players with that performance.

π—”π˜‚π—±π—Άπ—²π—»π—°π—² - they thrill and laugh and cheer and cry to the adventures of their protagonists. When another player has the spotlight they are the audience to that performance - actively watching and enjoying, not fiddling with their phones and waiting for their turn. Conversely they're aware that when they have the spotlight, everything they do has an audience - they're putting on a show for the rest of the table.

With the DM also playing the:-

π——π—Άπ—Ώπ—²π—°π˜π—Όπ—Ώ - who takes all the ideas and performances and themes and decides what should happen in what order, who bears final responsibility for weaving the story from the threads the other players provide and pacing play at the table, keeping things moving, not letting the audience get bored or the performers lose direction.

The DM is an authority figure at the table and plays an important role in making sure everyone has a good time and that everyone is fulfilling their responsibilities to the group, but is ultimately answerable to the group - in studio terms that's a producer-task, and the collective responsibility of the whole table.

I always bring up this model, at least in passing, with new players, because it's such a powerful way of articulating the difference between FRP and, say, a videogame. We're creating a little work of art here, just for ourselves, we're the artists and the audience. We aren't just pushing a mouse around and clicking to kill skeletons; we have responsibilities to one another, to the exclusive audience of which we are a part.

Links

The Weaving of Unweaver

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