Gnome Stew

The Art of the One-Shot Character

Guest Author — Wed, 22 May 2013 07:00:56 +0000

Today’s guest article is by Angela Murray (aka Orikes), an occasional graphic designer, a sometime photographer, and one of the voices over at Rogue Princess Squadron, a new gaming blog put together by several female authors. Though she’s been gaming for years, GMing is still a new love in her life. Thanks, Angela! In an ongoing campaign, the character sheet is in the hands of the player. It’s their baby, their lifeline into the game world. They often put a great deal of time and effort into keeping track of the information they need in the way that works best for them. With a one-shot, though, it is up to the GM to present the player with what they need to get into their character and the game. It’s important to make sure the basics are all there, but you also want to put the character together in a way that’s going to grab a player’s imagination right away. I have been a player for far longer than I have been a GM, so in many ways I still think like a player. When I put together a one-shot, I think about what I would have wanted out of the game. One of those things is a character that has had a little bit of care and creativity put into its creation. While a rumpled, soda stained, faded photo copy with a handful of penciled-in stats could still lead to a fantastic game, I know I trust an unfamiliar GM a little more if I see some effort went into crafting the characters for the players. Prepping for the scenario may be the GM’s primary job, but it’s the characters that draw the players into the game. If the players can’t get into their characters, it won’t matter how fantastic the hook is for your game. There are three important things to keep in mind for one-shot characters:

The Crunch
The Flavor
The Presentation

The Crunch

The bones of any character are the numbers and stats that make the game system work. Game systems vary widely on how stats and attributes are handled, but very few eschew numbers completely. It almost goes without saying: All the important bits of information need to be presented clearly and legibly for the player. Any stat you’re going to be asking them for during the game should be represented on the sheet. How you present all the important crunchy bits will depend on what game system you’re running. The more complicated the system, the more important it is to have everything right there for the player. Legibility is the key. No player wants to interrupt the GM to ask them to decipher something they can’t read on their sheet. Luckily for all of us, there are PDFs available online for almost any system you can think of. Many of these have fillable fields, so you can input all the information on your computer and print it out, avoiding the awkward moment of having someone decipher your handwriting. I know I have trouble reading my own handwriting, let alone someone else having to try and read it. When running a game at an event (like a con or open gaming at a local store), there’s a very good chance you will have a mix of experience among your players. The more knowledgeable players may be able to work with a half-built character, but newer players are going to struggle to grasp what their character can do. Try and look at the character as if you were completely unfamiliar with the system. Would you be comfortable with it as a newbie? If not, you may want to revisit the sheet and make it a little more coherent. One-shot games are sometimes the best way to hook new players on the hobby, so it’s helpful to make the stats as easy to follow as possible.

The Flavor

The next piece of the character puzzle is the flavor. While the stats give the bones, it’s the flavor that really fleshes everything out. A simple dungeon crawl or arena combat game may not provide much opportunity for roleplaying, but even there a line or two about a character’s personality can help bring a fun spark to the game. Providing some background and personality becomes paramount for any game where you want to get into a story and bring out good roleplaying. The goal is to give enough background and personality on the character so a player can grasp the essence of who that character is, but keep it loose enough that they can put their own spin on it. Each player is going to do things in a slightly different way, so you don’t want to get too caught up in YOUR vision of the character. While it might be fun to write a novella for the background, that’s probably going a bit far and could be too constraining for the player. Keep it concise and flexible. Of course, while you want to keep it loose, you still want to make sure you give the players all the information they need. If there’s an NPC or a plot point that is going to come up in the game that their character has knowledge of, make sure it’s noted somewhere in their background. You don’t want to have to slow the action down in mid-scene to explain why a particular NPC should be important to the PCs. This also includes the relationships between the PCs. If they have any history at all with one another, it can help immensely to provide even a tiny note on what they know about each other. However much or little you provide as flavor for the characters, you want to make sure all of the characters are consistent. It can be hard to come up with six to eight unique and interesting characters, but they should be as balanced as possible. You might favor one or two of the characters, but it’s crucial to spread the cool and awesome among all of them. Every character should have the chance to shine in the hands of the right player. As a last step, go through each of the characters and make sure there are no inconsistencies or conflicts with their backgrounds. As a player, it can be very frustrating to have your background mention nothing of something another character’s background talks about extensively, but they should have also known about.

The Presentation

Last, but not least, we have the presentation of the character. While making the character sheet pretty isn’t absolutely necessary, having a sharp looking character sheet is a good way to draw players in and show them you’re serious about the game. I have some graphic design experience in my background, so the visual look of a character sheet is probably a bit too important to me. Fortunately, though, you don’t need to be a graphic designer to put together a visually interesting character sheet. Just keep a few common sense rules in mind and get creative with it!

In the spirit of keeping it concise and clean, try and limit each character to only one or two pages. Much more than that and you’re heading into "too much information" territory. Think of it like a resume –- you want all the pertinent details there, but without overloading them with too much information and losing your audience.
Don’t go overboard with the fonts. Definitely find and use a cool font that fits your theme for the important things like the name or headings, but stick with a basic, easy-to-read font for any large chunks of text. You also want to avoid using too many different fonts. Using more than two or three can start to make your document look schizophrenic.
Pictures and graphics are a great way to visually spice up a character sheet, but remember to be respectful of others’ work. No one is likely to scream copyright infringement if you use an actor’s publicity photo on a character sheet, but grabbing artwork or photographs off of DeviantArt without asking permission is a big no-no.
Finally, have someone else proofread everything. As with any creative project, by the time you’re done, you’re probably too close to it to see any of the little mistakes you might have made. A proofreader can catch everything from non-spelling errors (like there and their) to confusing or ambiguous information. I once accidentally swapped some character names around. If they hadn’t been caught before the game, it would have caused a headache for my players. /li>

Each game is going to be a little different, so these are just suggestions that may or may not help with any given set of characters for a one-shot. As a GM, the ultimate goal is to run a good game for your players, so occasionally take a moment and imagine yourself on the other side of the table and think about what you would want to see when you sit down and grab a premade character to play.

Iteration: What GMing Can Take From GameDev, a Guest Article by Richard Dansky

Guest Author — Tue, 21 May 2013 07:00:40 +0000

Today's guest article is by Richard Dansky, who tabletop gamers are most likely to know for his extensive work with White Wolf, particularly Wraith: The Oblivion. He's a GM, a 14-year veteran of the video game industry, and the author of six novels, including Firefly Rain. His latest novel, Vaporware, comes out May 24th. Thanks, Richard! Nobody gets GMing right the first time. To be fair, most people don’t get anything right the first time, but GMing can be particularly tricky. After all, the novice GM is presented with not only an entire world to run and personify, but also a group of players -– often with deeply conflicting ideas over how a campaign or session should go -- who are counting on that GM to provide the evening’s entertainment. And there are a million ways for the new GM to fail. Hand out too much loot. Hand out insufficient loot. Focus too much on one player. Get bullied by a rules lawyer. Get vindictive and kill everyone off. Those are the big ones. But there are a million smaller things that a GM at the start of a campaign will get wrong –- even if it’s an experienced GM, even if it’s an experienced group. Every new campaign brings with it a new mix of players, roles, and interactions, and even a group that’s been gaming together forever is going to need some adjustment time to get to a point where everyone’s expectations are both reasonable and met. Now, you can try to run roughshod over the messy bits, which tends not to go well. Asking someone to suck it up and just deal in their leisure activity is a great way to encourage them to find a new leisure activity, especially if it’s something that can be easily corrected. At the same time, oversteering in response to player kvetching at the slightest inconvenience can be just as bad, leading to one-upmanship and allegations of favoritism. And this is where good old fashioned GMing can steal a page from video games, or specifically, from video game development. The thing many people don’t realize about gamedev work is that it is both slow and detail-oriented. Back in my White Wolf days, if we found a problem with a book, we could pretty much (with sufficient bribes to the layout artist) fix it right up until the moment it went to the printer by the simple expedient of adding/cutting text. That –- and making sure it didn’t bork the page layout –- was all it took. Measure vaguely, cut as needed. In video games, however, laying something down is both time-consuming and expensive. Changing something is both of those things in spades. And changing something last minute, well, you don’t want to know. (The hell I –- deservedly -- caught for asking if we could add a rock to a level in a Ghost Recon mission pack was enough to melt lead.) So to make sure teams don’t indulge in this sort of inefficient, expensive sort of production, we get iterative. By iterative, I mean we do a lot of prototyping and rough drafts, we test them and give feedback, and we revise until we get to a point where we’re comfortable going ahead with full-fledged production. It’s not always the most exciting way to do things, but it is the one that saves the most heartache at the end. Now I’m not suggesting that GMs go iterative in the same way. There’s a reason that this stuff is done on dev teams long before material goes out in front of the public. But what a good GM can take away from it is the idea of iteration, of adjustments through slight changes to reach a state that everyone agrees on. It’s as much a philosophy as it is a formal technique. Let’s take a simple example –- play time. If your party splits up, after the session, actively ask your players if they felt like they had enough time at center stage, or if they felt the balance of play was disproportionate. Do that and, congratulations, you’ve got data. Adjust your behavior according to the data –- make sure one sub-group doesn’t monopolize the session, or forcibly re-integrate the party, or give the players from the underserved side of thing secondary characters to play –- and you’ve improved your GMing. And it’s all better, right? Wrong. Because if you’re iterating, you don’t stop with just one iteration. Make your adjustment, get your data on the revision. Adjust again, ask again, and keep tweaking until you’re at a place that feels good. And don’t assume that “making everyone happy” is the way to interpret feedback, because it’s not. For one thing, odds are you won’t make everyone happy. For another, there’s the fine art of interpreting the feedback you get to actually make it actionable. “I didn’t get to play enough” doesn’t always mean “I didn’t get to play enough.” Sometimes it means “I didn’t get to do interesting enough things” or “I want more content geared toward my character” or “your pace as a GM is too slow and you need to pick it up so we accomplish more.” Learning to translate what your players say into what they want –- and then trying to give them that -– is absolutely necessary. The thing to remember is that while not every bit of feedback you get when you move to this model is accurate, every piece of feedback you get is indicative of something, and you ignore or dismiss that at your peril. So you have to learn what they’re really saying and not reflexively push back against it. It doesn’t matter if your stopwatch says everybody got precisely two hours front and center, if half your players don’t feel that way, the clock won’t convince them. It’s up to you to change –- based on their feedback –- and adjust the perception for next time. And of course, there’s not just one thing you should be iterating on. Every aspect of a session can potentially be improved, so there’s no reason not to try to improve them. Now, this doesn’t mean you should formally grill each player after each session, complete with pre-printed feedback forms. That sort of mandatory compliance defeats the point of the exercise. Rather, approaching players and actively but informally soliciting their feedback is the way to go. Making them a partner in improving the experience and encouraging them to come forward with information that will make your life as a GM easier is the best way to figure out where you need to improve, and maybe, how to improve it. The how is important, too. The point of iteration is to give things a dry run, to experiment. To try different approaches and see what sticks. So when you get feedback, sticking to the safest fix defeats the point of the exercise. Try all the fixes and don’t feel bad about the ones that produce negative feedback. The point is not for the first approach to fix everything, the point is to get to a place where things are fixed, and to do that means using all the tools at your disposal –- even the funny looking ones.

Lucky Fudge

Walt Ciechanowski — Mon, 20 May 2013 07:00:51 +0000

Random luck affects us all the time. Just last week, the sewer line backed up in my house. As it happened, a local plumbing company dropped off a coupon the next day, fixing our headache at a very reasonable cost. Conversely, several years ago, my brother called me to announce that my first niece was due to be born any minute. I ran out to my car - only to find one tire completely flattened. Neither of these situations had anything to do with my skills, talents, or experience; they were simply random factors that made a situation easier or more difficult. This contrasts with difficulty factors in RPGs, where we often set a difficulty based on the situation at hand and then leave it at that. Sometimes, we may build in 'triggers' (e.g. It's normally an average difficulty to bluff past the temple guardian, but if the PCs are obviously armed then it becomes a very difficult roll), but we hardly ever randomly shift the difficulty. In regards to fairness, this makes sense. The players aren't going to take too kindly to the GM seemingly making up difficulties on a whim, or turning what was an easy task into a difficult one later. It smacks of GM fiat actively frustrating the PC's actions. On the other hand, seemingly difficult tasks that turn out to be easy smacks of the GM 'going easy' on the PCs and making challenges seem less important. Still, there is a certain amount of realism in having random factors modify situations. Consider a PC trying to infiltrate an office building. Through careful observation, she's noted that there are two receptionists. One is very nervous and 'by the book;' the other is more laid back and easy to bluff. Obviously, the second receptionist is the one that the PC wants to bluff past. But what if that second receptionist just got chewed out by his superior for not following the rules a couple hours before the PC speaks to him? Obviously, that easy Bluff check just got more difficult. Or what if that receptionist called in sick and someone from a different department had to fill in? The easy Bluff check just got even easier. Neither case had anything to do with the PC's skill or approach. While pondering this dilemma one evening I happened to think about my Fudge dice. I bought them for a FATE game I never got around to running and they've been collecting dust on my shelf ever since. For those of you unfamiliar with Fudge dice, each die has six sides. Two sides have a '+,' two sides have a '-,' and two sides are left blank. I realised that I could use a fudge die to emulate random chance. By rolling one die just before a skill check is made, I can determine whether to adjust the difficulty up (+) or down (-) a step simply by reading the die and interpreting the result. There is an equal chance of the task being easier, harder, or unchanged. If I want to skew towards unchanged, I can simply roll 2 fudge dice and only count doubles of '+'s or '-'s; this lowers the chance of a changed difficulty to about 22% of the time. Obviously, you don't need to use Fudge dice; you could get a similar result to two Fudge dice by rolling an 8-sided die and counting '1' as '-' and '8' as '+.' That said I think a Fudge die provides a great visual cue and makes it easier for players to tell when fate is against them. This is my idea for random factors, how about you? Do you have a similar system? Would you use one? What pros and cons do you see with a random difficulty factors?

Rules Shifting – Part 1

Phil Vecchione — Fri, 17 May 2013 10:00:13 +0000

I love my Underground campaign. Its been one of the best things I have run in some time, and it has done wonders for breaking me out of my slump. The game has been rolling along well, until we came to a small bump in the road…the rules. After some debate, we decided to pull a rules shift, and swap out one set of rules for another. This is the first of two articles about Rules Shifting. In this article I will talk about the fundamentals of shifting rules under your campaign, and in the followup article I will break down how I migrated Underground over to Fate Core.

Down For The Underground

My Underground game is about two vets, Pete and Reggie, who are trying to clean up the mean streets of Jessup Hill. Pete and Reggie are pretty complex characters, both mentally disturbed, which is par for the setting. The game to date has been very focused on their characters, with lots of dialog and a healthy amount of violence here and there. Overall the campaign has been rock solid. It has been very immersive, with these complex personalities maneuvering through the story. The only thing that has been a bit off has been the rules. In and of themselves the rules are quite excellent, and pretty relevant 20 years after their publication. As we have been playing, we started to see two issues crop up. The first is that Pete and Reggie are melee characters and have their Strength a bit low for the system. That has limited their effectiveness in combat. The second is that the way we have been running and playing the game has been a lot less about super-powered combat, and a lot more about the complex personalities and relationships of the characters. After a number of sessions it became clear that the rules were not really enhancing the type of game that we wanted to play. They were not hindering our play style, but we were not able to leverage the rules to make the game more interesting. So after some discussion we decided that while we still wanted to play our Underground campaign, we wanted new rules to use for it. It took no time to decide that the new Fate Core (of which two of us were backers of the Kickstarter) would be perfect.

Can't You House Rule It Into Compliance?

There are two schools of thought regarding rules and play:

One Rules Set to Rule Them All - The belief that any game can be house ruled enough to provide any style of play.
Rules Inform Play - The belief that the rules of the game should support and enhance the style of play.

I won't argue the merits of either, as that is an article unto itself. As for me, I am firmly a believer in the latter. I like my rules to facilitate the kind of game I run. This is likely why I am system promiscuous, as I am always on the lookout for an interesting set of rules to tell different types of stories for campaigns.

Pulling The Tablecloth Out

If you are going to rules shift your game, you need to look at it like pulling a tablecloth out from under a set table. You need to get the rules changed without your campaign coming crashing down in the process. If done well, your campaign will remain mostly intact and your new rules system will be in place. If done poorly, the changing rules will ruin your campaign - either forcing you to back out of the change or topple your campaign. Rules shifting is not something that should be done on a whim, a little thought and some planning will go a long way to preserve your campaign and make your shift successful. Here are some key things to consider:

Picking The Right Rules

The first, and likely most important thing to consider in rules shifting is to pick the right rules to shift into. My preference is to find a set of rules which support the type of game I am running. What I am looking for are specific rules that are written for the types of sessions I think are going to be in my campaign. For instance, if I wanted to do a game with heavy investigation, I would lean towards a Gumshoe system. Likewise, if I wanted something with high action and wild combats, I would lean towards Savage Worlds.

Figuring Out What Is Important

Either before or at the same time you are shopping for new rules, you should also start to identify what is important in your current campaign and rules; the things that really define the game and campaign. Make a list of these elements, because these are things that you need to make sure are covered either directly in the rules, or via new house rules, when you covert the game. This process works well when done in collaboration with your gaming group. You either can all make your own lists and compare or you can brainstorm the list as a group activity.

Converting The Campaign

Once you have your rules picked out and a list of the critical elements of the campaign to convert, you need to start mapping the conversion of the game into the new rules. Go through your list of critical elements and make sure that the new rules have a corresponding rule, or take the time to create a house rule to support each element. You want to make sure you have something for all the key elements, otherwise the campaign will be lacking after the conversion. In addition to all of the critical elements on your list, you also need to consider the impact of the new rules on the following:

Characters - do you want to create a conversion path from one system into the next, or just have players make characters up in the new system, based on their old characters?
Combat - each game has a specific feel with regards to combat. What changes does the new system introduce? Is it more brutal? Is it more forgiving? How will that effect how you run your sessions?
Advancement - How is advancement handled differently in the new game, and how will that effect character progression and the campaign you are running?
Currency - What is the currency that underlies the new system. How will that currency work in the framework of the campaign, as well as what will be driving players?

Depending on your group (their experience with the new system, their inclination for rules tinkering, etc), you may want to do a draft conversion and share it out to the group for comments, or if you have a group who likes this kind of thing, work together to go through the conversions.

Test, Test, Test

With all your conversions done, the next best thing to do is to give the rules shifted campaign a test. The best kind of test is a throw-away, one-shot kind of test, where you schedule a game on an off-night and just try out the newly converted campaign to see how it runs, and to make any tweaks to anything that is not working as expected. If you cannot do a one-shot test, then your first session with the new rules can be structured like a test. Write your first session to highlight different features of the game, and as you are running them watch to see how they perform. After the session collect feedback from the players as well.

Get A Good Hold of the Tablecloth and Pull!

Rules Shifting a Campaign can be tricky, but moving from rules that are not enhancing your campaign to a set of rules that will enhance it can improve the quality and enjoyment of your campaign. It is not an easy process, but with a little up front planning and some thought you can make the shift easy and effective. In my next article I will break down how I converted Underground over to Fate Core, and how the first game went. As for you all... Have you ever swapped out the rules mid-campaign? How did the swap work for you? What other parts of the rules do you need to pay attention to during a swap?

Download a 9-Page Preview of Odyssey, our Upcoming Guide to Campaign Management

Martin Ralya — Thu, 16 May 2013 07:00:46 +0000

Preorders for our next book, Odyssey: The Complete Game Master's Guide to Campaign Management, will be opening on June 3, and we want you to be able to check out the book before deciding whether to preorder. You can now download a free 9-page PDF preview of Odyssey that includes the cover, table of contents, introduction, and opening section. This should give you a good idea of what topics the book covers and how it approaches them. The initial announcement of Odyssey also offers some info on the book as well as Q&A in the comments. We'll be doing another content preview as launch day nears. Stay tuned!

Learning From… The Americans

Don Mappin — Mon, 13 May 2013 07:00:08 +0000

Having just wrapped up its first season, the FX Cold War spy show seems a natural selection to spend some time dissecting, looking for elements to use (or avoid!) in your games. Suffice it to say that there will likely be some spoilers involved, so if you haven’t seen up to the season finale, you may want to come back a bit later.

The Setup

The Americans is about two KGB deep-cover operatives who are put together by design to act as a newly married American couple, Elizabeth (Keri Russell) and Philip Jennings (Matthew Rhys). Over the years this couple has the typical home, given birth to two children, Paige and Henry, and operate their own travel agency in Washington D.C. These agents are both part of Directorate S, who focus on high-value intelligence, receiving their orders from radio signals and their estranged handler. The key element of The Americans is the fact that it is set in the early 80s (1981) and deals less with spycraft and more about the relationship between these two KGB operatives. Their children have no idea that their parents are actually Russians or that they’re spies. Things are further complicated as FBI Counterintelligence agent Stan Beeman (and family) move in across the street from the Jennings.

Force The Tension

The Americans doesn’t fool around: they throw you into the action fast. There’s an early “accident” (a death was involved) and our intrepid agents—in their own garage—have to balance being hard-nosed KGB officers while their children are upstairs asleep. At the same time we have a newly reassigned FBI agent, Beeman, who is, of course, part of Counterintelligence. In fact, early in the show Beeman, sensing that something just isn’t right with the Jennings, breaks into their garage, looking for clues. The stakes are equally high in the Jennings aren’t asked to handle small affairs; being deep cover agents they are only activated for the most serious of tasks. Characters in your own games should have the same benefit. The PCs are the ones that stand out above all others. Of course, not everything goes to plan, and new wrinkles erupt, threatening to reveal the Jennings. Fairly early on the FBI becomes aware that there is a male/female “illegal” team operating in DC and the net starts to close in. While the Elizabeth and Philip dynamic was originally forced as a sense of duty, over the years they’ve found affection for each other and two children to show for it, although that was also part of their cover directive. Philip isn’t entirely happy with how the KGB is handling things and makes noises about potentially walking away or defecting. Elizabeth early on has to decide about where her loyalties lie: her "husband" and family or the mission? The point being that the internal, personal dynamic has pressure being put upon it from all angles. In your own game this pressure should apply on the PCs as whole. Not so much to force inter-conflict, but have individual goals put in situations that run counter to the group or other members. Those are the kind of adventures that nearly write themselves as your players are playing off each other, instead of having an environment to react to. Even after Elizabeth and Philip have resolved their differences that only opens up the avenue for another new problem as Paige begins to get a whiff that something isn’t entirely right with her parents. Resolve one plot hook and have another one waiting in the wings.

The Double Bluff

It goes without saying that in a spy show that not everything is as it seems. The Americans walks that fine line of giving the viewer enough information to try to guess what’s going to happen and piece together the clues versus hitting you with things completely from left field that you had no way of knowing. The same holds true in your games in that providing clues or information to the players should lead towards something, else why ask for the roll? The 11^th hour reversal is a time-honored tool of the GM, but with a game (and a show) so grounded in reality, relying on the double bluff can work to your disadvantage. Having unfettered access to always-perfect information—because you’re making it up—can lead down a path where the double bluff (or triple, or more) starts to become over the top. Sometimes, as GMs, the rose should just be a rose. Now convincing the players of that might be more difficult. ;)

Genre Emulation

Being a child of the 80s, the backdrop for The Americans is a large draw for me. Coincidently in the past few years I’ve played in some conventional/modern day games placed in the 80s and the 90s with great success. Fortunately there is a bevy of ways you can educate yourself and engage the senses of your players to place them in your genre.

Wikipedia, Wikipedia, Wikipedia
Understand the technology of the age, your options, and the limitations
Top 10 charting songs during the period, potentially playing as an appropriate backdrop during your game
Top movies and pop culture references that you can interweave into the game
Google images to visualize the period if possible as that can simplify your pulling out details to describe in your game
Slang and verbiage from the era for your NPCs; your players will likely jump in as well over time
Fashion trends of the time; we tend to first describe NPCs with their appearance and attire

Focus On The Important Stuff

In The Americans one thing I really love and stands out is how time isn’t wasted on useless crap. The Jennings run their own travel agency but they’re in and out so often there’s no way they could run it. Is it funded by the KGB? Do any of the employees find it suspicious? Who cares! It’s a cover, it’s convenient, and it works. The same holds true with the stash of weapons, cars, and the makeshift interrogation/recovery warehouse. The list goes on and on. Same with your games: keep the focus on the important stuff and don’t linger on the unimportant things. If the players are driving down a path that doesn’t lead anywhere then just say “okay” to get things back on track. Time skips work well here too. If the plot needs to advance then simply advance it on your own. This often happens in television shows, my favorite example being the drama 24. The protagonist couldn’t possibly get across Los Angeles to stop the terrorist in the time between scenes, but it doesn’t matter in the grand scheme of things because the next scene is what’s important, not watching deadlocked traffic. (Also, when did he ever use the bathroom?)

Give Them A Hand

As you would imagine, a spy show has a lot of moving parts, much like many of our own games. In The Americans FX goes so far to have a 5 minute recap “show” that brings the viewer up to speed. How this is unique is that it doesn’t cut into the show itself, leaving more time for the story. At the gaming table I’m a big fan of the pre-game warm-up recap but that can chew up a good amount of time in starting your game. Consider utilizing other mediums, such as a e-mail recap or perhaps your own wiki for the players to reference. Should your game have a lot of complexity, consider providing tools and aides for your players that grow as the plot does. The reality is that gaming is an activity that takes place for a finite period of time. Between games we’re at work, with our families, and doing all number of things, leaving little room to spend time thinking about gaming. It’s certainly not realistic for them to remember everything from session to session as they’re spread out. From the character POV no time may have passed at all but a week away from the gaming table may make some of the subtle details and clues difficult to remember. Players can also be encouraged to take their own notes. It’s certainly fine to have complex plots and adventures, but remember that we’re doing this to have fun. It shouldn’t feel like work, for either you or the players. In our group we’re fans of using a carrot—such as a Story Point or whatnot—for the player who wants to do the recap. The interesting part being that inevitably the other players jump in and now we have everyone at the table engaged. That’s a good thing and has everyone warmed up, ready to go!

Da, Comrade

Honestly, I sat around for quite some time to find something in The Americans to highlight not to do in your games but came up short. That’s okay; it’s a testament as to how good the show actually is! A fan of The Americans or the spy genre in general? Share with us below!

Gnome Stew is Five Years Old Today: Thank You, Readers!

Martin Ralya — Sun, 12 May 2013 06:55:30 +0000

Five years ago today, Gnome Stew went live with 10 articles and around 250 RSS subscribers. In that five years we've published around 1,400 articles, had 1.7 million visitors, drawn 25,000 comments, won three ENnie Awards and an RPG Site of the Year Award, and published three GMing books (soon to be four). The Stew has gone places and done things I never expected. We've had some downs, but it's been mostly ups -- and the ups have been pretty damned awesome. And much of that, so much of that, is because of you, our readers. You motivate us, read our work, comment on our articles, nominate us for awards, buy our books, and contribute to a fantastic GMing community here on the site. Five years in, I'm thrilled the Stew is still doing what we set out to do: helping GMs. GMs rock, our readers rock, and we want to keep on helping GMs have more fun at the gaming table for another five years and beyond. None of which happens without you, our readers, so please allow me to say thank you. No, more emphatically than that:

Thank you!

You're awesome, and we appreciate your time, your feedback, and everything you've done for us. Happy gaming!

Getting Back Behind The Screen

Phil Vecchione — Fri, 10 May 2013 10:00:46 +0000

Last week, one of the groups I play in decided to end our Pathfinder campaign, and after some discussion it was decided that Bob is going to run Numenera for us. It has been a little while since Bob has run something, and we got to talking about getting back behind the screen again, along with some concerns that Bob might have. Having just come back from my own slump, I thought I would share some advice with Bob…and you all as well.

A Little Background

Our group has 6 members (5 players and a GM). Of the five players, four are local and one is joining us remotely via Google Hangouts. Bob's last campaign was about a year and a half ago, when he ran some 4e using the Wizards published adventures for us. While Bob has been a player more than a GM, he is no stranger behind the screen.

Questions

I asked Bob to toss out a few questions and concerns about returning to GMing after a long hiatus. Bob had five things he was concerned about, and my responses are below:

Rust - It's been a long time since I ran a game, how quickly can I get back in the groove?

Sure you are going to be rusty when you start. The good news is that GMing is like any other learned skill, and deep in your grey matter the reflexes are laying dormant. Once you start GMing, those reflexes should come back pretty quickly. One advantage you have is that your hiatus was just from GMing and not playing. As a player you have been watching other GM's run things, and soaking it in. Before you start running, I would recommend getting caught up on GMing advice. Obviously you should be reading Gnome Stew, but also check out G+ communities, podcasts, etc. The more you are reading and listening about GMing the more you will be thinking about GMing and that will also help to clear the rust. This will be a theme for the rest of my answers: take it slow. Keep your first few games simple and focus on shaking off the rust from one or two areas a session. Give yourself a goal for each session: good NPC dialog, strong descriptions, running a complex combat, etc. Design the sessions to let you work on those areas. After a few sessions, when you are feeling comfortable, you can write and run what feels natural.

Learning a new system - Can I master the system fast enough to guide the players smoothly through the first sessions?

No one masters rules the first time they GM in that system. There are some things you can do to make rules mastery less difficult. First, learn the core system solidly. If you know the core system everything else will come quickly, plus if you have to improvise something, basing it off the core system will always be your best bet. Take the time to study the core mechanic: read it, read any examples, and test it out in your mind. Next, make your own GM's screen. It does not have to be a screen per se, it could be something like a set of reference tables. The important part is that you take the time to extract tables and rules from the rulebook and condense them into some format you can use. The act of creating the material will help to reinforce the material, and when you are running the game, you will have the reference material for use. Finally, phase in the rules via the story you run. When you learn a new system don't try to run a session using every rule. Rather, write your first sessions to introduce a few rules at a time. Start with some scenes that have the players trying out the core rule, with a few skill checks. Later in the session you can have a combat, but keep it simple: simple adversaries, simple terrain, no advanced combat options. As you get comfortable with rules, write scenes that will include more complex rules.

Remote player - I've never run a game with a remote player before. Can I manage the flow to keep him involved and entertained?

In a hybrid group its easy for the remote player to get drowned out by everyone at the table. Make sure that you are getting face-to-face time with the remote player during each scene. Periodically ask the remote player if they have any questions or need something cleared up. When the table gets overly excited, often during combat, you will need to calm the table to make sure that the remote player understood what is being talked about, and that their contributions can be heard. During combat, take the time every few turns to re-cap what is going on at the scene level, before the remote player's turn, to make sure that the player is fully aware of what is going on. There are going to be times when there is a miscommunication or communication gap, and the remote player missed some important information. Don't be afraid to rewind the game and let the player take back an action. It can be frustrating for a remote player to take a move that was ineffective or be forced down a certain path because of a lack of information or a misunderstanding.

I'm on my own - my best work was done using packaged material/modules. Will I be able to prep an engaging story?

Cracks knuckles. I think I can be of help here. ;-) You can prep your own material, it just takes time and imagination. The problem you will have initially is that you are not going to have good control of either of those things, and on top of that you are going to be juggling learning the rules, managing players, and kicking a campaign off. Make it easy on yourself and use some tools that will help shortcut some of the work. For starters use Eureka or a book or tool like it, to generate plots. This will take the pressure off of you to generate an engaging story right off the bat, and save you time in your prep since you just need to flesh out the plot into some session notes. Second, use something like Masks, Story Forge cards or another book/tool like it for NPC's. This will give you interesting NPC's without having to create them from scratch, and also save you prep time. As the campaign gets rolling, and the other areas of the game are under control, ideas will come to you and you can get into writing your own stuff all from scratch. Lastly, I would be remiss not to mention Never Unprepared to learn the process of prepping a game, and techniques for streamlining your prep. Aside from the phases of prep, I would focus on the Time Management section, to help you better understand how much time is going to go into your sessions and how to plan your prep so that you are not under the gun. Then, take a look at the Templates section, so that you create templates to focus what you write down in your notes, shortening your prep time and making your notes more useful at the table. Later on after you have more sessions under your belt, then look at Prep-Lite to streamline your prep and give you back some time.

Overall confidence - I've run more stinkers than gems, and player confidence in my skills wasn't high. What if I lose them early? Will I get another chance later?

First thing. Fake it before you make it. Players can smell a lack of confidence behind the screen, so push that down and use any bravado (true or false) that you may have and get the game running on that. Second, confidence comes from victories, regardless of size. Start small. Your first instinct will be to try to crush a home run on the first pitch. Avoid that thinking. Just hit the ball and get on base. From there, get to second, to third, and then bring it home. Make your first sessions simple, straight forward, and fun. Run them well, by knowing the scenario and relevant rules. Engage the characters by incorporating some of their backgrounds into the story. When it doubt, side on making things a bit easier rather than harder when it comes to opposition (skill or combat). Let the players have some early wins with the system as well, they will love being the heroes and badasses. There will be time later to present tougher opposition. Get feedback from players right after the game, then take that feedback and work to improve your next session. Borrowing from my PM background, use three questions:

What went well? - These are the kinds of things you do in future sessions.
What could have been better? - Don't do those things in future sessions.
What surprised you? - Surprises are differences in expectations, and they can be good or bad. Find out what the surprise was, and see if you need to do something differently in future sessions.

With one game down, focus on running the next one, and the next one. As your confidence grows you can worry about big campaign arcs and complex plot lines, but first get those early wins under your belt.

Why Do We Fall, Bruce?

Getting back behind the screen after a long hiatus can be daunting. Have your GM skills faded away like your understanding of high school chemistry? Likely not, your GMing reflexes are likely intact but your GMing muscles have atrophied. Take it slow to rehabilitate those unused muscles and in time your muscles will match your reflexes, and you will once again be running great sessions. As for the rest of you… Have you ever been away from the screen for a while, and how did you get back into the swing of things? What advice do you have for Bob before he gets behind the screen?

The Hidden World: Part Two

Scott Martin — Thu, 09 May 2013 07:01:58 +0000

In the last article, we sketched out the boundaries of a hidden world. (Quick recap: A hidden world is (usually) a world that seems much like our own, but that's just an illusion. However, the "modern world" isn't what it seems... for some reason. Compelling reasons include conspiracies secretly running things, aliens quietly interfering, supernatural forces existing and meddling with the world, or even this reality being but one of many.)

Welcome Behind the Curtain

One of the most influential decisions you can make for a hidden world campaign is determining the PCs' experience with the "deeper world" at the start of the game. If one character has experience dealing with alien horrors, the other PCs may ignore their colleague, or have the local loonie bin on speed dial after his ravings--but that experience will make our experienced hand the group's natural leader (or at least their sage) once the PCs come to believe in the unseen world. More common are the other two extremes: all PCs begin the campaign unaware of the secret world, or all PCs beginning in the know. Let's look at some of these cases.

A Hidden Hidden World

In this setting, players make ordinary people who begin the game unaware of the hidden world. During play at the table, the characters will encounter the conspiracy, meet aliens, or learn that reality is tissue thin. This can be very engaging play, and it's dead simple to introduce even a complex setting if the players learn about it at the same pace as their characters. Mysteries--like learning who is a part of the conspiracy, identifying the planeswalker's goals, and mastering the complicated rules of n-space--can be compelling, especially since it's not just a "whodunnit", but is a revelation of a complex world.

Experienced Characters

If you return to a setting that you've already explored, you'll often want to make characters who engage with the setting. In most campaigns, the GM appreciates player histories: it helps when a player explains where in Sembia their character grew up, that they learned their cantrips from a local sorceress named Minerva, and how they prepared for their life of adventure. A drawback is that "adventurers" rather than "locals" are the result of that process. If your character knows that her brother is Bleys, then Bleys visiting town is a reunion, not a mystery. Experienced characters are great for short campaigns, where the excitement comes from grappling with this strange world. Roleplayers can enjoy roleplaying with the knowledge developed in previous campaigns without having to "handicap themselves" by having their characters do things that the player knows are a bad idea, or going through the motions of "discovering" something as a PC that the player already knows. Though as Nojo explains, sometimes the game encourages you to change the facts. That lets you discover what this world's vampires are like, with a real sense of terror and anticipation, even though the game system is familiar.

Preludes

Preludes are a hybrid technique, where characters generated as experienced PCs are played at an earlier moment. There are many good ways to play preludes; sometimes the prelude is a key scene or two for the character, while at other times a character's prelude for might last for hours, significantly developing (or deepening) the feeling of the "normal" character before they were twisted by their exposure to the hidden world. While it's a separate technique, flashbacks can be another way to explore what a character was like before the hidden world changed them. Both techniques can been seen as a compromise; a way to explore the innocent character, but with the full knowledge that the character will engage with the hidden world fully, without a lot of delay or duplication of "discovery".

Mixed Experience

If they're game, players can approach the setting with characters various degrees of clued in. Much like "experienced characters" and "preludes" above, it's unlikely that the naive character's player will be in the dark for long; when another character contacts the mastermind, or invokes forbidden magic, the player is exposed and would have to work to keep the information away from her PC. This can be a very good setup for bringing inexperienced players into the game with less upfront investment; they don't have to know much about the setting to make a good character, and the other characters will probably teach the new recruit "the truth" to make them a more effective ally. The main drawback: the player of the clueless character can be marginalized, because their character has less to offer the rest of the PCs. They haven't mastered mystic kung-fu, so they need to be protected in fights; or they never studied ancient Sanskrit, so there's no reason to buy them a ticket to Hyderabad. This isn't hard to address, but the GM and other players should keep this in mind.

New Games

If you play in a new setting or game system, all of options are back on the table. Players who were a master of the old setting will find themselves naturally exploring the new one. You might encourage players not to read the new setting material--or even game system--if you're keeping the hidden world under wraps and plan on revealing it in play.

The Supernatural Dial?

Next time grasshopper. Next time.

Your Techniques

Do you love games and plots that assume experienced characters? Do you revel in slowly revealing the world in game, spacing out your revelations to keep your players guessing--or proclaiming their mastery, only to see their confidence collapse as they discover an even deeper layer? As a player, do you have have any recommendations for recapturing that sense of discovery for your characters, even when you've already seen reality revealed a dozen times? Do you insist on playing experienced, engaged characters? Even in brand new settings or rules systems?

Announcing Odyssey: The Complete Game Master’s Guide to Campaign Management

Martin Ralya — Thu, 09 May 2013 06:37:41 +0000

Written by award-winning authors Phil Vecchione and Walt Ciechanowski, the fourth book from Gnome Stew and Engine Publishing is coming in July: Odyssey: The Complete Game Master's Guide to Campaign Management. Opening with a foreword by RPG industry legend Kenneth Hite, Odyssey is, to our knowledge, the first book of its kind. It offers up 200 pages of system-neutral advice on starting, managing, and ending campaigns for game masters of all stripes and experience levels.

Tell me more!

You may have guessed from the title that Odyssey has a lot in common with Never Unprepared apart from being a system-neutral GMing book. You don't need one to enjoy the other, but Odyssey naturally complements Never Unprepared. If you like Never Unprepared, I suspect you'll also enjoy Odyssey. Our previous three books have sold over 8,000 copies, and Phil Vecchione's Never Unprepared: The Complete Game Master's Guide to Session Prep is currently nominated for a 2013 Origins Award for Best Game-Related Publication. Masks: 1,000 Memorable NPCs for any Roleplaying Game, released in 2011, won the 2012 gold ENnie Award for Best Aid/Accessory. Never Unprepared and our first book, 2010's Eureka: 501 Adventure Plots to Inspire Game Masters, are among the top 65 out of more than 28,000 products on DriveThruRPG; Masks is in the top 250. Odyssey is a continuation of our commitment to provide GMs all over the world with quality system-neutral advice. We anticipate opening preorders for Odyssey in early June and shipping out preorders in July. (There are a couple details to nail down before we pick a launch date.) The book is currently getting a final proofread, and I still need to write the back cover copy, but apart from that it's done. As with past preorders, if you preorder Odyssey you'll immediately receive the book in PDF, EPUB, and MOBI form. I'll be posting more previews throughout May, so stay tuned!

Show me more!

Illustrated by Avery Liell-Kok, designed by Darren Hardy, and art directed by John Arcadian, here's Odyssey's front cover:

Hot Button – Player Responsibilities?

John Arcadian — Wed, 08 May 2013 06:58:00 +0000

I've recently completed a move to Mississippi and I have two new groups of players in two very different games. I'm running a very new player friendly game for some people who are unfamiliar with role-playing in general, and I'm running a somewhat advanced game with a mix of experienced players and new to gaming players. As I get used to the new play styles, I'm noticing some interesting things about the groups. The game for the new group is tailored towards teaching what role-playing is and is very relaxed and story driven. It is very free-form and collaborative, but at the same time very guided by me to let them explore the elements of gaming. I notice them being a little lost as to what they can do at times, and I've been working to help them over these humps of inexperience. They aren't used to the concept of tracking loot or keeping a list of what is going on from session to session, so I make sure to get that written down for them so they can remember it for next time. Every session shows them picking up a bit more of what gaming is and doing a bit more for themselves, but there are still many areas they shy away from. The other group, however, is a mix of players both experienced and new. I've been amazed watching how they grab different elements of the game to take under their control. One person has been filling up my wiki's NPC list like crazy - full of detail and ready made hooks. Another person has been taking detailed notes of the session, keeping things on track. Another has been digging into the roleplaying and helping to move the story along. I barely have to plan anything, I just let them lead me along and help solidify the central plot. Usually I work out systems to help engage the group and reward initiative like this, but this group is gung ho on everything. I look at these two different groups and I compare them to my previous group back in Ohio. We had a groove going, we knew what we liked and what the responsibilities were. I knew what to expect from the players and felt pretty settled in how they did things and which players would work in what ways. I knew what techniques to use to engage them and where to step back and let their enthusiasm run wild. In some ways, my mind got settled and assumed the things we did in that group were pretty standard for gaming groups in general, even if my logical side knew that idea was bunk. This reflection on how the players of each group have been interacting differently makes me wonder, what exactly can we expect from players? What are the players responsibilities in the game? Obviously this question is a bit loaded. Player responsibilities will change from group to group and each group has a particular play style. So that's why I want to open this up as a question to you: What do you expect from your group? What responsibilities do you expect, or at least feel, players should take on? Is it their responsibility to fill in the details of NPCs they want included from their back-story? Is it a players responsibility to keep track of the loot they acquire? What things do you wish your players would do? What are you frustrated about that they don't do? With the wide range of diversity in GMs and Gaming styles here on the stew’s community, I can’t wait to see what responsibilities and roles players fill at our tables.

Letters from Home

Guest Author — Tue, 07 May 2013 07:00:00 +0000

Today's guest article is by John Fredericks, and it's a unique idea we've never discussed here before. Thanks, John!

Introduction

All GMs long for player investment in their characters and in the campaign world. As GMs, we're often (very) caught up in the planning and running of the game. This makes it difficult for us to gauge whether we are meeting the players' expectations at the table. In this article, I'll share an idea that I used recently to garner more player input on their characters and the direction of the adventures. I run a regular fantasy campaign which is based in a medium-sized town. One week I announced that since they were returning home there would be letters from home waiting for them. More importantly, they would decide the contents of those letters. I was hoping that this might lead to some insight into what they wanted in the future. Their responses were even better than I expected.

The Results

Here's a brief summary of their efforts, and what I was able to do with them.

Our dwarf emailed me an entire letter detailing how a cousin was out to get her to move ahead in their family. I was able to turn that into a roadside ambush, and suggest that the cousin was actually involved with the real big baddie of the campaign.
One player said that his elven grandfather was dying. This led to a chance to visit the elves' village, roleplaying some encounters there, and dealing with a banshee who was poisoning the local crops.
One player said that his relations were a longing for him to visit. While they won't be in that vicinity for a while, I can still use this later if I'm stuck for an adventure. There's nothing like saving the old home town for an easy hook.
The last player, the cleric, said he didn't get a letter because he was from town. I didn't know this before. Since they were in town anyway, the players were able to visit the temple and consult with the abbott about an evil magic item.

You can see that their responses varied quite a bit, but they all gave me fuel for adventures.

If You Use This Idea

If you would like to use this in your own campaign, here are some thoughts on making it work well.

Clearly tell your players that they will be making up the content of the letters. One of my players didn't know this, though he happily made something up on the spot. However, it is better not to put players under that kind of stress. (Though they don't seem to mind doing that to us as GMs, right?)
Don't feel you have to use every idea the players give you right away. You don't have to abandon your own plans for that night. You can always keep their thoughts for later.
Be okay with the fact that some players may not give you much or anything. Not every player desires a backstory. Some folks are just happy stabbing orcs, and that's fine.
Don't make it a requirement. We do this for fun, not college credit.

Extending the Idea

Don't feel bound by the literary convention of a letter. Depending on your campaign world an email, tweet, or even a dream might work better. It could even be a conversation with a friendly NPC who gives them their next mission. If you want to do that, ask the player to fill you in before the session so that you have some appropriate encounters prepared. Have you used the concept of a letter or something similar in your campaign? Do you have another technique for helping players take a more active role in the direction of a campaign? If so, let me know below.

Classical Play: The Caller

Walt Ciechanowski — Mon, 06 May 2013 07:00:29 +0000

Back in the earliest incarnations of Dungeons & Dragons there was a player defined as the "Caller." In addition to playing her own character, the Caller had the job of collecting all of the other players' decisions in a round and communicating them to the GM. While this made sense in large games with 20+ players, it seems a little ridiculous when there's only five people around the table. For my groups "Caller" was merely the D&D term for the party leader in-character. Still, I sometimes wonder if there isn't a role for a Caller as filter in some modern RPGs? Here are some positive points to consider: Party Unity: Having a Caller in the party promotes the group over the individual. It fosters a team approach to scenes/encounters, as everyone deliberates their actions as a group before announcing them to the GM. Veto Pause: Sometimes a player proposes an action that is detrimental to the party as a whole. With a Caller, that action can be challenged before the GM acts on it. The Caller or GM can then ask the player to rationalize why she wants to take that action. If it was just to be funny or throw a spanner in the works, the player will usually back down - it's not as funny anymore. If, on the other hand, the player had a very good reason for the action, she now has a chance to explain it. Rules Filter: GMs have a lot to keep track of and remembering to apply every applicable rule can be hard while managing the game. When players have to deliberate their actions, they'll often bring up the pros and cons of any decisions on their own, making it more likely that other players will point out the relevant rules and how they'll affect the action. Attention Filter: Ever have a player announce a bizarre decision or make a rash action because she wasn't paying attention to everything else going on at the table? With a Caller, these actions can be challenged before they're communicated to a harried GM. Everyone Counts: Ever get skipped over because you got up to get another bag of Cheetos at the wrong time? The Caller will make sure that you don't miss your turn. Equal Opportunity: In combat, everyone has an equal shot - you wait your turn, perform your action, and wait until your next turn. In non-combat scenes, things aren't so clear cut and more aggressive players can chew on scenery while the less aggressive ones struggle to get a word in. A Caller helps ensure that everyone is taking turns while monitoring what the characters are up to. GM Support: When communicating things to players, the GM need only inform the Caller. This cuts down on the GM needing to repeat information; it is presumed that pertinent information is only communicated when the Caller is at the table. She can then be responsible for informing the player that missed the session or was in the bathroom during the encounter with the Evil Queen. Obviously, there are drawbacks as well. I wouldn't suggest the "classical model" of a GM only communicating with the Caller; imagine how difficult it would be to roleplay a social encounter with the Caller parroting both sides of the conversation? Also, some players resent a party leader of any stripe and channel their inner anarchists in such situations. Finally, a lot of the above points are minimized in small groups. So what say you? Should the Caller stand beside the dodo and the giant ground sloth? Is there a place for a Caller in modern games? If so, what modifications would be necessary to make her gel with the group?

The Frame

Guest Author — Fri, 03 May 2013 07:00:57 +0000

Today's guest article is by Christopher M. Sniezak, the producer and host of The Misdirected Mark Podcast, one of the movers behind the Queen City Conquest gaming convention, who is slowly building up writing credits in the gaming and fiction industry. He believes you should try every game you can so you can figure out what you actually enjoy. Thanks, Chris! I think presentation is king, be it at the table or in the rulebook you're reading. When it comes to playing at the table I think framing is the best way to think about presenting the game. When I say framing this is what I mean:

The parameters you lay down to create within X, "X" being the individual game, the scene, the campaign, or any variable you want to throw in there.

Now to the details.

Campaign Framing

When you're setting up your campaign I think it's important to have a frame, especially if you, as a GM, have some ideas you want to put forth. To give those ideas a chance you need to place the players in a creative box while still having a big idea, theme, or genre to build inside of. That means you give them some choices but keep the choices constrained. For example if you're running a game in a city and you have an idea for a conspiracy/Noir detective story it makes sense to create the parameter "You're all connected to a Private Detective Agency." Now all the players can create something within the parameter you’ve described. If you think the “box” you’ve created is too small here's a list of character archetypes you could have just off the top of my head: the hard-nosed private eye, the female detective who uses all the tools at her disposal and won’t take anyone’s guff, the underworld guy who knows everyone but isn’t always trustworthy, the muscle you call in for hard jobs, the kid who just likes to hang around the PIs, the tough nurse girlfriend of one of the PIs, the former client who owes a private dick a favor or two, the cop who sort of likes the PIs and works with them because they can go places the cop can't and vice versa. All of these could be PCs in a campaign.

Story Arc Framing

Story arc frames I feel are very dependent on the first session of, or the opening act. When you watch a TV show, read a novel, a comic book, or consume any kind of storytelling media pay attention to the first episode or first act. You’ll get introductions to the characters. The themes will be introduced. The opening conflict or hook, which should be related to the themes of the story, will be presented. An overall tone will permeate this part of the story. As GMs we have some options with which to push forth our themes and feel. First off we get to frame the first scene. In this frame we can set the tone with videos, pictures, music, props, or whatever we decide to use, but our most important tool for this frame is the words we use and how we use them. This is your first impression: the opening of the movie, the first three minutes of a TV show, the prologue of a book. This is your chance to hook them in and push your players to take a similar mindset as you. If I was trying to get the feel of the conspiracy/Noir campaign frame from above I would start by describing a camera shot of the office door with the name of the agency on it and then I would turn to one of the private eyes and ask them, "How are you sitting at your desk?" Once they described that I would have there be a knock at the door and have a beautiful woman in expensive clothing walk in. Next I would say to one of the other players, "You're sitting on the couch reading the paper when she walks in. What is your first impression of the beautiful woman? Describe her in first person." This reinforces the genre and tone I'm going for since Noir detective stories tend to get inside the head of the characters. Plus I'm getting the players to give some insight into their characters and keeping them involved in the storytelling instead of just talking to them. At this point whatever conflict I wanted to present to the PCs I do using the femme fatale as my vehicle for doing so. She offers them a job which they take since they're PIs and need the money (since PIs are almost always broke). Tone presented, hook set, characters involved, job done. From here it’s all fallout and keeping the tone, themes, and characters in mind when you frame future scenes. Which leads to...

Scene Framing

The framing of a scene is similar to the framing of your story arc except all scenes you frame from here on build upon the first scene and the scenes which came before the current one. These scenes exist to allow the PCs to make choices to push the story forward and create conflicts for them to overcome, whether it's shooting bad guys, infiltrating criminal organizations, or hitting at the blackjack table instead of standing on that 20 -- because while you both have 20 you need to win this hand and get out of here with the cash or you won’t make it to the exchange in time and your friend is going to die. Framing these scenes by keeping to the ideas you’ve established in your campaign frame and story arc frame will reinforce the kinds of choices your players will want to make and keep them thinking along the established ideas. The words and props you use will spark the imagination of the people you're gaming with, inciting them to make decisions which will prompt your imagination in return. Here’s an example of a framing a scene: “You find yourself in Terry's Place, a diner you frequent. Where do you sit and what are you eating?” The players give their answers and you continue. “The food tastes great as you've once again barely escaped a death defying situation.” This is a great place to remind them of the death defying situation they’ve just escaped from, but if you’re starting a session cold then you can ask "What death defying situation have you just escaped from?" In this example the question is "How did you escape from a death defying situation the Villi mob put you in?" “I guess the Villi mob didn’t appreciate your interference in their most recent plans. That's when a chair is pulled up to your booth and a man sits down wearing a black coat and a fedora. His eyes take you in mid-bite as you hear the click of a gun cocking from below the table. Neither of the man’s hands are visible as he gives you small smirk.” "Hi, boys. Sorry about this, but Mr. Villi wants a word with you." You can ask the players who the gunman is or insert your own NPC. “You recognize the man as Bobby the Hat, a Villi mob trouble shooter -- and that means he sometimes shoots the trouble.” Now we play the game of act and react. So that’s how I think about framing. I’m curious as to how you start campaigns, story arcs, and scenes -- please let me know. I’m also interested in how you promote a tone or theme during your gaming sessions? Thanks for reading.

The Hidden World: Part One

Scott Martin — Thu, 02 May 2013 07:01:36 +0000

Last time, we talked about The Invisible World; a world that has grown so familiar that it goes unnoticed. This time we'll talk about one of my favorite setting tropes, The Hidden World. The hidden world setting is often a world that begins by modeling the world around us, but adds a concealed truth. There are levels and levels of hidden worlds; sometimes the secrets are literally unknown worlds (like the hollow earth popular in pulp novels--a great place to stash your dinosaurs), others feature a truer level of reality (like Mage's awakened, or the Princes of Amber and their understanding of Shadow, or the similar Lords of Gossamer and Shadow), or more terrible truths (Call of Cthulhu and the Great Old Ones ). Sometimes the hidden world is like ours, even to the physics-- there's just a conspiracy (Illuminati, Bourne Identity) that secretly runs things. You could stretch things a bit and even include crime games (playing 1930s gangsters, or the mafia, or even Ninjas and Superspies) as a world of hidden influence. Meddling aliens, as you might find in X-files or Conspiracy X, are another popular hidden truth.

An Aside: I loved Mage: The Ascension; some of my most best campaigns were run in that system, and one of my most beloved characters was for a friend's Mage campaign. The whole World of Darkness does a great Hidden World, but I'll try use experiences broader than Mage and the Storyteller system.

Tone

Strangely, one of the most influential questions about Hidden World games has nothing to do with the composition of the conspiracy, or the nature of 'true reality'. Instead, the most pervasive choice comes down to tone: what does the world feel like once you know about the conspiracy? If the twist is that a bucket of paint can get you into Toon Town, your Hidden World can be full of laughter. Most hidden worlds are bleaker than our world, encouraging creation of PCs who are brave and bold--willing to take direct action to fix a broken world. Often this is convenient streamlining, so that the niceties of warrants and such can be blown past--the nature of the foe and the lack of allies means you're more likely to convince a judge to send you to a nice sanitarium than to get a warrant when you explain that it's for a vampire's haven. The same game system can have very different tones, depending on your approach. For example, one Mage game was intended to begin as an investigative, explore the world game. That didn't survive contact with the PCs; soon it was a tense conspiracy investigation and resistance movement. Constant evasion and concern about surveillance and their foe's technological mastery kept them on the move, rural, and off grid. But that's not an inevitability of the system; that same game can be friendly competition between esteemed rivals, tackling monstrous foes who want to unmake reality, or surviving technicolor hailstorms while tracking the sentient color purple throughout dream worlds. The tone of the game interacts with the setting to influence many other factors. For example, a game about traveling between realities might lead the PCs to consider the people they meet disposable--to be used once and discarded. The same planeswalking warrior could feel embattled, every friend precious, if the tone is one of betrayal and inevitability. Or if his foes have destroyed the worlds with his allies, leaving him adrift.

Next Time

The next article will talk in more detail about the supernatural dial's effects on the Hidden World. Your method of introducing the PCs (and players) to the Hidden World will influence the apparent depth of the setting--and certainly change the expected plots. They're big topics. Meanwhile, tell us about your Hidden World games. Do you homebrew your own? Pick up the Weekly World News and assume the articles are all true? Unleash MiB on careless investigators?