So, as I said a couple of posts ago, how do I take P&P to the next level?
Lets be more specific - how do I create a truly memorable, ongoing roleplaying experience for myself and the players.
The kneejerk reaction that I have is simple - its a professional one - ask the players what they want, deliver it to them. The art of managing exchange - marketing. However, thats something that I want to avoid as I want to be running a roleplaying game rather than a session in wish fulfilment. Part of the joy of roleplaying, in my opinion, is when the Gamesmaster springs the shock on the players and gives them something that they never guessed would happen. Thats not to say that I don't want to give the guys what they want, but I would like to believe that after four-five years playing with them I have a reasonable grasp on what makes them tick.
So, how do I do it?
1. Drama, multiple levels thereof - this has to be the primary contribution to the game. Ongoing, character centred, high drama. Now within this, I have to stop myself from blowing my load too soon. A number of the players have commented that this game could run and run and run and indeed, it is one of the few modern games I have gone into without putting a set number of sessions on the campaign. So, I need to pace my drama a little and resist going for the jugular on each different characters schtick, all at once.
2. Enrich the Universe - I have to make the surroundings of the game come to life with diversity and wonder, and that means that I am going to have to do two things. (1) I am going to have to make each set for each session explicit in my mind and (2) I am going to have to overcome decades of roleplaying laziness and get my head around actual exposition when it comes to describing the surroundings. Generally, I tend to use generic terms for settings and then left the players minds-eye fill in the gaps of the surroundings. However, I think I am going to have to be more verbose in what I do.
3. Not lose sight of the hook of the campaign - Pulsars and PRIVATEERS - thats the emphasis that the game was sold on and in the first instance that should really be the area that I am focusing on. The rest of the game can be being played out around these scenarios. This is akin to the Buffy 'Monster of the Week' motif and indeed, the first season of Babylon 5. Legs. Do Not Cut Them Away.
4. Enrich the environment. We have the airwolf theme tune for the shows intro and exit, but the use of music in the game could be crucial. I have never been too poncy about games and props and such, but I think it could work here. One thing that EVE-online does give me is a plethora of sound clips including LENGTHY space-orientated backing tracks. Methinks I should be using these.
5. An Archive? Those that know me will note that my first reaction to anything tends to be 'make a website!'. I love the online medium and it's ability to blend graphics and information in a globally accessible format, for free. However, the question is, if I was to do one, what purpose would it serve? I think that as the campaign grows, a readily accessible archive of the information that the players have gathered will be a good idea (for them and for me!). Also, a way to transmit ideas and news from around the different parts of the universe would be cool.
Anyway, lots of good things to be done and a campaign to groom to greatness.
Neil
Saturday, March 25, 2006
My name is Neil...and I'm a Switcher
Multiple news on multiple fronts today. It seems like my mighty state of flux is well, fluxing.
Bad news on the roleplaying front with another session cancelled due to an unforseen boating trip (?!) by Captain Amarr. I did consider the prospect of doing a 3-on-1 fill in session (A Day in the Life of Tanner) but in the end I decided not. This would be the third rewrite of the 'second act' of the game and in every rewrite it drifts further away from the dramatic intensity that I planned in the missing session. Sometimes better not to game than to game badly. Still, it means I get to go and see 'V for Vendetta' which has to be a good thing. I had a great idea regarding the 'beings from the void' big bads for PnP and then realised that (a) they were the same big bads that have been in my Crescent Sea and Buffy campaigns (ouch) and (b) it is almost the exact same concept as in Peter Hamiltons 'The Neutrino Alchemist' or whatever it is called. Back to the drawing board.
A few days till I head off to Chicago. Signs coming from Comic Images seem to indicate that they have finally realised that I am actually going at the end of April and they seem to be tying matters up at their end. Good. However, my own urges to build decks has strangely kicked into being. Which is strange because I haven't done it for so long. It's almost as if, because the pressure is off to be anything other than a player, it's suddenly easier. Now, this could be a sense of being demob happy. It could be a general heightening of my CCG senses in preperation for Chicago and attending the World Championships, or it could be genuine. Whatever, I will be throwing together a fun old-fashioned Billy Gunn deck for laughs to take with me. And maybe a Shelton Benjamin....and maybe RTC
Another hobby dividend that has raised it's ugly head is an urge to write some fanfic....I'm trying to ignore it to see whether it will go away.
Which leads me to my switching!
I downloaded the free copy of EVE-Online and took up the no-strings attached 14-day free trial. Its a bizarre game and a very disorientating experience. Take WoW - I know just about everything that I need to know about WoW. EVE? I know JACK SHIT. I am discovering different aspects of the game more through trial and error rather than any great plan. It's intriguing. The game itself seems rather mundane at the moment and is a great example of my 'time is MMORPGs greatest currency' theory. However, I assume that like in WoW the better stuff comes later on. I did my first 'mini-instance' yesterday - clearing out a hollowed asteroid inhabited by a disgruntled employee and his two drones. I discovered that my wee little mining frigate didn't have enough firepower to bash through their shields so I went back to the fitting yard, dropped the mining laser into the hold and fitted another carbine. Ahhh much better! Now I have a specified mining ship (2 mining lasers, shield regen, mining scanner and two extended holds) and a dedicated hunting ship, in development.
Is EVE the game for me? Jury is still amassing evidence. Currently compared to my WoW experience it is far less stressful. However it can be a little ... dull, and I suspect that the Corporations make it a little like work. I shall see how my 14-days pan out.
And speaking of WoW...well, I floated the idea of not being an officer anymore with the rest of the founders and they didn't seem to surprised...which is a good thing. To be brutally honest, the guild is almost unrecognisable from the entity that it was before - so many new faces, so little camraderie within the ranks, so many new relationships to be forged. The entire aspect of the content that is open to me now is endgame raiding and dungeon grinding which, whilst not unappealing, does not sit well with my ability to commit time. Patch 1.10 ftw, it would appear.
And there we have it. Lots of flip-flopping on the hobby front. Oh, and on a great note, Exalted V2 came out this week and I resisted buying it.
Neil
Bad news on the roleplaying front with another session cancelled due to an unforseen boating trip (?!) by Captain Amarr. I did consider the prospect of doing a 3-on-1 fill in session (A Day in the Life of Tanner) but in the end I decided not. This would be the third rewrite of the 'second act' of the game and in every rewrite it drifts further away from the dramatic intensity that I planned in the missing session. Sometimes better not to game than to game badly. Still, it means I get to go and see 'V for Vendetta' which has to be a good thing. I had a great idea regarding the 'beings from the void' big bads for PnP and then realised that (a) they were the same big bads that have been in my Crescent Sea and Buffy campaigns (ouch) and (b) it is almost the exact same concept as in Peter Hamiltons 'The Neutrino Alchemist' or whatever it is called. Back to the drawing board.
A few days till I head off to Chicago. Signs coming from Comic Images seem to indicate that they have finally realised that I am actually going at the end of April and they seem to be tying matters up at their end. Good. However, my own urges to build decks has strangely kicked into being. Which is strange because I haven't done it for so long. It's almost as if, because the pressure is off to be anything other than a player, it's suddenly easier. Now, this could be a sense of being demob happy. It could be a general heightening of my CCG senses in preperation for Chicago and attending the World Championships, or it could be genuine. Whatever, I will be throwing together a fun old-fashioned Billy Gunn deck for laughs to take with me. And maybe a Shelton Benjamin....and maybe RTC
Another hobby dividend that has raised it's ugly head is an urge to write some fanfic....I'm trying to ignore it to see whether it will go away.
Which leads me to my switching!
I downloaded the free copy of EVE-Online and took up the no-strings attached 14-day free trial. Its a bizarre game and a very disorientating experience. Take WoW - I know just about everything that I need to know about WoW. EVE? I know JACK SHIT. I am discovering different aspects of the game more through trial and error rather than any great plan. It's intriguing. The game itself seems rather mundane at the moment and is a great example of my 'time is MMORPGs greatest currency' theory. However, I assume that like in WoW the better stuff comes later on. I did my first 'mini-instance' yesterday - clearing out a hollowed asteroid inhabited by a disgruntled employee and his two drones. I discovered that my wee little mining frigate didn't have enough firepower to bash through their shields so I went back to the fitting yard, dropped the mining laser into the hold and fitted another carbine. Ahhh much better! Now I have a specified mining ship (2 mining lasers, shield regen, mining scanner and two extended holds) and a dedicated hunting ship, in development.
Is EVE the game for me? Jury is still amassing evidence. Currently compared to my WoW experience it is far less stressful. However it can be a little ... dull, and I suspect that the Corporations make it a little like work. I shall see how my 14-days pan out.
And speaking of WoW...well, I floated the idea of not being an officer anymore with the rest of the founders and they didn't seem to surprised...which is a good thing. To be brutally honest, the guild is almost unrecognisable from the entity that it was before - so many new faces, so little camraderie within the ranks, so many new relationships to be forged. The entire aspect of the content that is open to me now is endgame raiding and dungeon grinding which, whilst not unappealing, does not sit well with my ability to commit time. Patch 1.10 ftw, it would appear.
And there we have it. Lots of flip-flopping on the hobby front. Oh, and on a great note, Exalted V2 came out this week and I resisted buying it.
Neil
Monday, March 20, 2006
End of Phase One: The New Attitude
Well, avid readers of Bottom of the Glass. Phase One is complete.
When I started this blog, the mission was to clear off some of the deadwood from my life and establish a new routine that helped me enjoy the hobbies that were left rather than be smothered under a never-ending burden.
Roleplaying has emerged as the winner in this little pseudo-life laundry. What was the old nostalgic favourite has developed into the one success story and is likely to for some time. Pulsars and Privateers has successfully been bedded in and now the challenge is to fulfil the potential for the game and make it 'My Best Ever Roleplaying Campaign'.
Collectible Card games have been the Sunderland AFC of the event, relegated to 'former hobby' status. And with them goes a lot of admin and posting and website work. Indeed, now having my nights free is totally viable come the end of April.
Fanfiction remains a low priority possibility. Thats all that can be said.
Comics, Wresting, Cooking - all cool
Now Warcraft? Thats another question all together. I am increasingly becoming tired with the continuing hearts and minds battle with our guild regarding raiding and raid culture. I want to stick with the guild, and I want to play the game but ... and this has taken me a while to understand - I don't actually CARE whether we use a DKP system or a GEM events system or which sort of voice chat we use or who goes on what raid or blah blah blah. Why should I care? Why ME?
And indeed, this is increasingly becoming my attitude. The best time of my day is the ten minutes I have in the morning when the kids jump onto the bed and we have our little family hug. No-one is arguing, no-one is debating, no-one is threatening to leave anyone. All that happens is that me and my girls have a cuddle and a chat about the day to come. Its so pleasant it's almost addictive!
For the last God only knows how many years I have acted as a co-ordinator/ community leader/ focus point for a number of ventures and adventures. My question now - the real Phase Two of this little voyage of discovery is this:
If I can divest myself of all of my CCG commitments and my holdiays to the USA (and this year, probably GenCon as well) because it was making me feel ill, stressed and claustrophic, is it possible for me to do the same to Warcraft? Could Gorthaal be in the Dungeoneers and not be an officer? Would I be able to have that much detachment?
Similarly, can I take the bones of the P&P campaign and make them rise into something that is truly special. I can feel it's there but it just needs to be taken that little bit further. I'm not sure how, but I'm looking forward to finding out!
Now that? Thats going to make for a very very interesting Phase Two.
When I started this blog, the mission was to clear off some of the deadwood from my life and establish a new routine that helped me enjoy the hobbies that were left rather than be smothered under a never-ending burden.
Roleplaying has emerged as the winner in this little pseudo-life laundry. What was the old nostalgic favourite has developed into the one success story and is likely to for some time. Pulsars and Privateers has successfully been bedded in and now the challenge is to fulfil the potential for the game and make it 'My Best Ever Roleplaying Campaign'.
Collectible Card games have been the Sunderland AFC of the event, relegated to 'former hobby' status. And with them goes a lot of admin and posting and website work. Indeed, now having my nights free is totally viable come the end of April.
Fanfiction remains a low priority possibility. Thats all that can be said.
Comics, Wresting, Cooking - all cool
Now Warcraft? Thats another question all together. I am increasingly becoming tired with the continuing hearts and minds battle with our guild regarding raiding and raid culture. I want to stick with the guild, and I want to play the game but ... and this has taken me a while to understand - I don't actually CARE whether we use a DKP system or a GEM events system or which sort of voice chat we use or who goes on what raid or blah blah blah. Why should I care? Why ME?
And indeed, this is increasingly becoming my attitude. The best time of my day is the ten minutes I have in the morning when the kids jump onto the bed and we have our little family hug. No-one is arguing, no-one is debating, no-one is threatening to leave anyone. All that happens is that me and my girls have a cuddle and a chat about the day to come. Its so pleasant it's almost addictive!
For the last God only knows how many years I have acted as a co-ordinator/ community leader/ focus point for a number of ventures and adventures. My question now - the real Phase Two of this little voyage of discovery is this:
If I can divest myself of all of my CCG commitments and my holdiays to the USA (and this year, probably GenCon as well) because it was making me feel ill, stressed and claustrophic, is it possible for me to do the same to Warcraft? Could Gorthaal be in the Dungeoneers and not be an officer? Would I be able to have that much detachment?
Similarly, can I take the bones of the P&P campaign and make them rise into something that is truly special. I can feel it's there but it just needs to be taken that little bit further. I'm not sure how, but I'm looking forward to finding out!
Now that? Thats going to make for a very very interesting Phase Two.
The Last Train has left for TransCentral
And so, my tenure as Raw Deal UK Commissioner comes to an end. Not with a flash or a bang but with a big group hug with the guys and a small lump in my throat. It's rare that I leave something and it's even rarer that I abandon a hobby completely. However, it would appear that the competitive collectible card scene has seen the last of 'vodkashok'
It's a hard decision though - and one that I might well address again later. I played for the first time in ages on Sunday and it took me a while to get back into the swing of it...and then I remembered that I really REALLY enjoy playing that game. It was mesmerising - I played a game against the UK#1 Rob Maslen in the style of some of our older clashes - two defensive, recursive decks, probing for an opening. It was a lot of fun and it reminded me of the skills needed to play the game. Hell, once again Rob and I drew quite a crowd as 'the masters of recursion' plied their trade. He won, but I didn't care.
So why stop playing? Well, no matter how much I enjoy it, I still have the time issue. And now that the free-card gravy train is drying up, a money issue raises it's head as well. Added to that, I have always been a little skeptical of the people who retire from this game, only to make a short-lived 'comeback'. Not only does it seem like a rather cynical way of getting some free beers from good friends, but it also makes a mockery of the heartfelt thanks and gifts that were given on your retirement.
Whilst I have settled myself on my retirement, there is a glimmer of a possibility that I might flop cards again yet.
There is a Warcraft CCG coming after all.
N.
It's a hard decision though - and one that I might well address again later. I played for the first time in ages on Sunday and it took me a while to get back into the swing of it...and then I remembered that I really REALLY enjoy playing that game. It was mesmerising - I played a game against the UK#1 Rob Maslen in the style of some of our older clashes - two defensive, recursive decks, probing for an opening. It was a lot of fun and it reminded me of the skills needed to play the game. Hell, once again Rob and I drew quite a crowd as 'the masters of recursion' plied their trade. He won, but I didn't care.
So why stop playing? Well, no matter how much I enjoy it, I still have the time issue. And now that the free-card gravy train is drying up, a money issue raises it's head as well. Added to that, I have always been a little skeptical of the people who retire from this game, only to make a short-lived 'comeback'. Not only does it seem like a rather cynical way of getting some free beers from good friends, but it also makes a mockery of the heartfelt thanks and gifts that were given on your retirement.
Whilst I have settled myself on my retirement, there is a glimmer of a possibility that I might flop cards again yet.
There is a Warcraft CCG coming after all.
N.
Wednesday, March 15, 2006
In Search of ... The Next Big Thing?
So my hobby life appears to be lying fallow. Roleplaying is stable, challenging and fun. CCGs have, in the short and medium term have been knocked on the head. Fanfic writing is indeed a dodo. So all thats left really is WoW.
And thats being a bit of a pain in the arse, to be honest. The recent merger between the Dungeoneers and the Hex Spammers has been problematic. A mixture of differing expectations, clashing personalities, radically diverse communication methods and just a whole load of 'change is bad' rubbish. The result has been what T.I.F. calls 'Golf Club Politics' and too many hours pondering and angsting and posturing, when we should be plundering, attacking and pillaging.
My recent tactic for avoiding socially-related stress has been to hide and ignore, taking solace in the last vestiges of my Comic Images work and increasingly my family life. (Hey, you laugh, but for the first time in maybe five years, my wife and I snuggled on the sofa and watched a film! It's just something that we never do...!). My adventures on Scarshield Legion, the RP-PVP server have continued although I am now Level 15 and my companion Dave, is still Level 10, so I can't really rush on too far from him.
So I found myself yesterday looking at the prospect of an alternative MMO - something to have when my muse for WoW wanes a little. It was not an easy process. I've never been a great consumer of computer games and thus whilst I see a £25 roleplaying book as a sound investment, a £30 computer game still seems like an extravagance - which is sheer folly when you consider the 1000+ hours of gametime I have logged with Gorthaal compared to the 0.0 hours gametime I have logged with my Changeling: The Dreaming collection! I want to get something thats great value for money and a cool play experience.
So, I thought, I would shop around online and see what reviews I could pick up? Oh boy....
Apparently, all games are bad. All high ratings are the result of voting by [insert company] fanbois and they haven't been enlightened to the One True Game...which doesn't appear to exist. Every single game seems to have a massive array of detractors and a massive array of proponents. I have discovered the concept of the 'Korean' game - one that was apparently designed for a different species and is in no way, shape or form suitable for western tastes. I have discovered that apparently there are many different forms of MMORPG, all variants on the mystical 'true' MMORPG - highlighted in phrases such as 'This is not a true MMO, it is more a [insert three mysterious letters]RPG'. All games are apparently a grind WHILST simultaneously being fun WHILST being repetitive WHILST being great WHILST being shite.
IN essence, thanks www.mmorpg.com, you have indeed perpetuated my rather acidic view of reviewers to the extreme.
At the moment, the jury is out. I had a copy of Dungeons and Dragons Online in my hand yesterday but put it back...unsure of making the commitment. I have looked time and again at EVE Online, space trading sounding oh so cool....but never quite wanted to take the plunge as a n00b into something so established and complicated. The warm and friendly comfort zone of Warcraft is alluring. I have mastered the game, I have crested the learning curve, it is all there before me - do I really want to start again elsewhere?
Hmmmm....pondering
Neil
And thats being a bit of a pain in the arse, to be honest. The recent merger between the Dungeoneers and the Hex Spammers has been problematic. A mixture of differing expectations, clashing personalities, radically diverse communication methods and just a whole load of 'change is bad' rubbish. The result has been what T.I.F. calls 'Golf Club Politics' and too many hours pondering and angsting and posturing, when we should be plundering, attacking and pillaging.
My recent tactic for avoiding socially-related stress has been to hide and ignore, taking solace in the last vestiges of my Comic Images work and increasingly my family life. (Hey, you laugh, but for the first time in maybe five years, my wife and I snuggled on the sofa and watched a film! It's just something that we never do...!). My adventures on Scarshield Legion, the RP-PVP server have continued although I am now Level 15 and my companion Dave, is still Level 10, so I can't really rush on too far from him.
So I found myself yesterday looking at the prospect of an alternative MMO - something to have when my muse for WoW wanes a little. It was not an easy process. I've never been a great consumer of computer games and thus whilst I see a £25 roleplaying book as a sound investment, a £30 computer game still seems like an extravagance - which is sheer folly when you consider the 1000+ hours of gametime I have logged with Gorthaal compared to the 0.0 hours gametime I have logged with my Changeling: The Dreaming collection! I want to get something thats great value for money and a cool play experience.
So, I thought, I would shop around online and see what reviews I could pick up? Oh boy....
Apparently, all games are bad. All high ratings are the result of voting by [insert company] fanbois and they haven't been enlightened to the One True Game...which doesn't appear to exist. Every single game seems to have a massive array of detractors and a massive array of proponents. I have discovered the concept of the 'Korean' game - one that was apparently designed for a different species and is in no way, shape or form suitable for western tastes. I have discovered that apparently there are many different forms of MMORPG, all variants on the mystical 'true' MMORPG - highlighted in phrases such as 'This is not a true MMO, it is more a [insert three mysterious letters]RPG'. All games are apparently a grind WHILST simultaneously being fun WHILST being repetitive WHILST being great WHILST being shite.
IN essence, thanks www.mmorpg.com, you have indeed perpetuated my rather acidic view of reviewers to the extreme.
At the moment, the jury is out. I had a copy of Dungeons and Dragons Online in my hand yesterday but put it back...unsure of making the commitment. I have looked time and again at EVE Online, space trading sounding oh so cool....but never quite wanted to take the plunge as a n00b into something so established and complicated. The warm and friendly comfort zone of Warcraft is alluring. I have mastered the game, I have crested the learning curve, it is all there before me - do I really want to start again elsewhere?
Hmmmm....pondering
Neil
Monday, March 13, 2006
P&P#4: The End of the Beginning
The reconvened fourth session of Pulsars and Privateers has happened and it was .... OK. It ran a little short and it started a little jittery but it pressed all of the developmental buttons that I had mapped out for the start of the campaign - basically that by the fourth 'episode' we would have turned the blank templates of 'the captain','the mysterious monk','the engineer' and 'the pilot' into actual characters with backgrounds.
So now we have Captain Agha Amarr Salee, ever-so-slightly estranged from the Caliphate Royal Family and a coerced associate of a peaceful rebellion on his homeworld. Marcus D'Silver, a former Imperial Officer with connections to the Imperial espionage whose status is questionable. Talia Decados - a mysterious lethal mystic with a past wrapped in the perversity of the Decados Guild House. Zeb Thaddeus, experimental cyberpilot living with the electronic imprint of his girlfriend Alisse.
Slowly, character relationships are growing - specifically between Talia and the other members of the crew. And story seeds are being sown for future endeavours - the deceit of the Decados, the military expansion of the Confed, the rebellion on Caliphate Homeworld. All nicely coming together.
So why was the session just ... 'ok'
1. I think I am coming to the conclusion that the PTA method of scene setting is good, but it's an all or nothing deal. It so completely envelopes the process that there is a stark and sometimes unpleasant jarring when you switch from one type to another. Maybe thats not it - maybe it's because the scenes HAVE to be player authored and not GM spawned? Where does the line between the players being protaganists and the dictates of the storyline lie? It all revolves around that age old roleplaying question 'what do you do?'
In this game we had two such instances. The first was with Amarr, who was left alone, seeking within his own skills to somehow help Marcus. 'What do you do?' - you go and see your rather important mother and try (fail) to persuade her that Marcus is innocent. Personally, I thought this scene worked really well in that it juxtaposed nicely with some of the later scenes. In the wide world of the Caliphate, the Agha is a figure of authority and grandeur, but in the palace he is still just that annoying yet loveable young lad who will one day grow up.
The second scene was less successful and gels nicely with the other two problems of the session. Marcus is condemned to (almost certain) death - what do you do? You rescue him. How do you do it? Ahhh...now here's the problem. Normally we have the cringe worthy, toe curler of middle aged white men trying to think like spies or knights - I considered that middle aged white men trying to emulate a SF rescue would have been a little easier. After all you have the Morpheus rescue from The Matrix and virtually every scene in any Star Wars film as inspiration. And yet... it just wasn't so. It stuttered and spluttered and generally didn't seem to be going anywhere until Amarr used his influence to acquire the Grand MacGuffin (the stealth belts) and do an ingenious rescue that way.
In a game where virtually everything is scripted, how do the players retain ownership of their game? An interesting challenge...
2. A phobia of action: Do we, hell, do I have a phobia of action? In the perfect minds eye of the GM I would have loved to have seen an armed assault on the Caliphate Secret Service base, Talia and El-Hassan back to back storming the front door and emulating some great gun-fight scenes from cinema. That never happened and what we were moments away from was the sort of convoluted rescue scene that would have put the 'poisoned tuna' scene in Shadowrun to shame. When the imperative is Action! Action! Action! sometimes the game can slip away into Caution! Caution! Caution! Maybe I need to have a badge on saying 'I am not a vindictive GM' to remind them that I am not going to cut their characters down in a rain of plasma fire and that the SF world 'reality' is firmly in place. Mooks never hit anyone and always go down with one hit/punch. Sometimes direct assault works. Of course shooting the force field generator destroys the field...etc etc. I think we got this in the final scene when the Khanjar was the only ship with power in orbit and it destroyed the rebellion fighter platform - the action came in the statements from the players and the way that Zeb used the narrative (he provided) from his past to mirror the actions in the present.
3. NPCs ... with learner wheels still on: I have never been a great advocate of NPCs as party members. They are such obvious GM-voices and fallbacks that I have always looked elsewhere. However in P&P I needed at least one NPC to be the 'crew on the ship' rather than having a PC stay up with it when they landed. Tanner, that NPC, is fine and as a rather reliable yet background player he does the job well. No doubt Tanner's story will come out as well, but now he is just the man that screens the Captain and shouts 'Missles Locked!' when it is dramatically appropriate.
I added a second NPC because ... well, because it felt right, as a sign of Amarr's increased importance - and because the role of the bodyguard is one that works oh so well in the HH books. So we have El-Hassan, a female (yet seemingly asexual) professional warrior who has pledged her life to the command and safety of the Agha. In terms of roles within the ship this puts her on a collision course with Talia - but as Talia's player has stated that he wanted to get away from the straight 'fighter' archetype, this should work? What I need to watch out is that the NPC does not become more heroic than the PCs, that El-Hassan is not the protaganist in every situation. She has to add to the game, rather than detract from it. She must never EVER become a super-uber-safety net of doom for them.
Now, in that I have been dubbed The Iron GM by one of my players who lives at http://www.fandomlife.net/ ( a great place for a players eye view of the game), I shall henceforth dub him.... The Ideas Factory. And I would like to address here something that T.I.F. suggested in his post on the game - that some of the concepts were not fully fleshed out.
Yet
Thats the operative word and I think it is what seperates the game as a game from the game as a TV Series. The game is now in a state of flux. The Agha has had his eyes opened to the world beneath his very safe and luxurious state of being. He has seen the depravity that his lifestyle creates in it's backwash. He has met, fleetingly, a man who claims to want a peaceful resolution. He has seen even more fleetingly the face of the man who would kill him and his family. He has seen what they can do (fighters, computer viruses, contraband equipment) and he has seen the consequences. Every single detail of that could have been laid out before the group there and then - or it could be one of the mysteries of the game forthcoming. So far, the game is rammed with these 'unanswered questions' - absolutely teeming with them actually and the more there are, the better as far as I am concerned.
Rather than a nicely paced session where the rebellion was introduced and given empathic characters and detailed reasons for what they are doing and then a baddie other faction introduced and then some grand plot of rescue hatched, I wanted it to be far more chaotic - things happening around the characters that impact on them without them having any direct input into the process. Carried along somewhat in the chaos. The rebellion wanted to show the Agha that it existed and why, but others wanted him dead and they were all set to do it...and then the chaos in space and the swift retreat of the Khanjar. All very chaotic.
Which brings me back nicely to the end of the beginning. One of the ways that I wanted the first 'session' of the campaign to end was in a feeling of chaos...that somehow the edges of society are fraying slightly and any idea of a cosy existence has been put on hold. Between the issues with the Confed, House Decados, The Caliphate and One-Eyed Elijah this will have got across. Only time will tell.
N.
So now we have Captain Agha Amarr Salee, ever-so-slightly estranged from the Caliphate Royal Family and a coerced associate of a peaceful rebellion on his homeworld. Marcus D'Silver, a former Imperial Officer with connections to the Imperial espionage whose status is questionable. Talia Decados - a mysterious lethal mystic with a past wrapped in the perversity of the Decados Guild House. Zeb Thaddeus, experimental cyberpilot living with the electronic imprint of his girlfriend Alisse.
Slowly, character relationships are growing - specifically between Talia and the other members of the crew. And story seeds are being sown for future endeavours - the deceit of the Decados, the military expansion of the Confed, the rebellion on Caliphate Homeworld. All nicely coming together.
So why was the session just ... 'ok'
1. I think I am coming to the conclusion that the PTA method of scene setting is good, but it's an all or nothing deal. It so completely envelopes the process that there is a stark and sometimes unpleasant jarring when you switch from one type to another. Maybe thats not it - maybe it's because the scenes HAVE to be player authored and not GM spawned? Where does the line between the players being protaganists and the dictates of the storyline lie? It all revolves around that age old roleplaying question 'what do you do?'
In this game we had two such instances. The first was with Amarr, who was left alone, seeking within his own skills to somehow help Marcus. 'What do you do?' - you go and see your rather important mother and try (fail) to persuade her that Marcus is innocent. Personally, I thought this scene worked really well in that it juxtaposed nicely with some of the later scenes. In the wide world of the Caliphate, the Agha is a figure of authority and grandeur, but in the palace he is still just that annoying yet loveable young lad who will one day grow up.
The second scene was less successful and gels nicely with the other two problems of the session. Marcus is condemned to (almost certain) death - what do you do? You rescue him. How do you do it? Ahhh...now here's the problem. Normally we have the cringe worthy, toe curler of middle aged white men trying to think like spies or knights - I considered that middle aged white men trying to emulate a SF rescue would have been a little easier. After all you have the Morpheus rescue from The Matrix and virtually every scene in any Star Wars film as inspiration. And yet... it just wasn't so. It stuttered and spluttered and generally didn't seem to be going anywhere until Amarr used his influence to acquire the Grand MacGuffin (the stealth belts) and do an ingenious rescue that way.
In a game where virtually everything is scripted, how do the players retain ownership of their game? An interesting challenge...
2. A phobia of action: Do we, hell, do I have a phobia of action? In the perfect minds eye of the GM I would have loved to have seen an armed assault on the Caliphate Secret Service base, Talia and El-Hassan back to back storming the front door and emulating some great gun-fight scenes from cinema. That never happened and what we were moments away from was the sort of convoluted rescue scene that would have put the 'poisoned tuna' scene in Shadowrun to shame. When the imperative is Action! Action! Action! sometimes the game can slip away into Caution! Caution! Caution! Maybe I need to have a badge on saying 'I am not a vindictive GM' to remind them that I am not going to cut their characters down in a rain of plasma fire and that the SF world 'reality' is firmly in place. Mooks never hit anyone and always go down with one hit/punch. Sometimes direct assault works. Of course shooting the force field generator destroys the field...etc etc. I think we got this in the final scene when the Khanjar was the only ship with power in orbit and it destroyed the rebellion fighter platform - the action came in the statements from the players and the way that Zeb used the narrative (he provided) from his past to mirror the actions in the present.
3. NPCs ... with learner wheels still on: I have never been a great advocate of NPCs as party members. They are such obvious GM-voices and fallbacks that I have always looked elsewhere. However in P&P I needed at least one NPC to be the 'crew on the ship' rather than having a PC stay up with it when they landed. Tanner, that NPC, is fine and as a rather reliable yet background player he does the job well. No doubt Tanner's story will come out as well, but now he is just the man that screens the Captain and shouts 'Missles Locked!' when it is dramatically appropriate.
I added a second NPC because ... well, because it felt right, as a sign of Amarr's increased importance - and because the role of the bodyguard is one that works oh so well in the HH books. So we have El-Hassan, a female (yet seemingly asexual) professional warrior who has pledged her life to the command and safety of the Agha. In terms of roles within the ship this puts her on a collision course with Talia - but as Talia's player has stated that he wanted to get away from the straight 'fighter' archetype, this should work? What I need to watch out is that the NPC does not become more heroic than the PCs, that El-Hassan is not the protaganist in every situation. She has to add to the game, rather than detract from it. She must never EVER become a super-uber-safety net of doom for them.
Now, in that I have been dubbed The Iron GM by one of my players who lives at http://www.fandomlife.net/ ( a great place for a players eye view of the game), I shall henceforth dub him.... The Ideas Factory. And I would like to address here something that T.I.F. suggested in his post on the game - that some of the concepts were not fully fleshed out.
Yet
Thats the operative word and I think it is what seperates the game as a game from the game as a TV Series. The game is now in a state of flux. The Agha has had his eyes opened to the world beneath his very safe and luxurious state of being. He has seen the depravity that his lifestyle creates in it's backwash. He has met, fleetingly, a man who claims to want a peaceful resolution. He has seen even more fleetingly the face of the man who would kill him and his family. He has seen what they can do (fighters, computer viruses, contraband equipment) and he has seen the consequences. Every single detail of that could have been laid out before the group there and then - or it could be one of the mysteries of the game forthcoming. So far, the game is rammed with these 'unanswered questions' - absolutely teeming with them actually and the more there are, the better as far as I am concerned.
Rather than a nicely paced session where the rebellion was introduced and given empathic characters and detailed reasons for what they are doing and then a baddie other faction introduced and then some grand plot of rescue hatched, I wanted it to be far more chaotic - things happening around the characters that impact on them without them having any direct input into the process. Carried along somewhat in the chaos. The rebellion wanted to show the Agha that it existed and why, but others wanted him dead and they were all set to do it...and then the chaos in space and the swift retreat of the Khanjar. All very chaotic.
Which brings me back nicely to the end of the beginning. One of the ways that I wanted the first 'session' of the campaign to end was in a feeling of chaos...that somehow the edges of society are fraying slightly and any idea of a cosy existence has been put on hold. Between the issues with the Confed, House Decados, The Caliphate and One-Eyed Elijah this will have got across. Only time will tell.
N.
Saturday, March 11, 2006
WoW Revisited: RP-PVP
Wanting to investigate a different aspect of World of Warcraft, I persuaded Dave to try out Scarshield Legion, one of the new RP-PVP realms that was opened recently. It is proving to be a very interesting experience.
I tried out a RP server before - Moonglade, just as it opened. It was a satisfactory experience, but the over-riding atmosphere was one of RP veterans from Argent Dawn and Earthen Ring seeking to police a new, unsullied virgin realm in their own manner. In my first few days playing there, I saw people being reported for virtually anything - including the hilarity of not having a name that conformed to WoW Racial patterns! All a bit too full-on for my liking.
My hatred for PvP is well known. I have never really seen the point and most of the time my mind is in a PvE mindset and unable (or indeed, most of the time, unwilling) to adjust into a PvP mode. One of my Dungeoneer guildmates said of me once that I didn't just not do PvP, I had no clue whatsoever what to do if I did want to fight someone! Well, thats pretty much the case, but the Dungeoneer Birthday Duelling fest did whet my appetite a little so I thought - hey, whats the worst that can happen? I can get ganked to within an inch of my life - but at least I'll learn.
Considering my mediocre experience of RP and my aversion to PVP, why choose Scarshield Legion? Well, in my opinion, RP-PVP should be the nearest you can get to 'proper' World of WARcraft as you can get. Not only are you roleplaying within the setting, creating some sort of internal logic around the quests etc. but you also the ability to execute the war between the Horde and the Alliance as it was meant to be. PVE realms are awesome for the questing and exploration part of the game, but when you have members of warring races stood side by side with each other it seems a little strange.
So into this strange world were born Branan the Warrior and Equity the Paladin. Branan is the older, but less brilliant brother, questing for The One True Axe. He likes beer, battles and 'no-beards'... and he feels the need to call all gnomes 'wee man'. Equity is the cleverer of the two and has (in Branan's eyes) and unhealthy obsession with His Holy Lady of Light. He shouts about it enough. They are both miners and both blacksmiths - the family professions.
Technically, the way we have changed our gameplay is simple. Virtually everything we do is done in /say rather than /p which allows other people to hear what we do. Equity has some of his spells macro'd so he shouts a call to His Holy Lady of Light when he casts. I'm going to be doing the same with my battle shouts etc.
Once we had that sorted, the rest came easy. The shock and horror at one of our companions dying to a troll - and my subsequent beserk attack on said troll! The mystery of the strange green gnomes around the base of Gnomeregan being unfurled as blighted Leper Gnomes. Sheer awe and wonder at the grandeur of Ironforge. Bricking ourselves when we saw our first Epic Frostsaber and /kneeling at the massive dwarf statue as we enter the city. Oh, and mistaking the golden explosion for a level as a fart....Branan did one in front of the Dwarven King!!
It was a great way to spend a Saturday morning and something that I look forward to doing again soon.
Oh, and one more thing - the pain doesn't come in the character or the RP - it comes from not having 4x14 slot bags and 5g in the bank from your main. Having to grind to get my training was a dubious pleasure I had long since forgotten!
Neil
I tried out a RP server before - Moonglade, just as it opened. It was a satisfactory experience, but the over-riding atmosphere was one of RP veterans from Argent Dawn and Earthen Ring seeking to police a new, unsullied virgin realm in their own manner. In my first few days playing there, I saw people being reported for virtually anything - including the hilarity of not having a name that conformed to WoW Racial patterns! All a bit too full-on for my liking.
My hatred for PvP is well known. I have never really seen the point and most of the time my mind is in a PvE mindset and unable (or indeed, most of the time, unwilling) to adjust into a PvP mode. One of my Dungeoneer guildmates said of me once that I didn't just not do PvP, I had no clue whatsoever what to do if I did want to fight someone! Well, thats pretty much the case, but the Dungeoneer Birthday Duelling fest did whet my appetite a little so I thought - hey, whats the worst that can happen? I can get ganked to within an inch of my life - but at least I'll learn.
Considering my mediocre experience of RP and my aversion to PVP, why choose Scarshield Legion? Well, in my opinion, RP-PVP should be the nearest you can get to 'proper' World of WARcraft as you can get. Not only are you roleplaying within the setting, creating some sort of internal logic around the quests etc. but you also the ability to execute the war between the Horde and the Alliance as it was meant to be. PVE realms are awesome for the questing and exploration part of the game, but when you have members of warring races stood side by side with each other it seems a little strange.
So into this strange world were born Branan the Warrior and Equity the Paladin. Branan is the older, but less brilliant brother, questing for The One True Axe. He likes beer, battles and 'no-beards'... and he feels the need to call all gnomes 'wee man'. Equity is the cleverer of the two and has (in Branan's eyes) and unhealthy obsession with His Holy Lady of Light. He shouts about it enough. They are both miners and both blacksmiths - the family professions.
Technically, the way we have changed our gameplay is simple. Virtually everything we do is done in /say rather than /p which allows other people to hear what we do. Equity has some of his spells macro'd so he shouts a call to His Holy Lady of Light when he casts. I'm going to be doing the same with my battle shouts etc.
Once we had that sorted, the rest came easy. The shock and horror at one of our companions dying to a troll - and my subsequent beserk attack on said troll! The mystery of the strange green gnomes around the base of Gnomeregan being unfurled as blighted Leper Gnomes. Sheer awe and wonder at the grandeur of Ironforge. Bricking ourselves when we saw our first Epic Frostsaber and /kneeling at the massive dwarf statue as we enter the city. Oh, and mistaking the golden explosion for a level as a fart....Branan did one in front of the Dwarven King!!
It was a great way to spend a Saturday morning and something that I look forward to doing again soon.
Oh, and one more thing - the pain doesn't come in the character or the RP - it comes from not having 4x14 slot bags and 5g in the bank from your main. Having to grind to get my training was a dubious pleasure I had long since forgotten!
Neil
Monday, March 06, 2006
Breaking Up Is Hard to Do
Well, I have done it - I have gone public with the knowledge that I have handed in my notice with Comic Images.
It's a strange feeling. No-one will care two hoots about me no longer being a playtester and neither will I. I was never a great playtester - more there for the sense-checking of the product and the names and the package as a whole than for the minutae of the cards themselves. It was a privilege, a lucrative privilege.
Being UK Commissioner was the honour. Being the 'leader' of a tight community like the UK RD community is always going to be fulfilling but it is also draining. There is a load of stuff that needs to be done in the background - rankings to be compiled, tournament packs to be sent out, payments to be tracked and made, emails to be responded to and questions to be answered. Your year becomes measured by PPV tournaments and their planning. Even when you have them planned a full year ahead, they still always seemed to be last minute affairs. Will I miss being UK Commish? To be honest, no, I don't think I will. It has been fantastic fun, but terribly time consuming and enveloping. In two weeks time I hand it all over to another player and it ends...what a relief.
The role of being webmaster? Well, that was the power. It placed me as near to the centre of the game as possible, without being an actual employee of the company. I got to know a load of things well in advance of anyone else and indeed, the dessemination of information about the game was pretty much molded around my timetable. Even if I say so myself it felt like being a bit of a celebrity.
However, in the end, even that becomes a bind. Updates become a chore sandwiched between other more pleasurable activities. The will to do any form of clean-up or redesign becomes less and less - and thats not a good thing. I like to think of myself as a pretty conscientious person but when that happens you have to start thinking about cutting both your losses and the companies.
Inevitably, it is not that easy - CI want me to do one final redesign before I go and to radically prune the site. The redesign is done and I am pretty pleased. Tonight I will start the task of populating the new site with old information, culled from the 850+ pages on the current site. It's an eerie task. I know for a fact that if *I* was the incoming new webmaster, the first thing I would do is redesign the site to my own liking and skills. I would not want someone elses artwork and design being attributed to me. Similarly, site design and content management can be quite idiosyncratic and some people might suggest that my methods are incorrect (they are certainly old fashioned). It seems like a wasted last hurrah.
I have the suspicion, somehow, that I will have a number of these 'one last job' requests and that the powers that be at CI might not be taking my departure with the seriousness that it deserves. Or maybe I am just being guilty of unreasonable arrogance.
Either way, I will be seeing some of them in Chicago in a couple of weeks time, which should be a very interesting conversation.
Neil
It's a strange feeling. No-one will care two hoots about me no longer being a playtester and neither will I. I was never a great playtester - more there for the sense-checking of the product and the names and the package as a whole than for the minutae of the cards themselves. It was a privilege, a lucrative privilege.
Being UK Commissioner was the honour. Being the 'leader' of a tight community like the UK RD community is always going to be fulfilling but it is also draining. There is a load of stuff that needs to be done in the background - rankings to be compiled, tournament packs to be sent out, payments to be tracked and made, emails to be responded to and questions to be answered. Your year becomes measured by PPV tournaments and their planning. Even when you have them planned a full year ahead, they still always seemed to be last minute affairs. Will I miss being UK Commish? To be honest, no, I don't think I will. It has been fantastic fun, but terribly time consuming and enveloping. In two weeks time I hand it all over to another player and it ends...what a relief.
The role of being webmaster? Well, that was the power. It placed me as near to the centre of the game as possible, without being an actual employee of the company. I got to know a load of things well in advance of anyone else and indeed, the dessemination of information about the game was pretty much molded around my timetable. Even if I say so myself it felt like being a bit of a celebrity.
However, in the end, even that becomes a bind. Updates become a chore sandwiched between other more pleasurable activities. The will to do any form of clean-up or redesign becomes less and less - and thats not a good thing. I like to think of myself as a pretty conscientious person but when that happens you have to start thinking about cutting both your losses and the companies.
Inevitably, it is not that easy - CI want me to do one final redesign before I go and to radically prune the site. The redesign is done and I am pretty pleased. Tonight I will start the task of populating the new site with old information, culled from the 850+ pages on the current site. It's an eerie task. I know for a fact that if *I* was the incoming new webmaster, the first thing I would do is redesign the site to my own liking and skills. I would not want someone elses artwork and design being attributed to me. Similarly, site design and content management can be quite idiosyncratic and some people might suggest that my methods are incorrect (they are certainly old fashioned). It seems like a wasted last hurrah.
I have the suspicion, somehow, that I will have a number of these 'one last job' requests and that the powers that be at CI might not be taking my departure with the seriousness that it deserves. Or maybe I am just being guilty of unreasonable arrogance.
Either way, I will be seeing some of them in Chicago in a couple of weeks time, which should be a very interesting conversation.
Neil
Roads Never Travelled
Roleplay was cancelled this week. Damn it!
The set-up for the cancellation was interesting though and worthy of some comment. Firstly Zeb's player was unable to attend because he was off planning his wedding. He did, however, leave us a very useful out. His character was unconscious, having fainted in the assassination attempt and it was very easy to convert this into a coma. So he was written out. However, that allowed me to spring a surprise episode on him and them for the next episode and then flip flop back into the game after that. As a structure it was, in my mind, dramatically perfect. It would have hightlighted Zeb and Talia, whilst still involving the other players and it would have had that wonderful 'ST:TNG' style feel to the pacing.
And then Captain Amarr was ill and we had to cancel.
Of course, this is fine and I would never expect anyone to play through illness. Indeed, that exact self-imposed expectation was something that has caused sub-optimal play experiences in the past. It does mean, however, that during our next session Zeb will be back and the drama that I had concocted will be different.
The story elements will still be there - but the conclusion will be radically changed. Thats a good thing really, as it shows that the players have a real impact on the direction of the game (as should be the case) Maybe one day, the 'lost episode' may be unearthed, in all it's glory!
One thing that this illustrated for me is that the game definitely has legs. The fact that I could, legitimately, plan the fourth, fifth and sixth sessions ahead of time and STILL not have really disclosed the over-arcing story that covers the first 'season' would tend to suggest these characters have a vast depth of story to them and certainly we are going to be taking this at a slower pace than Buffy and probably Crescent Sea.
Woot!
The set-up for the cancellation was interesting though and worthy of some comment. Firstly Zeb's player was unable to attend because he was off planning his wedding. He did, however, leave us a very useful out. His character was unconscious, having fainted in the assassination attempt and it was very easy to convert this into a coma. So he was written out. However, that allowed me to spring a surprise episode on him and them for the next episode and then flip flop back into the game after that. As a structure it was, in my mind, dramatically perfect. It would have hightlighted Zeb and Talia, whilst still involving the other players and it would have had that wonderful 'ST:TNG' style feel to the pacing.
And then Captain Amarr was ill and we had to cancel.
Of course, this is fine and I would never expect anyone to play through illness. Indeed, that exact self-imposed expectation was something that has caused sub-optimal play experiences in the past. It does mean, however, that during our next session Zeb will be back and the drama that I had concocted will be different.
The story elements will still be there - but the conclusion will be radically changed. Thats a good thing really, as it shows that the players have a real impact on the direction of the game (as should be the case) Maybe one day, the 'lost episode' may be unearthed, in all it's glory!
One thing that this illustrated for me is that the game definitely has legs. The fact that I could, legitimately, plan the fourth, fifth and sixth sessions ahead of time and STILL not have really disclosed the over-arcing story that covers the first 'season' would tend to suggest these characters have a vast depth of story to them and certainly we are going to be taking this at a slower pace than Buffy and probably Crescent Sea.
Woot!
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