ON LOCATION - Improving the gaming atmosphere

The hour has arrived. You, the Gamesmaster, have spent the last few days preparing a new campaign for your players to get involved in. It concerns a plot where an ex-military officer has taken over a weapons lab and is building his own war machine. The players have to track him down across their sector of space and stop him, meeting several beings and visiting several locations as they travel. Each planet and non-player character has been designed, with narrative and descriptions of them laid out on sheets ready to grab at a moments notice.

The dining room had been prepared, and one by one the players arrive. They sit and talk amiably for the first half-hour, going over what’s been going on since they last met, tales of real life and the imaginary. The game begins. The characters meet their foe and learn of his plans. He escapes. A battle, a starship attack. They meet another NPC who agrees to help them, puts them in touch with another who might help further. They’re double-crossed. More fights and you look at your watch and decide that that’s enough for one week. You wind things down and the players relax, going over what’s happened and leaving.

The next week arrives. You’re ready with the notes from the last game and the repercussions of the player’s actions. They seat themselves and prepare. Just as you’re about to start, one of them asks:

“Sorry, but what happened in the last game again?”

You stare at him, dumbfounded. How can he not remember? Didn’t he enjoy it?

“Yeah, I enjoyed it, but you know, it’s been a week.”

But why didn’t he remember what happened?

“I’ve been busy since then. It didn’t really stick in my mind.”

But if that happens you’re going to have to make notes during the game every week to re-appraise the players of what’s been going on. It’s hard enough work GM’ing.

“Why can’t one of us write it down?”

Because that’ll still slow your game down. You’ll all be waiting for the writing player to finish sentences or making sure details are correct.

“I get it. What can we do?”

You said that it didn’t really stick in you’re mind. Why was that? Are you sure you enjoyed it?

“Yeah, I did, but this room has become the normal thing every week and I forget sometimes what game we played when.”

Maybe you should change locations. Ask your friends if you can hold the game somewhere different.

“It’s possible we can do it at my house,” says one of the others, “but it’ll have to be in my bedroom. There’s not a lot of space.”

“We could do it at my place but my younger brother would probably keep interrupting. It’ll ruin the atmosphere.”

So, the option of locations is a problem, and, as stated before, the normal thing to do is to congregate at your house. Is there something you can do to improve the location you’re in at the moment, try to make the atmosphere right to make the games more memorable? If you do choose to change playing locations you could start by making sure there are no distractions, which will interrupt play and ruin the continuity of the game. If there are others in the house you live in then make sure they know that this night is you’re gaming night and that you’ll need a couple of hours to yourself. The last thing you want is for people to wander into the room and start a conversation as they ‘pass through’. Where exactly is the room you are holding you’re games? If it’s a dining room, which is the only access to the kitchen, then you’ll get people wandering through at regular intervals and spoiling the moment. If there are things in this room that others in the house may need then they’ll be popping in to get it and that will generate the same problem. If that’s the case and you’re limited on options as to other locations in the house then you will have to make do as best you can. Warn the others living there that if they need something then they should get it before play begins. If they have to pass through then make sure they understand that they should pass through with minimum fuss. Not everyone understands the necessity of atmosphere during a roleplaying game, may not even understand the hobby itself, and carry on regardless. Explain it to them politely, asking them if they wouldn’t mind taking you’re group into consideration before doing anything. Getting upset or impatient about it won’t help, and they live there too, after all.

“But its okay here, we don’t get interruptions. It sounds as though moving the game to another place might be more trouble than it sounds. What can we do to make things better here?”

Take a look around you, you’re usual roleplaying area. What’s in the room? If the room is filled with a simple table, chairs and minimum decoration then you’re already half way to a decent place. If there are too many things in the room then the players may get distracted. That may come in the form of books that are to hand, magazines lying around and anything else that a player might turn to whilst they are waiting for their turn.

“But when someone else is doing an action that takes a while then I get bored.”

That’s fair enough. You’ll have to try and divide you’re attention between the players equally, make sure they don’t feel left out or ignored. Spending a maximum of three minutes per player, as far as independent actions go, is about right. It’s difficult to judge but try to keep the time you spend on a player consistent between everyone at the table. Keep an eye on the other players and if you see one of them looking a little bored or start reaching for something to read then switch you’re attention to them. Get them into it again, it doesn’t matter what you want them to do. In fact, ask them what they want to do.

“I’m not sure. This doesn’t really concern me, does it?”

Doesn’t concern him? Why is he here then? Look at your game design and make sure that what you have written down has enough in there so that the players, no matter what they do for a living or what they’re skilled at, will have some hand in the game. It can be difficult to allow for every player character, that much is true, but the players should feel as though they’re involved even when another player is performing an action. You should make sure that the players around the table take notice of what’s going on around them. If you turn to a player and ask them for their action and they basically tell you that they weren’t really paying attention, then just shrug. You can’t tell them, the other players will have to. Make sure they understand that if they don’t take any notice then their characters don’t take any notice. You can’t spend precious gaming time re-explaining what happened five minutes ago. Have the other players tell them in character if possible to keep the atmosphere going, maybe even chide them for not paying attention. This way the player won’t feel left out, especially if they’re being told that they’re not paying enough attention through their character.

Now, is there anything else you can do?

“The games seem to be getting pretty run-of-the-mill. They’re fun but...”

That’s understandable. Maybe one of them should try GM’ing for a change?

“I’ve never done it before.”

Then start. Every GM has to start somewhere. You can’t be expected to continually create and execute games on a week in, week out basis. That well of creativity needs to be refreshed from time to time. The players may respond well to another perspective, increasing the enjoyment and making the games more memorable. What else can you do?

“There’s nothing in this room that makes me feel I’m in the game’s setting. Its all romance novels on the shelves and pictures of flowers on the walls.”

Well, you can’t re-decorate the room just to make your games better can you? Unless the place belongs to you, which in this particular instance it doesn’t, there’s not a lot you can do. Having a location you can change to suit your own tastes is a gamer’s dream, which is not always attainable. If you can move the odd bit of furniture or the odd fixture, which is easily replaceable, to help out then so much the better. Going the whole hog and filling the room with
roleplaying items may have opposite the desired effect; there’ll be more things for the players to be distracted by.

So, you’ve got a few ideas on how to change the room and how to get the players more involved. Films are a good start. What else makes a movie?

“The sound effects. They’re good.”

Bit of a problem, that one. How can you generate a blaster bolt with every shot, a starship roar with every manoeuvre, a clash with every sword strike? You can’t. Unless you’re a pretty good mimic there’s not a lot you can do, apart from getting hold of a special effects recording and choosing those certain sounds that sound like a busy bar or resemble a starship yard. That’s one thing that’ll be down to the player’s imaginations.

“What about music?”

That’s easier. Most movies release their soundtrack on CD, so why not put that on in the background? Fair enough, the music that plays may not suit the scene you’re in at the moment but the idea’s there. That’s why CD’s are excellent. With a flick of a button you can go straight to a track, even repeat it if the scene goes on longer than the music. Don’t reach for the CD player until you’ve started the scene, mind you; if the players see you reaching for the button as they sneak into the next scene then they’ll figure out that something’s going to happen. Let the scene begin before jumping tracks. If it’s a tape player you’ve got then you’ll have to either let the music play quietly in the background so that it’s not intrusive but audible, or pre-record the tracks you’ll need to follow the games planned progress.

“How about props?”

Player handouts are always a good thing. If the players can get hold of the item or a photocopy of information they need then they’ll respond to it better.

“Let’s start this week’s game, then, shall we? I can’t wait to see who was in that starship we boarded.”

“I want to see what Gerrat’s going to do with that parcel I gave him.”

“C’mon, GM, its time. Get going. What happened about the ship? Is Gerrat on there?”

Ahh. Now that’s what you wanted to hear.

New Games Ahoy!!

Well, we've sorted out the new group and we start next Sunday. As there are new players and I'm trying to settle into a new dynamic I've decided to start simple - therefore, I'm using the D6 System. I sent out the following details of the game to my players:

'I won't be running a Star Wars game - I've done enough of them! - but I will be using the rules to run a short and simple sci-fi game set in our solar system after social and economical collapse and a system-wide nuclear war. It'll be kind of like Mad Max but with spaceships. Your characters will start on a scarred Earth fifty years after the war ended, you'll have to put together your own ship in an old starshipyard (which means the design and stats of the vessel is completely up to you) and then you'll be tasked with flying out to the other planets to see what is left and what is happening to the old colonies, but mainly you'll be finding resources for what is left of the dwindling settlements on Earth. I'll be using the colony/planet stats from TSRs XXVc game so we'll have a proper framework to work from.'

It should be simple to run and that's what I want - simplicity. Once I'm used to the group and we're all comfortable we can have a conversation about what games we want to play and we can plan accordingly. Maybe then I can run Rogue Trader. If we can attract other players we can then look at hiring rooms and starting the club proper.

It all takes time. Rome wasn't built and so on and so forth.

A New Gaming Group + Clash of the Titans Trailer

Had the first meeting of our new gaming group last night over a few beers (and JD+C's) and it went really well. The new guy Andy is a nice bloke, has got some good gaming experience and seems eager to play.

As far as the RPG club 'Lichfield's ORC' is concerned these are the first steps. We're not going the whole rented room approach - we're going to start small and see who else we can entice with our gaming prowess. If we attract more people than we can fit into a room then we look at renting, and the fact that we have all agreed on Sunday afternoons/nights for the game time is a bonus. Not only is that easier to manage it also means we can pull a bigger crowd if the club does take off.

Now, I'm going to be GMing the first games and I still have a wish to do Rogue Trader. As it is I want to establish a group dynamic before we delve into the big stuff so I want to keep it simple so we're not spending entire games trying to work out characters and rules. With that in mind I've decided to fall back on the D6 System as I can adapt it to what I need it for and it's easy to run. This way I can concentrate on making sure the group gels instead of worrying about whether I got the rule interpretation right. My setting is post apocalyptic, but not a post-apoc Earth but an entire post-apoc Solar System. Should be fun.

I hope.

And, just so that you see it, here's the new trailer for Clash of the Titans. I'm actually excited about this as it looks like it's going to be another batshit insane fantasy movie, and I enjoyed the 1981 original.

'The Carpet Makers' - Andreas Eschbach

'KNOT AFTER KNOT, DAY IN, day out, for an entire lifetime, always the same hand movements, always looping the same knots in the fine hair, so fine and so tiny that with time, the fingers trembled and the eyes became weak from strain-and still the progress was hardly noticeable.'

I first read this book three years ago, just after my son Bruce was born. It was the book I read during his first two weeks of freedom from the womb and, in between the nappies and the milk, I sat with my son in my arms and read The Carpet Makers.

I'll let the description blurb from www.amazon.co.uk explain this book to you - 'Since the time of prehistory, carpet makers have tied intricate knots to form carpets for the court of the Emperor. These carpets are made from the hairs of their makers' wives and daughters; they are so detailed and fragile that each carpet- maker finishes only one single carpet in his entire lifetime. This art has descended from father to son since the beginning of time itself. But, one day, the empire of the God Emperor vanishes... and strangers begin to arrive from the stars in search of the hair carpets. What these strangers discover is beyond all belief, more than anything they could have ever imagined... '

A string of open-ended and seemingly unconnected stories are - dare I use the pun - 'woven' together to create a universe so compelling, so shocking, that it is only now that I have decided to pick it up and read it again. I can't recommend this book enough. Andreas Eschbach is an excellent writer and I am definitely going to hunt down more of his work.

CREATING INTERESTING NPCs

The title says it all.

One thing that roleplaying games expect is abundant NPCs, non-player characters that populate the GM’s setting with helping hands or dastardly plots. They’re either background dressing or they’re part of the story. The background ones are no problem - you can simply say ‘the citizen points the way to the spaceport’ and that’s the end of that encounter. No serious hard work there.

It’s those NPC’s the player characters will be spending a lot of their time with that’ll need the work. This sailing ship captain they’ve hired or that installation commander they’ve kidnapped. The key characters need dressing up.

CHOOSING A VISUAL REFERENCE
The NPC in question will need an appearance, of course, so that the players will be able to visualise his or her presence in the game. This can be done one of three ways:

1. If you’re talented artistically you can simply draw the character in question. Artwork of the NPC always works effectively as the design is almost always original, making the NPC unique.

2. A narrative description of main characters, denoting a simplistic facial or bodily appearance coupled with clothing style, always works. For example: ‘The short man is ugly with a small pig-nose and narrow eyes topped with thick eyebrows. His clothing is that of a blue flight suit, complete with tassels hanging down his back but it is filthy beyond comprehension - he looks as though he’s been dragged through an old oil conduit’.

3. Take an existing picture from a sourcebook or any other reference material and simply say ‘that’s what they look like’, adding the odd detail as far as changing the appearance goes.

The character must be firmly imprinted in the player’s minds as play progresses to avoid questions such as ‘which one was he again?’ or ‘what did he look like?’ These queries can slow a game and suspend belief if a player has to constantly remind themselves what the NPC looks like. If you have a picture of the character, place it on the table whilst the scene unfolds. If it’s a description you have read out, then make sure you’ve done a convincing job. Sometimes, the need to remind players is necessary the first time they encounter your new NPC but don’t be disheartened if they don’t take to them straight away. As in real life, getting to know a face and name takes a little time.

It’s usually the norm to base the way a character looks on their personality - if they dress dark and broody they’re usually bad guys, dressed dirty and scruffy they could be common thieves, dressed well and clean shaven they’re good people. This isn’t always the case. Dress a person in black, give them a big gun but an even bigger heart and you’ve got an interesting character. Dress another in a smart casual suit with a bright smile and blue eyes, give them a black heart
and devious mind and you’ve got an interesting character. Simply basing a personality around an appearance will dilute you’re NPC’s to the point of boring the players. Changing them constantly will keep the players on their toes, or at least stop them from treating the characters as archetypes.

USING THE ‘MOP’
The acronym in the above title is what you will use to give the character depth. There are usually three things that make up an individual - Motivation, Objectives and Personality. MOP.

When designing a fresh NPC think of MOP and make a separate heading foreach letter of the acronym. Make a brief list of what kind of impact thecharacter will have on the game you’ve designed and then list their MOP statistics under each heading. Don’t put too many reasons under each one - after all, if an NPC is in the game because they want pretty much everything for every reason then you may as well create one stock character and use them for every game. Cue player boredom.

M - Motivation: What makes the character do what he does? If they’re brutishand mean, why? Has one of the player characters crossed them in the past?Does he have a secret he’s worried the players will discover? Does he havesomething on him he wants to keep hidden? The motivation for a person is astrong part of the psyche and must be treated with care. If the NPC is going tobe with the campaign a while those motivations may change - hate into respect, keeping the secret into sharing the knowledge. Make sure the change of motivation suits not only the storyline but the character also. A broody, mean character will not suddenly become happy and friendly when something goes right or the players help them out. They may become a little more relaxed, but not a total reversal overnight.

Motivation powers the next step.

O - Objectives: The character you have created has motivation, but what exactly is he or she in the campaign for? Are they there to protect a secret, for money or for some personal reasons? Do they intend to aid or hinder the players? At the end of the day an individual does something to reach a goal. You make your dinner with the intention of eating it. You aid a person to resolve a favour. You do the job to make the money. Every action has a result; it’s just that with the NPC you’ve created the result is usually a lot more important than simply preparing food or helping out a friend. Let’s say the NPC wants to help the players capture a crime boss. Why would he help? Is there a substantial reward? Has the crime boss done something to the NPC that revenge is the goal? Give the NPC a target and then send them off - their personality will determine exactly how they go about achieving that goal.

P - Personality: Even though the NPC may have the motivation and the objective, these reasons will not be communicated to the players until it’s appropriate. It’s the way the NPC acts that the players will get to know first. Take the character’s appearance, motivation and objectives and try to create an interesting individual. Don’t always go for the obvious. You know that kindly old mage who helped the players secure that medicine for the thief of the team so that he could get over the fever? Well, it turns out she picked their pockets whilst they were asleep and skipped the town. That nasty old fellow in the corner with the dark eyes and the big rifle? It’s all for show - he’s actually never seen combat and is about as useful as a chocolate sun hat. A good mix of appearances and actions always serves to build a good character. You can still have your dirty mugger, your darkly-dressed bounty hunter and your clean shaven heroes but it pays to throw in a the odd contradiction every now and then.

So there you have it. Take an appearance and MOP it. At the end of the day what truly creates a memorable NPC is the GM; the way the character is portrayed is very important. Glare at the players if the NPC has a grudge, smile lots and keep batting your eyelids if the NPC is happy but nervous. Take these traits and blow them out of proportion. If they act in a certain way and talk in a certain manner it’s possible to just start playing the NPC without introducing them by name. If one of the players turns around and says ‘that’s so-and-so, that is’ then you know you’ve done your job.

SAMPLE CHARACTER - Grone Darkwin, Bounty Hunter.

Appearance - Grone is a short man with dark green and brown conflict clothes, usually worn under armour but, as far as can be told, worn here as part of his general attire. A rough flight coat with upturned lapels gives the otherwise rounded, boyish face a guarded look. Wide eyes topped by thin brows, a furrowed forehead and speeder goggles holding back long, matted hair. A heavy pistol hangs from a cord at his waist, his cracked black boots reaching his knees but obviously of two different sizes.

M - Fame. Grone wants to be feared and respected as a bounty hunter.
O - To track down Turgen, a local ganglord. The players are going after Turgen, so he’ll utilise their help for his own ends. If he gets Turgen, he’ll get the reputation he’s been looking for.
P - Very gruff and short-sentenced, but after a few minutes he’ll relax. He’s very forthcoming with stories of his achievements but keeps his mouth closed about his failures. As far as he’s concerned he’s already famous, and he doesn’t mind letting anyone around him know that.

Open D6 *sigh*

Look, I love the D6 system. It's great. I love it's simplicity, it's adaptability and it's ease of use. I ran D6 Star Wars for more than a decade, and also used that first edition rulebook to run all kinds of other settings - Star Trek, post-apoc, fantasy, even my own D6 version of Mechwarrior. I'd go as far as to say that the D6 system is one of the best out there and it deserves serious support.

So after reading this thread over at http://www.wegfansite.com/ I can't help but think that the system is in the wrong hands. I've had two projects called 'Scum Of The Universe' and 'Fall Of Progress' in the pipeline, I've even done some serious work on a game bible for the former, with the intention of using the D6 system. In fact, I've had it ready to begin typing up into a game for over a year. I've been waiting on the definitive word that I can use the D6 system for my games but there's been nothing from WEG. Nothing at all.

I gave up a couple of months ago but still had a glimmer of hope but lack of communication from WEG and now this thread, and specificially this post has turned me off it completely.

I know that there's nothing wrong with the system but whilst all this is going on I don't want to use it. I have to wonder how many other prospective publishers feel the same way.

Fallout 3 - Mothership Zeta DLC

Okay, so this is downloadable content for Fallout 3 (it's also part of the 'Game Of The Year' edition, which is what I have) and is a departure from the post-apocalyptic setting of Fallout, but I'm loving it. I'm loving it because it has that 1950s sci-fi movie feel about it, the way it looks and souns, and the alien blasters/atomizers/disintegrators are so freaking cool in VATS that I want more of it.

In fact, they should just make an entire game using this platform and style. A totally wacko 1950s sci-fi shooter (minus the full body and head exploding, perhaps) set in the era of Dan Dare, Buck Rogers, that kind of thing. With the mad laser guns and such it would be great fun, a space fantasy with Bioshock decor. I've got images of finding the weakspots on lumbering 'This Island Earth' mutants or fighting off the crazies from 'Invaders From Mars'. It'd just be ace, exploring space in a rocket ship and having FPS encounters with alien scum!

Hey! Bethesda! I'll write it for you! I have oodles of pulp science fiction knowledge and Dan Dare was my homeboy! I'm available! I wrote a computer game for Battlestar Galactica, don'cha know! Pick me! Pick me!

2010 Gaming intentions

Right, so I've got the GM kit for Rogue Trader on it's way to me so that'll set me up for that campaign. My primary problem is that the initial excitement I had for it has worn off over the last month - I've got back into my post-apocalyptic love recently (thanks for that Fallout 3!) and the last couple of days I dug out some very old Mechwarrior material. I used to love Mechwarrior back in the day, doing covert ops behind Kuritan enemy lines. Mmmm... explosive-tipped crossbow bolts...

Then there's Dragon Warriors - I was having another look at that last night and, after watching the classic Robin and Marian movie over the weekend I just want to run that, as well.

Damn my overactive imagination. I'm sticking to Rogue Trader and that's that!

Cloverfield review

I finally saw it last night, it's a movie I've wanted to see for quite a while.

It's a quite simple review, really - sheer frustration. Everything the character's did in the movie was the exact opposite of what any sane person would do. Honestly, what the hell? Other than that, it was well realised and certainly looked the part. It was just that there were several times I just wanted to punch that main guy out and drag him out of there.

Dumbass.

Excellent 1963 movie clip from 'Ikarie XB 1'

Now here's something I stumbled upon on the interwebnet. It's from a 1963 Czechoslovakian film called 'Ikarie XB 1' (edited to pieces for the western world and called 'Voyage to the End of the Universe') and it's a film I've not encountered before.

What struck me about this clip is the way it's lit and shot. In fact, dodgy 60s special effects and design aside, I'd go as far to say this is one of the best filmed sequences I've seen in a long time.

The shot at 5:58 is particularly gruesome and creeped me out. The whole thing is so well directed and cut it feels like a modern movie has been given the 'cult B-movie' treatment. Of course, I'd have to see the whole movie to fully appreciate it so I'm going to have a go at finding a copy.