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Its a common problem in most gaming groups, that after a while things
begin to get redundant. You can only slay the dragon, save the king,
protect the defenseless merchants so many times before you feel like
you're trapped in a season of bad rerun television. Whats sad is that its very
difficult to avoid, even for the best game masters. As the old saying
goes, theres nothing new under the sun. RPG companies believe the
best way to stimulate interest in their games is by printing and producing
supplements of campaign material, which work to some extent. What I
cant fathom is why these d20 cookie cutter companies put out the most
senseless crap for supplement material . . . and distributors buy them. Ive seen
every variation of the troglodyte or every rewording of the temple of
elemental evil thanks to the brilliantly ground breaking minds of d20
publishers.
Anyhow, Im going to avoid going back to my d20 tirade, been there
done that. The point of all this is irksome redundant gaming. Many times,
its the whole package that has to be looked at: Game Masters and
Players.
Players need to live a little and try some new character types every once
in a while. The dark and brooding sword master and the enigmatic and
power hungry mage can only be played once or twice by the same person
before it all just becomes sad. In general, most players have around
three character types they each play. Three if youre lucky. Some
players only have the one character, who from campaign world to
campaign world only changes his name, and then only if the player is feeling like
trying something different. Theres no question about it
. This gets
really old really quick. GMs confronted with this kind of player has
three options: 1) Ignore it 2) Force it 3) Coerce it.
Ignoring the issue works best when the redundant character type is for all
intents and purposes a fun character. If the character is fun and adds
positively to the gaming mode, he can sometimes be a boon in disguise.
The GM can better plan his adventures based on how the character will
react to stimulus, especially since the GM has dealt with the character so
much.
Also, aside from buying supplemental material for your campaign, which
really can work from time to time, be encouraged to read a good novel
series or watch some television shows. Oddly enough, even the most
trite entertainment, like Buffy the Vampire Slayer can give you great ideas for
a game night. For the more epic minded GMs try watching Farscape if
you have the Sci-Fi Channel. Excellent for character driven plots. Im not
saying just steal the plots outright, but genuine inspiration can come
from it.
All in all, keep it fresh. Dont get trapped in a redundant cycle of kill
the monster, get the gold buy more weapons, so you can kill more
monsters.
If thats your typical gaming night, go buy Evercrack and sever yourself
from the rest of the world.
Timothy Till
Manufacturer Program Coordinator
UTI - Houston, TX
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