|
Recently, it rained. This might not be much some places, but
here in the desert it is. My wife and I decided to celebrate by
taking a walk in it (about 45 minutes) to one of our favorite
stores . . . a used book/game/music store called Bookmans. We
ended up leaving it with two great cds and about 100 dollars
cover price worth of Earthdawn books. Some of these were
adventure modules.
Which brings me to one of the driving factors of my column this
month (in the second paragraph, too!). Modules are pre-written
adventures, usually published by the company that makes the
game. Oddly enough, most roleplayers that I know are oddly
polarized about them. They either love them or cant stand
them. I normally tend towards the latter side, my feelings
summed up by the words of one of the best GMs Ive played
under: "Why use modules? Oftentimes you have to put so much
work into them to counteract the badly written plot and make it
fit your pcs, that it would be just as hard and a heckuva lot
cheaper to make your own story."
I usually agree with this. However, my wife and I have been on
such a big Earthdawn kick lately, that we picked up some of the
modules. We figured that just getting some taste of how they
view the world, even if we didnt use the plot of it, would make
it worth the few dollars we put into it. Needless to say, I was
extremely surprised by the quality of it. I shouldnt have been,
as I could easily spend a column praising just about all of the
Earthdawn supplements. They had set up the adventure in just
the way it should be.
Ive played under many GMs, and Ive GMed for many players.
The most frustrating thing Ive dealt with as either is very similar:
Playing under GMs that try to force you to follow their story
step by step, and GMing for players that seem to purposefully
undermine the complex storyline youve made for them. Ive
known many GMs get so frustrated that they stop GMing
because of it. It really shouldnt be that way. This is a game,
and should be fun. If its work, or if youre not enjoying
yourself, then something needs to change.
The best way to change it is to change the way you GM. GMs
arent there to dictate what the players should do. Theyre there
to guide the players to advance their own characters, in the way
that they want to. Thats not to say that a GM should let a
player do anything they want. Consequences for ones actions
are part of what makes the game fun. On the other side, neither
should the GM punish a player for doing something they dont
want the pc to do. If it doesnt fit in the game to do it, then it
shouldnt be done.
That being said, you might ask "What should a GM be doing, if
not to make a storyline and a plot?" Or you might not say that,
but since Im the author, Ill just assume you are. The answer to
this is simple, and will probably make things more fun for the
players and the GM. You dont make a storyline, thats just
asking for trouble. You shouldnt make a plot either, thats the
players job. What you should do is make the background and
the theme.
While both parts are equal, the background is really more work.
This would be like creating a city, deciding what the highlights
are, what the population breakdown is, who the important locals
are, and what goods can be acquired there. I usually like to
make up a few unimportant characters, just to stay a bit ahead
of the players. I might make up a few beggars, just in case they
go looking for one for some reason. Or maybe a rogue or two,
in case any of them get put in jail. As far as places go, maybe
think of a house or two, or a bank, or tailors shoppe. Dont
skimp out on this. The more you develop the people and places
in your game, the more feeling of realism it has, and the more
your players will appreciate it and your work. On the off-side,
try to balance out the amount of work youre going to do with
the likeliness that the players are going to actually encounter that
part of the background. Its usually not too hard to make up a
minor part of the city on the fly, but it makes no sense to spend
an hour working on something that the players have a small
chance of encountering for a small amount of time.
The background is important, but it means nothing without a
theme. Ive played in all-too-many games that had a fairly well
developed world, but nothing was happen. These invariably
turned into hack-and-slash games with no real character
development. Sure, some of the blame lies on the players (well
get into that later), but really, we werent motivated to try. The
theme is what ties everything together. Its how the people,
places, and items you made in the background interact with each
other, and most importantly, with the players. They need
something to do. If the people and area are interesting, and
there are intriguing connections between them, this will suck the
players in.
Events are an important part of this that are equally plot and
theme. I dont bother making a storyline with my games
anymore. Instead, I make a timeline. This is what would
happen at what time if there were no pcs in this world. Its
almost like graphing out what youre going to write in a book.
Then you toss the characters in. Instead of making stuff up on
the fly, or having a storyline messed up, you just modify what
happens based on what the players do. Sometimes, they wont
do anything that will affect an event, or maybe that event is going
to happen no matter what. Othertimes, something might not
happen or be delayed, but you already have an idea of whats
going on, and what npcs are involved might make them interact
with the people that changed their plans.
It may be a different way of pulling things off. It may be a little
more work than just making up a storyline (you need to make up
all the important things, even if you have no idea if the players
will interact with it . . . some of the npcs certainly will). But if you
can pull it off, you will have the admiration of your players.
Since making campaigns like this, Ive heard countless times
from players "I cant believe you expected that we might do
this!" or "Geez, youre prepared for everything." Sometimes
they say Chris instead of Geez. In any case, I laugh quietly to
myself, because I really havent prepared for anything theyre
doing. I just made up my world and let it react to what they
were doing.
Players play an important role in this, as well. No matter how
much work the GM puts into it, its all for naught if the players
dont try anything or work to develop themselves. As always,
the GM has to take part of the blame for it if it fails, its their job
to make the world interesting. If the players dont take
advantage of this, though, then that would have just as bad of an
effect. Really, making a character interesting isnt too hard. It
all comes down to history. If you can make a detailed
background for your character (obviously working with the GM
on this, if they wont work with you, then thats another
problem), then your character will pretty much take a life of their
own. We, as human beings, have a personality comprised of
many things, but a very important part of that is our experiences
and environment. If not for a way to see how your character
will react to things (a character whose home village was
destroyed by a monster might have a few personality flaws from
that), its also a great way for the GM to tie your character into
the background, and thus have the interactions ring true. As the
GM, its your job to prompt the players for backgrounds. As
the player, its your job to make sure this is fun for yourself and
the others. If its not, then the GM might just amuse themselves.
From experience, thats not a pretty sight.
|
