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Variety is the spice of life. Whoever first coined that little
phrase hit the nail on the head, so to speak. I use it all the time in my life, for
whatever reason. It's a nice cliche saying that covers so many things, and
this week I'd like to explain how it covers role playing, especially world
development and game mastering in general.
Personally, I'm an advocate of variety in character creation as
well. Though I have certain favorites (any time I play a new game I'm
bound to make my first character an Elven fighter-type), I try to mix things
up. In the two games I'm playing with my local friends I have two
characters each. One game has a hateful, psychotic healer (let me tell you,
that's a kick to play!) and a big dumb barbarian, both humans. The other
game has a human paladin and a half-Elven merchant/fighter. In various
other games I'm playing or soon to be playing I have a dandified Elven
swordmaster, a modern day college student with psychic powers and bad
luck, and an assistant Mythology professor from the 1920s. Let's not even
get started on the cannibalistic, pot-smoking, tie-dye wearing cleric of the
god of wisdom from the game that's on extended hiatus. However, I'm not
here to get on the case of players who like to play basically the same
character over and over again.
I'm here to get on the case of game masters who run the same
game over and over again.
Seriously. I know some great game masters and I've been in some
truly inspired games that kept me interested. I've played in some games
recently that were great (ie, the one with the cannibal cleric) but had to
get put on pause due to much protest, and which we still occasionally say
"Hey, when are we gonna play that again?". And then I've been in plenty of
games that go something like this:
For whatever reason, we need to start a new game, usually
because the GM simply isn't ready to continue the campaign we've got
going, so we're just going to start a simple game because we're all together
anyway. We all roll up first-level schmoes as we like to call them. Since
first-level schmoes have a really bad habit of dying, we'll all make up two
and the GM will usually make an NPC. The GM is kept busy while we
bother him about questions and make him witness rules, so he has no
chance to come up with a story. We finish our characters (and if we're
playing Rolemaster, that takes half the night). The GM will either make
some rolls or a common sense judgment to see who knows each other. The
two characters who know each other of course say "we should go
adventuring but we need more than two people" so they go to the local
tavern, find the rest of the first-level schmoes who are all looking for
adventure, and form a party. They look for work, but no one wants to hire
first-level schmoes. So someone makes the suggestion that always gets
made "Well, let's head out of town and wander around the forest looking
for monsters so we can see how well we work together." And off the party
goes.
Well, this is a fine scenario the first couple of times, especially
if you roll up some quirky characters, or you throw in a twist like everyone's
evil, or siblings, or even evil siblings. However, after a few sessions, you
quickly find yourself sick of writing down who's on which watch so the
GM can let you know who's awake when the kobolds attack in the middle
of the night. Monsters always attack in the middle of the night. Things get
even more frustrating when your characters start losing limbs instead of
gaining levels... Wait, that only happens to me. Nevermind. On with the
column.
Eventually, for me at least, it got to the point where if I had to
start playing another "First-level schmoes in the forest looking for
kobolds" game, I was going to quit. I like my friends, and I like roleplaying, but
our games were getting as formulaic as a bad summer horror movie (and with
about as much blood and severed limbs). To save my sanity, I offered to
actually run a game (I'm the only person in our group who hasn't, I'm so
lazy... hehehe), and I'll talk about how that goes next month.
Until then, I'd like to give some tips on how to add some of that
spicy variety to your players' lives.
- The cheap and dirty way. You can always run a "First-level
schmoes running around in the desert looking for desert-kobolds" game.
Your players will be too busy dealing with the problems of the new climate
to realize that they're playing the same game in a different setting. This
works equally well with snow. Frostbite sucks. So does pneumonia.
- Run a higher-level game. While many players take a certain
amount of pride in playing their characters from first level and have them
surviving to reach higher levels, it's also fun to start with a bit more
power at times. This way instead of fighting the same old kobolds, goblins and
orcs, they can take on giants, small dragons, gryphons, and elephants. Of
course, elephants are easy. They just look at you while you kill them
(nevermind, it's an in-joke).
- Run a more "mental" game. This does have a few drawbacks-
players who always play fighters will grumble about it, and it's a lot of
work for you, the GM. It's also very easy for too-clever players to totally
mess up your whole plot. On the bright side, after straining their brains on
some difficult puzzles, your players will be begging you for some good ol'-
fashioned hack and slash. Believe me, I've done the begging.
- Make some of your players take turns running a game. Pretty
soon they won't care what you run, as long as they're not doing the work.
And as an added bonus, you get a much-deserved break and get to take a
turn playing, and heckling the GM (this is another tried and true method
that has worked multiple times, in my experience)!
- Try a totally new game or setting. This goes several steps
beyond just running a game in a different climate and terrain. I'm talking
about radical changes. If you typically play standard fantasy, give cyber-
punk a try. If you typically play games set in space, go for a Victorian-era
horror game or something set in Feudal Japan. You and your players will
be so busy getting used to the new setting and possibly new rules system
that they won't notice a rather cliche game. This, of course, only works
with a reasonably open-minded group. If your players only like standard
fantasy or space games, they'll be resistant to such a big change.
- Take a long break from playing. As I write this, my group
hasn't gotten together since sometime in January. Right now I'm looking
forward to playing at all, even if I'm just killing kobolds. Absence makes
the heart grow fonder, to trot out another cliche line.
I hope this little column helps keep you and your player satisfied
with your games and maybe opens doors to new games for you. Until next
month, happy gaming!
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