jaegamer | Entries tagged with roleplaying

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Your Ultimate Roleplaying Purity Score
Category	Your Score	Average
Hacklust	41.51% Will kill for XP	53.5%
Sensitive Roleplaying	6.33% There is no player. There is only.... Zuul.	54.7%
GM Experience	9.42% Worldbuilder, storyteller... Master.	69.3%
Systems Knowledge	78.39% Local rules guru	90.4%
Livin' La Vida Dorka	20.69% Carries dice in pocket 'just in case'	63.3%
You are 34.99% pure Average Score: 68.8%
Take The Ultimate Roleplaying Purity Test and see how you match up! (By The Ferrett)

Current Mood: amused

Ok, GameCraft is fantastic. I've put it in my link list, and will be checking it out in greater depth from home. Please credit GameCraft if you pass this along.

Getting Feedback - Repeat, Clarify, Probe

First, ask specific questions. Were the scenes and encounters too hard? Too easy? Too long? Did they feel railroaded, did they feel 'adrift'? Stuff like that.

Second, repeat what they tell you. When they answer a question, put it in your own words, and ask if that's what they meant, just to make sure you're understanding clearly.

Third, probe for details. That is, ask about various little bits of what they said that seem to be leading somewhere. The dragon wasn't too tough, just a bit simple. What struck you as "simple"?

Fourth, clarify. Recap everything you've learned by asking. Thank the players for their feedback, and pay attention to it. The players are telling you not only how their priorities were served, but what those priorities are. Try to look at their answers in light of what they are telling you is important about the game.

Current Mood: productive
Current Music: Gene Newton - Safe Passage

This, by Levi, an admin at GameCraft, is so simply perfect that I'm quoting it entire - please credit GameCraft! I don't mind when people quote from my LJ, but it's only polite to credit. In this case, this is NOT my original content, but it's so very good that I want to share it. While you're at it, you might want to check out GameCraft in general.

1. Come For A Good Time
If your primary goal at the table is something other than having an experience you enjoy, and that others can enjoy with you, you should be doing something else. Generally speaking, that means having fun. Sometimes it might be more specific - crafting a satisfying story together, or having the experience of seeing things from the perspective of your character, either in addition to or instead of classically fun stuff. But if what you want when you sit down at the table on any given night isn’t enjoyable to you, or does not allow enjoyment for others, do not sit down at that table. Not gaming is better than bad gaming.

2. This Is Your Gamespace, These Are Real People.
Accept and understand that the players around you are real people that are also here to have fun. Nobody comes to the table to watch one player discuss their personal character’s stuff with the GM when it could wait, or to watch two players crack inside jokes at each other and exclude everyone else. Nobody comes to the table to be treated to the personal aroma of another player, or to closely observe their food being chewed. Nobody hosts a game hoping for a marathon cleanup session at the end. Nobody comes to the table to be the ego-boosting kick-toy of anyone else. Never, ever, forget that you are playing the game with real people.

3. Accept Responsibility
Taking the same point as #2, and bringing it into the game - what you do at the gaming table is your responsibility, and you should accept this. What others do is their responsibility, and they should accept that, too. This absolutely includes what you decide that your character does. This absolutely includes the actions of the GM as world. If playing your character as written could very well interfere with the fun of others, you need to decide where to go with that – it’s your call, though; excuses are lame. If you ruin the game by playing your character or the world ‘correctly’, then you still ruined the game.

4. Give Feedback
Anything from telling the GM “I had a good game tonight” to “here’s ten specific moments of play I really liked, and ten moments I really didn’t”, can help. For the GM, telling the players what they loved about their play, and what they found dull, works the same way. The GM can’t read the minds of the players here (or anywhere else), and the players don’t know what’s going on internally for the GM either. Unless they tell each other. This doesn’t need to be formal – in fact, it seems that it often works best if it isn’t. But the clearer it is, the better; and it’s often good to get a quick idea of this stuff before you start.

5. Share Creativity
No one person at the table has full control over what happens in the game. If someone does, you get some really boring shit. At the very least, a player generally controls most of one character in the game. There are an infinite number of little variants on how the GM and the players share control over who gets to put stuff in, and things work best once the group hits a level of input from each person at the table that they’re comfortable with. Find that level. If you’re looking for ways to muck about with that level of input, there are quite a few ways to do that.

6. Seek Consensus
The people at your table have, if your game is actually running at all, a consensus. The ideas in their heads of what the game is and does match up well enough to produce good play. Sometimes a group will hit on little moments when their ideas just don’t match up, and they’ll need to talk about what this specific thing looks like in their heads and agree on one way to go about it. Once in a while, one of the people at the table will want to bring something in that they aren’t sure will match up with what the others have in their heads, and it’s a good idea for them to mention that before they do.

7. Negotiate Honestly
When problems come up in your group, the first step is to make sure that everyone at the table is onboard with at least the basic ideas of the first five things here – they don’t have to be “skilled” at these things; being onboard is plenty. If they aren’t, I don’t really have any good advice for you – for myself, I likely wouldn’t play with them for much longer. If they are, and you still have a problem, then it’s time to sort that out. Now, my own recommendations on doing that are below, but they aren’t really ‘polished’ and they’re kind of artificial; if you’ve got any ideas on that, I’m really interested. But here’s another standard saying that ties into this – it’s usually a very bad idea to try and solve out-of-character problems with in-game events. That’s dishonest, and doesn’t generally work. Also, using the rules to ‘punish’ your players or ‘get back’ at your GM? Same thing.

8. Consider Your Options.
When someone makes an attempt to alter 'your part' of the fiction - the world if you're the GM, your character if you're a player, you have choices. You can simply agree, or disagree; you can put it to the mechanics, you can modify what they’ve stated and give it back to them. Limiting your options in this case is silly; most advice to limit these options in a ‘positive’ way comes from a desire to keep the energy of the game high, or allow for trust between players above and beyond the basic average; those are good goals, but instead of using limits on yourself and others to achieve them, simply remember that your decisions will affect those things as well as the specific matter at hand.

9. Watch The Spotlight.
At any given instant of play, someone has the spotlight. This doesn’t just mean ‘one person is talking’. It means that if there are a whole string of scenes, one person is usually “center stage”; the scene revolves around their stuff, whether that’s world stuff or character issues or whatever. If that person isn’t you, then you’re a supporting character in that scene; try to play good support, whether that means keeping quiet, offering support or advice, playing up the effects the setting has on your character a bit, whatever. If that person is you, then fill that scene; it’s there for you to step into. If nobody is sure who should have the spotlight, then act as support for each other, until the focus hits. But watch that spotlight, too. If you’re getting more than a fair share, work to make more scenes about other characters. If you’re getting less than your share, then when a scene doesn’t really have a focus, step up and take it. Now, sometimes the players will think that different people are getting too much, or not enough spotlight time – we’re people, it happens. Talk about it; most of the time, whoever’s being a hog or hiding away just needs to know about it - and on those occasions when that isn’t true, work it out.

10. Play the Game At The Game
This is a close partner to sharing creativity. Sometimes, you’ll have an idea about the game before you sit down at the table, about something you’d like to see happen there. Sometimes, you’ll have a whole string of them. That’s good stuff. But when those ideas start to look like a whole storyline, you need to be careful with it. A storyline like that is great raw material, but don’t get too attached; if you get too attached to that storyline, you’ll find yourself pushing to make it happen, and ignoring or working against all the other good ideas and creative input at your table. Remember, at all times; raw material is good. But don’t play the game before it starts – play the game when you’re at the game.

11. Show Your Stuff As You Go.
Almost everybody wants to feel like the fictional world, and the characters in it, are real to them enough to imagine. This is, of course, achieved by describing things. But nobody wants to be bored by drawn-out description, or huge whopping chunks of detail. If the GM rattles of ten facts about the place the characters are standing, only the first few will sink in; likewise if a player does this when describing their character. So, the key is to describe as you go. If a player wants us to know that her character Jill is a graceful woman, she shouldn’t simply tell the group that at character creation; her character should ‘glide’ and ‘move nimbly’ in play – her description at creation need only be a single, vivid image, that she can build on by describing not only what the character does, but how. This works in the same way for the GM; when the characters walk into a abandoned study, it can simply be an old, dusty study, smelling of books; as the characters interact with it, the GM can note the thick books, the puffs of dust as things are moved. One key to a good description that’s often missed is that it starts simple and vivid, and grows as you go, so that it’s never boring.

12. Learn To Speak The Same Language.
This is an ongoing effort that every group needs to make together. Every single person thinks that different phrases and wordings imply slightly different things, and this is one of the biggest things that can knock down even an honest attempt at talking to other people. Your group, to communicate both well and quickly, will sometimes need to hash out things related to this; accept that it’s going to happen and try not to get too serious about a problem until you’re sure this isn’t it.

Feel free to add to this list...

Current Mood: impressed
Current Music: The Marquis Ensemble - Echoes of Tuscany

A phrase sure to send people scrambling for the doors! But... since this is my gamer blog, I'm going to post things like this here, so if ya don't wanna read it, don't! I'll do my best to be entertaining.

Though I somewhat cordially loathe D&D and D20, I am nonetheless playing in two D&D Home campaigns. Go fig. It's what the GM's (both men I respect enormously) and the other players want, and I am having a great time.

On Sundays, I play in a Forgotten Realms campaign. I have two characters in this game currently -- for story reasons the group of characters split into two groups, and for the players whose primary character wasn't in the group, we created lower level characters. The GM suggested at the beginning that our 2nd character might, in time, be a cohort or henchman for the primary character. So, we alternate weeks -- one week we're with the Southern group, cleaning out baddies from the Spiderhaunt woods to make travel on the road safe again; the next we might be with the Northern group, negotiating with refugees from Zhentil Keep to get them to side with our patron, Randal Morn, in the fight to take the Dalelands back from the Zhents.

My secondary character is Adrian Montrose, a Sembian rogue/mage (mostly mage), a younger son of a successful mercantile family. He's also a devotee of Sune, and practices her tenets to the best of his ability as a lay worshiper, especially that part about "perform a loving act every day". The group has been negotiating with a group of Tempites driven from Zhentil Keep (seems Cyric wants to be the only god in town...).

The visit to the Tempite camp has been very trying for Adrian; most of the women there are perfectly capable of snapping him in half with one hand. (I made some very poor rolls when creating Adrian -- 7 str, 9 wis.)

However -- he discovered in the course of the negotiations that a Tempite cleric/soldier named Sergei was deeply enamored of one Deacon Lt. Catherine, and so Adrian became determined to see if he could smooth the path of true love. This led to things like sneaking around tents at night spying, as rumor had it that Catherine was seeing someone on the sly. That turned out to be Catherine sneaking out to spend time with the Monseigneur/Commander -- her father! (Which had to be kept secret as that sort of nepotism -- children serving under parents -- is frowned upon. Adrian, btw, has kept that secret from his companions -- he didn't see that they needed to know, and felt he should respect the lady's privacy.)

In part as a result of the negotiations, the larger group split into two. Both Sergei and Catherine went the group that is going to ally with Randal, so Adrian figured he'd take a shot. He maneuvered the two of them together around the evening fire... and Catherine turned nervous as a cat, like a schoolgirl terrified of her first date. Thinking that he might be able to get her to relax, the following evening Adrian plied her with wine and turned on the charm. Unfortunately, that worked too well, and Catherine began flirting with him. Which, of course, Sergei saw. So now, instead of helping the lovers to get together, Adrian managed to drive a wedge between them. He extricated himself from Catherine (managing to offend her in the process) and went out to drink, think and pound his head against a tree. Finally, he decided he needed to come clean with Sergei in desperate hopes of saving the romance.

Sergei, understandably feeling betrayed by someone he'd thought a friend, wasn't overly welcoming. (Did I mention that I made some horrible diplomacy rolls?) Adrian made every argument he could think of, growing increasingly desperate, and finally gave Sergei his last bottle of fine wine, with instructions to use it in his pursuit of Catherine. He went away sad and discouraged, convinced he'd done a disservice to the Lady of Love (and his two friends)... but wait -- what should he hear later but that Sergei and Catherine are off taking a walk together, hand in hand! It seems that Sergei took his wine and advice, and now the two are on the road to a relationship.

Score one for true love!

Evidently Lady Firehair was pleased with Adrian's efforts, because he managed to charm one of the other women into a very energetic dalliance. (Good thing he's got a good constitution, and my dice finally decided to be kind to me, or she probably would have inadvertently killed him. Ah... but what a way to go!)

A side note: Silveran (an elven monk) seems to have absolutely no sense of decorum whatsoever when it comes to discussion of intimate matters (he offered newlywed Carenza a potion of Enlarge with the suggestion that it might improve her marital relations). He spotted Catherine flirting with Adrian, and concluded that the charming rogue was, well, being a charming rogue. He was prepared to read Adrian the riot act (but couldn't find him at the time).

I can't remember the exact circumstances, but when Silvaran found that Sergei and Catherine were together after all, he concluded that Adrian had been noble and spurned Catherine in favor of Sergei. So, instead of a lecture about his profligate ways, Adrian was treated to a somewhat bizarre lecture of congratulations upon his rising above his baser nature. Adrian was unable to completely stifle guffaws of laughter; I laughed so hard it induced an asthma attack -- always a sign I am laughing well and long.

Since I as the player in the persona of Adrian had been working all summer to get Sergei and Catherine together, it was indeed triumphant.

Current Mood: accomplished
Current Music: Queen - We are the champions

Gaming is a microcosm of life. Certainly much of my life seems to revolve around gaming! I don't think it's that I lack opportunities to have "a life", either -- I've made the choice over the years to play or run roleplaying games whenever I can.

I suppose it could be a way of avoiding Real Life; certainly the issues my imaginary selves face are more entertaining than the depressing grind of day to day living. And yet... I don't think *avoidance* is really the right term. It's much more that I embrace gaming; it's something I look forward to and really enjoy. It might still be escapism, but it's not avoidance. I think...

I started gaming in the mid 80's with a group of mostly younger folks. I missed the first wave in 1975 when the Chainmail rules came out -- I was too busy being an idiot and graduating from college in 3 years to have time to explore this interesting-sounding thing. I still have my red and blue boxed Dungeons & Dragons sets, though, and some of the dice that you had to color in with white or black crayons.

Hmmm... reflecting (and reflection is something I am terrible at), I think it's the roleplaying that's in my blood. My ex and I used to roleplay all of the time, without need or benefit of any rules. Unfortunately said ex wasn't interested in the more structured environment of games, and that difference in interests is probably one of the things that caused us to eventually grow apart.