Back behind the Shield

I have been working on some great things:

Nightbane in Cyberspace

Splicers in Space

I am an Megaversal Ambassidor

I am GM for a game played via Scype

I am a player for a game

Things are good. So whats new? I have become a busy busy guy and life could not get better in this moment. For those that have been reading my stuff I have learned how to do textile HTML. Its new for me and it makes things so freaking easy at the same time frusterating. Symbols that I normally use cannot be used such as the (+) plus sign. At least they are interchangable.

Also I am active on the Heroes Unlimited forum as I am attempting to strech my imagination of the powers that are available (instead of attempting to recreate them in the past). It interesting how when you attempt to find out the full extent of the power and get the opinion of  others about it. Most of the time the fellow players say that its the GM's call. I am the GM so what do I say? I want it to be fair so reaching out is important to me and to my players.

In roll play I have learned that taking it slow allows for more great detail to come in and fantastic memeorable game. I started my new game Taur Wars (a Heroes Unlimited game) and its way better then the ones that I have played in the past. There is a lot more work in creating details but its still a great story blooming.

At any rate thats the update. I know that its not much but I'll make a better effort to keep you up to date.

Cardinal Sins of GM's Everywhere

I think that I have committed the cardinal sin of GMs everywhere, relying on the team to press the story further. I poorly planed my game and payed the price when the gamers looked at me and said what next? I thought to myself "OH CRAP!". Part of my mind was scrambling to move the story while the other said that we had a time limit and to introduce what I has wanted to, was going to push too far into the night and that it was a not a good idea to go there. So what do I do? Stall for time (one of those, next week will be better, things). I should not have. I should of pressed forward and presented the new villain (makes for a better cliff hanger then what I did).

Sometimes we need to be brave even when we think that we are going to do something that is going to push us into the night or into a hospital. Bravery is a key element to a great story and I think that the guys would of forgiven me with a cliff hanger then with a somewhat ending with closure. There was the issue that a villain was still not fleshed out but thats another blog. Reminds me about the adventure where I had a plan. You know the saying "Man makes plans and God laughs"? Well this story has a similar incident. The heroes were going after a villain that I had planned out and the story was solid. The heroes took a turn in their own direction and I wanted to get them to go in the correct course, so I invented Geeves, a blood hound mutant that had a impeccable sense of smell. He sniffed out the heroes and got his two goons Oingo and Boingo (mutant Gorillas) to shoot in the heroes direction to get them to run to the villain. I had not fleshed out Geeves and suddenly I had a case on my hands as the heroes chased after Geeves and the goons. The villain was now less important in the game at the moment, but with great improvisation I worked around the story and Geeves got away. I didn't have to flesh out Geeves but should of as he was now a key player in the game and fun to play because of the impulsiveness that was needed to use him.

We all have heroes and villains that we had no intention of making key in our stories but if we do something to the story that impacts the characters it good to have a plan when something like this happens. Jump in with booth feet.

Secrets to a Great Game

I know that there are several writers that have tons of techniques to creating a good game but this is not about technique. Now looking at all the great movies and TV shows that transcend to RPG and the common element that I (and a cousin of mine) noticed.

They are...

Promise of reward
A need for a rescue
Reputation change
A discovery
Avenge or Revenge

Now a portion of all of these elements are needed to make a great game as they are all needed to make a great movie or television show.

Now to go over these elements...

First there is the promise of reward. This is usually at the beginning. To illustrate this I will be using Star Wars. At the start of Star Wars the smuggler didn't join the cause until there was a promise of reward. Weather or not that reward was going to be coming to fruition was was completely reliant on how circumstance was going to play out. When GM's are playing with their world and need that hook, the meager promise of reward can be enough but don't hang your game on this alone.

Next is the need for rescue. In Star Wars it would of not been enough just to deliver the plans. There needed to be a need for a rescue or escape. In this story it was the princess that provided the rescue and encouraged the escape. With two elements in play we move onto the third element...

Reputation change. To go from wimpy moister farm boy to rebel star pilot and budding Jedi is a big change and the burden of change can destroy a character if the player is not ready to adjust to the change. When you look at all of the characters in Star Wars, first the farm boy is mention, the princess is a secret spy, the smuggler is now an accessory to the Wookie who turns out to be a sleeper agent who anticipated the arrival of the old Jedi who we find out was a warrior in the Clone Wars. Yes there was a lot of information given in that episode. Great stuff.

A discovery. Now this was played as a low key in Star Wars: A New Hope. One of the strongest discoveries was that the farm boys father was a Jedi and not a pilot on a spice freighter. Small discovery but none the less a discovery. Another discovery was that the smuggler had a large debt owed and had an alternative motivation for helping the farmer and his old man friend.

The last one was avenge or revenge. Once the farm boy finds out that members of the empire killed his father, he has a real strong reason for going after this faceless government (well good old Darth was the face of the government). He wanted to avenge the death of his father (knowing no differently). He wanted to free other worlds from the tyranny that they have suffered from. He wants to avenge the captured and tortured princess. Mild things but a great start for a catch later on in the story.

See all the great elements were in the movie and I bet you'd find it in almost every great movies and television that could be played in RPG Now there are other story elements that are great for novels and movies but I wanted to bring out the elements that would enhance your RPG experience.