Apathy Games

Your Mother is a Whore and Other Character Archetypes

Last Friday I issued a challenge to call comers.  The result of which I would write about anything and relate it to gaming.  I’m going to keep the comments open for a week before closing them down.  So get in and send me whatever you got!

In Sins of our Fathers I discussed the implications of our parents on our lives and specifically those on our characters.  When the challenge to write, “Your mother is a whore” came it got me thinking about characters that come from the streets or from impoverished areas and how they might become adventurers.

Common Thug

Tossed out shortly after the day they were born.  Growing up to be a bully he quickly outgrows everyone in the orphanage and shows a taste for terror.  He takes to adventuring to garner riches and become powerful so he can never feel neglected and lost again.  He shows no mercy in combat, is cross, and naturally distrustful.  He trusts no one and prefers his own company.

The Man of the Cloth

A child born of the streets his mother a common street walker, but she brought him up believing.  He took to his faith like no other.  Feeling called upon to spread the word and right the wrongs of the street.  A character with this background would likely cling to those around him, studying deep into religious texts and likely being quite scholarly in his own way.  He would be careful who they trusted but when granting the trust would do so completely.  His word is his bond.  He takes to adventuring to help people and spends his riches bettering those around him.

Hooker with a Heart of Gold

Walking in her mother’s footsteps this sex worker this girl is as innocent as they come.  She also happens to be well trained in the art of kicking butt.  Life on the streets is hard she’s done what she’s had to do to survive.  Now that she’s managed to escape she’s not going back.  This strong lass has taken to adventuring as a means of escape and no way in hell is she going back.

In each of these examples all the characters start in the same place but end up in vastly different areas.  Partly in the way their parents treat them and partly how the world has treated them.  Just because your mother is a whore doesn’t mean you can’t be an interesting character with a story to tell.

Identifying Weakness in Your GM Style

I am terrible at roleplaying NPCs.  I get too much of a kick out of watching my player’s roleplaying their characters. It’s like a play that is unfolding in front of me and I get to be the audience.  I get so absorbed watching the story unfold that I forget to participate myself!  My players have never mentioned the weakness of my NPCs to me, and they do praise the voices that I do for the characters (when I remember to have them speak).  The weakness was identified by me through a constant state of refinement of my style.

Observe other GMs

I have had the opportunity to play under many different GMs.   Paul, Jeff, and Hillary are amongst the countless GMs that I have played under.  Each has their own strengths and weaknesses as a Game Master.  One may be excellent in a specific type of story, the other may be better adept at presenting their NPCs in believable way, and yet the other has the setting so deeply ingrained in their brain that they can recite all the major points from memory. Through watching them I was able to discover things about my own style and how I run my games, for example great at getting my players to do terribly evil things without prompting them.  I then take bits of how other GMs run their games and try to add it to my repertoire.  Observing other GMs is cornerstone to being able to improve your own game.

Try new things

Breaking and entering adventures have never been one of my strong points.  They do however present a great exercise in adventure building.  Through it I can dissect how to thread an adventure, and foreshadow events that they players may encounter.  Later after the game I can apply what I learned to the adventures I am more adept at building.

Review, review, and review some more

Changes take time; last week was the first time I tried playing my NPCs as more real characters instead of flat spaced puppets and it was quite gratifying.  The NPCs did not overshadow the players and they influenced events in a more interesting way then if I had stayed out of them.  While I’ll still try to stay out of the spotlight, a GM’s voice that’s present could lead to some more interesting roleplaying opportunities.  Besides, it’s not every day that I get the chance to press the cold steel of gun barrel to the back of a PCs head.

How could you improve as a GM? What’s your weakness in your running style?

Start the Action off with a Bang!

“Ed jumps up on the table, kicks the gun out of his opponent’s hand, grabbing it from the air and unloading two rounds into the man’s face. “V” is a divine blood-wind, carving through four enemies at once with her samurai sword. Her kimono billows in her wake alongside arterial spray and blood-choked screams. Then everything pauses for a heartbeat while your enemies blink in disbelief. What do you do now?”

The next time you are running a game, try changing things up a bit by starting the session during the action. I’ve found this works best when the enemy is clearly defined, and your group enjoys less-than-diplomatic solutions to conflict. The effect is jarring, sure, but it grabs your players’ attention and drags them into the action instantly.

I’ve found to pull this off effectively you’ll need a proper setup. Make sure to inform the players about what’s going on by quickly surmising why they are fighting and establishing the enemy. A battle map may be essential to this, depending upon your descriptive skills, so when the players begin play they can quickly look for cover, cast a spell, or attack their enemies.

A good battle is like an action movie for the mind, but all great action scenes rely on a visual element and swift editing to imply movment. Have you ever watched a scene that just jumps into the middle of a fight? You have no idea why or who the characters are fighting, but the battle is freaking awesome that you let it slide? Assist this feeling by varying your descriptions of the action and go for that dynamic feel.

When you’re done the players should be worked up and looking for the next challenge to tackle. I’ve found that when used effectively, this method can quickly bring everyone’s attention to the table and the game rolling faster than the usual recap and slower introduction.

Do you have any effective tricks for getting your players attention when starting? Have you ever tried kicking off a game mid-battle?

Savage Worlds Primer: Part 2

Introducing a New Player – Keep the Adventure Simple and Quintessential

So the time has come to plan your adventure for the session, but you have a new player coming who may not know what’s going on. And chances are, the current adventure arc is full of complexities that the newcomer doesn’t understand and that would take hours to explain. This is a problem.

Here’s what you do: Create an adventure that goes back to the very basics of the game, but that fits in with the current arc.

The Quintessential Adventure

Every game has a few adventures that define it. D&D has the dungeon crawl into the undead tomb for a lost artifact. Shadowrun has a basic data-steal where the players break in to a building and steal important files. Whatever it is for your game, build that. Even experienced players enjoy returning to their roots occasionally.

Remove complications

No matter how nuances your campaign may have become, set that aside. Try to have just a single motivation behind the adventure, though preferably that motivation still ties in to your overall story. For example, the game of complex courtly intrigue that the players are caught in has lead to a discovery. Duke What’s-his-name’s close confidant has set off to find a powerful artifact, and hasn’t come back. The duke comes to the players and asks them to go and find his friend and the artifact if possible, and return. During the whole of the adventure, the players are far away from all the complications of the game.

As Gamemaster, you should tell the other players that you’re doing this, and why. As a player, you should work to help the new player enjoy this basic experience by setting tone, improving your descriptions, and just giving advice.

How I Gave Up Worrying and Learned to Describe Attacks

Our niche tends to be a divided front on most issues, and combat in our games is no exception. Some of your players may not enjoy roll playing, which is rolling dice just for the sake of rolling dice, they may enjoy a bit more flair in their combat. What do their attacks look like? How awesome are they really? How can you make the attacks more interesting?

Does it hit?

Even misses are interesting to describe, how close does it come to hitting the character? Does it glance off their armor or do they dodge nimbly out of the way? For D&D I typically go off the characters touch attack. If the attack is higher then their touch attack then blow glanced off their armor. If it doesn’t make the touch AC they dodge nimbly out of the way.

Savage Worlds is handled in a similar manner. If the roll does not exceed his Parry then it’s either knocked out of the way or dodged nimbly. The lower the roll the easier it was to dodge. If your player has a shield or a specific weapon that adds to their perry and the roll exceeds their Parry then it’s knocked out of the way by that specific weapon or armor.

Consider the Weapon

How does one attack with a broadsword? How does this differ from an Axe or Mace? A rapier for example is likely piercing the defender in a small point and they are being run through like a thousand little pin pricks. Where an axe is likely denting armor cracking it in half, or taking large chunks of flesh out of the defender. The weapon itself should be used to easily shape your descriptions.

Where does it hit?

Even if players aren’t making a called shot occasionally blows will hit some where that isn’t the chest. Likely armor will absorb most of the blow so it isn’t crippling, but consider that arms and legs do go in the ways of blows. Savage Worlds provides a handy chart for determining where damage is being dealt. Consider using it, or your own, to randomize the location of the damage.

What damage does it do to the enemy?

Obviously not every blow is going to lob off an arm or crush someones face in. But what about their skin or armor? How much battle damage has the enemey been taking? Is it dented, have a hole blasted into it, torn by the their foes blade? How much damage did the player roll? All of these little details add to a far more interesting description of the foe.

Have we missed anything that’s key to descriptions? Have any tips for others that might help describing attacks better? Let us know!

All Your Characters Talk the Same

Let’s face it as GM, or a player, you only have so many characters in our arsenal. Personally I’m great at playing characters that fly in the face of everyone and are over the top in attitude and flair. This is my go to character, if I’m playing with a new Game Master. It’s easy and it’s like putting on a worn pair of shoes, I know where it’s been and where it’s going. And this bleeds through to my NPCs, they tend to be a bit crazy, powerful, and don’t mind showing it off.

But let’s be clear about something, not every NPC needs to be a beautiful and unique snowflake. Neither I, nor my players have a problem with my style of NPCs, they don’t over shine the players and they tend to be memorable. Take a deep breath and think about this. Quick character descriptions are awesome, general quirks about them are great, but not all of them need to be unique.

Paul is great at running NPCs that are authority figures and buck preconceived notions about authority. They are all personable and easy to relate to and come off as a casual authority. This is great for his style of game. Most encounters with royalty will have a scene were the characters are pulled aside and addressed one on one. The king will casually address the players and drop most of the pomp and circumstance they put on display in their court. His players eat it up. Through this use of his go to character he makes an easy to relate to authority figure that can provide new stories and jumping off points for new adventures. That and it’s down right cool.

Jeff takes the opposite approach with his authority figures; most of them tend to be closed off and impersonal. Then again he is excels at running Shadowrun style games where everyone is distrustful and distant. He sets up stories where every one is double crossing everyone else and distrusts everyone. The noir feel of his games lend to building the distopian worlds in which he is great at creating.

So what type of NPC are you good at? What changes can you make to your game to highlight this? Game Mastering is as much story telling as it is playing, if you are great at a couple of character types and they fit your stories, use them. There is no shame in doing what your good at.

What kind of character types are you good at?

Don’t Sweat the Rules

Earlier this week when we gave you confessions from a rules lawyer, we posed the question, “What advice would you give a novice GM?” Apathy Games editor, Paul von Meerschedit, had this to say.

First rule: Don’t sweat the rules. Ever.

Especially in your first couple sessions. The rules are there for a reason, yes.  Eventually they will be both your crutch and your damnation, but until then they are a stumbling block to running a satisfying game, for either you or your players.

Rules are important in two situations:

1) Roleplay: Your players are trying to do something that you won’t just let them do, and they need to back it up with dice.

2) Combat: A numbers based abstraction of actions and maneuvers characters might use in a fight, used to delineate winners and losers.

Thus, the rules exist as an aid to enforce fairness (if all the players follow the same rules, favoritism is significantly more difficult) and provide stat based challenges to your players. With this in mind, consider the following: When a player asks to do something and you do not know if a specific rule for that action exists, does it matter? As long as the player is given some numerical way to attempt the challenge, the exact rule is irrelevant.

When I first run a game using a new system, I read the rules before play begins. I attempt to get a general idea of what a standard challenge is, and the way roleplaying and combat are adjudicated. Then I run the game. For any given situation, be it combat or roleplay, I will only look up one rule. The rest will either be adjudicated to the best of MY understanding, according to rules I have already learned, or with a simple test defined on the spot. After the situation has ended, I will look up the correct way to run that rule.

As a new GM, what do you do to avoid getting hung up?

Everyone Should Play an Obnoxious Character

Because it provides players with an opportunity to be someone other than themselves, role-playing can be a powerful educational experience, teaching us many valuable social skills. Which is particularly useful, considering that the majority of us grew up as socially inept geeks.

Over the years, I’ve seen numerous players make friends and become happier in life because of role-playing, and through that I have come to a conclusion: everyone should play an verbal, eccentric, and obnoxious character at least once.

Why? Because fear is a powerful enemy (I’m sure someone said that), and the role-playing environment is a prime opportunity to face that fear of acting out in relative safety. Once a player has done it there, it should help reduce anxiety in the rest of their life.

That, and everyone has a little demon in them that is just dying to be let out. We all want to be a jerk sometimes, and it can be refreshing to get it out of our system.

Of course, I still firmly believe that anyone who plays an obnoxious character gets what they deserve when the rest of the players chastise them, and if they make of habit of playing such characters, they should probably be shot. But that’s only fair.

Confessions of a Rules Lawyer

I know what I am, and I know that you hate me. Admitting the truth is the first step to recovery they say, so here goes: I am a rules lawyer.

Why I’m a Rules Lawyer

I love rules. I like playing with them and fiddling with them. I spend time considering how my character can function within the confines of the rules. I’ll take the time to read a rulebook from cover to cover, and then reread sections so I know how things work.

And I hate when other people break the rules. It drives me crazy, because I know how it’s supposed to be done, and if you break the rules I can no longer trust the game.

So apparently I have trust issues too.

Why Most Players Hate Me

Most players aren’t playing a game for the rules. The rules are just there to facilitate a complex game of make-believe. When I start to comment on the rules, the game that they enjoy lurches to a halt. Arguments ensue. By pointing out that the rules are being handledincorrectly , I’m also telling the game master that he doesn’t know what he’s doing. Even if that’s true, he doesn’t want to hear it, and neither do the other players.

Why the Rules *Do* Matter

The rules of a roleplaying game exist to protect the players from the game master’s whims. When you were a child, playing any sort of make believe game, at some point an argument would always break out. “I got you!”. “No, you didn’t!”. And soon enough the game was over and everyone was mad at each other.

So, rules are created. Even in a roleplaying game with a game master, the possibility exists that the game master will favor one player over another. A ruleset, when followed, provides protection against this.

The Compromise: Keep the Game Moving

The first rule to being a good player is don’t be selfish. I have learned that it is important for me to not interrupt when other people are enjoying themselves. Usually, I try to talk to my game master away from the table, and make it clear that it’s important to me that the rules be followed properly when possible, and that if he isn’t clear on something that he can ask me for assistance.

These days, if we’re at the table, and I see something being done wrong, I might quickly mention that it’s incorrect, but that we should “go with it for now”. Then, when it doesn’t disrupt the flow of the game, the game master and I might discuss the actual rule.

There is an exception. If breaking the rule is grossly detrimental to anyone involved, I will let this be known. But in this case, I talk directly to the game master, and as politely as possible. Even so, I try to keep this to a minimum.