Virtual Play

In the last episode I mentioned gaming at Policon, Terpcon, Ubercon, and locally.  Here are audiofiles of some of those games, now posted at the Internet Archive:

1.  Shab al-Hiri Roach, a roleplaying game by Jason Morningstar, Bully Pulpit Games. A dark comedy of manners posing the question, ‘are you willing to sacrifice civilization in order to get tenure?’  Playing with me were Jason L., Dave C., and Andy L.
http://www.archive.org/details/Shab-al-hiriRoach
2.  Agon (Terpcon).  Playtest of Ben Robbins’ scenario ‘Temple of Hera’.
http://www.archive.org/details/AgonTerpcon
Playing with me were Jeff C., Joshua S., John F., and Patty K.
3.  Ganakagok (Terpcon).  A storytelling game by Bill White.  http://www.archive.org/details/GanakagokTerpcon
Other players were Jeff C., Joshua S., and John F.
4.  Super Contenders (Policon).  My attempt at a variant of J.J. Prince’s Contenders for superheroes!  It sort of worked. 
http://www.archive.org/details/SuperContenders 
My thanks to Rob B. and Dave C. for giving it a try! 
5.  The Mountain Witch.  The first chapter of a game we’ve started at the local game store.  Players are Nick M., Buddha, Jason L., George A., and Brian G. 
http://www.archive.org/details/TheMountainWitchNova 
6.  Star Wars (Ubercon). Tali T. ran several Star Wars games at Ubercon–I was glad to get to play in this one!  Best quote from the game–Frank’s comment, “Nothing ever happens on Mustafar.”   
http://www.archive.org/details/UberconStarWars

Game excerpts highlighting things that can interfere with player characters being awesome.

I’ve come to a realization about why I play roleplaying games.  I like the intrinsic reward of seeing my character be ‘awesome’ in play.  And I like to run games to give players that same sense of satisfaction through the actions of their characters.  This realization has helped me come the terms with why some games fall flat–something interfered with the opportunity for characters to demonstrate being awesome.  I’ve identified a few situations where this can occur–players can block other player characters’ achievements; the gamemaster can be obstructive rather than challenging; or the situation itself may hold no interest or opportunites for excellence.  This episode looks at situations of that sort in samples from Spirit of the Century, Burning Empires, and True 20.  In addition, I want to draw some attention to Rob Bohl’s game in development, ‘Misspent Youth’ which has a mechanism to reward–or at least recognize–players that make other player characters ‘awesome’. 
Mel

PS I just realized my well-wishes for Camp Nerdly weather are a week early.  Camp Nerdly is next week!  (9-11 May).

The purpose of this episode is to point out some of the different stances players use in the portrayal of their characters.   I think my ‘default’ stance is author stance, but I enjoy shading to actor stance and director stance, too.   I may drift into director stance too much–being used to running games, I sometimes devote more effort to thinking about the overall story and connections rather than concentrating on playing my character.  I’m going to be paying more attention to stance in the future, particularly my own, in an effort to see if there is a link between a particular stance and a particularly enjoyable gaming experience.   The excerpts in this episode are from Giants, Primetime Adventures, and Dungeons & Dragons.  Some of you will recognize the D&D game from Episode 9–please indulge me! 
Mel

My favorite part of the Burning Wheel and Burning Empires games is the ‘Duel of Wits’.  It’s the mechanism used for social conflicts between characters.  I know that some players don’t like social conflict mechanics as somehow detracting from ‘roleplaying’, but I don’t see it that way.  In any social conflict for which there is no conflict resolution mechanism, the conflict will only end when one player or the other gives in–regardless of the merits of the argument on either side.  As a player, it’s easy to ‘not be convinced’.  I’ve played in games that ground to a halt because players couldn’t agree to a course of action for their characters–I may even have participated in such disagreements!  So the Duel of Wits strikes me as a great tool for the Burning Wheel.  It’s one part of the game that I like to use a lot and to show new players because I think they will like it as much as I do.  This episode focuses on three important elements for the Duel of Wits.  First, players cannot be forced into a Duel of Wits.  Second, the players have to agree to what’s at stake in the Duel–not only what they get if they win, but what their character will do if they lose.  Third, players must adhere to the terms of the Duel.  Somehow abrogating or not carrying out the terms of the Duel is nothing less than cheating!  Ultimately, the Duel of Wits is a negotiation and agreement between players for the direction of the story.  The characters are a vehicle for the Duel, but it’s the players who are bound to the results.
Mel

Highlights from Spirit of the Century “Rex Rich and the Warlord of Mars” from Dreamation 2008.

 My brother, Bill White, ran ‘Rex Rich’ at Dreamation with a full house of seven players.  I love listening to this game.  There are a lot of great moments of player action–using aspects, ’self-compels’, and great dialogue and one-liners.  Listening also provides the opportunity to compare two moments of play that both involve the gamemaster seeking to exert influence on a player character’s action.  In one instance, the GM decides by ‘fiat’ that a PC can’t take a particular action.  In the second instance, the GM, through the player and using tools in the game mechanics, ‘compels’ a PC to act in a certain way.  In between, are a lot of cool scenes!
Mel

 

Here’s a couple more games from Dreamation.  
Agon All the fires have gone out in Greece. The heroes must go to the gates of Hell to bring fire back to the world.
Giants A diverse group of Giants creates havoc saving the world from the diabolical Cabal.
Mel

I’ve started posting complete games from Dreamation at the Internet Archive.  Here’s the first batch:
1) Spirit of the Century, “Rex Rich and the Warlord of Mars.”  Rex Rich and companions seek to win a Big Contract to build a rocket interceptor for the War Department, while events in outer space may disrupt even the best plans.
Rex Rich and the Warlord of Mars
2) The Burning Wheel, “Quest for the Holy Grail.”  Seven of King Arthur’s subjects recover the Holy Grail.  That’s when things get interesting.  
Quest for the Holy Grail
3) Spirit of the Century, “Louis Leakey and the Mystery of the Murdered Monkey.”  Louis and companions dig up trouble in Olduvai Gorge, 1937–and elsewhen!
Mystery of the Murdered Monkey
4) FATE Variant, “Fatal Fantasy.”  Imagine if Homer had written the Silmarillion after seeing 300 on IMAX. 
Fatal Fantasy

I know Bill and I would love to hear your impressions of these games whether a player or a listener. 
More games to follow!
Mel   

“Sweet, sweet Dreamation”

That’s how Rob Donoghue describes the Dreamation gaming convention–and how sweet it is.  I played in or ran six games at Dreamation, which is a relatively light schedule, but that allowed for time to look around, meet people, and just get a sense of the convention as a whole.  I talked to Nathan P. about a variant for Carry–Carry: Iraq “Welcome to the Suck”, and with Jeff C. about his thoughts on a superheroes variant of Contenders.  I hope to have these adventures ready in time for Dexcon.  I’m beginning to note the shift from ‘acquaintances’ to ‘friends’.  People I would only see at conventions, I’m now beginning to exchange emails with on things beyond gaming.  That’s a good thing!  The games I played included Grey Ranks, which I’ve played twice in the last year and now own!  I played ‘Red Box Hack’ which I can see as a good sword and sorcery type escapade, and Giants, Jeff Lower’s game in development.  I love the idea of the player character Giants being linked to their communities in a complementary sort of way–that may or may not be a conscious relationship.  I saw my Giant, a godzilla-like tyrannosaurus, as being helpful to its community by being dangerous to other communities!  A few of us were all set to play a midnight game of WEGS (Wickedly Errant Game System) but the Wegshogs couldn’t take it!  They packed up just after midnight to get some well-deserved rest.  Ah, well.  I also ran three games:  Agon, Spirit of the Century, and the Burning Wheel.  I was very happy with the execution of these games, although I see in some feedback to actual play posts how they were not perfect.  I appreciate the constructive criticism!  Since starting Virtual Play I’ve noticed shortcomings in how I’ve run games, and I’m always trying to make things better.  At any rate, I plan to focus future shows on the games I ran at Dreamation.  This show, however, is going to focus on a conversation I had with my brother, Bill White, as we discuss GM railroading and scene-framing, with highlights from games at the convention.
Let me know what you think!
Mel

 

Samples of the first thing said by gamemasters at the start of play.

In this episode, I’m again dovetailing on a thread online.  At the ‘Story Games for Everybody’ website, John Harper–author of Agon–asked the question, what’s the first thing said at the start of a game.  Character creation and other ’setup’ is complete, so what are the actual words to start play.  I think this is an important question because it points towards something I’m realizing is very important:  start ‘play’ quickly.  What I mean is, minimize the amount of time explaining what’s going to happen and how things are done, and begin actual roleplaying as soon as possible.  I think this is important for many reasons; a couple that come to mind (particularly in convention games) are that time is limited, and that participants signed up to play, not to attend a lecture.  In listening to games I’ve ran, I’ve realized I’ve taken way to long to ’start play’ and I’m working to speed the process.  John Harper’s question also hints at a topic that has come up in other threads–that of rituals at the start of play.  Things like holding a ’speaking stick’ or unfolding a GM screen to symbolically separate the gamemaster from the players…or, like in Steve Dempsey’s game ‘Tbilisi’ where everyone stands at the start of the game, points to the future and says, “Tbilisi”.  So, there is a lot going on in preparation for play, to signal the start of play, and immediately upon play.  The seven excerpts in this episode just scrape the tip of the iceberg regarding how play starts, and I’m encouraged by the question to look at the starts of my own games with the goal of not only getting to ‘playing’ faster, but also getting to the action faster once play has started. 
Mel

Excerpts from the Burning Wheel and Tbilisi, in a discussion of Incoherence in roleplaying games.

Not every session of every game is ‘awesome’.  One potential cause is something called ‘Incoherence’, which means players come to the game with different expectations.   This episode looks at a recent Burning Wheel game I ran that left me unhappy–a mood I’ve rarely felt about an RPG session since starting to play some of the small-press RPGs on the market.  I think the cause of my dissatisfaction is rooted in incoherence–what I wanted from the game was different from some of the other players.  If this happened as recently as a year or two ago, I’d blame the game and walk away; or I’d blame the players and play with somebody else; or, worst of all, I’d just hope things got better and keep banging my head against the wall.  In fact, none of these options is necessary, if only because I’m more aware that players are going to seek different things from gaming, and certain games are better at fulfilling specific play-style desires.  Isn’t there a saying something like, ‘knowing is half the battle’?  Now I know.   I’ve included an excerpt of Steve Dempsey’s game-in-development, Tbilisi, because it explicitly addresses the idea of incoherence and does something about it. 
Mel