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Roewyn
Learned Scribe
114 Posts |
 Posted - 10 Jul 2004 : 00:27:02
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Hey folk, I bet there are lots of people who wanna know how to run a better frp session.
Well I see there are many masters and if we as squires ask they would answer.
I ask the first question;
My question is how to control people's own ambitions and integrate those ambitions to the game without giving any better chance to others and disguising simple actions in the middle of the game.
I hope I made myself a little bit clear.
I appreciate your help.
And the ones who have any question in mind ask here I bet one will answer, see ya
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Sarta
Senior Scribe
USA
505 Posts |
Posted - 10 Jul 2004 : 06:27:31
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quote:
Originally posted by Roewyn
My question is how to control people's own ambitions and integrate those ambitions to the game without giving any better chance to others and disguising simple actions in the middle of the game.
The first thing you need to do is make certain that those ambitions are made concrete. Personally, I think character goals are more important than even backgrounds when it comes to gameplay. They help the dm understand what sort of adventures the players are interested in and the correct motivations to drive adventures. I have all my players come up with 5 goals their characters would like to accomplish before they even begin gameplay. These can be short-term goals or long-term, possibly not even ones that can be fulfilled during the course of a regular campaign.
Having these from the outset will be of immense aid to you as a dm, since it will allow you to create npc's to be of service and do some research on the areas that the players are interested in. They also give you wonderful plot-hooks for adventures.
If, for example, a player has in their background that their sister was kidnapped by the order of the long death and wants to liberate her, this allows you to consider what has happened and what a rescue would entail. Perhaps she has been dragged back to Scardale, given up hope of a rescue, and become a low level priestess of Beshaba. She now serves the order as a healer and scullery maid. By the time the party shows up to rescue her she will have realized that she no longer can simply return home and is satisfied with her lot in life. On the other hand, perhaps she is to be used in some hideous experiment and needs rescuing immediately.
If you are more concerned about in game conflicts of interest, such as the rogue wishing to pick the pockets of a benefactor without the others in the party knowing, I'd suggest either the passing of notes or calling for a short break in game-play to discuss and resolve the matter privately.
I also use email to resolve private issues occuring during down-time between game sessions. I try to limit this to a degree. I really don't have time to allow a flurry of emails to go back and forth so I've set up the following restrictions: they can email me with their full plan, I'll respond clarifying the actions and asking for them to confirm that I have things correct, and then let them confirm the plan of action or add minor changes. I resolve these issues at the next game before the session officially begins in person and give them a hand-out that explains the outcome in detail. This is usually stuff like researching a new spell, creating a new item, making improvements to their stronghold, hiring henchmen, or gathering information.
I'm sure there are many other ways to resolve issues. I know that Aaron Allston, guru of Champions, was a big advocate on every party member keeping a blue book (a journal like the type you take tests with in college). Players can write what they are doing in the blue book like they would on a note, but in more detail, and then pass them to the dm. If there is time or it is critical, he can read and respond in the blue book to them. Otherwise, he can take these home with him at the end of a session and fill in his responses in detail. In his Strike Force campaign they became so central that they would often get together just to do blue-book sessions. Some of these would be in game dialog shared between two characters, resolved by two players passing blue-books back and forth, and others would be between player and GM resolving character issues or dialog between player and npc.
Sarta |
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brjr2001
Learned Scribe
106 Posts |
Posted - 14 Jul 2004 : 04:09:17
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| the main thing to keep your gamer interested is to think outside the box, think of all possable outcomes because ive had games that we have gotten off the main story and our dm made us hate the games cause he wasn't prepared for what we as the players wanted, so pretty much know your gamers well |
on second thought lets not go to candlekeep it is a silly place |
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Jerard Doonsay
Seeker
USA
65 Posts |
Posted - 15 Jul 2004 : 22:07:44
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| The way I usually run the Realms is that I let them chose their starting location, and slowly build a campagne around the bafoonery and holes that they dig for themselves. It works great when you have players who will do extrodinarily stupid things on a regular basis. It's fun just to play low level characters trying to survive their own stupidity. |
May history live forever in the writings and stories of those who wish to tell them.
Please come and enjoy my website http://ferien.aribytes.org |
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Lashan
Learned Scribe
USA
235 Posts |
Posted - 19 Jul 2004 : 13:01:40
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| It's also good to make sure that the players have good goals. "I want to help clean up the Dock Ward," is a great goal. "I want a +5 battleaxe," is not a great goal. Any goal that the players should want should be something that takes a lot of effort for. Perhaps it's not even fighting, but it should take effort and be something that isn't attainable immediatly or very shortly therafter. This way, if there are fringe benifits to the objective, then at least the character has earned them and is not just trying to get some sort of benifit for little work. "I want to be a noble," could be something that takes up an entire campaign. |
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How can we improve our game play?
