musings on a campaign that's about to end

[Matt Wilson]

Next Wednesday just might be the final episode in a game I started last June. In light of what I've experienced since finding the Forge, I figured it was worth some posting. Maybe the ideas or dilemmas will promote some discussion. Jeff and Alan, I hope you'll post some comments. I don't plead enough for feedback from you guys.

The game is a space opera, set in a distant future. A "lost world," Caliban, has evolved a balkanized human culture from a shadowy past full of mystery. During the campaign, the characters have pieced together facts to learn that Caliban is not the cradle of humanity as they had always thought. They located a ruin in the desert that then led them to a starship hidden in the system's outer asteroid belt (perhaps for millenia). Since then they've learned about an ancient enemy and the downfall of an "empire" of humans and aliens that once spanned hundreds of worlds, all destroyed eons ago. In the coming final episode, they're planning to destroy a corrupted supercomputer AI that controls an army of zombie-like supersoldiers, hopefully freeing the galaxy.

On to the analysis:

The characters, upon creation, didn't completely make sense together, so I didn't start them together, and didn't do a whole lot to force them together. The players were metagamey enough to help direct their personal stories along and bring the group together one by one, very organically. It took about five game sessions before everyone was together. A neat mix of Sim "pinball" and Narrative story building.

For scenes where not every PC was present, I handed out NPC index cards with a couple facts and motivations printed on them, and let the players do what they wanted otherwise. I can't say enough how cool it worked out. I will definitely do this again.

Because the group were into building a story, I never really had to railroad anyone into the uberplot. It just happened naturally. The characters, while being an odd mix, were built to match the kind of story I had in mind, so I guess I explained that clearly in the beginning.

Halfway through, we switched the system from Silhouette to Fudge, which was a pretty cool experiment. I like Sil, but it was only about an 80% match to what I wanted. It was interesting to see how game play changed. Everything became much more fluid. Players just started "doing stuff" without worrying about what was permissible.

I should also note that three of the four starting players moved out of the state within 6 months of starting, which made for some weird story hiccups. Stupid Seattle economy.

Things I'd change if I did it again (suggestions welcome):

More focus on NPCs. I put a lot of work into them in the beginning (when I was unemployed) and more recently they've been a bit bland and sparse. Interesting NPCs make a big difference.

I'd also encourage more player-supported narrative. A couple players did this a lot in the beginning, but I think that getting out into space made the players feel a bit more restricted as to what they could narrate.

I'd prepare better for moving stuff along if the story were to bog. The players like to create little non-epic scenes (like where Malachai Drax sneaks down to have ice cream with some aliens in the middle of the night), but a couple times I've suddenly had four pairs of eyes staring at me expectantly. Spontaniety isn't always one of my strong points.

[Valamir]

For scenes where not every PC was present, I handed out NPC index cards with a couple facts and motivations printed on them, and let the players do what they wanted otherwise. I can't say enough how cool it worked out. I will definitely do this again.

By this do you mean that when not everyone was present the players who were present ran NPCs doing NPC things INSTEAD of their regular PCs?

Were these related NPCs (like Ars Magica troops), were they completely new NPCs telling little mini stories of their own against the backdrop of the larger game...or were these actually important NPCs that you temporarily handed over to the players to run.

I want to hear more about this.

[Matt Wilson]

For scenes where not every PC was present, I handed out NPC index cards with a couple facts and motivations printed on them, and let the players do what they wanted otherwise. I can't say enough how cool it worked out. I will definitely do this again.

By this do you mean that when not everyone was present the players who were present ran NPCs doing NPC things INSTEAD of their regular PCs?

Were these related NPCs (like Ars Magica troops), were they completely new NPCs telling little mini stories of their own against the backdrop of the larger game...or were these actually important NPCs that you temporarily handed over to the players to run.

I want to hear more about this.

When we did scenes where some PCs weren't present, I let the players whose characters weren't around play NPCs related to the scene. They were usually those who had personal stories that somehow tied into the big story, but the players werent' obligated to move the story forward.

It was kind of cool in that players who got those NPC cards suddenly knew vital metaplot information, but they did what they felt like with it, based on how the scene was going. When they went back to playing their regular PCs, it gave them some new options for moving the story along.

It was also cool in that they took some of the work off my shoulders for breathing life into the environment. One of the first scenes in the game was a character named Chazz who witnesses some thugs burying what turns out to be a body. I let the other three players be the thugs, and they came up with uproariously funny dialogue.

[Jeffrey Miller]

The characters, upon creation, didn't completely make sense together, so I didn't start them together, and didn't do a whole lot to force them together. The players were metagamey enough to help direct their personal stories along and bring the group together one by one, very organically. It took about five game sessions before everyone was together. A neat mix of Sim "pinball" and Narrative story building.

Its nice to have a group that you can trust to do that.  I think that losing 3 of 3 of 4 players (5, if you coun't Pete "Fuck it, I kill it" Perry) knocked a huge hole into that, and pretty much ended that dynamic.

For scenes where not every PC was present, I handed out NPC index cards with a couple facts and motivations printed on them, and let the players do what they wanted otherwise. I can't say enough how cool it worked out. I will definitely do this again.

I really dug that, but again, it requires the players able to deal with it. Its something I think I'll try with BTMoM if I get the chance to run it.. 40-odd NPCs on an Antarctic expedition?  you gotta be kiddin..

Halfway through, we switched the system from Silhouette to Fudge, which was a pretty cool experiment. I like Sil, but it was only about an 80% match to what I wanted. It was interesting to see how game play changed. Everything became much more fluid. Players just started "doing stuff" without worrying about what was permissible.

It was a grand experiment, and has worked - more or less.  Its really interesting to actually /see/ how system change has effected game play.

More focus on NPCs. I put a lot of work into them in the beginning (when I was unemployed) and more recently they've been a bit bland and sparse. Interesting NPCs make a big difference.

They've also all been 8-foot tall, slavering Gene-mod creatures that you have to back a small starship over to kill...

I'd also encourage more player-supported narrative. A couple players did this a lot in the beginning, but I think that getting out into space made the players feel a bit more restricted as to what they could narrate.

For my part, this has been the area most impacted by player attrition.  The group isn't cohesive enough... or rather, "in the right place" to support or offer player-narrative.  FREX, Malachai slipping down for a little Rocky Road with his Alien flunky... man, a great moment that landed in the middle of the table with a wet squichy *thunk* and layed there flopping around, stinking up the joint.  The other players "didn't get it" and it pretty effectively killed my personal enthusiasm for continuing to push the boundry on what could be spun out. :/

-j-

[Michael S. Miller]

For scenes where not every PC was present, I handed out NPC index cards with a couple facts and motivations printed on them, and let the players do what they wanted otherwise. I can't say enough how cool it worked out. I will definitely do this again.

This sounds like an idea John Wick presented in one of his "Play Dirty" columns over in Pyramid. He tied it in with creation of the setting through play, as new NPCs that the players mentioned quickly got written up on new index cards.

I've used the idea a few times, with mixed results. I often found my players were reluctant to play someone handed to them on the spur of the moment. But, if at first you don't succeed .... my new game, Incarnadine, will definitely be using some ideas in this vein.