Narration D20 - First Run

[MachMoth]

I mentioned this concept sometime ago.  I wanted to take a group of people that had only played D&D, and expand their horizons a bit.  And so, they agreed to let me bend the rules for a few sessions of D20 Modern (And since they hadn't played that either, they couldn't always be sure what was my additions, and what was in the book).  The first session was a one-on-one, in which the player simply wanted to explore his character.  He was also the most excited about the change (see also, sick of hack 'n slash) and couldn't wait for the others to try it out.  The second session brought in one more player, and an observer.  Sadly, my other two planned players bailed at the last minute.

(Here's some highlights that stood out in my mind.)
Session #1
Both sessions were pretty well made up on the fly.  However, this one more so than the other, as I was completely unprepared for it.  Our main character is Nicky Valentine, a loner, and minor street criminal with a code of honor.  He isn't much with guns, but quite the brawler.

Things started out a little slow, as tried I to develop something the resembled a plot.  While on his way to his favorite hangout, a street punk tried to swipe Nicky's ill got gains, and a chase was on.  Nicky's player chose this time to try out the system.  He rolled a Spot check to try and pick out something to his advantage.  So, insert one fruit stand providing a projectile melon that quickly ended the chase.

Here, I should note, I was attempting something similar to the Donjon Fact System.  Nicky succeeded at his spot check.  As I would soon learn, the concept didn't seem to take well in my player's minds, begging for some sort of on the fly adjustment.  In this case, Nicky simply wanted something to throw, forcing me to produce the fruit stand.  Though, it didn't take long for him to realize he had more control over the situation, single facts didn't seem to be the order of the day.

Skip ahead a few story building encounters, Nicky is sitting at the bar, when the man from the chase comes in.  He points a large pistol in his face, laughing and threatening.  Also, four goons with HK's come in, and back their boss.  Nicky drops a one-liner, then knocks the guys gun aside, and smashes his glass of "scotch on the rocks" into his face.  For this, he only rolled one good "Slieght of Hand."  I ignored the need for an attack roll, wanting to hand him narration for that part.  This is probably where I first broke the rules.  Technically, he should have gotten one fact, then I narrate.  However, he was doing so well, I didn't want to take the scene from him.  The guy dropped to the ground clutching his face, and the goons open fired, peppering the bar.  He called for a spot check, with good success.  He narrated that the bar used to be a strip club, and a lone bar still remain hanging from the ceiling above his head.  He jumped to it, dodging the bullets (my call/roll), then used an attack (brawling) roll to do a flying drop kick into one of the goons.  The goon was knocked out cold, and Nicky (now behind the others) scooped up the uzi, and forced them to surrender.

Aside from completely ignoring most of the groud rules I had started with, I also found ample opertunity to award extra points for cool and creative ideas.  I hadn't toyed too much with the idea of who narrates at this point.  Nicky was lucky, with mostly successes this session.

Session #2
This happened the next day, in what was supposed to be the actual session.  When two players bailed, we were forced to work with two.  Nicky would be working with a Dare Devil by the name "The Rocket."  However, Nicky's player invited his girl friend over to watch, so the room wasn't too empty.  

Introductions went off just fine, and then we introduced Nicky's van.  Generally, 1st level character's can't afford vehicles, but we worked in a $50 special.  Every start, it had a 30% chance of flooding.  It flooded, just as they were leaving to start their mission.  Not a good sign, as they would most likely need it for a quick get away.

Not much from most of the session stood out different from the first one.  Failed rolls finally showed their face several times though.  Early on, I narrated most of the failures, to give the players an idea of what kind of things happen.  One example included a failed drive check, causing the front tire to blow on The Rocket's bike.  I wanted the players to realize that failure didn't have to be the character's fault, as long as they were interesting.  Later on, I decided to drop the resposibiltiy on the players.  It went really well.  For example, Nicky failed a climb check while repelling, he slipped, but got his foot tangled in the rope, dangling by his ankle, as danger closed in from every angle.  Very tense.

The session ended with a chase scene between Nicky's van (which barely started by 1) and a jeep with an M60 mounted on the back.  It wasn't overly organized, but was enjoyable.  Basically, both sides made appropiate check for what they were doing (usually drive), and the winner narrated that segment of the chase, trying to steer the chase in their favor.  At one point, it found it's way onto the interstate.  One cop car was sent tumbling, and blown up in a firey ball, and finally, Nicky ditched the jeep using a backed up off ramp.  There was no real method of deciding when the chase ended.  One time he rolled a twenty, and I rolled a one, and it seemed appropriate to end it there.  I'll have to work something out, as I expect we'll be seeing plenty more chase scenes in the future.

No actual D20 style combat ever broke out, and the only initiative roll was to find out if a character could reach the fire escape before the goons on his tail.  The players seemed to enjoy themselves, and I haven't had such a good time as D20 GM in a very long time, if ever.  Best of all, it flowed at a good pace.  The entire second session took only an hour and forty-five minutes.  We've had battles that took longer than that.

[Mike Holmes]

I sense that this was an experiment of some sort. But I don't see the parameters, exactly. That is, what rules modifications did you have, other than the Donjon Fact mechanics? What was your hypothesis (that you'd have more fun this way)? Do you suspect that your two other players bailed because of the nature of the game? Had they heard about it? Or was it for other reasons?

Mike

[MachMoth]

Well, the actual nature of the rules ended up pretty foggy.  My goal was to use the facts system to create a more flowing, interactive environment for the players.  To give it a bit more of that action feel.  I wasn't experimenting, so to speak.  Just looking to break the slow, boring nature our sessions have been locked into lately.  While, I feel the goal was met, it wasn't by the planned means.  The players had a difficult time understanding the concept of facts.  Since I was in no way trying to force this on them, I decided to work with what they did understand, and that was that they had some narration control.  While I know that is nothing new to the buch of pros that hang out here, it was a beam of light to them.  I had no set mechanic for choosing when a player narrated a roll, and when I did.  Social contract carried it quite a ways.  I intend on solidifying the rules for future sessions, but I really liked the flexability I've had thus far.  I am not planning on publishing these rules, anyways.  I may be closer to home than I think.

As for the other players, I think they were none to thrilled about the one player's girl friend being present.  I'm not sure of their reasons, and I'm not going to press them for one.  I know one of the two doesn't like the idea of "fiddling" with the D&D rules.  He has never played anything else, and has no intension of ever doing so.  He hasn't made any comment about this alteration yet, but if he isn't interested, I'm not here to force it on him.  Though, he's the primary reason it's taken this long to get started (and the reason we're using D20 Modern, instead of something else), and many are starting to get really annoyed at his attitude, when ever someone mentions the idea of trying other games.  He doesn't want to try new things with the others, but doesn't want to be left out, either.

[Andrew Norris]

I don't know if you're looking for social contract discussion or advice on the problem player, but I think that particular part of your post raises some interesting points.

Basically, your group wants to try something new ... except for one player. To keep him happy, you've compromised with D20Modern... but you're not really using it. Rather, you're trying a homebrew combination of rules (ad hoc) and calling it D20Modern.

I don't have a problem with that, myself, but it does strike me as a bit circumlocutious. If a player honestly doesn't want to change his play style, 'sneaking' it up on him is only going to backfire in the long run.

I almost didn't want to make this response, because I like what you're doing in the general case. I just see this as being a big future issue with your group. The fact that the rest of the group is 'tired of' his behavior, but doesn't seem to have done anything to deal with the problem, sticks out at me too.

To aim more towards the original topic, that of the rules themselves, I like the idea of introducing the fact system ot allow players to narrate their successes. One way I've heard of this being done (to ease players into the idea of narrating beyond 'my guy does this') is the use of Plot Points or Hero Points (whatever you call them, some metagame resource) to invoke a 'dramatic editing' mode. This is explicit in Adventure! and Buffy, for example.

[MachMoth]

I have mulled over that thought, but am not sure of how to impliment it, exactly.  One idea, was to keep a pool of couters/dice/whatever in the center.  As the characters produce cool narrations, do cool things, roll criticals, or whatever behavior we are attempting to promote through rewards, more is added to the pool.  The players could then spend those tokens to add weight to their narration, outside of simple method of success/failure.  Another thought was to involve HP as a spendable resources, since it is suppose to represent luck & skill, in addition to durability, though I hadn't really thought of a simple implimentation yet.  I'm still trying to follow the general D20 foundation that they are used to.  It just seems that we are ignoring most of the rules, because about 95+% of the D&D handbook is hack n' slash combat oriented, something that we are glazing over, in favor of dynamic action.  I must admit, Modern does allow for that kind of adjustment, more that classic D&D.

As far as our fun player, if you can believe it, this was all his idea (see my frustation yet?).  We had left the movies, and he brought up the discussion of converting some of the material to D20.  I (being me) pointed out some systems that had produced those very effects, and how they did it.  Donjon came up, and the idea to merge narration into D20 Modern was born.  Well, some days later, after everyone was informed, and excited about the idea, I filled him in on some more details.  By this point, he was no longer drunk on movie action, and back to his normal gamist self.  His only real response was "that's actually sounds kind of stupid." (AARGH!!!)  Like I said, I'm not trying to force it on him.  If he is no longer interested, I'm not going to "make" him play.  However, he is going to have to except the fact that five (including two others that just haven't had a chance to play, and the other who was his brother, and thus was forced into bailing) other people are at least willing to give it a try and/or enjoying the game.  I don't really see it as an issue in need of resolving.  We've started playing, and will most likely continue.  We will still play D&D with him, too.  Whatever he does is his choice, and the rest of us aren't complaining either way.  (Though I will complain if he chooses to play, and whines the whole time.)

[MachMoth]

UPDATE:
Week Two ran rather well.  The two players from last week, and the two that bailed last week joined together for one half-session (ended up getting cut short).  None the less, I was quite impressed.  Though he seemed bothered by the random "I like this better than D&D" comments, the player in question took me aside later that evening, and told me that he enjoyed the game, and would like to keep it as a staple.  Players seemed to get a better understanding of facts this time around.  I also incorporated Modern's Action Dice into the narration scheme, letting them use them in the traditional way to boost rolls, but instead, after the roll is made (still on the fence about that), and also letting them spend them for free facts that can only last for a scene.  Finally, I kept a secret pool of dice that would build as they did things that inspired the group, that were generally cool, and put everyone on their side laughing.  At anytime the group could cash that pool in, and boost their own supply of action dice, but it had to be split evenly, extras being lost.  I want to tweak that slightly (probably having some added effect for cashing in), but the idea was generally liked.