I'm really new to Uni, and come from a more oldfashioned GM+Players style of play. I bought a copy of Uni because I wanted to see how a more open style of gaming, where all players took part in the adventure/world creation, might work.

However...

There is a part of me that is still kinda stuck on the idea of one person at least throwing forward some sort of basic skeleton of a game setting, Probably comes from years of being that person, more than one of the character players.

Has anyone experimented with a play style where one person in the group has a little bit more imput initially? Say, allowing more of a "setting creator" role to a given player by allowing them to introduce multiple tenets during their turn during game preparation?

Basically, I'm looking for suggestions for tenets or metagame styles that allow for someone to give some early direction to a game of Uni, but not destroy the ability of everyone to participate in adventure narration. Does that make sense?

Robert

Its certainly possible to do a game where the first Tenet is made by the 'GM'.

Something like

Tenet: The game is set in the Greyhawk in Blackmoor

That tenet will come with all the baggage the comes with the region

while a Tenet like
Tenet: Set in the Matrix...where Neo never survived (movie 1), but the other crewmembers partake of his power.

would suggest a very different game

When I finally get the chance to run my Supers game (set in MetroCity) I'm going to use this method to set the basics of the setting in one Tenet. Then use Universalis to play a pre-game half hour or so, where we play out the various factions and interests in the city. The side actions that move the city, but aren't specifically focused on the characters.

The 'regular' character play will most probably be done using a slightly modified version of Trollbabe.

Edited in: Obviously the other Players undersand that i'll be introducing an overarching Tenet right off the bat

hi robert,

I initially had similar misgivings, but Uni really solves this problem by itself, here are my thoughts:

1) at the moment games I'm playing are exclusively demos (new players each time), so usually I set the first Tenet ;)

2) while it's tempting to create a set of Tenets, I find that narrowing it down to just one helps me focus on what I really want to say (similarly, don't go for a broad Tenet if there's only one aspect you really want - do you really want a Star Wars game, or is it just the Force?)

3) known settings are easy to include, as Bob demonstrated; be aware though, that someone could easily include a "but" clause (eg, Tenet 1: Star Wars canon, Tenet 2: but no midi-chlorians) - you'll have to decide whether you think the variation is cool, or Challenge

4) created settings, along the lines of "my own fantasy setting (for you to learn)", are not worth including, in my opinion, simply because they create unneccessary overhead for the other players - rather let that creative process occur at the game, with everyone involved (being involved makes it easier to remember, I've been able to hold entire sessions in my head when paper has been in short supply - I lost them shortly afterwards of course ;)

of course, if you've previously played in a "my own" setting that you all know well already (eg, you played a regular campaign set there), then it counts as a known setting

hope this helps!

The best idea I've seen for "Universalis GM" has been: "Give the guy who you want to be GM twice as many coins, and half the coins everyone else gets, at the start." Thus, he gets more input at the beginning, but each subsequent turn things will refresh, etc., until finally the other players get larger voices.

The person who's GM would then have more initial story power, but as time moves on he'd be subject to the same economy that the rest of the group is subject to, until finally he'd reach a balance.

That's neat, but I'd be more interested in playing the opposite. I'd like to give the designated GM player very few Coins at the start compared to the others. Maybe 5:25 would be good. But have the GM receive double at scene refresh.

You could also do non-numeric GMifying tenets: only the GM player can use master components, every other scene is framed by the GM with no bidding, or only the GM player can add traits to non-character Components.

I bet that with just a few such tenets you'd get: a) a traditional-like gaming balance and b)the opportunity to alter the traditional balance of power and responsibility in exciting and innovative ways.

Actually, this makes me think that a Universalis Con where the participants did nothing but varrious Uni events and then a recapitulation conference thingie at the end would be very, very cool. (Prolly a bit hard to put together, though.)

Chris

Huh, looking at the website, I see that there are no GM add-on's listed. Despite the fact that I know that some were worked up at some point.

There are literally an infinite number of ways to approach this. Here are some Gimmicks that can really make a player more of a GM.

• The assigned GM player can interrupt at any time for no cost.
• The GM player can create components, traits and facts for no cost, outside of complications.
• The GM player can declare the Importance of any component to be whatever level they like at any time.
• The GM player can perform take-overs for no cost (but if there's a PC rule in effect, this doesn't mean that this supercedes that rule).
• The GM player frames all scenes - no bid is conducted.
• The GM player gets all the coins that result from complications, but must spend them to resolve the complication (or perhaps they get half, and/or the McNamee rule is in effect).
• The GM player gets doubled Coins in any Challenge.
• The GM player can assign penalty fees of any amount at any time (possibly without vote).
• Non-GM players can only spend Coins on affecting things outside of designated PCs at a limited rate (5 Coins per scene, 1 Coin per scene, never, whatever).


Use all of these at their strongest levels, and you'd have something very much like a traditional RPG.

But, like other's have mentioned, it's all rather unneccessary. Anyone can "get" Universalis on their first time out. In fact, I'd advocate playing at least one short session without modification. Because then you'll have more of an idea of what the effects of any changes might be, and whether you really want to make them.

Mike