The unspoken campaign

The game is running as smoothly as can be expected. Everyone is having fun, every week you get together, catch up with your friends, possibly eat some kind of meat-splosion. You play the game, push the story along, roll some dice, have some victories, catch a few defeats, you laugh and play a little bit too late and go home to get too little sleep. The next week the game is mostly forgotten, but here and there you think about what you are going to do with your character, how you are going to tackle the next challenge. Maybe you shoot a few emails back and forth before you pack up your dice and do it all again the next week. The game keeps on going like this for weeks and weeks, and eventually years and years, building up into one of those epic games you talk about for the rest of your life.

Or

The game is running smoothly, you meet, you eat, you play, you clatter dice and everything is great. Then at the end of the night someone says, “Hey I just picked up Whaling Red Seas, the game about steampunk space whaling on mars. I'm thinking about running it when this campaign ends.” Now you go home tired, get too little sleep and go about your week. Only now instead of thinking about what your character is going to do in the upcoming game, you are considering what character you are going to play, Martian dolphin shaman, Chunkor the one armed harpoonsman, Cogmartial Goodman hunting down a rogue difference engine? You might think of the minor quibbles you have with the current game and how Red Seas would fix them. You might email character concepts around, then someone might email you back, and soon there is a growing snowball of enthusiasm. You miss a few weeks of your current game due to the holidays or vacations, and next thing you know, the epic campaign is dead, and you are on to the next thing. Soon space whales are replaced by supers in the dustbowl which is replaced by cavity creeps the rpg... and you are a serial next big thing gamer.

Now I can't help it, I love trying new games and systems, I have long since accepted my fate as a next big thing gamer. However I hate that feeling when a game isn't working quite right and the game dies before its time, it never feels good to have a game die early. Perhaps it is unfair to the games that I'm playing to be constantly playing the next game in my head. It almost certainly is bad for the current game to talk about future games.

The long open ended game is great. I love the long term building of a character, the chance to build a bigger story, the freedom to wander down random little corners of the world. The short term game is great too, the chance to tell a focused story, to try new things, to maybe play a character who is a little reckless. We are telling a story together, and that includes the time not at the table. So we need to keep focused on keeping our current games going strong rather than looking into the future. Next time I'll try to keep the extra games in my head, or somehow find more time for gaming!

Player fun versus character logic: A dilemma

 

A shorter post from me for today.  I have been mulling over a decision as as player for a while now, so I thought I would tell you the scenario and see what you think.  Maybe you have had a similar sort of question, or perhaps you can just tell me that I am thinking to hard about this.  Which may very well be the case. 

Next weekend I will be attending a weekend session for a very long-running post-apocalyptic roleplaying game (Aftermath!, for those interested in the game, though heavily modified because the rules as written are...mystifying) .  In this game, I have a player character (PC) that has survived many years of game play in a game where the life expectancy was a session or two at best, but somehow has been able to survive getting shot multiple times, getting blown up multiple times, giant rat attacks, winged apes, crazy survivors, terminator robots, and a host of other dangers that plague the everyday scavenger. Even gravity itself hates my character in the game, as is evidenced by the fact that I have fallen so many times in the game and survived that the game master actually created a new skill just for my character:  falling.

My character seems to be in a good place in terms of skills, equipment, etc.  He is a gunsmith and armor smith by trade and the party finally found a base with an awesome workshop that has almost everything he needs to ply that trade.  The base is in a community that would value his contributions.  As a character, I always had in mind he was a reluctant scavenger and survivor.  He would much rather pass his time tinkering in the shop and helping the community rather than crawling around the ruins of the city, looking for things to kill him or holes to stumble into.  Impossibly, he has found what may be as close to a happy place as he could hope to find in the miserable world in which he lives.

As a player, I enjoy playing this character.  He has some great skills that can help the party, and not just the smithing skills.  He is actually a really good combatant and is not too shabby at scavenging.  I have lived with this character long enough that he is easy to get back into, even after extended stretches between play sessions.  I would love to see the whole arc of this character, especially considering the amount of time I have put into him and his story.  As a player, there is still plenty of story left in this character.

So where is the dilemma?  As a player, I want to keep playing this character for the fun and the utility of his contributions to the group.  But lately I have been thinking about it in terms of the character.  It seems like, for this character, he has found a place that he could comfortably "retire" from adventuring and settle down.  He could work in the base, outfitting the party and repairing what gear they need fixed before their next adventure.  He could be a huge, constant help to the community around the base, making arms and equipment for better defense, and teaching others his craft so that more people could help in the same way.  It seems like, given a choice, the character would happily slip into an NPC role.  The game master has even offered to come up with a system to continue to improve the character's skills as an NPC in order to avoid suspending all growth after becoming an NPC.

I am torn between what seems like the best choice for the character versus my enjoyment (and perhaps others in the party who may like adventuring with this character).  I know I could make another interesting character that would be a different story and journey, and the idea that I could have a mini game with the original character as an NPC is tempting.  But I like the character I am playing now and as I have said, i wouldn't mind completing his journey.  So there is the choice.  What would you do?

In the end, I think I will keep playing the character.  My enjoyment ultimately outweighs the potential choice a character might make since this is a game.  Games should be fun.  If I am having fun, then keep on keeping on, right?  Of course, you do know what this means:  the next session, my character's luck will finally run out and instead of becoming an influential and essential NPC, he will probably find some hole in the street, fall in, and be devoured by giant rats.  I guess that would just be par for the course in the harsh, sadness-inducing game world in which he exists...

Be a good PC Part 1

There are a ton of articles about how to be a good GM, how to prep, how to yes and, how to do npcs, how to use your GM screen to watch porn while you play. It seems pretty endless. You would think that the success or failure of an rpg rests solely on the shoulders of the game master, but they are just one person at the table. You could have the best gm in the world, but if all the players are slugs, it won't matter the game will still fail. So! This is the first in potentially a series of blog posts of advice for being a better player.

Also this is hopefully the beginning of something resembling a schedule, look here Monday Wednesday and Friday for something in the way of content.

"That's What My Character Would Do!"

Whenever you hear someone say, "Not to be a dick but..." you can be pretty sure they are about to say something dickish. The same goes for, "Not to be rude" or "This probably isn't my place to say" or even "You know, every time I say this I end up in jail..." If you find yourself about to say any of these things you are probably better off not saying anything at all.

There is a similar line that has been played out endlessly by troll players no doubt since the age of Gygax. It is of course, "But that's what my character would do." Every time a player steals from his party, or spends the whole session trying to get drunk in the tavern, they always lay the blame on their misbehaving character. As if they didn't have any control over what happened. As if they didn't have any choice in the matter, and everyone else at the table has to be cool with it.

The attitude that the sanctity of a players control over their character is inviolable is pretty common. After all the players have control over a single thing in the game world, their character. So it follows that a player shouldn't have to curtail their actions, that the game is there in service of the player. There is some truth to this, the interplay between players making choices and changing the gm's plans is the best part of rpgs. It is the magic that makes rpgs so memorable. But it is a mistake to think that the players obligations lie only to themselves. The players are there to work together with the GM, and the other players to make all the pieces come together for the best game possible.

Even a good player can fail on this front. They will take perfectly reasonable actions, that are entirely consistent with their characters, and the game world, but at the same time they still work counter to the overall enjoyment of the game. A good example is a character not showing up for some climactic battle because they feel their character would instead be busy rushing their family out of  city that's about be devoured by a giant salamander. Sure that is what a reasonable person would do, but it puts the GM in an bad spot. Now they have to consider a few courses of action, do they find some awkward way to bring all the PC's together for the final salamander battle? Do they nerf the salamander so that an under powered party can fight it? Do they just let the salamander destroy the rest of the party while the errant player saves his family? Also does the GM have the obligation to keep things entertaining for the player who decided to split the party?

A player's obligation to the general enjoyment of the game is equal to his obligation to be true to his character. It is a fine line to walk. A player who just does what the GM expects might as well be on the dreaded rpg railroad, but one who just goes crazy with their own agenda can take the game to a spot the train wasn't even headed. Some games tolerate more extreme character freedom, but I don't think that is true for the majority of rpgs. Even in the deepest sandbox, it can't hurt a player to consider how his actions will impact  both the game and the other players.

So what can a player do when they find themselves presented with a choice between doing what their character would do, and doing what the plot of the game wants them to do? The first resource in a situation like this is the other players at the table. Make it a role playing moment where you let the other characters convince yours. To a lesser extent the npcs that are important to the characters can be used in this way. If a character's husband implores the PC to go off and fight the Nega Salamander, it gives more depth to the relationships there. Even back to the trolliest action like stealing from other player characters could potentially be an opportunity for roleplay between players.

The second thing you have to consider is if what dissenting action you are doing is a worthwhile moment with your character that warrants the whole table's attention. Is this the moment that you want your character to stand for, to be remembered by. If the moment really feels like a bridge your character should die on, embrace it, but be ready to deal with the repercussions. In fact give explicit permission to the GM and the other players  to allow real consequences to come to the character. If you steal from the other players, don't expect them to bend over backwards to keep your character around. Decide not to show up for the fight with the big bad, don't be surprised if you are asked to leave the party after the fact.

So it's time to retire, "That's what my character would do."

Let's replace it with "I'm ready to deal with the consequences."

Or even the preemptive, "Someone talk me out of this."