Before we get going into the meat of this editorial of sorts, I am here to tell you that this is a sister article to an early post entitled "Why Do People Still Enjoy Action?" If you have not read through that piece yet, please go to the right and read it quickly before delving into the stuff here, since this is a sort-of spiritual follow-up.
With that being said, let's dig into the meat of my revelations.
I was flipping channels, as I typically do during afternoons when I am bored and have already watched all of my recorded stuff, and I stumbled upon the climax of Aliens. Having loved this film and its predecessor, I decided to catch the end where Ripley and Newt scramble through the station to escape its detonation, being chased by the Alien Queen. Even though I was catching it at the end, I felt myself very engaged with what was going on, and instead of flipping to something else, I stayed until the credits.
After turning my brain back on, I realized something.
Aliens is almost as iconic as you can get as far as action movies are concerned, and even after seeing it many times, I was not bored. I was excited. I cared about these characters and what was going on, even after just jumping in, and it was the mind-numbing action that I railed against in that last article.
In fact, some of my favorite movies have heavy amounts of action, such as Star Wars, or the Matrix. Despite the fact that these are now considered classics, there has to be something there that makes the action feel fresh every time instead of the recycled, explosion-heavy bad-assery that seems to have dominated action films this past decade or so.
So, what's the missing element? And is it also missing in our roleplaying sessions?
I've figured it out, and it's rather simple.
Tension; that's the missing element.
The three movies I've mentioned above work tension into their films almost flawlessly at just the right moments, making the action engaging and generating care for the characters if you liked them enough. In Aliens, Ripley may have her awesome gun, but she knows that both she and Newt are toast if the Alien Queen catches up to them, and the audience knows it too. In Star Wars, the Rebel Alliance is about to get their base destroyed by the Death Star, and they only have one shot to do an incredibly tricky maneuver against a huge amount of opposition. I still get goosebumps during the trench run. In the Matrix, everyone (except Neo, but we don't find that out until the end) are basically powerless to stop the Agents, so whenever they show up, the main characters are in serious trouble.
(Minor summer movie spoilers ahead for Star Trek: Into Darkness and Man of Steel)
Now let's contrast these elements against a few of the big summer blockbusters that are making their run this year. Was there tension in Star Trek: Into Darkness? At points, yes, but that is cheapened quite a bit when the back of your mind is reminding you constantly, 'They can't kill off Kirk. That would end the franchise. How are they gonna bring him back?' What about Man of Steel, which is likely going to be the highest grossing action film this year next to Iron Man 3? Well, it's kind of hard to feel tension when two incredibly super-powered people are punching each other through buildings with little regard for those who get in the way. That's not to say they didn't try, what with the 'Kryptonite-esque' aspects of the big planet-terraformer machine, but if memory serves, that didn't slow Superman down all that much.
Let's bring this back to roleplaying, shall we?
To me, it seems that GM's often sit in either one of two camps. Either they are looking to make everything as challenging as possible to compete with the players in some magnitude, or they are rather lenient, hold back, and put the story first. Are there some that sit between them? Undoubtedly, there has to be, but that is the breakdown I often see.
(This also depends highly on what system you are running, but I'm going to assume the lowest common denominator here. If you are running something ala Call of Cthulhu, your tension problems are taken care of by nature of the system itself.)
More often than not, I'm sitting in the second camp, but honestly? I don't want to anymore. That's because of this book.
I really don't want to steal this guy's thunder by reiterating everything he says in this book, but let me present this to you. Do you want action that is meaningful? Do you want your players to be engaged? Do you want to put the missing element of tension inside your games again, make them feel more alive?
Follow this man's advice: play dirty. Push your player characters to the limit. Provide consequences! While it may seem like an assholish way to run games at first, the rewards are incredible, and in the end, your players will thank you if they give enough of a damn.
I know I'm not providing a lot of my own advice on how to interweave tension into your games, but that is because I cannot do it better than this man has done. My goal is for your to walk away with two things: to think about how vital tension and suspense is to meaningful action, and to consider finding a way to read this book. It's that good.
I hope you enjoyed this semi-follow-up! If not, here's a funny picture.
So, we're here at session two of Civil War, which you can always watch by clicking on the lovely embedded Youtube video here!
However, for those of you who would rather read a moderately sized blog post than sit through about three hours of guys making 'Bro' and 'Hulk' jokes (we'll get there), read on!
Just a reminder of the team we've got in the works here. Every player has two heroes at the moment. Hulk and Daredevil. Thor and Iron Man. Tigra and Ms. Marvel. Moon Knight and Hawkeye. Captain America and Luke Cage. Wolverine and Spider-Woman. Spider-Man and Dr. Strange. One player was absent, so neither Thing nor Yellowjacket will be showing up.
Ready to dive in?
Session Summary:
Things began right about where they left off. The team was in Oklahoma wrapping up the business with the giant, mega-death sword that we protected from Dr. Doom. A few smart guys were called in to find some way to protect and ward it, including Tony and Dr. Strange. A Doom Spiderbot shows up with a message from Doom saying that he wasn't interested in taking it, but in fact was using his army as security. We promptly ignored that noise while Dr. Strange packed a whalloping ward using alliteration (like I just did) to protect the universe-ending weapon.
Being a wonderful time for phone calls, Banner has come to after his lab-smashing rampage in an abandoned military base in New Jersey that is being raided by Hydra forces, and phones for help. Oddly enough, I live near an abandoned military base in New Jersey, so I could have been in some serious trouble here. So, we sent in the team of heroes that everyone didn't have in Oklahoma, Tony and Spider-Man excluded. I spend the rest of this session as Spider-Woman, because Hydra, and stuff.
The action scene begins with Banner rigging up a laser from scattered equipment and shooting a giant robot with it. Yeah, that was bad-ass. Cap throws his mighty shield and messes up before Hawkeye fires in some tear-gas to get the guys in there all dazed and confused. Ms. Marvel decided to attack the giant Hydra transport that was waiting outside.
Now, for those of you not in the know with Spider-Woman, during this time she was a triple agent, working with SHIELD and Hydra and spying on both while relaying all of this information back to Nick Fury. So, that makes anything with Hydra or SHIELD more fun for me. Instead of going in there, guns blazing like everyone else, Spider-Woman nabbed an agent real fast and started to interrogate him on what they were doing there, hoping to help them achieve their objective in the long run to keep up Hydra status.
Before that could bring up any fruit, Spider-Man and Iron Man show up. Spidey webs up one of the giant robots, who was going to target Spider-Woman but didn't... 'Cause stuff! After the Hydra agents rough up some of the team a bit, or try to at least, Iron Man does a mega EMP that takes everyone out. I blame my bad internet during this session on him.
So, SHIELD shows up and cleans up while Cap and Hawkeye high-five the team and have a little banter. Banner hulks out while trying to fix up Spider-Man, which was weird, but why not? Thus began the Hulk jokes, that didn't stop anytime soon. Upon returning to base, the team is given two hooks to nibble upon. The first one is that the government is considering bringing back up the Superhuman Registration Act, which is legislation talking about registering superhumans. The second is that Hammerhead is going to be assassinated after getting off a plane or something? I'm not really sure, since my internet was cutting out during that explanation.
We go for the second option. Ms. Marvel is swapped out for Tigra, and Iron Man is swapped out for Thor. Those who can go incognito do, and we all watch as Hammerhead gets into his limo. Funnily enough, a gang of 'bros' hopped up on Mutant Growth Hormone show up to pull the trigger so to speak. I began the round by having Spider-Woman pump up the pheromones in order to distract them, which didn't work out so hot. Spidey wasn't having a good day, so he swings in and tries to hit a guy, which backfires. Hulk comes in and... Well... Smashes. Thor finishes off the bros by dramatically posing and telling the guys to cut it out.
The bros were soundly defeated!... But, now the limo is going out of control and driving through airport security. Hawkeye tries to shoot the engine out, but misses. But Hawkeye never misse- Oh, wait. That's Bullseye. Oops. Captain America tries to wave the crowd away, with limited success. Finally, Tigra saves the day and pounces the limo, tearing the driver out from the seat, only to find that Hammerhead is a robot with a bomb strapped to him.
Dayum.
Thor takes the bomb into space, and the day is saved! The press is on the outskirts, but we all know how well that played out last time. However, Hulk wants to talk to the press, but we all swiftly convince him not to with promises of a buffet back at Avengers Tower. Food is a powerful motivator. So are pheromones.
Put them together, you get this.
Back at Avengers Tower, we follow up on a few leads based on what's going on. Apparently, the bros were hired by a mysterious hooded figure, who was the same guy who hired the Serpent Society to protect that MGH lab last session. My meta-game knowledge points to 'the Hood', but that's just me. We're also rather baffled by the Hammerhead robot, which turned out to be a life model decoy, which Nick Fury is famous for using.
However, when you want info on the underworld, you can always talk to the Kingpin, so we did. It was fairly simple, since he was in the slammer at this point, so we get a group of like minded individuals... and Hulk... and go have a chat. Captain America dominated the scene with each of us throwing in a fat joke here and there. Turns out the Kingpin has no idea about the life model decoys, or why one was used for Hammerhead. In fact, I can't really remember any solid info that we got out of Marvel's underworld Stay-Puft, but that may be because it's really rather late at the time of my typing this.
We end the session with a congressional hearing looming over our heads. I'm bringing back Wolvie for that one. Someone's gotta stick up for mutant-kind on this team.
My Reactions:
I'll be perfectly honest right out of the gate, this one didn't really zing for me. Not that it was bad, because, when you get right down to it, it wasn't at all. Everyone was laughing and having a good time, and that is the number one priority here. If it isn't fun, then why bother, right? That is my central philosophy when evaluating my own sessions: fun is the number one goal, all the time, every game.
And yes, it was fun.
But something was off with me, big time. I'm not really sure what it was, to be perfectly honest. I wasn't tired. Wasn't sick. I just felt really disconnected to everything for some weird reason that I'll try to figure out below. Oh, and my internet wasn't cooperating, so that didn't help either.
It could have been the fact that I was playing Spider-Woman for this entire session. I really wanted to get some time in with her to get a feel for how she plays, and I knew that Hydra would be involved in some capacity this session, so she had to be there for that. However, I'm not totally comfortable with her yet, power-wise or personality. Having read a good number of comics with her in it, I can play the spy-game, and I can attempt the wry sense of humor, but there is a measure of awkwardness there.
Before I get into more exploration of why this session was off for me, I would like to explain what I did enjoy. I want to do this now, because I've written a lot about the things that were negative for me, and I don't want to spin this whole thing the wrong way for you guys, especially those of you involved in this game, and double especially for Jared who is running this campaign.
Despite a complaint about the action scenes that I will say below, I did really enjoy them. Beating on a group of Hydra goons is really fun, and some of the stuff these guys come up with is amazing. Especially Iron Man with his super EMP. I mean, damn! That's pretty kick-ass, and totally Tony Stark. Now, those of you who read my last post about Action would think that these parts would be boring for me, but I do find the fun in scenes like this more than that post implies. It's just not even close to my favorite stuff.
Also, some of the guys were on fire comedically which had all of us rolling. I wasn't, unfortunately, but God, man. If you watch the video above for nothing else, watch it for the zingers. They are there, and they are amazing. Between the constant bro references, Steve making fun of my state, and Hulk, there was good comedy to be had. That's where the real fun of this session came through.
Now, let's go back to trying to figure out why this one was off for me.
Unfortunately, the 'weird thing' that I have mentioned in my X-Men session reports has come back even worse than before. I hate this, I really do. For those who haven't read that post, I'll reiterate it here. In online games involving speech and video, I have a really hard time distinguishing in and out of character speech, especially when it comes to jokes. God, this irritates me, because it seems to be something only I have trouble with. Especially this session with the Hulk. When the guy who plays Hulk, which does a good job all things considered, says a 'Hulk is -' or a 'Hulk wants -' joke, I can't tell if it's in or out of character at all. Then, other people will respond, and I can't tell if they are in character or just extending the joke out of character. This confusion also makes me clam up, so I'm missing an opportunity to do my favorite part of the hobby, talking and interacting in-character, because I'm confused.
Now, take that, and multiply it across seven or eight people who have two characters each, and I'm practically crippled. Not to mention my weird shyness that prevents me from starting up conversations in-character, basically because half of these peoples are almost complete strangers.
Worst part is, it's no one's fault but my own. It can't really be fixed without making stuff regimented and stilted, which is the last thing I want. So, I suppose I'll just have to continue on and pray that, as I get to know these people, that it goes away.
I'm also still not sold on this group size. There was a good discussion about it on the comments for my first Civil War session report, and the consensus, as I remember it, was a 'wait and see' approach. Well, I'm not convinced Marvel Heroic is meant for a group of eight with power levels ranging from Daredevil to Thor and Hulk. In both action scenes this session, combat only lasted one round, and everyone got one action each. The heavy hitters stole the show, obviously. Now, here's my point. If the group was smaller, failing a roll during an action scene wouldn't be such a big deal when you're on the weaker side of the spectrum, as Spider-Woman is. However, if things get wrapped up in one round due to an awesome roll from Iron Man or Hulk, and you messed up on your turn, then that's all you get to do that scene. You don't get your spotlight moment. That sucks.
When the game is mostly focused on action, that really sucks.
The final point I'd like to make is selfish, so please disregard it, but I would like to bring it up anyway. In a group of eight players, I shouldn't really expect my character's stuff to be explored all that much. Especially since everyone has two characters, I should just completely forget about it. However, a part of me still feels that Spider-Woman's triple agent status was under-utilized during the Hydra scene. She interrogated a guy, which had no mechanical influence, but he wasn't talking until the scene was over, and by then, it was too late to act on any information she would have gotten. Not to mention, the thing Hydra was after wasn't even there, so there was no opportunity for a moment of swiping it while SHIELD was cleaning up and handing it off to a Hydra contact as a small aside thing. Spider-Man also had an ample opportunity to call her out on the suspicious stuff that was going on, which would have potentially netted me four XP and been a great point of character evolution, but that didn't happen.
I wouldn't be worried about this if it was an isolated incident, but something similar happened during our Breakout game last summer. Now, I hate to be the guy who complains about things that happened a year ago, but it's a wasted opportunity that still miffles me just a bit. See, I was playing Wolverine, and the 10XP point of his milestone was either coming off a berserker rage without killing anybody, or murdering someone in front of innocents. Well, it just so happens that Wolverine murdered a villain in cold blood... And nobody cared. Unlike some of the other members of our group who just see Milestones as a way to score XP, I see them as crucial evolution points for a character. Hitting the 10 mark should be a huge deal. However, in this game and the Breakout one before it, completing milestones was just kind of a whimper and mechanical thing. In that game, I was building Wolverine to a point where he was seeing how much of a savage, how much like Sabretooth, he was becoming, and having him deal with that baggage, but the big incident that would have brought that to life was swept under the rug as we moved on to the next plot point.
I really, really apologize for bitching. It's far too late for me to be writing this blog post anyway, but I wanted to get down my thoughts while they were super fresh in my mind. I also apologize if I sound whiny, bitchy, or selfish. I don't mean to.
I'm enjoying this game, and look forward to the next time we play in two weeks where we finally dip into the stuff that sparks the Civil War.
I hope you enjoyed this post, despite my ramblings and goings-on, which I do far too much. Why else would I have a blog? If not, enjoy this funny picture, at least.
I'm not really sure why this topic came to my mind. I mean, it's not an original opinion or anything groundbreaking. Plenty of people don't like D&D 4th Edition for very astute reasons that have been carefully laid out and explored ever since it came into existence. In fact, I could likely link you to a variety of articles and videos telling you precisely why 4th Edition sucks.
But I won't.
'Cause I gotta throw my two cents in while 4th Edition is the current figurehead of the biggest role-playing game in existence.
It's no surprise really that I don't like this system. Hell, I don't even like Dungeons and Dragons. Shocker, right? While I do enjoy fantasy to an extent, it is by no means my favorite genre, and D&D has always been too technical, grindy, and bloated with things that usually don't fit into my settings or don't interest me all that much. Still, it's what the masses want, so despite my better judgement and opinions, I have to run it and play it to either keep my friends happy or give non-gamers something they've heard of to break them into the hobby.
That being said, I will admit that 4th Edition isn't a horrible way to get non-gamers into the hobby. It's simple enough, identifiable, teaches the basics of the hobby, and you can have a good time with it. Believe me, I have. In those ways, it succeeds in being a game that can be played and enjoyed, so it's not complete and utter garbage.
Unless you have an inkling of design and role-playing game sensibilities. Then it's complete and utter garbage.
Let's break down the reasons, shall we?
Reason 1: The Three Tiers
God, is this stupid. So, the game tells you straight out how your character's career is going to go based on levels. 1-10 is the Heroic stage, where you do what is typically expected in a fantasy game. 11-20 is the Paragon stage where, after the passage of one level, you are a major player deciding the fate of the world or nation, flying on hippogriffs or teleporting, fighting bigger and deadlier monsters. 21 and on is the Epic tier, going across nations in an instant, fighting in the air, deciding the fate of the multiverse.
But, hold on. So, if I want a game completely based on heroes that are usually presented in something akin to Lord of the Rings, Mistborn, or other fantasy realms I like, I'm limited to level 10? If my players go beyond that, they are suddenly breaking into stuff that may not even be in my setting? Why are my players or myself constrained to this career path? Sure, you can ignore the fluff, but the game won't. And it will take a lot of editing to scale down some of the powers and abilities you can get down the line.
Thanks for assuming I'm going to be playing by your setting expectations, D&D. Don't label yourself as a fantasy system for all flavors if you're gonna pigeonhole me to the dungeon crawl, shake the nations with power template.
Reason 2: Skill Challenges
If you've been following this blog in any capacity, you know that my favorite part of RPG is the 'RP'. I'm usually not a big fan of the game part. I prefer role-playing, creating characters, getting into character, interacting, talking, going through a character arc, emotion, all that fuzzy stuff.
Here's a middle finger to all of that.
4th Edition introduced the idea of skill challenges, something I swiftly threw out, and the players I ran the game for probably forget that they exist. Basically, it's a complicated series of skill checks meant to represent some kind of encounter that isn't combat. So, the game designers sat down and said, "Okay, combat is all statted out to the last letter. Players might get bored if they're doing something not in a dungeon that has something to do with a thing called story, like convincing a king to go to war or exposing a liar, so we'll make it like a combat encounter! They'll roll a lot of dice and stuff! Can't have anything fun happening without the rolling of dice!"
So, an important role-playing encounter is now just another series of rolls, hardly influenced by the player's wit, charm, or ability to talk through situations. While this may help a player who is socially awkward play a suave diplomat because he's trained in diplomacy on his sheet, it cheapens an important part of the tabletop RP experience into something trivial and almost unnecessary. I could see an encounter like this go with just rolling dice with no explanation, and the whole thing is blanketed over and resolved in time to get to the next combat encounter.
Again, if you like that sort of thing, that's fine! Still, though, you are potentially cutting out a part of the game that is important to weird people like me who'd prefer to spend two hours sitting around a campfire and swapping stories than slay an army of orcs.
Reason 3: Classes and the 'Powers' System
I saved the best for last.
Picture that room of genius game designers again. "Alright, so, in our last edition of the game, people who played fighters and rangers and stuff were bored because all they did was hit things while the magic users got to pick spells and think. So, here's my idea, now everybody gets to choose things like spells!"
"What about the fighters and rogues who don't use magic?" asks someone who's paying attention.
"Ah, but they won't be called spells! They'll be called powers! Fighters can do special moves that attack stuff in neat ways and rogues will be all special sneak attack, flourish, and stuff!"
"So, what's the difference between a wizard's fireball spell that does a d8 of damage versus a fighter's special attack that does a d8 of damage?" asks the same guy who's paying attention.
"Uh, nothing, when you get right down to it."
"And aren't special moves and ways to improve normal combat what feats are for?" asks another person who just woke up.
"Screw feats!"
And there you have it, folks. Now, wizards and sorcerers are like everyone else. Their powers are pretty much equivalent to the special moves of their more mundane counterparts. No more studying up spells. They just go off, like magic! Sure, maybe this class can heal, or this class has a plus two to something that no one really cares about, but all of the classes are able to do cool things, all the time!
I think Syndrome said it best.
(Sorry for the bad quality~)
This becomes painfully obvious when you look at the way they handle multi-classing in this edition. Basically, you pick up the multi-class feat, pick another class, and you get one of their special things that no one cares about and an extra power. And that's it.
And, obviously, feats get the shaft too. No more careful optimizing, you power gamers who love this system so much! Feats give you little bonuses to things you don't care about, and there's a lot less of them of you're just working off the original three core books.
This is garbage on so many levels, it's not even funny. What was supposed to make combat more interesting and fun becomes mundane incredibly fast. Hell, there's not even a point with just attacking with your weapon anymore. Just do your At-Will, over, and over, and over.
Doesn't matter what class you pick. Scramble the ability scores a little, pick a race, grab a class out of the bag and you're set to go. Oh, but aren't there RP implications of being a wizard versus a fighter? Nah, D&D doesn't care anymore. That's why they added Skill Challenges. So, go ahead, whether you're shooting magic missile or stabbing a dude in the back, roll those pretty little dice, do some damage, crawl a little further into the dungeon, advance down our preset career path carefully laid out for you. Have you tried our Neverwinter setting, perfectly optimized for that carefully laid out career path? Well, you should! 'Cause creativity is for losers.
Rant Over
God.
That felt good to get off my chest.
Anyway, whether you agree with me or not, I hope you enjoyed my slightly bothered ranting. If not, here's a funny picture. -Wes
So, first I've got a spot of good news that is almost too good to be a coincidence. Originally, I had a fear that my X-Men and Civil War games were going to collide, considering they were both held on Mondays in the exact same time-slot. However, by stroke of luck or God, it seems that they were both scheduled on alternating weeks allowing me to have a Marvel session every single Monday for the foreseeable summer.
Ain't that just great?
So, I may just call these session reports 'Marvel Mondays' because alliteration is awesome. (See what I did there?) Though, that really doesn't matter in light of the topic.
Let's dive right in, shall we?
Session Summary:
We started out this session almost exactly where we left the last one. Beast was tinkering with the severed robot heads. Mr. Immortal was hanging out in the infirmary. Rogue was in the library trying to clear her head. With Mentallo somewhat conscious, the Professor was able to glean some important information. It seems that he was hired by Magneto to run a machine through telepathy (the weird device he was strapped to) to jump-start these other machines called 'Breeder Bombs' that are supposed to flood the world with radiation over time so that more mutants would be born.
(Yeah. This was the best quality of this scene on Youtube, and I'm a Brony. Deal with it.)
As luck would have it, the video feed had the four locations of the Breeder Bombs on file, and Beast was able to figure out the location of the one in North America. If you haven't gotten a 'Masks of Nyarlathotep' vibe from this yet, then you obviously haven't played enough Cthulhu. We saddle up on the Blackbird (Which I called the Quinjet. Thanks, Jared) and start heading off for the wonderful state of Colorado.
So far in my Marvel Mondays adventures, I've been getting a good taste of the US. Oklahoma has fallen Asgard stuff, and Colorado has giant super-weapons guarded by insane hillbilly miners.
(I get to use this picture again. Yay!)
Rogue (Played by me) and Mr. Immortal get out of the jet and investigate where Beast's geiger counter contraption says the device is. They run into a hillbilly with a shotgun, and Rogue totally relates and stuff. Using a little white lie, they say that they're interested in purchasing the thing he is protecting and they go inside a bunker-looking building to get a look at the machine. One particularly amusing line from this exchange was the following uttered by Mr. Immortal.
"You should touch him and knock it out. Sure, you'll think you're a strange hill-billy for a while and love guns, but what else is new?"
Instead of infecting her mind, she leads him outside to negotiate prices while Mr. Immortal and Beast try to figure out how to shut the machine down. Then, Sentinels attack. It just wouldn't be a proper X-Men game without these guys, now, would it?
This was a great fight, and while I won't exactly give the blow-by-blow, I'll point out some great moments. Mr. Immortal caused the Sentinel to smash the machine and over-charge it. Beast yanked a tree out of the ground and hit a Sentinel with it. Rogue ripped the blaster cannon off of a sentinel, got crushed by his hand, then brushed off the damage and flipped the guy over. Mr. Immortal looted the hillbilly's stash of weapons and tried to shoot the robot with a 9mm. Finally, Beast got into the X-Jet and effectively finished both of the injured Sentinels off while spouting off this gem.
"Sir, I usually think it crass to give one the bird, but in this case, I am more than willing."
The military was on its way after this whole debacle from the nearby military base, so the team got out of there as quickly as possible. Professor Xavier sent them a message via telepathy that he had the next location ready to send to them, and the group had an in-depth discussion on why Magneto would be using Sentinels. Beast hypothesized that the Magneto in the footage may be a robot also!
Apparently, the next bomb is in Russia somewhere in a former Soviet state. Back in the USSR, anyone? No? Just me?
So, just as we get there, zap! Something shuts down our engines and we fall to the ground and crash. We're all fine, 'cause, y'know. Superheroes. Come to find out that Titanium Man and his minions are on the warpath!...
And that's where we ended, since someone had to leave.
My Reactions:
Gotta say, I enjoyed this session much more than the last two I have been in with this group. I'm kind of the new guy in this group, considering these guys play in an Annihilation game every other Wednesday that I'm not currently involved with, but I finally feel like I've acclimated myself in. The guys were in great form tonight, all in-character, doing cool and creative stuff, and our GM was a bit more focused and ready than he was the previous two times.
What was really great to find out is that, now that I'm aware of the 'Weird Thing' that I described in my last X-Men session summary, I'm much better able to deal with it. Of course, it's also a big part of knowing the people and being able to read when they're IC or OOC, but I'm getting much better at doing that. With that said, we actually got into some good role-play this session! Instead of one-lined quips in a row, we actually carried on conversations and started exploring some light character stuff dealing with the situation. This is more what I'm talkin' about, and I hope that this trend will only continue.
The Sentinel fight was the main feature of the session, and after playing with large groups the last few times out, it was really refreshing to go back to the small-group setting. The fight was really a lot of fun, especially seeing what Mr. Immortal was going to do to make a difference, considering he is the quirky one when it comes to powers. Unfortunately, it seems this campaign is mostly centered around fighting robots, so I don't get to use Rogue's 'cool' powers as much, but I gotta say, Ms. Marvel's power-set is incredibly satisfying. Between Energy Absorption and her version of Second Wind, you can get the d12 strength quite a bit and shrug off stress like it was nothing. I love it.
Besides a few hiccups on the GM's side involving things beyond his or our control, there really wasn't anything too wrong with this session. I had a great time, and despite the rail-roadiness of the module in question, I'm looking forward to the game in two weeks.
Hope you enjoyed the post! If not, here's a funny picture.
I was brainstorming some topics to cover in the tabletop RPG realm for this blog when I was swiftly reminded of a project I undertook in college. As you may or may not be able to tell, I like to consider myself a pretty creative person. My two major fields of creativity are through writing and acting, two things I've kept up with ever since I was a child. What's rather cool is that they can be combined in the art of play-writing, which is an art-form I absolutely adore.
My first play was a musical based off of Green Day's "21st Century Breakdown" album that was aimed to discover the narrative of the rock opera and create something that was a little deeper and more satisfying than the musical created for "American Idiot." Those that read it really rather enjoyed it, though looking at it now, there's not much I can do with it and the dialogue is in sore need of updating and revising.
Anyway, back to role-playing, I actually wrote a play in college based around a group playing Dungeons and Dragons. It is one of the most personal things I have ever written, projecting some of my ideas about the stereotypes and opinions about the hobby and injecting a lot of my own experiences into little nuanced bits and pieces. Every character is a splinter of me in some way, shape or form, some taken to extremes, some explored at a different angle, some completely reversed. It's basically a love letter from me to the hobby, dripping with the blood of my soul.
Graphic, right?
For those of you who would like to read it and tell me what you think, I'll put a link on this post to a place where you can look it over. I'm not really doing this to be self-promoting, nor am I really looking for any hard criticism. I just want to share a labor of love that may even ring a few bells in your own role-playing experience or make you think about certain things a little more.
If you don't want to go through the process of reading through a college-level, fifty-odd paged play, I will put up some notes from my outline here for your perusal and hopefully you can glean some of the guts of the play from that.
"Dungeon" Outline:
Thesis:
Dungeons and Dragons is a game of masks. Everyone gets one. By
wearing them, one can see into a world of fantasy composed entirely
of the thoughts, desires, and dreams of those playing. When the
masks are taken away and reality seeps back in, those involved are
forced to ask the question: “Which world is the dungeon?”
World:
The world that explores this thesis is the basement of a teenage boy.
Though never shown, it is smack-dab in the middle of a seemingly
exemplary suburbia. Outside of this space, the world appears to be
perfect, and have perfect inhabitants. Beyond appearances, it is
actually the opposite, a land where one is not able to be themselves
fully, a place that needs escape. In this basement, that world is
broken temporarily, allowing another world to be witnessed,
inhabited by the ghosts of “What I Want to Be” or “Who I
Really Am” or “Where I Want to Be.” These ghosts cannot exist
or move without characters from the first world giving them life,
and die immediately when they leave.
Inhabitants:
(AN: Keep in mind this is all artistic metaphor and stuff.)
Issac Silverman – In the outside world, Issac Silverman is a puppy
held on a tight leash. However, this puppy isn't energetic, yippy,
free. He's held tightly by his collar, and has been for far too many
years, never allowing the puppy to become a man. When he enters the
space of the play, he's let off of the collar and seeks to be the
master of those he finds, but must constantly wrestle with the call
of his own master and the fact that he isn't fully grown, despite
pretending he is.
Josh Williams – In the outside world, Josh is a golden statue on a
high pedestal. His pose constantly changes, depicting a star
athlete, a great student, the perfect boyfriend. There are many who
admire this statue, watching him closely, almost too closely. Some
search for a stain, others try to make sure that he remains
unblemished. When he enters the space of the play, he steps off of
the pedestal, sheds the golden skin, and is allowed to breathe and
live. However, he brings one of his onlookers with him, who is
forcing him to wear that golden skin in a place of escape.
Francis Jones – In the outside world, Francis is a boy. His hair
is short. His clothes are masculine. He has a penis. He likes girls.
He likes sports. He likes blood, guts, dirt. The world has told him
that he is a man. The world has shown him what a man is supposed to
be, and he has obeyed. When he enters the space of the play, Francis
is a woman. She has cast off everything that the world has told her
to be, and has become what she's always wanted to be. She has a
vagina. She likes boys. However, she is constantly reminded that the
world, and the audience, sees her as a man, and defines her as such.
Kimberly Whisp – In the outside world, Kimberly is a ghost. People
seem to see her, sometimes, but she's almost always faded from view.
She doesn't walk like people do; she floats along with whatever
occurs in the space around her. Sometimes she's heard, but always she
squeaks. Squeaking is how ghosts speak in the outside world. It is
all that's expected from them. Though they are alive, they are
images of the people that died sometime in their youth, but yet
live. In the space of the play, Kimberly is alive and ready to
embrace all of the beauty of living, of freeing the girl that died
years before. However, everyone in the outside world still sees her
as a ghost, and treats her as such.
Mrs. Silverman – Mrs. Silverman is not allowed to enter the space
of the play. Rather, she is a constant dwelling force in the outside
world that is a reminder that the space of the play is a separate
place. Once upon a time, Mrs. Silverman was a puppy on a leash, but
that puppy eventually became a dog on a leash, and had puppies of
her own. She doesn't know any different, and never got to experience
any world beside the one outside. Therefore, she tries to control
and drag back any who have tried to break the boundary. She is
Cerberus.
Jade – In the outside world, Jade is a gem. She's green with
jealousy of all of those that surround her, and therefore, must be
adorned with all of the gold possible because she cannot recognize
that she is a gem on her own. Only by looking into a reflection of
gold can she see herself as a gem. Therefore, she has attached
herself to the golden statue. She is a visitor to the space of the
play and is able to see the strange ghosts that inhabit that place,
but she is overly concerned with looking back into the outside world
and into that golden reflection to see the gem. She is Lot's Wife
and Job's Wife combined.
Brock – In the outside world, Brock is an infection. He is able to
spread to whatever type of victim he desires, through words, through
looks, through violence, through manipulation. Once the infection
hits, it starts to consume, taking everything for itself,
multiplying, and living through the bodies of others. Eventually, it
leaves one body and jumps to another, leaving the victim beaten,
bloodied, bruised, and irreparable. Unfortunately, this type of
infection is incredibly attracted to ghosts. Brock enters the space
of the play to take what is slowly being dragged away from him,
evolving from an invisible virus to a behemoth. Brock is Bill Sikes.
Outline:
Act
1:
Paradise
The first act will establish both worlds and those who inhabit each
and walk the line between them. We will meet Issac Silverman, who
is running a game of Dungeons and Dragons for his friends: Josh
Williams, Francis Jones, and Kimberly Whisp. Josh brings Jade, his
girlfriend, to the game, showing her what it is like. We will also
meet the ghosts, the characters of the three players of the game,
who represent “Who I Want to Be” for Kimberly, “Who I Really
Am” for Francis, and “Where I Want to Be” for Josh.
Things proceed well, for a while, but the outside world keeps
trying to seep in and interrupt. Eventually, Jade, a member of the
outside world, breaks away due to disgust, followed by Josh, and
the group takes a break from the game.
Act
2:
Imprisonment or Freedom?
The
second act will show how sinister the outside world can be, and the
reaction of our characters to the confrontations presented. Issac
will break his leash. Josh will melt down the statue. Francis will
embrace his identity. Kimberly will solidify, and fight off the
infection. Through this process of change, the outside world bears
down evermore. The characters must then choose which world they
want to inhabit for eternity after.
End of Outline Excerpt
I hope you guys enjoyed this look into a creative project that I'm really proud of. Let me know what you think if you read it! If you didn't enjoy any of this stuff, here's a funny picture.
Being an aspiring writer and a huge nerd, I've decided to supplement my Civil War summary posts with in-character journal entries. Have fun!))
Entry 1:
I really shouldn't be doin' this.
It ain't smart puttin' personal information in an easily compromised place, especially when you've made as many enemies as I have over the years. The wrong guy gets a hold of it and they can make your life into a living Hell.
'Cept, I ain't too worried about Hell, so fuck it. After I got all my memories back by some quirk of chance after Wanda had her way with reality, I've been pretty paranoid of losin' 'em again. If I keep track of what's been goin' on and keep it safe, maybe, in the future if Weapon X drags me back and wipes my mind away, I'll have a way to remember.
But who'd want to remember this?
Wanda Maximoff fucked up all of reality, makin' it so mutants are now an endangered species with millions of us losin' our powers. Now instead of fightin' to save those who hate us, they've got us all cooped up on a reservation guarded by fuckin' Sentinels. Summers doesn't have the spine to do anythin' about it. Sometimes I don't blame him, but lookin' out the window and seeing those bastards keepin' us from leavin' sets my blood to boilin'.
Guess I've got a perverted kind of luck. Still got my powers, otherwise I'd be dead. And, unlike the rest of 'em, my status with the Avengers gets me a 'Get Out of Jail Free' card from the mansion whenever I'd like. I've taken the trip from Westchester to New York more times than I can count in the last six months. Stark owes me gas money.
They're a decent bunch. Put up with me, so that's somethin'. Cap and I go way back, pretty literally. Web-head and I have teamed up more than I'd like to admit, and we work well off each other. When Ben's not hangin' with F-Troop, he's a good drinkin' partner. Same with the God of Thunder. Haven't worked much with Tigra in the past, but I've got to admire a woman with the kind of feral ferocity she's got bubblin' under the surface. Banner's a good guy, when he's not green. Some of 'em get under my skin, though. I don't trust Jessica. Don't like her smell. Always got those pheremones floatin' around, makes my nose burn and my head spin. And a guy could respect Knight's self-righteous quest for vengeance, but the man won't shut his yap. Stark owes me gas money.
So, the minute I stumble into the tower after a long drive from the Mansion, it's time for work. And not the kind of work I like. Bill Foster was sick and goin' on a rampage in the middle of the city and we had to knock him down a peg. Wasn't too hard, just had to knock some sense in to 'im. That was mostly Stark's job, blastin' the guy with a fully-charged blast after bluffin'. Then the press shows up, which was my cue to leave. Took care of it with all the grace and civility the team has come to expect.
Told 'em to fuck off.
I didn't go straight back to the tower after that. Wasn't interested in watchin' the smart guys poke and prod a giant, and wasn't exactly willing to sit around the Tower watching TV and drinkin'. I was willin' to sit around a bar that smells like piss to drink adn watch TV, however. Took my bike to one of my favorite dives in the area and blew off some steam. I know the 'tender, usually gives me a decent price. Beer isn't bad. Place is quiet enough.
Thought a little bit about whether I really belonged on the Avengers. I ain't used to being a public face of heroism, hence why I avoid the press any chance I can. Bein' the only mutant on the team, I'm representing all of mutant-kind, and that's a responsibility I never asked for. Can't change who I am, but I'll be the first to admit, flipping off reporters and slinging curses on camera ain't the way to change the world's opinion of us.
But, I figure if Daredevil and Moon Knight belong here, maybe the standards of membership have been taken down a few notches.
Eventually, I made my way back to the tower just in time to see the team come back from a lab bust. Banner went on another rampage, which I've come to expect. We can only keep a leash on that monster for so long, which is probably one of the reasons I'm still kept around. Not many people have gone toe-to-toe with Jolly Green more than I have. All the evidence was destroyed, and Iron Man had taken off for a bit.
Hell, don't blame him.
Before the night was over, we loaded up on the Quinjet and took off to Oklahoma to be security detail for some landing site. I've been there once or twice in my long life, never for long or for a good reason. Gonna have to chalk this trip up to that list. Note to self: borrow the Blackbird and show up Ben Grimm at the next available opportunity.
Maria Hill decided to take an interest in our activities of the evening. That woman puts a sour taste in my mouth, and she owes me. I could have ended her life, and I had every good justification to do so. Somethin' held me back, the little voice of reason in the back of my head that reminds me that I ain't an animal. Sometimes it's Jeanie. Sometimes it's Chuck. Sometimes it's even fuckin' Slim. I don't always listen, but that night I did, and Hill better thank whatever God she believes in that I did.
Wouldn't you know it that shortly after we arrive, seein' a giant sword that fell out of the sky, Victor Von Doom and an army of his toys flood the field. After a night of self-doubt and bad moods, that was exactly what I needed. Rather than take Doom head on, I charged the field of Doombots and went to work. Nothin' beats the feelin' of taking down an army, seein' the bodies fall, hearing the sparks crackle and die as your claws tear the material to pieces. Thor was havin' even more fun than I was, probably for the same reasons. Seein' something from your old life sittin' out there as plain as day, ripped back into your consciousness, makes you want to beat somethin'.
Before you know it, the whole force of Avengers is attackin' the man in charge. Murdock took a hard hit, losin' his sense for a moment or two. Still, Doom was distracted by all of the elements at play coming at him from every direction, in every way possible. Even a genius of his level can lose focus, and I took the opportunity. In the midst of the chaos, I was a ghost in the night, tracing shadows, eyes following his, nose keeping track of his stress. At the absolute moment when he was lost, a split second or more, I darted and dug my claws into his back.
By that point, he was gone. A Doombot stood in his place, mechanical and cold as I tore out it's spine and wired entrails. And I was mad.
Before we left, Thor and Moon Knight tried to claim the twisted sword as their own. They failed. It crossed my mind that a samurai like myself would do well with a sword, and that my force of personality and appetite for destruction were more than enough to keep a harbinger of the end of the world at bay.
Nah.
Adamantium claws trump Asgardian weapons any day of the week, especially in my hands.
I spent the rest of the night fixin' up the bike, and that night I dreamed of Itsu. And Jeanie.
Well, the Civil War has begun, so to speak. The campaign, anyway, not any sort of national divide or something of that ilk. Our first session ran for almost four hours yesterday evening, and if you'd like to view it in its entirety, you can do so here.
(Hulk Smash!)
For those of you not in the know, I'll go over the cast list as is before delving into the summary and my reactions afterwards.
Oh, and... I may be doing in-character journal stuff too. 'Cause I like to write and I'm a nerd and stuff.
Iron Man and Thor played by Dylan. Daredevil and Hulk played by Christopher. The Thing and Yellowjacket played by Charles. Tigra played by Kathryn. Moon Knight played by Ryan. Spider-Man and Dr. Strange played by Bill. Captain America and Luke Cage played by Steve (Who was not at this session due to tech problems). Wolverine and Spider-Woman played by yours truly.
Session Summary:
It all began on a fateful day like no other!... Because, y'know, all the Avengers were just kind of sitting around the tower doing God-knows-what when Iron Man, who has taken up monitor duty, gets a call about Bill Foster, better known as the size-growing hero Goliath, walking down the street in a stupor and destroying things. Immediately, the Avengers spring into action!
What followed was an interesting collaboration of trying to get Goliath to settle down or beat the sense back into him. There was an amusing bit with Moon Knight literally standing on the shoulder of a giant and whispering to him about if he doesn't settle down, all of the cabbies in New York are going to be pissed at him. Then Goliath threw him at Spider-Man. Tigra slashed at his knees. Wolverine yelled and threatened stuff. Y'know, good stuff. Finally, Bill was knocked back into his senses when Tony faked out some sympathy and hit him with a fully armed uni-beam.
You know what's even worse than a drugged up Goliath?
The press and the media.
And, oh God, this is where the session got good.
Rather than relay what happened directly, let me pull some direct quotes from some post-game postings.
"Tonight from the Channel 4 News desk, are your underpants poisoning you? Then, exotic dancers caught in a dog-fighting sting! Later, we'll find out what Tigra's making for dinner and who the vigilante Moon Knight is dating."
Rumors abound that Moon Knight was spotted outside a Justin Bieber concert.
"Wall Crawling menace drives former hero into tragic rampage."
"Spider-Man steals antique book in Oklahoma."
"Wall Crawler admits to Bieber Fever."
And my own personal touch:
So, after doing funny things to the press and telling them repeatedly to 'Fuck Off', we all move back to the Avengers Tower with Bill in tow to inspect him. Tigra goes on monitor duty and the brainy types, including Banner who just slid in, try to figure out what was up with Bill. They revive him and figure out that he was working with a company who was involved with Mutant Growth Hormone or something to that effect, and he blacked out. We get the location on a lab, just about the time we get a call that something landed in Broxton, Oklahoma and they need extra guard detail.
We tackle the lab and do a little changing of the guard. I swap out Wolvie for Spider-Woman under the logic that she was a private detective for a long time and would be good for an investigation (Yet she doesn't have the Crime speciality?). Daredevil is swapped out for Banner, and Thing is swapped out for Yellowjacket.
Spider-Woman starts this one off by sneaking in and getting a preliminary look at the place. What she finds is the illustrious members of the Serpent Society guarding the place, at which point she calls in the rest of the Avengers who crash through the skylight and begin slashing, truncheon-ing, moon-gadgeting, and finally, blasting what hadn't fallen by then with lasers. Unfortunately, Spidey and Yellowjacket didn't get their punches in before the Hulk smashed the lab to pieces and left for parts unknown.
Then began another highlight of the night as Moon Knight began a very brutal interrogation by slashing Diamondback's windpipe and threatening to do the same to Cobra. Iron Man took issue with this, and the two of them had a shouting match that caused Tony to leave the scene due to being mentally stressed out by the Avatar of Vengeance.
So, already we have some hero against hero plus bad news coverage. This is Civil War, alright.
Our final scene of the evening was playing guard duty over in Broxton, Oklahoma, which seems to be a dumping ground for anything Asgardian. Property there must be really cheap. Everyone went back to their characters from the beginning of the session, except for the fact that Thor stepped in instead of Iron Man for obvious reasons. There was some good banter on the jet and some back and forth with Maria Hill as we made our way over. Upon arriving, we were immediately shown what landed, which was a giant sword. The Twilight Sword, if my Marvel lore is as good as I remember it being, which is a herald of Ragnarok.
Isn't mystic mumbo jumbo fun?
Thor obviously wants to claim the sword and protect it from those who would use it for evil. Speaking of those people, Dr. Doom and his army of robotic minions arrives right on schedule! You'd think someone as smart as Doom would wait until the heroes had left, or attacked before they arrived? And wasn't the whole plot of the video game Marvel: Ultimate Alliance for Doom to get the Twilight Sword and steal Odin's power with it? Man, this would save him so much time and effort.
Anyhow, Thing goes straight for Doom, like he should. Thor, Tigra, and Wolverine have some fun smashing up the army of Doom Bots, which was as satisfying as it ought to be, really. Spider-Man stole the spellbook that Doom was using and taunted him to great effect. Moon Knight shouted at Doom a little. Oh, and Doom screwed up Daredevil's senses, but he managed to club the good Doctor over the head anyway. It was a pretty dramatic battle, lots of fun stuff going on, which finally ended with Wolverine gutting Doom... Only to find out her was a Doombot.
How many times can you use the word Doom in one paragraph?
We ended by Thor and Moon Knight trying to claim the Twilight Sword as their own by taming it, but neither succeeded.
My Reactions:
Overall, it was a good session. No question about that fact whatsoever. We had a lot of fun and memorable moments, and everyone seemed to be having a good time, laughing the night away at bad jokes and other such things.
For me, the highlights were two scenes in particular that really felt authentic and played beautifully. That would be the scene dealing with the press after Goliath was put down, and the battle with Dr. Doom. All of our characters really showed through when dealing with something almost everyone hates: the press and the media. Additionally, the Doom battle was satisfying even when there were about eight people involved.
The players are also a great bunch. Some are more soft-spoken then others, but I believe we really gel well and all contribute to the story in interesting ways. Our GM is clever and solid as I expected him to be, and he really seems to have fun running the game. Makes me long to GM again, really.
Still, the session wasn't perfect. Nothing's perfect, obviously. The start was a bit awkward, with no one really saying what their character was doing, myself included. I suppose it's part of being the first time we were all together (Except Steve) and the normal sort of hesitation and shyness that goes along with that. Even after that, there were a lot of moments of pause and a pretty jarring disconnect between some of the scenes, at least for me. The flow was off, but sometimes you can't help that.
Also, part of me thinks that Marvel Heroic isn't really designed for groups of this size. Just a personal gut feeling, considering the ease we went through some of our encounters. I mean, stress was pretty minimal across the board on our side, everything considered. I've even had trouble presenting a decent challenge to a group of four, much less a group twice that size. And, when you have eight heroes wailing on the bad guy, it's rather easy to see how the conflict could be taken care of before some people got a turn. In a game like this where action seems to take precedent overall, this can pose to be a real issue. It wasn't an issue for me, but the dice were on my side, and I got to go every round.
Those things aside, really looking forward to the next session!
Hope you enjoyed the recap! If not, here's a funny picture.
With a first session of a campaign coming up this week, and a few that I'll be running within the month, my mind has been meditating on beginnings. Beginnings of campaigns in particular, but also beginnings in general.
Everything has a starting point, not only works of fiction, but life, stages of life, relationships, projects. The list goes on. Sometimes the starting point is buried in the dust, forgotten, or seemingly insignificant, but it is always the most important piece. Without it, nothing would be.
I don't mean to get weirdly philosophical on an RP blog, but it's something to knock around the noggin a little bit.
So, let's take a look at the beginnings of campaigns. How do first sessions usually go? Where do they start? What sorts of opening scenes work best? Is there criteria for judging whether or not it should be continued for another session?
Stuff like that.
From my personal experience, where a campaign starts really depends on the group's preparation before hand. Is everyone coming in with characters they created on their own or with the GM? Has this group met before hand to discuss anything? Have they even met before? Did the GM set any sort of guidelines? These are the variables that determine really where you can jump in.
Most groups, I've noticed, are cobbled together from whatever characters the individuals wanted to play with little connection to one another that are thrown together as a consequence of circumstance or because of one common link. Therefore, a beginning session's first job in this sort of scenario is to find a way to force these potentially dissonant characters together to do something, usually follow the plot-train that the GM has set tracks for. Either that, or the group is thrown under a common banner, 'Adventure Party', 'Mercenary Band', what have you, and you work under the assumption that you all just work together. To adventure. Or make money. Or something.
The beginnings to this kind of campaigns are usually rather classic and quaint. An old man in the tavern gives your adventure party a quest or mission to find the macguffin, save the macguffin, or defeat Lord MacGuffin the Scotsman. You are all in prison, and there's a prison riot or break and you can only escape by working together. The transport you all are riding is under attack and you are the only able-bodied, combat-ready people in the area. There's a bank robbery and you are the only superheroes in the area because the main ones are in space.
(We've all met this guy)
You get the idea.
And, if this sounds like every campaign you've ever been in, that's fine!
But, there is another way. In my opinion, it's a better way, but that wholly depends on preference, your group, and the game you are running, of course.
My favorite RP podcast is called 'Fear the Boot', and they have come up with something called the 'Group Template.' This is a basic document that outlines clearly what the group is, who they are, how they are connected, and what their goals are. They fill this document out before every campaign, and they create their characters together. If I remember right, they don't come to the table with solid concepts in mind. The GM sets some guidelines, and the group creates and envisions their characters together while creating connections along the way and setting up a reason for being together and goals.
I will tell you from experience, this radically changes the quality of every first session I have ever ran.
Like, literally, day and night.
Now a GM is not confined to slapping together characters that don't work following a plot train that may not even be suited for the group. You can have any beginning you can think of without having to rely on cliches in order to bring the party together. Sure, there are plenty of cliches that can still be used, such as the group summon by an important figure, but you can think outside the box a little. Say the group template is a bunch of professional thieves, each having their own specialty. You can start the campaign in the middle of a heist! Set up some parameters, and the characters will do their own thing because they have goals and the skills to meet them. Maybe something goes wrong, an inciting incident of sorts, and the characters will be motivated to follow up on it because it had to do with something they were striving for on their own initiative, not because some important NPC said that they should care.
Just something to think about.
So, whether the group is cobbled together or nitpickingly planned to the last detail, the first session is here. How to begin? What is Act 1: Scene: 1?
Again, there seems to be a split in tactics, one I prefer and one I like a little less. It usually boils down to whether it starts with action or starts with drama.
Since I like the X-Men so much, let's use them as an example.
Does the campaign start with a Danger Room session, or a scene where they are debating mutant rights before congress? Is someone attacking the mansion after the Danger Room, or assaulting the congressional meeting? Does someone's powers freak out at the wrong time and cause something terrible to happen?
These are all ways an X-Men campaign could start, potentially.
Is it better to start out with action or drama? Both?
I can see great justifications for both, which I elaborate on here.
Start out with an action scene if the group is not completely familiar or comfortable with the rules. Since most of the rules cover how to handle moments of action, this is a great place to clear up any misconceptions and make sure everyone knows how to play. It could also engage players who are more combat inclined and get them interested from the get-go as opposed to having them set through dialogue, which they'd rather not do. Inciting incidents are also great in the middle of action scenes, and it's a wonderful way to give everyone a little glimmer of spotlight before the plot train begins moving.
However, start out with drama if you want your players to be comfortable in their own character's skins and create inter-group relationships early on. It doesn't even have to be anything terribly dramatic. Hell, I love starting campaigns at a point where it's a party. How does your character interact in a surprise party for another character? Or a fancy dinner? This gives the players a chance to get a feel for how their character acts, interacts, talks, feels, etc. It can also be a great place to set up themes, tones, motifs, and other things that will make sense or be significant later on. However, don't linger too long if you have player's who are action minded, or else they will probably be terribly bored.
You can probably tell that I favor the second option, but that's just because of how I run games and how I like to play.
And there's no reason you can't mix the two, a little drama before the action, a little action after the drama. In fact, that is usually the best way to please everybody involved.
So, first scene is over, we're in the thick of the inciting incident, and the session is going to wrap up soon. What sorts of things are you as the GM going to be looking for? What are you as a player expecting by the time the dice are collected and everyone shuffles into the driveway or goes to play video games?
As a GM, I would look for the following things to see if the first session was a success:
-Did everyone get a moment to shine?
-Does everyone understand the setting?
-Does everyone understand their character?
-Was there enough to leave them wanting to come back for more?
And most importantly...
-Did we have fun?
As a player, I would consider the following things to see whether I'd play again:
-Did I like the other players? (Because, if you didn't, you probably shouldn't game with 'em)
-Did the GM try his best? (Because no one's perfect, but sometimes you've just got a bad apple)
-Am I engaged/interested at all in what's going on in the plot, or in the characters? (Because, if not, that should be fixed)
And most importantly...
-Did I have fun?
You can debate all you'd like on that criteria, but that is what I usually mentally go through after a first session, and that's important, because first sessions can sometimes make or break a campaign. Sure, you should give it another few sessions or so (time allowing) before making any sort of serious judgement, but sometimes an unresolved issue from session one can bite you in the ass down the road and tank a campaign.
Just sayin'.
Anyway, those are my thoughts on first sessions. It is an interesting beast, to be sure, but like I said in the beginning, they are necessary for gaming to exist. Why not think about 'em a little bit? Maybe try something different?
I hope you liked my thoughts! If not, here's a funny picture.
It's no secret, if you've been following this blog, that I'm a superhero fan. In fact, the vast majority of the posts on here have been about superheroes in relations to RPGs, particularly Marvel Heroic. I suppose it's just the sort of season of mind that I'm in right now. I mean, I've played Sci-Fi and Fantasy roleplaying games for years, and now I'm getting to explore one of my favorite genres when before, the groups I was in wasn't really into the whole superhero-shtick.
Here's another confession.
While I love to play in them, superhero games are one of the hardest things for me to GM.
In fact, if you look at my track record, (Well, you can't really look at it since it isn't completely written out), you would see that most of the games that I've started and failed were superhero games. While my first group wasn't terribly fond of the genre, I did try a few campaigns using Mutants and Masterminds to limited success. I just had trouble wrapping my head around the reactionary story-telling without making it seem railroady.
The only superhero campaign that I've run well is my Teen Titans game that I've elaborated on quite a bit during the life of this blog (Which well hopefully be starting up again before the month is out). This was a combination between a system that worked for the genre (Marvel Heroic) and a new sort of ideology on running games which I've also explained. I mentally had to break away from certain tropes of the genre in order to make that work while also zeroing in on the tropes that make the genre what it is.
I know, confusing.
What may be more confusing is what any of this has to do with the topic.
Back in "What I'm Running," I mentioned an idea I had about a campaign I'd like to start to sort of give back to the Marvel Heroic community that has been so kind to me and has allowed me to play more in the past year than I ever have in my entire gaming career. I mean, life is a give and take, right? It's only right that I can put my five-plus years of GM expertise to use by providing some gaming for others.
What I had in mind was a re-envisioning of the Marvel Universe, much like the Ultimate series did. However, this re-envisioning would be collaborative between myself as the 'Watcher' and the players. The campaign would be 80% game, 20% universe building. Through this process, our group will create a version of the Marvel Universe that is unique to us, a combination of all of our ideas, and can be used by ourselves in other games or others that are interested. One of the great things about this idea is that we will create our own continuity that, if it extends beyond our game, will be canon and effect other games that come out of this creation.
This is somewhat based off of a concept elaborated in the book "Play Dirty" by John Wick. This is a fantastic book, and if any of you GMs out there have not read it yet, please do so. I have gleaned so much of my personal GM philosophy from this man and his methods. Anyway, there is a chapter entitled "The Living City" where he describes how he and his players created a setting that felt real together for a Vampire game. He let them build parts of the world and even allowed them to play NPCs. It's a fantastic idea, but one I was always hesitant to implement, but I think now might be a good time.
I call this experiment/game Marvel Origin. What I would need are four or five willing players that have two important qualities that would work best for this idea and for my own personal GM style.
-A creative mind and desire to create a new spin on the Marvel Universe and get to be one of the first to play in it.
-A desire for a game that is story-focused where character interactions are an important part of the game.
When I've assembled some players, we would decide on a schedule for gaming and pick what corner of the Marvel Universe they'd want to tackle. If they are willing, we could design the entire universe, but for the sake of time, I think it would be interesting to pick one group and start branching things off from there. An example would be "Fantastic Four Origins" or "X-Men Origins" or "Avengers Origins".
This is all very 'in-my-head' right now, but I think this would be an interesting and fun gaming experiment that could produce a game and campaign world that we are attached to deeply, care about, and that we'll be proud to tell others of.
If you are interested in participating in this, drop me a line, comment, or Google+ message, and we'll see about getting this jumpstarted! Since my main reading base are those I've played with on Google+, I'm giving you guys first dibs, mostly as a thank-you for being so completely awesome.
I hope you enjoyed this post about my weird experiment idea! If you didn't, hear's a funny picture.
