Why Do People Still Enjoy Action?

Hey, readers!

So, I just came back from seeing Star Trek: Into Darkness. No, the date isn't wrong. Yes, I am seeing it a few weeks after release. Unfortunately, I'm about a two week delay on my summer movies, seeing as my brother watches them all with his friends and my father and I like to see them together so we wait for a time that is good for both of us.

It was a good movie, all things considered. Story wasn't awful, characterization was strong, and it had some fun moments. Still, walking out of the theater and discussing things with my father, I couldn't help but ponder this question.

'Why do people still enjoy action?'

I mean, at the beginning, the appeal is obvious. Action allows you to experience things that you'd never experience in an out-of-body sort of way. You can be in the middle of a tense fire-fight, escape explosions, fly a ship around, mow down enemies with an automatic weapon, all without any of the real danger. It's exciting.

At least, it's supposed to be.

It's not for me. I'm tired of action. In this violence saturated culture where you can live out any fantasy by popping in a movie or playing a video game, I feel like I've been through it all. I've fought zombies, flown spaceships, beat the bad guy down with my bare fists. There's only so many elements or variations that you can throw on it, but in the end, it's all the same. I don't get excited from action anymore.

Why am I in a minority here?

Since this is a role-playing blog, let's bring it back to my favorite hobby. The majority of RPG's have a focus on action. In fact, you can usually tell how combat driven a particular system is by how much of the core rule-book is taken up by rules on how to handle conflict. Look at a book like D&D, it's usually a pretty solid chunk. A World of Darkness book? Not so much.

I'm just curious as to the why here. Why do people enjoy a game of D&D that's just a constant kill-fest to find better treasure? So, your character kills an orc in a cool way, then another one. He jumps off a building and slices a guy. Maybe he drives a cart into an army and scatters his opponents, sword in hand, plowing away. I can see how that can be fun or cool for a little while, but eventually it becomes a contest of 'who can be the biggest badass' that drags on and on.

Why do people need action to jump-start the game or bring excitement into a session? There's that old trick of introducing ninjas for no reason when the plot gets slow, but why is that necessary? Isn't drama and human emotion engaging enough? Hell, stage-plays are almost entirely comprised of drama, emotion, character depth and growth. That keeps an audience engaged and entertained for the span of the production. Why do things like role-playing games and movies have to bring physical action into the picture to garner interest all the time?

I wish I knew why I was wired different. Many of my friends do not seem to mind combat heavy games with little regard to rhyme or reason. Only a few people agree with my point of view that I know of, and those people are mostly women. Go figure.

Still, I would love an answer. Why do you still enjoy action? Why does it take combat to get you interested or engaged during a session?

For me, I want to move on. I want to leave the mindset of 'My character does this 'cause it's cool, fun, or funny,' and start to explore why my character does what they do, what the consequences are, how they change my character, and how that changes the story. Not to say that action or combat doesn't have a place, it does! But I want it to mean something.  The choice to kill someone should have deep personal and external repercussions, not just he was bad, now he's dead. My character should be doing something beyond the motivation of 'I want money' or 'This is my job.' If my character fails, it should mean something more than just 'Game Over.'

Even if you don't agree with me, I challenge you GMs out there (and myself!) to think outside the combat box when designing your sessions. There are other ways to engage people. Not everyone has the same tastes, and your game design should be diverse to cater to the people you are running it for. If your group is full of people who can't get enough of mindless combat, then keep providing it for them. Just keep in mind the people like me who would prefer something else.

If you have an answer to the main question or any of those above, please, please, tell me! I want to understand this position that is not my own so that I could be a better GM and expand my own point of view. Also, if you agree with me or want to explore the same things that I want to, let me know! Maybe we can gather some like-minded people and do... Something!...

Regardless, I do hope you enjoyed this rant. If not, here's a funny picture.

-Wes

Why 4th Edition Really Grinds My Gears

Hey, readers!

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

My Favorite NPC - Balthazar

Hey, readers!

So, I'm a part of an organization now called the Role-Playing Blog Alliance which is sort of a centralized hub for blogs about the hobby which gives you free advertising and stuff. It's pretty cool. One of the things I noticed on there was something called a 'Blog Carnival' where a blog puts up a topic and everyone that wants to makes a post about that topic.

In the interest of ranting about random topics, as I thoroughly enjoy doing, I decided to throw my hat into the ring!

This month's topic is 'My Favorite NPC.' Now, as someone with near Perma-GM syndrome, this is kind of tricky, because I haven't really played in games long enough to find an NPC that I really, truly enjoyed interacting with. Not to say that there haven't been some great ones, but none that I would elevate to the status of 'My Favorite'.

Of course, I could just be a derp and maybe this topic also includes NPC's you've created and ran, but I digress.

I'm going to cheat a little.

The first D&D campaign that I ran in college was a real treat to run, and at some point I'll probably elaborate more on it, but there came a time where I really wanted to play. So, a friend of mine said that she wouldn't mind running the game for a while and we changed guard. The NPC I am going to describe first showed up during the segment where I was playing, but I decided to bring him back and make him an important part of the plot when I got back in the GM chair after my character's touching death via sacrifice.

Without further ado, let me introduce you all to...

Balthazar

Origin:

Balthazar's origin came at a time where a lot of my player's wanted a nemesis of some kind. My friend Harry, who was playing a Samurai, wanted to have an Oni that killed his mother involved in the plot somewhere, so I allowed that for a bit. Then, my friend Jean, who was playing a Revenant Assassin in service to the Raven Queen, wanted a nemesis of his own. I didn't get a lot of details other than a name, and that he was a former Assassin of the Raven Queen who left the order.

My friend Ellen took the game over for a bit while her character was trapped in a pocket dimension. Fun, right? Well, anyway, she first introduced the character as someone who was working with a mysterious figure known as 'The Occultist' who worked for the bad guys. He didn't have a lot of depth, just a bad-ass Eladrin assassin leading a twisted family of monstrous freaks. We didn't see too much of him.

When I got the reins back, I decided that Jean's nemesis didn't get enough screen time, so the wheels in my head started to turn, and I planted him at a most inopportune moment as a sort of off-the-cuff, unplanned way to prevent my party from doing something nearly suicidal. They were about to go kill a dragon on top of a mountain, who had a macguffin and was also the creator of the Dragonborn in my world. Only one problem, though. If a Dragonborn is hit by this dragon's fire, they turn into ash instantly, since that was the fire that created them. We had two Dragonborn in the party, too, so this was potentially going to be a disaster.

So, there to warn them about the dragon's fire and tell them that there's a way to make the fight much easier was Balthazar. Now, I'm an impressionist, so I enjoy doing cool, strange voices for my NPCs/characters. Somehow or other, by fate or chance, the more I talked as Balthazar, the more he started to sound like a certain celebrity. Not a particularly famous celebrity, mind you, but one that is close to my heart.

John de Lancie.

(I actually met him and shook his hand!!)

And, thus, Balthazar was born.

Appearance:

So, Balthazar is an Eladrin in a world where most of the Eladrin were corrupted into Orcs for messing with the Gods and the ones that remained had some weird sort of destiny. As such, he looks like an elf pretty much, tall and lanky with the pointed ears. Except, I picture him as a little taller and lankier than most, almost skeletal in his appearance but he tries to hide that with his clothing and mannerisms. Long silvery hair cascades down his features, very fine with an almost glittering quality to it. Since Eladrin are practically immortal, or else incredibly long lived, he still has a youthful face, but his piercing blue eyes carry the weight of a thousand years.

Personality:

This is where Balthazar becomes fun. Since the voice started to sound like John de Lancie, I decided to go full-out impressionist and mimic his voice, which lends itself obviously to the 'Q'-like mannerisms. In almost an instant, this originally rather flat NPC became someone the party loved to hate. He always had a snide comment, a taunting air of superiority with a twinge of boredom because, after living so long, he has experienced almost everything. Balthazar is a man looking for his destiny that was apparently promised to him by the Gods, and his search has brought him into almost every profession and walk of life to no avail. He possesses an Ecclestiastian mentality that everything is meaningless in the view of mortality and death, and there is nothing he loves more than tearing down the hopes and beliefs of those around him, playing Devil's Advocate to every position because he knows better. In fact one of his most memorable quotes was the following:

"I love destroying religion. That's why I pick on the little one." - Balthazar, in regards to a young cleric in the party.

Oh, and he's kinda flamboyant, but that goes with the voice.

Why He's My Favorite:

In all of my years of GM'ing, I have never had an NPC that engaged the party to the level that Balthazar has. Come to think of it, in all my years of acting, this is the character that I'm most comfortable improving, and almost everything he said was gold. For this reason, the players kept him around in the party because he always had a secret, always had something to say, and kept the advantage as long as he could. We would have conversations that lasted for a half hour, debating things, talking about the past, the future, all of it a duel of wits which Balthazar almost always won. All off the cuff.

Come to find out, he's also the son of the main bad-guy, and that father and son team had enough persuasive power and were in such an opportune position that almost half the party joined their cult in order to get the last macguffin. Yeah, that's right. This NPC was so powerful by personality and presence alone that he could get half the party to join the cult that was hounding them the entire campaign.

Of course, he betrayed the party when the time was right, but that backfired. His father was killed, and he was left for dead in this huge pool at the bottom of an ancient, extra-dimensional plumbing system that was designed to feed blood to a vampiric dragon.

Yeah, you wish your campaign was that awesome.

And, even after all he had done, all of the snide comments and backstabbing and arrogance, they let him live.  For a party whose strategy was kill everything in sight, this is pretty significant.

These are the reasons why Balthazar is my favorite NPC ever. Yes, I ran him and played him, but it wasn't the cool factor or even my contributions that made him the best. It was the level that he affected the party, changed the way they viewed the story and the game. He made the game awesome, and you can't deny that kind of power that I have yet to see recreated.

That's my story! Hope you enjoyed it. If not, here's a funny picture.

-Wes

Wolverine's Post M-Day Journal - Entry 1

((Hey, readers!

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.

Billy Joel said it best. Only the good die young.

-Logan

 

First Sessions

Hey, readers!

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.

-Wes

 

Marvel Origins: A Campaign/Experiment Idea

Hey, readers!

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.

-Wes

Marvel Heroic X-Men: Session 2 Report

Hey, readers!

One of my new groups that I'm playing with just had a session of X-Men the other night, and for my benefit and yours, I'm going to summarize and rant and stuff. I was thinking of possibly doing these as in-character journal entries, but we'll see.

Anyway, the team is currently Beast, Mr. Immortal (a probationary X-Men member on leave from his team 'The Great Lake Avengers'), and myself as Rogue with Ms. Marvel's powers. This was the first session where we actually had the entire team assembled, so that was cool to see the dynamics and how everything functioned.

We're playing through an old Marvel TSR module (FASERIP as I like to call it, 'cause, y'know, ripping off faces is creepy and cool) which is called 'Breeder Bombs.' I somewhat wish that he didn't mention it was a module because I have a terrible habit of looking stuff up and spoiling things for myself, which I kinda did. I only skimmed, but still!...

Session Summary:

Anyway, the session began where the last one left off, which was Rogue and Mr. Immortal in the Danger Room going through an exercise when things start to go haywire and someone is attacking the mansion. Come to find out it was Mr. Fixer who crashed into the kitchen to confront Beast, yelling about how he killed his partner and was here for REVENGE!

So, combat begins, of course. Mr. Immortal tried to slam into him, but was easily repelled and flung out the giant hole in the wall. Then Beast tried to distract the villain by juggling rubble, which was.. Interesting! Nicely enough, it slapped a d12 complication on the guy, which allowed me to piledrive Mr. Fixer and knock him out in one shot. Usually, I'm not too fond of Rogue when she has Ms. Marvel's powers, as I feel it cheapens the super-awesome power stealing stuff, but I must admit, it makes her a heavy hitter and a great asset to the team. The way I'm playing her is that the whole Ms. Marvel incident was fairly recent, so she's still getting used to the fact that she can punch guys fifty-feet away in one hit.

With that done, we picked the villain up and brought him over to the infirmary so that we could question him. The Professor probed his mind and found a video in his equipment that showed a rooftop battle where Beast was fighting Mentallo and apparently killed him. Beast had no memory of this, and spent a day scanning the video for errors or idiosyncrasies. He discovers that it was in a warehouse in New York, so he decides that we need to go take care of it. Unfortunately, Scott and his A-Team have the Blackbird, so we have to settle for Mr. Immortal's 'Quinnjetta' car. Rogue rode shotgun, changed the station to country and broke the knob.

Yeehaw!

The team made it to the warehouse and spent a good amount of time examining the crime scene. Not finding much evidence, we decided to enter the warehouse and see if anything was going on inside. Come to find out, there's Mentallo in a vegetative state hooked up to a weird machine! We trip a laser-wire and two laser guns pop out of the floor. Beast tries his best to wrestle one to death, not doing so well. Rogue threw a crate at one, and when it tried to shoot her, she dodged, causing the laser to hit a metal crate and somehow reflect back and destroy it.

Isn't comic-logic great?

As the team tried to work on the second turret, two figures break through the wall! It's Beast and Mentallo, somehow! Beast, enraged by the prospect of this doppleganger who tried to implicate him for murder, assaults his double, but manages to get slammed into a pile of crates and knocked out. Mentallo shot his laser pistol at Mr. Immortal, wounding him slightly. However, using his hurt pride to propel his attack, Mr. Immortal did a crazed flying crotch kick of some kind that I couldn't even visualize, sending Mentallo into d12 stress and revealing that he was a robot! Rogue then picked up Mentallo and slammed him against this force-field that appeared around the strange machine, smashing him to pieces.

The remaining laser battery shot at the two remaining heroes, but Rogue was able to absorb the energy and use it to amplify her strength. In a final move, Rogue used her enhanced strength to rip the laser cannon from the ground, spin around, and send it flying into the Beast robot, destroying both in one move.

So, yeah. Rogue is awesome. But we knew that.

The force-field went down, and we peeled the real Mentallo from the strange machine. In an attempt to bring a little deeper story, and play with the Rogue-angst that I love so much, I decided that Rogue would try to touch the villain and get his memories to see how this all happened, despite Beast's protest. Unfortunately, I failed the roll, but I do plan to factor in the scattered pieces of Mentallo's psyche into Rogue's in the future.

We wrapped up by heading back to the mansion, each of us trying to work on a different piece of the puzzle. Rogue and the Professor worked on the vegetative Mentallo. Mr. Immortal healed up in the infirmary and was bragging to the others about their experiences. Beast was working on the severed heads of the two robots, trying to get more information. What he found was a map to several locations across the world and a video feed revealing the supposed culprit: Magneto!

My Reactions:

So far, I'm having a good time with this group. I'm the 'senior Marvel Heroic player' it seems, which is funny, considering I'm the youngest. The other players are so far doing a great job portraying their characters. Our Beast has the character down to a 'T', dialogue and all. Mr. Immortal's player has actually made a seemingly useless hero useful in a team, which is a great accomplishment on its own, not to mention his good jokes and ideas. Our GM is pretty good too, though sometimes he's a little scatterbrained or jokes a bit too much, but it's all in good fun, and he's doing very well with both moving the story along and making sure things run smoothly.

The only major issue I'm having, which I've had in a lot of other online groups in the past, is this... Weird... Thing. I'm not exactly sure how to explain it, other than it has to do with what's in character and what's out of character sometimes. See, like, most people use their normal voice to portray the character they are playing, since not many roleplayers are actors. I like to throw some theater into it since that's my background, using a more feminine voice if I'm playing a woman or tossing in an accent or way of speaking to differentiate my character speech from my regular speech. However, sometimes someone will say something in-character that sounds out-of-character, or make a joke out-of-character that's kinda in character. Or, even worse, someone will say something in-character, and someone will make a joke, interrupting the flow of conversation. This prevents me from getting into character a lot, which means I'm usually quiet or preface my in-character dialogue with, 'My character says, "-" '

And this is a real shame, since most of my enjoyment in roleplaying games is being in-character and interacting with NPCs and the other players. Hell, the best sessions I've ever had usually had very little combat and a lot of talking, emotions, and character growth due to stuff that's going on. I can get this in my Teen Titans game, but that's different, since I'm running it as opposed to playing. With a lot of these online groups, this sort of thing is harder to get since there's a degree of unfamiliarity with each other at first, and the best way to get comfortable is to make jokes and seem likable, and sometimes that doesn't stop.

Maybe one day I'll get this kind of thing in a 'pick-up group', and I've come close with a few groups, but that's a personal thing. I do get some fun out of beating the snot out of villains and making quips, but like a Disney Princess, I can't help but want...

More.

Other than that rant, there was a rule clarification that I was happy to get. It had to deal with exceptional successes in regard to counter-attacks, which I wasn't totally clear on. Apparently, if you do the option to counter attack and you exceed the attacker's total by five or more, it is treated as an exceptional success. This is good to know, as it can make villains just a hair more dangerous, especially if they are supported by a huge doom pool. The unfortunate recipient of this action, Beast, was a bit put-off by the potential power that it gives the GM, but I think it's completely fair, given what the players are able to do, such as one-shotting Mr. Fixer.

Overall, I'm enjoying myself, and I do hope that this doesn't come into conflict with my Civil War game that is coming up next week. We'll see how that goes. Either way, hope you enjoyed my rant! (I would love some comments on my IC/OOC rant to see how other people feel.) If you didn't, here's a funny picture.

-Wes

Teen Titans Modern: Milestones and Unlockables

Hello, readers!

As an addendum to the previous post, I thought it would be interesting to share a few of the Marvel Heroic specific things I've developed for this campaign.

For many people, milestones and unlockables are the trickiest part of running this particular system if you are not going through an already published adventure. This is understandable, since this bit is all at once one of the best and worst things about the system. The idea of milestones is an amazing storytelling incentive, a way for the player to tell the GM how he wants his character to grow and focus on through the story, and it encourages character-based roleplaying, which I absolutely adore. However, I've never been a fan of experience points (I don't use them at all, usually) and with a system that encourages you to build a character  at or near their peak, using XP for advancement usually seems wrong, which gives the incentive to develop unlockables. Only problem with that is, unlockables are a tricky beast to develop, and there aren't a whole ton of examples to work off from.

Milestones are also tricky to develop sometimes, but there are more than enough examples throughout all of the books that you get the pattern and feel for them relatively quickly.

That being said, here are my unlockables and milestones for this event so far. I'm always adding more... At least as far as milestones are concerned. Feel free to steal, edit, etc. Some aren't perfect, but they've been working quite well so far.

(My favorites are Bane of the Future, LexCorp Conspirator and Titans Go!)

Teen Titans Modern Milestones:

World's Greatest Assassin? -

1 XP When: You confront the world's greatest assassin, Deathstroke.

3 XP When: You best Deathstroke in one-on-one combat.

10 XP When: You join the League of Assassins to usurp Deathstroke's famous legacy, or dedicate your life to shutting down the League.

Joke's on You -

1 XP When: You take emotional stress from the Joker or Harley Quinn.

3 XP When: You deal emotional trauma to the Joker or Harley Quinn.

10 XP When: You kill the Joker in a disturbingly amusing or ironic fashion, taking a step towards continuing his legacy, or you effectively stop one of the Joker's most devastating gags or jokes.

Blood War -

1 XP When: You witness a ritual of the Cult of Blood or see evidence of one that has occurred.

3 XP When: You break up, disrupt, or prevent a meeting or gathering of the Cult of Blood.

10 XP When: You form a temporary alliance with the Cult of Blood to learn more of their power and get rid of Deathstroke, or you wage a personal crusade against the Cult.

A Raven in the Flock -

1 XP When: You reach out to the mysterious outcast, Raven.

3 XP When: You confess a secret to Raven, or she confesses one to you.

10 XP When: You save Raven's life from extreme danger, or she does the same for you.

We're Not Gonna Take It

1 XP When: You have a confrontation with VATOR forces.

3 XP When: You successfully destroy a VATOR taskforce or evade capture.

10 XP When: You avoid VATOR capture forever by illegally getting onto the coveted “Override” list, or you become a figurehead in the movement against VATOR.

Bane of the Future

1 XP When: You discuss technology's effect on society.

3 XP When: You defeat a tech-based villain and use his actions as an example of how technology is harmful, or you defeat a non-tech based villain using modern technology to show how it can be used for good.

10 XP When: You take up the Neo-Luddite cause and join Bane's crusade, or you confront and defeat Bane using your own philosophy on technology.

Lex Corp Conspirator

1 XP When: You make a connection between current events, Lex Luthor, and Lex Corp.

3 XP When: You discover concrete evidence linking Lex Luthor and his company to an immediate situation and follow-up on it.

10 XP When: You confront Lex Luthor with your conspiratorial evidence and show his hand to the authorities, or you agree to keep silent and give up the evidence to Lex Corp. in order to obtain something.

Titans, Go!

1 XP When: You take charge of a situation and give orders to your fellow teammates.

3 XP When: You settle an inner-team dispute, coordinate a training session, or push the team towards a common goal.

10 XP When: You are officially recognized by your teammates as team leader during a monumental situation, or you decide to give leadership to a better qualified team-member at a critical moment.

Cleaning the Streets

1 XP When: You take action against one of the various city gangs or the mob.

3 XP When: Your actions are able to topple the power of a reigning gang or arrests an influential mob leader.

10 XP When: You're hailed as a hero by crippling gang activity and decimating the Mobs influence in Detroit, or you end your crusade against organized crime and gang violence to save yourself from the retribution to come.

Super Celebrity

1 XP When: You are thanked by a citizen for a specific heroic deed, or asked for an interview by a reporter regarding your current super-heroics.

3 XP When: Your fame creates trouble, causes a situation to get worse, or distracts you from doing your duty.

10 XP When: You use your fame to solve an impossible situation or generate support and adoration for superheroes everywhere, or you give up the superhero lifestyle out of guilt or in order for someone else to be saved.

Good Student

1 XP When: You relate something you've learned in school to a current situation.

3 XP When: You choose to study instead of participating in an important event related to your superhero career.

10 XP When: You use something you've learned to defeat a major villain at a critical point, or you flunk out of High School in order to further pursue your superheroics.

Mentor

1 XP When: You approach a significant member of the superhero community for help or advice.

3 XP When: You work closely with your chosen mentor to overcome a significant obstacle.

10 XP When: You choose to partner up with your chosen mentor in a more permanent fashion, becoming an heir to their legacy, or you dismiss the teachings of your mentor and abandon them completely.

Love and Spandex

1 XP When: You flirt with another member of the superhero community.

3 XP When: When you begin a relationship with another hero during a stressful event.

10 XP When: Your love is an important factor in overcoming an impossible situation, or you break up in order to better focus on the task at hand.

Teen Titans Modern Unlockables:

[Green Arrow's Arsenal] 5/10 XP: For 5 XP, you can unlock the use of the Green Arrow Arsenal power-set. However, if it is ever lost, stolen, or broken, only Oliver Queen can repair it. Spend 10 XP to learn how to repair it yourself, gaining it as a normal powerset.

Green Arrow's Arsenal:

Enhanced Durability d8

Weapon d8

SFX:

Shoot to Kill: Add a d6 to your dice pool for an attack action and step back highest die in pool by -1. Step up physical stress by +1.

EMP Arrow: Target multiple robot or computerized opponents. For every additional target, add d6 to your pool and keep +1 effect die.

Armor Piercing Arrow: Step up physical stress you inflict by +1 when your target uses a Durability power in their reaction pool.

Tear Gas Arrow: Target multiple opponents. For every additional target, add d6 to your pool and keep +1 effect die.

Explosive Arrow: Step up or double Weapon for one action. If the action fails, add a die to doom pool equal to the normal rating of your power die.

Limit:

Gear: Shutdown Green Arrow Arsenal and gain 1 PP. Take an action vs. doom pool to recover.

[Police Support] 5/10 XP: For 5 XP, you can unlock some support within the local police department. When you spend 5 XP, you are able to create resources at a Master level for the following disciplines: Crime, Vehicle, Covert. For 10 XP, you can call in the police to assist you for an action scene, gaining a squad of cops to fight at your side.

[Super Hero Club] 5/10 XP: For 5 XP, you start a Super-Hero club at the local High School, which attracts the attention of some local teenage heroes who are "still in the closet," so to speak. You can call upon them for support in one action scene. For 10 XP, you can unlock one of your choice as either a playable character or an NPC'd permanent team-member.

[The "T" Car] 10 XP: For 10 XP, you can have Green Arrow whip you up a souped up and incredibly advanced vehicle for your team.

The "T" Car:

Durability d10

Speed d10

Gun Turret d8

Cybernetic Senses d8

SFX:

Oil Slick: Spend 1 PP to introduce the Slick Streets scene distinction to the action scene.

Turbo: Step up or double Speed (spend 1 PP to do both). Stepdown Speed -1.

Room for Everybody!: Spend 1 PP to remove you and one other character from the Scene. Other characters may tag along for 1 PP from each of them.

Limit:

Just a Car: When the player takes d12+ physical stress while driving the "T" Car, step down physical stress to d8 and Shutdown The "T" Car powerset.Bring the hulking mess back to Oliver Queen during a recovery scene to get it back.

Mutually Exclusive: Shutdown your current powerset to activate The “T” Car. Shutdown The “T” Car to recover your powerset.

[Connections with the Big Leagues] 5/10 XP: For 5 XP, you can call into the scene one of the big-name Superheroes that you are allied with who will offer support for the remainder of the scene. For 10 XP, you can call them in to take out one villain, then leave.

[Heroic/Dangerous Superhero] 5/10 XP: For 5 XP, you can earn the reputation in the city and the world for either being a noble hero in the eyes of citizens, or one that is dangerous and destructive. This will grant a fourth distinction that can be used until the end of the Act. For 10 XP, this distinction lasts until the end of the Event. Some examples of distinctions include: “One of the Good Ones” “Public Liability.”

[Hacked into VATOR] 5/10 XP: For 5 XP, you or a close ally has broken into the VATOR network, able to track communications and look up database entries. You can create a Master resource in preparation for a future encounter. For 10 XP, you can call in VATOR forces once to end a scene in your favor.

And, there you go! Hope you enjoyed this look at milestones and unlockables. If you didn't, here's a funny picture.

-Wes

 

A Game for a Season: Running a Campaign Like a TV Show

Hey, readers!

Today, I'm going to share a campaign layout that has changed the way I think about running games in general. To be honest, I'm not 100% if someone else has thought of this before or laid it out the way I have. Personally, this is from my own brain and not ripped off from someone else's ideas. (At least not intentionally.)

With that out of the way, let's address a common assumption.

Most people think of role-playing campaigns in one of these two mediums: books and movies. And why not? For a long time, books and word of mouth were the main ways that stories were communicated. Film is also a huge contender these days as a viable visual medium that tells about the lives of people, the terrible things that happen to them, and how they try to resolve it.

What do these two mediums have in common?

First of all, most books and movies follow the basic plot mountain scheme. Remember this from High School?

They both tell one story about a character or group of characters that follow this main arc. We meet the people involved, something happens that set larger things into motion and creates a problem, the characters try to solve the problem and get into more situations until it all explodes in one climatic scene, then the issue is either resolved or unresolved, someone or something has changed, and it ends. There can be sub-plots, but that's the basic stretch of the narrative.

You also get this story told to you over a reasonable amount of time. For movies, that ranges from an hour and a half to about three hours typically. For books, that really depends on the length of the book and how fast you can read, but unless you are an incredibly slow reader or the book is a tome, it won't take you more than a few weeks at most to finish.

However, if you try to place this model on an extended roleplaying campaign, it starts to break down in some rather distracting ways.

First, most roleplaying campaign plots don't fit neatly on plot mountain there. Sometimes the exposition is muddy or thrown out completely. 95% percent or more of the time spent in the game is dealing with the rising action while the climax, falling action, and resolution are usually resolved in one session. Not to mention the tendency of a lot of games, especially when D&D is involved, to just go from town to town or dungeon to dungeon with a loose narrative tying it together to make it somewhat cohesive, which makes the plot a series of hills rather than Mt. Everest.

Not to mention, there are sections on the 'Rising Action' slope that are boring and tedious which can consume entire sessions, making certain characters feel left out or abandoning an element someone enjoys completely. Dungeon crawls, anyone?

Secondly, roleplaying campaigns are not completed in a timely matter whatsoever. Most groups, if they're lucky, meet once a week, every two weeks, or once a month with a session that typically lasts anywhere from two to three hours or more. If you're going from start to finish, it could take a year or more to finish a campaign. Most games don't even survive that long! People move away, get new job schedules, can't make it on gaming day anymore, or the campaign just fizzles because you're stuck on the Rising Action slope. How many campaigns are actually finished, or even reach the climax, which is supposed to be the best part?

Not many.

So, maybe there needs to be a new model. What sort of entertainment offers a story about characters going through problems in reasonable time chunks where plots are more like a series of hills in a mountain range offered over an extended period of time?

TV shows.

If we model our campaigns and sessions after TV shows rather than movies or books, we open up a more satisfying and compatible system to work off. Just think about your favorite TV show for a second or two. What elements are in play here?

-A somewhat stable cast of protagonists and antagonists that appear every time.

-Episodes that have a beginning, middle, and end, usually with a climax included.

-Episodes that don't last more than 12 minutes to an hour.

-Sometimes they include an overarching story and meaningful changes based on events that happen (Continuity). Sometimes they don't.

-Groups of episodes are divided into seasons that typically have anywhere from 12 to 22 episodes.

Now, let's translate those episodes into role-playing campaign philosophies. 

-The cast consists of the player characters and any important recurring NPCs.

-Every session deals with a unique issue that is resolved by the time the session is over, with a climax included!

-Plot mountains can be completed within the span of a session with a smaller scope.

-Sessions have the opportunity to build off of one another and create an overarching plot that is advanced in some way by the smaller plot mountains that the season consists of. However, if you do not want to stick to continuity too much, depending on your style of game, you don't have to! 

-You can end the season whenever you want! You are not necessarily waiting for the huge payoff that the climax gives, so you can wrap up loose ends, shut the game down, and renew for another season if you want to return to those characters/stories again!

I'll go into more details in the nitty gritty by showing you how I've done this for my Teen Titans game in the future, but for now, these are just some things to wrap your mind around. I will say that this system and model will not work for every group template or group in general, but for some of them, it is so much easier on the GM and more satisfying for the players.

Hope you enjoyed my long post! If not, here's a funny picture.

-Wes

   

What I'm Playing Right Now

Hey there, readers!

While I do seem to be cursed to run games until the day that I die, I do get to play every so often! This has been happening a lot more lately since my current life situation has separated me physically from a lot of my real-life groups. I've been getting my playing fill thanks to the wonderful people I've met over the Margaret Weis forums, Roll20, and Google+.

So, as a companion post to the last one, I'll go over what games I'm involved in as a player right now and in the near future.

What I'm Playing Now:

X-Men (Marvel Heroic)

I've got two confessions this time.

First.

I fuckin' love the X-Men. They are, by a fairly large margin, my favorite team in Marvel comics, maybe comics in general. Sure, it's usually a flawed series plagued by an incredibly large cast, Mary Sue/emo characters out the whazoo, and plot lines that seem to fly in the face of the rest of Marvel's continuity, but I love it anyway. The characters that are well written are amazing, their plight always seems to be culturally relevant, and they actually have a reason to be a team other than "Well, we're all good superheroes with sub-par rogue galleries; let's team up to sell more comics!"

I'm lookin' at you, Avengers.

Second confession.

I fuckin' love Rogue.

I'm serious. She's my favorite Marvel character. I've got her action figure on my wall, still mint in box. A Rogue figurine is dangling off my phone, showing everyone my heart-throb every time I get a text. I could create an entire post about why I adore this Southern Belle, but I doubt you guys want an in-depth character analysis. If you do, let me know, and I'd gladly share why this girl has taken my number one spot.

Anyway, back to the game. I'm currently in a new group that is running an X-Men game based off of an old TSR module. It's a small group, which I love, and I finally get to play Rogue, which I also love. We've only had one session so far, but I'm looking forward to more!

What I'll Be Playing Soon:

Civil War (Marvel Heroic)

Last August, I got involved in my first Marvel Heroic game over Google+ run by a rather talented GM. We were playing through Breakout, which is the introductory scenario in the back of the Marvel Heroic book. However, our GM was clever enough to extend it by an extra act and even throw in a few twists to make sure that this was the Breakout we would remember. While I know some of my readers were actually involved, for those who aren't in the know, you can watch the entire game on Youtube!

I played none other than Wolverine, which is another character that I'm quite fond of. It's not often that I get to take on the gruff, macho, bad-ass role, but I thoroughly enjoyed it.

Starting in June, we're going to be doing Civil War, the first full-campaign module put out for Marvel Heroic, in the same universe as our Breakout game with all of the same people, plus a few more!

I'll be taking on the role of Wolverine again, and I get to pick one another character, but I'm a bit stumped on that avenue. I want someone that is different than Wolverine in both personality and play-style and someone I'm somewhat comfortable portraying. Ergo, no brooding gruff bad-asses. Not a scrapper (For those of you who have every played City of Heroes). No one too obscure. I've still got some time to make a decision, so, I'll come up with something.

While I am looking forward to the game immensely, I am a bit concerned about the number of players. If we are going to have, what looks like, eight players and the GM, I'm not quite sure how that's going to fly. I've ran for and played in large groups, and it's not easy. Not to mention that having the video feed for nine people is going to wreak havoc on certain internet connections.

But, I hope for the best!

And that's pretty much it! I was in a New Warriors campaign that sort of fizzled out, but if that comes back, I'd be willing to play again. Also, a group I played Escape from Mos Shuttaa with may be delving into The Long Arm of the Hutt, so that's another possibility.

Anyway, hope you enjoyed my brief foray into my current playing schedule. If you didn't, here's a funny picture.

-Wes