Geeks at the movies

Cinematic games can really bring out the buzz in role playing making combats and the whole game flow more easily without players getting distracted. It also adds more character and glory than say getting a 20 on that goon, when compared to (taking a scene from a Feng Shui game), kicking his head off somersaulting into the air to catch it and then slam dunking it through an open sunroof.

To really make cinematic games come alive the GM has to hand over quite a bit of freedom to the players. Players should be encouraged to repaint the scene to fit their needs for whatever cool moves the character plans to pull off but still some limits should remain. If the GM doesn't allow the players to add detail to the set then they are less likely to use props, or will constantly be asking what is nearby which can stilt the high paced action that a cinematic game wants. Conversely the PC's shouldn't needlessly add in absurd or useless details, such as needing a quick getaway from a abandoned warehouse that all of a sudden has a shiny new jet sitting in it that no one noticed before. It is also important that players come up with and state their actions relatively quickly again to keep the game moving at a good rate.

The rules should reflect the actions at the very least slightly. Exaulted and Dream Pod 9's silcore rules both have excellent methods for performing stunts and the very nature of these games encourages players to do so. A good general guide line would be to give bonus dice or modifier to the action (possibly making it harder to perform at the same time) or even just allowing some dice rolls to be automatically being passed. It is important not to over burden any given set of actions with too many dice rolls as these will again severely slow the pace of the game as in one game where a Orc biker rode his bike out of a 3rd story window bounced off a van roof and skidded round to confront the driver with a big f**k off pistol. This set of actions too about 5 dice rolls to work out (with associated time for the GM to interpret how successful each part was) making the whole thing take about 15 minutes to work out and robbing it of much of its appeal compared to the much quicker and easier running down the stairs. This would have been better served with 1 or 2 dice rolls with a slight bonus for coolness (and to encourage other players to do nifty stuff).

The main point of a cinematic games is too keep a high pace with very cool and weird stunts being pulled keeping everyone thrilled and on the edge of their seats.

Action! Danger! Redshirts!

Cthulutech being a rather grisly game of supernatural powers beyond rational thought and with city destroying powers unsurprisingly expects quite a high amount of action, death and insanity. Lets face it we'd hate to disappoint.

Most of the sample missions presented in their books add in various NPC's who are designed only to die or go insane rather than being of much help to the group, although they often have several very useful skills or knowledge's. Groups I have played with before have wound up basically letting the GM use these NPC's to basically play against himself. Useful and "realistic" as this may be is is boring as hell and introduces needless bureaucracy into the game. Having NPC's come in and drop off like flies to the nasty supernatural horrors doesn't emphasis how nasty they are to the PC's, in fact it can seriously undermine the attempt.

In an attempt to remedy this and stop NPC's from stealing the lime light I will be giving all the players a redshirt in addition to their normal characters. In true redshirt fashion will at best have only a first name or a job title and defining characteristics (personality basically) with any further details being up to the players to flesh out if they should choose to. The redshirt should fill in gaps in the main characters abilities. In Cthulutech players can have a group with a mecha pilot a beat cop and librarian (for example). In any combat that involves mecha the cop and librarian aren't going to be much use and so 2/3 of the group is out for a whole fight scene, which can be a bit dull. Add in a couple of redshirt mecha pilots and a redshirt investigator and all the players can be involved all the time. Rules wise the redshirts will be slightly worse off than the PC's starting with lower stats and skills. As the players advance they can choose weather their main character or the redshirt will get the xp. If at anytime they give the redshirt a last name (or a name if they didn't have one) then the red shirt will become their main character prompting the swift retirement/insanity/horrific death of their previous character, they will also get a xp boost to bring them in line with the other main characters.

Redshirts give players have more of a chance to be daring and take risks which they might not otherwise take. Games can have high mortality rates or incidences of insanity and importantly these should have more impact to the players when one of their characters is lost to them. Rather than some random NPC. Hopefully making the game more fun more bloody and more involving for all!