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!

Cthulhu Tech - Bring it on

This is why I should play and not run Cthulhu Tech, Great Old Ones who trash talk to the players seem to lose some of that "other worldly" quality:

cthulutech game ideas and musings

It's almost time for me to start running cthulutech so I thought I'd throw out a few of the ideas I have tumbling around in my head.

The main idea I have had for it is based around the First Arcanotech War when the Nazzadi first invade the Earth and humanities attempts to stop them. This one would be split into 3 story arcs of about 3 games each, so we could have other games in between. Initially it will start from the Nazzadi point of view followed by the Humans then finally when the Nazzadi rebel against the Migou and join the Humans.
This is a game I am very keen on running but would be focused on mecha Humans and Nazzadi. It would have a bit of cult things running around in the background but they will only be pretty minor.

Otherwise going along the lines of what the players have expressed an interest in so far is a paranormal investigation game which will feature the cults quite heavily (well one or two of them anyway) possibly some contact with the Tagers and other members of the Eldrich society. I am happy to run this style if that is what the players prefer.

I'll put up a not on the style of game I am wanting to run and a few extra ideas I'll be throwing in beyond what the game rules cover in a coming post.

Things that go bang in the night

I'm not normally one to obsess over firearms, but for a modern RPG with a combat element they are the equivalent of your fire-balls and battle-axes. If a character is going to look like he means business he may as well have boomstick to match the feel.

A nice little site on the web has descriptions of guns that appear in movies, along with images, movie stills and interesting little bits of information. I've put the link below, if you don't have time to browse much of the site have a look at the page for the movie Heat which is choc full of bang-bang goodness.

http://www.imfdb.org/index.php/Main_Page

http://www.imfdb.org/index.php/Heat

Co-authors and Zombie armies incoming

A big welcome to the blogs first co-authors: Bodge, Joshua and Last Akodo.

I'm catching them tomorrow with some other mutual friends to play part 2 of our 3 part Unhallowed Metroplis trial game (being run by Bodge).

It would appear someone is being a very naughty aristocrat and assembling an army of zombies - complete with controlling mechanisms, weapon supplies and a yet to be determined transport mechanism. Hopefully its nothing we can't take care of with some gasmasks, an assortment of victorian clothing, some rubber body armor and good supply of weaponry. End of last game we found a telsa-coil-lightning-gun-thingo, I have a feeling we may need the medical services of Last Akodo's doctor character shortly after we have a few friendly "practice shots".

Roleplaying: Acting and Representation

There is more than one way to roleplay, and as long as you and your group are having fun you certainly are not doing it wrong.

An awkward discussion I have with people who haven't played RPGs before, is around the whole "do you dress up and use funny voices to act out your scenes". Certainly there are (LARP) groups that do just that, and many players use accents and mannerisms to make their character and the game more interesting and entertaining.

To me though RPGs have always been about playing a giant group based "choose your own adventure" in scenes that could be us rewriting our favourite books and movies collaboratively. It's the choices we make together (based on our fictional characters and the scenes they find themselves in) that really bring the roleplaying experience to life for me.

A while back I found a great post on the Roleplaying Tips website that discussed this idea and really spelt it out in a way I felt made it easy to understand. I've put a link below and pasted a brief extract, have a look and let me know what your thoughts are.

http://www.roleplayingtips.com/readissue.php?number=363

Aim For Character Representation

The first step is to acknowledge there are many definitions of roleplaying, and to communicate and synch up on this topic with your players as soon as possible. Once everyone understands your definitions and expectations, and you address concerns they might have and adapt to their requests, you can build and play to a common purpose.

Keep your mind open to their feedback as well. They might have ideas and suggestions that would help, especially if you ask. Avoid telling them it's your way or no way - seek consensus instead.

Acting and Representation

I'm open to being schooled on this subject, but in my opinion, the various aspects and definitions of roleplaying a character fall under two groups:
1. Acting
2. Representation

Some folks feel roleplaying is all about the accents, demonstrating the character in real life, impersonating the character, and acting at the table like the character would. There's nothing wrong with this, and it often breathes life and creative energy into game sessions. Be sure to communicate to this type of player, though, that you're looking for character representation as well.

Representation gets my vote for being the more important of the two categories. If I had to pick only one category for a player to game within, I'd choose representation.

With representation, the player puts themselves in their character's position and makes decisions the character is capable of and motivated to, based on information the PC has available. The character is portrayed. The player does not lend the character meta-game knowledge. The character stays true to himself, though he is capable of change.

While the character is an extension of the player in the game world, the character is not the player, and the PC has his own thoughts, personality, and experiences. It's the player's responsibility to represent the character to the best of his ability during the game.