Ok, I mentioned it before, I'm working on a setting for a pen & paper roleplaying game. I just finished writing the races section of the first draft of the setting and started well into the next one, so I figured, I'll make a post about it.
My plan and wish would be for the finished setting to be published in some way but it is still way to early to think about this in any detail. Anyway, the setting is called Acimera and I'm very happy about the way things are going so far. If I take this any further, I'll be sure to check in here and make as many posts as possible about the whole process of writing this book and getting it out there. At the moment I'm trying to finish a first draft of the whole book that can be used as a playtest document and reference for players. Once this is finished, I will think on how to polish it up and expand it to the size of a real book and then think about how to publish it. So there's still a lot of work to do. I'll keep you posted on the progress.
Sonntag, 16. Januar 2011
Mittwoch, 12. Januar 2011
Not Dead Yet
Well, here I am again.
I almost stopped blogging again after only a couple of posts. I'm terribly bad at this thing. So here goes:
A happy new year to anyone who is actually reading this and not yet sick of hearing or reading this wish at this point in time!
So here are my new year's resolutions, even though I've broken the first one already:
1. Post at least once per week here on this blog.
2. Try to get something gaming-related published / publish it myself.
3. Go to lots of concerts and festivals (Hey I had to include one that I might even succeed at).
4. Try to be more consistent in communication with my friends and other people I know.
That's quite a lot to do for someone like me. Let's see if I'm still around here next year to evaluate them.
I almost stopped blogging again after only a couple of posts. I'm terribly bad at this thing. So here goes:
A happy new year to anyone who is actually reading this and not yet sick of hearing or reading this wish at this point in time!
So here are my new year's resolutions, even though I've broken the first one already:
1. Post at least once per week here on this blog.
2. Try to get something gaming-related published / publish it myself.
3. Go to lots of concerts and festivals (Hey I had to include one that I might even succeed at).
4. Try to be more consistent in communication with my friends and other people I know.
That's quite a lot to do for someone like me. Let's see if I'm still around here next year to evaluate them.
Sonntag, 26. Dezember 2010
Some Thoughts on Metaplot
Well, as I mentioned before, I am currently working on a larger rpg project, the design of a world setting.
In the course of this endeavour, I am running into many problems, and some of them will hopefully spawn ramblings to be posted on this blog. Here's the next of these ramblings:
In the course of designing the culture for one of the races in my setting, I started to think about metaplot in this setting in particular and gamedesign at large.
First, let me define metaplot for the rest of this post: Metaplot is an ongoing narative for a game's setting as a whole. It can be completely open for everyone to read and take part in, or it can be for the GM only, full of hidden things happening to baffle the players with.
Games with strong metaplot have been White Wolf's World of Darkness games and Deadlands, some other games like Fading Suns do have a metaplot of sorts, but it is very weak and can be ignored quite easily.
Advantages and disadvantages of metaplot are quite obvious, or at least I think so. A strong metaplot keeps things interesting for the gm as well as the players, it offers lots of hooks to hang cool adventures on, giving everyone the feeling of actually taking part in the world's history. The disadvantages of a strong metaplot are very much about freedom.
A strong metaplot can force GMs and players alike in a certain direction, cutting off interesting avenues of adventuring. It also can be very cruel to the GM to be the only one to know all this stuff and never getting the chance to reveal it to te players.
So is a strong metaplot a good or a bad thing?
Frankly I don't know. Of course, a good gaming group can always make up their own world-shaking plot-lines, but this takes some experience.
It's not that this is very hard, but it often takes a lot of self-assurance on the GM's part to tinker with an official setting in that way.
So, returning to my original point: Should I include a metaplot of sorts in the setting or not? At the moment, I'm thinking yes, for a few reasons that I will try to outline below:
First of all, I like metaplot, I like reading about it and discussing it with others.
Secondly, the setting is very well suited for metaplot. It is a very young setting with a short history. So quite a lot of things are happening at the starting point of the setting. Many changes are yet coming to the new world and I think that some of them are ideally dealt with in the form of metaplot.
Thirdly, I'm trying to make te metaplot as optional as possible, so that those who don't want it can ignore it without much hassle.
How will I achieve this? I'm not yet completely sure, but I always liked the idea of optional campaign supplements that can be used to play out one particular strand of metaplot. If the group doesn't want to play the campaign, the part of the metaplot simply doesn't happen.
This may lead to some problems in a future second edition of the setting, but at the moment I'm simply too far away from even a first edition, to bother about this.
The point of these ramblings?
Metaplot yes, but in moderations, I guess.
In the course of this endeavour, I am running into many problems, and some of them will hopefully spawn ramblings to be posted on this blog. Here's the next of these ramblings:
In the course of designing the culture for one of the races in my setting, I started to think about metaplot in this setting in particular and gamedesign at large.
First, let me define metaplot for the rest of this post: Metaplot is an ongoing narative for a game's setting as a whole. It can be completely open for everyone to read and take part in, or it can be for the GM only, full of hidden things happening to baffle the players with.
Games with strong metaplot have been White Wolf's World of Darkness games and Deadlands, some other games like Fading Suns do have a metaplot of sorts, but it is very weak and can be ignored quite easily.
Advantages and disadvantages of metaplot are quite obvious, or at least I think so. A strong metaplot keeps things interesting for the gm as well as the players, it offers lots of hooks to hang cool adventures on, giving everyone the feeling of actually taking part in the world's history. The disadvantages of a strong metaplot are very much about freedom.
A strong metaplot can force GMs and players alike in a certain direction, cutting off interesting avenues of adventuring. It also can be very cruel to the GM to be the only one to know all this stuff and never getting the chance to reveal it to te players.
So is a strong metaplot a good or a bad thing?
Frankly I don't know. Of course, a good gaming group can always make up their own world-shaking plot-lines, but this takes some experience.
It's not that this is very hard, but it often takes a lot of self-assurance on the GM's part to tinker with an official setting in that way.
So, returning to my original point: Should I include a metaplot of sorts in the setting or not? At the moment, I'm thinking yes, for a few reasons that I will try to outline below:
First of all, I like metaplot, I like reading about it and discussing it with others.
Secondly, the setting is very well suited for metaplot. It is a very young setting with a short history. So quite a lot of things are happening at the starting point of the setting. Many changes are yet coming to the new world and I think that some of them are ideally dealt with in the form of metaplot.
Thirdly, I'm trying to make te metaplot as optional as possible, so that those who don't want it can ignore it without much hassle.
How will I achieve this? I'm not yet completely sure, but I always liked the idea of optional campaign supplements that can be used to play out one particular strand of metaplot. If the group doesn't want to play the campaign, the part of the metaplot simply doesn't happen.
This may lead to some problems in a future second edition of the setting, but at the moment I'm simply too far away from even a first edition, to bother about this.
The point of these ramblings?
Metaplot yes, but in moderations, I guess.
Deadlands Preparation IV
Ok, I think I have the main plot for all three days down.
Looking at my plans, the next thing would be to decide on the locations and so forth.
Luckily this will go much easier, since the plot demands certain locations in certain places.
The first adventure will take place in a city, probably New Orleans, the second on a steamer up the Mississippi and the third somewhere much further west, with prairies and so on, I think.
I might put day one on the steamer and make day two a travel adventure, starting out on the boat and trying to get west, so that the gap between the second and third day is not as large as it is no.
This will depend on the details of the adventures, subplots, npc's and so forth.
Something I have to find out now, is the exact number and character of pc's in the posse. I know te number of players, but some of them are thinking about creating new characters, so I need to find out their exact plans to include hooks and challenges for each pc.
Apart from this, I'm rather pleased with my progress so far and will devote the rest of the day to the fleshing out of npc's and subplots.
Looking at my plans, the next thing would be to decide on the locations and so forth.
Luckily this will go much easier, since the plot demands certain locations in certain places.
The first adventure will take place in a city, probably New Orleans, the second on a steamer up the Mississippi and the third somewhere much further west, with prairies and so on, I think.
I might put day one on the steamer and make day two a travel adventure, starting out on the boat and trying to get west, so that the gap between the second and third day is not as large as it is no.
This will depend on the details of the adventures, subplots, npc's and so forth.
Something I have to find out now, is the exact number and character of pc's in the posse. I know te number of players, but some of them are thinking about creating new characters, so I need to find out their exact plans to include hooks and challenges for each pc.
Apart from this, I'm rather pleased with my progress so far and will devote the rest of the day to the fleshing out of npc's and subplots.
Samstag, 25. Dezember 2010
Deadlands Preparation III
Ok, so now I have a shadow of a plot for three days, a shadow of a villain and a few cool scenes.
The next problem will be to make some of the things more concrete, including the location where things happen.
The first thing I will now work on, is the villain. He must be scary, after all, this is supposed to be a horror game, at least in parts.
The whole concept of a Deadlands adventure, at least for me is about the overcoming of real evil by the power of big guns. Victory however, must be paid for with humanity and morals, no one can stay a saint while fighting evil.
It is this dilemma between good versus evil on one side and cold rationality versus humanity on the other.
These four concepts form a carthesian grid of sorts, with the perfect neutral character at the null-point.
The goal of my villains is now to drag the players from that point into the extremes, giving them choices that lead them ever further from moral and psychological equilibrium and then confronting them with the consequences of their decisions.
Sounds grand and noble, right?
Well, the difficulty lies in breaking these ideas down into a cool adventure, so that the players have a lot of fun, blasting away at everything, right up to that point, where they realise what they have done and are scared of themselves.
I Think, I'll make use of dreams to drive some points home, but I won't go into more detail. Fleshing out the main villain will probably take some more time, I just wanted to get these ramblings out.
Oh, and there might in fact be a steamboat in the adventure. Thank Terry Pratchett for it.
The next problem will be to make some of the things more concrete, including the location where things happen.
The first thing I will now work on, is the villain. He must be scary, after all, this is supposed to be a horror game, at least in parts.
The whole concept of a Deadlands adventure, at least for me is about the overcoming of real evil by the power of big guns. Victory however, must be paid for with humanity and morals, no one can stay a saint while fighting evil.
It is this dilemma between good versus evil on one side and cold rationality versus humanity on the other.
These four concepts form a carthesian grid of sorts, with the perfect neutral character at the null-point.
The goal of my villains is now to drag the players from that point into the extremes, giving them choices that lead them ever further from moral and psychological equilibrium and then confronting them with the consequences of their decisions.
Sounds grand and noble, right?
Well, the difficulty lies in breaking these ideas down into a cool adventure, so that the players have a lot of fun, blasting away at everything, right up to that point, where they realise what they have done and are scared of themselves.
I Think, I'll make use of dreams to drive some points home, but I won't go into more detail. Fleshing out the main villain will probably take some more time, I just wanted to get these ramblings out.
Oh, and there might in fact be a steamboat in the adventure. Thank Terry Pratchett for it.
Freitag, 24. Dezember 2010
Deadlands Preparation II
Ok, so I have not yet cleared up all ideas, but the one I like most at the moment has lead me to another problem:
Do I try out novel concepts, like flashbacks and so on, or do I stick with a sequential plot?
I'd really like to open the game with a scene from later on in the adventure, but am uncertain about how it would work out.
The point is that flashbacks and so on work very well in long-running campaigns, I think, but can feel like overkill in a short adventure. Now, some of the characters that will appear in the game, have been around in the Weird West for some time so they are to all purposes long-running characters, which makes me incline towards using the flashbacks and time-jumps.
These narative devices also add to a more cinematic feel, which is exactly what I'm aiming at.
So the structure of the adventure will be something like this:
First day: Begin with a boom, perhaps a scene from later on in the narative, then roll back a bit and play the part where the heroes meet again and set out for some adventuring.
Second day: The heroes are now in the deep shit. Their plans from the first adventure have seemingly succeeded marvelously, but then something wicked their way comes... with a vengeance. The Day should end with anoter big boom.
Third day: Begin at the point where we began the first day, but now there follows not the flashback but the story continues from that point onwards. End with anoter big bang, the biggest bang possible, since it is the end of the adventure.
Things I need to watch out for are manifold. The largest issue I have, is the problem of consistency. If the adventure begins with a scene from very late in the narative, I need to have a way to lead the story to that point, no matter what the players do. This sounds a lot like railroading and in the purest sense of the word it is.
The trick will be to make it feel as if it was a natural development and not planned from the start. And possibly have a backup plan to explain the beginning, if the players manage to derail the adventure to an extend that makes it impossible to reach that particular scene.
I'll now try to fit my ideas into that frame and see how it turns out.
Do I try out novel concepts, like flashbacks and so on, or do I stick with a sequential plot?
I'd really like to open the game with a scene from later on in the adventure, but am uncertain about how it would work out.
The point is that flashbacks and so on work very well in long-running campaigns, I think, but can feel like overkill in a short adventure. Now, some of the characters that will appear in the game, have been around in the Weird West for some time so they are to all purposes long-running characters, which makes me incline towards using the flashbacks and time-jumps.
These narative devices also add to a more cinematic feel, which is exactly what I'm aiming at.
So the structure of the adventure will be something like this:
First day: Begin with a boom, perhaps a scene from later on in the narative, then roll back a bit and play the part where the heroes meet again and set out for some adventuring.
Second day: The heroes are now in the deep shit. Their plans from the first adventure have seemingly succeeded marvelously, but then something wicked their way comes... with a vengeance. The Day should end with anoter big boom.
Third day: Begin at the point where we began the first day, but now there follows not the flashback but the story continues from that point onwards. End with anoter big bang, the biggest bang possible, since it is the end of the adventure.
Things I need to watch out for are manifold. The largest issue I have, is the problem of consistency. If the adventure begins with a scene from very late in the narative, I need to have a way to lead the story to that point, no matter what the players do. This sounds a lot like railroading and in the purest sense of the word it is.
The trick will be to make it feel as if it was a natural development and not planned from the start. And possibly have a backup plan to explain the beginning, if the players manage to derail the adventure to an extend that makes it impossible to reach that particular scene.
I'll now try to fit my ideas into that frame and see how it turns out.
Donnerstag, 23. Dezember 2010
Deadlands Preparation I
This winter, like the years before, we will play a three days game of Deadlands. It has become something of a tradition and although it takes place a week later than the previous years, I am already certain there will be a game next year and so on for the foreseeable future.
The role of Marshall (GM in Deadlands lingo)
is once again taken by me and so I am now planning the adventure.
Now, this has always been a daunting task for me, what with me being something of a complete failure when it comes to game preparation and planning.
It's not that I don't want to run the game or even prepare for it. It's rather that I just can't seem to concentrate on the work until I'm at home for crhistmass. Then I start reading all kinds of Deadlands books, usually while knitting some winter clothing. The problem with this approach is that
I usually end up with lots of random ideas and no coherent plot.
This year however, I'll try to improve on this. I know, I promised that the last times as well, but I'll try to
write about my progress and my approach in order to actually get a result.
I will, for the moment at least, refrain from posting any details of the adventure, in case any of my players read this and use it against me.
If anyone is interested and asks me about it, I might put up a write-up of the adventure afterwards. So without further ramblings to the matter at hand:
The facts about the adventure, or at least the ones I already know:
It should run for three days, I know the number of players and most of the characters they will play.
That's about it. What I want to achieve is a three-part adventure that has a complete plot and is absolutely awesome, so that the players want the year to go by faster in order to play again.
How will I get to this goal?
I have no idea, so watch me trying. The obvious advantage for you is that you can laugh at me, if I fail, without suffering my embarassment, when I wreck the adventure in front of my players.
Even before I start the preparation proper, I usually have a few ideas, very faint and disconnected, that float around. This year is no different in that respect and my first action will be to identify those ideas that make the most sense and are the most awesome.
Then I'll try to come up with a plot that can loosely be split into three parts. Each of these parts should feel like a complete adventure, but the first two should end with a cliffhanger to keep the players hooked for the next day.
The adventures also need a few sliding sections that I can remove or stretch out, depending on how fast the adventures run, to keep the time-frame.
After the first fixing of the plot, I need to decide on a location, if none is dictated by te plot itself.
After this it is time to write down more details concerning each adventure part, npc's, locations and so forth.
And then, hopefully, I have a finished adventure for thre days and enough time left to review it once and maybe even look for fitting background music.
That's the plan for now and this evening will be spent with the examination of the ideas I have and trying to make them fit into a whole.
We'll see how that turns out.
The role of Marshall (GM in Deadlands lingo)
is once again taken by me and so I am now planning the adventure.
Now, this has always been a daunting task for me, what with me being something of a complete failure when it comes to game preparation and planning.
It's not that I don't want to run the game or even prepare for it. It's rather that I just can't seem to concentrate on the work until I'm at home for crhistmass. Then I start reading all kinds of Deadlands books, usually while knitting some winter clothing. The problem with this approach is that
I usually end up with lots of random ideas and no coherent plot.
This year however, I'll try to improve on this. I know, I promised that the last times as well, but I'll try to
write about my progress and my approach in order to actually get a result.
I will, for the moment at least, refrain from posting any details of the adventure, in case any of my players read this and use it against me.
If anyone is interested and asks me about it, I might put up a write-up of the adventure afterwards. So without further ramblings to the matter at hand:
The facts about the adventure, or at least the ones I already know:
It should run for three days, I know the number of players and most of the characters they will play.
That's about it. What I want to achieve is a three-part adventure that has a complete plot and is absolutely awesome, so that the players want the year to go by faster in order to play again.
How will I get to this goal?
I have no idea, so watch me trying. The obvious advantage for you is that you can laugh at me, if I fail, without suffering my embarassment, when I wreck the adventure in front of my players.
Even before I start the preparation proper, I usually have a few ideas, very faint and disconnected, that float around. This year is no different in that respect and my first action will be to identify those ideas that make the most sense and are the most awesome.
Then I'll try to come up with a plot that can loosely be split into three parts. Each of these parts should feel like a complete adventure, but the first two should end with a cliffhanger to keep the players hooked for the next day.
The adventures also need a few sliding sections that I can remove or stretch out, depending on how fast the adventures run, to keep the time-frame.
After the first fixing of the plot, I need to decide on a location, if none is dictated by te plot itself.
After this it is time to write down more details concerning each adventure part, npc's, locations and so forth.
And then, hopefully, I have a finished adventure for thre days and enough time left to review it once and maybe even look for fitting background music.
That's the plan for now and this evening will be spent with the examination of the ideas I have and trying to make them fit into a whole.
We'll see how that turns out.
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