things learned

[incandescens]

Things I have learned while running games:

a) Just because Plot A worked well, running a reprise of Plot A is not necessarily going to work well.

b) After your players' characters have saved the world, anything else is likely to be a bit of an anticlimax.

c) Do not underestimate characters' tendency to sit and argue.

d) A group of American players are likely to want to set the game in America rather than England.

e) It's still fun.

---

Mighty as stars falling from the heavens,
Heavy like waves crashing on the shore.
At first the drops are the size of fists,
Then each is a bowl of water upturned.
Flowing across the land, making ducks' necks green;
Washing the mountainside to show it deep blue.
The waters in the ravine are a thousand fathoms of jade,
The spring stream swells to a myriad strands of silver.
Soon the crossroads is flooded,
And the meandering river flows straight.
The dragons help the Tang Priest in his trouble,
Making the Heavenly River overflow.

Journey to the West, translated by WJF Jenner

Comments

[trooper6.livejournal.com]

I'm American, and I'd love to play in a game set in England!
(Mind you, I am one of those Americans whose favorite TV channels are Sci-Fi and BBC America. And I also have watched Eastenders since the 80s...of course here in America we are something like 6 years behind...I mean, Steve is still alive...and we haven't even met Alfie Moon...and Pauline is still alive.)

Throw me in a game set in England! Liverpool? Manchester? London? Yorkshire? The rift in Wales with all the folks from Torchwood? Yes please, mum...that would be Ace!

I mean, I've played in games in any number of American cities I've never been to...let's go crazy with some London action...then I could embarrass myself and everyone at the table with my bad accent. Good times!

[fadethecat.livejournal.com]

Agreed! I would love the chance to play in a country the GM knew that I didn't, so that someone could get all the details right and let me explore the place.

[incandescens]

I appreciate the thought, but I have had problems when trying it. Maybe I should have been more cinematic.

[archangelbeth]

Hmmmmm. I think that it's just different enough to trip one up when one is thinking of things to try -- and probably actually not so much tripping one up, as making one self-conscious about "getting it wrong"?

With a pure-fantasy world, one is likely to ask more questions -- "Is there an X? Historically they had Y, which is pretty close..." -- but that's because it's a made-up world and the GM has all the answers, and the player really can't be expected to know them if they're not in a published worldbook.

So....... You should make a worldbook for modern England! O:D

[incandescens]

What, with "interesting local things to do to the players"?

[archangelbeth]

Yes! O:D

[incandescens]

That'd have to be very system/setting-dependent, though.

[archangelbeth]

Not necessarily -- stuff like missing the right... train? subway? or getting lost, etc. I think that could be done fairly generically. Maybe go with FUDGE. (Or GURPS, perhaps.) Something where you can say "minor penalty/bonus, moderate penalty/bonus, major penalty/bonus" as needed?

Now, if you add in supernatural stuff, that'd be setting-dependent, but if you're just doing Modern England? You can tack in a few places which have a rep for spooks, or suggest that a running battle in X location would be cool, but you could leave the rest and stick with the mundane...

[incandescens]

Maybe, but I'm just not sure -- that is, I wouldn't be particularly interested in buying a worldbook on "what it is like to live in mundane America". So I'm not sure that a worldbook on "living in mundane England" would really be that much fun.

[archangelbeth]

Well, bearing in mind that it'd be a guide for American players... I think it could be fascinating -- for the right sort of player. How policemen behave; what sort of behavior/attitude will get you hauled in for questioning; what your legal rights are if that happens. A glossary of words that are slightly different: Lorry, Lift, ...druggist?

For car-chases, what are the roads like?

Also, if you put in the wonky stuff -- mundane conspiracy theories, rumors of hauntings, excellent spots to put supernatural stuff -- then it's not quite just bog-standard mundanity.

That kind of thing!

[incandescens]

I'm sorry, but I'm really not convinced a sourcebook like that would sell. It's not as if the GURPS line has ever produced that, after all!

[archangelbeth]

*eyes* GURPS Middle Ages? GURPS China? GURPS Japan? GURPS Dinosaurs? (Prehistoric, yes, but mundane!) GURPS Egypt? GURPS Greece? GURPS Aztecs? GURPS Imperial Rome? A section of GURPS Mars? GURPS Russia? GURPS Timeline? GURPS Vikings? The whole freepin' GURPS WWII series?

I'm not saying that it would automatically sell, but I wouldn't automatically bet against something that'd be useful for anything, from covert ops to Harry Potter, set in England. The magic, the psi, the weird stuff -- just point out some likely places to layer that over the mundanity.

[incandescens]

Yes, but aren't all those earlier ones -- China, Japan, Greece, Egypt, Russia, Vikings, Imperial Rome, etc -- historicals rather than modern?

I suppose you could argue that we already have one British Historical. The GURPS Robin Hood.

Maybe it's just that I find it hard to see my own background as that interesting. ;)

[incandescens]

Heh. I appreciate the thought, and thanks. :)

[liralen.livejournal.com]

I like b and c the most... though e is greatly good, too. But, yes, never underestimate the players' abilities to sit and argue. *laughter*

[incandescens]

Remember Fiat Justitia? I fear that after saving Kobal, taking down the Camp, etc, it was hard to match those levels of achievement. :)

[liralen.livejournal.com]

Absolutely. There's a point where it just kind of goes.. hm.... we've saved the world, what next? *grin*

[incandescens]

Yes, precisely. :)

[liralen.livejournal.com]

Though I have to admit that I dearly miss Faber and Sephar.

[incandescens]

Me too. Sniff.

[jediboadicea.livejournal.com]

Do not underestimate characters' tendency to sit and argue.

Oh god, so unbelievably true. Having been on both ends of this phenomenon, just reading the line makes me both laugh and cringe. :)

A group of American players are likely to want to set the game in America rather than England.

As I've never run or played in an rpg which was not set either in a fantasy world, a mutant world, or in galaxy far, far away, I can't say I've encountered this phenomenon. But I think, for myself, I could pretty much guarantee that I would rather play in a game set anywhere else other than the place in which I lived. :)

It's still fun.

So true.

This is so cool. All my years conversing with people online, and I've never really stumbled across random discussion about running games like this. Reading Order Of The Stick isn't quite the same thing. ;)

[incandescens]

Well, the America/England thing probably applies more to a game that is set in an analogue-real world (such as In Nomine, which is "real world but with angels and demons").

Glad to have amused you. :)