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It could be fun to have the big bad immediately flee rather than fight, because he had the exact same vision as the players. Maybe he made a bad bargain with an Elder Power, and it's about to show up to claim his soul.
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Apr 30, 2024 22:57
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We had the opposite happen where the bard used thunderwave and it killed all her allies then gm was like well just take that back
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Apr 30, 2024 23:01
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Squidster posted:It could be fun to have the big bad immediately flee rather than fight, because he had the exact same vision as the players. Maybe he made a bad bargain with an Elder Power, and it's about to show up to claim his soul. This is great, do this. Or he just surrenders.
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May 1, 2024 00:20
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Back when I was running Unknown Armies, I wanted an NPC that claimed to have invented Chronomancy, and could seemingly perform limited time travel magic. He'd show up, save the PCs from certain death with impossible foresight, and then bully them into doing favours for him because Only He Can Save Them!!! Later on, it would be revealed he was actually a Cliomancer with limited memory injection powers. He'd give the players the memory that he'd saved them without ever actually doing anything, or the memory that he beat them up one-handed. He was just a social threat, not a physical one. So it could be a memory mage loving with the PCs, cosplaying as a psychic or time-traveller.
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May 1, 2024 01:43
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Stealing this one!
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May 1, 2024 02:24
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Dameius posted:Fair enough, you know your table better than anyone here. I was kinda hoping I could gleam some inspiration to your op from the response. What's the magic/deity situation like? Is there someone in the setting that'd want to mess with their head to give them false sense of bravado? Great way to slip in a surprise mechanic to retool the fight if you want. Maybe they did give both the party and the boss a vision of thoroughly trouncing the respective opponent to really pit them against each other and pick up the pieces!
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May 1, 2024 07:30
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It's kind of like some of those Sci-fi/Fantasy shows where the team is under a spell or in a simulation, but they don't realize until there's one little thing that clues them in. "What just happened?" "Uh, you were kicking his rear end with some thunder magic, then we woke up here. Why don't you do that all the time?" "That's the problem. I don't know thunder magic."
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May 1, 2024 15:05
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So I've got an encounter possibility that I was wondering if anyone else had any ideas to add to. It's a set of monasteries up north that a group of Mielikki worshipers currently guarding an iron flask (containing a fire hellion). It's not winter yet but they'll need to make sure the building (carved into the side of a mountain) is prepped for winter, and that they've got their food/supplies set. I've got one member of the group who is having a bit of a crisis of faith so depending on the players actions might try to grab the flask and bail. I want to try and have a few more things that the group could rp interacting with this one, and wondering if there are any other gods/orders which might make more sense to be guarding this item?
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May 1, 2024 20:47
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Oh man I've been pondering how to launch a player backstory arc about his disgraced naval career where he survived his ship being stolen. An enemy which ruined his life and left him a hard bitten mercenary without him ever finding out who or why. I couldn't figure out how to start this plot but now that the players have multiple ships the inciting incident is obvious -- steal their ship!
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May 2, 2024 04:38
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Someone related to the crime gets drunk and sloppy. Maybe he needs protection from the original criminal… And he’ll tell what he knows if someone can keep him alive through a big festival.
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May 2, 2024 05:04
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Arglebargle III posted:Oh man I've been pondering how to launch a player backstory arc about his disgraced naval career where he survived his ship being stolen. An enemy which ruined his life and left him a hard bitten mercenary without him ever finding out who or why. I couldn't figure out how to start this plot but now that the players have multiple ships the inciting incident is obvious -- steal their ship! Worked in Star Frontiers too.
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May 2, 2024 15:07
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Have you ever wanted to stop a campaign because you inadvertently turned your players into Gods? It's a struggle to create challenging, balanced encounters. My players ARE having fun though, so that's not an issue. It's just become more and more difficult to prepare a fun session as they progressively get stronger and better. It's getting to the point where I want to start a new campaign set in the future, long enough for their characters to age out and die but for their effects to still be felt*. Just some examples...they own an interstellar bank, own a planet, 3 starships of varying sizes, a starship production facility, started a religion, and run a "medical" (drugs) corporation, and have a robot colony on another planet. This was my first ever campaign and I was a bit too generous with the financials in the beginning before realizing how much I borked it. Has anyone in a similar situation? How did you handle it? *I have tons of ideas for this as I have designed an entirely fresh geopolitical situation so a railroady or open campaign can be done easily. This is for Stars Without Numbers in a homebrew universe if you need to know the rules. 3 DONG HORSE fucked around with this message at 22:56 on May 3, 2024 |
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May 3, 2024 22:54
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Ask them what challenges they want their characters to face. Spend 40 minutes on it between sessions. tell them about your worries and grade problems that can’t be solved by throwing $ at them… Problems of priorities, obligation, and choosing between outcomes.
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May 3, 2024 23:08
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Ork invasion
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May 3, 2024 23:10
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in case of having that problem in Stars Without Number, specifically, i would be extremely tempted to try and integrate the Godbound rules and keep on trucking
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May 3, 2024 23:16
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Arglebargle III posted:Ork invasion I have this idea of a fleet from another galaxy entering our galaxy to seek revenge for an ancient invasion through a wormhole that was eventually destroyed (by an ancient precursor race millions of years ago), causing catastrophic damage in our galaxy, their galaxy, and in other dimensions. The fleet was basically in cryo sleep for eons, to awake upon arrival in our galaxy. I guess I could roll the dice to see where in the galaxy they arrive. It'd basically be an existential threat on a timer for them to deal with, if they even bother (they are not known to be good samaritans all the time). Golden Bee posted:Ask them what challenges they want their characters to face. Spend 40 minutes on it between sessions. tell them about your worries and grade problems that can’t be solved by throwing $ at them… Problems of priorities, obligation, and choosing between outcomes. That's a good idea. I honestly did not think about that but it's probably a good time to do so because they've pretty much resolved all their personal quests. Tuxedo Catfish posted:in case of having that problem in Stars Without Number, specifically, i would be extremely tempted to try and integrate the Godbound rules and keep on trucking I just did a quick readthrough of a write up on this ruleset and it seems interesting enough. I'll need to do further research before integration but it's a neat idea.
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May 3, 2024 23:40
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I'm strongly in favour of ending campaigns and starting new ones tbh, even if you're still having fun. Especially if they get to live in the universe their former characters created. You remember stories, and a twenty session long campaign is about as many stories as a thirty session campaign.
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May 4, 2024 00:40
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Howdy thread. First-time GM here. Going to start a game of Starforged for a couple buds of mine tomorrow. I’d like to think I’ve internalized by observation/osmosis a bunch of good principles for GMing as a whole, but I’m a bit nervous. Wondering if any of y’all have any resources that are good for a first-time GM in either PBTA or Ironsworn/Starforged worth reading over? Assume I’ve read a lot of PBTA rulebooks/know not to roll for poo poo that isn’t fictionally important/lean toward yes and if no roll/on and on. Like the most basic of basic stuff I think I’ve internalized but am happy to hear some tips from anyone here who’s GMed these types of games or if anyone has some good resources worth a read, I’d appreciate it a lot. Would also happily take any advice that’s generally applicable, too. I dunno, is there like a GM bible? Lol
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May 4, 2024 03:03
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Remember as GM you're a player as well and get to have as much fun as the people controlling PCs. Also you should keep an eye out for accidental railroading (unless all y'all are wanting that) because in just as much as you are a fellow player, the people controlling the PCs are fellow contributors to the campaign story in both small and big details.
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May 4, 2024 03:15
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Dameius posted:Remember as GM you're a player as well and get to have as much fun as the people controlling PCs. Also you should keep an eye out for accidental railroading (unless all y'all are wanting that) because in just as much as you are a fellow player, the people controlling the PCs are fellow contributors to the campaign story in both small and big details. Ooh yeah for sure. Apocalypse World and its many offshoots specifically appeal to me because of the ability to offload some authorship onto players. Heh. Plus it’s way more fun that way in my experience. If anything, I’m concerned about being too lax or not giving situations/antagonists enough teeth. Like difficulty management and pacing are the things I feel I’m most likely to mess up.
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May 4, 2024 03:21
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unattended spaghetti posted:Ooh yeah for sure. Apocalypse World and its many offshoots specifically appeal to me because of the ability to offload some authorship onto players. Heh. Plus it’s way more fun that way in my experience. If anything, I’m concerned about being too lax or not giving situations/antagonists enough teeth. Like difficulty management and pacing are the things I feel I’m most likely to mess up. write down a list of things that you can drop in at any time, just like events or weird noises or things to investigate. and have fun! remember, all you're basically ever doing is saying 'this is what your situation is. what do you do?' that's easy!
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May 4, 2024 03:31
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unattended spaghetti posted:Ooh yeah for sure. Apocalypse World and its many offshoots specifically appeal to me because of the ability to offload some authorship onto players. Heh. Plus it’s way more fun that way in my experience. If anything, I’m concerned about being too lax or not giving situations/antagonists enough teeth. Like difficulty management and pacing are the things I feel I’m most likely to mess up. I wouldn't worry too much about that in the beginning. As you can see from my post, that can have long term ramifications if you don't notice right away, or your math sucks, but as long as everyone is having fun (including you), then you're doing the right thing. sebmojo posted:I'm strongly in favour of ending campaigns and starting new ones tbh, even if you're still having fun. Especially if they get to live in the universe their former characters created. You remember stories, and a twenty session long campaign is about as many stories as a thirty session campaign. If we do our next session, that's 38 since 2020 (august would the 4 year anniversary). Each session was probably 5 hours long on average, played once a month. except Dec/Jan. I made some proposals and the group is getting into the idea of retiring but I am also preparing just in case the fickle bastards decide to continue forward.
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May 4, 2024 03:45
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sebmojo posted:write down a list of things that you can drop in at any time, just like events or weird noises or things to investigate. and have fun! remember, all you're basically ever doing is saying 'this is what your situation is. what do you do?' that's easy! Brilliant. Can/will do. You’re probably right I’m just overthinking it. Here’s hoping this takes off and I’m back in a month with a tricky situation to solve.
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May 4, 2024 04:03
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unattended spaghetti posted:Howdy thread. First-time GM here. Going to start a game of Starforged for a couple buds of mine tomorrow. I’d like to think I’ve internalized by observation/osmosis a bunch of good principles for GMing as a whole, but I’m a bit nervous. I haven't got anything specific for those systems, but here's a 3-page document with advice the old hands at the local roleplaying association find answers most common questions. A great deal of this will feel like common sense and it should, but whatever bits you hadn't considered yet may save you a lot of pain learning it the hard way.
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May 4, 2024 09:42
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Rule of Cool - if someone asks you if they can do something that sounds loving awesome, and it's reasonably logical to get from point A to D, then find a way to make it happen, even if it ruins your plans. Don't just say no right away. Really think about it and consider it. Your players will love you, love the campaign, and have a kickass moment to cherish. That's the whole point, innit? For example, one of my players had a suit that allowed him to jump jet 40 feet and his character uses a sword. He wanted to jump on top of a giant BBEG and behead it while standing on its shoulders. I allowed it, but, didn't want to give it to him for free, so I also had him roll a dexterity check to stick the landing, then allowed an execution attack, which is a melee skill check, instead of using an attack roll for a normal attack (normally book rules say you need "one minute of planning" to conduct one but I waived it in this case "due to his training as an assassin"). He succeeded on both and ruined my battle but it was dope and everyone was relieved and excited. Dice Results as a Spectrum of Success and Failure - Dice rolling results should not be binary except in specific circumstances (the above scenario was binary). Have the possible results of the dice be a spectrum of success and failure. This way you don't screw yourself over, gives you and the players flexibility, and keeps things going. Sure, you might have to plan or adapt a little more but it keeps things moving without outright shutting things down. Sometimes I even allow the same action but use a higher DC the second go-around (maybe a hack failed the first time so security activated prior to the second hack attempt). Other times I might go with "oh now the bomb is ticking faster" after a failed defuse or whatever instead of having it explode or losing the ability to be defused. Obviously if they keep rolling like crap you're out of options but this gives some wiggle room for you and them. Optional: 1s and 20s. Figure out if you want to respect them and if you do, be consistent. 20s are always auto-successes and double damage (and sometimes cause amazing things to happen). 1s always are auto-misses and cause something catastrophic to happen that's dependent on context (might shoot your foot, or a comrade, depending on relative positioning). "Map of the Mind" - don't be afraid to use an imaginary map if the situation calls for it! I've found that map of the mind works great for standard situations that they can imagine easily, like exploring a generic facility to get to the boss room . Then you bust out the map for the boss room itself if you desire. It keeps things fresh and scary. Don't worry, they'll still creep along checking every corner and tile. The difference is their imaginations will horrify them even more so it makes it more fun. Bonus if a player draws the map as they creep along as well. Some things being hard to draw appropriately - a 3D space battle - also demand Map of the Mind to flow better during combat. This is just advice re: SWN / DND so I hope it translates to Starforged. 3 DONG HORSE fucked around with this message at 13:22 on May 4, 2024 |
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May 4, 2024 13:02
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Thanks a ton folks. Very much appreciated. Cool thing about Starforged and its ilk is that success and failure has gradation built right into the system from outright failure, to success with conditions, to outright success. Where other systems try to model something resembling reality, starforged models plot itself. It's cool to see that it enforces some good GM principles in its inherent structure. unattended spaghetti fucked around with this message at 15:07 on May 4, 2024 |
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May 4, 2024 14:58
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3 DONG HORSE posted:Optional: 1s and 20s. Figure out if you want to respect them and if you do, be consistent. 20s are always auto-successes and double damage (and sometimes cause amazing things to happen). 1s always are auto-misses and cause something catastrophic to happen that's dependent on context (might shoot your foot, or a comrade, depending on relative positioning). Of course, none of this advice is applicable to a game like Paranoia, but 20s are the crit misses in that game anyway, and with the Troubleshooters' shoddy cloning methods, sketchy training, and subpar equipment, having 5% of attacks go seriously awry is probably understating the situation.
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May 4, 2024 15:57
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If only 5% of your mission goes wrong in Paranoia something is wrong
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May 4, 2024 16:07
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Azhais posted:If only 5% of your mission goes wrong in Paranoia something is wrong My problem is that the gunfire directed at my fellow Troubleshooters has far more than a 5% critical failure rate, even when I do things to improve my chance to hit! Like pulling the trigger when the muzzle is touching my fellow Troubleshooter's ear. At least sometimes the weapon malfunction kills us both. OK, that happened once, with a cone rifle; the GM said the malfunction was I had accidentally loaded an HE round instead of a slug round. Still, it's a kill. Anyway, the 5% critical miss in Paranoia is just the malfunction chance (which is actually 10% with experimental weapons under some rule sets). There's a whole lot that can go wrong between the average laser weapons skill of about 10 and a roll of 20. Like the rest of the team whirling on you while drawing weapons, three of them missing you, one having no effect due to your reflec armor, the final one stunning you for a round with a lovely damage roll, and this comedy of errors going on for like three rounds before someone gets the bright idea to use melee combat, where reflec armor doesn't help.
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May 4, 2024 16:29
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Admiralty Flag posted:I would disagree with half of this. Does Conan massively gently caress up 5% of the time he's in combat? Does James Bond shoot himself in the foot once every other magazine? Of course, the PCs aren't legends like these, but they want to be, and it just feels bad to screw up that severely that often. If you feel the absolute need to keep the critical miss, make them confirm the fumble by rolling the attack again and only punish them -- because it is a punishment -- if they miss the second roll. But critical misses usually don't add nearly as much to the game as the GM thinks, IMO. I mean that's why it's optional. You can respect the 1 or not. It's up to you and your group. Bad guys can have critical misses, too, by the way! Here's an example of how it played it out one time: the BBEG had a critical failure using a railgun and ended up doming two of his henchmen. Literally a turn later a player critically missed with his own railgun and ended up puncturing the side of the space station causing decompression. It didn't do team damage in this case (earlier was just an example - perhaps a poor one - but also why I said context matters) but it changed the situation to one where they needed to make a quick escape or find emergency spacesuits or patch the hole. I would never purposely TK with a 1 but might do troll damage with a missed pistol shot or something. But a critical roll is an opportunity to change the dynamic of the fight in a random way so I like them.  But again, respecting the 1s and 20s is optional. I know some people don't bother at all with crit successes or crit failures.
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May 4, 2024 16:29
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Supercharging 1s and 20s also tends to be way more punishing for the players just because 1) There are always going to be more enemies rolling more dice in a campaign against them than there are players 2) The consequences for any given mook rolling a 1 tend to be significantly less catastrophic than a player doing the same while a player rolling a supercharged 20 gets less benefit than a mook because they're more likely to overkill and waste that extra damage. In DnD 5e (and 3.5) especially it also tends to screw over martials more than casters because so many spells don't have the caster roll while the martials are rolling multiple d20s per turn at level 5+. It can definitely lead to some really memorable moments but it also makes everything incredibly swingy so make sure everyone is onboard with that kind of expectation!
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May 4, 2024 16:30
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Zore posted:Supercharging 1s and 20s also tends to be way more punishing for the players just because I think the bolded is the important bit! Also, afaik Kevin Crawford doesn't give a drat about critical rolls. It's definitely something I homebrewed for funsies, a relic from 5e (I initially made a science fiction version of 5e before discovering SWN - while not really liking existing sci fi 5e ports - so my games have some homebrew elements as a result of that). Another edit: I also do NOT do critical success/failure on skill checks, ever. I hope I'm not coming off as defensive. I appreciate the other perspectives because I don't really have GM to GM discussions. I'm going off my gut and instinct half the time. 3 DONG HORSE fucked around with this message at 16:43 on May 4, 2024 |
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May 4, 2024 16:32
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3 DONG HORSE posted:I think the bolded is the important bit! Yeah, to be clear I do not think its wrong to play that way. i play in a game myself where the DM goes kinda ham with the 20s and 1s. You just need to sort of set the tone and expectation for the group because I have seen it lead to some incredible salt. Definitely can make for some really fun and memorable moments.
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May 4, 2024 17:19
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Session zero went off without a hitch. Players are so pumped they wanna write character and world fiction before we even kick off. Feels real good. If anyone is interested I can write up a little breakdown later. Thanks for all the input folks. I think I could really like this GM thing.
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May 5, 2024 16:28
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unattended spaghetti posted:Session zero went off without a hitch. Players are so pumped they wanna write character and world fiction before we even kick off. Feels real good. If anyone is interested I can write up a little breakdown later. Thanks for all the input folks. I think I could really like this GM thing. Hell yeah we wanna breakdown
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May 5, 2024 20:46
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RT is continuing to go well with this module. Today the general pulled them aside and recruited them to remove the governor in his coup. One of the players actually suggested a false flag attack to remove him to protective custody which yeah, great idea. Then the navy showed up and a total breakdown in leadership ensued, as the players got to see another side to their new ally the general as he refused to cede space command to the navy captain, who is obviously the correct choice. The governor put them in charge of coordinating this mess and figuring out how to get the defenses functioning in five days with the army and navy screaming at each other and the political situation extremely delicate. Then they met with the rogue trader who basically told them she'll take her ships and men and leave if they back the general, and in fact wants the general dead so he can't turn this planet into another shithole military dictatorship. The orks are 5 days away and they still have to talk to the captain. They've managed to commit themselves to the general, who they are suddenly having serious reservations about and it's great as the GM to see them try to figure out how to reverse three sessions of happily entangling themselves in this man's plans. They failed to roll well enough on social interaction with the rogue trader to discover that the captain has orders to abandon this planet to its fate. We'll see next week if they manage to gain the captain's trust enough to get that tidbit. I think they've started to realize the danger of choosing sides too easily. They also finally made the decision to stick their new cruiser into the docks and sink cash and loot and connections into rushing it so that it'll be ready by the end of the invasion, which leaves them stuck here as they're now committed. They won't flee without the dynasty's new prize asset. Arglebargle III fucked around with this message at 02:39 on May 6, 2024 |
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May 6, 2024 02:27
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Arglebargle III posted:RT is continuing to go well with this module. Today the general pulled them aside and recruited them to remove the governor in his coup. One of the players actually suggested a false flag attack to remove him to protective custody which yeah, great idea. Then the navy showed up and a total breakdown in leadership ensued, as the players got to see another side to their new ally the general as he refused to cede space command to the navy captain, who is obviously the correct choice. The governor put them in charge of coordinating this mess and figuring out how to get the defenses functioning in five days with the army and navy screaming at each other and the political situation extremely delicate. mrburnstentinghisfingersandsayingexxxxcellent.gif
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May 6, 2024 02:43
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sebmojo posted:Hell yeah we wanna breakdown Agreed. I'd love to hear more about your experience! Arglebargle III posted:RT is continuing to go well with this module. Today the general pulled them aside and recruited them to remove the governor in his coup. One of the players actually suggested a false flag attack to remove him to protective custody which yeah, great idea. Then the navy showed up and a total breakdown in leadership ensued, as the players got to see another side to their new ally the general as he refused to cede space command to the navy captain, who is obviously the correct choice. The governor put them in charge of coordinating this mess and figuring out how to get the defenses functioning in five days with the army and navy screaming at each other and the political situation extremely delicate. This is so cool.
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May 6, 2024 16:41
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Ok, so session zero. We are playing Starforged, and this system asks that world creation is done first, then character creation. This is an intensely collaborative process, and what I’d hoped would take only a couple hours ended up seven and a half. Let’s start with the world, as that will make it easier to explain how the characters fit into it. Humanity had violated the planet, had begun self-immolating, had raised its wealthiest citizens to godhood and cast down its unworthy—poorest—components. Its arrogance knew no limit, its ambition no end. When the first star vanished out of the heavens, it went unremarked, save by maybe a singular astronomer, who, certain of the dire import, desperately tried to convince her colleagues of the unprecedented and horrific implications this might portent. Then, the structure and composition of asteroids, planetary bodies, comets, any interstellar flotsom we could view with our limited capabilities began changing. Subtly at first, and drastically over time. Distant spiral galaxies, floating dossile far beyond us were seen to sway and twist, as though singular organic beings, rather than difusely clustered stars. Freaky and inexplicable astronomical nonsense, in other words. These events increased in severity and frequency over decades, and humanity, whether out of paranoia and unease with its place in the world, or knowing by virtue of Earth’s worsening state at its own hand, planned an exodus. What they did not know, what our player characters do not know, was the stage had been set by eldritch powers to draw humanity into a crucible. Mankind built the generation ships in a rare fit of genuine panhuman cooperation. Sure, some of these ships were corporate vanity projects, some even predated the stellar phehnomina, but despite this, by and large, a world terrified is a world unified, and so it was that they launched the ships. And the void opened up in sheets of silver, and the void swallowed them, one after another after another. Flung out, and out, and out again to a new place, The Forge. But not, as mankind would like, in one place, and further, not even a single time. So the generation ships pop into being, all scattered across The Forge, at varying times. For one ship, linear time may have been preserved. For another, five hundred years preceeding, and for another, three hundred hence. This seemingly random proliferation, unbeknownst to humanity, was a pretext to observe, and, absent whatever traits the creators of the rifts were seeking, to crush. In short, The Forge is a grand experiment to test, but mostly obliterate spacefaring species. And our tiny, insignificant speck of creation just got its invite. Our PCs don’t know, may never find out any of this, but it is true, and this is the world they occupy. Modem, a writer-turned-explorer, has grown up in the shadow of a grand steel mountain. Three hundred years ago, his ancestors crawled out of vast rents in the hull of that mountain, and scrabbled to find purchase on what was, to them, a fortuitously temperate planet. All Modem has known is time, tide, reaping and sowing. That is, until he looks into the sky and sees above him a silvery gash, and from that gash a glimmering star which, if seen through a lens takes a very, startlingly familiar shape. Gaius, a doctor employed by an immense tech company, served as medical officer to laborers building a shotty piece of what was supposed to be spacefaring technology. His employers knew the time would come when they, and their shareholders, and the families of those shareholders, and any politician they could bribe with the pleasure, would all climb into this rust bucket and leave behind the dying Earth. What they didn’t expect were sudden oncoming astronomical disturbances, a grand unification of human purpose, and the wholesale abduction of this dicey bit of machinery in the eleventh hour of man’s time on Earth. Gaius didn’t expect to be conscripted into the navy as a medical officer, either. As the ship left atmosphere and rattled ominously, the void parted. Scarcely had the ship floated free of gravity’s constricting grasp when it was plucked out of space, launched fiercely onward like a javelin, only to emerge in orbit above a blessedly green and temperate planet. In his office, Gaius seized. There was a moment, just one, or perhaps an eternity, he couldn’t say though his psychadelic experiences did give him some frame of reference, where Gaius stopped “being” at all. One brief second where his concept of ego vanished. And in that moment, Gaius the self-serving vassal of corporate greed, then the unwilling thrall of global government, became aware of pain on a planetary scale. The pain of rusty nails in bare feet and the infections that result, the pain of flesh melted off fingers that belonged to curious hands, attached to curious wanderers crawling around inside rusting mountains from which their ancestors came. The pain of primitive diseases, unknown diseases, fungal infections, bite marks his training had never shown him, a vast almost prehistoric sense of illness and bewilderment. When Gaius came to himself again, alarms were blaring, people were clamboring, and chaos reigned on his ship, which, inexplicably, unbelievably, reached its destination in one piece. In one piece, orbiting Modem’s planet, in a state of sheer chaos, three hundred years in the future. Below, a boy wonders why another mountain orbits his world, and above, a doctor wonders where he is, and how he’ll get off a ship fallen into pure animal chaos. Session zero went well. It took a lot of time, some clarification on the tone of story we wanted, some weird turns, and in one case, Modem’s player obstinately sticking to a concept we didn’t agree with. Luckily though, Starforged can be played solo, and because of that, relies on oracles—just random tables for all kinds of things—and relying on them to mediate the disagreement, we avoided one very minor bump in the road. Modem’s player struggles to make himself much of a character, unfortunately, but I plan to prod him by creating NPCs who’d undoubtedly know him. Gaius’s player on the other hand came with a sparse concept, idealistic doctor, and when supplied with all this worldbuilding we had to do as part of zero, flung himself into the process and fleshed his character out quickly, weaving his bio into the truths we’d defined. I think the amount of creative effort involved with a session zero Starforged game is kinda brutal. That said, to get everyone onboard, I don’t know that I’ve found an equal in a tabletop game. I find from a technical standpoint, I’m a GM for players that are inclined toward getting lost in the weeds. In a game like this, where worldbuilding is a necessary part of the process, that poses some challenges. I’m not inclined to boss folks around, but had to gently and repeatedly tell these two that if they tried to define every minute aspect of the world that there’d be nothing for their characters to do when, or if, they ever got them created. So that was a little frustrating, but I think that grows more out of their comparative inexperience with narrative first games. I think, excited by how much freedom you get with a game like this, they got kinda enveloped in it. I am going to have to learn to prod gently and often to keep them out of the weeds. If they get stuck trying to clarify every bit of superfluous worldbuilding ephemera we’ll never get anywhere. I have never GMed before so this’ll be difficult I imagine. But there’s tremendous buy in from both of them, and I’m just glad to facilitate something they’re both really loving. I guess I have always been nervous about GMing because I’m more improvisor than planner, and most popular tabletop games are friendlier to planning than improv. But Starforged, for all the brain-draining creative demands it puts on player and GM alike, is much friendlier to an ADHD-having improv monster. So, here’s hoping we can make things just a little more brisk next time and that their enthusiasm sticks. They’ve both sent me fiction about their characters this week, and it’s only been two days. That’s a great feeling, to get that kind of buy in from folks. In short, Starforged owns, my players own, and thanks for coming to this very long TED talk.
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May 7, 2024 05:14
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That's both insane and delightful, rock on!
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May 7, 2024 05:21
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