Virtual Play

Actual Play from Dexcon XI, July 2008 I had a great time at Dexcon last month, and my brother Bill and I spent some time talking about the various games over Skype.  I ve broken our conversation and associated game excerpts into two shows.  This show covers Bill s I, Governor adventure for Trail of Cthulhu as well as the Spirit of the Century games he and I ran, Rex Rich and the Warlord of Mars and Yangtze Rocket Patrol , respectively.  We ve started posting the complete audiofiles of these games to the Internet Archive.  You can find I, Governor here: I, Governor And Rex Rich and the Warlord of Mars here: Rex Rich I ll get part two of Dexcon recap posted soon. Mel  

Roleplaying game highlights from Origins Game Fair, 2008 I played a relatively wide mix of roleplaying games at Origins, at least in chronological terms.  The games ranged from one of the oldest, Classic Traveller, to a couple new ones that are still in development:  Serial, by Michael and Kat Miller s Incarnadine Press; and my brother Bill s new game, The Perilous Realm.  In addition to those two games, other excerpts in this episode are from Agon, Spirit of the Century, and Star Hero.   Although this episode is more of a survey of the various games, if there is a common theme it has to do with the recommendation or recognition that entrusting players with the freedom to be creative in a game makes the game more enjoyable for everybody.  Serial and the Perilous Realm are built around player created input.  Spirit of the Century s Fate Point economy encourages such input, as does Agon in which contests are not about being right, but about being the best.  Conversely, games like Traveller and Star Hero can be played with room for player input and be great fun probably even more fun than when played in a more traditional manner.    The show is a little longer than usual, and I still have more highlights from Origins to share, so part 2 of Origins replay will be on the way.  This week, though, I ll be gathering more games from Dexcon! Mel PS:  This is the link for Ars Ludi, Ben Robbin s web page on roleplaying, where he has posted the article Deeper Quests for Agon as well as others!

Players discuss a variety of role-playing games. Listening to the audiofiles of games from Origins, I ve found that at the end of the Nine Worlds game Paul Czege ran, Paul and the players, Bill White, Cary Collett, and Phil and Jen Lewis spent about fifteen minutes talking about their experiences with a variety of games.  I think it s interesting and even informative to hear about other people s game experiences.  So I m going to use that conversation as the foundation of this episode as I continue to work on putting together some actual play samples from Origins.  In their conversation, the players talk about Nine Worlds, Lacuna, Burning Wheel and Burning Empires, Mouseguard, My Life with Master, 1001 Nights, Spirit of the Century, and many others.  Hearing them talk about all these games is inspiring me to play some more! Mel

A first look at Dungeons Keep on the Shadowfell Last week I was the Dungeon Master as my friends and I tried out the Keep on the Shadowfells adventure.  I enjoyed the game; it was fun to be once again playing the game of my youth even though it s markedly changed.  The dice are the same, though!  And kobolds why d it have to be kobolds?  I ve posted the complete audiofile at the Internet Archive, Keep on the Shadowfell Mel

Game excerpts highlighting things that can interfere with player characters being awesome. I ve come to a realization about why I play roleplaying games.  I like the intrinsic reward of seeing my character be awesome in play.  And I like to run games to give players that same sense of satisfaction through the actions of their characters.  This realization has helped me come the terms with why some games fall flat something interfered with the opportunity for characters to demonstrate being awesome.  I ve identified a few situations where this can occur players can block other player characters achievements; the gamemaster can be obstructive rather than challenging; or the situation itself may hold no interest or opportunites for excellence.  This episode looks at situations of that sort in samples from Spirit of the Century, Burning Empires, and True 20.  In addition, I want to draw some attention to Rob Bohl s game in development, Misspent Youth which has a mechanism to reward or at least recognize players that make other player characters awesome .  Mel PS I just realized my well-wishes for Camp Nerdly weather are a week early.  Camp Nerdly is next week!  (9-11 May).

The purpose of this episode is to point out some of the different stances players use in the portrayal of their characters.   I think my default stance is author stance, but I enjoy shading to actor stance and director stance, too.   I may drift into director stance too much being used to running games, I sometimes devote more effort to thinking about the overall story and connections rather than concentrating on playing my character.  I m going to be paying more attention to stance in the future, particularly my own, in an effort to see if there is a link between a particular stance and a particularly enjoyable gaming experience.   The excerpts in this episode are from Giants, Primetime Adventures, and Dungeons please indulge me!  Mel

My favorite part of the Burning Wheel and Burning Empires games is the Duel of Wits .  It s the mechanism used for social conflicts between characters.  I know that some players don t like social conflict mechanics as somehow detracting from roleplaying , but I don t see it that way.  In any social conflict for which there is no conflict resolution mechanism, the conflict will only end when one player or the other gives in regardless of the merits of the argument on either side.  As a player, it s easy to not be convinced .  I ve played in games that ground to a halt because players couldn t agree to a course of action for their characters I may even have participated in such disagreements!  So the Duel of Wits strikes me as a great tool for the Burning Wheel.  It s one part of the game that I like to use a lot and to show new players because I think they will like it as much as I do.  This episode focuses on three important elements for the Duel of Wits.  First, players cannot be forced into a Duel of Wits.  Second, the players have to agree to what s at stake in the Duel not only what they get if they win, but what their character will do if they lose.  Third, players must adhere to the terms of the Duel.  Somehow abrogating or not carrying out the terms of the Duel is nothing less than cheating!  Ultimately, the Duel of Wits is a negotiation and agreement between players for the direction of the story.  The characters are a vehicle for the Duel, but it s the players who are bound to the results. Mel

Highlights from Spirit of the Century Rex Rich and the Warlord of Mars from Dreamation 2008.  My brother, Bill White, ran Rex Rich at Dreamation with a full house of seven players.  I love listening to this game.  There are a lot of great moments of player action using aspects, self-compels , and great dialogue and one-liners.  Listening also provides the opportunity to compare two moments of play that both involve the gamemaster seeking to exert influence on a player character s action.  In one instance, the GM decides by fiat that a PC can t take a particular action.  In the second instance, the GM, through the player and using tools in the game mechanics, compels a PC to act in a certain way.  In between, are a lot of cool scenes! Mel  

Sweet, sweet Dreamation That s how Rob Donoghue describes the Dreamation gaming convention and how sweet it is.  I played in or ran six games at Dreamation, which is a relatively light schedule, but that allowed for time to look around, meet people, and just get a sense of the convention as a whole.  I talked to Nathan P. about a variant for Carry Carry: Iraq Welcome to the Suck , and with Jeff C. about his thoughts on a superheroes variant of Contenders.  I hope to have these adventures ready in time for Dexcon.  I m beginning to note the shift from acquaintances to friends .  People I would only see at conventions, I m now beginning to exchange emails with on things beyond gaming.  That s a good thing!  The games I played included Grey Ranks, which I ve played twice in the last year and now own!  I played Red Box Hack which I can see as a good sword and sorcery type escapade, and Giants, Jeff Lower s game in development.  I love the idea of the player character Giants being linked to their communities in a complementary sort of way that may or may not be a conscious relationship.  I saw my Giant, a godzilla-like tyrannosaurus, as being helpful to its community by being dangerous to other communities!  A few of us were all set to play a midnight game of WEGS (Wickedly Errant Game System) but the Wegshogs couldn t take it!  They packed up just after midnight to get some well-deserved rest.  Ah, well.  I also ran three games:  Agon, Spirit of the Century, and the Burning Wheel.  I was very happy with the execution of these games, although I see in some feedback to actual play posts how they were not perfect.  I appreciate the constructive criticism!  Since starting Virtual Play I ve noticed shortcomings in how I ve run games, and I m always trying to make things better.  At any rate, I plan to focus future shows on the games I ran at Dreamation.  This show, however, is going to focus on a conversation I had with my brother, Bill White, as we discuss GM railroading and scene-framing, with highlights from games at the convention. Let me know what you think! Mel  

Samples of the first thing said by gamemasters at the start of play. In this episode, I m again dovetailing on a thread online.  At the Story Games for Everybody website, John Harper author of Agon asked the question, what s the first thing said at the start of a game.  Character creation and other setup is complete, so what are the actual words to start play.  I think this is an important question because it points towards something I m realizing is very important:  start play quickly.  What I mean is, minimize the amount of time explaining what s going to happen and how things are done, and begin actual roleplaying as soon as possible.  I think this is important for many reasons; a couple that come to mind (particularly in convention games) are that time is limited, and that participants signed up to play, not to attend a lecture.  In listening to games I ve ran, I ve realized I ve taken way to long to start play and I m working to speed the process.  John Harper s question also hints at a topic that has come up in other threads that of rituals at the start of play.  Things like holding a speaking stick or unfolding a GM screen to symbolically separate the gamemaster from the players or, like in Steve Dempsey s game Tbilisi where everyone stands at the start of the game, points to the future and says, Tbilisi .  So, there is a lot going on in preparation for play, to signal the start of play, and immediately upon play.  The seven excerpts in this episode just scrape the tip of the iceberg regarding how play starts, and I m encouraged by the question to look at the starts of my own games with the goal of not only getting to playing faster, but also getting to the action faster once play has started.  Mel

Excerpts from the Burning Wheel and Tbilisi, in a discussion of Incoherence in roleplaying games. Not every session of every game is awesome .  One potential cause is something called Incoherence , which means players come to the game with different expectations.   This episode looks at a recent Burning Wheel game I ran that left me unhappy a mood I ve rarely felt about an RPG session since starting to play some of the small-press RPGs on the market.  I think the cause of my dissatisfaction is rooted in incoherence what I wanted from the game was different from some of the other players.  If this happened as recently as a year or two ago, I d blame the game and walk away; or I d blame the players and play with somebody else; or, worst of all, I d just hope things got better and keep banging my head against the wall.  In fact, none of these options is necessary, if only because I m more aware that players are going to seek different things from gaming, and certain games are better at fulfilling specific play-style desires.  Isn t there a saying something like, knowing is half the battle ?  Now I know.   I ve included an excerpt of Steve Dempsey s game-in-development, Tbilisi, because it explicitly addresses the idea of incoherence and does something about it.  Mel

Highlights of various Spirit of the Century games, demonstrating compelling and tagging Aspects. Episode 21 is up!  I ve been following with interest a couple of threads at the Story Games web site about Spirit of the Century.  The discussion at Story Games is centered around Aspects and how they re used in play.  After reading the threads I ve gone back and listened to samples from a few games to see where I was uncertain about rules or game mechanics.  Things are a lot clearer now!  For the most part, we ve been playing  correctly .  The samples in this episode come from local games, Ubercon, and Philcon.  The local players were Joe, Thai, Eric, and Brian.  At Ubercon, the players were Joanna, Frank, Dolan, and Bill.  And the players at Philcon were AJ, Dave, Steve, and Brennan.  The episode is noticeably longer than usual I guess I got carried away.  I was compelled to add more excerpts!  I look forward to your comments; certainly let me know if the longer format is too long!   Mel  PS  Listening again to the battle against the Warlord, in the final sample, I realize I m mis-remembering Sophia s [an NPC] departure.  I had thought that Jack compelled her to leave the fight, but in actuality she conceded after taking her first consequence.  My thinking at the time was that she would be unwilling to fight to the death, so when Jack s attack was a deception tricking her into leaving together, it made sense that she would fall for it, even though she didn t have to.  So, while it mechanically wasn t a player initiated compel as I indicate in the podcast, her action was based on the player s (A.J.) suggestion. 

Tangled Fates and Kingdom of Nothing at Philcon, 2007 One of the neat things about attending game conventions is the opportunity to play games as they are in development.  At Philcon, Kat Miller playtested her game Tangled Fates , and Liz Teichman had picked up Jeff Himmelman s ashcan Kingdom of Nothing .  Tangled Fates is basically a storytelling game centered around player interpretation of art cards the sky s the limit with regards to potential stories in the game.  Characters are created based on images in the cards, and it s a collaborative and open process.   There are no secrets.  Kingdom of Nothing is almost exactly opposite.  There is collaboration, but it s done in secret, as players write Secrets about the other players characters.  Part of the fun of playing is discovering Secrets about your own character!  This is the link to the Master Mine site that has Kingdom of Nothing information:  http://mastermines.wordpress.com/category/games-in-development/kingdom-of-nothing/ In addition to these two games, I also played Shock and Spirit of the Century at Philcon.  I enjoyed all the games, and I hope to use them for future episodes.  Philcon is definitely a repeat.  In the meantime, here s the audio file. Mel

Excerpts from Agon and Spirit of the Century to demonstrate using the environment to challenge player characters. One thing I enjoy as a player in roleplaying games is when my character faces a challenge from something other than some non-player character getting ready for a fight. That can definitely be fun, but it s even more fun if the fight takes place in a challenging location like the fight on the battlements and siegeworks of Leondegrace s castle in Excalibur or Jack Sparrow s fight with Will in the smithy in Pirates of the Caribbean . And sometimes we don t even need a fight, if the environment is challenging enough! That s what this episode of Virtual Play is about scenes from play where the characters have to overcome environmental obstacles as much as or more than opposing non-player characters. The Agon excerpt is from the local weekly gaming group, with Andy L, Keith, Elliott and Tucker. The first Spirit of the Century game is titled A Head of His Time from Ubercon, with Joanna, Dolan, Frank, and Bill. And the second Spirit of the Century game is titled Louis Leakey and the Mystery of the Murdered Monkey, from the Nittany Game Invasion with Bill and four young guys whose names I m forgetting write in, fellas! Mel