Props are an excellent way to add some flavor to your game, in fact, there are few better ways to bring players into your story than to give them something tangible to interact with. The kinds of props that can be used are only limited by your imagination. Gaming props work well on a couple different levels. The first is that they work wonders for bringing your players into the game more. Another benefit is that they keep the players focused on something so they don't become distracted from the game (a bugbear all GMs must deal with). There are some pretty basic but really useful ones for making a GM's life easier and I'm all about making my job easier (some of them should likely be considered tools in lieu of props, but they work well enough for this article); I'll discuss those first.
The first prop for your gaming group that should at least be nodded to is one that many gaming groups already use: miniatures. There's not really a whole lot to say about these as they are pretty much standard these days. Some people paint them, buy new ones for every new character, etc; but, in reality, they are simply placeholders for where your character is on a battlemat or whatnot. They are pretty handy and I would recommend using them if the gaming system you using facilitates such things. However, don't get carried away and let them dominate your game or anything, but other than that...
So, as for props that you can actually bring into the game, the first move I would suggest is music. A great music soundtrack can do wonders for the ambiance you are trying to set. A great one that I have come to use frequently is Midnight Syndicate. Most of their stuff is absolutely fantastic for horror, grittier and more intense games; however, they also did the official soundtrack for Dungeons and Dragons--which I didn't realize even existed until I started using them for my game...and still am not certain why it exists--and this CD is pretty good for a fantasy based game. I'm not trying to make this into an advertisement for a particular band and there is enough music out there that I'm certain a dedicated GM can find something that fits with the game they are running. The reason music is so perfect for RPGs is because it instantly sets the mood. After the first session or two with a particular kind of soundtrack playing in the background you'll find your players fall right into play once you start the music up--just make certain that you don't start it up until after everyone is already seated and ready to play. For one of my own games, I used some of the creepier tracks from Midnight Syndicate during a borderline horror game I was running and it was marvelous when something on the soundtrack fell in line with what was going on in the game...marvelous, I say! Just keep the music low--background noise only--you wouldn't want to have it loud enough to disrupt play.
Whiteboards. I cannot express how much these little things help out the GM. I was only able to use one for a while and only recently; however, they are fantastic for sketching out the layout of an area, show what's going on in battle quickly or just toss up some notes. In fact, I just acquired a large one recently just for this reason. They are very convenient and can save a GM a lot of time over the course of a gaming session. You can even throw up some notes prior to your players arriving so you don't have to keep repeating the NPCs that will come up throughout the adventure and whatnot.
What about other kinds of props besides those that make a game master's life just a bit easier? This is a little bit of a trickier topic as there is no real limit to what kinds of props you can use in your game. So, I'll give some examples that I've used in the past and, perhaps, it will serve to spur your own imagination.
Letters or notes or old manuscripts are almost a staple in role playing games, in fact, they are almost a standard as far as props go as well. The group receives a letter from the wizard in the town or they find an ancient scroll inside of some dark tomb. Whatever the case may be, I'd be willing to bet that you are going to bring in some kind of paper with writing on it in your game. It's a pretty basic prop in that it is frequently used but there is a reason for that. Handing your players a actual piece of paper in lieu of simply telling them about what it says works wonders for player imagination. They'll likely spend quite a bit of time pouring over the letter given to them looking for hidden meaning or secrets within the message--even better if you actually put some in there. Don't just type out something on your computer and expect your players to jump all over it, put some work in it. It's easy to do. Write your message using some kind of strange or elegant style--it's better to use a thicker pen like a Sharpie or something. Crumple up the piece of paper over and over, rub some damp teabags on it to stiffen the paper and make it look aged. You can burn the edges (careful!) or just tear them to make it appear old as well but be careful not to damage the writing. I've tied ribbons around them, wrapped them around dowels to make scrolls or whatever you need to to make them look more authentic...I put some BBQ sauce on a letter one time to represent the appearance of blood. The more work you put into them the better and more your players will be drawn to look at it over and over throughout the gaming session.
NPC prop-based mannerisms. I've used coins a couple of times now in different games and whenever that particular NPC showed up I would never say a word to the players, I'd simply start flipping a coin or rolling it over my knuckles or whatnot. I've also used hardbound books (I used one with frayed bindings and such) with scholars and such--even to the extent of nearly ignoring the characters behind the book as the NPC was doing. Things like this can add some depth to your NPCs. It's pretty great with recurring NPCs; it was fun to see my players' reactions when one of them finally realized that their GM was nonchalantly flipping a coin (meaning an NPC they weren't overly fond of was there).
For puzzles, traps and such it is pretty sweet to use a visual or even three dimensional figure of them for the players. I've done several of these. One of them was a puzzle lock (they were given some clues earlier what the combo may be) with three circles of different sizes that they had to turn properly. The one I spent the most time with but was very much worth it was a puzzle the players had to figure out. I made three cubes out of cardboard with each numbered from 1-3. Each side of the cubes had a 4x4 grid on it with some squares colored in. The numbers on the cubes represented how a floating cube in front of the party was changing. The colored squares were basically moving around the cubes and they had to figure that out. It was great having the entire party puzzle over these three small cardboard cubes for quite some time before figuring it out.
All in all, I really try to have a prop or two every session whenever I have the time to make a few before game time. I think they are great and work to deepen my games. Anything can work as a prop so think about the NPCs you are introducing or the mood you are going for and make a couple for your next game.
A note about a prop (or tool) that I don't use and don't allow in my games: computers. I hates them. Well, only during game play. I've seen nothing beneficial come from having a laptop at the gaming table. I know that there are numerous applications and programs out there that supposedly help a GM out while running a game, however, in my experience any benefit gained by such applications is far overshadowed by the distraction a computer serves as. People were GMing long before these nifty programs and it worked just fine then.
Showing posts with label combat. Show all posts
Showing posts with label combat. Show all posts
Monday, June 1, 2009
Sunday, May 17, 2009
Add Some Grit to Your Game
One trap I've seen quite a few GMs fall into that I try my best to avoid is having your players feel as though they can get away with anything without serious repercussions. Of course, there are some game systems and genres that lend themselves to this sort of thing and they can be fun; however, most games are crafted and run with the hope that the players will get excited about the game and even feel some anticipation if not actual fear for their characters from time to time. If the GM is bringing in a deux ex machina every time the characters get into some kind of trouble not only are they unlikely to take even the most dire circumstances seriously but they are also quite likely to lose interest in the game. Who is really interested in playing a game where your character is untouchable?
This isn't limited to combat situations, social interactions and other whatnot can also bring up these issues. So, even if a GM is relatively even-handed with combat situations, if the players know that they will get whatever information they require from some NPC or another regardless of how they act or how poorly they roll then interactions become something far less than thrilling--more of a task that has to be performed to further the plot line in lieu of something enjoyable. Imagine if a noblewoman NPC never got offended by the uncouth tribesman in front of her asking her about some religious artifact her family holds even though the tribesman constantly spits and is wearing barely tanned skins for clothing. How ridiculous is that? That sort of thing happens with relative frequency in games. Perhaps it is only a bit of information and the GM doesn't want to deal with it; perhaps s/he doesn't want to restrict a particular player because they chose a class that doesn't fit in a situation very well; maybe the GM didn't consider that the PCs may fail to get the information from an NPC. Whatever the case is, by not dealing with the very real issues surrounding social interactions the GM is really taking something away from the players by doing this. One of the best ways to facilitate character depth is to have them fail from time to time. Of course, don't overdo this.
It is one thing to have a PC fail every so often and quite another to hamstring them and their character concept by constantly throwing up roadblocks or having whatever they are trying fail. One example of this that I was on the receiving end of was when I was playing a character who I developed as a con artist. I would think about a great way to con someone throughout the week and implement it sometime during the game when it was appropriate. Some were decent ideas, others were long shots and two of them I think should have been almost fool-proof. However, regardless of how I worked them into the game or how naive my NPC mark appeared to be, my cons never worked. Throughout the entirety of that game not one of my ideas worked out. The GM just wouldn't have the NPCs fall for it or some kind of event would happen to make it fail. A frustrating situation to say the least for a character approved by the GM beforehand and designed to do that very kind of thing. I'm fairly certain that particular GM fell into the me-vs-them kind of thinking, but I'll deal with that little pitfall sometime down the line.
So, how then do we GMs add grit to our games to keep them exciting without going overboard? Well, as I eluded to earlier, there are two different aspects to this: combat and social interactions. I dealt quite a bit with combat in my last post--Give Players What They Want--and will deal with it more in depth in a future post as well; however, the essence of it is to make combat exciting by keeping character death a very real threat. Does this mean you should never save characters? Of course not, we're GMs, cheating is in the job description. However, you should never save characters if it would be obvious you are doing so nor should you always save them. In the last game I was running in the very first session the sorceress in the party decided to light a room on fire while trying to make their escape. Of course, a fight ensued with the fire constantly spreading and the party trying desperately to get out of the room prior to getting burned to a crisp. They had to climb a very short distance to get to safety and I made it pretty easy to do as I didn't mind them all getting singed a bit while fighting but I didn't want to kill anyone off the first session. It was a pretty safe situation really being the people attacking were weak and the way to safety was easy to access; however, as sometimes happens in games, the fates were against one of the party. The fighter was rolling horribly and couldn't make the really low roll required to get the heck out of the way of the fire even after five attempts. He died still trying to climb up. In that situation I couldn't really save him even if I had wanted to. I told them what roll they needed (I often do this when it doesn't need to by a mystery just to keep the pace of the game up) and when he couldn't roll it it would have been painfully obvious that the GM saved him...let players know this even once and you've lost credibility. Not that I really mind a player dying every now and then; like the red shirts from Star Trek, it makes the players realize that I will not shy away from character death. Of course, I'm not out to get the characters either.
Social interactions are a bit more tricky. Death isn't usually a possibility when simply talking to some NPCs (though sometimes it is) so that isn't a viable threat. However, there are still repercussions to actions even when talking to people. The tribesman from the first example could have easily ended up stewing in jail for a while or, at the very least, being thrown out of the estate. Even those without any kind of political sway will still refuse to talk with PCs if they aren't treated with respect. Try to keep the outward appearance and history of the characters in mind when they interact with NPCs as well. If a warlock tries to speak with people who know he is a warlock, regardless of the different kinds of pacts in D&D, they may be viewed with a healthy dose of suspicion. Barbarians, tribesmen, savages and such are likely to be viewed as uncouth and uncivilized by pretty much everyone in a city environment so aren't likely to get much out of people except snide remarks. Also, if the game system has something like appearance or charisma, play it up. If a character with a low social score starts talking to someone have the NPC seem obviously uncomfortable or uninterested.
Remember, there is no fun in being untouchable, so make your players decidedly uncomfortable in situations and bring in some repercussions for failing.
This isn't limited to combat situations, social interactions and other whatnot can also bring up these issues. So, even if a GM is relatively even-handed with combat situations, if the players know that they will get whatever information they require from some NPC or another regardless of how they act or how poorly they roll then interactions become something far less than thrilling--more of a task that has to be performed to further the plot line in lieu of something enjoyable. Imagine if a noblewoman NPC never got offended by the uncouth tribesman in front of her asking her about some religious artifact her family holds even though the tribesman constantly spits and is wearing barely tanned skins for clothing. How ridiculous is that? That sort of thing happens with relative frequency in games. Perhaps it is only a bit of information and the GM doesn't want to deal with it; perhaps s/he doesn't want to restrict a particular player because they chose a class that doesn't fit in a situation very well; maybe the GM didn't consider that the PCs may fail to get the information from an NPC. Whatever the case is, by not dealing with the very real issues surrounding social interactions the GM is really taking something away from the players by doing this. One of the best ways to facilitate character depth is to have them fail from time to time. Of course, don't overdo this.
It is one thing to have a PC fail every so often and quite another to hamstring them and their character concept by constantly throwing up roadblocks or having whatever they are trying fail. One example of this that I was on the receiving end of was when I was playing a character who I developed as a con artist. I would think about a great way to con someone throughout the week and implement it sometime during the game when it was appropriate. Some were decent ideas, others were long shots and two of them I think should have been almost fool-proof. However, regardless of how I worked them into the game or how naive my NPC mark appeared to be, my cons never worked. Throughout the entirety of that game not one of my ideas worked out. The GM just wouldn't have the NPCs fall for it or some kind of event would happen to make it fail. A frustrating situation to say the least for a character approved by the GM beforehand and designed to do that very kind of thing. I'm fairly certain that particular GM fell into the me-vs-them kind of thinking, but I'll deal with that little pitfall sometime down the line.
So, how then do we GMs add grit to our games to keep them exciting without going overboard? Well, as I eluded to earlier, there are two different aspects to this: combat and social interactions. I dealt quite a bit with combat in my last post--Give Players What They Want--and will deal with it more in depth in a future post as well; however, the essence of it is to make combat exciting by keeping character death a very real threat. Does this mean you should never save characters? Of course not, we're GMs, cheating is in the job description. However, you should never save characters if it would be obvious you are doing so nor should you always save them. In the last game I was running in the very first session the sorceress in the party decided to light a room on fire while trying to make their escape. Of course, a fight ensued with the fire constantly spreading and the party trying desperately to get out of the room prior to getting burned to a crisp. They had to climb a very short distance to get to safety and I made it pretty easy to do as I didn't mind them all getting singed a bit while fighting but I didn't want to kill anyone off the first session. It was a pretty safe situation really being the people attacking were weak and the way to safety was easy to access; however, as sometimes happens in games, the fates were against one of the party. The fighter was rolling horribly and couldn't make the really low roll required to get the heck out of the way of the fire even after five attempts. He died still trying to climb up. In that situation I couldn't really save him even if I had wanted to. I told them what roll they needed (I often do this when it doesn't need to by a mystery just to keep the pace of the game up) and when he couldn't roll it it would have been painfully obvious that the GM saved him...let players know this even once and you've lost credibility. Not that I really mind a player dying every now and then; like the red shirts from Star Trek, it makes the players realize that I will not shy away from character death. Of course, I'm not out to get the characters either.
Social interactions are a bit more tricky. Death isn't usually a possibility when simply talking to some NPCs (though sometimes it is) so that isn't a viable threat. However, there are still repercussions to actions even when talking to people. The tribesman from the first example could have easily ended up stewing in jail for a while or, at the very least, being thrown out of the estate. Even those without any kind of political sway will still refuse to talk with PCs if they aren't treated with respect. Try to keep the outward appearance and history of the characters in mind when they interact with NPCs as well. If a warlock tries to speak with people who know he is a warlock, regardless of the different kinds of pacts in D&D, they may be viewed with a healthy dose of suspicion. Barbarians, tribesmen, savages and such are likely to be viewed as uncouth and uncivilized by pretty much everyone in a city environment so aren't likely to get much out of people except snide remarks. Also, if the game system has something like appearance or charisma, play it up. If a character with a low social score starts talking to someone have the NPC seem obviously uncomfortable or uninterested.
Remember, there is no fun in being untouchable, so make your players decidedly uncomfortable in situations and bring in some repercussions for failing.
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