GM Commentary: The Hydra and the Viper or Last Rest Episode 8 vs. Fading Suns Chapter Two

First, The Abyss from OGLAF (this link is SFW, but much on OGLAF is delightfully NSFW, so fair warning.)  I'd like to think the PCs in my game are like the Thaumaturge, but I suspect they'd rather be the commoners as that's the much more enjoyable path.


"Self," I thought to myself, as I am wont to, on Tuesday afternoon, "You're going to keep things moving & not going let tonight's Fading Suns become a Plot Gobbler, right?"  "Yes, other self," I told myself, and I'd like to think I succeeded.  Truth is, I've been running lots of Plot Gobbler sessions lately, where I, as GM, do a piss poor job of keeping things moving along or at least staying enjoyable and instead let the game slow to a grind of intra-party dickering and pointless NPC interactions.  While I was able to reign it in for the last Fading Suns session I ran, I'm unsure it it will be as easy when I run my next session of Reign...  Part of it is Final Fantasy NPC Syndrome and part of it is in the different Nature of the Beasts of the two games I'm running.

(as always, you'll be better served if you read my Episode summary at the Last Rest blog, though this last one was a little threadbare and not up to my usual standards)

GM Commentary: Last Rest Episode 7: Swords and Secrets

Same disclaimer as always, go read the Summary of Reign Season One, Last Rest Episode Seven: Swords and Secrets...  You should also read the Teaser for Episode Eight:  “Down the Perimeter / Ringing the Bell…” as I'll talk about that briefly as well.

ALSO, PLEASE, PLEASE, PLEASE TAKE MY 2-PART SURVEY ABOUT THE GAME: PART ONE and PART TWO.  It's for both players and non-players and it will help me make the game as enjoyable as I can going forward.

Character Creation III

I’ve been thinking about character creation and party building as I plan the hijack Citizen Ben’s second D&D group that he’s starting up this month.  I think he thinks that I’m just joking about hijacking the game, but I’m actually deadly serious.  I’m taking the opportunity to apply to this new game what I’ve been thinking about RE: Characters, backgrounds, goals, plots and party cohesion from the two games I’m running, my Gritty Fantasy Last Rest Reign campaign and my Future Noir Fading Suns, plus Citizen Ben’s first D&D game that I’m playing.  If I’m going to disappoint my girlfriend by dedicating time to a fourth RPG game, bringing my monthly RPG sessions that bite into our time from five up to six I intend to get exactly what I want.

GM Commentary: Last Rest Episode 6: Tough Times in Tribute

Same disclaimer as always, go read the Summary of Reign Season, Last Rest Episode Six: Tough Times in Tribute.

Three Game Fortnight

Tomorrow marks the start of a Three Game Fortnight for me, wherein I shall run three games within two weeks.  It's actually, strictly speaking, only 8 days and not a fortnight, but that has less of a ring to it.

First up will be Reign Last Rest: Episode 6: Tough Times in Tribute, the rough midway point of that campaign.  I'm excited because I've gotten a couple of the players to knowingly or unknowingly agree to some "Devil Deals", a concept that I stole from my friend Tavis, who is one of the best GMs I've had the pleasure to know.  In a "Devil Deal" a Player/PC accepts something awesome or enticing for their character knowing that it will have strings attached that the GM will call in later.  I have very little planned for the Sixth Episode, other than the Players arriving in Tribute.  I was going to showcase the Reign Company rolls/challenges and advance time 3-6 months and have the PCs face a number of Company Challenges, but that is now dependent on if I have all my players as family emergencies may call a couple away from the table.  Other than that, tomorrow night will be pure Sandbox.  I've got some ideas for what the PCs might encounter, but mostly my goal is to loosely set up and let the PCs choose from the half-dozen possible campaign climaxes so I can start steering plot in that direction.  In theory the campaign will be wrapping up around the end of April/beginning of May, leaving the door open for a new season of Reign set in Last Rest or for a new campaign in a different setting/system.  Watch the Last Rest blog today for a character journal spelling out one of my favorite Devil Deals that took several days of negotiation...

GM Commentary: Last Rest Episode 5:...And Through the Woods...

Same caveats as always... go read the summary of Last Rest Episode 5:...And Through the Woods...

GM Commentary: Last Rest Episode 4: Return to Restport

Same caveats as always... go read the summary of Last Rest Episode 4:Return to Restport.

GM Commentary: Last Rest Episode 3 - Snakefang Strait

Same caveats as always, go read the Summary - Episode Three: Snakefang Strait post on the Last Rest blog and also the Episode Three Prologue(s) first before you dive in...

Last Rest Setting: Grit and Inspiration

So in my GM Commentary for Episode Two, I mentioned Digetic thinking and needing to establish a "Grit Level" for my home brew Last Rest setting that I'm running my Reign campaign in, this post is my attempt to help set a "Grit Level" by going over some of my inspiration for the setting and the kind of grittiness I'm taking from those sources...

GM Commentary: Last Rest Episode 2 - Summit on Adder Crag

Same caveats as the last GM Commentary... go read the summary for Episode Two - Summit on Adder Crag first and this will once again be disjointed--Probably more so than the last since the summary is told from the viewpoint of one of the NPCs rather than from an omniscient point of view following the player characters.

As the second episode, this one had a much different feel.  Probably because it was the second time, possibly because the PCs didn't have a focused mission provided by a third party like they did for the first episode... Possibly because the focus for the episode didn't come together for me until game day itself when I realized that what I could tell everything together with the themes of "Loyalty/Dis-Loyalty" and "Do the Ends Justify the Means" which fit each of the 4 main NPCs I had that the PCs could encounter.  Chatting with my RPG spiritual advisor, Thomas, he reminded me that even if the PCs failed, they could "Fail Forward", which is to say, that even the PCs failures should lead somewhere new. And the final ingredient for the stew was that I listened to The High Confessions "Along Come the Dogs" off their excellent debut album, Turning Lead Into Gold With the High Confessions and that put me in the right mood and cemented, in my mind, the mood I wanted to set.



Onward to the commentary!

GM Commentary: Last Rest Episode 1 Checkpoint Char-Lay

I listen to a lot of DVD commentary tracks, not just for the amusing anecdotes, but more for the directors/creators/writer's commentary on craft.  I recently listened to the commentary on Firefly, looking for inspiration for both Reign and my upcoming Fading Suns game, and thought that the idea of episode commentary would pair well with the Episode summaries I'm doing for my Reign game.  So, since I've posted the first Episode summary over on the Last Rest Blog, what follows here is my first GM commentary.

This might be a bit disjointed, as it's mostly just the thoughts that have been rattling around since I ran the game on Monday.  Also, for any of my players, fear not!  This won't have any really big spoilers.  Also, also,  you should go read my episode summary before you read this as it's written with the assumption that you have done just that.

The Beginning of My Reign

Monday night saw the first session of my Reign game (which you can follow over at the Last Rest blog).  While all that was accomplished was character and company creation, I feel it was highly successful.  Before Monday, the last character creation session I had overseen was for two 4E D&D characters, which took almost two hours, even utilizing the electronic character generator.  Monday night I was able to guide six players through creating a character each and constructing, together, a company.  And whereas the D&D character creation yielded two playable sheets with very little background, personality or goals, each of the six Reign PCs created on Monday night has a rough background, potential goals and relationships and as the characters were being crafted I could tell that the players were also starting to develop character personalities as well.

The players decided to go with a smuggling outfit disguised as a merchant company working to assist the rebellion against the Witchlord's Ashen Kingdom.  We've got (if my memory serves) a merchant following in the family tradition, a noble kidnapped by mountain folk who rose to become their thane, a master thief who had been imprisoned by the Ashen Kingdom due to a case of mistaken identity, a gypsy turned sailor, a sorcery wielding archer and an Ashen Kingdom army officer who learned strange magics and turned to the rebellion after being imprisoned due to a political imbroglio.  I am certain that my brief description did not do justice to any of those characters and I hope to be posting backgrounds and descriptions of each soon on the Last Rest blog.

With the characters and company created, I've started planning the plot arc, keeping my Goal Posts in sight. I've decided on a starting point, I know two plot high points for the middle and I have an idea of the climax of the campaign.  I have some ideas on the antagonists and allies, from the character backgrounds as I understand them now, and I'll flesh those out and finalize them as I get finished backgrounds from the players.  Most importantly, I have three themes that I want to focus this first season of Reign on:

• Family/Community
• The game is going to focus on families, and on communities as the extension of family or as the 'created' family as opposed to the biological family.  Many of the players have a part of their background that involves being a part of a family or being opposed to a particular family and I'm going to play that up as well as introducing other families and communities for the players to impact as their characters make decisions.
• Do The Ends Justify the Means?
• I want the game to offer real moral choices to the players. The player's company is a smuggling operation, circumventing the laws, because it is an offshoot of a rebellion that sees those laws as unjust, but how far are they willing to take it?  Through out the game, the players will have to choose how far they are willing to go and will also see NPCs who draw hard limits on what they're willing to do for their believes and who are willing to do anything...
• Justice/Vengeance
• This may overlap some with "Do The Ends Justify the Means?" but I decided to make it a theme anyway.  Many of the characters have a person or group (including a family) that they want vengeance on, and I want to use these opportunities to focus on the difference between justice and vengeance.  Will the characters seek justice, where a kind of fairness or proportion might reign, or will they seek a kind of scorched earth vengeance?  They'll also encounter NPCs who also seek justice or vengeance.

These themes might change a bit after contact with my players and their characters, but for now, I think these will be the themes I start shaping the plot around.

Theme and Mood, pt 1: Theme

So, as I prep for my new Reign chronicle and a possible Fading Suns game, Thomas (of the Tower of Infinite Evil), in his ongoing role as my RPG Spiritual advisor, has admonished me to think about Themes and Moods, and specifically directed my attention to the game-mastering sections of the old World of Darkness books that cover these topics.

Basically, the Theme is the idea or concept that runs throughout the entire chronicle, helping provide a unified feel for what the chronicle is about.  Mood on the other hand, can be a more temporary, thing, with the Mood changing from session to session or episode to episode.  Mood is the underlying feel of the game.   Of the two, I've always been much better with Mood.  This post will focus on Theme and my thoughts on how I'm going to work it into the chronicles I'm planning.

Last Rest Goal Posts

Gearing up to start a new RPG, using the REIGN One Roll Engine rules and a home brew setting and just wanted to get my goals down on virtual paper.  The last few campaigns I've run have been very unfocused, and to some part a little more unsatisfactory because of that.

• Party Cohesion
• This is a big one, the last two D&D campaigns I've run have used the "forced together by circumstances" method of party building and while some party dynamics have emerged, they never cohered the way I would have liked.  I'm hoping that limiting the PCs to a single company or at most two companies will help give the PCs a sense of belonging to the same group, not to mention similar goals.
• But aside from the somewhat forced PC relationships, I also hope to encourage the players to develop personal relationships between their characters right from the character creation process on.  
• One of the most memorable D&D games I ran was a one-shot where the players decided to all play Hobbits (eschewing the much less cool Halfling designation) and in the course of creating their PCs also came up with relationships and one sentence descriptions... exempli gratia: the do nothing hobbit with a heart of gold, his slightly shut-in wizardly uncle who had an unseen servant to carry him above the filthy ground, a bardic rival who was slightly jealous of the do nothing hobbit, et cetera.
• The most enjoyable D&D games I played this last year both had relationships, in one I blatantly stole the Hobbit schtick and played the middle brother in a trio of mischievous halfling children. In the other, it was a semi-cooperative game where each PC had relationships to the other PCs that shaped how semi-cooperative they were, with slightly disastrous results as my half-dwarf PC killed his unaware human half-brother perhaps a little too early.
• Recently I played in another D&D game as a crazy ardent (psychic healer) with a telepathic brother, but since we had vastly different goals and did not share anything other than being brothers, that was much less satisfying and my character couldn't rely on his brother the way my spastic hobbit monk could rely on his siblings.
• PC Goals
• Another thing I want to focus on is PC goals.  My last efforts have seen a few PCs have very vague goals (get rid of this magical mark) and most of the PCs lack all but the vaguest goals (stop evil).  I abused my DM powers and let the PCs be led on by hazy party goals that merely led along the plot-point stops.
• For Reign I want each PC to have a goal or two, even if they are largely the same as the goal of the company they belong to.  I'm hoping that the PC goals will then drive the plot instead of the PCs merely ferreting out the clues that lead them on in the DM driven narrative.
• An End In Sight.
• Perhaps my biggest DM sin is that I plot campaigns too big.  My RPG Spiritual Advisor, Thomas, of Tower of Infinite Evil, is constantly warning me against going too big.  In that spirit, and drawing on the meta-flavor text of our Fading Suns as sci-fi television series, I am going to run the REIGN RPG in Seasons.
• Each Season will be a self-contained plot-arc lasting 3-6 months (8-16 sessions depending on play).  If after the first season the players decide not to continue playing REIGN, then we'll have a single season.  If they decide to continue playing, we'll decide if we keep the same characters for a second Season with a new self-contained plot arc or if we start fresh with new characters.  
• I'm hoping this avoids the trap that my last two D&D campaigns fell into, where I planned out the EPIC level secrets and conclusion.. Leading to such classics campaign plots as: Three Insane Wizards, all thinking they're the same dead Wizard's Guild Master, tricked into a ritual by a Dark Force that feeds off the world ruined during the last Guild War or the PCs are descendents of a sorcerous family that became gods and somehow the plot would involve the players playing the long dead ancestors of their PCs in a flashback.  Such epic level plots are all well and good, but it would have probably been more satisfying for all involved if the Heroic tier of play had a better defined plot arc instead of being just the tip of the eventual plot iceberg, as it were.

So those are my goal posts for right now, three fairly simple things I want to make sure I do with this game, encourage Party Cohesion, let PC Goals drive the game and keep a reasonable End In Sight.  Now to force myself to stick to them.

Oh, also, you can follow the goings on of the Reign Campaign I'm running at: Last Rest - A Reign RPG Chronicle.  Right now there's just some setting notes, possible plotlines and an example character, but I'm planning to post Episode teasers and summaries and to have players write in character journal entries about the episodes.