TMI

Mutants & Masterminds has ended and thankfully with a bang, so it's time to get to work on Star Wars: The Clone Wars - Wild Knights.

While sifting through my old Star Wars material, of which I have volumes both official and self-generated, I am amazed by how much there is but how little you need. Star Wars, both as an IP and in the form of the D6 game, is extremely easy to grasp and requires very little in depth knowledge to make it work and work well. If you've seen the movies, even one of them, you can play the game.

Unfortunately, that isn't always enough for some players. There are those players that must read every word ever written on the subject of a given universe, memorize untold minutiae and suck every iota of information in before they are comfortable playing a game set in that universe.

Until this past year I've never really encountered this particular phenomenon. Most of my players want to explore the game universes and learn as they go. They start with their characters as they rolled, chose or otherwise generated them and then build on that basic frame to create some of the most three dimensional characters I've ever seen. I have friends whose PCs started as little more then a name, some numbers and a quote and ended up deeper then the characters of half the professional novels I've read.

Then, recently, I've encountered a very different type of player. Every rule must be read, every obscure background reference checked and the most munchkin advantages explored before the 'creativity' needed to make their characters begins. What's worse is the end result often seems to be a book sized background story that hardly ever plays a part during the games themselves unless it gives them some points or edge over their enemies and allies alike. I'm sorry but "Yawn".

I am something of an information junkie to be sure but then again I am the GM. As a player, I want my GM to obsess over the game's every trivial detail but I don't want or need to know them before I encounter them.

Also, if you read and abosrb and hold as written in stone material that I haven't read and might not be using, you really didn't earn yourself any advantage. I might hear about the material from you and like the idea but logically, if I don't know about it its unlikely its going to be in my game.

The constant questions and need for clarification I get from my new group is exhausting. Also, the more time I spend answering these inqueries means less time I can spend working on generating material for the game.

Some information should remain mysterious and mysteries are meant to be solved. Play the game and solve the mystery. Don't obsess over things out of game that can be obsessed over in game. There is such thing as too much information.

AD
Barking Alien