Tuesday, September 8, 2015

Let Me Entertain You

This post is not directly related to the theme this month. Consider it a commercial break, or a 'word from our sponsor'.

I would like to point out, before I go any further, that this post is not referencing one of my current groups, or the other. It is about both.

Actually, what it's really about, is me.

It is not meant as a criticism to any party, but rather an 'inconvenient truth', to coin a phrase. Things are as they as are because I made the decision to have them be that way. I blame it on no one, but myself. Still, and all, I am questioning whether or not I made the right decision in how I went about presenting my game ideas. Might another approach be better?


***

One of the biggest differences between the way I game now, and the way I used to game (say, 10-15 years ago, and prior) is that I am now much more acutely aware of the particular interests, likes, and dislikes of my players, and I try to cater to those so that everyone has a much better experience overall.

And that sucks.

Hmmm. Perhaps some clarification is in order.

This is how I set up to run a new campaign, or even a one-shot nowadays:

I begin with a concept, genre, or specific game I want to run. It could be teens who are going to school to be superheroes, Anime Action/Romance Sitcom, or my particular Blast City Blues setting for Teenagers from Outer Space. How specific the idea is varies.

I pitch my idea to the group I want to run it with. I have to decide beforehand if the group would even be interested at all so that I don't waste anyone's time, including my own. Sometimes, I don't really know if it will go over until I ask. I usually do this few weeks, or even months before I intend to GM the first session. This way, if no one likes the idea I have time to come up with something else.

Depending on the group, I need a unanimous vote. I don't want to leave anyone out, especially the regulars. If I get a positive majority vote, with one, or two naysayers, I will do the following: If those who vote against are regulars, I'll drop the idea, and go for something else. If those who vote against the idea are not regulars, I'll either try to convince them to give it a shot, or hold the idea off until I can assemble those who liked the idea on their own.

This process right here eliminates the vast majority of my coolest game ideas from reaching the table. Getting four to six people to agree on a single concept is tough these days.

Next, the group asks me a few, OK a lot, of questions. Some are basic things about the story, setting, or what have you to make sure they are on the same page. They will largely ignore these answers come character generation time, but it's nice of them to ask. The rest of the questions will be in depth info that I either haven't developed yet, or things that would give away the major secrets of the campaign. I am usually able to dodge, or redirect these.

Without any further information, they immediately start making up characters. These characters often don't quite fit, and a process of adjusting them to the game, and the game to them, begins. Several incarnations of the characters follow, as well as scrapping the characters, and making completely new ones. This occurs an average of three, or four times prior to my running the first session per player.


Here's how it used to work:

I began with a concept, genre, or specific game I wanted to run. It could be teens who are going to school to be superheroes, Anime Action/Romance Sitcom, or my particular Blast City Blues setting for Teenagers from Outer Space.

I met up with my group, having told them only that I want to start a new campaign. I then pitched them the idea. Everyone would say, "Cool!", or "Great!", maybe even an "Awesome!"

We would immediately begin creating characters. Everyone would create a character that fit in perfectly with the basic idea.

Alternatively, I would announce the type of game I wanted to run a few days to a week before I'm going to see them, they would tell me the type of characters they wanted to play, and I would generate their characters for them. Then I would show up on our scheduled meeting day, hand out the characters, and we took about 15 minutes, or so modifying, and customizing them to exactly what everyone wanted.

Then we'd play (yep, that same day), for 6 hours or so, and see if everyone wanted to continue with the game as a campaign.


Comparing the results:

My modern approach has resulted in our Traveller - Operation: PALADIN campaign, which has been extremely successful.

It also created Pendragon: The Lion and The Sea, Bushido: Dark Cloud's at Land's End, Champions: REBIRTH, and Champions: ALL ACCESS, all of which were dismal failures.

The old method resulted in my Galaxy Quest RPG, Ghostbusters NJ, Star Wars: Tales from the Rim, Star Wars: Ever The Brave, Teenagers from Outer Space: Blast City Blues, Mekton: Distant Soldier Herakles, Mekton: Neo-Tokyo Crimebuster - Furiransu Keikan, Mekton: World Guard Tri-Gikura, Champions: Crusaders Vanguard, Traveller: The Corridor Chronicles, Traveller: Trojan Horses, and all my D&D-But-Not / World of Aerth campaigns.

Based solely on this track record, it would seem my new approach is not the best way to go about this process, wouldn't you say?

Ah, but if it were only that simple.

Perhaps it is, and I'm over-thinking it, even over-feeling it, but there are several factors that have lead me to arrive at developing a game the way I currently do these days.

Perhaps the most significant, at least in my mind, is (or rather was) the fact that I did not really know my current players before I started gaming with them.

In nearly all my old groups, we were friends before we gamed together. We either discovered gaming at the same time, introduced a given game to one another, or asked after a time, "So, do you game?"

Another key point is that I have two groups, both of whom I met, and started gaming with only 1-3 years ago. I have one friend in one of my groups who'd known me a bit before we started gaming together, but other than him these guys didn't know anything about me.

In my older groups, if I hadn't grown up right along side of my players, than I came recommended to the group by a mutual friend. My New Jersey group is a good example of this. My friend Nelson, who I'd first met when I was in Junior High, and he was in High School, gamed with me for years before introducing me to friends of his in NJ. The Jersey crew had heard from him, and others that I was a good GM, so they game me a shot.

Finally, my new groups are, hmmm, interesting in their familiarities, exposures, and preferences.

One of them had never seen Star Wars (or any of the Star Wars films for that matter). At least two in one group, and one in another group had not seriously ever read American comics. One of my groups is full of Anime/Manga fans, while the other seems to only have a smattering of Anime/Manga knowledge.

In my previous groups, we all read comics. We all read largely the same comics, or within two, or three degrees of separation from each other. We all watched Star Trek. We'd all seen all the Star Wars movies. We all loved Anime, and some had read Manga (I myself have watched a lot more Anime, than I have read Manga). We all loved Ghostbusters, Monty Python, The Marx Brothers, etc.

We had different favorites, but we liked A LOT of different things, and we were familiar with a comparatively broad spectrum of fandom from what I see among today's geek community.

So, I played it safe.

I took an easy, soft sell approach. I catered to my audience, or so I thought, instead of telling them to sit down, hold onto their seats, and just let me entertain them.

Am I sorry? Do I regret it? Well...

No, not 'regret'. That isn't the right word. We've had fun, created some great stories, and it seems like both groups are getting more experimental as time goes on.

Do I miss the old approach, and the gaming groups it worked with? Yes. I can't deny this. They were amazing gamers, and great friends. They helped me create stories so epic I continue to tell them to newcomers, as well as here on my blog.

Do I wish my new groups were more like my old groups? Sure, sometimes.

Who knows what the future will hold though, eh? New games, new players, new possibilities. I know I've not seen the last of my more avant garde ideas, nor the last of people who will try them.

It's all in the pitch.

AD
Barking Alien









8 comments:

  1. You got a little problem called life, B Alien, sir. Capital L Life.

    You has friends that gamed, friends you grew up with and loved, good for you. Can't say I shared in the luck me-self, but you had that. Y'all were young, creative, and most of all y'all had time. Now I don't know these first group friends of yours but seein as you don't play with em no more stands to reason that it's either y'all had some real bad fallin out or, most likely, Life pressured them to "grow up" where they gotta be adults now and adults are supposed t'get shitfaced and sleep until their next work week, degree class, or raise that baby.

    And it sounds like you didn't. I'd raise a glass to you if we was in person, damn hate that adult Life means there's no room for play, but it is a sad thing to be the only one in the room that decided that. So you made new groups, and they ain't your old friends. They're made up of other souls that decided Life should be fun too, but they ain't your old friends. They're cut from a wide diverse cloth cause that's just who answered the call. In a way you're closer to these new people than your old friends in the way y'all decided what Life should be like, but they ain't your old friends. And they ain't ever gonna be, maybe it's time you forgave em for that, and count what blessins you managed to hold onto. Not all of us ever got one, let alone three groups of kindred spirits to make Adulthood feel fulfilling.

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    1. The way I have my comments set up, nothing goes onto the blog unless I approve it first. I had the option of deleting your comment, but instead, I'd rather address it.

      Poor grammar aside, it is filled with so many strange, and inaccurate assumptions, I initially though it was someone I know pranking me. It could still be. All I know is I just had to respond.

      "Now I don't know these first group friends of yours but seein as you don't play with em no more stands to reason that it's either y'all had some real bad fallin out or, most likely, Life pressured them to "grow up" where they gotta be adults now and adults are supposed t'get shitfaced and sleep until their next work week, degree class, or raise that baby."

      The most accurate part of this statement is 'I don't know these first groups'. Yep. That is well evidenced by the rest of the paragraph.

      Sure, some had kids, and got bogged down with mortgages (ever notice the beginning of that word is 'mort', as in death), but there was no falling out, no need to get 'sh*tfaced' any more, or less than previously required. Most of them are sharing their love of games, comic books, Star Wars, and what have you with their kids. The legacy continues.

      Others did not go that route, and we don't game together because they moved too far away, work schedules aren't compatible, or they found a local group to game with. My friend Ken, a member of my ol' NJ group was in my Star Trek game last year for a stint. Allen, another NJ alumni, is a frequent poster on my Facebook page, and sometimes here. I even get to game with my ex-wife periodically.

      No, my new groups aren't my old group. Brilliant assessment there mystery commenter. Not that this, or your previous inaccurate point, has anything to do with the post.

      The post questions where my approach to my new players was flawed. Should I have treated them exactly the same way I treated previous groups? Was taking a more sensitive, kid gloves approach eventually to the detriment of establishing good games?

      "but they ain't your old friends. And they ain't ever gonna be, maybe it's time you forgave em for that, and count what blessins you managed to hold onto."

      There is no forgiving necessary. They did nothing wrong. As for never being my old friends, no, they are different people. But, my old friends were new friends at one point, so there's that.

      "Not all of us ever got one, let alone three groups of kindred spirits to make Adulthood feel fulfilling."

      I get that. Then again, sometimes you've got to make these things happen. They don't just fall out of the blue. If there is one thing I can't stand it's people who lament that they don't game anymore 'cause they have kids, a house, or whatever. That's some grade A - BS.

      If gaming is that important to you, find a way. If it isn't, and you're happy being a husband, and father (or wife, and mother), don't complain. Do what you want to do, and don't make lame excuses.

      Peace out.



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  2. I think you have done the right thing and that, as you and your group get to know each other better, you will enjoy more successes. Asking is always good, although players don't always know what they really like (I had once a player who loved the idea of Watchmen-style superheroes, then came up with a Dr. Manhattan/the Vision type of character). You need to discover what rings with them in terms of roleplaying, and then if there is something you'll love running with those premises.

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  3. "but seein as you don't play with em no more stands to reason that it's either y'all had some real bad fallin out or, most likely, Life pressured them to "grow up" where they gotta be adults now and adults are supposed t'get shitfaced and sleep until their next work week, degree class, or raise that baby. And it sounds like you didn't."

    Really?! You read the guy's blog and that's your conclusion? Anyone who has an Ex-Wife has been through an advanced course in "Adulthood".

    In my experience the single biggest reason a lot of us don't play with the crew we knew as teenagers is because people move, people work more, and people do have families. You also make new friends, develop new interests and find new games, so the mix is constantly changing - that is "adult" life.

    I think the focus of the post was more on "here are two different approaches I have taken - and their results" and not so much on comparing old and new groups of friends. That stuff was context, not the main point.

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    1. And I realize my "single biggest reason" is actually more like 6 different reasons but the point stands!

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  4. It can be tough going from a group where you had very strong synergy with everyone to a group where you're still feeling everybody out. One thing that can help is to have a "movie night" focused on the sort of game you want to play. If you want to play Star Wars with the guy who hasn't seen Star Wars, have a Star Wars movie night. Supers game? Find some superhero movies that present the sort of stuff you want in a campaign. Some genres/campaigns can be tricky to find good movies for, but you can usually find at least 1 movie, or maybe a TV show.

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  5. I have found over the years of lining up an idea and going away to percolate overarching campaign is good, a month or so before I intend to start building PCs. Sitting down in a couple of character building sessions with 1 on 1 roleplay so people can settle into PC and then finally hooking group together is good. Regardless of shared interests or group knowledge, a lot of things can be ironed out and tweaked leading up to the proper adventure. A lot slower but I have had campaigns come out of those 1 on 1 roleplay sessions that were excellent. Having the PCs hear other's games got them thinking about tie ins so have had other PCs jump in. I miss the days of all aligned along interests and knowledge where I could say bring PCs and jump straight to game but new approach works for most everybody and has led to some great games for me. Currently I have very experienced to novice PCs and have had little issues with introducing new setting. Had somebody not familiar with Firefly and the game worked out quite well after just a quick crash course into setting. Not knowing the details also helped them keep things fresh. Good luck.

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