[Twilight Time] Providing Ammunition for Your Game Master

[Heather Grove]

September 16, 2002 - Providing Ammunition for Your Game Master
Volume 3, Issue 13

This is the Twilight Time zine, the free zine of the Burning Void: 
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Copyright 2002 by Burning Void Publishing and Heather Grove, except 
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Good morning!

A game of HackMaster last night led to the whole party imprisoned in a 
temple to the Death God, and one character saying to the mage 
regarding their undead captor: "Could you set him on fire? It would 
make me feel better." Said mage was a pyromaniac, so much wackiness 
ensued. Somehow it actually led to the party's escape, too (at least 
for now). Moral of the story? Ahh, who needs a moral when you're 
playing HackMaster!  :) But back to the zine at hand...

Most of our articles are aimed at game masters, but this month's issue 
is one for players. We're always looking for more ways to make your 
gaming experience fun and entertaining, and that's the province of 
players as much as it is of game masters. Hopefully you'll enjoy our 
suggestions, and maybe even find a few of them useful for your own games.

While you're at it, check out this month's review of Grey Ghost Games' 
"Gamemastering Secrets"; it's been a while since I reviewed an RPG 
book, but I'd been looking forward to this one:
http://www.burningvoid.com/users/heather/roleplaying/Reviews/0902-1.html
It's a very interesting book, and well worth checking out!

Have a great afternoon,
Heather

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Providing Ammunition for Your Game Master

Copyright 2002 Heather Grove and Jeffrey Howard

When people write up backgrounds for their characters, they often 
don't stop to think about what their game master (GM) would 
particularly like to know. There are certain things that can, in the 
space of just a paragraph or two, give your GM plot hooks, ways to 
pass information to your character, and the means to turn what would 
otherwise be an ordinary plot into something stunning, emotional, and 
personally compelling. Here, then, is a list of things you could 
include in your character write-up. Some of them could be considered 
ammunition for the GM to use against your character - but then, how 
better to have a tense and exciting game? There's no need to use all 
of these; pick one or two that appeal to you and enjoy!


#1. Daily Schedule

By providing something of a schedule for your character detailing 
where she goes, what she does, and when, your GM will have a better 
idea how he can get information to you and have other things happen. 
If he knows your character goes to the gym, then someone trying to spy 
on her can go through her locker. If he knows she goes to Church every 
Sunday, he can have a significant event happen to her on her way to or 
from services. If he knows she reads the newspaper every day, then he 
can more easily slip news and clues in via that route.

Besides, working up a quick schedule for your character can, oddly, 
help you to get a better handle on her personality. Does she always 
sleep through her alarm and go to work late? Is she a night-owl? Does 
she go out with friends, or stay at home reading? You don't always 
have to keep to that schedule during game; just remember to tell the 
GM when you deviate from it significantly. You also don't have to give 
exact times for everything. "Reads the newspaper every morning" should 
be good enough.

Schedule details should fulfill two criteria:
o   They're minor enough that it's plausible that they might not put 
in an appearance in the game before the moment at which the GM wants 
or needs to use them.
o   They're familiar enough to the character that they don't come 
across as a "deus ex machina" or as overly suspicious.

Creating a schedule for your character acts much like the tricks we 
recommend in our old article, "If you don't know what to do, go for a 
walk," except that you don't have to specify what you do each time. 
You also give the GM the chance to plan things out in advance:
http://www.burningvoid.com/users/heather/writing/ms/essay/goforawalk.html

#1b. Media Bias

A wonderful related note to hand your GM is a quick break-down of 
*which* news sources your character gets her information from. Some 
people watch the nightly news.  Some people read the daily paper. 
Others read the tabloids.  A character might have a favorite 
conspiracy theorist magazine they like, a subscription to "New 
Scientist," or even subscriptions to trade journals. Different 
information sources have different editorial biases or spins, 
providing a golden opportunity to slip information into the game - 
true, suspect, and blatantly false, depending on the bias of the writer.

#1c. Familiar Faces

Familiar faces aren't people you know well enough to call them 
contacts, but if the GM wants a new face to exploit for a purpose, 
they're easy to pull into the role.  This could be a cashier at the 
supermarket, the proprietor of your character's favorite small bakery, 
or her cat's veterinarian. If the cashier recommended a particular 
kind of produce your character would give it a look; if the bakery man 
needed a hand hauling a cart-load of stuff out to his car for 
delivery, she'd pitch in. If she saw the veterinarian at the store, 
she'd probably stop to say hi.

The difference between them and total strangers is that if they give 
you a tip, gentle warning, or reminder, you know them just well enough 
to not immediately suspect them of having appeared out of nowhere to 
set you up.  Other examples might be a doorman at an apartment where 
the characters live, a friendly fellow guild-member in a guild, or one 
of the personal trainers at a health club.

Familiar faces are listed under daily schedule instead of friends and 
acquaintances because your character has probably met most of these 
people simply by going through her daily routine.

NOTE TO GMs: If you don't want info from one of these familiar faces 
to seem too suspicious, it can also help to have them put in 
occasional one-line appearances, even if it's jut the waitress warning 
the characters not to have the soup today. That way, when they do have 
a clue to slip in, it won't seem as though there's a neon "PLOT HOOK 
HERE!" sign flashing over their heads.


#2. Goals & Drives

Knowing your character's goals and drives is useful to you as well as 
your GM. When you write out these things before the game, it helps you 
to see whether your character has enough ambition, curiosity, 
responsibility, or specific interests to draw her into the game's 
events. If you try to write out her goals and drives and find out that 
she really doesn't have any, then you know you'll probably have 
trouble getting involved in plots! Time to work something your 
character cares about into her background.

Writing these things out also provides easy plot hooks for your GM. If 
he knows your character has a goal of eliminating all the members of a 
certain conspiracy, then all he has to do to get you into a plot is to 
hint that the conspiracy might be involved. (It also serves as a nice 
reminder to him that he might want to work that conspiracy into his 
game in order to play with your personal plots.) He can glance at your 
list of drives and goals and know pretty much immediately whether your 
character will fit in with the sort of campaign he imagines, giving 
him a chance to have you change things, or to alter his campaign's 
direction a bit. Comparing drives and goals with other player 
characters can help you to determine whether the group will be compatible.


#3. Dreams & Fears

If you can't think of any dreams or fears whatsoever for your 
character, that's a possible warning sign. Everyone has things they 
want; everyone is afraid of something. Without dreams why would your 
character embark upon all of these difficult adventures? Without 
fears, how can she possibly be human? (Or a reasonably sentient and 
emotional humanoid, depending on your game.) If nothing occurs to you 
when you think about these things, then something vital may be missing 
from your character.

Keep in mind that dreams and fears don't have to be conscious. Your 
character might not even realize that she has a deep-seated fear of 
imprisonment until someone arrests her and puts her in jail.

By knowing your character's dreams the GM knows how to pull her into 
plots, as well as how to give your character moments and rewards that 
will appeal specifically to her. It makes the game more personal. By 
knowing your character's fears, the GM can also play on them to draw 
your character into a more personal and interesting situation. He can 
find ways to make plots difficult without always having to resort to 
bigger and better monsters, which can get a little monotonous after a 
while.


#4. Favorites & Least Favorites

Take a moment to list a few of your character's favorite and least 
favorite things. Try something simple along the lines of:

o   Favorites: Sunshine, hot days, excitement, new discoveries
o   Least favorites: Having to stand in line, rain, boredom, wasps

This helps the GM to tweak the mood and atmosphere to have certain 
emotional effects on your character.


#5. Acquaintances & Friends

Acquaintances, contacts, and friends serve several purposes. First, if 
your character has no friends, then this might be a sign that you've 
created a loner. Such a character can end up tearing apart a party in 
the long run. Making sure that your character is capable of having and 
keeping friends is one way to keep yourself from accidentally creating 
a loner. For more on this issue, see "The Problem with Loners:"
http://www.burningvoid.com/pipermail/void/2001/000024.html

Acquaintances and friends are also automatic plot hooks for your GM to 
make use of. They're resources for your character, a means for the GM 
to interject information and clues into the game, and a way to make 
sure that your character is emotionally attached to and involved in 
the game world.


#6. Family

Write up a brief paragraph or two explaining which of your character's 
family members are still alive, where they live, and how much contact 
your character has with them. The GM can use family members in any 
number of ways to keep things interesting. Remembering that your 
character has family is also a quick way to make sure that you think 
of your character like a "real person" - creating a character with no 
family can be fairly unrealistic.


#7. Hobbies, Interests & Collections

I ripped the "interests and collections" part of this one bleeding 
from the "HackMaster" non-player character (NPC) generation charts. 
They have two handy charts, one for NPC interests (politics, religion, 
good wines, etc.) and one for NPC collecting interests (coins, 
gemstones, medals, etc.). Listing a couple of interests for your 
character gives your GM an idea of what an NPC might walk up and talk 
to your character about in order to catch her interest. It also gives 
him a way to know which news stories and other tidbits might appeal to 
her. Hobbies are similar, and may provide handy plot points for the 
GM. If he knows your character enjoys oil painting, then he can 
provide an NPC who loves good paintings who might be willing to help 
such an artist.

If your character collects something, then your GM has a ready-made 
way to put items into a plot that your character will want. Instead of 
putting some random thing you don't care about at the center of the 
dungeon he wants you to explore, he can place something your character 
will truly desire. This makes things easier for him, and has the side 
effect of making things more personal and interesting to you.


Level of Detail

You can write out the category(s) you choose in just a few words, or 
devote a page to them. It can be as simple as:

o   Goals: Recover missing memories; find family
o   Drives: Intense curiosity; friendliness and wish to help others; 
love of learning new things

Or you can write out a paragraph explaining each item. Remember that 
you can write up one or two of these things at the beginning of the 
game, and now and then write up another during the course of the game. 
This keeps you from having to write up too much at once. It keeps the 
GM from having to read too much at once. It also gives the character a 
chance to "gel" - I don't know about you, but I sometimes find that a 
character's personality ends up being a little different than I 
predicted once the game starts. And finally, it reminds you to take a 
step back now and then and think about where your character is and how 
she's doing.

Keep in mind that which category(s) you pick might be at least 
partially determined by the game or genre you play. For a horror game, 
fears & dreams is a big one; friends or favorites might help as well. 
For a modern-day game, daily schedule should be appropriate. For a 
hack-and-slash game, something you can write up in a quick sentence or 
two might be best: favorites, hobbies and interests, or family.


Changing Details

Remember that your character's drives, goals, interests, etc. will 
tend to change over time in response to things that happen during the 
game. She might recover her missing memories and discover that aliens 
killed her family. Now her list could become:

o   Goals: Prove the existence of aliens; destroy all aliens
o   Drives: Revenge; hatred; bigotry

Remember to update her motivations now and then during the game.


Hopefully these tidbits will help you to have a more personal and 
exciting game. Hopefully they'll also help your GM to plan game events 
that will appeal to you and keep things interesting. Many of these 
items are aimed at giving the GM credible ways to slip items, events, 
plot hooks, and information into the characters' laps without having 
them fall out of the blue. Some of them will help to give the game 
world that "lived-in" feel - it'll seem more like a living world that 
moves and breathes even when the characters aren't looking.

Don't expect that just because you've written these things up they'll 
make frequent appearances in the game; the idea is to provide 
opportunities for the GM and allow him to make use of them as he sees 
fit - not to force him to shape the game to your every desire. 
Hopefully the result will be fun for the entire gaming group!


What's Your Opinion?:

Comments on this issue's topic? Suggestions? Tips? Special topic 
requests? Drop me a line at (heather at burningvoid.com). If I pass any 
of your suggestions on (either through the newsletter or the RPG 
resources page), I'll attribute them to you. Be sure to tell me if you 
don't want me to use your name and/or comments!

The next issue is coming in just a few weeks (early to mid October).

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SITE UPDATE:

Burning Void Roleplaying Resources:
http://www.burningvoid.com/users/heather/roleplaying/resources.html

http://www.burningvoid.com/users/heather/roleplaying/Essays/barakah2.html
Barakah Mechanics and Rules
Presenting a handful of thoughts on mechanics and rules (original and 
adaptational) for those human/jinn crossbreeds we introduced last time.

http://www.burningvoid.com/users/heather/roleplaying/Reviews/0902-1.html
My review of the new "Gamemastering Secrets" book from Grey Ghost Games!

http://www.burningvoid.com/users/heather/roleplaying/Essays/pcquestions.html
We've added a small section of questions to the end of our 
ever-popular PC Questionnaire: Moods and Reactions.


Burning Void Writers' Resources:
http://www.burningvoid.com/users/heather/writing/resources.html

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ANNOUNCEMENTS:
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BITE MARK 02 NOW AVAILABLE

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Bite Mark intends to fill in the gap between the release of Ironclaw 
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GET READY FOR GLORANTHACON WITH EXCLUSIVE THEMED GOODIES
Issaries, Inc. Press Release
Oakland, CA
September 8, 2002

The great gathering of the Gloranthan Tribe nears. Gloranthacon VIII, 
to be held in Toronto, Canada on the 7th-9th March, 2003, will revive 
an old tradition of fun and intensive conventions concentrating on the 
fantasy world of Glorantha and the Hero Wars and HeroQuest games 
systems, successors to the popular RuneQuest system. To raise funds 
and to start getting people into the spirit of the event, Gloranthacon 
organizer Jeff Kyer and Issaries, Inc. are proud to announce that a 
range of products featuring convention art and logos is now available 
through the CafePress online store. The store, at 
http://www.cafeshops.com/gloranthacon, includes t-shirts, fleeces, 
mugs and all kinds of other items, from a clock to a mousemat.

Full details of the convention are at http://www.gloranthacon.com, 
while discussion of the convention as well as help and advice for 
events can be found at gloranthacon at yahoogroups.com. Email us directly 
at gloranthacon at glorantha.com.


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