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Restarting a
Role playing Group By Mark Newbold Never having been lucky or smart enough to have GM’d more than a couple of games I’m probably the last
person in the world to be qualified to speak on this subject. But as an occasional gamer of over fifteen
years I think I’ve seen this scenario enough times to have a point of view on
it, and perhaps a few tips on how to avoid the pitfalls inherent in
restarting RPG groups. Especially when
covering familiar territory and familiar characters. We all get into habits, and with long-standing roleplay groups there are inevitably times when certain
characters and locations become regulars.
In any RPG this is the case, but certainly in my experience this is
the case with Star Wars RPG. We all
played our games in the Setnin Sector, the very sector you read about on
Lightsabre. The RPG’s were based in
large part on the books I wrote in 1982/83 and the audiotapes myself and Jonathan Hicks did between 1985-1988. The RPG took these core ideas and massively
embellished on them, making the universe that is today the Lightsabre
website. These games were hugely
popular in Lichfield, and when some friends left for university in the late
80’s they even took some of the characters and gamed with them around the
country. But after a while we had run the course of the timeline, going
further than Return of the Jedi had gone, further even than the Marvel comics
had run. My story Wrong Side of Hell
was ten years after A New Hope, six years after Jedi, and we weren’t sure
then either when George would do 7,8 and 9 or how
far after Jedi it would be. And, being
continuity freaks we decided instead of continuing on through the timeline
and drifting into the waters of uncertainty, we went right back to where we
began and ran the timeline through again. And again. Three times, just so we didn’t tread on any toes, not that it
would have mattered. As a useful side
effect of this, when Lightsabre was begun we had three RPG story lines, the
audio tapes and written stuff, so five versions had to be whittled down, the
best elements of each taken and forged into what exists now, the story of
Goah Galletti being the best example.
He was originally just a young smuggler in the audiotapes, written
pieces and cine film scripts. By the
time the RPG began he had a harder edge.
By the second run round he had become a killer and assassin, and by
the third trip he was a genetically altered clone of the real Galletti. Of course, with so much good material I
couldn’t jettison any of these Goahs, so I took the young, eager to learn
Goah, and through the course of the timeline had him become tougher as he saw
more of the galaxy, THEN be cloned, and the clone grew tougher and tougher
due to the unstable nature of swift cloning.
Even Jonathan liked the chronological choices that had been made to
make Galletti fit the site. Perfect. But there was a problem in the re-running of the timeline. As characters, for all intents and
purposes, we had to forget what we knew because it hadn’t happened yet, but
as gamers we were all too aware of what our people had done. And treating the new games as prequels
instead of sequels was tricky. But, we
managed it and had some amazing games, as you can see by our happy smiling
faces…
Eventually the group games came to a close and smaller group
games continued. But we all knew that
one day we’d want to start playing again, so it was time to re-examine what
makes a session tick, what elements go into making a three-to-four hour RPG
scenario work. I’m sure my fellow
gamers and GM’s would disagree with many of these points, but here are my own
personal views on getting back into the swing of things. Revisiting old
characters While some gamers play many, many characters I think that if
they sat down and thought about it most would be able to settle on one
character they were happiest playing, or were most satisfied by the
characters achievements. For my part,
I have almost always played Jan Lomona because primarily I’m a writer and the
RPG’s were a great place to test the character in situations and swipe ideas
for stories. So in my case, coming
back to Jan is easy because I never leave him. But for others, revisiting their RPG characters
can be unusual. With regular gaming
you get into the character – how they talk, react, goes about their
business. And after a while the
character almost becomes a template that anyone could play. I know Jan is often seen as a smart-assed
Romeo with a hot ship and certainly there are elements of that in the
character but obviously I see a lot more than that. Conversely I see more in Galletti than just
a mean spirited assassin, more to Ranth than a Fett clone, more to Centaur
than a square-jawed heroic archetype, but others might not. So, in a way, constant gaming with a character can make that
character as real to the gamer as any other character in the Star Wars
Universe (SWU). Clearly, after the guy
being around for 22 years I’m going to be more at home playing Jan Lomona
than playing Han Solo, and I could portray the
character better too. Regular gaming
with a character would bring the same results for anyone. Our friend Andy Curtis plays a female
mercenary called Luschia Arkensaw, a vital character in many of the sites
stories, and I couldn’t imagine him playing anyone else. The amount of flirting that goes on between
Jan and Luschia is well known. And
dammit, Andy is a good-looking guy… Ahem, anyway, I think you get my drift. Coming back to old RPG characters is easier
the more you’ve portrayed them. It’s a
comfortable starting point for the GM became he doesn’t have the baggage of
dragging you through the usual getting-to-know-you stuff because you already
do, and the games can get off to a fast start. For the purposes of coming back to RPGing, this is more than handy. Revisiting old
scenarios Now this can be a minefield.
More than once when we played through the timeline we would hit upon
familiar moments in our then very loose history. We knew
that certain things would be happening again. The job to Ferrerea, invasions of Glann
Cipples Fortress, Lomona getting the Berone
Sunrise painted bright yellow with pink flowers on it (don’t laugh –
it happened). Of course, as a player you have the problem of
knowing what should happen but the character playing it as if it
doesn’t. And for the GM it’s not much
better. He/she has to keep it fresh,
throw a new slant on proceedings but still maintain a recognisable feel to
the game. Or if they are feeling evil,
doing something totally different. Of
course, this is only relevant if you are running through a set timeline. But as Star Wars fans, we are always very
aware of the timeline, and so even if you are playing the set, official
characters you know you have to go through Geonosis, the Clone Wars, Yavin,
Hoth, Endor and all the other battles.
And that brings with it certain expectations and limitations. But above all, unless the GM isn’t paying
service to the demands of the group, there lies the risk of the game becoming
stale and running over old ground. Not rehashing So, what is a GM to do?
An idea would be to stay loyal to the story that is laid down, but to
approach it from a different angle.
Every game has a narrative structure, even though sometimes it may
seem to be hidden until the very last scenario. So even if the players aren’t aware of
this, the GM invariably is, and so has the opportunity to re-run the game
from a different point of view.
Instead of the players attacking in a space battle they could go in on
a ground front. Or instead of all six
players sticking together, they could split up. Same people, same situation, different
scenario. And if you are lucky and get to co-run an awesome site like
Lightsabre you can cherry pick all the best bits and make up an official
timeline… Keeping it fresh and
bringing something new to the table These would probably be the most vital elements in revisiting RPGing. For both
the gamer and the gamesmaster, it’s absolutely
vital, especially when an RPG group has been together for so long. For instance, in various states of
assembly, our core RPG group has been together since 1987. Longer if you include the D&D group myself and Jonathan Hicks used to attend after school
hours back in 1984/5. As a
consequence, many hundreds if not thousands of hours have been spent during
that time RPG-ing, and I know that Jonathan especially used to log crazy
hours as a GM, sometimes running three groups a week and almost always
leading the games from behind the stat sheets. But, after a certain amount of time everyone
gets stale, and runs out of ideas. And
a sense of repetition sets in. So, new
injections of ideas, new group members, new locations and characters, even
physically playing the game in a new location, anything to keep it
fresh. Which leads
nicely on to the next bit… Keeping GM satisfied I’m sure this is a hugely underrated part of the regular RPG
session. Just because the guys who
brings the dice bag and the ideas is running the game doesn’t necessarily
mean he’ll be satisfied by it. By
design, GM’s are constantly looking for satisfaction. From running a successful campaign, to crow
barring elements they want into games, there are a multitude of different
things. But to us gamers, we often
don’t see that. He is running the game
for us, so it’s up to him to keep us satisfied, and that’s true, to a certain
extent, but the GM needs to bring something away from the game more than a
bit of extra experience (which he always will, because no two games are truly
the same. On Monday you might be smack
on in character, on Friday after a crappy week at work you might just
sleepwalk through it, altering the balance of the game). GM’s need to be able to pack the game away
at 11pm, check out the satisfied smiles or listen to the chat about the game
and also feel a sense of
accomplishment and enjoyment.
Otherwise, what’s the point? Keeping players
satisfied And the flip side of the coin, detailed in depth throughout the
previous bullet points. If the players
aren’t happy they’ll soon find reasons not to be able to come to the games,
or will chat throughout, throwing the ‘reality’ of the game out of the
window. Sure, passing notes or
stepping outside of the room is great, if you’re discussing the actual game
and the intricacies within, but if the topic of conversation steers away from
the scenario then there are big problems.
And don’t forget, in a dynamic relationship between players and GM,
it’s not only the GM who makes the game flow and keeps players happy. There are fellow players and the roll of
the dice that have a huge effect. Oh,
and those daft decisions players and GM’s sometimes make… |
