Rusty GM
Initiate Douchebag
Polygamerous
Posts: 21
Preferred Game Systems: Savage Worlds, G.U.R.P.S., D&D 5e, Dread
Currently Running: Savage Worlds
Favorite Species of Monkey: Loud
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Post by Rusty GM on Nov 22, 2016 15:13:51 GMT -8
When I'm getting ready to run a game longer than a once shot I'll usually let the players add any details they need to make their character make sense. Did the thief come from some kind of organized crime background? There's a mafia in this world. Want to be a cat person from the north? There's a tribe of cat people to the north.
So how much do you let your players shape the facts of the world? Obviously some systems like Dresden Fate have the players coming up with major details as part of the system, but most aren't as clear on this stuff. Do you avoid this kind of stuff because you are a heavy preparer and already have your universe mapped out to a t?
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sbloyd
Supporter
WHAT! A human in a Precursor service vehicle?!
Posts: 2,762
Preferred Game Systems: Storyteller; Dresden; Mage
Favorite Species of Monkey: Goddamnit, Curious George is a CHIMP not a monkey! Stop teaching my daughter improper classification!
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Post by sbloyd on Nov 22, 2016 16:06:17 GMT -8
I was about to mention Dresden. It is the best!
(Yeah, I love that Kool-Aid.)
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Post by chronovore on Nov 28, 2016 22:13:34 GMT -8
I'll let the players define pretty much anything which doesn't offer them an unbalancing advantage or otherwise break the game.
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RaspB
Initiate Douchebag
Posts: 6
Preferred Game Systems: Classless systems with more flex and less crunch
Currently Playing: D&D 5th
Currently Running: Destiny Prime: Future (Game I wrote)
Favorite Species of Monkey: Space
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Post by RaspB on May 24, 2017 14:10:54 GMT -8
In virtually every game I run, I try to incorporate some kind of Benny system as a way for the GM and Players to interact and barter for good roleplaying, witty humor, and give and take to the story. For example, if a player rolls poorly, I can offer them a Benny and propose an 'awful cherry on top'. For example, after a player fails a climb check, I put out my hand, blatantly offering a Benny and say "you fall, but your foot gets caught in the rope and you go swinging across the cliff face...right!?" this will then cause much harder climb checks for the rest of the party who is above or below him still trying to climb up the rope and of course makes for a good bit of action and story. The player has the option of declining, and they sometimes do. Of course the player can then later use that Benny for a re-roll, or a bonus of some kind. It makes the game super fun.
Anyway, with that Benny system I always have the rule that a player can offer up one of their Bennies to inject something into the world or story. I as the GM/ST don't have to accept their Benny or narrative injection. But if a player offers up some really nice tid-bit of world building, story, or narrative I am inclined to accept. For example if a player says "The castle has a nice big chandelier hanging from the ceiling yes!" offering a Benny... that sounds great... I presume he is planning to do some chandelier swinging which always sounds like more fun so I take it. Or "The Orc NPC Wizard Gramish is the brother of Gromtask who leads the warrior clan we are hunting right...?" and I figure he wants to use this wizard to help the party find the clan. Seems like a thing, so I say yes... or No: I already have this Wizard as another Orc's brother, and I don't want that brother to be the brother of Gromtask.
So, that is one of my favorite ways to let players inject narrative/world building into the game.
In general I support players getting involved in helping bring flesh to the bones of any world I play in.
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Post by chronovore on May 29, 2017 3:09:45 GMT -8
In the time since my initial response, I've actually been able to start a new campaign with a portion of my old college gaming group, and since we're using Fate but in an established setting, we adapted the "make your world together" part with great success. The broad strokes were painted in prior to character generation, and it's so far turned out to be a very different game than our college campaign, but still recognizable.
When listening to other FATE APs, the GM frequently says, "What's that guy's name?" or "What kind of building is it?" to the players, which is AMAAAAAZING to me. So I've been doing that. It's been useful if for no other reason than to see a bunch of really clever people suddenly badly stumbling for an improvised response, when usually that's my role.
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Post by shadrack on Jun 2, 2017 5:53:45 GMT -8
I was about to mention Dresden. It is the best! (Yeah, I love that Kool-Aid.) FATE games are usually good for hints on collaborative setting creation. An older one that I found fun was "Starblazer Adventures". There was a really fun bit on setting (galaxy in this case) creation. I think it's really important for the GM to have a handle on what kind of game they want to run/how many ideas they have already. If you're in the "I just want to run a fun game with these guys, in this type of setting" then collaborative world building from the get-go is a great way to get buy-in from everyone. If you already have some ideas/themes/issues that you want to introduce, you might want to make the collaborative world-building more... after the fact. More like what was mentioned earlier, "oh, so your character was in a thieves guild in some other city. What was it? ...(Calimport)... What was the guild leader's name? (Pook, Pasha Pook)... What did you steal when you left? (this pretty ruby). - I threw in kind of a Apocalypse World question there at the end, but might as well give your PCs some rope. amiright?
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Post by chronovore on Jun 2, 2017 21:18:37 GMT -8
Oh, man, ALWAYS give your players just enough rope…
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Post by shadrack on Jun 5, 2017 9:21:29 GMT -8
Oh, man, ALWAYS give your players just enough rope…Sometimes, I just kind of pretend to ignore the loose end of the rope and act surprised when it starts spooling out, farther and farther. I almost feel bad pulling it back in sometimes.
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Post by ayslyn on Jun 5, 2017 11:19:58 GMT -8
Oh, man, ALWAYS give your players just enough rope…Sometimes, I just kind of pretend to ignore the loose end of the rope and act surprised when it starts spooling out, farther and farther. I almost feel bad pulling it back in sometimes. That's your conscience. There's a procedure to remove it. Trust me, you really don't need it. ^.^
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Post by copperdragon on Jun 5, 2017 16:31:32 GMT -8
I could probably find the answer with a little research on my part, but figured I'd ask first. Does anyone have experience using the Dresden city creation for a different game system? Or are the results of the creation session dependent upon a game in the Dresden/Fate system?
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Post by shadrack on Jun 6, 2017 5:32:52 GMT -8
I don't have explicit experience using it in another system, but I think it's rules agnostic enough that you can use it for whatever system you'd like. (In my head it's totally rules agnostic, but I don't want to over-commit.)
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Post by ayslyn on Jun 6, 2017 6:31:44 GMT -8
No, you're right. It would work fine for any game....
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Post by chronovore on Jun 6, 2017 15:29:42 GMT -8
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Deleted
Deleted Member
Posts: 0
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Post by Deleted on Jun 6, 2017 20:30:48 GMT -8
Gotta say, I feel like Probie Tim when microscope is brought up. I don't know much about it, but dislike what concept I have of it (which is probably wrong) for some reason. I think I heard it too much and got sick of hearing about it. Probably means I should give it a try... Maybe after I'm done learning save worlds.
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Post by Probie Tim on Jun 6, 2017 21:11:41 GMT -8
Gotta say, I feel like Probie Tim when microscope is brought up. I don't know much about it, but dislike what concept I have of it (which is probably wrong) for some reason. I think I heard it too much and got sick of hearing about it. Care to expand on this comment? Clarify a bit? I want to make sure I have all my facts straight before I make my next post.
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