Wrunner
Initiate Douchebag
Posts: 18
Preferred Game Systems: Star Wars (FFG), Fiasco, Wild Talents, Golden Sky Stories
Currently Playing: Pathfinder (because it's the unquestionable center and true means of roleplaying, according to my gaming group ... unfortunately)
Currently Running: Star Wars: Age of Rebellion (soon! ... just have to "solve" another dire Pathfinder campaign situation by swinging our swords at it enough times ... then it will be MY turn to GM!)
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Post by Wrunner on May 25, 2012 8:42:30 GMT -8
I'm curious for y'all's take on an issue:
Recently, my gaming group's been mixing it up a bit before settling into another months-spanning campaign. We've been playing a lot of Savage Worlds one sheet adventures and have been having a blast. We rotate GMs and settings for each new experience. One particular guy, however, is a chronic secret-keeper ... in particular, his setting when he's to be the GM:
"What's the setting going to be?" we ask with enthused anticipation.
"You'll find out," is ALWAYS his reply.
He's not stalling. He knows. He just won't tell us. I guess it was a neat suspense-building trick the first time he did it, like a teaser trailer, y'know? But when it was finally unveiled, my immediate internal reaction was, "Okay, cool. This'll be fun! But why couldn't you have told us ahead of time?" Plus, he continues to play this trick like M. Knight Shamalama-ding-dong plays his twists.
Why continually do it? Knowing and anticipating a setting - even for a one-shot - would lead to a deeper roleplaying experience, in my mind. "You're robots in a rock band in a distopian future" might be fun to ponder for more than 5 minutes before the game starts. Another player and I share this sentiment, but I ask the forums for some input.
Thanks!
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Post by Stu Venable on May 25, 2012 9:07:41 GMT -8
It seems kind of dumb to keep the setting secret prior to the session.
It's not the same as keeping a big plot twist secret.
And it's sort of setting very high expectations, isn't it?
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Post by uselesstriviaman on May 25, 2012 9:09:09 GMT -8
One obvious question immediately springs to mind: When he GMs, does he provide pregen characters?
If not, then he's severely limiting your opportunity to come up with creatively-crafted PCs. I'd strongly argue that I'll have a much better PC concept with a week (or even a day)'s notice, rather than the five minutes before the game starts.
If he IS providing pregens, then I'd say it's kind of a coin toss. On one hand, I agree it's cool the first time. But to keep doing it over and over? That probably would get annoying, yeah.
My recommendation: Sit that guy down and -calmly- explain why you'd rather have advance notice. Better if both dissenting players can do so together. He doesn't have to give out spoilers - just give the players a general idea of the setting so they can think up fun ways to play in that world. Universe. Sandbox. Whatever.
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Wrunner
Initiate Douchebag
Posts: 18
Preferred Game Systems: Star Wars (FFG), Fiasco, Wild Talents, Golden Sky Stories
Currently Playing: Pathfinder (because it's the unquestionable center and true means of roleplaying, according to my gaming group ... unfortunately)
Currently Running: Star Wars: Age of Rebellion (soon! ... just have to "solve" another dire Pathfinder campaign situation by swinging our swords at it enough times ... then it will be MY turn to GM!)
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Post by Wrunner on May 25, 2012 11:59:46 GMT -8
He has NOT provided pre-gen characters in the past. For the next upcoming "top-secret-setting" session, however, he will. Recently, we all discovered the joys of having the GM make a stack of them ahead of time for these one sheets (yeah, that's RIGHT, Tappy! ) ... mainly, because we can jump right in. Gaming time is tragically finite, after all. Thanks for your insight and views, guys. Didn't know if I was being douchey for having this bug me. Diplomatically, I was thinking of starting the conversation with asking him why he likes doing it. This way things don't start on the negative. And honestly, I just don't know ... hehe
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julien
Initiate Douchebag
Posts: 49
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Post by julien on May 26, 2012 1:40:23 GMT -8
Maybe he wants you to begin play on your first impression, without time to think it over. Maybe he wants spontaneity ?
Does this guy presents you the setting at the beginning of the game or does he let you discovers it as you play ?
A few months back, a friend organized a game without telling anything about it.
We didn't even have a character sheet as the game began. In the first scene we realized we were patients in some sort of mental hospital somewhere, with almost no memories of what happened before. No names either, the GM kept calling us "Patient 34" "Patient 6" and so on when playing NPC's. He had the character sheets behind the screen, and began filling them based on the responses we gave to his tests (both questions, rorschach tests...). We had dice to roll to resolve actions, and we began to know what each of us can or can't do... After a while we learned we were experience subjects in a organization who was trying to create supernatural beings. It was set in the World of Darkness, and we had a mage , a vampire (the whole complex was underground) and a werewolf in the team...
It was a real fun experience.
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daniel
Journeyman Douchebag
Posts: 217
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Post by daniel on May 26, 2012 4:31:58 GMT -8
That actually sounds quiet annoying. It would really not work at all for me, i am the kind of person who needs at least a few days to chew over ideas.
Because just running with the first one i get would likely leave me displeased with it rather quickly for being to shallow or not what i really wanted.
Keeping the setting a secret just seems like a weird idea.
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Post by ironnikki on May 26, 2012 8:53:44 GMT -8
julien, that sounds like an awesome premise. Did you or any of the other players resent forgoing the more traditional character creation process?
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julien
Initiate Douchebag
Posts: 49
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Post by julien on May 26, 2012 9:44:04 GMT -8
None of us did, but I should say we've been friends for about ten years.
And this story lasted for 2 or 3 game nights before it was over. Maybe if it was for a long campaign there would have been some complains.
But maybe the most important thing : none of the players were much interrested in character optimization. Instead of focusing on the stat parts of the character creation we developped the roleplay part of it, not the backstory obviously but the psychology of the character, and their reactions towards their conditions (vampire, mage, werewolf).
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