| A Game's Setting | |
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| Tweet Topic Started: Apr 14 2008, 09:22 PM (191 Views) | |
| kismetrose | Apr 14 2008, 09:22 PM Post #1 |
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So, last night I put into words something that I've felt about roleplaying games for some time, and I thought I'd share it. I feel that the setting of a game - the world, the city - is like water. It provides a context for the characters, it is an element through which they move. All of the characters, NPCs and PCs alike, are held by the setting the way that water carries debris, swimmers and such. The setting impresses itself on the characters in different ways, sometimes like subtle currents and other times like great waves. That's what it's like when I introduce stories into the game; whether they're big or small, they become part of the experience. Some of the stories, my players can swim around or dive into. Some of them are more likely to happen regardless. My players can float along a bit because the setting is a living place and some things will come to them, like a current that can carry you a ways if you just kick back. My players can also swim on their own, progressing at their own pace, perhaps diving to explore what's below the surface or changing course. In any event, they make an impact simply by being in the water and making choices: they make their own waves and send out their own ripples. NPCs likewise make their own impact. The river keeps flowing and its composition always is changing, like the flow of events going on in the background. In different ways, I try show my players that the world is a living thing, developing not only in response to PC actions but independently, as well. Other characters float in the element, making choices about whether to swim away, try to hold onto something or someone, or perhaps to try to drown an enemy. I know some people run games as though the PCs are the only ones who really matter in the world. They get all the choices and are the only ones that make much of a lasting impact. I have never been able to work that way, as a player or a DM. When we play, we focus on one set of people struggling in the water but we could just as easily pull back and focus our attention on other folks. |
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| Hexeter | Jun 8 2008, 06:17 PM Post #2 |
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Gnomish Space Marine
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People who run games like that tend to run into their own Players far too often in my experience. Many games that I played in over time did not perish because of Player actions but instead because the DM neglected to make the world come alive. In my old setting of Blackwood I purposefully made the town small enough to allow myself to easily manage the various NPCs the Characters needed and also because it made it much easier to breath life into it. When last I DMed that campaign a couple years back my Players got into a fight with some members of the local Thieves Guild. In an attempt to stop reinforcements from coming to the aid of the Thieves the Priest smashed a barrel of ale in a hallway and lit it. Thinking it was a brilliant idea one of the other party members thought more flames would be better so added a second barrel. Long story short, it worked, there were no reinforcements but they ended up burning down the area they were in and three adjacent buildings before the townsfolk and some Druids were able to get the fire under control. None of them thought it was a problem until the next time they needed some help from the local Alchemist. His shop was one lost in the fire and the Alchemist lost everything and so was unable to rebuild. It made the Characters upset and the Players were irritated that I didn't just drop in another Alchemist elsewhere but in time they worked around it and had alot of fun doing it. |
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| kismetrose | Jun 8 2008, 11:44 PM Post #3 |
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I think my players have learned that such folks aren't going to magically regenerate. There might be more gnolls or dragons around, but alchemists aren't born. I do try to stick with what is most likely, but I strongly feel that there has to be a world going on around the PCs that is not entirely beholden to them. A lot of the challenge in gaming comes from this basic principle. |
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Kismet's D&D - WoD - SG-1 - FB | |
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| Hexeter | Jun 9 2008, 04:55 PM Post #4 |
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Gnomish Space Marine
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That's a great time in a DM's life actually. When your players fully realize that you've created a breathing world for them to play in. Shortly after the events I described one of the Players that had been dabbling in Alchemy as a Secondary Profession made mention of the fact in a meeting with another Merchant. Not long after that I had some of the local townsfolk seeking him out every so often for little potions and such to cure minor ailments. It really changed the way the Player looked at his sheet and played his Character because instead of it just being an interesting stat it became a form of social interaction for him outside of high adventure. |
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1:25 AM Jul 11