mkkuhner@[EMAIL PROTECTED]
(Mary K. Kuhner) writes:
> In my experience it helps if the GM contributes some ideas about
> what he'd like to run. A completely blank slate may not get the
> juices flowing, or may generate too many ideas to choose among.
Yes, the setting will be chosen from among options presented by the
GM; the preparation I'm describing is what comes after that, but
before character stats.
> I am personally very fond of having a strong link among the PCs: I
> GMed a (multi-player) game where the PCs were the family members of
> a gypsy caravan that worked really well. ...
> However, some players turn out to loathe this, so I wouldn't
> force them to do it.
You're right that I should be contributing my own ideas about what I
want to the decision, since I'll be assuming much of the work of
preparing and running the game.
> Some useful non-technical questions are "What kind of situation will
> give your character a big chance to ****ne? What kind will be
> particularly tough for him? Here are some possible hooks for early
> adventures: which would grab him the most?"
Good suggestions, thanks.
> It seems to me that some of the players who hate cooperative
> character generation hate it because they are afraid they'll be
> strong-armed into filling some boring niche (healer, place-holder
> fighter, that sort of thing).
I'm hoping to lessen that by having mostly newbies who haven't had any
such bad experience, but the warning is well taken and I should try to
be aware of that possible concern.
> You might make it clear that the
> cooperation is more about "Why are we together? What are our
> plans?" and less about "Who has to play the boring roles?" Ideally
> there should be no boring roles: if there is something the group
> agrees it must have, but everyone hates to play it, look for a
> creative solution.
Exactly. I want to ensure that the only roles that will be taken by
the party are those the players say they want. The actual story itself
will come *after* that, so I can design it knowing what the players
expect their characters to do.
> (In D&D the splatbooks can help here. I mistrust them, but if you
> need novel ideas, they have ideas aplenty.) Or you can offload that
> role onto an NPC, in a pinch. Two of the gypsy-party characters
> were NPCs because they filled niches we wanted (the cheeky kid, the
> conscientious administrator) but didn't seem like good PC material.
That sounds like another thing to keep in mind at the party
discussion: secondary character roles the players expect to be there,
but as NPCs.
Thanks for the advice. Anyone else?
--
\ "All progress has resulted from people who took unpopular |
`\ positions." -- Adlai Stevenson |
_o__) |
Ben Finney
|
