Howdy all,
After talking with some friends about getting a role-playing group
started, and gathering a small group of interested players, I planned
an adventure to introduce them all to the game and find out their play
styles. The adventure was run today, in a single afternoon; it was
proclaimed a success. I thought I'd write this message to share some
details of how it worked out to help others in a similar situation.
I used GURPS for this, and discuss some specifics in this text; but
the bulk of it applies to anyone considering running an introductory
session for players in any role-playing game system.
Asking among my friends I found many who weren't interested, but
eventually came up with a group of three players: one who had played
many sessions of various games years ago, one who had played only a
single adventure that didn't go very well, and one who thought RPGs
sounded geeky but was willing to try it out.
Through describing the proposed game and style to these people, I
found that the approach that worked best was to emphasise the
collective, participatory nature of it, and downplay my role as GM. I
used the "collaborative story telling" phrase that I've heard
elsewhere[0]; that seemed to best give people an idea of how the game
would take place.
Though I had in mind a campaign in a space empire setting, I received
consistent advice from r.g.f.advocacy that, for a new group of
roleplayers, some of whom had very little experience, I should start
off with a canned, one-shot adventure using characters that I made for
the purpose. I found some adventures that interested me, and presented
one-sentence summaries of them to the players individually. The one
that gained most interest was _Time of the Tyrants_, an adventure
article from _Pyramid_ magazine. I prepped for that.
The adventure and rules were fairly familiar to me, but I only had a
week to prepare; it was either that or wait for a month or more, and I
wanted instead to get these people while the interest was still
fresh.
I spent my time on the following preparation activities:
* Character generation, including complete, action-hero characters,
but also including many aspects of the character's personality,
style, and outward appearance: things with zero game-rules effect,
but which would be a source of creative material to help the
players get into the role.
* Lots of 70×120 mm index cards with adventure information, some
summarised from the adventure text but mostly written by me.
* One card for each scene, giving description of the scene,
success result, failure result (both of which contain a way to
proceed the story), and one thing that must happen somehow no
matter how the scene plays out -- i.e. the point of the scene in
the story.
* One card for each physical location in the adventure that a
scene might occur in. A few words for each of: space, light
level, climate, dominant colours, sights, sounds, smells, and
texture.
* One card for each NPC: one side giving a compact character
sheet, and the other giving outward appearance: height, weight,
age, features, face, dress, motion, voice, demeanour, and a
typical quote.
* One card for each of the types of dinosaur (the adventure
features lots of them), with just the character-sheet side
filled in.
* One card for each PC, giving the outward-appearance information
in the same format, and the other side giving background points,
significant relations, and motivations.
* A single card giving recent events in the 1930s, to get the
players quickly into the feel of the era. _GURPS Cliffhangers_
was invaluable for this.
* A couple of cards giving weapon statistics for every weapon the
PCs were likely to have.
* Photos and images for every creature, PC, NPC, and location. For
the dinosaurs, I scanned my cards from the _Dino Hunt_ card game,
and freely substituted one dinosaur picture for a similar dinosaur
description if I didn't have a direct match. For the characters, I
spent hours on IMDb getting actor portfolio photos. For locations,
there is a lot of tagged photography on Flickr or Google Images.
* _One Page GURPS_ handout for every player: a quick summary of the
game mechanics, and the meaning of the main points of interest for
interpreting the character sheet.
This was all a lot of effort, but I felt that my main task was not to
learn the text of the adventure as written, or design well-balanced,
optimised characters. Instead, I took on the task of being ready for
improvisation, coming up with quick answers and bullet-point
descriptions with which to help the players understand what their
characters were experiencing. I had to stop myself writing things in
prose, and instead go for *coverage* of the material and *breadth* of
sensory descriptions.
As a consequence, I did almost no embellishment of the adventure
plot. Instead, the format I chose for locations, scenes, and character
descriptions forced me to come up with many *ways* of describing each
of them, rather than a lot of detailed prose on each one. The
interesting effect I found was that having the structured format for
these items meant that I was forced to be creative, *ahead* of time
when I could afford to take several minutes to think of an answer,
rather than not have that answer at all during play.
Being an introduction to role-playing for two of my players, I did
decide to change the plot of the adventure in one way. Rather than
start with "you have all been called together for blah blah blah, your
mission is yak yak, how will you go about it" -- I took a cue from one
of the PCs, to whom I had given the disadvantage of "Nightmares".
I decided that the plot would begin with *no* introduction, instead
immediately describing all the characters naked and running through a
dark forest, pursued by a monster that turns out to be a dinosaur; and
use the game mechanics to play out this scene however the players
decided to react. Then, once the scene had take a few interesting
points and required a few game mechanics to resolve, the character
with Nightmares would wake up in a cold sweat, realising it was all a
dream.
This turned out to be a great success. Having lunched with the
players, handed over their characters, let them read about and to each
other about who they were and what their backgrounds were, this sudden
fight-or-flight scene with no explanation was an ideal way to snap
them to attention and get them using the game mechanics in
earnest. Maybe some players would be put off by such an introduction,
but my players found it a fun, risk-free way to learn how the game
would work -- and also introduce the plot, because the nightmare led
naturally into the "here's why you're here" scene, which I described
as a past event, *leading to* the nightmare as a result.
The rest of the adventure proceeded well from that point. Having got
their attention, I was able to keep it by using several different
senses of each location, several different external points of each
character, and making sure to mix up which of these I would use for
each one, so that the total effect was that the descriptions, while
short, were very varied and easily memorable to the players.
Using the printed images and photos was also a great aid as well.
Putting an image down and *then* describing the salient points of the
location/character/creature, meant that I didn't have to *name*
anything: the dinosaurs never got named, and the characters were often
already well described before they got introduced by name. The players
all thanked me for this help, giving them something to focus on and
differentiate people and places as we charged through the adventure.
Running the game turned out to be more chaotic than I remembered from
previous times; this was likely because of a longish hiatus in my
GMing, but also because I had to explain the rules as we went along
(the new players would never have stood by for a long rules
introduction before play, so this was the only option for learning the
game).
Here again, the preparation paid off: I had all the necessary
game-mechanic details of equipment, locations, characters, and
creatures in a box of index cards. Leafing through books happened a
few times, but if I couldn't find the answer in fifteen seconds, I
fudged a result. No-one minded, because they were enjoying the steady
pace of the story.
I was also able to avoid the impression of railroading the players by
allowing them to choose how to proceed, and making sure the
appropriate prepared scene happened in the places they chose to
go. Both success and failure were defined for each scene, meaning that
I knew how much to help the PCs or NPCs in the next scene, and also
had a way of getting them there.
I asked the players afterward if they felt like they were in charge of
the story and they gave a resounding affirmative. Having lots of
immediately-understandable information and clear game mechanics with
prompt answers from the GM meant they felt in control of their
actions. Having interesting things happen relevant to the places they
chose to go, it felt like *they* were the ones driving where the story
went, which was of course true.
Everyone was excited by the idea of playing another, multi-session
adventure next time. The newbie roleplayers had found their groove,
and were encouraged by their introductory adventure that *they* asked
*me* for access to the rules to make their own characters -- a
complete reversal of their attitudes before we played, where they said
they didn't want to do a whole lot of character preparation. This was,
of course, the desired result: I'd showed them how the GURPS rules
could be used to create interesting, detailed characters with
directly-understandable effects on the game mechanics.
Things I'd do differently next time I need to introduce GURPS and/or
role-playing to a new group:
* Try to get the players together to discuss it, rather than trying
in one-on-one meetings to garner interest. This was constrained by
mismatched schedules, but it was a significant (months-long) delay
to have to discuss things pre-game with everyone individually.
I'd try hard to get together for a dinner or something and spend
time discussing with all of them, to keep the interest alive. I
lost a couple of potential players because it was simply too long
between when I got their interest and when I said we were ready to
set a date.
* Try to find a group of *all* newbies. While the players worked
well together, the fact that one of them had RPG experience meant
the tendency was for them to defer to him for ideas. I had to work
hard to get ideas from the newbie players, and perhaps would find
it easier if there wasn't a clearly dominant player.
* Choose an even simpler adventure. _Time of the Tyrants_ was great
fun, but it really needs two or three sessions to do it justice,
especially with a group learning how to play. We crammed it into
seven hours, which was draining on all concerned. They won their
victory fair and square, but I had to strip the ending down a lot
to get to the resolution.
* Have at least one large map ready for a full-blown combat, even if
I don't use tactical combat rules (which I wouldn't do with a new
group in any case). Simply being able to see relative positions of
situations was very important, simply for helping the new players
keep track of what was going on. A scribbled pencil map, and using
dice for miniatures, was sufficient, but would have been better
with simple figures and a prepared map.
* Use a table big enough to have the GM screen off to one side, so
that I've got somewhere to keep all my notes accessible but
hidden, but don't have a barrier separating me from the
players. Moving it as far to one side as I could on the small
table was nevertheless a big improvement in getting the players'
attention and involvement.
* Drink and eat stuff without so much sugar in it. Crashing from a
sugar high several hours into a session isn't good for the
momentum.
Things that worked great, and will be repeated:
* Using GURPS. The fact that its core mechanics are simple, can be
essentially explained in a minute, and that it encourages as much
up-front calculation as possible to allow pre-figured quantities
to be used in play, meant that I could do all my preparation work
and run from compact index cards for everything without extensive
referral to the rule books.
GURPS was also useful in its flexibility and descriptiveness. The
players were able to guess what most of their abilities meant,
once they knew where to look, because they're named by what they
do for the most part. The adventure chosen involved time travel,
1930s pulp heroes, ultra-tech bad guys, and dinosaurs; the
consistent handling of all this by GURPS meant that they never got
tripped up by weirdness in the rules, and were able to explore any
conceivable option and have me quickly describe a playable game
mechanic for it.
* I converted all GURPS statistics and mechanics to use SI (metric)
units, since we don't live in the USA. This was invisible to the
players -- they never knew it was any other way -- but it made
things much smoother, as they were able to understand measurements
without needing to convert them all the time in their head.
* Stripping back the rules, and fudging results to keep the story
moving. During initial discussion about game style, all the
players were concerned about any exciting scenes slowing down and
devolving into arcane rules discussions -- the experienced
roleplayer because that's what his previous games had been like,
and the newbies because that's the stereotypical image. Keeping it
light meant that I could hand each player as much game-mechanic
involvement as they wanted, and fudge the rest.
* Using a one-shot adventure with disposable, GM-created
characters. Their first session isn't the time to be getting the
players into long abstract discussion of how abilities will work
in play, before actually playing a game. The characters they play
will be useful for inspiring them, but they shouldn't be tied to
their initial character choices until they have some play
experience.
The introductory adventure should also be playable in a single
session; getting the rush of a complete adventure with a
resolution is a big motivator to wanting to play some more.
* Making a variety of brief flavour material available in summary
form to the players about their characters, and just as
importantly, making it clear that it was all optional -- they were
to come up with their own characterisation using the material as
inspiration, not doctrine. They were empowered by this, and made
great use of their characters, right off the bat.
It also got them immediately interested in "fixing" what I had
done with the characters by making their own next time -- just
what I wanted.
* Starting with action straight away, as a way to get the players
immediately using the game mechanics to learn by example. The fact
that I gave *no* plot introduction until after this scene was over
worked in my favour here: the players had no information to work
with except their characters' immediate situation, so they were
free to make quick decisions about what to do without considering
what this meant for the plot. It was also obvious to them that I
wouldn't let any of the players get removed from play without
first understanding what the hell the story was; but it was also
clear that they didn't yet know quite what the consequences
*would* be, so they made their decisions earnestly, and learned
quickly.
* The bait-and-switch. I can't take credit for this, it's part of
the adventure as written: a trip back to the Cretaceous to
photograph dinosaurs turns out to have a totally different purpose
when they discover what's waiting for them there. Done right, in a
way that doesn't make the players complain "this isn't what we
signed up for", it gives the players a sense of discovery and
surprise, and they feel like they're also in control of the goals:
they choose to abandon or de-emphasise their initial goal in
favour of pursuing the more important one.
It does need a decent initial hook though. It was clear that "you
go back in time to photograph dinosaurs" didn't have much appeal
for the newbie players; it was only with the "... and, of course,
something goes horribly wrong and you have an even bigger
adventure" that I managed to get them to agree, without revealing
what the twist was. When it was over, of course, they thanked me
for the plot twist; but if I had to do it again, I'd make the
initial hook something more appealing.
* Shredding a linear plot into component scenes, and creating hooks
for each scene to progress the story without dictating what the
next scene must be. I was able to spin a consistent story that
went wherever the players wanted, and while many of the scenes
went unused, I was glad to have all of them there as material to
immediately draw on for progressing the story.
* Describing scenes, locations, characters, and creatures using
suggestive bullet-point phrases in the formal descriptive
structures shown above, rather than blocks of prose with mostly
abstract or visual description. This was a gold mine of creative
inspiration during play; rather than confused looks and distracted
players, I had them hanging on my words as I talked about sounds,
smells, temperature, textures, and insignificant but evocative
details.
I was also able to pick and choose how to characterise NPCs based
on their external descriptions using many facets, which naturally
involved the players in interacting with them rather than waiting
for a description to be fed to them.
* A big climactic conflict or combat scene. Keeping the rules simple
meant all the players were itching to test their capabilities
against the bad guys, and this was definitely the high point of
the adventure for everyone -- not least because it proceeded at a
faster pace than any other combat I've run :-) This pace allowed
me to spend more time on colourful descriptions of actions,
sparking off the ideas the players expressed before and during the
combat.
* Pictures, props, and anything else to look at or handle. The focus
and ideas this gave to the players made them immediately more a
part of the environment, and made them react far more as their
characters might. When describing how nasty a dinosaur's claws
were, they weren't thinking impassively in terms of game
statistics: they were looking at the actual claws, and reacting
viscerally to it as their characters would.
This game was a blast for me to run, even though I'm exhausted as I
write this. I got a lot of help online from discussions and articles,
and I hope that this write-up can help some future GM plan a successful
introductory role-playing session for a group of newbies, using GURPS
or any other simple, flexible system.
Thanks for reading this far, and good luck in your gaming!
[0] From William H. Stoddard, but it probably didn't originate with
him.
--
\ "All persons, living and dead, are purely coincidental." -- |
`\ _Timequake_, Kurt Vonnegut |
_o__) |
Ben Finney
|
