Players contribute to the drama...

...in more ways than you might think.  Yes in P&Ps of course players contribute to the drama.  As I've hinted at before the art of good GMing is only telling half a story.  You need to be remarkably restrained at points and allow the players to determine the outcome, and even in some cases be open to the notion of rewriting aspects of your story, in response to what players sometimes generate themselves (though you never tell them this!  Well, not in-game of course!).

But players can contribute in other ways too.  I've mentioned previously my concept of a magic item known approximately as The Oneironautic Pendant, which creates the possibility for the player to some extent define an aspect of the game.  But John Wick presents another interesting mechanic in his previously mentioned YouTube videos on game design.

Here he talks about the notion of allowing players to determine the outcome of spectacular successes or failures.  Now I haven't had the opportunity to playtest this concept yet, and I fear that it is fraught with potential misuse, but moderated well could present for some really interesting scenes.

It has been said that Hitchcock once said of film-making, words akin to: "Movies are simply some interesting scenes strung together with dialogue."  P&P games are much the same.  But with two kinds of dialogue, that spoken by the characters, and that spoken by the players.  Its like watching a DVD with commentary on.

...in a way.

Narrative devices in TV shows

I like Fringe.  For me it was a bit of a slow-burner, but transpired to be excellent.  It bears some similarities to X-Files, and employs some clever devices which work well to drive the narrative.  Its some of these, and devices used in other shows, which I'm going to explore here:

Please be aware, this post contains spoilers!

1) John Scott's memories.

It is revealed early on in season one of Fringe, that Agent Olivia Dunham has absorbed some of the memories of her former lover, and FBI partner, John Scott.  I won't spoil how this came about but what transpires is a wonderful device the writers can utilise on a whim to drive the plot forward:  anything Dunham looks at may trigger a memory of John Scott's.  Thus, without knowing why, she may have a feeling or an association with a particular event, person, place etc.  This is utilised several times in the first season to great effect.  And essentially acts like a 'gut feeling' with some concrete foundation.  The genius comes into play because the writers can pick it up and drop it as a tool, as they see fit.  Thus if they get to a sticky point in any particular narrative they can simply play the "Dunham recalls a John Scott memory" card.  In fact, it is a similar device, and allows me to segue nicely on to...

2) Walter Bishop's 'insanity'.

Walter Bishop is a savant.  A genius so genius he is a genius in multiple fields. This sets up a nice device for the writers to use.  Fundamentally, Walter is an extremely useful character able to solve the vast majority of scientific dilemmas the characters face in the show.  However, in order to control the output of these solutions, the writers cleverly make the Walter Bishop character pretty flaky.  His 'insanity' means that sometimes he's off in a world of his own, which means just when they need him to utilise his genius to solve a particular issue, he can't always be relied upon, and is away with the fairies.  This creates for tension when tension is needed, and solutions when solutions are needed.

The counterpoint to 2) is how the Heroes TV series was nearly hoist by its own petard. In season one of that show, Peter Petrelli discovers he is an empath.  In the mythology of that show this means he can absorb other people's powers, just by standing near them.  This creates for a potential narrative blackhole, which I described to a bunch of friends over a meal one night.  The trouble is, if Peter has half an ounce of brains, he could (towards the end of the first season) teleport himself to Molly Walker (the little girl with the power to locate anyone).  He then absorbs her power automatically, and then can target anyone in the world with a power, teleport to their location, absorb their power, rinse and repeat.  Pretty quickly Peter would become godlike in his ability, and Sylar, and indeed anyone else wouldn't be able to stop him.

This is a pretty good example of the dangers of writers writing themselves into a hole.  Only really happens with writers dealing with fantastic subject matters like special powers, mind.

The way Heroes writers got round this problem was to have Peter stripped of all his abilities, and when he regains his empathy, have it limited to one power at a time.  i.e. he has to ditch his current power to take on a new one.

Co-op in video games

An aspect of contemporary, online video game design I think is much undervalued and potentially unappreciated by many development houses is co-operative play.  And my appreciation of it probably stems from my P&P pedigree. Afterall, P&P is almost, almost, all about co-op to a large extent.

The amount of P&P games which are solos (i.e. only feature one player character) vs the amount that feature more than one player character is a testament to this.  And even solo games will frequently feature some form of collaboration between PC and NPCs.

MMOs obviously include co-op elements of gameplay pretty much by standard.  But other genres can benefit from this aswell.  I'm thinking in particularly about FPS.  One of my favourite genres.  I've been an avid fan of Counter-Strike and the Battlefield series in the past, but must admit rarely play FPS these days.  That said, I am currently stumbling through Bioshock.

Whilst FPS as a genre has covered co-op play in several notable examples, rarely is it pure co-op.  I.e. players vs AI.  It is typically players vs players.  And I still think there is a lot of fun to be had from players vs AI.  And also possibly a gentler experience for some of us older gamers, than having our collective asses handed to us by some cola'd up pre-teen with reflexes like a vat-grown ninja.

Other games I think would benefit from co-op.  I'd love to see a co-op mod for Assassins Creed II, which I've recently (admittedly I came to it late) completed.  Great game btw Ubisoft.

What's the point of this blog?

Now I probably posted something similar on this subject back in 2008 when I started this erratic blog.  But I can't be bothered to look back and check.

I just wanted to say that this blog is about:

1) Pen & Paper (P&P) roleplaying games.
2) Game design in general, including video games

There is a crossover there.  I'm a  firm believer that good game design is not necessarily platform specific.  And things learnt in one medium can frequently be utilised (perhaps with suitable modification) in another.

As in P&P narrative and story feature so highly on my list of 'things one must do well' - I'll probably also bring in some devices used in good TV shows and film.  Because these may also influence game design.

Yes, I know the title kind of suggests its all about P&P, but it isn't.  Try and see P&P as the bedrock of game design.  And if I think of a title which adequately encompasses all I want to witter on about, I'll let you know... and alter things accordingly.

Experience Points & reward in short games

Just to focus on mechanics for a moment.  Though this does require some back story.

So, back in the day:

In the early years of my roleplaying 'career', I generally participated in more than one game per week.  By participated I mean either played or GM'd.  There was usually one 'serious' game going on, and a least one 'filler' game, generally more humourous.

The 'serious' games were generally long-running, involving at least one major session a week (maybe on the weekend) sometimes more if all the players could make it and we could squeeze it in.  But these were back in the day when I (and the majority of the players) were in our teens, and so can afford the luxury of defining our recreational time to a large extent.  This meant that games could (and often did) go on for months and even years.  It was really the golden age of P&P for many of us, and playing games under these circumstances meant that the mechanic of Experience Points (or XP) could be used to full effect.

For those of you 'in the know', and by that I mean have some experience of P&Ps, you'll appreciate that XP has two major uses in a game.  Firstly, it is the point-accrual system which influences, in most systems, how rapidly characters develop their skills and abilities.  Although game systems vary, most games award XP for things like: killing monsters or opponents, attaining significant goals in the plot, discovering new areas, accomplishing some major feat, and for actually roleplaying - and by that I mean playing true to your character.

This last factor is especially important, and a device I use frequently to ensure players do not corrupt the atmosphere by suddenly talking about last nights episode of Family Guy, just when I'm trying to create some tension.  Or by acting on some piece of knowledge that they as a player are familiar with, but which their character would have no knowledge of.  And more subtley such aspects as being true to the philosophy of their culture, or profession or hidden agenda or... you get the idea.

As a GM, I award XP in two major ways: On the fly, i.e. in the moment.  If a player performs something miraculous, or comes up with a gem of an idea, or plays in character in a particularly significant way, I'll maybe right then and there slap an extra 500, or a 1000 XP on them.  This can be done swiftly, without much chance of jeopardizing atmosphere, and I have learnt is generally a good way to keep players in check.  Reminding them what they should be doing.  The reverse is also true.  A player plays out of character: minus 500 XP.

I also, in campaigns, do a roundup at the end of each session, and reward points for monsters killed, special acheivements, blah blah blah.  This is a chance for players to speak up and tell me what they think they did well, and I'll go round the table bestowing points.  It also serves as a good device for recapping on some key moments in the narrative of the game, and for the players to re-live some cool scenes.

The trouble is, long gone are the days when I could get the same group of players together, once a week, for several months or ideally longer, to play out a fulfilling campaign.  These days, my P&P fraternity have to arrange highly focused P&P 'long weekends'.  Running these games requires a far more episodic approach to constructing the gaming narrative.  Generally we start gaming on a friday evening, play as far into the night as we can manage, resume after breakfast on saturday - continue for as much of the day, and as far into the night as possible; resume after breakfast on sunday, and so on.  Typically rounding up on sunday evening, or if we can arrange it, we carry on through the monday as well.  This gives us on the whole around 30 hours to game in.  So under these circumstances, the classic system of awarding XP to control behaviour and award good play is largely irrelevant, as such episodic games don't benefit from the multiple sessions of a campaign, characters don't develop in that way, i.e. from session to session... and so the inter-game mechanic of XP award and reward is irrelevant.

Thus, some while ago I began to ponder how best to make use of XP in these short, episodic games.  I.e. How to use XP intra-game.

The mechanic I developed is (loosely) thus:


I still award XP in and for the ways mentioned above.  But now I allow players to take 1% of their awarded XP and use it to modify dice-rolls, in-game.  Thus, a player, mid-session has earnt 3500 XP.  This equates to 35 'luck points'.  i.e. being able to 'luckily' modify the dice in their favour.  They can use this 35 all on one roll.  Or spend it a bit at a time.  (I should point out at this juncture that I run games using percentage dice - d100).

I developed this mechanic for the last game I ran, and it worked very well, because not only did it condition players to operate in the right way, stay in character, be true to the atmosphere of the game.  By allowing them to occassionally influence the dice, they sometimes, when needed, we able to perform miraculous feats which made for some memorable scenes in the game.

For a later post I will be discussing an interesting mechanic I have just been made aware from game-designer John Wick's YouTube videos on the Game Design Seminars he runs. They're a couple of years old, but I've just discovered them, and there seems to be some interesting stuff in there.  I'm just about to resume watching his episode 2...

You can find John Wick's stuff here.

Why I like P&P so much...

P&P is the generic term I apply to Pen & Paper roleplaying games.  Like Dungeons & Dragons et al.  For the record - and perhaps because it will provide you with some kind of vague insight into my character - I cut my RPG teeth on D&D.  I started roleplaying at the tender age of 10, with Basic Dungeons & Dragons.  Subsequently I played Expert D&D, AD&D to second edition.  And then in no particular order: MERP, Rolemaster, Spacemaster, Dark Space, Call of Cthulhu, Shadow Run, Paranoia, Toon, Cyberspace, and a bunch of others I can no longer quite remember.

But for me, P&P is all about the narrative, the atmosphere, the story, the freedom you provide the players to do (or attempt) whatever they wish.  Do what thou wilt shall be the whole of the law.

And it is for those reasons that I now use my own game system.  It is very loosely based on Rolemaster, just because IMHO RM delivers the most encompassing, and in my experience flexible system across multiple genres.  (I have never played GURPS).

Anyway, my gamesystem bears little resemblance to RM these days, I still use a few basic RM tables, but I have essentially distilled RM's (and its genre variants) 1000s of pages into a handful of tables (predominantly combat orientated).

More importantly what I have done is created a world (to focus purely on my Fantasy exploits) with a history that now covers six Ages.  A change in Age being a significant event which shifts the world in a new direction.

My, that was a long and largely unnecessary introduction to this: Why I like P&P so much...

No other form of entertainment provides such a collaboration between auteur and audience.

P&P sessions have provided me (and hopefully my players) with some of the most memorable scenes and experiences ever.  I can look back and recall numerous instances of high adventure, tension, humour, excitement and disaster that have been delivered by P&P which easily rate among the best books I've read, films I've scene, video games I've played, etc.  And made all the more potent because I was either playing in those games, or (more typically) was GMing them.

One of the things I hope to achieve with this blog is to give you some insight into the techniques I employ to deliver those moments.  Some of which will be by illustrating specific elements I have used (like the Oneironaut pendant).  And some will be by discussing what I have learnt form other games, what works well, what doesn't work so well.  And much of it will be at a meta level of game design.  i.e. no specific events, or elements, but general 'best practices'.

Though one should always bear in mind:  no matter how grandiose I might sound from time to time, the one over-riding caveat to all this is that it is very much IMHO.

Architecture Scrolls & The Oneironautic Pendant

Okay, so I really should start with an explanation of how I handle magic in my P&P games.  But I'm not going to.  That's for another post in its own right.  But just so as you know, it isn't your standard fare.

Two magic items that I have featured in numerous games, but which have never been used (much to my frustration) by any of my players are Architecture Scrolls, and The Oneironautic Pendant.

Architecture Scrolls are a very basic idea, but with a potentially very interesting application.  Basically, Architecture Scrolls allow the user to create passageways, rooms, chambers, traps, stairways, essentially all the features of dungeons (and some special features too, like subterranean forests and the like). This provides players with the opportunity to effectively magically and pretty much instantly create their own dungeon environment (a la Dungeon Keeper classic video game, which I belief inspired me, though its hard to recall precisely that far back.  But there is some bleed over the other way, video to P&P, credit where credit's due).

My original intention was to enable players to create their own subterranean lair, and provide for a kind of reversal of fortunes, having NPCs try to invade their dungeon, rather than the other way around.  When I get around to posting more of my P&P ideas, you'll notice I have a predeliction for turning standard concepts on their heads, because in my experience, such simple notions can indeed create the framework for some great situations and some highly enjoyable games.

But as I thought more upon these scrolls I realised also that a canny player might use them to break into an existing dungeon and circumnavigate certain elements or features.

So you can imagine my disappointment that, despite having included these items in at least half a dozen of my games over the last decade, not one player or party has yet to make use of them.  Partly my fault I suppose for not setting the right conditions.  But partly theirs for being pack rats and hanging on to every single one-shot item in case they can find a more appropriate use for it at some undisclosed event in the future.

The next item is far more subtle, and also dates back about a decade or more.  I considered a pendant (it has always appeared as pendant in my games, though its form is largely irrelevant).  I considered a pendant bestowed upon its wearer the ability to appear as a character in a target's dream.  The limitations on what a target was (had to be known to the wearer, or had to been previously touched, blah, whatever) varied from game to game, but the essentials remained the same.  Many of my magic items develop in power, so what players believe they do in the firstplace, may not, and generally isn't, the full extent of their power.

Oneironaut, by the way, comes from the Greek, and means Dream Voyager, so quite fitting, though to imbed the item firmly in the mileau of my gameworld (I've been developing the same one since I was about 17) I tend not to call in that in the actual game, but make up a name from a fantasy language that translated means roughly the same.

So this pendant to begin with bestows the power to enter another's dream.  This in itself is an interesting concept I think.  And could be used in all sorts of ways:  i.e. to give someone nightmares, to prior influence someone's reaction to you, either favourably or otherwise.  To appear as an omen to someone, only to rock up in the flesh a day or week or month later.  All sorts of cool shit.

But as the Oneironaut uses the item more and more, they begin to realise that they can control and modify more and more aspects of another's dream, until they become dream architects, constructing the entire dream reality for the target.

What I like about this concept is that it temporarily turns the table on the usual player-GM dynamic.  Enabling players the chance to, for a facet of the game at least, create a situation - and have me as the GM, playing an NPC (that's Non Player Character for you non P&Pers... though why the hell you would have read this far if you need NPC explaining is beyond me) forced to react to that situation, essentially turning the dynamic on its head.  Trend as previously mentioned.

This concept has always enthralled me.  But again, I'll be buggered if any player has ever done anything with it!

Anyway, posts to come, just to whet (as in sharpen) your appetites:  How I handle magic, and a brief history of magic in my games.

pilch out (and off to bed, after I've had a slug of celebratory calvados).  Yeehar!

Games I have played recently....

The Witcher
Assassins Creed II
just about to start Bioshock

...yes I know these are all old (well oldish) games, but I'm catching up on some classics that passed me by whilst I had my head in the sand.

I'll give the lowdown on what I thought about the first two soon enough.  But for my next post I'm going to talk you through a couple more classic magic items which have featured in numerous P&P games I've run over the years.  I started this blog with a post about The Homunculus Jar.  And this next post will be adding to that subject... (i.e. magic items for P&P games).

O, and in case you didn't know, had forgotten, or are deluded... P&P is still the best gaming experience you can ever imagine.  Don't get me wrong, I love video games, but P&P is the heart and soul of the gaming process.  This is a universal truth.  Make no mistake.

So the good news is...

...I presented to a potential investor this morning, and he's agreed to put £50k into my business.  This is very good news.  And despite what you may be thinking is on-message, because my business is developing video games.  Small ones at first, just to showcase my concept.  From tiny acorns and all that....

Be back soon...

...I meant about two years later. Yes, its a cosmic timescale I work to. Anyway. Despite this blog allegedly being about P&P roleplaying, it is also going to be about games design, and some deconstruction of video games. I'll probably end up changing the title again. But I'll leave it as it is for now, just to mislead you all.

O, just for the record, I haven't played WoW in months. Just can't bring myself to waste my time on a game whose endgame is so gimped. I mean, I really don't want to spend 5 hours trawling through a 25-man raid along with five other mages, on the off-chance that a boss drops the one item I'm so desperately after - the only item I need to improve my character - just for another mage to roll higher than me. Not my idea of fun. And a fatal flaw in game design, revealed by the fact that I, and several of my previous WoW-playing friends have all stopped playing because of this one mechanism.

I would go as far to say that any game that requires you to do the same thing over and over again, and restricts your play to having to do just one thing as a route to get one particular facet of advancement is making a mistake.

I don't mind that, Such-And-Such A Wand Of Terrible Doom only drops from Flaming Dave Doomhead. But there should be another wand of the same power obtainable elsewhere.

But hell, don't get me started on WoW's flaws, I need to go to bed, its been a long day, and that is the subject of another post.

I only really rocked up here today to announce two things. I'm switching this blog back on. And I'm going to commit to it.

There I said it.

pilch out