Player training...

O and the arrogance continues!  So something else than transpired in my recent dialogue with other roleplayers over at RPG.net was the backgrounds of an intended bunch of PCs in a cyberpunk game - which you'll have a vague idea about if you read my last post.

In this scenario the players are all supposed to be police officers.  Nothing wrong with that.  Quite fitting for a cyberpunk game.  But it got me to thinking.  As mentioned in my last post, making the PCs police provides a number of advantages in terms of controlling the game, on the part of the GM.  But in order for it to work, seem realistic and not frustrate players, players have to know how to act like police.  And this is where it's important to work with your players, pre-game and prepare them for their roles.

When I run a game, I generally spend a considerable amount of time working with the players in developing characters and backgrounds that are engaging, intriguing, and as rich and detailed as I hope the game enviroment is.  Again, much of this comes down to that all important essential - preparation.  As a GM your job does not stop at crafting the adventure, or rather, taking an active role in helping each player craft their character is part of crafting the adventure.

And I don't just mean, provide the players with interesting backgrounds, so they have an idea of who they are, where they come from, and what some of their drivers, motives and aspirations are.  Of course you have to do all that.  But depending on what they are, you may have to offer some guidance there too.  And this might be something of an education for both of you (player and GM).

Let's take the above example of PCs as police officers.  Now police officers have training.  And just as you'd expect in any decent police movie, a degree of realism - and this is typically generated by the scriptwriters and director having some knowledge of police procedures etc. to make the narrative authentic. It will also require the actors to do some research to get into character.  The lessons that can be learnt here is that if you're running a game and want your players to be police (or any other specific role) do enough research on that role so that it becomes authentic.  And also, where necessary educate your players.

A couple of hours researching crime-scene procedure online, and maybe watching a couple of classic cop films and taking notes will mean that not only do your NPC police officers act with coherence, you can also remind the players (prior to the game) that they should be doing things like: dusting for prints; cross-referencing images obtained from security footage with the FBI database; looking for bullet trajectories to ascertain where the shooter was; sealing off a crime scene to preserve evidence; so and so forth.

Preparation is nine tenths of the battle.  And it makes your game more interesting, more gripping... more enjoyable.