Play by post

I have decided that I am going to run a game using this blog as the forum. It is going to be a street level, supers game set in a not too distant future earth city. Street level means that while you will be super powered compared to a regular person, you do not have the big flashy powers you might see in an X-Men or Justice League comic.

I would like you to fully flesh out the character's personality and motivations. It is good to know why he became a costumed vigilante and what drives him to keep at it, but I'd also like to know what his beliefs and opinions are in general. What does he think of the youth today? What does he think of the war on terror? What does he do for fun? Who are the most important people in his life

The world has supers in it, but they are uncommon. About 1 in every 10000 people has some form of super power, with less than 10% of those having the real big powers like flight, energy blasts or bullet resistance. Powers come from all manner of sources: random flukes of genetics, magical items, exposure to chemicals, alien experimentation, advanced science, extreme physical training or mystic study, plus many others.

One group of Powerful heroes is called the Watch. Their leader Stalwart seems almost indestructible, flies as fast as a fighter plane and once caught a crashing airliner and carried it safely down to a vacant block. The other members seem to be at the same level of power as him; there is a Telepath called Telos and a Speedster called Slipstream as well as a few others that are not as famous.

The watch has fought an alien invasion as well as three powerful groups of super powered villains this year alone, but they seem to busy to do anything about the rising gang crime on the streets below them. That's where you come in.

I am going to have some concepts driving the narratives and they are loyalty/betrayal and salvation. Think about how those will affect the character you build.

Lastly, if a few people get on board, I want you to make your characters as an established super team, so keep that in mind as well. I hope some people will go for it. If you need more to work with let me know. We can discuss ideas here or you can email me if you want clarification. It might be fun and all you will need to do is check in a few times a week to keep the narrative moving.





I have used the masculine pronoun here for two reasons:
1. he/she looks cumbersome
2. I am a 'he', so it is how I think.

Encouraging a different kind of roleplaying

I wonder what the best way to get people to play their character is. What I mean is that so often gamers just play themselves with a sword and shield, rather than developing personality and motivations for the character. I find myself doing this as well. Unless I spend the time to really make up the character of my character, I am just playing an archetype with my own personality.

I fell into this trap again this week. Derek starts his third story arc on Saturday, for the Supers game that we have been playing on and off since late 2005. I made up a cool wizard and when we sat down to play test him last night in a solo game, I realised that a cool wizard was all he was. Sure, I had thought about his background and had a pretty good idea of where he learned magic, but apart from his desire to stem the inevitable demon invasion, I had no idea what drove him or even who he was.

Luckily we had that session last night, because otherwise I would have been stumbling around Saturday's game not knowing how to be in character. I still haven't worked it all out yet, but I at least now know that I have to work it out. Personality.

Being in character means more than putting on an accent and speaking like you are in an Elizabethan drama*. It means actually trying to put yourself in the shoes of the character you have created and this is something that a lot of gamers do in a lackluster kind of way. The best examples of this often come from religious characters.

The player creates a priest of the god of justice and thinks about how to play the character and then homes in on the religious side. Easy. A very straightforward style now comes from that player, as all his character’s decisions are based on the will of the god of justice. All of his interactions with the other characters are scornful of their perceived failings and his choices are easy because they are predetermined. This is all fine if you are prepared to settle for predictable, lackluster play.

The priest I have described is only remotely real. While I’m sure there are historical instances of the man devoted wholly to his god, there are many times that number that are devoted to their god while retaining some semblance of personality. Interesting characters have quirks and flaws. Rounded characters have desires and prejudices. The priest of the god of justice I described has none of these things because the player took the easy road when figuring out how to play him.

From now I am going to expect my players to fully develop their character before playing. I want to know about their quirks, what frustrates them, what they hope for, what they fear and a host of other things that will flesh out a character so that it is more than an office worker** in chainmail.

*unless you are in an Elizabethan drama.

** that is not aimed at anyone.

If I believe in the theory of game styles...

does that mean that people bringing different styles of play to the table will have expectations that don't match? If expectations don't match then I would expect that problems could occur. Maybe people wouldn't get into it if the style was wrong. I thought maybe I might list the people I have gamed with and then what style I would assign them.

Gamist - Goal orientated
Narrativist - Story focussed
Simulationist - Realism focussed

I decided to go with what was floating around rather than use the names I invented (The 3 Rs) because I had another look and they were basically the same.

What is gaming style?

Style is a word in the English language. There are different interpretations of many words and this I think may be one such word. So what does style mean when applied to a pen and paper role playing game? I have my ideas, but I won't chime in and bias anyone else. The person who prompted me to start this had better bloody get involved here. I suppose I am implying a threat there.

Morden Is Saved By Mysterious Strangers

Games day was a success. Most of the players enjoyed themselves (one was bored and played his DS) and they managed to save the town. The game itself needs some more tweaks, but I might see if I can make the needed changes and hang onto it to use it again.

The party investigates the barracks:



Fighting orcs in the streets:

The town of Morden

Something mysterious is happening and the Patriarch of Sullus that went to investigate has disappeared.



Luckily a group of adventurers is about to arrive, otherwise the locals would surely be doomed.

Games day on Sunday

On Sunday I am running an all day (10am-5pm) game to end the year for the school gaming club. I am expecting between 7 to 10 high school students from both parts of the club to attend and I'm sure they will bring a lot of tempting junk food.

I have decided to go with a Home Brewed Table Top Fantasy Role Playing Game or a HBTTFRPG. Last night I was testing the system on the kitchen table with Derek and found a few gaping flaws with my rules set. So tonight I am going to patch it up and send it back out against Derek on Thursday or Friday and see if it floats this time.

I am quite happy with it overall and am looking forward to the game with the kids.

What specific genre would you love to play?

I was thinking about what kind of game would I like to run for the next group I game with and of course that really depends on how many players there are and (possibly) what they want to play. I say possibly there because if there are lots of players available I can build a select group that want to play the game I want to run. At the moment I think I would like to run on of two specific* genres:

1. Street level Super Heroes in an Iron Age style. What does that mean for me?
The Super heroes themselves have no powers or at best powers that are fairly minor. Maybe they are stronger or faster than normal or even have powers like faster healing, low level telepathy or enhanced senses. There is definitely no flying, energy blasting or bullet resisting.
The stories are gritty and dark with no clear distinction between good and evil. Motivations are often more personal and heroes often share traits in common with villains.

2. Space Opera with Hard Science leanings. What does that mean for me?
There are powerful factions (could be governments or races or both) vying with each other for supremacy in a galaxy teaming with alien mysteries and super advanced technologies. Society has evolved but is recognizable in some areas, while totally different in others. Science is bent to allow the game to take place on planets in different planetary systems (faster than light travel), but it is not broken in the style of Star Wars or Star Trek; Aliens are not all humanoid English speakers and ships in space don't maneuver like aeroplanes.

While thinking about this, I wondered what I would really like to play. I have enjoyed lots of different genres, but would have to say that the one I would like to play the most would be a space opera like my second example.

What would you love to play?


*I say 'specific' because I want more than just 'Supers' or 'Science Fiction'.