Musings on Masks: Episode 15

CAMPAIGN SUMMARY: James Paterson, Australian private investigator in New York, has been hired to investigate Sydney Silvers who went missing only a night or two ago but whose home was found ransacked by the receptionist. He needs to find Sydney Silvers because she had been investigating the eugenicists who may be responsible for the death of James' beloved back in London.

EPISODE SUMMARY (Tavern Trip): Wherein James Paterson, Australian private investigator in New York, visits the Fraunces Tavern to try to find Sydney Silvers by retracing her steps and following the research leads listed on her note.

Kickstarter Games

Has anyone else noticed how many of the very successful Kickstarters include whole new books as stretch goals?  Some of them offer a half dozen free additions as stretch goals.  I don't know how they manage to budget it all in but it's great to get a slow but steady trickle of books over the year which is like investing in a series of presents to be delivered to you over the year.

I say deliver, but I mean 'activate links to its download site' because I'm in Australia and postage is often too painful to even contemplate.

At present I'm in with Achtung Cthulhu, Cthulhu 7th Edition and Cthulhu Britannica's latest set (can't remember what it's called).  I'm also in with the latest Tex Murphy videogame (squee!) which isn't relevant to a roleplaying blog, but hey, it's my blog I can squee if I want to!

Bewailing The Player Preference!

One of the most problematic parts of tabletop roleplaying is that people tend to do it with the people they know.  Now this is a good thing, on the one hand, because it makes it a remarkable social activity where people can work together to build a shared story, cooperating and competing in an interesting and imaginative manner.

On the other hand, it makes you a bit ... limited ... in your options.  You see, each and every GM (by and large) have their own genre preference and their own style preference on top of that.  So does each and every player (by and large).  Since some genres and styles are pretty popular (such as classic high fantasy), if you happen to like that style then you're in luck.

If you prefer another style, you have to enter compromise after compromise until you manage to find some comfortable spot where everyone can enjoy it *just enough*.  The preference which takes precedence is often the majority preference, since folks can't help but nudge the game toward what they love, though naturally the GM - who is actually designing the game - has an opinion which lends its sharp weight to what gets played.

What makes this so unfortunate, is that you may have, say, six die hard investigative horror fans spread out across ten roleplaying games who would get along brilliantly but since roleplaying games tend to occur within one's social circle and since few people advertise (for fear of getting real pain in the necks applying) and fewer people take them up on their offer (for campaigns, at least), it's unlikely for those folks to draw together.

This is further complicated by the fact that many players don't know exactly what it is that they love about a game.  If it's wonderful then it all feels so seamless.  If it's terrible, then the jarring edges show.  Sure, they may know the basic genre but even something as specific as investigative horror can differ quite dramatically from Pulp Cthulhu to hardboiled detective fiction where a single shot can kill.

On the plus side, the range of preferences can encourage people to try games they would never have tried before and to mix genres and styles which never would have occurred to them.  And when it works, the strange alchemies of the game world, players and GM all come together to create something more fun than any of them would have individually intended.

LARP ideas

Oh so many LARP ideas!  It hasn't helped that I've been researching them and therefore seeing everyone else's juicy, juicy LARPs.  Cthulhu-based occult mysteries?  Yes, please!  Trail-esque skill point spends?  Why not?!  How about fantasy romps through myriad modules?  Mm, yummy!  Zombie bash ups?  How is this not a thing already?  Mainstream murder mysteries?  Should be plenty of these out there.  Covenant-style vampire games (each covenant has their own sessions)?  Already written up a booklet per covenant!

I think the hardest part about running LARPs will be limiting myself to only running certain LARPs.

Player Perspectives In Game

At this distance, you can hardly see me by that wooden piling.

An interested thing I have noticed while behind the GM screen is how often the player's perceptions are warped by their character's minds.  Other character's antics, enemy plans, and NPC motivations which are quite clear to an observer become nonsensical to a player - not because they didn't hear or see the information but because the character's perceptions warped what they saw and heard.

While yes, I could be wrong.  It *is* possible that it's just insufficient knowledge, I have a feeling that it isn't the case.

You see, the more detrimental the actions are to the character in question, the more likely that character's player will misinterpret the action and consider it to be a failing on the part of the character.  The negative interaction seems to cloud the player's empathy and ability to consider the motivating forces behind certain behaviour, *especially* if such motivating forces are actually due to that player's character's actions.

This matches what has been found in psychology.  People tend to attribute negative actions performed by other people to be fundamental parts of those other people's psychology while they consider any foolish actions they take to also be the result of external forces (generally other people).

While players can be quite capable of interpreting fictional actions without this bias, generally, and while a conversation which encourages them to put themselves in the other character's shoes ("What do you think might have caused them to act like that?  How did it benefit them?  How might the situation beforehand affected them?") tends to re-activate that empathy and allow them to better interpret those actions, *unless* the player is forced to do so (or is in the habit of that kind of detached introspection), they tend to carry the same assumptions as their character.

Now obviously this doesn't happen all the time in all cases.  It also likely occurs less to players who don't put themselves in their character's shoes so firmly but it is something I have noticed.  Since I rarely play and most often GM, I haven't been told whether I do the same but I imagine that I do.

What's the point in an article on this?

Partly to talk about an observation and partly because it means that the GM may sometimes need to step in and encourage a detached introspective position in a player who is having difficulty accepting an NPC or PC's negative actions - thinking them arbitrary and mean.

Musings on Masks: Episode 14

CAMPAIGN SUMMARY: James Paterson, Australian private investigator in New York, has been hired to investigate Sydney Silvers who went missing only a night or two ago but whose home was found ransacked by the receptionist. He needs to find Sydney Silvers because she had been investigating the eugenicists who may be responsible for the death of James' beloved back in London.

EPISODE SUMMARY (Conjure Man): Wherein James Paterson, Australian private investigator in New York, spends this shorter than usual episode visiting the Conjure Man to try to find out more information on what to do and where to go.

Squee ABC Radio!

I've been contacted by someone from that National ABC radio about doing an interview on my upcoming Vampire LARP.  I had no idea anyone from the media would ever find about it let alone that they would care.  I said "YES!", naturally.  I think it'd be a good thing for people to learn about and it's some great free publicity.  Yipee!