Recent Gaming

[drcpunk]

I ran the second session of my Sorcerer campaign yesterday. It went well. I was praised for being very evil, in a good, GMly way. People aren't thrilled with a lot of the mechanics, and I am trying to figure out to what degree the stuff we really enjoyed in session hinged on those very mechanics.

I did a combination of prep and non-prep, and I did a lot of improvising that worked both because of the prep and because of the dramatic situations. I also discovered a useful trick that worked for me involving index cards. There was a definite gaming high and a lot of energy. It would have been better if lordess hadn't been too sick to attend in person, but she did a combination of AIM and phone call on speaker phone.

(Dave: It's okay if she doesn't play because she's sick.
mnemex: She's lonely and bored, and wants to be distracted from being sick.
I hope that we were sufficiently distracting.)

I'd like to fit in a third session of both Sorcerer and Keruton before the end of the year, but we shall see if that is possible.

Comments

[mylescorcoran]

What was your index card trick? I've got a bunch sitting near my GM-ing chair at home, having planned to use them in our game sessions, but I haven't found that I use them as much as I thought I would.

What do you mean by "a combination of prep and non-prep"?

I'm glad the session went well.

[drcpunk.livejournal.com]

Okay, part of Ron's advice to me was to treat the PCs' demons as beloved NPCs that I couldn't wait to play. This did not click in the first session.

I looked at the 8 1/2 x 11 inch sheets of paper that were the demon character sheets. I looked at the index cards that I used for all my other NPCs, 1 per card. Then, I copied the demon info onto index cards.

So, I now have something that signals "NPC, and, therefore, GM responsibility" to my brain, as opposed to "Part of character sheet, and, therefore, player responsibility". I also have something smaller and easier for me to handle, so I feel happier with the new sheets. And the info fits on an index card quite handily.

Defining a combination of prep and non-prep is trickier. I'd planned out a couple of specific next steps, on the order of "These PCs should learn X from the NPC they helpled", "This NPC should do Y", and stuff like that. I did not plan out some stuff that might have come up, but didn't. I did not plan out a couple of things that I wound up doing in play, but the prep work no doubt made the in play decisions come easier. Careful preparation helps improvisation and all.

[mylescorcoran]

I like the demons on index cards idea. It is useful to have a visual signifier like that to encourage you to treat them as your resources too, instead of just under the players' control.

Preparation is helpful for improvisation certainly, but I often have trouble identifying what's useful prep and what's stuff I won't use. I find that lists of names, thumbnail sketches of generic locations, and the occasional NPC mouthpiece to pass on news and events outside the immediate problem at hand are good to keep prepared.

[mneme]

Er. Yahoo IM. Or just IM -- the generic term, dear.

(I corrected this in-session too, I think).

[drcpunk.livejournal.com]

Okay, for Sorcerer, I was told to think in terms of bangs, crosses, and weaves. These last two are kind of tricky, and I'll ignore them right now. A bang is something to which the PC must react -- any reaction is fine, and there should be more than one possible reaction, but the PC cannot shrug and say, "Whatever." I made a list of these. Not all came up, but having them to hand really helped.

Some were player generated, as when one PC told another how sorcery worked -- which was completely different from how the other PC did sorcery. Some were preplanned, like the twist near the end that caught everyone by surprise. Oh, the timing was not set, and I grabbed the opportunity that had been created, but it was a major pre-planned revelation.

Does this help?

[mylescorcoran]

Okay, I vaguely understand bangs from my reading of Sorcerer. I haven't heard of crosses and weaves before.

I can see the point of bangs, and it's something I've tried to include in my own preparation. I haven't had too many player-originated bangs, unfortunately.