Cool Alone Isn’t Enough

So, it’s been a while.  In the midst of that real-life stuff that I’m not going to get into, my games more or less evaporated, and lack of gaming leads to lack of inspiration to write about gaming.  Things seem to be picking up on both fronts, though.  Fingers crossed for the gradual relaunch of A Butterfly Dreaming.  But on to the post…

I went to see Sucker Punch today.  (No spoilers in this post, if you’re thinking of seeing it.)  I was skeptical about it for a number of reasons, but I went anyway, because it looked like mindless, stylish fun, and I could use a little of that.

If you’re a gamemaster or aspire to be one, I’d recommend seeing it, but not exactly for the reasons you might think.  It was not a good movie.  Oh, it was stylish, and there were good moments in it, but in the end, as was said of Oakland, “when you get there, there’s no there there.”  The reasons to see it?  One, to steal the cool ideas for your games.  But more importantly, two, to see firsthand why the movie isn’t good.

Cool ideas?  Oh, yes.  There’s a well-choreographed fight scene between a heroine and three samurai wielding, respectively, a naginata, a katana, and a chaingun.  There’s a steampunk World War I pastiche that’s as good as anything I’ve seen since Inception.  There’s an assault by armored knights and a bomber against a castle full of orcs and a dragon, which feels rushed but is still pretty cool.  Tropes and genre blending: this movie has them.

What it lacks is substance.  The underlying plot of the movie is obscured, but not in a way that’s interesting.  The resolution, such as it is, is unsatisfying.  The characters are not well-developed.  There’s a twist, but it’s not surprising or affecting.  The movie is over-the-top, stylish, and hilarious at points, but there’s no human element to it.  (Aside from the early introduction, where the backstory is set up in pantomime prior to the title screen.  That’s quite well done, but afterward the movie loses what connection to its characters it had begun to establish and never gets it back.)  The dialogue is overwrought yet shallow.

I came out of that movie impressed by the execution of some of the ideas… and yet disappointed, and that disappointment is because there’s no emotional core there.  Not even to the extent you’d get in better action movies like Terminator or Aliens.  Sucker Punch is a movie with competent production values and imaginative ideas, but it has no soul, because its script and its characters are lacking.

The lesson applies to gaming.  Cool stuff is good, and the active pursuit of cool is a worthy goal for a GM.  But cool alone isn’t enough.  Cool will get you memorable moments.  A story and characters with heart will get you a memorable game.

Adding Fear to Your Game

…Okay, obviously, my last plan didn’t quite work out.  So, rather than tempt fate again, I’ll just say I’ll post when and as I’m able, and leave it at that.  Moving on…

Happy Halloween.  In keeping with the spirit of the holiday, I thought I’d say a little about fear in your game.  Maybe you’re playing a dedicated horror game like Call of Cthulhu.  Maybe you just want to visit the theme for a plotline or two in a game like D&D or HERO.  Either way, if you want to inspire some fear in your players, there are a couple of things to consider.

Description Matters

As with evoking any other emotion, your description of the characters’ surroundings and the NPCs will have a large impact on the amount of fear the players feel.  Sensory detail is your friend.  Perhaps most important are the non-visual details.  Does the old windmill creak and groan as it turns?  Does the wind howl?  Is there no sound at all in the abandoned manor except for the characters’ own muffled footfalls across the carpeted floor?  And while aural cues are very effective, the sense of smell or touch is often even more evocative.  Is the tomb dry and dusty, or damp and musty?  Are the characters having to brush cobwebs off their exposed skin?  Is the air cold and clammy?  Or is it uncomfortably, and unaccountably, warm?

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Rampant Sects

(This is a repost.  This article was originally posted on November 24, 2008.)

In my last post, I talked a little bit about how religions are rarely monolithic in reality — how they splinter into a network of related sects, some of which can believe very different things.  Today I offer a brief illustration:  three sects I’ve developed for my game, all based on my interpretation of the Raven Queen, the fourth edition’s new and ever-intriguing goddess of death.

The Most Ancient and Honorable Order of Deathspeakers is a militarized splinter faction of the church, whose warrior monks seek to destroy the undead and oppose the machinations of Orcus and his minions.  Many of these are fanatical in their beliefs, and enough are reckless in battle that the common folk often call them the “Deathseekers” (but not to their faces).

The M.A.H.O. is actually not very ancient, having been established within the past century — it claims the adjective through a dubious philosophical connection with an earlier sect of a similar name, which was eradicated centuries ago by a combination of Orcus cultists and their own infighting.  It isn’t terribly honorable, either, for that matter, although its activities are largely confined to crusading against the undead and related enemies (necromancers, Orcus cultists, etc.).

The Deathspeakers have only one large monastery devoted to their order — in the wilderness north of the kingdoms of Tir Eselyn and south of Ravenspire.  Few rulers are willing to support a large independent army of religious fanatics on their soil.  Smaller chapterhouses of perhaps 20-50 members are scattered throughout the region, though, and itinerant crusader groups of 3-7 warrior monks and acolytes are a reasonably common sight throughout the north.

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Character Development: Flashbacks

(This is a repost.  This article was originally posted on August 9, 2008.)

We’re all familiar with the use of the flashback in literature, film, and television:  The “current” narration fades out, showing us a sequence that establishes some event or events that took place in the past of the story.  This device is used to provide important backstory (and, sometimes, to retcon, changing “what really happened” in the past).

I’ve seen relatively few people use the device in roleplaying games, but it can be an excellent method of character development.  It makes a good break between the wrap-up of one major quest or story arc and the initiation of the next.  It also makes a great filler on a night when one or two members of your group can’t make the game, but the rest want to play something.

At the beginning of the typical campaign, the player characters either already know each other, or they’re being brought together for the first time by a plot thread or through sheer coincidence.  Hopefully each player already has in mind at least a basic backstory for his character, and sharing parts of these backstories may be a major aspect of the first few sessions, especially if the characters are just getting to know each other.  Meanwhile, the game master has at least a rough idea of the recent past history of the various locations from which the characters originally hail.

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Character Development: Quick and Dirty Backgrounds

Ever needed to sketch out a replacement player character or a major NPC when time is short?  Want to add a little depth to that cult leader or the deputy mayor?  Sometimes you just don’t have the time to dedicate to preparing a full, in-depth background — or you want to leave some room for a character’s background to grow and change as the game requires.  Maybe you’re starting a new campaign, and you want something that will break the ice without tying the characters down with too many specifics before they all know each other.

By asking a handful of questions, you can generate a usable character, with a skeletal background, within 15 minutes.

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