#RPGaDay2018: Day 20 - Which game mechanic inspires your play the most?

This is a weird question for me to try to answer. I'm not sure any game mechanic does inspire my play! Maybe if I played more of the newer, story-based games, but I still mostly play older-style stuff, like White Wolf etc (just in a character driven manner).

The best I can go with is merits/flaws, advantages/disadvantages, edges/hindrances or whatever you want to call them. I love these, especially the flaws - and not just for the extra character points, though that's what drew me in initially. These days, I like them for their own sakes. 

Take Amaryllis 'Blazing Shield of the Sun', my new First Age Solar Exalt for the game I've gatecrashed. When we generated Taji and Kito, we didn't look at the merits and flaws: we were playing children, so let them grow naturally via roleplay and are rewarded when we play up to our self-created flaws by the opportunities that come out of them rather than with xp. With Amaryllis, my GM said I could 'earn' up to 7 bonus points by taking flaws, though I could take as many points of flaws as I wanted. I ended up with 8, because there were two flaws that really stood out to me.

For the first, Solar Exalts have this curse that means when they're exposed to certain triggers they have to make virtue rolls and mark successes on a track which, when full, causes them to go off the rails a bit. The track usually has 10 boxes, but with this particular flaw, you can reduce the number of boxes by the number of points of the flaw you take, up to 5. I wanted all 5. Her particular version - a compassion limit that means she'll take the most direct route to stop innocent suffering, even if it's not the most sensible, safe or even reasonable - sounds like it'll be really good fun to play.

The second, I was inspired by The Emissary in our other Exalted game, and the way his life changed when Kito and Taji arrived. The flaw, 'ward' means the character has someone they look after who periodically gets into trouble they need saving from. I laughed as I read it, and pointed out that The Emissary must have acquired this when he met us. Yep, agreed the GM, the full 5 points, twice. I took the flaw at 3 points, feeling this was a good balance between risking the ward's antics taking over a game I'm kinda a bit-part in, and still getting to experience that feeling of responsibility. It works well with the other flaw, too: her great compassion meant that when she found the young, traumatised child, rather than do the sensible thing and find someone who was good parenting, she took Mara in herself and swore to protect her.

Along with her high compassion and low temperance (other Exalted mechanics), this has given me a quick in-road to a character joining an established game, making it easier to settle in to her faster.

What about you? Is there a game mechanic that inspires you? Let me know!

#RPGaDay2018: Day 7 - How can a GM make the stakes seem important?

This is a hard question to answer. A lot of the games I've played over the years, the stakes have been world-saving, which makes them pretty important! But the stakes should matter even when they aren't so big.

I guess some of it comes down to the degree the players have invested themselves in the world. It's pretty easy to have even minor stakes feel important to me: give an NPC I care about a good, in-character reason for caring, and my character will too - and "care about" can mean my character loathes them; there's a lot Svetlana would happily do if it meant undermining Irrevetti's power. While Lacy had to point out to other party members that saving his friend's friend would help us achieve our meta-goal of saving the world, for Solomon it was enough that someone she admires asked for her help.

Another trick is to look at the character - both the character sheet, and the way it's played. In Deadlands, my partner knew Carson would offer himself as the one who'll die when we attempt to bring the Flood to Lost Angels because the character has the "Big Damn Hero" flaw (or whatever it's actually called), and the player remembers it too. Likewise, Solomon would do whatever he needed her to to assist, because she's Loyal. Taji is overconfident and very competitive, so give her  a challenge or imply she can't do something and she'll go out of her way to prove you wrong: the stakes aren't particularly high, necessarily ("bet I can dig faster than you!"), but they'll matter to her (this also works on Bells's Mage character, Howard, who is also overconfident and dislikes admitting he can't do something). My new Exalted character Amaryllis, whom you haven't met yet, has very high Compassion, which means give her a bit of a sob story and it becomes important.

Make it personal. NPC's are the easiest way for me, but not all players are interested in NPC's, so maybe have a beloved item nicked from one of them, or rumours of an item of power another would benefit from. Feels a bit boring to me, but works for many other people.

Remind players of clocks ticking - that plague village they visited a while back, has anyone been back to see if it's still spreading? That Quantum lake that covers Vienna, when did you last visit? It occurs to you you haven't seen Tark for a while. A newspaper headline announces the progress of the army marching this way (I love in-game newspapers for delivering plot hooks and clock reminders). You turn on the radio to hear Theresa's parents pleading for her safe return. You did remember to write back to Marcy, right?

If you're taking part this year, don't forget to link to your response in the comments below!

#RPGaDay2018: Day 6 - How can players make the world seem real?

This is one where I'm especially looking forward to what other people have to say - it's something I want to be good at, as a player, so I'm hoping to pick up tips.

For me, at the moment, I think it probably boils down to the way you interact with the world. You can accept the quest, slaughter your way through the undead-filled dungeon, retrieve the macguffin, and return to receive your reward. So far, so computer game. Or, you can explore how you know the quest-giver, what you know about them. You can befriend them (and not just because a quest-giver is a useful person to have on your list of contacts). Then in the dungeon, as you slaughter you can investigate why it's so filled with undead (which might lead to more adventure hooks). If appropriate, you can make the macguffin more personal to you, too. So, if you're rescuing someone, talk to them, find out about how they ended up kidnapped, find out where they're from. Return to the quest-giver and don't just receive the reward (or argue with the quest-giver in the hopes of receiving a bigger reward just for the sake of it - that's one character interaction I see often and find boring), but recount tales of your heroism, or otherwise continue the interaction you started before you left.

In our Mage game, Howard and Ragna stole an RV and driving from Los Angeles to Chicago (to get holy water to fight vampires). Howard is LA born and bred, while Ragna is from Norway originally and has only seen LA in the US. Ragna's the better driver, but doesn't have a valid US licence. That didn't seem as important in a stolen RV, so they were driving in shifts. It was late evening, early night, and Howard's shift was ending. He pulled over on the side of the road at a safe spot, to stop for the night. It was eerie - tall pines grey in the gloaming, darkening fast as heavy clouds came over. The headlights picked up silver threads of rain.

A sudden thud against the RV woke Ragna with a start - she looked round to see Howard even more startled. Even his cat, Marcel, seemed disconcerted. Another rattling thud shook the truck. The storm didn't bother her, but Howard's fear spread through Ragna: she'd never seen him show any signs of it before. His face was white with it now and she wondered what he'd seen. She peered through the windows, but couldn't make anything out in the blackness beyond the pelting rain.

The next rattling was accompanied by an unearthly howling, which snapped Howard into action: he leapt back into the driver's seat and Ragna buckled in beside him, trying to calm her companion as she brought up a google maps route to the nearest official truck stop. Once there, he stepped outside and smoked an entire packet of cigarettes.

It was just a storm, but Howard had no idea what a storm was like outside a city. Ragna knew very well, but was infected by his fear. Our GM afterwards said he'd half-intended to have us attacked by werewolves, but the way we engaged with and expressed the experience meant he changed his mind.

So that's my advice: get curious about the world. React to it. Use the scenery. Make friends with the NPC's. Believe in it.

If you're taking part this year, I'd love it if you'd include a link to your reponse in the comments below. Look forward to hearing from you! 

Meet My Character - Dawn's Dancing Butterfly, Cathak Taji

First, a quick apology for how quite I've been of late! Still settling into the new place, have been extremely tired, and then Husbit accidentally poured orange juice on my laptop which seems to have killed it, which has all combined to slow down my post rate (I'm currently borrowing his tablet, which has its own little keyboard and isn't bad, but is smaller than I like to use for this).

Today's post is in response to a challenge Mark Knights of RPG Knights put up in the G+ Tabletop Roleplaying Games community, asking us to write a short piece about one of our favourite characters. I thought I'd talk about my Exalted character, Taji.

Where to start with Cathak Taji? She's the youngest of 6 children (7, with the half-brother she's recently learnt about), and lived as a peasant in rural Creation until the night before her 8th birthday, when her home was destroyed and she and her twin brother, Cathak Kito, escaped and fled to Thorns. From there, they discovered they were actually the youngest descendants of the head of House Cathak, and spent the next several years raised as young Dynasts. Instead of becoming good little Dragonbloods, though, they became Solar Exalts, Kito Dawn caste and Taji Eclipse. If you want to learn more about their adventures, check out the story index.

The characters I normally enjoy playing are compassionate and gregarious. With Taji, I wanted to challenge myself so wrote someone who is only averagely compassionate, who isn't afraid to take charge (something that I find frightening), and who can talk her way out of (or into) most situations (something I find hard in games, because I mentally freeze). Playing with a sympathetic group means I've grown in confidence and started to overcome those difficulties. I find her lower compassionate difficult at times, but her confidence makes her an absolute joy to play. I particularly enjoy those moments when something knocks that confidence - experiencing her struggle to come to terms with it and the rebuild to extreme cockiness is engaging. I love a bit of emotional bleed!

I think part of why I enjoy playing her so much is that I have played her from the days leading up to her 8th birthday to where she is now, in her early 20's. That was a lot of time to get into the head of the character, and really see how she became who she is. I know it isn't for everyone, but I (and I think Kito's player) have got a real kick out of it.

I love the contrast between her and her brother. Kito sees the best in others, but is a much tougher fighter. Taji is more cynical (her ability to manipulate people means she's inclinded to believe everyone's at it), but she has utter faith in her indestructibility, which often leads to Kito nearly getting killed - because her faith comes from the fact that her brother has always stepped in to save her. She doesn't realise the danger she puts herself in and doesn't notice how much he does for her. She's quite selfish, really. They've surrounded themselves with powerful friends, and Kito's recently realised that some of them, at least, are using the twins for their own purposes. Taji was shocked he didn't already know this; in her mind she's using them right back, and believes she isn't beyond discarding friendships that no longer benefit her (I think she'll find she's wrong about that).

And this is it. Because Taji is so different to the characters I normally love to play, and so far from my ideal image of myself, I don't mind when things don't go her way, and can enjoy the process of her learning from that. I hope to take that experience with me when I go back to other beloved characters where I take it more personally.

Connecting Your Character to the World

I read this blog post recently. It discusses the fact no character is an island and that if you (as a player) give your character proper connections to the world, you'll have a better game. I strongly agree, and it got me thinking about my characters.

The first game I ever played was a Buffy game in which we were playing ourselves in a Buffy-verse version of our local area. This inevitably gave my character a connection to the world, and I learnt how much fun that can be. I was 16 or 17 and the friends I was playing with mostly in their mid-20's, so the GM had fun having my Dad phone me up because I was out too late, and problems sneaking me into the nightclub over our hellmouth (funny story, it was a real club and I ended up working there for several years. There was no hellmouth, sadly fortunately). When I run my Buffy game, I'll be setting it in a smash up of my home town and my uni town, and if I end up with a campaign there, the nightclub will reappear much as it did in that first game.

One of the other players invited me into his ShadowRun game and talked me through making a character. I had a very distinct idea of Kamaya, a speedfreak adept from Canada. She moved down to Seattle after killing the men who'd got her brother hooked on BTL (better than life) chips - she'd sworn vengeance after he'd died and tracked them down on a train. Seattle was the last stop, so that's where she settled. She was half-Native American, half-Japanese and an elf (though her brother was human). Her family had been close until the decline and death of her brother, and her subsequent vengeance-quest. She idolised her brother; he taught her to fire a gun and use a whip and various other skills, and never babied her. She's got a faint scar across her nose from an accident with a whip, and a freckling of powder burn on one cheek from learning to shoot. I remember the GM being particularly impressed when I mentioned those details. I suspect his pride and praise were a huge part of why I like to make my characters detailed and real to me: that group of friends were surrogates for the elder brother I'd always wanted.

With that backstory, I had great fun trashing a load of BTL stuff we found somewhere that the others wanted to steal and sell. As a post for another time, there is a line between doing the thing your character would do and doing the right thing to keep the group together and the story moving forward. Trashing that stuff was minor enough it created an enjoyable roleplay moment without damaging party loyalties or real world friendships.

I'm finding it really hard, now, not to just talk about all my characters and their connections to their respective worlds as built into their backgrounds. Chrissie and her conflict with her parents. Kirri and her slaughtered tribe (a LARP character that led to a scene where somewhere played a repentent member of the group who killed her family and asked her to kill him and she couldn't and we were both actually in tears and it was amazing). My new character, Ragna, with her cult of ecstacy mormor and sleeper family back in Norway, making her actually a little lonely and often very lost in LA. Kella, whose home and family became so vividly real. Ursella, the halfling druid, may well be suffering sufficient wanderlust to have walked away from her home with no backwards glance - but she had a home, and in this setting such an act was very common among halflings. Kally Hopebringer, whose story ties her not just to the world but also to another PC. So many more. I think the only times I don't have some sort of connection to the world is when we're playing amnesiacs - and even then, I'll try and build something. It's the way I learnt to play.

As I'm currently playing her, I want to talk about Solomon in Deadlands. She had friends in the orphanage she grew up in and links there. The loss of her eye gives her another link, too: we created the characters using the deck of cards method and she drew 2 jokers, giving her night terrors and creepy shadows. I combined that up with the one-eye flaw, and decided she'd lost her eye in the same event that caused the other two problems. She thinks she was attacked by a puma, and the nightmares/shadows make her fear she's a were-puma. I've put it to the GM that maybe, actually, the puma was trying to defend her from something - that if it hadn't leapt at her when it did, she might be dead or... taken over somehow. That the shadows are actually the little bit of whatever it was that really attacked her that managed to get through despite the efforts of the puma-shaped creature. A connection to the world doesn't just have to be in people and places, but can also be events.

I think the time I went most overboard was Pathfinder. Our GM described the part of the world we were from (Brevoy) and asked us to design characters on that basis - including telling him where they came from. I had the idea that I (Svetlana) was from a small farming community (though my family brewed cider). This meant we were from the south of the country. I knew my human mother was young when she had me and never fell in love again, and my father was a powerful elf sorceror desiring a male heir (I love the idea that Svetlana has loads of half-sisters of varying ages, all with at least minor arcane talents - and no brothers). She had four friends she was particularly close with, and I had a pretty good idea about them and their reasons for not joining her on this adventure. As the game progressed, I fleshed out the community, eventually naming it 'Beacon' after the way it was founded (the seed of the story is in the history of the pub). I wrote about her father. I statted all four of her closest friends (Anya, Misha, Devin and Piotr). I've even starting drafting a novel based on the adventures of Devin's mum! And the GM has run with this, giving them their own lives and occasionally having them show up to hang out with Svetlana. (And with Pathfinder in mind, the whole Svetleski love story reminds me that connecting to the world doesn't end with character creation, but should continue through the game. But, to paraphrase the Emissary in our Exalted game, that's a post for another time.)

If you followed even some of the links, you may well have noticed that a lot of this is mutable: the secondary meaning of Solomon's puma attack was a later addition to the tale. The history of the pub belonging to Svetlana's extended family became the history of the entire settlement, with the pub becoming one of the oldest buildings. Chrissie's drift away from her parents became explained by their interest in material success and her rebellion against this; the drift became more angry. I don't think this is a bad thing; I think it can take a bit of time to settle into what you really mean with a character. When writing a novel, that's fine; you can go back later and edit. In a roleplay game, I think it's best to accept that, at least to begin with, the finer details of a backstory are butterflies: you may see the form, but until they're pinned down you can't be sure of them. 

... I wonder if I can get some of my friends to do guest posts on this theme...