World Pack II // Roll player Fix

1. World Pack II // Roll player Fix

   #1

   Note: We now join this thread in progress. Keep reading down to get to the good stuff.
   
   
   THIS IS MADNESS! MADNESS!
   So.....Comprehensive....Making...Penguin's....brain......dissolve..

2. Well... yah....

   #2

   Hands the Captain a mop to clean up his brains
   
   I am making something that should be complete. I am looking for input on all these things I am producing. That is why I am posting up everything intersting as I do it.
   
   The question I ask is "Why aren't you GMs doing things like this for your game?"
   
   If you are going to run something that is something more than "generic fantasy", you need to make sure your players understand what his going on. With very little effort, you can plop into a generic fantasy game, and once you figure out what you are supposed to be doing just do it. Kerren is not "Just another fantasy world". It stands on different assumptions and different backgrounds. If you say, "It's Pern, but different" then you are doing both works a disservices. If you assume it is Pern in the wrong place, you will die horribly and take your wing with you.
   
   Players need to know that is going on. If you don't the results... for your campaign can be disasterous.
   
   When ever you are setting up a campaign and creating a game environment, the GM should create a world pack. A world pack is a packet of information that explains the details of the campaign and the game setting. One section of the world pack should be dedicated to the game setting, including information that the players will need to know about their character's world.
   
   One of the problems with creating a unique game environment, especially a more exotic world, is that you can leave your players "out of the loop" because they do not know the culture and the world. You think the game is whizzing along while the players begin to look at you blankly because they don't know why things are happening. Sometimes GMs get too wrapped up in the creation to forget that they have to communicate their world to others. They need to create a world pack, or have narrative moments of some kind, to explain these things to the players.
   
   When you create a packet, it will include game mechanics as well as setting materials. In many cases, a well crafted game environment may exceed the stated rules of the game being played. Modifications to classes/ templates for each species or group, gifts/ flaws only available to people from a certain region, attribute modifiers for each country, odd skills, and changes in the costs of certain skills, are all quick easy changes tied to the game environment. Always make sure to note in the packet any rule changes from the printed rules.
   
   A good portion of the packet should be information explaining the campaign setting. This should all the information they [the players] need about the game environment and the world it represents. This does not have to be in large, long, encyclopedia like sections. It can be a collection of important pieces of information, in simple short sections. GMs: Include as much as you are able, as it will save you having to explain things in the future.
   
   One thing every world packet should include is Visceral Elements, concrete things about life in the world. Birth, Death, Eating, Sleeping, Family/ Marriage, and Work/ Leisure, are some of the most important visceral elements. Every world pack should include sections on these topics. Note: Short and brief sections are sometimes better than long, complete entries.
   
   Sometimes players don't know something about the game world and the information is not in any world pack. (Sometimes, the information might be in the world pack, but you want to bring it to the player's attention.) The GM can start the game with a Narrative Moment. This is a moment in the beginning of the game, when the GM can explain some aspect of the world. They can be little mini-lectures on some aspect of the game environment, or some cultural knowledge (myths, legends, history, etc) that the characters might need to know. GMs: If you make a habit of having narrative moments every game, then the players will not automatically know something is "special" or important when you mention it. Also note what you say in a narrative moment in your notes, so it can be added to the world pack in the future and you won't contradict yourself in the future.
   
   Note: New Cast Members: New players do not know the campaign's back story. The GM should recount the campaign, usually with the help of the other players, so the new player knows what is going on. The GM should review any "world packs" that were created for the campaign. After all this is done, the GM must take extra care to help them create a character that not only fits the campaign, but fits the troupe of adventuring characters. These steps take extra effort, but will help the new cast member to join the game with a minimum of inadvertent disruption.
   
   I create a world pack for every campaign I run. These campaigns run from 4 sessions to six years. The packs ranges from four to sixtyfour pages. Being of the game designer persuasion, my packets tend to be everything you will need to run the game from scratch (If not they quickly evolve into that as the campaign goes forward.) Overkill? A little. However my players know what the world is like, what is expected of them, what they should expect, and the style of play I am looking for. My games have few, if any, of the issues that most gms have in their games because my players are in the know.
   
   (I think this post should be duplicated in the essay section. I might clean it up some and do that).

3. World Pack II // Roll player Fix

   #3

   Please do put that in the essay section.
   
   Not to take this off topic (will move it or delete it if it goes to the essay section)
   
   Gamepack. Novel, yet obvious.
   
   I think it is the organization that kills a lot of worlds before they get to the point of useable developement. Been part of numerous world creations, many of which have outstanding ideas, but the problem is that it never gets fleshed out enough. Enough to play a couple sessions usually but never enough to be sustainable for a extended game. Many of the times that is all we want though. My first group was never patient enough to spend more then a couple months in any one setting. Too much creativity that a new world (world idea) got developed every month.

4. World Pack II // Roll player Fix

   #4

   Say, MoonHunter, have any packs to give to a character to make them actually roleplay instead of just dictating their character's actions? The majority of my players just do this.
   
   ME:"You see a grizzled old knight with a scar over his face. He walks up to you and greets you with an ancient Cardomian salute, though he is unfamiliar to your eye."
   THEM:"I say "Hi."
   ME:"That's it?"
   THEM:"Yes. Now, I walk around him and open the door."
   ME:"But, but, he's an important story character!"
   THEM:"F**k the story! I want gold and XP, dammit!"
   ME:"I hate you more than you'll ever know."

5. I have solutions for that.

   #5

   1) The roleplay modifier is a D&D/ D20 tool, or for any gamesystem that does not have a built in roleplay reward system (rolemaster).
   
   Rate the character's roleplay performance from 1-10. 1 is for no roleplaying (like your example); 10 is the level of roleplaying you expect of your players (not what they do, but what they should be doing). The RP modifier for a given session is that number divided by 10, giving you a range between .1x and 1x
   
   Take the amount of experience points the characters earned due to defeating threats, taking out traps, and so on, for that session. Multiply that by the multiplier. That is the amount they earn for that run.
   
   Yes, bad roleplayers earn a fraction of their expected experience.
   
   Watch your roleplay dead players scream, especially if one player is adequate in their roleplaying. They will begin to see the metagaming advantages of roleplaying. Those that don't will only advance a tiny amount, while those that do will advance at a good clip in comparison.
   
   This technique has been used by several GMs with several different power gamers and rules lawyers and tacticians. In every case, they improved their roleplaying level to at least the minimally acceptable amount.
   
   2) Conception bonus:
   A player turns in a written history of their character, that explains where the character came from, where they learned the skills they have, what their characters are like, and some of the people they know. Upon completion, they receive 1-1000 Exp based on completeness and usefulness of the conception. Allow players to rewrite their conception piece every now and again, in an attempt to get a better score. ("Okay the old one was worth 325, it is now worth 500, take the 175 exps).
   
   If you have a back history that you actually understand, then you have something that you understand to build upon and roleplay with. If players start linking their conceptions (oh you have a master of the sword in Altair.. cool then I will use him for my sword master too), then it gives them something to work with each other with.
   
   3)Bonus Chips:
   Pull out some poker chips. Whites are 1, Reds 5, and Blues 25.
   
   Bonus chips have three functions in the game: 1) they are traded in to allow you to reroll a die roll, 2) they are traded in to allow you to dictate the result of a non dramatic roll, 3) they can be use to make an NPC reroll (if you the GM choose not to allow the reroll, they earn a chip), 4) they can be converted into a nominal amount of experience (50 to 100 xp for D20)
   
   How do you earn bonus chips you ask? You do something that is a bonus to the game. You roleplay a scene well, you come up with an ingenious plan, you contribute something to the overall campaign. (An optional one is bringing your GM Pizza or suitable food bribe).
   
   The advantage of bonus chips is that they are immediate rewards for good roleplaying or in genre roleplaying, as well as superior play in other area. They are a teaching reward; a great pavolovian training device; an obvious reward for an immediate action. All of a sudden, like the rats looking for pellets, all the players will be trying to earn these things. They will begin to try harder to earn chips, sometimes putting in more effort than they are worth. Turn it into a competition on who can earn the most in a given night. Get their own "win" natures on your side.
   
   I have a number of roleplay tips at www.openroleplaying.org/tools/tips/ Search for Player, Roleplay, all the world, and a few others that escape me right at the moment. Or just F5.... alot.
   
   Yes, I am something of a gaming guru. You are warned.
   Yes, I have been gaming for a while, since 1975-1976. So I have seen it all.
   
   Now if we can head back to topic....
   
   Most games suffer from the GM's lack of organization. Most GMs do not have a nearly photographic memory, so they are constantly forgetting little things that impact the campaign. That is why taking note and being organized lets you take your game to the next level. If you start organized, with world creation, then it is easier to maintain the organization (less work in the end) and gives you the advantage having players that know the things they should know.
   
   Think about it... When we read a story, the characters in the story know a great deal about the world (in general). They learn new things over the course of the story, but as a general statement, they know the basics of their world. When we game, we create a story, with the players writing their character's actions and dialog, and the GM writing the rest and functioning as the editor. What good does it do anyone if the story is marred by stupid mistakes that could of been avoided if the character knew something basic about their world?
   
   Besides, if the players are not creating functional characters... you can remind them about how their character is coming across to other... so they begin to treat the characters like simpletons and children... because that is their apparent level of knowledge.
   
   We now return to our regularly scheduled thread....

6. World Pack II // Roll player Fix

   #6

   This is the best I could do was split the topic off the main Kerren thread. I don't have a merge topic choice so I may have to go in and manually edit the pointers in the database and merge them that way.

7. World Pack II // Roll player Fix

   #7

   Wow, this is the first time I've started a thread without knowing about it.

8. While not a shamless bump

   #8

   It is pretty darn close. This is part article, part rant, part three mechanics to improve your games. It was not designed to be an article, it was just a side conversation in another thread. Yet here we are.
   
   I hate that nobody reads this one because it is on page two, and most people only read the first page (and the first five or so articles at that). So here we go.
   
   If you have a question or comment, POST IT. No thread is ever dead.

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