How do you Hero GMs prepare for new campaigns?

[Stacie.Winters]

Re: How do you Hero GMs prepare for new campaigns?

 

Wow, thanks for all the links... I'm going to check them out over the next few days. You get cookies.

[RexMundi]

Re: How do you Hero GMs prepare for new campaigns?

 

TheQuestionMan ....he is the Link Master Ja?

 

~Rex.... Figures we need to get Max Von Sydow to say that for us.....

[SteveZilla]

Re: How do you Hero GMs prepare for new campaigns?

 

My first post, coming back to Hero System since fifth edition first came out, and in coming back to Hero System now I feel like I'm new all over again so my question in asking how you wonderful people prepare for your own Hero System games is also a question of advice seeking in learning the system and also making the best use of the system... and I'm hoping to learn what pitfalls to avoid.

 

I want to create a fantasy setting and also a western sci-fi and I think HS will work fine.

 

Thank you in advance for any of your kind words.

 

Welcome back, Stacie.

 

I have not yet run any games because to me, the task of building a whole world that is consistent and logical* has seemed nigh insurmountable. I hope to eventually learn how the "pros" do it, and eventually run a game of my own.

 

*Note: I know that I'm not litterally designing the entire consistent, logical world -- I use that to referr to the setting, be it a city, country, world, or galaxy. IMO anything I create needs to be (internally) consistent, and follow it's own "rules", otherwise I could (rightly, IMO) be accused of just pulling stuff out of my behind without regard for it conflicting with what has already been established. Writing plots, and deciding NPC individual & group motovations & goals is for some reason very hard for me.

[gojira]

Re: How do you Hero GMs prepare for new campaigns?

 

*Note: I know that I'm not litterally designing the entire consistent' date=' logical world -- I use that to referr to the setting, be it a city, country, world, or galaxy. IMO anything I create needs to be (internally) consistent, and follow it's own "rules", otherwise I could (rightly, IMO) be accused of just pulling stuff out of my behind [/quote']

 

 

I was trying to create a setting, also, which I found to be a little too close to my "heart" for me to be really objective about it. Objective as in see it as a game setting. So I stopped on that and started something that had a little more of beer-and-pretzels vibe to it. This is working out much better.

 

What I'm trying to say is, if one setting isn't working out for you, back off and see if something that's a little lighter and game-like works better, and is easier, for you. Just in general, sometimes I find it's easier to do things if I feel the result doesn't have to be perfect. (I'm not talking just to Steve here, but to the thread topic in general.)

[Orion]

Re: How do you Hero GMs prepare for new campaigns?

 

My preferred process:

 

1. Decide if I am going to design a campaign world I want, and then find players, or find players, and design a campaign world based on what they want. I'm a genre fiend, and pretty much refuse to change a campaign world around just because a player wants something different. I'll design based on their requests, but once done, it ain't gonna change.

 

2. Once the world design is done, I write out a world guide for the players. Brief overviews of the political units the game will interact with, geography, races, deities, how magic works, etc. This document is completely system agnostic - no rules whatsoever in it.

 

3. I write out a detailed rules guide that gives the house rules, if any, expected ranges of combat and skill levels, etc. for the rule set to be used. This would include any templates, recommended skills, common magic spells, and divine intervention rules.

 

4. Based on player input, the campaign style is then determined. Gritty, realistic, or cartoon. Deadly serious or goofy fun. Expected time to be spent in combat vs roleplaying. Dungeon crawls, murder mysteries, political intrigue, or some of everything. Zero to hero, or stable skills. Low, medium, or high level of ability. How much magic will be available to the players, regardless of how much exists in the world. etc etc etc

 

My normal process:

Player says - "I wanna kill something next week. Make me a character. Don't bother writing anything down about the world, cause I ain't gonna read it anyway."

 

For the first 30 years of my gaming career I met exactly 1 other player that cared anything about the campaign world, and no GMs. Each time it was a simple generic world, usually with some reliance on a published world for the rare bit of characterization. When I have been the GM, I've never had a player that cared in the slightest about the world. I have recently met in person several people that care as much as I about campaign world, but it was at a convention, and none live close to me.

[Markdoc]

Re: How do you Hero GMs prepare for new campaigns?

 

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Cheers, Mark

[AmadanNaBriona]

Re: How do you Hero GMs prepare for new campaigns?

 

One thing I've seen Susano post about his campaigns is his use of Tropes to identify the game elements and get everyone on the same page. I think this is absolutely bloody brilliant, and can and should be used in conjunction with self identification from Roleplayer Type list in a freestyle brainstorming session with your players, if you're having issues coming up with direction. Take your direction from the gestalt. Done right it gives you a solid handle on what each player wants to have in the game, and a list of elements you can use to build such.

 

maybe we can get Susano to chime in with some advice or exampleage... Hey Mike?

[Stacie.Winters]

Re: How do you Hero GMs prepare for new campaigns?

 

I will share my ideal way of setting up a campaign when I want to run a game...

 

Ideally speaking, before play even begins I have to create a player document. In this document includes the basics of the world and important events and themes, what the cultures are like, what races are allowed, any house rules and any world info that anybody of any race would absolutely know. I try to keep this down and I tend to write two versions... a cliffnotes version and a bible.

 

Sometimes I will base this on ideas or concepts that the players tell me... but what often bugs me is that players will often glaze over this, want to jump in and play and then complain when something bad happens to their character that would have been avoided had they read the most commonly know things all characters know.

 

Why are players often this lazy? Maybe lazy isn't the kindness word, but you know what I mean. If I am a player and the GM has taken the time to write up about the world then you can bet I'll read it.

 

Having a player document also sets the groundrules for me. Keeps me as the GM in check so the players know if I have created a pure fantasy world then I won't drop the Death Star on them, even if they deserve it.

[Markdoc]

Re: How do you Hero GMs prepare for new campaigns?

 

I will share my ideal way of setting up a campaign when I want to run a game...

 

Ideally speaking, before play even begins I have to create a player document. In this document includes the basics of the world and important events and themes, what the cultures are like, what races are allowed, any house rules and any world info that anybody of any race would absolutely know. I try to keep this down and I tend to write two versions... a cliffnotes version and a bible.

 

Sometimes I will base this on ideas or concepts that the players tell me... but what often bugs me is that players will often glaze over this, want to jump in and play and then complain when something bad happens to their character that would have been avoided had they read the most commonly know things all characters know.

 

Why are players often this lazy? Maybe lazy isn't the kindness word, but you know what I mean. If I am a player and the GM has taken the time to write up about the world then you can bet I'll read it.

 

This.

 

I've played in several games where the GM prepared a field guide to the world. I'm probably the only player that read them, and to be honest, even I didn't retain much of it, because I wasn't that interested. And I'm the guy who draws pictures of all the characters in our game: the guy who knows where his PC comes from and makes up a backstory. In our current game, I'm probably the only person who could identify the area my PC was born and grew up in, on a map of the world! I'm certainly the only player with a list of NPCs from my home region I know

 

And if I'm not really interested ... well.

 

Players do want to jump in and play. If they were really into prep., they'd be GM's. Think of it like a TV show. How many people would have watched - say - Babylon5 if the first episode had been some guy just sitting in front of the camera, talking about factions and trade and philosophy for a whole episode? There wouldn't have been an episode 3, because nobody would tune in to see episode 2.

 

Deep background is good, in my opinion. It gives life to a setting, it draws players in, it gives a game longevity, it gives the GM something to work with/from. I always do plenty of background, and I make some of it available to players to read if they want. So far, I don't think anyone has actually read much, if any of it.

Exposition, on the other hand, is bad. It should not be necessary for the players to know everything that the PCs know. The GM can feed them information as they need it. If it's fed to players in context, they'll remember it. Give them an info dump and they will forget it almost instantly. The only parts they will remember will be mangled and then taken out of context, many months hence. It's perfectly OK to say "I think it's fair to say that your PC would know ..." when they stumble across something that they really should know.

 

Otherwise, I give my players description and guidelines during character creation, and that's basically it: if they can't hit the ground running without a mass of exposition, then I feel like I've done my job poorly.

 

It's sad that so much background material and care languishes unloved by players in the background ... but that's how it is. I see the biggest benefit of it as actually being for the GM: working it out helps the GM plan the game and set it right. On the other hand, if you post it on the web, other GM's will also read and appreciate it

 

cheers, Mark

[AmadanNaBriona]

Re: How do you Hero GMs prepare for new campaigns?

 

I just deleted a big response.

Let me 'splain. No, is too much, let me sum up.

Player Packets are golden, Cliffs notes are just the right speed. Give your players a bit of homework, an email to explain how they mesh with the setting packet you gave them. Then you can design personalized info-dumps for them based on the characters they built, throw them a lot of plot hooks while you show off your loving world-crafting skills, and roll the rest under the "This is something you should know..." bit as the situations arise.

 

BTW, if you want to see how I freestyle brainstorm a setting check my blog. I also have a semi-serious write up of myself in what I consider the Surbrook style, drawn heavily from the Character examples on Surbrooks Stuff. I find the personalized descriptions and quotes attached to the various abilities makes it a LOT easier to keep a coherent overall character design, and often makes Hero style Reasoning from Effect a lot easier by giving you a target goal for your mechanical builds to reach

[Christopher]

Re: How do you Hero GMs prepare for new campaigns?

 

Sometimes I will base this on ideas or concepts that the players tell me... but what often bugs me is that players will often glaze over this, want to jump in and play and then complain when something bad happens to their character that would have been avoided had they read the most commonly know things all characters know.

 

Why are players often this lazy? Maybe lazy isn't the kindness word, but you know what I mean. If I am a player and the GM has taken the time to write up about the world then you can bet I'll read it.

Not lazyness. Simply a different set of priorities.

 

It is the most natural part for any gamegroup to have differing amount of invesment into a setting. Some people could propably tell you half the spell values/weapons & armor table/a ton of setting information out of thier memory.

Others simply don't ahve that level of interest. Nothing good or ba about it, it's simply not how they want to play. Or they simply have better stuff to do (wich does not mean what you do is bad).

 

That is simply the way human interaction works. If everybody knew the same and had the same ideas, there would be no reason to meet in the first place.

[Zane_Marlowe]

Re: How do you Hero GMs prepare for new campaigns?

 

I tend to write a campaign document with a short (~1-2p) introductory text on who the players are and what the world is like. Most of it contains information to help them craft appropriate characters and (where relevant) to nudge them toward setting-appropriate choices. I think it's helpful and important to communicate the five characteristics of the campaign's tone (see 6e2 266ff) as well. Here's an example of one I did recently for a game that I mean to play over a distance with some friends from home: the Avalon Project.