Blog scraps — running the game

If you do not do it this way, you do do it wrong

What do you mean product placement?

In general, I run player-first games with obvious peril. There’s usually absurdity at the table but that’s often within the realm of player rather than character. Think Discworld type parody / peril.

Chargen

Convention games

When you want player characters to be on equal footing, let players choose SKILL, STAMINA, or LUCK to be the maximum value. The others are the lowest value. (If you’re feeling weak, let them pick two at maximum and one at minimum.)

Typical chargen allows for imbalance between player characters, though those stronger at the outset have more inertia to push against (greater debts, higher xp thresholds). You’ll not have time to take this into account with only 3h30 play.

Debt at chargen

This serves the double-bonus of keying characters into an existing network and providing a reason for perilous adventuring. Earlier versions of the game had subsystems for encroaching impacts of these debts, but I now prefer to run it that your creditors are happy to wait, for as long as they hold this over you they’ve a pawn.

Players explaining who their creditors are also gives a summary to the sort of play they are likely to want. Grant Howitt explains the idea excellently here.

Opening scenes

I often explain to my players:

We should assume this is the sequel. You all got together in the previous film.

This leaves space for innovation and development between the characters.

During play

Montage scenes

Cut between discrete events and locations with a montage, giving an overview of the tone and geographical / meteorological detail. Ask each player to narrate a short vignette as if the camera were focused on their character.

Make notes from these vignettes and reincorporate in this or future sessions.

Characters have STAMINA, players have bodies

This is a game about talking. You’ll hurt your voice if you don’t keep hydrated. Whilst you’re keeping hydrated, you’ll need to use the toilet. Take a break every hour: it’s best to call them at the start or end of a heightened moment.

If you lose your voice and need to be able to speak, put an inch of peeled ginger in hot water and sweeten to taste. Drink as you drink would water.

Use characters’ Special Skills

— as a way to structure your narration. If a player has architecture, they are as much interested in seeing masonry as exploiting it.

This is the primary system by which different groups of characters feel different in play.

Toolkit

Weather

Each day, remember the phrase “hot and wet” and roll 2D6 and read them left to right. If either dice comes up 6, that adjective is true today. If either dice comes up 1, the inverse of that adjective is true today (for the purposes of this, the opposite of wet is windy).

Reaction rolls

Until you have good reason to supercede this, roll 2D6 each time a group is encountered:

• 2 — hostile
• 3–5 — wary
• 6–8 — self-serving
• 9–11 — curious
• 12 — helpful

On its own, this is a crude tool. It becomes powerful when considered in the following way:

It makes no sense for <group> to be <mood> unless…

This reason should be noted and reincorporated where reasonable.

Treasure

For random drops of coin, roll XD6 where X is the total SKILL of the enemy combatants. Treat each 6 as a unique item of value (gems, jewelry, arcane trinkets) and sum the remaining dice: those are the total coins found.

Generating rumours

1. Select a location, event, or person at random.
2. Make a reaction roll.
3. Write a fact about the selected object from the perspective of the mood given by the reaction roll.

Generating plot

Use my SPEARS method.

Notes written for use with Quarrel & Fable but universally applicable.