The Gaming Outpost

As I shorted the GO clan an article last week so I thought I’d run a 2 for 1 deal this time around. This is going to be a longer article so feel free to rest up and get some coffee in the middle if you’d like. I’ll be here when you get back.





Mark gave us a nice idea for a mental workout in Exercise to help improve one of the most important GM skills – managing multiple events at the same time. This is a very important skill to develop if you want to keep your game world as realistic and alive as possible. In fact, if you haven’t read it yet I suggest you do so – it’s good stuff.



While Mark’s article is something that we can do outside of game to improve our skills, there are some things that we can do inside of game to work on them as well. I’m going to pick one idea I have found that works for me and we’ll see how things go.



We’ve all read articles on being better GMs and players. Heck, that’s basically all my articles are about. The problem with these hints, tips and tricks is when should we put them to use? New ideas are inspirational to us and we want to use them sooner rather than later. Should we break them out in the middle of our current campaign, or should we wait until we start a new game?



The main problem, as I see it, in trying out some new ideas is that sometimes they don’t fit in the current game. Lets say you’ve been GMing or playing in a D&D game and right now you’re in the middle of the campaign. The group is more than likely having fun or it wouldn’t have lasted this long so the issue here is that the campaign is set in it’s ways right now. Just because we read an article that gave us a great idea on how to use horror better doesn’t mean we should shoehorn that into our existing game.



No matter if it’s a new GM tool or a new way for the players to better develop their characters, anytime we try something new there will be some bumps in the road. Trying to run a conspiracy horror game when you’ve never done it before will create some challenges for the first couple of sessions. Suddenly deciding that you want to explore your barbarian’s horribly troubled childhood when you’ve never shown any interest in that for the past five months of gaming is also difficult, and may be disruptive to the game. Players and GM will need to adjust to anything that is too new and that can ruin your game.



What is “Too new?” My rule of thumb is that anything that would change the direction of your campaign (e.g. adding a big horror element to your sci-fi game that wasn’t there before) is too new. Also, if you can’t decide one way or the other, fail towards it being too new.



Well then, when should you try this new stuff? My advice is to try a one-shot game



Ah! The old one-shot game! I know a lot of folks aren’t fond of them, but they hold a special place in my heart. Why? Because that’s when I try out my new material. A number of years ago I wanted to run a super hero game so I set up a one shot. Found out I hated it, just wasn’t what I thought it would be. So I shelved the idea for another time – when/if I do it again I’ll take what I learned from the one-shot and see if I can improve it.



A one-shot was also where I first tried using an accent when I spoke as my character. I was nervous about doing it. Appart from the risk of being laughed at by the other players, my regular character was already established without an accent. The one-shot gave me the freedom to try something new. If it hadn’t worked, or it was more of a pain than fun, I would have shelve it and tried it another time.



If the one-shot turns out to be a great time, you might get to do it again. If you tried horror gaming and everyone had fun, ask your fellow gamers if they want to do it again. Do they want to try a campaign, or was the once in a while one-shot all they wanted out of it? If the answer is no, don’t throw the idea out. Just shelve it for later. Come back when you’ve had a chance to think it over some more.



Same goes for new player ideas. If you want to try out a new character type, or a new way of playing your character, one-shots are a great place to give it a go. If you find that it doesn’t work out, take what you learned from it and see if you can improve later on.



There are some things that we can put into play in an existing game right away. Sometimes the GM or player is actively looking for help with a particular issue, and putting that kind of info to use right away is fine. If you are looking for more info on Moon elves because you want to really get into the cultural part of your character, no reason not to try and get some of the things you pick up into play. Just be sure the things you are looking to add to the game fit. Best way to figure out if the things you want to use work is to talk to the GM and work it out.



On the GM side of the screen, let’s say you decide that you want to increase the tactical knowledge of your Orcs because the PCs have been walking all over them recently. To do that you will need some kind of trigger or cue for the players to know they are up against something different. Something as simple as a new tribal symbol or different physical descriptions (eye or skin color, size, language, etc) can all help cue the players in.



You see, if you simply amp up the Orc’s abilities the players will sense the change and want to know why. While you don’t need to tell them that you are doing it to even things out, or to correct a mistake you’ve made, you need to give them in game reasons. Without some kind of reason it’s not going to fly.





Well, now’s your chance to get a drink or a snack if you want one. I’m switching over from Exercise to Objectives.



All settled in again? Good. On to the next bit.





In Objectives Mark gave some interesting info on PCs working together in a party. Individual objectives are great, adding realism and are often the things that players use as their character’s motivation for doing something. One character might be on the adventure to right wrongs, another simply for the reward. As Mark points out, these objectives/motivations can be the subject of some internal party conflict. Let’s take the idea of PC conflict and talk about the connection between it and new players.



My theory is that most first time RPGers are not ready for a backstabbing, conflict filled game of political intrigue. It’s a very hard way to learn the ropes of RPGs if you have to watch your back even when your around the other PCs. It’s also very hard for new players not to take backstabbing and party conflict personally. New players, for the most part, haven’t really learned the separation of character and player yet.



(Note: When I say “PC conflict” I’m talking about PC vs. PC conflict.)



I’ve argued this with other gamers before, but I do believe that there are Beginner games, and Advanced games in the RPG hobby. For me the thing that separates the Beginner from Advanced game is the level of PC conflict that is accepted/promoted. Sure, some players will move along quickly, and may be more than happy to jump in the deep end right away, but I think this is something we need to seriously think about when recruiting and teaching new players.



I’m positive that not everyone will agree with my list, but here are some of the games I own and how I break them down:



Beginner

-D&D in all it’s incarnations

-Star Frontiers

-MERP

-GURPS if run in a traditional “D&D” like setting

-Call of Cthulhu

-Champions



Advanced

-White Wolf Games (Vampire, Wraith, Werewolf, Mage)

-Amber

-Sorcerer

-GURPS if using the Cabal setting or other conspiracy settings

-Delta Green Call of Cthulhu setting



(Remember: Beginner and Advanced do not deal with the complexity of the game rules or setting- strickly PC vs. PC conflict here.)



I’ve got other games, but I think the list above is enough to show you what games I’m thinking about when I say Beginner or Advanced. Sure, some of these Beginner games could be run with more conflict, placing it in the Advanced category (or vice versa), but I think the feel and presentation of certain games tells you basically how much conflict you can expect between your PCs.



If I’m running Tomb of Horrors for a group of AD&D players I don’t expect that there would be a lot of conflict between PCs. Sure, some of the PCs may have some arguments on treasure and tactics, some may be there for the treasure with others along simply for the chance of putting a demi lich out of commission, but for the most part players in this type of game work together for a common goal. AD&D is a game that designed for this kind of play.



Is Beginner better than Advanced? I think not. Fun is always my main concern with an RPG, so I’m not concerned about one being better than another. What I am concerned about it which game I would choose to use as the first game for a new player.



If the first time you sat down to learn to play a card game with friends they chose five card draw poker, and then proceeded to clean you out I’ll bet you’d not want to play with them again. I for one wouldn’t be too keen on any card games no matter what kind they were because I had a horrible time when I tried it. Same goes for PC conflict.



Feeling like your under attack by friends isn’t fun, and can lead to lost friendships and hurt feelings. In an RPG there is always going to be some level of PC conflict. But in a game like D&D that conflict isn’t normally the focus of the game. Sure it may add color and some fun memories of the adventure, but it’s not the focus. And for new players I don’t think it should be.





That’s enough out of me. Let me know what you think and I’ll see you in the forums!

Hello again and welcome back to this fracture in time. One small change forever altered the fate of a country that will become the world’s most powerful nation. However, this third article is less about the former Colonies than what is going to happen on the other side of the pond. Before we start I would like to add one new addition to article to help present ideas that may not fit into the chronology. It is called a Pause Point (example: [PP: ] ). When this appears it means that I am “pausing” to share the significance of a situation and the implications of it that the article won’t cover for consideration of size. Of course we still have the ATL (Alternate Timeline) and OTL (Our Timeline) for your convenience.



The immediate results of (up to five years after) the Indian Land and Rights Act was no small amount of turmoil. The nation was finally forced to confront the contradiction of Manifest Destiny and what Christian morals ultimately demanded. Of course proponents of Westward expansion didn’t suddenly disappear off the landscape, but the nationally conscience won out and the bill was narrowly passed. The main group affected was settlers, but no immediate resistance sprang up because they kept the land they sat on. However, it wouldn’t stay that way. Westward settlement was hitting its peak and free land was no longer in great supply. There were several large (and half-baked) attacks by new settlers on Native American territory. Without the support of any law men or contingents of the Army they were easily repelled relatively small bands on horseback. The Army, under standing orders from Lee, gathered up the survivors and sent them back to their homesteads. The violence and organization of these attacks were blown out of proportion and significantly enhanced the reputation of the tribes as soldiers. This served as a hedge of protection against those who didn’t accept the new order.



The new order also opened other doors. Significant numbers of men from various tribes enlisted in the Army to help externally protect Native lands. They passed on their combat and horse-riding skills to the whites [PP: This will become more important in the first half of the 20th]. As the Army was downsized toward the end of Lee’s term as President, many young Native Americans became lawmen and were highly valued for their skills, particularly by the Texas Rangers and Federal Martials.



Across the pond history largely went unchanged from OTL. America’s trepidation with European politics dated back to President Washington and it had its own vast social changes to keep it busy. The parallel with OTL European history breaks down with Russo-Japanese War (1904-1905). FDR hadn’t been elected President (he was a Senator ATL) and his offer for negotiations in OTL never took place. The Czar just kept pumping conscripts into the front as he suffered loss after loss to the Japanese. Thus the nearly successful OTL revolution was successful here because a rather disillusioned army marched on Moscow. Lenin was in-country for this bout and gained a foothold in public opinion earlier. After winning them over the “White” Russians (referring to political alignment, the same as “Red” socialists) were far more marginalized as they had a smaller support base. The civil war was far smaller. There was no one to volunteer to shoot Lenin and he didn’t suffer from the subsequent imbedded bullets and the surgery to remove it (both of which probably contributed to an earlier death due to his health problems). He survived into the 1930s.



A wrong turn down a road in Sarajevo still caused the Great War. America stayed out of this one, sending humanitarian aid and making cuts on tariffs and giving loans to various European nations in accordance with its neutrality. Without American or Russian support Germany won the war by late 1917 and an over-zealous Kaiser occupied France and Britain, while forcing reparations on both nations. An ardent German nationalist named Adolph Hitler came back a decorated war hero like OTL. Despite German victory it had drained national coffers to the bottom of the chest and there was no money for soldiers’ pensions. On top of that were the additional occupation forces in France and Britain. Veterans, now without jobs, started listening to the vision of this Adolph Hitler and joining his new Nationalist Veterans Party (Nationalistisches Veteran-Beteiligtes or NVB). It grew quicker that anyone could predict and gained some very important voices in the German Army. They weren’t the only faction around; a coalition of democratic socialists and businessmen threaten a workers strike and total industrial shift to exports if the Kaiser didn’t create a parliament for representation of the people. The Kaiser gave in, fearing that the Army wouldn’t back him. The new Parliament, instituted by a constitutional convention in 1919, started revamping laws and overturning every the Kaiser’s vetoes. The problem came when the socialists’ policies started butting heads with business interests. The coalition quickly disintegrated and the private interests looked for a group more compatible with their goals and that had a window to the “common people.”



This came in the form of the NVB. Hitler supported private business and class systems (compatible with their assets and social position). The NVB was only second to the various socialist parties in lower class popularity (Veterans and their families were members of the party…a lot of people). The socialists were forced to align with the more extreme Marxists who were only ones who shared their long term goals. The Conservatives (nobility and half the Army) were left out in the cold. In characteristic opposition to Marx’s “science”, nationalism won over socialism and Hitler was finally elected to Parliament in 1924, and was subsequently elected Chancellor of the Parliament. Finally things snapped. The Kaiser ordered loyal Army units to surround the Parliament building. Army commanders loyal to the NVB caught the plan early and removed the aging commanders and placed the Army under the command of Hitler. The Kaiser was caught on the German border, trying to flee into Switzerland. By order of the Parliament he was put on trial for “Crimes against the Fatherland” and was hung. Hitler culminated the end of 1924 by declaring himself Supreme Chancellor and publishing Mein Anblick (My Vision).



Austria-Hungary was ready to fall by 1925. Despite the Great War she had relinquished many of her territories (who had joined the Soviet Union) and was experiencing in-fighting in her royal family as to what to do about the tide of entropy. The Austrian NVB chapter had gained much strength since its founding in 1920. The Austrian Army was only nominally under their control in the spring. To call it a coupe is to use the word rather loosely. NVB propaganda fueled infantry as they marched into the palace and took the Royal Family prisoner. Parliamentary representatives were in Berlin by fall.



France and Britain were not so easy to win over. Their populations did not trust Germany with her army sitting inside their borders. Hitler re-directed their rage against the Kaiser instead of Germany as a whole. He built himself up as a hero in their eyes as he turned their revenue starved economies into trading partners and quickly removed troops and sanctions. He then swelled their egos with Aryan ideals. NVB chapters quickly followed. The party won majorities in the respective national legislatures.



Of course they made drastic (and some would say illegal) changes to their governments, driving politicians and nobility to the shores of the United States where they set up governments in exile and were allowed diplomatic status, although these governments in exile weren’t fully recognized. She also received a large influx of Jews, intellectuals, and anyone who hated the NVB. The U.S. maintained ambiguous relations with the new NVB government, trading and communicating through neutral nations. The U.S. itself had expanded even more than in the 1860s, developing its own style of Imperialism. Germany had forced Britain to sell off her colonies to pay war debts. The U.S. had snatched every last one at bargain basement prices and turned them into states as fast as possible (Canadian provinces, Caribbean islands, and islands around South America). She also possessed former Spanish holdings (which she had paid reasonable prices for…by using her navy), all now states. Hawaii was also proud to be the only constitutional monarchy in the Union.



Mussolini has also come to power. Hitler was developing grand plans. The U.S. couldn’t stay neutral much longer. But war wouldn’t come for another ten years. Next time, Eurasia descends into fire.

I fell from the Plaza at the center of the dead Third Stellar Empire to a working kitchen with cooks staring at me from under their white hats. You would think they were not used to people appearing out of thin air. Maintaining my dignity as a shield, I gathered my things, and nodded abruptly before walking out. They nodded back which was kind of them.



The front room was full of couches dotted with gentlemen in long robes, and doffed conical hats, reading the London Times.



My clothing was not suitable being of the black jeans and long-sleeved broadcloth shirt variety. I had a cloak, but it was more of the medieval thing than the almost judicial robes I saw. Since there seemed such an emphases on conical hats, I thought to take a small risk away from the crowd.



A spell of summoning clothing worked well, and I was attired in high fashion. Silk robe, felt hat, and leather slippers felt silly, but then so did most of the clothing I tried on, at first until one got used to it.



I spotted what looked to be gas lamps, and the paper was pure black and white with a tendency to smudge. The unapologetic and relaxing men’s club was also dated. But I did not think the early Nineteenth or late Eighteenth century had magic-users prominent. Perhaps, I had merely misread my own history books, I considered whimsically.



Waiters came out in white-gloved efficiency and presented each of us with a snifter of brandy. The clock at the end of the room chimes, and everybody starts, but restrains themselves. Then a carillon of bells rings out from outside with a pure, sweet beauty that wets the eyes.



The sound faded, and a young man jumped to his feet with a toast.

“To the Empress of space, Lady Athena, and her Red Lass, Queen Victoria, and the Land we love.”

Everybody stood and drank, and a vital union like a spark jumped from each to each encouraging us in love for these fine things. It was moving, and for me anyways, worrisome. What had I got myself into?



I let myself out walking past the statue at the door of Bombardier’s. The statue was the grey-eyed goddess herself, and I nodded in respect as I went by.



“Colonial.” I heard behind me. “Colonial sir.” Again the call, and so I turned to see a bellman dashing up the street with a package in his hand.

“Are you speaking to me?”

“Yes, sir.” He looked at my odd backpack, and doublechecked it against a piece of paper in his hand.

“Are you the one called Mr. Tad Day Oze?” He said difficultly warping my name, but not significantly.

I nodded affirmatively.

“Then this is yours, sir.” And he handed me a string-wrapped and wax sealed wooden box. The string wrapping struck me as unusually ornate, and probably magic. But I knew only a couple spells with ropes. One for mending, and another for making animate strangling cords.



I gave the fellow a pearl, which reminded me that except for the pirate loot, I was running low on valuable trading items. Then I took the box.

“We have had that ever since we founded. The only woman, other than the Queen and her priestesses to ever walk on our grounds gave it to the grandfather of the owner.”

He stood there obviously hoping that I would clear up the local mystery, but nothing came to me. I did not remember asking a friend to leave me an item somewhere that I might pick it up later.



Cautiously, I opened it. Inside, a brown metal gauntlet for the left hand lay waiting with a small, yellowed note.



“Dear Sir,

It is my understanding that this gauntlet is the one thrown down by Ares when he challenged our Lady for the dominion of the Earth. As such, it has been the duty of my priesthood to find a way to protect my world from its attempts to sow division so that the world may live in peace under the benevolent rule of the Red Lass; may she hold the Earth in her grasp for centuries to come. I understand by my visit to the Oracle at Winchester that you may have some means of saving the world by taking this from us. So, I have left this for you inside a great magic which is now spoiled.”



I brushed the glove with a protected finger, and still images of a ravaged London filled my brain. I could see the change coming in the bellboy. It was like flashes as he changed from second to second. One moment, cheerful and respectful; the next he stood there in a leather jacket with a chain wrapped around his hand while London burned behind him.



I understood the spell that had been cast on the happiest Empire the world ever knew. They stopped History. It was not 1890, but probably closer to 1990.



The temptation to slip on the glove was immense. Power to crush all my foes lay for the taking. My hands trembled as I looked into that wooden box.



I walked away without speaking for I had questions to answer. Was it better to leave these people locked in their own ways enchanted not to move forward? But that was false; it was more like being enchanted not to change.



Was it better to let them stay? Nazism versus Women’s Rights? Communism versus the death of Jim Crow? If I could stop the one, did I have to stop the other?



My gauntlet assured that I did, and it made it hard to think. The thing had a phenomenal will that pounded at me, and flung images into my mind, and seduced me with my vices. There was some thread of logic there to help me with my decision, but it kept that thread plucked. So, I staggered down the street such that a couple inquired if I was sick.



“No, well, sort-of.”

“Let’s help him, Charles, he reminds me of our great Kim.”

The gentleman assented, and gravely assisted me with skill to a park bench.

“You are right, he does look a lot like that great-grandson.” Said the charming fellow of about twenty-five.

“Athena bless you and heal you.” The woman chanted softly, and immediately I felt better, and more clear-thinking as the protective influence of the goddess of wisdom filled me.

“You have grand-children? How old are you?”

“My, what a question?” The lady who had healed me considered me impertinent, but Charles noted my deadly serious look, and he replied in kind.

“Last week was my one hundred ninetieth birhday.”

“Indeed great praise to Athena that she showed us how to develop our English magics. The Magic Revolution remade the world, and made it a better place. And best of all, it lets me and Charlie live for centuries together.” The lady said.

“But what of?” And I paused wondering how to bring this up. For all I knew, everybody in the world was scum, and the English sat on top in cruel splendor.

But then I looked at their fair and kind faces, and knew the gauntlet had been deceiving me again. Like it had with its images telling me that they had stopped History. They may have stopped history, but only in the sense that such people would likely be conservative, even a touch reactionary.



The thought occurred to me that they might need Chaos, but again looking at the peaceful street, and the sweet couple I could see no justification for unleashing war on this kindly world.



Poppycock, I told the gauntlet in response, and it subsided to consider other ways than supposedly high-minded arguements for random slaughter to bend me to its will.



“How do you treat the native, the black, the Jew? Do woman have the right to vote?”

“Once they pass their college courses in logic and history at the graduate level we allow any non-native born, even woman to vote. They are equal then.”

“Of course, a man of English stock has the vote from his fortieth birthday without any effort.”

“Of course.” The man said calmly, and the woman rolled her eyes.

“I’m fine.” I said and thanked them both. Indeed, I felt much better now that my decision was made.



They were not perfect, and they might have grown more slowly than we had in some respects, but considering the alternatives, and considering how thinly understood the lessons of equal justice had been in my land with anti-Semites and multikulti’s rising again then I found no ground to criticize them. Let them live, and me verse out.



My heart stopped with my help, and I woke upon a cold rock with my brain again fuzzy. Rocks, and moss fell away from me under the light of a cold white sun. And I looked at the gauntlet and could not understand how to put it on. I breathed but I did not understand that either.



All I knew was that I had to get rid of this Bad Thing. I dragged it in its box because I could not remember how to lift it, but I knew that word. I spent some time with no way of knowing how long trying to conjure up some information as to what the word “lift” meant.



After a time of pain, I came to a crevasse that went deep into the darkness. Laughing, I shoved the Bad Thing into the darkness. I did not hear it hit anything so it fell for a very long time.



I wondered why I laughed after a while, and then something in my body went wrong. The laughter stopped my breathing, and I could not understand how to clear my throat. Knowing that such “versing out” had happened before many times, I left the Bad Thing on a world where hopefully no one would ever have the brains to figure out how to put it on.



I did it for Lady, Lass, and Land, I reflected wondering what I was talking about. Versing out was a mercy since even as dumb as I was in that world, suffocation is not at all pleasant.



Tadeusz

  Not so long ago this series presented some thoughts on Partnership.  There the discussion was about the different meanings of the concept of working together.  But when I said that our disagreement about what it meant to work together was only part of the reason my wife and I had trouble doing so, that inherently implied that there was at least one other part to that reason.  That part of the reason has brought this article:  we have trouble working together because we don’t always agree on the same objectives.

  It is often the case in life that I will think the most important thing for us to be doing is this, and she thinks it’s that.  The conflict between my emphasis on this and hers on that can lead to some pretty serious fights when it is expressed; but most of the time it is not expressed–it is assumed.  If I think that this is obviously the most important thing, and she is convinced that that is, we probably aren’t going to talk about whether this or that is the thing to do, because it won’t occur to either of us that the other disagrees.  Let us suppose that there’s a hundred dollars.  I might think it obvious that we should use this money to fix the brakes on the car before they wear out.  She might think it just as obvious that the most important problem at the moment is to buy clothes that fit the child who has grown two inches since school started and so is wearing high water pants to school, much to his (not to mention her) embarrassment.  But since I’ve been talking about getting those brakes fixed for a couple of months, it doesn’t occur to me to say now that that’s what needs to be done; and since she can see that the boy’s pants are a bit too short she doesn’t imagine that it has escaped my notice (which, as we learned a few weeks back in Attention, can be very selective).  Thus we are both acting as if we knew the other had the same priorities at this moment, and are going to crash into each other soon enough when one of us starts trying to spend the money the other has earmarked for something which is either more or less important, depending on whose view you take.

  There is another layer of complication to this when that which one of us perceives as the most important thing to do has the additional element of being perceived as the most important thing for the other person to do.  It often happens that I find myself in Dutch for failing to do something which she thought was the most important thing, the thing that I would obviously recognize as the most important thing, the thing that any reasonable and sane person would do; and it never once occurred to me to do that.

  The Founding Fathers of America lived in an age in which Reason was often spelled with a capital R, because it had in some sense become deified, exalted above any sense of the divine.  The notion of legislative government was based on a belief that for everything there was one rational solution, that there was one rational way to run a town, a country, a world, and that if reasonable men got together and discussed it eventually they would all come to agree as Reason informed them of the One True Course.  Perhaps we have advanced; perhaps we are not so naïve.  However, it is worth asking why there is not one answer that all legislators will recognize as the One True Course for the country, the solution to all our problems.  The answer is that each has his own values, his own objectives.  To steer the ship of state on that One True Course, you have to agree on the destination, and on the necessary ports of call along the way.  We don’t agree on where to take the country, so it’s easy to see why we don’t agree on how to get there.  It is a clear case of the impact of different goals, contrary objectives, on cooperative action.  To work together, you have to agree on what you hope to accomplish.

  Consideration of the goals each character has in your game world can be an effective step toward achieving good stories and motivated play.  For player characters, it is clearly best for the players to be involved in determining what the character seeks to achieve, become, or acquire, both in life overall and in the short term of the current adventure.  Yet the referee can by becoming involved in such decisions steer play in important directions.

  Common goals can be a source of party cohesion.  If the player characters are all working toward the same objective, it usually makes sense for them to work together.  Whether this is as overarching as the ultimate defeat of evil in the world or as passing as the rescue of the princess from the dragon, the fact that the characters are trying to bring about the same outcome gives them incentive to cooperate, to pool their talents in a joint effort.

  On the other hand, common goals may be a source of rivalry or discord.  If two fighters each want to be the best in the land, at some point they are going to have to prove themselves against each other.  If the rescue of the princess is motivated by a hope that she will marry the rescuer, and more than one of those involved has that hope, there will be conflict between the potential suitors.  If the sought magical artifact can only be wielded by one user, finding it may be merely the beginning of the struggle.

  What is more interesting is the use of diverse goals within the party framework.  If your party is held together because everyone needs to go to the same dangerous place for different and possibly conflicting reasons, the closer they are to the reward the less they will agree as to how to proceed.  This leads to particularly interesting storylines, as player characters either fight amongst themselves for dominance, or (more hopefully) find compromises that will enable them as nearly as possible to fulfill the hopes of each.  On a broader scale, such disparity of goals can lead to promises that each will help the other, that is, the thief promises to go with the fighter to save the princess if the fighter agrees after that to assist the thief in recovering the heirloom stolen from his family.

  In all this, it is important to remember the non-player characters as well, particularly those who are most important to the party.  It is not uncommon for referees to have non-player party members–a valuable tool that provides a connection inside the party through which information can pass both directions.  Yet such characters often degenerate into functionaries who go with the others and do as they are told, without any real personality beyond a few characterizations (voice, attitude).  If these, too, are given goals, reasons why they are doing what they do beyond “well, this is what I went to school for”, they become more real within the game world.  Villains, too, have their goals.  Even the local innkeeper has his own hopes and dreams; an adventure could be built around a grateful character trying to help a helpful peasant have what he always wanted, but only if the peasant has such a desire and the character can discover it.

  The idea that character goals are an essential ingredient in story creation is being discovered by many of the newer games.  Ron Edwards’ Sorcerer is in part built on whether the character is willing to pay the price for what he desires.  Legends of Alyria, the game Seth Ben-Ezra introduced through his Gaming Outpost Dreaming Out Loud column (due out this year, according to the latest rumors), focuses much on who characters are and what they want.  These approaches create tensions between characters, and lead to the creation of compelling stories.  Better stories can be told in all games by paying attention to these aspects of the characters, and particularly in understanding when and how they mesh, and when and how they conflict.

  Divided goals don’t necessarily mean divided parties; unified goals don’t always mean unity.  Consideration of the goals of the characters is a valuable approach to building the relationships between them.

  Next week, something different.

—–

M. Joseph Young is co-author of Multiverser and Vice President for Development at Valdron Inc.  His many contributions to online literature are indexed for convenience, and he looks forward to discussing these things by e-mail or on our Gaming Outpost forums.