From the article archive
Expanding an Idea: Did he say Orthography ?
When I read the title to Mark’s latest article,Orthography, I thought: “What the hell is Orthography? I should know what that is… but I can’t remember.”
I like to think I’m a smart guy, but there are some things that I just don’t know, or vaguely remember and can’t quite put my finger on. I’m sure everyone has had that feeling at one time or another. You see something you should know, but for whatever reason you can’t come up with the information you need. That feeling reminded me, of course, about gaming.
There are sometimes when I want the players to really investigate something, or I want to give them a creepy feeling, or when I want to throw a good old red herring their way. One of the tools I use for this is the “I should know what that is but don’t” feeling. Time for an example.
I had developed an NPC that I wanted to use as a red herring for my Vampire game. The plot was going along nicely, but I wanted to mix things up a bit and keep the players on their toes. So one night while the PCs were in a night club looking for an informant they ask me “Do we see anyone who doesn’t belong?”
I’d been waiting for that question. It was exactly what I needed to bring out my NPC red herring.
“Most of the crowd looks like they fit in, all dressed in their club clothes… but there is one guy who seems a bit out of place.”
“Why? Is he dressed strange?”
“Not really, but there’s something in his face, or maybe the way he holds that glass of expensive scotch that you haven’t seen him drink from yet… when he sees you looking at him he turns his back to you.”
“Gotta be the informant.”
“Or it could be someone who’s uncomfortable with being stared at?”
“Doubt it, gotta be our guy.”
And it was on. The PCs had a very fun encounter with a man who was there to assassinate the club owner for ratting him out to the cops 10 years ago and landing him in prison. The NPC was evasive to their questions, and acted just like a man who had something to hide. Which was only right because he did have something to hide. A .44 mag semi-auto handgun and murderous intentions to be precise.
By interacting with that NPC, the players also allowed me to advance my plot a step. I didn’t want the informant captured or killed yet – and if I hadn’t thrown the PCs off his trail for a bit they would have found him in the club that night. This way I found was much more elegant and made for some fun roleplaying.
Even if the NPC is someone that the PCs know and have talked to before – you can throw a word like Orthography at them during conversation, or allude to something and then wave it off like it’s no big deal, even pretending you never said it.
“I can see your point, but obviously no one would try to follow in the footsteps of Anthas.”
“Who?”
“The great pagan from Denmark? Anyway, it’s time for me to leave, I have other pressing engagements this evening.”
Such an exchange, if done at the right time, can send your PCs off on a hunt for something that may or may not have anything to do with what they should be doing. Which is not only a lot of fun for the GM, but adds another level of realism to your game.
The real world is full of stuff that isn’t really connected. People will drop names, bring up things that have no relevance to the topic at hand, make up facts and use big words incorrectly in an attempt to sound intelligent. Players will soon realize that they can’t just blindly follow every “clue” you through out, they need to think a bit first.
This is also something players can do to throw NPCs or other PCs of their trail. Drop some names, make up facts, whatever you think might be handy at the time. The only hitch is the GM will need to remember that when he is playing the NPC he doesn’t know you are lying unless the NPC would know. If The GM doesn’t/won’t do this, it won’t work.
The other thing the GM needs to do if/when the players pull this trick is to remember that you might have to tweak your plot a bit to accommodate the new “truth.” If the info the PC gives out would cause your NPC to go off in a wrong direction, let that happen. It doesn’t have to be for a long time and it doesn’t have to ruin your plot, but by letting it happen you give the players the idea that their actions count and they have a direct impact on the game world - And that’s a great feeling.
Oh, and I actually did look it up and found that Orthography means:
1.The art or study of correct spelling according to established usage.
2.The aspect of language study concerned with letters and their sequences in words.
3.A method of representing a language or the sounds of language by written symbols; spelling.
Well, that’s enough out of me. See you in the forums!
I like to think I’m a smart guy, but there are some things that I just don’t know, or vaguely remember and can’t quite put my finger on. I’m sure everyone has had that feeling at one time or another. You see something you should know, but for whatever reason you can’t come up with the information you need. That feeling reminded me, of course, about gaming.
There are sometimes when I want the players to really investigate something, or I want to give them a creepy feeling, or when I want to throw a good old red herring their way. One of the tools I use for this is the “I should know what that is but don’t” feeling. Time for an example.
I had developed an NPC that I wanted to use as a red herring for my Vampire game. The plot was going along nicely, but I wanted to mix things up a bit and keep the players on their toes. So one night while the PCs were in a night club looking for an informant they ask me “Do we see anyone who doesn’t belong?”
I’d been waiting for that question. It was exactly what I needed to bring out my NPC red herring.
“Most of the crowd looks like they fit in, all dressed in their club clothes… but there is one guy who seems a bit out of place.”
“Why? Is he dressed strange?”
“Not really, but there’s something in his face, or maybe the way he holds that glass of expensive scotch that you haven’t seen him drink from yet… when he sees you looking at him he turns his back to you.”
“Gotta be the informant.”
“Or it could be someone who’s uncomfortable with being stared at?”
“Doubt it, gotta be our guy.”
And it was on. The PCs had a very fun encounter with a man who was there to assassinate the club owner for ratting him out to the cops 10 years ago and landing him in prison. The NPC was evasive to their questions, and acted just like a man who had something to hide. Which was only right because he did have something to hide. A .44 mag semi-auto handgun and murderous intentions to be precise.
By interacting with that NPC, the players also allowed me to advance my plot a step. I didn’t want the informant captured or killed yet – and if I hadn’t thrown the PCs off his trail for a bit they would have found him in the club that night. This way I found was much more elegant and made for some fun roleplaying.
Even if the NPC is someone that the PCs know and have talked to before – you can throw a word like Orthography at them during conversation, or allude to something and then wave it off like it’s no big deal, even pretending you never said it.
“I can see your point, but obviously no one would try to follow in the footsteps of Anthas.”
“Who?”
“The great pagan from Denmark? Anyway, it’s time for me to leave, I have other pressing engagements this evening.”
Such an exchange, if done at the right time, can send your PCs off on a hunt for something that may or may not have anything to do with what they should be doing. Which is not only a lot of fun for the GM, but adds another level of realism to your game.
The real world is full of stuff that isn’t really connected. People will drop names, bring up things that have no relevance to the topic at hand, make up facts and use big words incorrectly in an attempt to sound intelligent. Players will soon realize that they can’t just blindly follow every “clue” you through out, they need to think a bit first.
This is also something players can do to throw NPCs or other PCs of their trail. Drop some names, make up facts, whatever you think might be handy at the time. The only hitch is the GM will need to remember that when he is playing the NPC he doesn’t know you are lying unless the NPC would know. If The GM doesn’t/won’t do this, it won’t work.
The other thing the GM needs to do if/when the players pull this trick is to remember that you might have to tweak your plot a bit to accommodate the new “truth.” If the info the PC gives out would cause your NPC to go off in a wrong direction, let that happen. It doesn’t have to be for a long time and it doesn’t have to ruin your plot, but by letting it happen you give the players the idea that their actions count and they have a direct impact on the game world - And that’s a great feeling.
Oh, and I actually did look it up and found that Orthography means:
1.The art or study of correct spelling according to established usage.
2.The aspect of language study concerned with letters and their sequences in words.
3.A method of representing a language or the sounds of language by written symbols; spelling.
Well, that’s enough out of me. See you in the forums!
Recovered from the Gaming Outpost database backup. Original wording is preserved; damaged punctuation and presentation markup have been repaired. Historical links without a local match point to the Internet Archive.