Back to the main page

Mailing List Logs for ShadowRN

Message no. 1
From: Tom Pendergrast <pendergr@***.EDU>
Subject: Re: gaming philosophies
Date: Wed, 08 May 1996 18:59:07 -0700 (PDT)
> Should see what we do... Aside from one group (which has a lot of people who
> don't quite know the game well enough to do so yet) all of our characters
> have a minimum of 5 pages of background (I'm talking typed here, not written).

((WOW!!))

<snip>

((Its really nice to see that there are actual role-players still left
out there... I am disheartened by the hordes of powergamers out there
that call themselves role-players only because they are playing a
ROLE-PLAYING game...

In the campaign that we are starting this june, we have been
working on our chars since september... developing history, the 20
questions, contacts, family, friends, reasons for 'running, do they
'run?, would they kill, attitudes... I even got bonus karma from my GM
for writing a two-page "ShadowFile" from the corporation that
studied/experimented on my char... I haven't even played the char yet,
and already I have his entire essence defined, understood and ready to
go... its pretty cool...))

---Tom---
Message no. 2
From: LOGGING V <LOGGING_5@**_AUI.DECAUX.VNO.mts.dec.com>
Subject: Re: gaming philosophies
Date: Thu, 09 May 1996 06:24:14 +0000 (GMT)
Whoa.
My regards for your throughout preperation.
Where does one get plkayers like you.I really appreciate this kind of effort
as GM.
My philosophy regarding GMing really needs characters with backgrounds because
I want the runs and stories specifically grafted onto the members of my players'
shadowteam.
Works great if there are people like you.
D-COY
Message no. 3
From: TopCat <topcat@******.net>
Subject: Re: gaming philosophies
Date: Thu, 9 May 1996 16:46:26 -0500
>[snipped bits about how to get players to write out histories]

There are so many players out there who know exactly who their character is,
but never take the time to write out everything or don't feel confident that
they'll write anything "good". A lot of our character histories can seem
like babble sometimes, but after you've read the thing, you know the
character and that's all that really matters.

I'm a writer-wannabe, so I love to do this kind of stuff. I'd bet if you
asked your players about their characters they could tell you about them in
a fair amount of detail, even though they'd never really written any of it
out. Once you get them started thinking about their characters (and maybe
awarded them karma for background) many people will write out solid
histories. It's all just a matter of time and effort. I have way too much
time, so there's my deal.

>My philosophy regarding GMing really needs characters with backgrounds because
>I want the runs and stories specifically grafted onto the members of my
players'
>shadowteam.

That's the best way to run it AFAIK. Better backgrounds lead to better
runs, which means more fun for everyone. It also brings the player more
into contact with the game, which is what roleplaying's about. Good luck!

--------------------------------------------------------
* Bob Ooton -- <topcat@******.net> *
* Golden Tiger Association -- Submission Fighting Team *
--------------------------------------------------------
* All you need to start up an insane asylum is *
* an empty room and the right kind of people *
--------------------------------------------------------
Message no. 4
From: PDL@****.dacom.co.kr
Subject: Re: gaming philosophies
Date: Fri, 10 May 96 09:25:01 PDT
---------------Original Message---------------
>[snipped bits about how to get players to write out histories]

There are so many players out there who know exactly who their character is,
but never take the time to write out everything or don't feel confident that
they'll write anything "good". A lot of our character histories can seem
like babble sometimes, but after you've read the thing, you know the
character and that's all that really matters.

I'm a writer-wannabe, so I love to do this kind of stuff. I'd bet if you
asked your players about their characters they could tell you about them in
a fair amount of detail, even though they'd never really written any of it
out. Once you get them started thinking about their characters (and maybe
awarded them karma for background) many people will write out solid
histories. It's all just a matter of time and effort. I have way too much
time, so there's my deal.

--------------------------------------------------------
* Bob Ooton -- <topcat@******.net> *
----------End of Original Message----------
How do you write a history with in the framework of a GMs campaign? Do you work with the
GM? I ask this because I have
never have a GM (or group of players for that matter) work on a character background.
Those few backgrounds I have seen were totally incompatible with the campaign.

Patrick
Message no. 5
From: Tom Pendergrast <pendergr@***.EDU>
Subject: Re: gaming philosophies
Date: Thu, 09 May 1996 20:42:12 -0700 (PDT)
---
How do you write a history with in the framework of a GMs campaign? Do you
work with the GM? I ask this because I have never have a GM (or group of
players for that matter) work on a character background. Those few backgrounds
I have seen were totally incompatible with the campaign.
---

For the last 9 months, my friends and I have been setting up a SRII
campaign over E-mail, from Michigan to Ellensburg (WA) to
Olympia...skipping over some early stuff... when it when te GM asked for
char backgrounds, we wrote them up, and sent them. He then sent them
back with comments and no-no's and different ideas... we then revised
it... again going through, and putting in things that made the character
better... yeah, its generally good to work with the GM... and
communicating with the GM, getting feedback on 'runs is good too... even
in the middle of them (coffe/pop/chips break)...


---Tom---
Message no. 6
From: LOGGING V <LOGGING_5@**_AUI.DECAUX.VNO.mts.dec.com>
Subject: Re: gaming philosophies
Date: Fri, 10 May 1996 05:31:16 +0000 (GMT)
Sure,writing out a complete curriculum vitae is not strictly necessary for a
player.I do insist however that a player tells me exactly what his character
did up to the point where we begin gaming.There are players who will remember
their character's background like their own.I've even had one or two players
who developed really colourful backgrounds so deeply involved with the SR
game-world that they were a positive enhancement for my campaign.
Types like that are rare however.
D-COY
Message no. 7
From: Tom Pendergrast <pendergr@***.EDU>
Subject: Re: gaming philosophies
Date: Fri, 10 May 1996 14:26:48 -0700 (PDT)
> Sure,writing out a complete curriculum vitae is not strictly necessary for a
> player.I do insist however that a player tells me exactly what his character
> did up to the point where we begin gaming.There are players who will remember
> their character's background like their own.

((YEah yeah yEAh!! Me tOo!! I'll get to the pont with some of my char's
where I remember as much of their life as it seems I do mine... now
that's not as extreme as it sounds... and it makes for great gaming...

> I've even had one or two players
> who developed really colourful backgrounds so deeply involved with the SR
> game-world that they were a positive enhancement for my campaign.
> Types like that are rare however.

((yuP! wE bE fEw AnD fAr BeTwEen... heh heh heh..one of my old chars (my
really badass one) had a background that went, in detail, from high
school to the pont he started 'running... including his previous
employment ( Ares KE ), and the things that I had weren't just 'went to
high school', 'worked as a security guard' things, they were very
detailed like "Worked at Ares, eventually working for KE... began
designing SS in ... " etc...etc.. I could go on but there is more than I
could begin to type... the more detailed and 'into' the game world you
het (SRII or otherwise) the more of a feel for the game you get, and it
becomes much more fun...))


---Tom---
Message no. 8
From: TopCat <topcat@******.net>
Subject: Re: gaming philosophies
Date: Fri, 10 May 1996 23:57:23 -0500
>How do you write a history with in the framework
>of a GMs campaign? Do you work with the GM? I
>ask this because I have never have a GM (or group
>of players for that matter) work on a character
>background. Those few backgrounds I have seen
>were totally incompatible with the campaign.

We write histories based on the campaign, so I guess I should start there...

We have many different campaigns since, as a group, we despise the thought
of improbably linked-up groups (we once had a group where everyone was of a
different nationality, that was the first, and last, of its kind). So we
decide what sort of campaign we want to play first.

Since a couple of the campaigns have just (within the past 24 hours) come to
a grinding halt, there is really only one currently active among our players
and that is my "detective" campaign. The players are private detectives
working out of Seattle and...there's really too much to go into, but here's
the basics: It's a dark game, low-power, where skills that are sometimes
overlooked become very important. The players actually have to do detective
work, which means actual thought instead of dice rolls. I also rarely award
karma, awarding skill points or stat points instead. There's always at
least one point of karma that the player can spend as he wishes but the rest
end up in campaign-related skills/stats. Dice are used only when absolutely
necessary.

All the characters have full backgrounds that lead to a certain point, the
forming of the detective agency. What they did before that will be
reflected in their skills, stats, and roleplaying.

Anyway, that an example of how we get games going. We start with the
campaign, make characters for the campaign, adjust the little details of the
campaign and the characters until they gel, and then we've got a game going.
It's a lot easier than it sounds and much more rewarding than "we're going
to play Shadowrun, make up a character".

--------------------------------------------------------
* Bob Ooton -- <topcat@******.net> *
* Golden Tiger Association -- Submission Fighting Team *
--------------------------------------------------------
* All you need to start up an insane asylum is *
* an empty room and the right kind of people *
--------------------------------------------------------
Message no. 9
From: LOGGING V <LOGGING_5@**_AUI.DECAUX.VNO.mts.dec.com>
Subject: Re: gaming philosophies
Date: Mon, 13 May 1996 09:33:49 +0000 (GMT)
> I've even had one or two players
> who developed really colourful backgrounds so deeply involved with the SR
> game-world that they were a positive enhancement for my campaign.
> Types like that are rare however.

((yuP! wE bE fEw AnD fAr BeTwEen... heh heh heh..one of my old chars (my
really badass one) had a background that went, in detail, from high
school to the pont he started 'running... including his previous
employment ( Ares KE ), and the things that I had weren't just 'went to
high school', 'worked as a security guard' things, they were very
detailed like "Worked at Ares, eventually working for KE... began
designing SS in ... " etc...etc.. I could go on but there is more than I
could begin to type... the more detailed and 'into' the game world you
het (SRII or otherwise) the more of a feel for the game you get, and it
becomes much more fun...))


---Tom---
You sure are a proffesional player Tom.
Lucky the GM who's got you in his/her group ;-)

Further Reading

If you enjoyed reading about gaming philosophies, you may also be interested in:

Disclaimer

These messages were posted a long time ago on a mailing list far, far away. The copyright to their contents probably lies with the original authors of the individual messages, but since they were published in an electronic forum that anyone could subscribe to, and the logs were available to subscribers and most likely non-subscribers as well, it's felt that re-publishing them here is a kind of public service.

Thwap!