| From: | Pete Sims <petesims@********.demon.co.uk> |
|---|---|
| Subject: | Re: Screw the Players! |
| Date: | Sun, 22 Sep 1996 02:35:25 +0100 |
<fauxpas@******.net> writes
>At 05:26 PM 9/21/96 +0100, you wrote:
>>Some of you here may remember me posting a little trick I'd played on
>>one of my players, concerning a Medical ACPA he had purchased (I play
>>Shadowrun and liking the ACPA's converted them over - sorry), anyway,
>>he bought the unit for a small fortune, but was unaware that the power
>>pack was an optional extra (I seem to recall I got some boohs and hisses
>>for that one from you guys).
>>
>>The light dawns, the player looked at me and asked about the power unit,
>>should he have had it on charge..... <evil grin> "What power
unit" I
>>asked in as mild a tone as I could manage.
>>
>>Players screams, hurls abuse, bounces up and down in seat, produces
>>copious quantities of steam from various orifices, and questions my
>>natural habits and parentage (can't understand why :-)
>>
>>Other players follow a combination of slapping foreheads and "Burn -
>>damn you" glares at me.
>>
>>All in all, the run netted them 12,000 each, and cost them in excess of
>>75,000 - 100,000 each to replace vehicles and equipment. I was quite
>>pleased with the result, but for some strange reason I've been getting
>>hate mail ever since.
>>
>>Anyone got any ideas why????
>
>Let's see, the guy has an armored suit that you've implyed was the love of
>his life, he spends time and money on it, keeping it clean and ready and you
>screw him over.
>
That's right 8-)
>In all the time he had the suit, you don't think he'd power it up - even
>once - to see how the thing felt, to see how the machine moved? For
>preventive maintanence - seeing if the arm hadn't rusted in position? You
>don't think he'd check the charge on the suit - just once - to see if he's
>ready anytime he had to use it? How the hell did he get it in the RV? A
>crane? Why not just walk it into the RV? And all he did was just yell at you?
>
In all the time he had the suit, he never once stated that he was going
to carry out maintenance,power it up, play with it or any of the other
things normally associated with new toys, all he did was polish it, he
is a Paramedic, not a mechanic. The armour was mounted in the RV, by
the people who carried out the conversion, they told him how to release
it from the customised container section. They had no need to power up
the suit, it was delivered by the Fixer to them, the armour had been
biometrically attuned to Doc, as he didn't want to run the risk of
anyone stealing it. Also, a large suit of armour such as the medic
ACPA, is a teeny bit obvious, and he didn't really want to draw
attention to himself, by playing around with it anywhere, so it stayed
in the back of the RV until it was needed by him.
When he first approached a fixer to purchase the armour, he had already
played about in one, he used to work for Doc Wagon, in one of the combat
zones, so he knew how it felt. he didn't need to experiment with it. A
suit of armour like this needs a defined skill to drive it, he had
achieved that skill while working for Doc Wagon. As regards maintenance
or technical knowledge, that was not required by his character, Doc
Wagon have their own mechanics for that.
>And in the end, the runners have a loss of 63,000 to 88,000 nuyen and you're
>pleased with the result? I'm surprised that your gamers still let you GM.
>What is it? You have all the books? Nobody else wants to learn all the
>rules to GM? They can't find another group?
>
Yes I am pleased with the result it taught the players three valuable
lessons - 1) Never walk into a strange area without checking it out, 2)
Don't frag off corp sec and then announce where you're going to be next,
and 3) Never assume that the GM assumes anything.
If I was to assume that X player was doing such and such, and Y player
was doing so and so, I would end up playing the game with myself. I do
not make arbitrary decisions *FOR* player characters, they are either
doing something on their own, or they are doing nothing. I don't like
players who sit back and make the assumption that I will make decisions
for them, I have enough work keeping track of events in my game world,
without trying to get inside a players mind.
>To everyone else, I suppose this attitude of "Screw the Players over" comes
>from the ol' Wish spell in AD&D. (Has anyone ever had one of these cast
>without any adverse effects? "I wish I could fly." "Okay, large gas
bags
>about two feet in diameter form under your arms that allow you to fly. You
>expell gas out through gills in the sacs.")
>
Personally I outlawed the Wish spell in AD&D, as it was too powerful and
open to abuse.
>I personally feel that gaming is a shared experience where the GM acts not
>as the player's opponent, but something like the director in an improv
>theater with the players as actors. The GM shows the scene the characters
>inhabit, and plays the part of everyone the characters meet. The GM designs
>a plot for an adventure - this includes rewards for the characters as well
>as antagonists and other NPCs, some helpful, some not.
>
Agreed.
>Other people, I don't know. For some reason, some GMs take pleasure in
>finding ways to kill off the Player's characters or making the character's
>lives sheer hell. But all that gets you is Players leaving the table and
>never coming back.
>
The group of players I have at the moment, have been with me for nearly
three years now, so I must be doing something right. I don't plan ways
to kill off the players, they are perfectly adequate at doing that
themselves. I have only had one player leave the table never to return,
and that was because after consulting with the other players, I asked
him to leave, for reasons to complex to go into here. As for making the
characters lives a living hell, yes, that is a natural course of events
following their professions. They can *never* relax, they can *never*
lead a normal life - They are Shadowrunners, and by their very nature,
illegal and hunted, either by copr sec, or glory hounds. A Shadowrunner
is more likely to be burned out by middle age, than retired, assuming he
survives. By choice they live on the fringes of society, in the most
dangerous environment available, bar a full war zone.
During runs, PCs occassionally make enemies, these enemies do not
suddenly disappear at the end of the module, their feelings do not
suddenly change, just because the GM has got to the end of the book,
they are still out there, they may still bare a serious grudge against
the party, and depending on their resources, may still hunt them.
Shadowrun is not a cushy, cozy OK we've made 500,000 let's take a world
cruise, and visit all the posh establishments. After a particularly
lucrative and serious run, I would be very surprised if the PCs didn't
have to go to ground for a while.
>The Game Master is several things: Referee, Arbiter, Storyteller, Set
>Designer, Actor, and Neutral. It's not a case of the Game Master against
>the Players. A GM's character (NPC) could be against a Player's character
>(PC), but it's never the Game Master himself against the Players.
>
Agreed.
The players exist inside a world created by the Gamesmasters
imagination, that world is fleshed out and becomes real with the
Gamesmasters skill in the storytelling, I have had players in a cold
sweat, cheering, and close to tears, depending on the situation. I'm
not blowing my own trumpet, it's just that I put everything I have into
the game to make the situation and NPCs seem as real as possible. One
player has just recently lost a loved one in the game, that led to an
emotionally charged evening, that ended up with him thrusting a fist in
the air and shouting "YES" when he got the guy responsible.
Having said all that, it is usually the GM against the Players, The GM
is doing his best to outwit and confuse the players, and teh PCs are
doing their best to outwit the GM, and solve whatever puzzles he/she has
thrown at them.
>Besides, you - the Game Master - don't need to screw the Player's characters
>over. Usually the PCs will take care of that themselves. :)
>
Yes they do, see note above regarding assuming things.
I am very generous with money and occassionally karma if I feel they
have earned it. I do not go out every week to "kill" or "screw over"
the PCs, that is *too* easy. Any GM can kill a group of players,
without really trying, or having to think about it. The trick is to
frag with the players, but keep them on the hook, and this is something
I'm pretty good at. All told I've been into role-playing for 20 years,
and GMing for 15. Most of my players are the same people I started with
all those years ago, I occassionally am called upon to GM for a local
gaming group, and have established myself as being a fair, if tough GM
there as well. So I don't feel that I have been doing too much wrong.
(You may also notice the Smileys that were attached to my previous post)
>
>Everyone wants to go to Heaven, but no one wants to die.
>
Who want's to go to heaven, that's where all the good people go, I wann
join the raging party in Hell, where all the fun people go. after all,
who wants to wear a dress and play a harp for eternity?
--
Pete Sims
Civilisation advances by extending the number of important operations which we
can perform without thinking about them.
