| From: | Geoff Skellams <geoff.skellams@*********.COM.AU> |
|---|---|
| Subject: | Re: Tournament GMing |
| Date: | Wed, 6 May 1998 10:56:20 +1000 |
> Thanks for the response from everyone, but I want to single out Geoff
> Skellams for special notice. An excellent post not only for Con GMing
but
> also for normal GMing. Thanks for taking some extra time out to write
an
> extended post.
>
You're welcome :) Besides, it gave me a twenty or so minute
break from C++. I'm just glad that years of experience can sometimes be
useful :)
> It sounds like I'll probably be fine; I tend to focus more on story
than
> mechanics anyway. If it's a good idea and makes sense with the PC in
> question, I very often simply allow it to happen or let them roll some
dice
> and unless they roll all 1s and 2s, let it happen.
>
Sounds like a perfectly good way to run things, especially at a
con. If you can dispense with the rules altogether, it's even better. At
cons, I tend to use the system for the background, rather than the
mechanics. I generate the characters &c according to the rules so they
are reasonably balanced, but once play starts, normally I leave them
behind.
> Here's a second question though, and this isn't just for Cons.
>
> SR combat, especially when you have 6 or more players, can bog down
and
> take a lot of time. Combats of 10 or more people can sometimes take
an
> hour or more unless at least on character is a major ass-kicker.
>
> Anyway around this? I don't want alternate combat rules or anything,
the
> system works okay as is, but are there any suggestions on how to speed
> combat up? I've pondered this question for years when my brain gets
spare
> processing time. Haven't really come up with an answer.
The approach I use is to avoid large scale confrontations. The
more people you have involved, the slower (and less real) the situation
is going to be for the players.
As an example, I GMed a run a couple of years back for a group
of friends. It was based on a scenario in the Twilight:2000 "Special
Operations" supplement. The campaign was set in London, but for this
mission, I sent them to Germany (which immediately upset the druid
character in the group).
The characters were given the task of infiltrating a research
facility and hooking a mainframe computer to the Matrix for a couple of
hours. Now, while the group included a decker, I didn't want the players
to do the matrix run. Their job was just to break in, hook it up, wait 2
hours, unhook the mainframe and get out again. All with zero residual
presence, which was the most important part of the whole run.
The characters managed to come up with a decent plan, with the
decker, 2 phys-ads and sorcerous adept entering the compound, while the
druid ran astral overwatch and the rigger kept a watch on the physical
plane. The active group managed to use invisibility cast by the adept to
get past the sec guards in the building and managed to hook the
mainframe up at the correct time.
While they were waiting, a second team of ex-KGB cybergrunts
entered the building on a similar mission. However, *their* brief was to
make it look like an attack of a terrorist organisation. So they offed
the sec-guards and started spraying slogans all over the walls. The
runners in the computer room were starting to sh*t bricks by this stage,
as they couldn't leave and they couldn't go toe-to-toe with the other
party, who were all heavily cybered. So they hid under the false floor
of the computer room.
Meanwhile, the druid on astral overwatch was trying to figure
out a way to stop the enemy sam who had broken into the administrators
house and who was trying to kill the admistrators small daughter. It
ended up with her manifesting as a raven and telling the admin's
bodyguard where the enemy was and allowing him to shoot through the wall
at point blank range (the raven managed to manifest halfway through the
wall, and used her wing to indicate where the sam's head was).
Through some clever use of illusion generated noises and the
like, the main group managed to kill the invaders and get out alive
(including one of the sams jamming his katana through the false floor
and skewering one of the enemy. Most of it was done with roleplaying
though, rather than dice rolling. Some of it may have been a bit
munchkinous, but it made for a good story, so I let them get away with
it.
All of the players really enjoyed that run. The tension levels
were really high and there was a lot of roleplaying on everyone's part.
I guess the point I am trying to make at this point is try to
create situations where the player's aren't going to get into a shootout
with some enemy force. It's much better to get them into a situation
where they are going to have to be really clever to get out alive and
getting into a shooting match doesn't count as clever. The added bonus
with this sort of appraoch is that it really increases the roleplaying
potential of a given game.
hope this helps as well
Geoff
--
Geoff Skellams R&D - Tower Software
Email Address: geoff.skellams@*********.com.au
Homepage: http://www.towersoft.com.au/staff/geoff/
ICQ Number: 2815165
"That rates about a 9.5 on my weird-shit-o-meter"
- Will Smith in "Men in Black"
