My old friend Dean used to complain about any setting that required a lot of knowledge of setting. "I don't want to read a novel to have to play." Oddly enough, he loved using Forgotten Realms as a setting, but that may be because it was such a generic D&D setting. While you could read a ton about the setting, you didn't necessarily need to do anything other than roll up a character and start playing.
This is always a challenge for home-brew Referees, especially those who use more unusual settings. While the weird and distinctive parts of any setting are what makes it come alive, these things are also the barriers that keep players from feeling like they can just dive in. Consider the difference between Forgotten Realms and say Tekúmel or Glorantha. FR is popular and generally seen as accessible, largely because it seems intuitive to D&D players and anyone who has read a lot of pseudo-Tolkienian heroic fantasy. It's a mish-mash of popular fantasy fiction tropes and contemporary social conventions, and thus is easy to just take in stride. The others have developed societies that seem to have their own cultural assumptions that make it hard to know how to interact. In fact, in Tekúmel, improper social action may have dire consequences — which is certainly where the original idea in the first edition of EPT had characters start out as barbarians.
Now, the original RQ and EPT had far less fluff and developed background than just about any edition of FR. So the truth isn't so much about "reading a novel" as Dean put it, but in how much effort the player has to put in just to do things in character. The real issue is whether playing in your game world is an effort or not. Even if your game s worth the extra work, RPGs are a recreational activity, and as such, it's reasonable to ask if the effort of entry is worth the level of fun had.
The solution is not to eliminate interesting and involved game world background. However, the thing to remember as a referee is that background and immersion are your job to create, rather than putting the onus on players. Structure your early sessions to introduce and reinforce elements of the setting rather than expecting players to read your campaign handout. By giving meaningful demonstrations of the weirdness of the world in-game, then it becomes more real, more manageable, and less like homework.
I agree with your buddy. I wanna sit down and start playing. I don't want the DM to say, before we begin I need to tell you two hours of backstory. Interesting and involved backstory should be revealed during play.
ReplyDeleteOn the one hand, I agree. On the other hand.. "RPGs are a recreational activity" for the DM as well as the players. If the DM is going to put hours into creating a world, asking the players to take 20 minutes to read a few pages of handouts shouldn't be considered such an atrocious burden. Especially when these same players would probably spend hours poring over the books of a published setting if they thought it would give their characters an advantage.
ReplyDeleteIt's one thing of the players would be just as happy in FR and the DM insists on using only their lovingly-crafted homebrew creation, but if the players want something different than the published settings, they should be expected to put in at least a minimum of effort.
IMNSHO, being a DM is a thankless job, and them's the breaks. Hours of prep create no obligation on the part of the players to care about that work. Those hours of prep should be fun on their own, and their own reward for the DM. The only fun that counts for the group is the group experience. Reading handouts is passive, and weak sauce. If the DM is the only one who has fun, then demanding everyone to participate sucks for everyone else. You want a really immersive game, then make those background details come alive in play. You could tell them about the two moons in play, but it's more important as a backdrop for a night-time rooftop chase. You could mention the weird fauna and flora of the world, but it's more meaningful for them to evade a t-rex on the back of a speeding parasaurolophus through a forest of purple fungi. But a 20-minute read is just homework.
ReplyDeleteI think the DM needs to present the setting to the players in the same way an author, playwrite or filmmaker would. You aren't expected to read 20 minutes of setting info before watching a play. The setting gets revealed through the characters interactions with it.
ReplyDeleteI guess I'm a freak; I like giving hand outs at character creation time. My current D&D game had a home-brewed history that spanned several pages. I gave them to my players, we took a week or so before a character creation session, and they rolled up their PC's.
ReplyDeleteIt worked for us; my players really got immersed in the story elements and now my fiancee is wanting to expand on different areas of the world.
Its funny but I wouldn't even think of running or playing a medieval fantasy game in any setting other than a homebrew universe these days for the very same reason.
ReplyDeleteI want to learn about the place as I go. With a place like the Forgotten Realms or Middle Earth I'm always terrified of getting burned at the stake if I forget that Waterdeep isn't north of Gondor or what have you.
At the same time, my favorite game setting is Star Trek. Why? Well, you take the familiar troupes and elements with you - Phasers, Transporters, Vulcans, your Starship - and than you go far away from the places you about from any of the previous material and discover new things. You essentially wrap yourself in a sleeping bag of the familiar and than go camping where no one has gone before.
When you go to a film, your input isn't necessary. How can players create characters with zero knowledge of the setting? Revealing setting detail through play is great, but if some basic level of understanding is required for character generation (and your setting can't be all that unique if it isn't), how do you suggest you communicate it to the players?
ReplyDeleteI usually start games in new settings off with one-shots with pregenned characters to help with that somewhat, but that's not always a viable option and you can't always communicate all the essential info in a single session.
I would not be happy with a film I had to study up to understand, nor would I be happy with a film that had no narrative for the first reel, only background.
ReplyDeleteEven Barker's original EPT suggested that you start characters out as barbarians with little in the way of connections to the main society or understanding, and that they learn their way in the world by interacting with it. And EPT is the archetypal weird campaign setting.
In most of the games I have experience with huge piles of handouts and background, things grind to a halt as everyone tries to remember some important detail they think they need to play. I still think the world needs to unfold. Your players don't really need to know a history of the last five centuries, the geography of multiple nations, and the types of food people eat (which is a funny thing to say, since my own essays on Athanor include an article on food.) But the custom of masks won't get talked about until they walk into a city and see masked people. My discussion of food will happen when they sit down to a meal. My discussion of the Zamoran great families will only happen when the families show up in the game.
Much of that will happen as the first game begins. I don't expect the players to come up with background on their characters before they sit down (not that that's bad, but I personally think that the characters as they grow are more interesting than an assumed background they start with) and I would start the campaign in broad strokes and (frankly) change it based on how my players interact with the world as I had originally envisioned it.
Part of this is that I see the RPG itself less as being placed in a set world, but to arise out of a jazz-like improvisation that comes out of the interaction of DM and players. The campaign is a rough set of notes and impressions, with some set things that I want. The rest evolves based on contact and gaze.
If the players in my game can't be bothered to read the campaign background sheet and use it to make up interesting and appropriate characters, they can go the frack home.
ReplyDeleteMy introduction is something like "It's D&D, but on a planet like Flash Gordon and the comics in Heavy Metal magazine." before letting the players negociate the world. I do have multiple copies of the setting gazeteer at the table for the players to reference, and that seems to help a lot.
ReplyDeletePS Doug: Got a look at the lulu edition of Savage Swords of Athanort on the weekend, you did a great job!! Very classy, clean layout as well.
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ReplyDeleteWickedmurph,
ReplyDeleteAn actual sheet seems reasonable. Though, personally, I still think it should be something that could be gone over at the table. A booklet, a binder, or a some such seems unreasonable to me. That's the kind of homework I dislike. Like trying to us Glorantha or Tekumel and punishing players for not having proper knowledge of the minutiae of culture....
Blair,
I like your example. Thanks for the kind words on the book.
Doug: You are very welcome. My reaction while reading was "I want to play in an Athanor game! (which isn't surprised considering our shared interests) I found the booklet very well organized and readable as well as inspiring.
ReplyDeleteOne thing I noticed, and I'm unsure if it is a mistake, is that the damage for a laser pistol is 2d6 in one entry and 1d6+6 in another.
Regardless, I love it.