Running a game for Two Players - By Design and Unexpected

Running a role-playing game with a limited number of players has some challenging problems. If the game was designed from the outset to be played by just two players, then that is fine because the adventure will be keyed around the duo's personality, limitations and the playing style of both the GM and players, there may even be an element of rotation amongst the players and GM. Players need to be aware that with limited players it will require full input from everyone.

Of course if its an accident or bad timing that turns a six player group down to two, then this will also need to be discussed with the players too. have had experience of running games with reduced player numbers in the 7th Sea campaign setting, and in both instances the experience was different. Essentially the game can go one of two ways. (a) either one or both characters take the lead in creating their own story and entertain themselves with the GM acting as the 'bounce' or (b) where the GM entertains the players and has to be prepared to burn through tons of material each session. If found the best way is to announce to the remaining players of the situation and ask them what they wish to do. Carry on with the story (b) or (a) create their own little private adventure to laugh about while the other players have gone away. I find (a) can be very self indulgent and hard to bring to a satisfactory conclusion, but (b) whilst serving the story, prevents the other players from learning of the plot movement, but its the amount of written material this can get through. One way to avoid this is to slow the pace down and become more descriptive.
 

In a two player designed game, both the characters and adventure needs to be tailored to the players and GM, whereas an unexpected two player game will require careful amendment to the adventure to ensure they don't get caught out. I.e. a big fight suddenly becomes a sneak and hide session.

One final observation is when a small group of a DM and two players (especially those two who have decided to multi-class and thereby reduce the speed at which they progress their character) expands to a larger group, usually through invitation etc, suddenly these multi-classed characters will fall foul of the other players who rise rapidly through the levels and have the potential to overrun the main original two heroes.

There is a final 3rd variant to this, which I do not recommend, I have tried it once and it didnt really work (oddly I love Ars Magica for this very reason, and my own developed Dune game uses this a foundational point) which is whereby each player has 2 or more characters, either as part of the party of as secondary or supporting characters in other locations.

The Group is Back - Only Temporary

I ran into my partner in RPG Crime, Gurth.

It wasnt a long meeting, but we did agree that (a) we need to get back on our bikes and lose weight again (b) we need to start gaming again as well, even if it only lasts while my wife is away on holiday.

We are going to try and run as many one-offs as possible, big stories and big games.

Fiasco, Paranoia, 3:16, Polaris.

I intend to look through my RPG collection, especially the indie games and find something that works, even just one time.

This looks like a great weapon for a Western RPG such as Deadlands.

What I particularly like is the 4 shot possibility, plus the added advantage of being able to use any calibre bullet you happen to find to shot rather than bullets which just fit your particular pistol.

The only disadvantage I see is the single shot nature of the gun, i.e. its no 6-shot revolver or pump action shotgun.

Review - Clash of Wills for the Vampire The Dark Ages Horror RPG

Billed as a Dark Ages Vampire Starting Adventure to inspire any new or existing game group, this 40 page softcover book is set in the Midlands of England with the Vampires working for Mithras, Prince of London attempting to convince a dying Lord to leave his lands and property to Mithras, rather than the Brujah of the region.

As with most of the White Wolf role-playing “horror” games, I’ve always found them to be fascinating to read, but am always left wondering what the hell am I going to do with this? I have had extensive experience and interest in running historical games as well as Werewolf:The Apocalypse, so I knew the rules and can handle big, effective characters. But this little adventure should have been something special, a springboard to other great things, but despite an open ended system of encounters, with many lead ins and a couple of lead outs, and optional encounters, its essentially a rail-roaded adventure with little real flair or feeling for the setting. It does provide opportunities to take the adventure beyond the setting, but these are no more than sentences at the end campaign book rather than fleshed out stories and adventures, and certainly not a springboard to a campaign. It does, for example, hint that the heroes could follow the Brujah back to the midlands but there is nothing more written on the subject or the setting in any of the Dark Ages publications.

 

Another feature of the adventure is that it is meant for new and inexperienced storytellers, but instead of helping out as a good introductory adventure should, it instead becomes a burden upon the storyteller to keep track of half a dozen NPCs and their motivations and opinions of each of the players. Whilst this may be the de-facto in every Vampire game, to push this straight onto a new storyteller without some advice on handling this aspect now and in the future is a little disappointing. A simple introduction of a chart, table or form to assist the storyteller in deciding how each of the NPCs react to the players, and how those reactions change over the period of the adventure would be immensely helpful. If I ran the game again I would do this as it eliminates a lot of the social book-keeping that is required of a Vampire game.

 

Essentially this scenario is a series of six medium-sized encounters which the characters have a surprising amount of control over. Whilst this is a good thing from the players view, it can wreck the game in minutes, and therefore fails as an intro-game for new players and especially new storytellers. All the encounters bar one is negotiation. One good thing is that the game allows immense room for the storyteller to add lots of extra encounters and details, which I did, but again I’m viewing this game from the point of view of a new storyteller. One throwaway character/encounter became a hook/liability for the players. Instead of slaughtering a young family, they instead took pity and preserved the life of the young children (with a decent church education) whilst allowing the parents to fall foul of a hideous disease ruining the county.

Each of the six encounters is prefaced by a “how we got here” intro, as the unfolding of events can be different. Allies can be enemies.

1 Meeting with Mithras’ agent in London and travel to Midlands

2 Arrival on the outskirts, the village and meeting with Jillian and her brothers

3 Arrival at the castle

4 First night

5 Second night

6 End fight at the Abbey

We managed to complete the game in two sessions of three to four hours each. The book is priced a bit too high considering the value, as apart from the castle layouts there is little reason to return to this book once finished.

RPGs as Westerns

Something that has always challenged me is when designing a campaign or adventure for any role-playing game and I want to base in on existing material or use it for inspiration, is what would be the best source material tobase a RPG upon? A book, a movie or TV series?

 

ADND claimed to have been heavily based on the works of Jack Vance with elements of J.R.R. Tolkien. But then when you read any classic fantasy story, epic or otherwise (and I mean proper fantasy novels, not the cheap hack trash that TSR managed to pump out on a daily basis in the late 80s and pretty much most of the 90s) they are not good for basing a RPG adventure on. Most have one idea or concept which doesn't sit well with an ongoing campaign, or be based around one hero (e.g. Conan the Barbarian), and completely destroysthe concept of a RPG party.
 

So I thought more about the concept, what genre of books or films would be best to base a campaign on.

 

The DM of the Rings, a wonderful webcomic based on Lord of the Rings movies clearly showshow a bunch of players are completely inept at taking part in something based on Tolkien. So its plain to see that Role-Playing Games have very little to do with Tolkien.

And then it hit me, the Western. Yes thats right the Western, that quintessential American dream! Now that is what the modern role-playing group is like. A posse of ne'er do-wells. And I am not picking up on this because of Firefly, but simply because those western style games I have run in the past, the concept of a posse seemed to me to sit much healthier than a party in any other game I have ever run. It just makes sense for there to be a posse.

 

Deadlands, both the Weird and Wasted West are perfect settings for a mob of unruly players to shoot bad guys, and get shot at themselves without any consequences. Yes there are sheriffs, but they can be shot too.

Id heard the heroes of Pendragon referred to as a gang of knights wandering ancient Britain in search of trouble to sort out. A gang of knights is about as uncouth as you could imagine a team of valiant knights to be. Yet it was the most apt description.

Plans for a Party

So my wife and daughters are off to Russia for the summer. This can only mean one thing. A whole month of catching up on console gaming. I bought a PS3 a year and half ago and still have tons of games I've yet to install/play/try.

I recently (last night) finished Uncharted 1, and put the 2nd installment in immediately. And like all good older games, required updates before I could commence my treasure hunting.

GTAIV is on the list, I bought it but skipped over it in favour of GTAV which I have now finished. De Blob 2, a game I started a while back but never had the time to devote to it and finish it for good.

Venezuela

I noticed that Venezuela isn't looking too healthy at the moment. Apparently outside private corporations and financial instituitions are holding the country to ransom in exchange for resources. I wonder where we've heard that story before.