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To many damn good ideas


needle

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Hi kids- heres the biggest problem that I've found with this damn game system. Over the years I've been trying to quset for the holy grail of Rpg campains. Not an easy task with a Yank with taste for fine wine, women, & Rpgs. So I go about moving through the stuff I've collected over the years into a whole. There have got to be easier ways. With all of the crap that I've downloaded over the years there have got to be around 600 pgs within my binder. So someone's got to help me. There way to many ideas, some of them really cool. I want the entire continuum in my Rpg campain to span the entire Trinity mythology. Screw the WoD as far as am concerned. My reasons are very simple am a hard science fiction fan trapped in a town full of Vampire players. THis WEbsite isn't helping now there are new cyber rules. When will this madness end.See you later,Damn. Guess my question is how do storytellers organize this stuff :Devil

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okay, this might be a little long so draw up a chair (yes needles, one of those women and some wine you mentioned as well)....

To answer your question 'how to ST organise this stuff'...

First, I think some 'credentials' are in order:

I have been into RPG's for over 15 odd years.  I've played and or run so many titles I can't really reember them all, but they include V:TM, W:TA, W:TO, M:TA, V:TDA, Trinity, Aberrant, Cthulhu, D&D (1st & 2nd Eds), Paranoia, Pendragon, Warhammer RPG, Rolemaster, MERP, Gurps, TORG - you get the idea.

I have also been writing my own stuff since about a wekk after a friend got me into RPG's....

I've been into the Aeon Continuum since way back when WW were not even planning for it (they were working on a game called Exile then, which was another sci-fi game that ultimately didn't arrive as planned).  Exile prepared me for an advert in the back of a WoD book that said that White Wolf were going to take us to the stars - with Aeon.

The rest, as they say, is history.

I've run Aeon/Trinity since about a week after it came out.  I have run 5 seperate campains, including the official canon books, - the rest of which have been completely made up by yours truly.

I have played Aberrant several times, although I do not ST it.  In the next two weeks I'm getting the chance to play Adventure! for the first time.

I have also (with my partner in crime Senior Mal) written a complete fantasy setting & system based on the Trinity rules called 'The Known World'.

My Trinity folder is currently some 100+ pages full of scribblings, campaigns, adventures, NPC's, technology - and a variety of other stuff.

My 'Known World' folder is pushing double that.

So there we go, that's where 'all' that spare time goes :)

The reason behind the ramblings above is to illustrate that where RPG is concerned, I like to write stuff - a LOT of stuff.  I Don;t think there is a single game I've ran or a single character I've played where there hasn't been a series of handouts for players, or in depth character backgrounds for my PC's (hell I even have 'nova-files' alike 'cards' for my Aberrant characters).

Oh yeah - and I also run this website.

The point is all of the above takes some serious organising.  I'm not talking about things like keeping notes / putting things in nice folders and stuff - although I do a lot of that - I'm talking about organising it all in my poor overused and underpowered brain.

Your question got me thinking seriously actually - how the hell do I organise all this stuff.

It comes down to one thing.  'An idea'.  A cliche I know, but the most successful games I have ever ran, are the ones where I had a kick ass idea, irresective of the fine points; and then worked out an end and a start and took it from there.

My first A-Z game came about due to my interest in 'dark' settings - I'm a sucker for gangsters / Mos Eisley style settings, so A-Z seemed natural.  What I needed though was an idea.

I've also always had a thing for 'epic' stuff.  One of the reasons I like Trnity and the rest of the Aeon Continuum so much I think.  So I decided to have the station set up as one of those 'last hope' kinda places, where I could get away with absolutely anything I bloody well chose to.  Aliens - no problem, criminal cartels - easy, NPC's with more individual power than anyone has a right to - totally 'in setting'.

I took 2 of the above (criminal cartels and hard as nails NPC's) and came up with an idea, I used aberrants (well, something a little different, but some of my players are on this forum so I aint gonna tell) and made them the major antagonist on the setting - just the one 'aberrant', he was going to be a nasty so and so, one was enough.  Then I threw in criminal cartels, and spiced things up a bit with some random NPC's that I kinda liked the idea of.

Notably, the NPC known as 'A' is an indirect rip-off of a hybrid of 'Cyric' and 'Raistlin' from the DnD novels (although its been some years since I read 'em).

The single best thing I did then was - nothing at all.

Yup, I had the setting, some interesting NPC's, and I knew the Players would throw something novel at me - So I started the game with absolutely nothing whatsever set out in concrete.  My major villain plan was simply that, the major villain in my mind's eye - but I had no idea whatsoever on how to use him, or even 'where' to use him.

I famously keep referring to the endless amounts of source material I had 'written' up about a game set on A-Z where the characters became 'space lane pirates' of some other such drivel.  I had not written a single word - nope - nada - nuthin!  It just sounded good :)

So enter the players.  This is where things click - the players are key to it all.

THEY became the adventure.  THEY became the 'constant', the thing that kept the whole darn thing running.  And run it did - for 8 months in the first campaign, 4 hours a ngith, one night a week - for 8 months.

Heh, and the cynical side of me says that I was BS'ing my way through the whole thing :)

How did I do it?  how did I keep it going, keep coming up with ideas, give the players things to do, keep fleshing the setting and story out as I went along?

The Players.  (it deserves caps letters).

I have the luxury of ST'ing for a group of experienced players (well, most of em).  They basically took the game and ran with it.  They gave me clear indications of what they wanted to do (after a couple of weeks of pratting about at the start as they learned about the basic setting) - and so I delivered it for them.  

This must be a long post by now - so I'll shut up in a minute.

The best advice I can give then  is as follows:

1) Get a good basic setting idea drawn up - it really helps as a jumping-off platform

2) Have a (really basic in my case) idea of who the antagonist is

3) Let the players run with it - they WILL make the game for you

The A-Z Players Guide which I wrote is a culmination of the who, what, why and wherefore's of the actions and activities of the players in my group during the first two campaigns of the above mentioned games.  I wrote it after the games were finsihed.

heh - with a bit of luck it will provide a good jumping-off platform for other ST's, who will, with their players - make it all their own as well.

Needles:  If you want specifics of how I would handle a game that ran through the entire continuum, let me know and I'll post some specifics (i have my 'ideas' already) - but I wanted to convey how I get my games running - and according to my players it works so far.....

And finally: Credit where credit is due:

Da Playerz

Tom 'Robin Teller' Martin (Senior Mal on the forums)

Neil 'Lo Mai' Harries (Lo Mai on the forums)

James 'Alexander Bashir' Chambers (Chambo99 on the forums)

Mike 'the EK from Hel' Yapp - (EEFFDDKK on the forums)

Paul 'Godfrey' Bloxwich - (Sid Blane on the forums)

Rich 'sneaky Norca bastard' - (Mini Mal on the forums)

and others over the years.

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**glances cynically towards Senior Mal**

yessssssss.  Well I forgot to warn you Needles that when you pull things off the players will never, EVER, think that you did any work whatsoever - they presume it was ALL THEM!

:D

Okay Mal - you've got away with one-shot remarks all holiday season - time to put in some effort buddy - advise dear Needles here.  What would your take be on his question.

:sly

How would you go about organising a campaign that runs through all three game time periods?

Heh heh - come on buddy - shake off the effects of Christmas cheer!  we know you can do it

**chanting begins**

Mal, Mal, Mal, Mal, Mal, Mal, Mal, Mal,

:Devil

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OK, OK, OK (Done in best Joe Pesci voice)

:colgate

I do have a small amount of experience in the matter. An Abeerant game I ran was based around the premise that Kimberly Dame from the Expose Aberrants book was the woman in the original Aeon society photo and she, knowing who Divis Mal was and what he was up to, wanted him dead. Enter players as unknowing assassins. (I had them deliver a package to a building in Sao Paolo on September 25th. Check the timeline in the core Aberrant book for more details.)

anyway on to the question. The key thing to deal with from my point is, are the players going to play the same character through all three games. While theoretically possible (An Adventure character could live to the Aberrant era, erupt reverting him/her to their youth and then continue living until the exodus and then the subsequent return to Earth space) To my mind you couldn't get the best out of the three settings this way.

How I'd do it.

Adventure Section: The characters are grass roots level in the Aeon society, fudge the setting slightly so that they help set up the society. They feel more involved that way and as it is a continuous theme throughout all the games they will feel an attachment to it. This game can be about anything but as a sub plot I'd run an undercurrent of the future not being as rosy as the society would have liked (the upcoming Aberrant war). You can do this in lots of ways, for example perhaps one of the characters reads some of Dr. Primoris's diary or while in an ancient Aztec temple they look into the 'pool of the future', in any case I'm sure you get the point.

You then link this game to the next by this info being important for the Aberrant characters survival somehow. (Or, I've only just thought of this after finishing so if it doesn't quite make sense, sue me, and yes I know it goes against what I said earlier. Let the characters develop into Novas in the Aberrant era, you'll see why)

Aberrant Section: Nows the time to set them up for the fall, use the link from the Adventure game, and shatter the players spirits. It'd probably be best if they start off as city defenders/ T2M'ers then through finding out info on what the Aeon society was like and what it has become push them towards the Aberrants or even the Teragen, turn them into real nasty pieces of work (Evil yes, but only because of how society has treated them, instill in the players that they are still the lesser of two evils) and hard enough to make Totentanz wet himself (thats where chrysalis is handy)

Trinity section: Now for the kicker. As Psions they're having a pretty rosy time until the Aberrants return and who should our industrious strike team be sent against, yep you've guessed it the very characters they played in the Aberrant (and possibly Adventure game), only know even harder and slightly whacko. The players will automatically generate the fear for the Aberrants that the creatures should instill because they'll know what they're capable of. But to keep things interesting they've obviously developed new powers   :happy

and thats about it for me (or at least what I can generate off the top of my head... actually it sounded pretty good... I might see if I can write something like it)

Hope that helps anyway :Thumbs Up

Anyway can I get back to my comedy one line answers now?

:sneaky2

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