From: owner-rq-rules-digest To: rq-rules-digest@hops.wharton.upenn.edu Subject: RQ Rules Digest: V2 #105 Reply-To: rq-rules Errors-To: owner-rq-rules-digest Precedence: bulk Content-Return: Prohibited Return-Path: owner-rq-rules-digest RQ Rules Digest: Monday, 30 October 1995 Volume 02 : Number 105 TABLE OF CONTENTS Aden Steinke Nippon Nigel Smith GM styles & difficult players Frederic Moulin GM styles Sandy Petersen GM Styles RULES OF THE ROAD 1. Do not include large sections of a message in your reply. Especially not to add "Yeah, I agree" or "No, I disagree." Or be excoriated. If someone writes something good and you want to say "good show" please do. But don't include the whole message you praise. 2. Use an appropriate Subject line. 3. Learn the art of paraphrasing: Don't just quote and comment on a point-by-point basis. When paraphrasing you demonstrate exactly how well you understand the point someone was trying to make. 4. There is no number 4. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- From: "Aden Steinke" Date: 30 Oct 1995 09:02:30 +1000 Subject: Nippon Hi all Hartley Patterson says >The other co-author was also co-author of BUSHIDO, the first Japanese RPG. >Sadly it is now out of print but if you can find a copy grab it, it's still >one of my favorite RPGs. Unfortunately the rules are not a model of clarity >... well OK they are a right mess, succesfully concealing a good and novel >combat system for example. The non-standard bits in LoN such as Ki mostly >come from BUSHIDO. Yes, Bushido is a good game source, in the 80's when we were running RQ2 our campaign used Bushido as an add on module to develop Black Fang into a Ninja cult, accumulating Ki for killing things, adding skills like iai-jitsu. >Ki: Ki is certainly not meant to be realistic in BUSHIDO, a game which >recreates samurai movies of the type where the hero acts a lot like Rambo, >cutting down dozens of extras with single sword strokes. It will only be >used in LoN by high level characters, so if you're starting your campaign >with beginners (which I would strongly advise) then you can forget it for >the moment. It is fun though.... [snip] >And this is the problem with Japanese role-playing, not the rules but the >culture. Roleplayers are more familiar with Klingon and Hobbit society than >with Japanese! Even in 1995 you can find aspects of japanese behaviour that >are to western eyes totally wierd. >So your players want to play samurai, so tell them they will have to put >some effort into this and do some background research themselves. True - I had to research anything unusual about my character, and it was very helpful for role-playing. Medieval Japan was very alien, concepts like sugi-giri (sp) the testing of your new blade on a passing person of low class, or the immediate fight to the death for clashing sayas (scabbards) on the street are only 300 years in the past, the sheer volume of ritual for everything from drinking tea to laying out your clothes make for an elaborate backdrop. If you can, go get some Japanes ghost story videos and watch them, and get some books of traditional Japanese fairy stories, both of which are good sources of material. aden ------------------------------ From: ns10005@cam.ac.uk (Nigel Smith) Date: Mon, 30 Oct 1995 09:47:02 +0000 Subject: Re: GM styles & difficult players Sandy wrote about giving minimal guidance but loads of info to players: >They wondered if they >were missing some obvious clue to Correct Action and kept asking me >to re-explain the situation. Why is it that you can explain a situation down to the location of the last molecule, but as soon as you say to some players "What do you want to do? they think you're holding something back, or they have missed something. I've one easy way to engender paranoia in my games - when it is time for the party to leave somewhere, I just ask if there is anything else they would like to do. Instant arguement about whether they have forgotten something! Please keep the stories coming in, they are entertaining, give some useful tips, and serve as a handy reminder that, whilst some of my guys can be annoying, it could be worse... Nigel ------------------------------ From: Frederic Moulin Date: Mon, 30 Oct 1995 11:43:04 -0500 Subject: Re: GM styles >>They were, of course, >feeling me out, trying to figure out what _I_ wanted them to do, >while I kept expecting them to do what _they_ wanted. . . .I started getting frustrated because >they didn't appear willing to do anything at all, but kept asking me >questions and going off on completely wild goose chases. Well, in my personnal experience, the risk involved with that technique is having your players do a totally unexpected move and getting into what Sandy call "wild goose chase". I usually vary my style: sometime I will let them wander around, knowing that the evening is not going to "move the campaign" very much, and just letting them meet people and do whatever they want (invariably it leads to new ennemies that I can use in following scenarios), possibly poping here and there clues for future adventures. The GM needs to be very flexible and ready for anything (I had 2 former D&D players, initiates of Yelm, going preaching in front of the main temple to Red Eye in Ockless, in the Griffin Island Campaign. I must admit they caught me off guard on that one!) I often have a few "small scenarios" without really clear location: a small cave/tomb, a thief hide-out and a few opponents... ready to provide a little action if needed, and I mark the location on the campaign map afterward. But at some other times, I will gives them very precise direction, sometime by having them hired, or commanded to do something, and pop them right into the action and letting them find "how to get out" instead of "how to get in". I guess it depend on the mood (and probably the moon too :-) Fred ------------------------------ From: Sandy Petersen Date: Mon, 30 Oct 95 18:01:10 -0600 Subject: Re: GM Styles Sandy's last post seems a bit contradictory. He writes: >.I started getting frustrated because they didn't appear willing to >do anything at all, but kept asking me questions and going off on >completely wild goose chases. Jim Chapin >I winder how "not doing anything at all" and "going off on >completely wild goose chases" are compatible? Simple. The wild goose chases were not actions -- they were diversions. For instance, they would start questioning the barmaid about the local soldiery, or they would stand outside the Dark Temple and examine the carvings. They wouldn't DO anything that might get something started -- like join the army to get an inside look at the soldiery, or go inside the Dark Temple and talk to a priest. They only did talking heads type stuff. >And if he didn't have anything in mind how did he define something >as a "wild goose chase?" See above. >And if he did have something in mind, how could he expect the >players not to try to determine what it was? I always set up a big game world, then let the players go wherever they want in it. If the players had decided to join the army, or enter the Dark Temple, or seduce the barmaid, or ANYTHING besides sitting and discussing stuff, I'd have been ready for it. But they wanted a GM to lead them by the hand -- to have a mysterious wizard at the next table hand them a sealed package, then vanish in a puff of smoke. There's nothing wrong with that GM style, but I like my players to feel they're in charge of their own fate. >We rotate GM'ing in our group, and the styles range from one not too >different from Sandy's, which sometimes frustrates the players >because they feel the GM has expectations but won't tell the players >what they are Somehow I have failed to describe my GM style correctly. I always give the players all the information they could possibly desire and more besides, if only they ask for it. When they ask the barmaid about the soldiers, I give her complete impression of the soldiers. I described the Dark Temple in minute detail. But they still wouldn't do anything until they figured out they could. They were used to a GM that, if they tried to do something "wrong" would punish them -- "You entered the Dark Temple? How foolish. A billion black-clad minotaurs charge out equipped with solid iron staffs and batter you senseless." I exaggerate slightly, but only slightly. Surely we've all known GMs who governed by fear, rather than reward or respect? Sandy ------------------------------ End of RQ Rules Digest: V2 #105 ******************************* This is the bottom of the RuneQuest Rules Digest. RuneQuest is a trademark of Avalon Hill, and Glorantha is a trademark of Chaosium. With the exception of previously copyrighted material, unless specified otherwise all text in this digest is copyright by the author or authors, with rights granted to copy for personal use, to excerpt in reviews and replies, and to archive unchanged for electronic retrieval. Send electronic mail to Majordomo@hops.wharton.upenn.edu with "help" in the body of the message for subscription information on this and other mailing lists. WWW material at http://hops.wharton.upenn.edu/~loren/rolegame.html