Non-Players in a Player's Game. A thought on NPCs

I should have had this branded on my sleeping bag during DR
Would have saved me the hassle during the
nightly raids

   Couple of Days ago, Skye from the Dystopia Rising Facebook group asked me to do a piece on NPC interactions. Sepcifically I was asked to write about "NPC to NPC interactions, NPC to PC interactions, and creating NPCs" I was already warming up to an NPC-centric blog to begin with, so I figured "Let's do it."

Lately, I've been thinking about what makes a decent NPC in a Roleplay game. NPCs are the Storyteller's way of communicating to the players in the world. These are the people who introduce Plot to you, or represent the actions and consequences of your players. Sometimes they are the random person who is walking down the street or alley. They set the tone of the world, the tempo with which the players need to match, or deconstruct as they see fit.

Think of it like Inception. The World is built, and it needs to be filled in. If it's just the players, they'd be playing with themselves...soak in that image. Go ahead.

NPCs represent the Storyteller in the World. That's a great definition, but even I think that's esoteric. The best way I can explain this is to show an example.

One of the tightest and most in depth games I've ever played has been New Yorks Changeling the Lost. It was built by long running players Chris and Warren, and is currently run by my friend Abby. Changeling is a game where each of the 12 Fae Courts, the Seasonals, Diurnals and Directionals are represented in some form or another. In each Court there is at least one or two NPCs available to round out the crew. Each of them has a deep, lush and varied history with the players that has been developed slowly and consistently throughout the years of play. the NPCs present give a sense that there is a City going on outside of just the players, that while the story focuses on them, it doesn't necessarily end with them. I consistently try to take notes on the various NPCs and how they function as characters for research of Next Chronicle.

In the New York Awakening game, things are interesting. The major setting of the game isn't focused on any Cabals or the Orders, it's focused on the Consillium, one singular body. As such, there is only one location of  import, an abandoned Train Station on 92nd. Magically speaking, the train station is the equivalent to a Nuclear Bunker. Short of doing some horrible shit, there is not going to be much going on in there that the players don't bring in themselves. And, as a rule, Mages are all big on conspiracy. So you have a bunch of people in a bunker, not trusting anything that happens to find it's way down and only really go out when shit's gone wrong. This is a challenge.

In the end, most of my NPCs have to be characters designed to draw them out, or at least act as an anchor out in the real world. Even my former PC, an Acanthus with the power to Speak to New York, has become such an NPC. My job is to make the Mountain move to Mohammad some times. It's a pain in the ass, and it feels contrived some times, but when it works, it works. This is a situation where the world is static, so you have to have people outside doing stuff to make it interesting.

In Requiem, it's more geared towards Player generated responses. There are NPCs in there who are clearly been around for years, but they become a "well, this is only to progress this" sort of thing. These NPCs generally only stick around if the ST remembers/cares to use them. They aren't necessary, as the Vampires are both affecting the world and each other almost as well (and sometimes TOO well) as any NPC.

In Dystopia Rising, I've noticed, there is a different tack to take. Of course, being in a 36 hour game with a team of people whose only goal for four hours to the whole weekend is to PLAY NPCs is a pretty sweet thing to have on deck. It also helps that there is an actual, literal world out there for PCs to interact with. All they have to do is populate the thing, and set the tone for game. Whether it's a module that sends players on a battlfield against Zed or Raiders, or an assault on the main House, or just random survivors trying to survive. These characters exist to remind you of the world you're in.


At last month's game, during NPC shfit. The Head ST for the Overall Plot, Shoshana, reminded us that it wasn't the NPCs goal to win. It was to give the players a challenge. There were moments to give them hope, and others to tire them out, and then to keep them on their toes.

So, to answer Skye's questions


1) NPCs interacting with other NPCs: Well, there I think it has a lot to do with preparation. If you're all a part of the same plotkit/module, the Storytellers needs to give you guys as much info as humanly possible to further the plot. Now, if your characters is just walking in without really that much in game (or written) history about them, then some leeway and improv is expected. Dystopia Rising is actually pretty good on that, they give you the gist of the plot, the goal, and let you fill in the blanks. They have to since the Storyteller can't be everywhere the NPCs are, which in Social LARPs is a lot easier. If these are NPCs from two seperate plots, then I figure it's something to sit back and watch.

I'm going to switch numbers and go to 3) When Creating an NPC, whether it's for Socal LARPs or boffer Larps or even RP, you have to ask yourself a few things. What is the purpose of this character's existence? What is the general reaction of the players going to be for this. What tone are they meant to set in the game? Are they there to be antagonists? Protagonists in a story that the PCs are following? Merely Messengers who are to deliver plot? Guides? I can spring out the entire Archetypal handbook out if you want. An NPC can fill that role.

2) and the ultimate gist. An NPC is to provide Ballast to the PCs. Where the Players push, the NPCs react. When an NPC pushes, the PCs react. They are there to fill in the gaps to plot, dynamics, geography, problems and considerations. If your players need a challenge to their physical, social or political play? Bring in an NPC threat. If players are punching too large of a hole into plot, you set an NPC or two to slow them down. If a player is in a canon-group with no real PC representation other than them? Build an NPC to give them someone to talk with and make their choices worthwhile.

I wrote in a previous post that Storytellers relinquish their characters and the City becomes their Character. The story you tell is told through these characters, they are yours, and they are the player's. If an NPC is getting the players interested in the game, they're doing their job and you yours.

Later.

Tips for New Players

As I've been playing around with the Dystopia Rising folks, I've come across the path of Peter B Woodworth. Some of you may recognize the name, he's written for a lot of the Classic World of Darkness for years. A lot of the sources and information the current cWoD games are based on his words. Well, he's still up to his tricks, this time writing for the Zombie Apocalypse. He's been doing a lot of LARPing tip posts for the DR folks, and I wanted to share. I want to thank Peter for allowing me to copy and post his notes for broadcast. Thanks man!

This list is designed for incoming and new players to a LARP. As I read it, sometimes I think it becomes more appropriate for a lot of veteran players to remember. I'll write my commentary on the bottom. Enjoy. 

10) Don’t try to make a “perfect” character. Those are boring! Make a character you’d want to watch in a movie or read about in a book – someone you want to learn more about.
                                                                                                                                             9) Don’t worry about having a huge backstory. Try one paragraph to start. You don’t need to know everything about your character right off – otherwise how can they grow during game?
                                                                                                                                                 8) For a quick way to get a handle on playing your character, come up with two positive personality traits (“kind, patient”) and one negative one (“overly trusting”), and use them as guides.
                                                                                                                                             7) “Making an effort” is the most important part of making your first costume. Don’t worry if it’s “perfect” or if it’s a little basic – like characters, costumes also evolve over time.
                                                                                                                                             6) Don’t be afraid to ask questions, in or out of character. It’s better to find out than work on bad assumptions, and pursuing a mystery is often an adventure in itself.
                                                                                                                                             5) Try to come up with at least one short term goal for each game session, like introducing yourself to five new people, or learning a new skill. If you meet it, make another!
                                                                                                                                             4) Talk to people! Larp is a social activity. Remember, everyone was a new character once, and making friends (and enemies) will help you develop your character too.*
                                                                                                                                             3) When in doubt, diving in is better than standing back, and risk is better than caution. Very few great stories involve hanging back in a safe place avoiding risk. Get involved!
                                                                                                                                                   2) Try to stay in character. Larp is a skill that gets easier with practice. If you need to take breaks, though, do so! Just do it away from the action so you don’t break game for others.
                                                                                                                                              1) It’s not about winning or losing, living or dying, it’s about having fun and telling a good story together. Don’t worry about how it ends – just enjoy the ride!
                                                                                                                                        *Follow up: Get to know people out of game as well – go to the diner with folks after a session, talk to people on forums and Facebook, etc. If someone’s play really blows you away, let them know! Most people are happy to talk about their process and give advice to new folks.

I read this list and I wish I had this before I had jumped into Requiem two years ago. I was so nervous and god damned clueless. Oh, I read the books. The mechanics made my nosebleed, but I got the gist from it all what I wanted to do. Two years in and I still feel like I'm playing catch up with people.

Out of this list, the ones that I resonate with the most is 10, 6, 3, 2, and 1. I've met very few who try to have a "perfect" character that can do everything, say everything, have a corner on one specific section of the game while also enjoying the notion that they are somehow untouchable. Know what happens to them?

Nothing.

The other players don't want to play with them. The Storytellers don't want to give them plot. The reason for that is because the characters are Boring. Where is the drama? Where is the Challenge? These are characters that are thrown into a room with other characters. When two elements combine, change happens. The same as it is with people. There are no perfect people in a room full of people with separate agendas. Not possible, never going to happen. At best they'll be seen as pompous or pretentious, at worst they'll be ignored.

6) God, if I couldn't ask questions, I think I'd be dead by now. One of the better parts of having a curious Mekhet is that when I get confused, he can ask questions. I think that's why Taglia really did become my first character and the way he handles things. He constantly needs more information to deal with a situation effectively. It's actually scary for me next chronicle since all of my characters are supposed to know what the hell they're doing. So definitely please, ask questions.

3) When I wrote about my first time I played Dystopia Rising, I added that I kept very much to the main building for the most of the game. I realized that I should have gone out more and risked a little bit. Considering that my character is being rewritten into another Nationality/Class, I figure that I should have. I don't feel like I got the full experience, and that's on my head and not anyone else. So please, if you want to get a feel for the experience, an meet new players and characters, jump into whatever plot you can.

Of course, there are some games where that is easier said than done. One of my critiques about Requiem is the Social "Glass Ceiling" that is quickly erected. Unless you're of use, you tend to get put into the Courtier's Corner. It was originally called the "Kiddie's Corner" but they started growing up. I spent a lot of time in that corner when I first started, and only through association did I ever get out of there. So if you see an opportunity for your character, take it.

2) Oh, for the love of GOD, do I agree with this one. Part of LARPing is that it is one part gaming, two or three parts acting and make believe. If someone has questions, that's one thing, but dropping out of character really does kill the mood of a game. If you have to excuse yourself from the scene due to emergency, squemishness to subject matter or whatever pertinent information, then jump out of character. But if you go out of character due to ennui or to share little bits of information that really isn't relevant to the scene, guess what? Save that shit for afters. This is a major nit for me, we're all guilty of it but it really is a problem that annoys me alot.

1) I think a lot of people need to read this one. Both veterans and New Players. I know that these are games. We get HP and MP in various forms and flavors, items and experience points for reading. A lot of people focus on these aspects, and while they are well and good, I don't even think this covers a third of what a LARP is. It's a ride. If you're so worried about Winning, Losing, Dying, or getting "punished" in the game, then you aren't there for the right reasons.

Aspects of points 1 and 2 I think will be getting posts of their own.

I want to thank Peter Woodworth for permission to use his list. Also, if you're interested in the Zombie Apocalypse, read Peter's Runner, the first book in the Dead Heroes series. The book is set in the ruins of New York in the Dystopia Rising Universe. Even if you don't play DR, it's a good page turner.

Later.

Closing it down, building it back up.

The High Speech

So the next Chronicle is coming up, and I'm feeling nervous. Not just for the closing of the Chronicle, which thematically speaking I already have planned. My fear comes from not being sure what the future is like for Mage in New York City. It's never been the most popular, with only a handful of the Core players coming in. Holding games in NYC isn't cheap, and some of our games have already felt the axe.

I really don't want that for Mage. I think that it's a great game, just not for everyone. It thrives so well in other domains, some of which ONLY play Mage. Why not here?

Right now, I feel the end of the venue coming in for this Chronicle. May be it's all the planning for End O'The World Rituals and Antagonists no one expects. But the game is definitely coming to a final conclusion. If it is, and it doesn't get picked up for Next Chronicle in the City? Then that's it, I'm out as a Storyteller, at least for a little while.

However, I'm working on the knowledge that people DO want to play Mage, just not for this Chronicle. To be fair, I don't blame them. There are only a handful of games left, what the hell could they possibly do in such short amount of time? I can throw NPCs at people interested, and to be fair I have about a half dozen on deck for people, but it doesn't compete with the thrill of building and playing your own character.

So, that brings me back to Next Chronicle, and planning. I have plans. They're tentative, until National puts out their Addendum, but this is the groundwork plans I have.

I. Places of Power

Mage the Awakening is a Player vs Environment game. By sheers nature of it's description, it's about the Diamond/Pentacle Orders (re)discovering and encountering other forces within the world. Temples, conspiracies, artifacts, creatures, Spirits, etc. In a setting like New York, where old is new and new is always on the horizon, that can be a lot of fun to play with.

In the current chronicle, the game is deeply entrenched. The Main setting of the game is an abandoned subway station with a sense of "We deal with the problems on the outside". So there is very little exploration and sense of consistency in the game. It really is just "Whatever geography the ST wants at the time." While that makes sense, I like continuity and consistency. I want actions to make sense. That hasn't really existed for this chronicle of Mage.

So my plan is to create landmarks throughout the City, places of interest for Mages. Bookstores, Temples, Clubs, and god knows what else. I want this City to be alive for the players and not just some arbitrary field for them to walk around.

Another Idea I have. A friend of mine who plays Requiem has done extensive research on Ley Lines, energy lines within the earth that also exist within clutches of civilization and bisect, join and split off like a power conduit. The Prime Arcanum is built largely around this concept. I want to develop that so when people use that magic they can actually go "oh, I'm not on a nexus point" or "there is a convergence of ley lines, I wonder what this does..."

To tie off this section, I want to stress that I plan on doing a lot of bookkeeping for this game. Whose dots are in what and where, lists of people, places and things

II People of Power

If you're going to build a world, you have to fill it, right? I want to build a series of NPCs that exist in these locations and that serve as charcters for the PCs to interact with. I want there to be antagonistic characters, contagonistic characters, supporting characters, sidekicks.

Most importantly, I want there to be a decent representation in the Orders. One of the key factors in this game are the Pentacle Orders and their ties (or in the Free Council's case, lack of ties) to Old Atlantis. For multiple reasons, two of which being attendance not allowing impressive political game and the fact that some of the previous storyteller's seemed to want to play Mage: The Ascension a lot more than Mage: the Awakening, and wished to focus on the Paths far more than the Orders. While I like Ascension, trying to warp Awakening into Ascension is like calling an Ox a Bull. Thank you for the effort, but just stop cutting his balls off. I digress...

One of the best games I've ever played in is the local Changeling: The Lost game. One of the reasons why is because (to me) there is a sense of continuity and history. This City is well lived in by the Freehold, with numerous contacts, motleys, Court owned buildings and other valuable locations being firmly established by PCs and NPCs with ties to those areas as well as motivations and agendas of their own.. I want that for Mage, and I think it can be done. I want their to be color in this game other than "There's trouble afoot! Quick! To the mage-mobile!"

III: Objects of Power

In case no one has noticed, I love the use of relics and objects of power. Granted, for this kind of game, I'm aiming more towards larger, less moveable versions of what I did this year. I want to explore that as much as possible. An enhanced sword being used in the night, an imbued necklace causing troubles. That kind of thing. Nothing major (the Addendum would shit itself with some of the things I had planned. More importantly though, I like having history for an item, because that helps color the world around them.

IV:  Stories of the Soul

To finish off, I want this game to be about what Awakening is in the crux: A story about the inherent Magic in the soul of a person. I've spoken to several people interested in playing Mage and hearing their concepts. Some of them are so beautiful and so in depth that I could feel myself being challenged to meet their requirements. How does being connected to the Universe affect you? I know a lot of people play Mage as some form of instant gratification. Well, I have a Soul Stone and Mastery of Forces, I can shoot whatever I want Pew Pew Pew!!.

Those are some players, mind you, not their characters. I want to give the game back an inherent introspection it seems to have lacked. Like recently, when the PCs/players sat down and started discussing "What if these people CAN Nuke the Abyss? What would the world be like without Paradox? Is that even a good thing?" I want that because that means that they (the players and the PCs) are conscious of their decisions and aren't just going "BACK EVIL DOERS!!! I'm a MAGE!!"

Conclusion
So I have all of these planned, and I'm willing to implement them. But I can plan for the greatest, smoothest game on earth and it will mean nothing if no one wants to play. I can plan anything, but what does that mean if people don't want to interact with that world?

We'll see where we get to after February, hopefully, with a lot more Magic to come.

of course, we can just say fuck it and build the venue around this...





Later

The End Was Nigh 2: Being an NPC in the Zombie Wasteland

This weekend was my second trip to Dystopia Rising, the three day immersive LARP set after the end of the world. This was different than the first go around, as this weekend I was doing the NPC shift the entire weekend.

During Dystopia Rising, players take shifts portraying various NPCs for the numerous Modules taking place from 10pm Friday until 12pm Sunday. Some people can pay to opt out of the service but most look forward to it. Some even decide to NPC for the entire weekend.

After my first time around, I got a lot of feel for the game, but not enough of the world. I had stayed mostly around the central area as I was a newer player, so I didn't get a taste as much for the actual game world. One of the best ways to learn about a game's world is to take on the role of NPCs. As the DR Storytellers said, it is not the NPCs job to win. Non Player Characters exist to flesh out the world, to give the players a deeper understanding than just themselves in the area. We could do that, but that would be dull. So I saw this as me learning the breadth and depth of the game and how the covert and overt ways stories are told in game.

This is a list of modules that I went out on.

Friday:
- Shambler Module: The first shift started as a basic Shambler Zombie. We were given stats, and the Marshall in charge of the Module coordinated and acted as our Respawn point. That's right, I've played about 50 or so characters, most of them undead. I've died pretty much through all of them. This scene wasn't just a standard raid though. This was the first salvo of how fucked up the weekend was going to be. Two Human NPCs, one of them a Clown, were Crucified (complete with Two Crucifixes) in an ice field near town. We Shamblers were enjoying the lovely meal laid out before us.

When your weekend begins with Crucifying Clowns, it's all down hill from there.

- Another module had gone out to attack the main building itself (there was a lot of that), and we were on standby. These were a Warrior Tribe raiding the area. Once they were done and off to do another module, they then sicked the Shamblers on the town. Because this is Dystopia, if you did well, that just means the Difficulty Level will be increased.

The Beatings will continue until Morale has been eroded.

- Cult of Darwin Module: A few months back, a Giant (Read: As big as a two floor cabin) Spider had attacked the town. We went in as a group of Retrograde Darwinists. Retros are like the Fallout Ghouls, their bodies ravaged by radiation. They are notifiable by their masks, which they use to tell others "Don't shoot, we're not Zed". Darwinists are a cult that believes in evolution and worship Radiation. I was part of a three man squad going around asking the townsfolks about any kind of information they had about the Spider. The gist was "Don't be Stupid, Evade it." Actually, one person was summed it up in two words "Fuck all".

The two other NPCs were really  gung ho about the spider and giddy with the glorious wonderment. My Retrograde was a little wearier (hey, I was given the money. You don't give it to the two REALLY excited ones). As the trek went on, the other two continued talking, and pieces started falling off of one from Retrograde rotting. "Between the two of you," I said as we left the town. "There is a brain."

The night ended, and I crashed into my sleeping bag. The Shanty Town where I was camped was already covered in mud and freezing. But my sleeping bag was apparently unimpressed. It deserves a mention in this blog.

Saturday Afternoon

- Shambler Mod attacking the Double Tap, the main building. In this we played Spikers, a form of Zombie with a stump for an arm. A steel spike can shoot out of the stump and impale a player, immobilizing them except for Psychic and Brawling attacks. One of the characters though was advanced enough in skill where he could soak up damage from the Zombies, even impaled. Leading to this exchange:

"Come on. Eat me! Yeah! I'll fight you back. Headbutt (0 Damage!), Shin Kick (0 Damage!)" Then he proceeded to eat the zombies, making "ANG-ANG-ANG-ANG!!!" Sounds the entire time. I was trying hard not to crack up.

There were two of these that day and I did both.

- The Next Module was an RP module, with me playing a member of the Outer Guard. The Outer Guard are an NPC faction that protect the town from 90% of the shit out there. Think on that for a second, in a weekend, THOUSANDS of zombies are killed. And that may only be 10% of what is really out there.

Well, the Outer Wall had been breached. And the other 9 out of 10 decided to crash the party.

I was cast as a Runner, someone coming into town to call for aid. I was informed out of character to grab as many as quickly as possible, because as time went by, the outpost would be lost and the Zed would swarm into town. I was afraid no one would listen, and I'd only have five people roll in with me.

Would you believe it, half the town showed up with two minutes to spare on the clock. It then became total warfare as the Citizens of New Havyn took on the Shambling Horde, waves upon waves of high level Zed, including high powered Tanks (Tanks have 300 HP, in a game where the average amount of Damage Dealt per blow is around 4 or 5). This happened in an open field, covered in ice. The sun hanging high and the snows letting mist rise in the mild air.

For a moment, my mind let go of the fact that this was make believe. The mists blurred the lines, and for a brief moment, this was happening. A full on war between civilization and the remnants of the cursed wasteland.

And I was a part of it.

I realized that I was standing in the back. Throughout most of the game, I was playing with stubby little foam beater sticks to represent the claws and fists of Zed. My previous PC had a short melee weapon not really useful in a fight. I was playing a Guardsmen, what most people called catastrophic, my guy called it Tuesday morning. These were Marines, The Night's Watch and the Centurions wrapped into one. I realized I was holding a sword in my hands, the hilt roughly the same size as the hilt of the lightsaber I use in NY Jedi. I smiled a little in that brief second.


Fuck the back line.

I grabbed the sword and started calling for the line to be held, I made sure that the other outer guard NPC was taken care for and put in the back line until he was ready to come out (He'd been tortured, killed, brought back, healed, and tortured again.) When the next wave of Zed came out, we all struck them down.

It felt fun, and it felt good, and for a while you forgot the lines between Real, Unreal, and Surreal. When the Zombies finally got me into Bleed Out (Your HP is at 0 and you have five minutes to get first aid or you die) they surrounded me and began to feast. I took the lesson from the previous module and ran with it.

"Enjoy it!" I screamed, amidst the cries of anguish as I pretended to be rend from the arms and back. "Enjoy your meal! Enjoy your fucking meal! I hope you choke as I go down!"  Soon, PCs came in and cleared up, dragging me (literally at one point) to the back line to get healed. "Just give me enough to go back!" I screamed as they healed me, acting out the pain of flesh being stitch, of bones being reset. "I'm not done yet! Those soulless fucks got to get through me first!"

This happened three times, and it got more and more gruesome as time went on. I was at the three minute count the last time, lying dead on the snow before I was saved.

The battle lasted maybe twenty, thirty minutes. I couldn't tell, but the PCs had won, with little to no casualties. They saved both myself and the tortured Guardsmen and got us back into town. Good thing they saved him too, because he had info they would need for the night's festivities.

Saturday Night
By now, my feet were soaked through and through and freezing. I knew that I didn't have much time before I was risking illness. I wanted to continue on until I couldn't hold out any more.

- The first mod of the evening I did was an odd RP one. There were, apparently, a lot of Stephen King references. So someone asked if anyone knew the plot to Misery.

"Yo!" I said. I was asked then by Abigail, the Storyteller on call, what I knew about telling a story.

Guess who I got casted as from Misery, go on.

So the module went. I played Richard, an Entertainer who specialized in Storytelling. I was abducted by Celestia, a backwoods Doctor who had become...overly enamored with my stories. We were coming into town to pick up supplies. I was to try to find a way to escape without her noticing or being able to stop me. This meant asking the townsfolk to make it through.

It wasn't the easiest to get people hooked into the story and was rough sailing. Even after telling a story that basically said "Help! Help! Crazy Bitch has abducted me and hobbled my leg! Let me go!" no one did much of anything. At one point, me and the player spoke out of character. She said, "Make a run for it. See what happens."

So, I did my patented "Hey! Look at that thing!" And made a mad dash. I get out of the door and suddenly I get pinged three times, each one dealing 4 points of damage. The Doctor caught up and hit me. Now, I'm 5'10, 5'11 on a good day and weight two hundred and *cough**hack**sneeze**Denial* pounds. Everyone though that I was the aggressor, and started attacking me. I quickly went into bleed out, and the Doctor came in to patch me up and cart me away. That was going to be the end of it, a bad misunderstanding, and poor Richard Bachman was going back into Annie's cabin again.

Then one of the people in the room, one who had heard Richard's story, stepped in. To intervene. It was clear the Doctor would be shot if she tried anything rash. I broke her grip on me and she took another swing, but not before getting shot herself. As she was dealing with her attackers, I made a run towards the tap, trying to cut through the townsfolk and weaving, trying to get as much distance and obstacles away from her.

Then I felt the hit on the left leg, Richard's good leg, and the call for Mangle Limb.

She got the other leg.

So there I was, crawling through the snow and trying to get as much distance from Doctor Crazy Bitch as much as possible, by then the Deputies had grabbed us both. The gentleman who intervened before explained parts of the situation, which then turned into a discussion about slavery. Richard was being kept to tell her stories, and she mangled his right leg when he tried to escape.

She resisted, but the informed her if she tried anything then she'd be shot in the head. The Deputies told me to run as soon as my legs were healed and they got her to the far corner of the room. My legs were set, and she was out of sight. I slunk out of the bar and ran back to freedom (in this case, the operations office). As I ran, the Doctor's screams were heard, and then immediately silenced.

- The second Mod was a simple one wave Raider attack on the Double Tap building. Just as a way of making the players feel good. The Storyteller's job is to evoke emotions. False Hope is an emotion, right?

- The third one was fun. It was involving the backstory of a PC, as slavers from her past had come into town posing as Bounty Hunters looking for her. The town gets hip to this quick though, and we go through what is essentially a shell game as the PC is carted away right under our nose. We're then asked/told to leave town until we get documentation of the bounty. As we leave town one of the Deputies, played by my friend Ericka, stops us.

"Slavery is illegal in this town."

The entire six man team stops in their tracks. I'm carrying a larg warhammer in my hands and it slowly rolled from my shoulders into a nonchalant low guard in case things went south. "Slavery?" I said, in a Lone Star drawl. "That's a new one. You hear that boys? We's a bunch of slavers." Cue laughs. "Lady, we'll come back with the papers. You jus be sure to hold her for when we do." Then we sauntered off into the night.

Sorry Ericka, but I was ready to bring the hammer down on you.

- the next mod was a quick one designed to 1) get the players healed and their equipment ready for the oncoming shit storm that was that evening and 2) warn them about said shit storm. In video games, this is the moment where the game stops you to tell you you should probably save your game in case you want to do some more prep before going balls deep. In this mod, I played a Pikey, a backwater Irishman who was part of the O'Neill family of Tinkers. The O'neills have a mangled Irish brogue. When trying to describe how the O'neills dressed (NPCs have a costume and make up section) Mike, the St in charge of the module, pointed to me. I was dressed in a beige canvas hooded jacket with a long sleeved flannel t-shirt over a pair of coveralls. He said that was how they dressed. This made me happy because this was what I was planning on wearing for my Retrograde Tinker. It's nice to get the mood right.

We go through town, and everyone has already left for the big ass mod. Whoops. We move through and basically make small talk, I fix one set of armor before we're called away to prep for the major moment of the night.

- We all Zed up again and head to the Radio Tower. Standing at the Tower is the Crimson King. Yes, That Crimson King. Except this one isn't screeching and dropping bombs, he's knuckling up and calling us Zeds to protect him. I'm now on the other side of the epic battle. It's dark now, and the mist is making everything hazy. My feet are soaked through and through and I feel my lungs start to buckle in the first signs of asthma. This is it for me, the last push. So we go to town.

About twenty minutes in, a Medical Hold is called. Action and RP is dropped. Someone was on the floor and it was clear that it wasn't RP.

I can only describe the next 15 minutes in the feel than in the scene. I was in the far corner of the field with the other NPCs. The players had taken a large swath back and let the Marshalls take care of things. There was a quick and deft action going on here. These weren't amateurs, they knew protocol and procedure. I could hear the standard questions checking for concussion, as the more questions were being asked, the more I could tell there was consciousness but probably not all copacetic. We were all told to disperse and head back to Ops to await the ambulance to come in and do their job.

This is one of the cons of Boffer LARPing. You're out there, in the woods, being active. You run the risk of getting hurt, getting sick.  The mark of a well run game is shown by people who acknowledge that and know damn well what to do when it does happen. These guys run this game well.

In about 40 minutes, game was called back on and the Zed were called out to do more modules. I called it, as I was becoming unable to warm up. That was the last NPC module I'd do.

A Word on Playing the Wind.

It's a trade off, really, playing a full time NPC in a fully immerse game such as Dystopia Rising. Once you're not playing an NPC, you do not exist in the game space. You must keep out of character the entire time, even if you have one. You've relinquished the right to use it.

This becomes very difficult when you're asleep in the shanty town, it's constantly being ransacked, and your sleeping bag is the first one at the door. Fortunately NPCs make a lot of noise. But that also means I've got to keep my hand to my head to denote "I am out of character, I do not exist here. This is not the victim you are looking for, go about your business." And then having to do the same when the players clean up and check on bodies.

When we as NPCs go out into Modules, we go out of character and move from one place to another. We don't exist in the gaming world at the moment. I've seen someone RP coming across a caravan of Out of Character NPCs in transit as being in a stiff wind. That's what we are for the time being, we're the wind. We move, and we make noise and push when we have to.

I had a really good and tiring time playing, this has given me a lot of ideas for the new character I want to bring in to game, as well as inspiring me about Storytelling. Props to Liam, Shosanna, Mike, Abigail, Allie and everyone else in the Ops booth who put me to work like the Henchman that I am (it's a time honored Page tradition). And thanks to Michael Pucci for building this fucked up playground of mud, viscera and madness I had a blast and would do it again.

But for right now, the character comes first. Especially now that I have this...

Built for me by my friend Bartosz. The pen is added for scale. I'ma call it "The Fix". A perfect weapon for a Tinker for Old York. I also know what I'm going to stencil on the side there:  

Do Not Go Gentle...

They gave me a weapon, now I get to play.

See you folks in the Wasteland.

Later.

The Paradox of Storytelling

You can't spell 'Sadist' without 'S.T.'. You can't spell 'Masochist' without 'S.T.'. This is ironic and I assume deliberate by the Universe
- Craig Page (that's me!)


I've been speaking to a lot of people lately about Storytelling and different philosophies and personal takes on it. I figured that I should write something to explain my current take on how I view storytelling on a philosophical level. Not surprisingly for me, I find that a lot of it is paradoxical in nature with one side contradicting the other. This is to help me, as much as anything else, to piece together what is going on in my head and to go "Okay, this is the line for me."


This is a personal tract. You don't have to agree with it. You don't have to follow it and I'm not going to hold anyone else to these standards but Myself. You aren't me, I am not you. I won't judge you for your faults if you don't judge me for mine. If it helps you sleep at night, I'm talking entirely to myself and it's very possible I may respond. Anywho:

"Expect a Plan J"

There are two parts to this. The first is to not underestimate your players. They are here to have story, play a game, succeed in a challenge, explore, whatever. They are capable and open minded enough to basically sit down for what is one giant thought experiment. Having said that you cannot possibly predict with 100% accuracy the behavior of your players and their PCs. This is defeatist and insane. I'll give you an example.

One of my players had raised his Gnosis. This is an overall power level for Mages, and denotes their knowledge and connection with the Universe. It ranks on a scale of 1-10. Gnosis 1 is a freshly Awakened Mage while 10 is when you have officially graduated from this Reality and need to move the fuck on (seriously, the Fabric of Reality doesn't much like you any more." So when a Mage raises in Gnosis, it's a big deal. I did a scene with him to commemorate this. His character is also a Master of Spirit Magic, making him capable of speaking to the natural esoteric entities that live in parallel to our world on a level comparable with Werewolves (who are entities of both the Material and Spirit Realms).

The scene started with Spirits walking towards a restaurant in China Town, and the PC is the only who can readily see them. He follows them to the back room, where he witnesses the kitchen workers playing a game of Russian Roulette with a revolver possessed by a mid ranking Spirit. The goal for me was to get the player down at the table to play the Bullet Dance with a possessed gun.

The Player's Response? "I'm going to rush the table and try to steal the gun."

My internal response: "Okay...that wasn't exactly as I expected. Hold please while I take a shot of vodka and try to figure out how to make sure he doesn't get killed by the Spirit, the numerous lesser spirits and the four mooks."

In reverse, though, you don't want to overestimate your players either. In Requiem and and Mage, there have been instances of "City Under Siege" plots where the City is under continuous assault by a foreign element. I consider this to be a risky plot tool for a Live Action Game. Oh, as a plot, I love the pressure cooker that is a siege. But when you're dealing with players, a protracted siege is both problematic and also detrimental to the psychology of the players.

There's a reason Sieges are effective. With the cut off from Resources, Communication, and eventually Hope, people begin to feel desperate and disheartened. While we can say that there is a separation of Player and PC, the player has to deal with it one way or the other. Sooner or later, they too will cease caring and eventually someone will open the gates and go "Come on in, put us out of our misery."

An effective way of doing Sieges in a LARP, I think, is the way Sanderson used it in The Well of Ascension: With Foreknowledge. Half the drama comes from planning and preparing for the oncoming force, and the second half comes from when they are at the gates. Sieges in LARPs need to be short and concise.

In short, do not underestimate or overestimate the abilities of your players. Make a plan, make contingencies either to up or lower the effectiveness of your plan. Introduce problems for your antagonists or benefits as you feel the players are handling. Focus as much on how the players are handling the plot as what they do during it.

"With and Against"

Speaking with several players local and abroad, a lot of discussion has come about Storytellers who are playing against their players. I found this to be a fascinating concept. For me, Storytelling has always been about managing and telling the story. There were ST's who were taking an anatagonistic role with their players. Perhaps it has a lot to do with scope and definition. The games that they were speaking of had a clearly defined world about them, and everyone knew their relevant areas and strengths. In New York's Mage, the setting is located at an abandoned train station at 92nd street. That's roughly it.

The World outside of that station is roughly at the behest of the Storyteller, meaning it's my job to try and describe exactly how this world is defined. I'm also a fan of Discovery over "Attack", a view that I know is not shared much by most gamers. I want the players to know that there is a world outside the station, and that there are consequences to their decision.

But there's a difference between setting the board against your players and characters and actively attempting to counter move them. I think it tends to go with the whole Siege mentality. Sooner or later, you need to keep people interested. Also, I think the problem comes from the fact that people are looking less to beat an adversary in a LARP and more to see resolution. We're Storytellers, that implies that a Story is being Told as much as a Game is being Played. Is one better than the other? Of course. But it all boils down to what is your player set expecting? Are you playing Chess while they are playing Make Believe?

In short, Know your players, know their wishes, know their goals as players. This way it is understood that this is the tempo of your games. That way they can adjust, and you can as well.

"Within and Without"
A Mage player came up to me a while back and said "Craig, I don't like how Rhys (my PC) has become a Plot Vending Machine."  Let me clarify. Rhys is a member of the House of Ariadne, a Mage Legacy who attunes to Cities. As his power increases, he is able to ask the City questions, most importantly, he's capable of finding and locating things anywhere in the City. If it's there, he can usually find it.

This makes life as a Storyteller difficult, both having a player as a member of this Legacy and having NPC as a member of this Legacy. When I became Storyteller, Rhys was still in play and a part of the team in good standing. It became abundantly clear that Rhys' abilities made him supremely convenient to people, including me. Let me clarify: I could use him to say "Oh by the way, this is here. You should go do that." I could do that, but I'd be force feeding my characters plot. That's fucking pointless if I value Discovery so much.

So, in fairness, I've quietly pulled Rhys back away from the main game. With each passing month, his opinion of the Consillium has grown bleaker.  His main departure left this last piece of plot, where he said "I can speak to the City, and the City doesn't like us much any more." Since then he has been even more aggressive towards the Consillium, distancing himself further, refusing to answer phone calls. He doesn't like the Consillium.

I've seen players continue their characters during game. Overall, though, the moment you take an ST position then your character is immediately put onto the backseat. It just makes your position seem self serving. The moment your Story run begins, you are no longer playing a character in this game. Your PC's story is done until your term is over. And for some of us who took on the position at End of Chronicle, will never see resolution.

As a Storyteller, You are no longer playing your PC for your PC's story. Your PC is the City, your story is the story of the City. While your PC can take part in that story, they should exist to Help tell that story.

"The word 'No' must exist in your Vocbulary."

This is self explanatory, but is tied to one of my bigger problems as a Storyteller. Mage is all about the promise of power on a Reality-bending levels. However, there is a habit of "Hey, I can do this, so I'm going to." Which leads to either a use of power that cuts out any dramatic tension what so ever or drags out a scene forever as Mages do some protracted thing using Magic.

There is a clause in the Mage VSS that states "If it can be Roleplayed, it should be Roleplayed," with the reward of giving more Xp to players who do Roleplay And that the  consistent use of Magic when mundane skills can be used is a violation of Wisdom (a Mage's Morality), which then leads to degeneration. But this is all pointless if you don't decide "Okay, enough is enough and this is killing the game/venue/mood of the players."

 But the problem is that I don't want to come off as restricting, right? If you keep denying people actions, then they stop wanting to play. It runs on the same principles of the above Siege scenario. If you limit enough options, people won't want to play any more. This is just the Out Of Character version of the In Character one.

Keep a dialogue going with the players. While you want everyone to be able to do what they want, you also have to take into consideration the good of the venue.

Which finally brings me to...

"The Needs of the Many and the Few"
as a Storyteller, your goal is to take care of the Venue in it's entirety. It's plot, it's status and it's players. This boils to the very real problem of  not being able to please everyone in your venue. Take a deep breath, because you aren't going to be able to please them. There are far too many goals, personalities and perspectives. You can't appease every single one of them. Unless you are that good, which in that case I'll shut up and take notes.  That being said, it is paramount to always be aware of the tenor  and tone of your players as a whole. But, if someone is having problems, it should be addressed.

The needs of the many outweighing the needs of the few is both true and false in this situation. Both are paramount and issues with both are to be taken seriously and with care.


Conclusion

The role of the Storyteller is a juggling act. On one hand you have the large problems, maintaining and managing the venue/domain/region/national/global plot, and in the other you have the issues of the individuals who rely on you, and even yourself. Being an St is about finding a balance. How you find it is your own thing, so long as you can find it and maintain it. It's both incredibly fun to do and incredibly draining and taxing emotionally and mentally for numerous reasons. You have to expect the heartache and the headaches along with the creative process. Hemingway said it best when he talked about writing. You sit there and BLEED. This is an organic process and that requires the ability to grow, and that means pain. You have to accept that, or else you're not going to be able to let the venue/game/domain/project grow into what it has set itself up to be.

Later.

The Prop Shop

We've gone to Video!!!

Death, Corruption and The Butt-Hurt

This was a hell of a weekend, in all points, it all seemed to revolve around two things.

Death and Corruption.

This section is what seperates Larping and regular gaming.. In regular games, if you don't like the outcome, you can pick a previously saved version, restart the game. No harm, no foul. In a Larp, your character dies, they can be corrupted, tortured, put through pain. And when they're dead, THEY'RE DEAD. Deceased. They cease to be, they are no more. Full on Parrot Sketch.

So let's begin. At Mage, things have gotten very interesting as the Consillium is approached with the concept that the Abyss, that all-magic and life hating void that separates The Fallen World (read: ours) and the Supernal Realms that grant Magic and overall oneness with the Universe, could in fact be severed. It's interesting to see the group do more than just "There's trouble afoot, quick! To the magic-mobile!"

Of course, that's when I dropped plot. An Abyssally Corrupted body was found in the East River. It's Pattern, the metaphysical construct of everything, infected to the point of dissolving. Think "Actively Evil Ebola". So yeah, that lead them all to what I can only describe as "Silent Hill on a Boat."

It's interesting to watch the group react to a horrible, terrible scene. And since this is the Abyss, their magic doesn't have the same rules as it normally would. Watching them walk out with what they were treating as a magical Tac-Nuke was interesting. Ending on it though was the Stinger...

For months, a PC has obliquely mentioned looking for a book. It was a book written by what he believes is a Scelestus, a Mage who dedicated themselves to the will of the Abyss. The Book describes how to cross the Onyx Shores of the Abyss to the Supernal.

Notice a pattern? So did the Mages. The Book, which I had spent months inscribing, was never opened, and was taken into the libraries of the Mysterium out of fear it could compel them (fact: It totally can. Of course the first one to notice was a Mind Mage.) The book, and subsequently the case are possibly shipped off to the backroom of that large warehouse the Ark of the Covenant is kept.

After game, the player whose PC was hunting the book had a look. He saw the inscriptions and designs and said "You know, my character will fight it the whole way, but I'm totally willing to discuss this corrupting him."

Let me go back. The Mind's Eye Society Club as a whole isn't that big of Character Death and Corruption. There are a lot of reasons, the one I empathize a lot with is "I've put too much time and effort into my character to see them go this way." I saw this a lot in New York Jedi, exaggerated more so since we weren't Larping so much as just coordinating all of our stories into one. Whenever someone had a story to tell using multiple characters, it became a crapshoot because a person could go "My character wouldn't do that." This was true if said character were to lose or otherwise look in a negative light.

But this is a Larp. Your character is not always in your hands. I hate to come back to the GNS theory, but there it is. I find a lot of people who tend to view reactions with a Gamist mentality to be aggressive against any negative effects to their character, including using any and all mechanics to keep one safe and leaving minor RP justifications as to why those precautions exist. Simulationists tend to move in a point/counterpoint. I do this, this happens, I respond. A Narrativist looks at the situation and goes, "Now, how will this effect my character and how to tell the story."

So when the Player became interested in exploring the potential plot, It made me feel good as an ST, because that means that someone actually trusts me to do horrible things to a character they made. I'm not here to fuck someone over. I'll kill if I have to, but what's the point of killing or torturing these characters?

Later that night, I caught the flipside of that. In Requiem, there has been a lot of drama and build up for this one event. Tensions between the Prince of New York with his Invictus cadre and The Prisci Council, lead by the Ordo Dracul, had reached a fever pitch. Things had tipped over recently, and it was clear that there was going to be fights going on.

Now, I'm not a combatant player in these things. Mostly because I'm not a Mechanics person and Combat is  very Mechanics-based (unless it's boffer, in that case GIVE ME AN AXE!!). So frankly, in a combat setting I'm as useful as Tits on a Fish. So there was the very real (in my mind) notion that my PC would die. This is also added by one player telling me out of character that his combat-focus PC was going to come for my PC. This didn't add well to me out of character. My PC, however, knew that he was being aimed at, and with the powers of Emotional Detachment, just didn't give a damn.

It also helped that my PC was hosting the gathering that night and it was on his Private Domain of Governor's Island. He had set up a LOT of contingency plans and basically let the Dragons bring in everything and everyone. Of course, the ST had his own say on the matter. Soon, the entire island was littered in Snipers and at least one PC (the man who claimed dibs on attacking my PC) was shot. Several times. In the face. Can I just remind people that Vampires are fucking cockroaches and killing them is a pain in the balls.

So the evening was underway, the Dragons entering together with Six or Seven Proxied Characters backing us up. The Invictus appeared, with two additions. The Prince of Boston, and longstanding friend of the Dragons and Invictus arrived. This changed things, and suddenly we went from ready to throw down to negotiations.

In short, my PC lives!

But up until the end of the game I was prepared for Taglia to be killed. That lead to a lot of thinking, a lot of it along the lines of It's not fair. I've done too much and seen so little of this character.  I resigned myself to accept that it happened by just going downstairs and getting a drink afterwards. Then I would do some scenes post-dated to tie off some strings. Nothing major, just little ties to end things for him, send him off fair. It didn't happen.

But I can  empathize with those who contest it. It's the Butt-Hurt, that feeling that you were somehow fucked over and it isn't fair, but due to the way the game was played, the people playing and sheer brute luck, your character is dead and unless there was a grave act of cheating, they are dead and gone forever. I've seen and heard stories about people who were so Butt-Hurt over this that they walked away from their games and the clubs and from the hobby altogether.

It. Sucks.

And I understand where it comes from, you spend all this time with this character, building their sheet, working on them, exploring their character and their interactions. You've invested yourself into these people, some more than others, and to see them go in a less than satisfying way is going to make a lot of people feel like it was a waste. But I think that's where the Narrativist comes in on these things. Death is another story, so are Dark Times. We all face them, or else we haven't lived. For these characters to truly have a life of their own, they have to have a death of their own waiting for them. And even though they are no longer an active part of the story, they continue on (hopefully) through the actions of those affected by the death.

"To die would be an awfully big adventure."

Later.