Vampire LARP Interview: Nick Wittman

Nick Wittman is a Vampire: the Requiem Storyteller with Australia's Beyond the Sunset LARP (the national affiliate of an international World of Darkness LARP game). He took up the position after less than a year's experience, having attended his first Vampire game with a friend in June, 2011. A few months ago, he leapt into the Requiem Storyteller's shoes so he's certainly had an interesting experience.

Shannon: "So what's it like jumping into the Storyteller position so soon after you started playing?"

Nick: "It's daunting to say the least. This is one of the smallest domains in Australia so we only recently had need for a Domain Storyteller so I'm lucky in that we have the Storyteller and Co-Ordinator groups learning at the same time to help me with that. But to need to learn all the back-end of it while I am still learning the actual rules as a player is interesting."

Shannon: "What have been the main hurdles for you so far?"

Nick: "The main hurdles have been the fact that the other, older, more experienced players are still in the mindset of me as a new player, as am I. So it's difficult with the whole, 'My word goes because I'm ST' type thing."

Shannon: "Yeah, it can be hard to lay down the law when you're newer to a game then they are. Do you have any advice for anyone else who finds themselves in a similar position?"

Nick: "Remember that you are right and if all else fails and the players aren't happy with your ruling, don't be afraid to ask your DST for a ruling and be ready to make compromises. Other than that, just keep on top of the current addenda. A lot of players will be keeping up to date on that so if you aren't that puts you at a disadvantage."

Shannon: "So how many sessions have you run so far? And out of them, what's been some of the most enjoyable moments?"

Nick: "I have so far run four sessions. The most enjoyable session so far would have had to have been my second one. I had a player playing the leader of the plot at the time and my plot nearly started a war between two clans and two cities. To have my plot influencing stuff at that scale so early on was a blast. Oh and she got to flip a table In Character and Out Of Character. Which she was very happy about."

Shannon: "What are some of the lowlights? Moments that you found difficult? Areas of the LARP that didn't come so easily to you?"

Nick: "In the combat heavy plot I've been running so far, there have been a few character deaths and you can really see how it affects some characters when other characters die. For example, my own characters In Character brother is one of the characters killed by my plot so there is a bit of hardship there."

Shannon: "Do you do anything special when a character dies? Perhaps hold an out-of-character remembrance or something?"

Nick: "I generally just buy them a drink or two at after game drinks."

Shannon: "Always a good bet. I tend to give mine apology cookies or cupcakes though I tend to rarely kill off characters. Do you have any advice for Storytellers who are about to come into the role soon after starting as a player?"

Nick: "Keep confident. Make sure you go over the common powers of your genre often. For example, I knew I didn't know much about Majesty in Requiem, so before my first few games I re-read them to make sure I knew what was going on. Know your time line for the game, when NPC's are coming in, etc. and know your goals for the night."

Shannon: "Okay, there we have it. All good pointers, Nick. I know that I had to read the primary game manuals every three months when I was running a LARP game for the Camarilla. I also had to study the addenda and contemplate what those things meant. Thanks for the interview!"

Interview with a Call of Cthulhu Player: Laine

In high school Laine predominately played in World of Darkness games such as Vampire the Masquerade but after a ten year hiatus, he's started playing in various BRP and Call of Cthulhu games in play-by-post format on www.callofcthulhu.org.uk Now he's joining us today to give some insight into a player's mind by letting us poke around his own brain.

Shannon: "So why the shift in game systems and styles? Why Call of Cthulhu now?"

Laine: "I really enjoyed the WOD setting, but I was simply getting tired of the over the top powerful characters and felt that the system by allowing you to play supernatural creatures rather took away from the experience of horror that I was looking for. I went through a long hiatus of role play since I couldn't find a group that was looking for similar themes and elements of horror."

"I have been a fan of such writers as Poe and Lovecraft for some time, but only became aware of a role playing system based around H.P Lovecraft several years ago. I have been intrigued ever since, however finding others in my area that wish to play CoC has been difficult, so I began to look online and found Play@YSDC. Since joining I have primarily played in the forum Welcome to Silent Hill as Travis Yates. He is a preschool teacher who has just moved to Silent Hill and will begin to work at Midwhich in the fall of next school year. He is a rather sensitive character and generally places the needs of other individuals above his own. I enjoy playing him very much and am rather fearful that his psyche will not be able to handle the horrors of Silent Hill as they are revealed to him."

"I also play Piauyu on Zombie Apocolypse. I imagine her as being a lone cougar type character who is faithful towards her own path in life. I am not sure how she will interact with other players when she meets them..."

Shannon: "What hooks you into joining a game? What makes you think to yourself 'yes, I'd like to play that'?"

Laine: "I look for games that have particular themes or are in certain genres or settings. I have loved zombie movies for some time and have always wanted to play in a zombie rpg, so Zombie Apocolypse caught my attention right away. Silent Hill was an immediate hit for me as well because I love the video games and found the possibility of taking on a fictitional role in such as setting would be exciting and a unique way to continue the exploration of Silent Hill. I enjoyed video games growing up, however I find it more engaging and fun to make up the story line and have a character unique to yourself."

"I also look for games set within certain historical periods. I enjoy music from the 1920s-1940s and fashion from those eras as well. I appreciate the chance to play characters from the upper classes of society (professors, academics, rich indviduals, etc.), but I really enjoy story lines or concepts that would be fitting for common individuals during these time periods or of other sub-cultures such as entertainers, musicians, criminals, etc. As far as Keepers I appreciate ones who are flexible and patient in regards to the technical aspects of the games. I enjoy campaignes that can be at a reasonably fast pace with a well thought out story line."

Shannon: "You play some pretty interesting characters with quite a bit of depth. Where do you get all of your ideas? And do you follow a process to develop your character concepts?"

Laine: "I generally choose concepts for characters based on what I feel I am somewhat knowledgable about. Although I would enjoy playing a character such as a bioloigist, epidemiologist, psychiatrist, military personel, etc. I would find it very difficult to do such characters justice without falling into cliches or simply not knowing what I am talking about. Therefore I would say each character is reflective of my own personality and interests. I am not sure how many players do this, but I would certainly say that I put a bit of myself into most of the characters I play."

"Travis is by far the closest to home for me in terms of background and life experiences. I know this really exposes a lot about myself, but I also find it an intriguing and reflective process. I find his character's struggles the most personal and in a way I designed it that way. I feel like the setting of the game also really asks one to go into the psyche of their character as most of the horror of Silent Hill is psychological in nature."

Shannon: "So I’m getting the vibe that you like your personal horror. Are there any other forms of horror that really appeal to you and, if so, how can Keepers really evoke that horror for you?"

Laine: "Don't get me wrong, I enjoy a certain amount of action and some level of violence, but it really depends on the game itself. I wouldn't join a game like Zombie Apocolypse if I weren't hoping that at some point my character would have to fight their way through a ravenous horde of the undead. On the other hand I like psychological horror and I appreciate that aspect in CoC in general."

"I also enjoy reading about serial killers and it seems like there have been a few games here that have touched on that genre. I find the greatest evil is when humans and not monsters are the ones who commit horrific acts. I watched a documentary that showed a lot of photos of Nazi Germany that focused not so much on the tragedy of the concentration camps but rather the everyday lives of Germans during that time period. It was intense to see through the photographs that even the most horrific of people could enjoy many of the same things we enjoy on a day to day basis. This is not to take away what happened, but rather it showed that there was a human element to it and that was what was the most disheartening of all. Who needs the Mythos when we are our own greatest threats?"

Shannon: "So true. The factual horror of what some other people are willing to do to you is far more intense and frightening than any monster that we're pretty sure doesn't exist. Anyway, thanks for letting me interview you. It's been fun!"

So there you have it! Some insight into the player's mind, in this case a dyed-in-the-wool horror player. Boy do I wish I knew a few of you locally as only one of my players is an actual fan of the horror genre. Most of the others don't mind dabbling in it, or a horror themed game, but they don't really want to indulge in the fear.

Next week, another one of my Silent Hill Play-by-Post's players.

Interview with a Vampire LARP ST: Christopher Bond (BondingChris)

Christopher Bond is the current Venue Storyteller in what was the Australian Camarilla and is now called Beyond the Sunset. This means that he runs a Live Action Roleplaying Game set in a global world where his players can scheme with those in Sydney, America, and many other countries. It's a unique experience and one that comes with a large number of demands, particularly since his player base could range from 10 to 28 on any given night and total strangers can sign up as players to his game.

Shannon: So tell us a little bit about your roleplaying background?

Chris: Well, I started when I was about 7 or 8. I got exposed to Baldur’s Gate over at my cousin’s house. He played it and after enjoying Age of Empires I wanted to have a go. I began my journey when my uncle bought me Baldur’s Gate 2. It took me by surprise how much I enjoyed it. The narrative was intense, the themes were dark and the protagonist was wonderful to control. During my final years of high school I began playing Dark Hersey. Aside from that, I explored the Black Isle PC games and other types of role playing games.

Shannon: You were a player in the Camarilla for a fair while, then you became a LARP Storyteller in Vampire: the Requiem. What inspired you to make the jump?

Chris: My characters had just died and the current ST was looking at becoming the National Storyteller. I figured I’d fill the void. I also felt that my characters had run their course. The story, for them at least, had ended. Whilst both had been tragically struck short, they’d gone down like I wanted them too. Rank with his ‘my horse, my horse, my kingdom for a horse’ sort of deal and Aidan were killed in a way very fitting to how I played him. One in which there weren’t any punches pulled. I respect the player for finishing Aidan the way he did. It was cowardly and with only the interests of self-preservation in mind, just like kindred would really act. My respect for that player has only grown since taking the position of ST.

Shannon: What's the best part of storytelling a LARP?

Chris: Encouraging people to portray their story. Often when DMing a D&D game or similar it’s your own story which is the important one. STing is different; you watch others and create conflict for their story. It’s really exciting watching a character turn full circle and grow into something that they once hated. It particularly is excellent watching characters that - for lack of a better word - go from ‘evil’ to ‘good’ or at the very least, selfless.

Shannon: And the worst?

Chris: There are a few. It’s often a thankless job. If you do it to get your ego massaged then go ahead, but those massages are few and far between. The players' complaints can become a problem but you learn to deal with it. With players metagaming, well, you try to fix it but you can only lead a horse to water, you can’t stop it stealing water from your backpack. The writing - there’s SO MUCH TO WRITE! But all those pale compared to the enjoyment you get from running the game.

Shannon: What do you wish someone had told you about running a Vampire: the Requiem LARP, before you made the jump?

Chris: That players are … players. They each have a view of how the game should work and often, whether right or wrong (if such things exist when discussing a game) their view is different to yours. They can often over react and this brings larger problems to the foreground. Sometimes they act like children. But just like a father, I still love them. Even when they do things they shouldn’t or complain when we have to take them shopping.

Shannon: If you could change one thing about the game you're currently running, what would it be?

Chris: I’d love more players. I know. I just spent about half a page being grumpy about players but I love them for all their flaws. I love sharing this great experience and whilst I know everyone can’t get along, I’d love them to. I just crave watching new players get hooked, I love them entering into the political arena, finding the dark secrets of their covenants and clans. The shock at the feudal system and the need for respect in this world. The older player bringing characters with shock and awe style tactics, the memorizing of the Invictus protocols, the Lancea quotes, the Dragon logic, the Carthian idealism and the Crone worship. I love all of it and I want to share that rich world with as many people as I can.

Shannon: Well, thanks Chris. I think you've given us a bit of insight into the LARP world and that last paragraph really sums up the iconic Requiem experience for anyone who's curious, so we'll leave it there.

Next week, I'll start interviewing some players.

Interview with a Changeling LARP Storyteller: Dastaplerthief

This delightful Camarilla (soon to be called Beyond the Sunset) LARP storyteller has been running the Changeling arm of that domain for well over a year. He's been around the block from old World of Darkness to new World of Darkness, played in many a game and certainly ran a few. So, without further ado, let's go to the first question:

Shannon: "What drew you to run a LARP for such a big organization as Beyond the Sunset?”

Dastaplerthief: “In part, necessity – the previous Storyteller stepped down due to university commitments, and I stepped up because I enjoyed the game and didn’t want to see the venue collapse. What kept me running it was that I was having fun! My players are a pleasure to run games for, and I get a kick out of the large world and supernatural ripple effects from each venue.”

Shannon: “Changeling’s a very deep and multi-faceted game. What do you think is the core of the game, as far as you’re concerned, and how do you try to evoke it?”

Dastaplerthief: “Strip away the magic and you get is a story about being human and all that entails: community, family, friendship...and fear, fragility and loss. How human can you be when all that you were was stripped from you by the Fae? When the thorns tore away some vital part of your soul that you’ll never get back? Even Changeling social structure is revealing - Courts, Motleys and Entitlements act as combined surrogate family, support group and political party."

"I keep a focus on interconnectedness, as the biggest threat to Changeling sanity is from threats to their mortal identity or too much time spent away from humans. I encourage PCs to remember they have friends and family. Allies and contacts have names and identities, and other NPCs provide friends, rivals, foils and even girlfriends or boyfriends. This is not without difficulties when at least one party is by default traumatised, paranoid and hunted by forces much bigger than them."

"Fragility, of both sanity and the life they’ve clawed together from scratch, is something else explored. Loyalists certainly have their own mysterious agenda but in my game most frequently terrorise the PCs through threats on their cobbled together human identities and friends. When they’re watching your house, do you run and lose everything you’ve worked for, or risk them coming in and slaughtering your neighbours to remove human witnesses? What about if they’ve broken in? What if they’ve looked in your phone-book and sabotaged your job?"

"That's a huge worry for anyone, but a Changeling especially!"

"What if they do none of that but simply attack your Changeling friends – do you neglect your mortal identity and get driven just that little bit more mad in order to keep the few friends you have?"

"Finally, the Fetch is a fascinating foil. It arguably has a greater claim to humanity than the Lost, as it looks and lives the part. They may lack a soul, but can the Lost argue they truly have one? Just how do you cope with that?"

"These problems really are the bread and butter of a Changeling game.”

Shannon: “Changeling also very much relies on an Other World – the Hedge. How do you treat the Hedge and what are the best ways to evoke that sense of Otherness?”

Dastaplerthief: “Firstly, I do not map the Hedge or allow anyone else to. Why? It’s too complex. It’s five dimensional. It shifts with time, plus there’s a fifth dimension – proximity to Arcadia, which does not necessarily correspond to a cardinal direction. You also cannot predict where a Hedge-gate will open exactly for that reason. I emphasise that the Hedge is sentient, psychoactive and hungry – a living thing more than a place. If something seems off in the Hedge PCs tend to get very scared indeed."

"Secondly, through flora, fauna and locales. Most Core book Hedgebeasts shouldn't have Australian correlates – why would there be Briarwolves in a country with no native canids? On the other hand, thylacaleo, diprotodons and other extinct megafauna lend a sense of age and of scale. The Lost are definitely at the bottom of the foodchain. Add in ancient ruins, overgrown abandoned Hollows and of course the Goblin Market, where you can buy anything ... for a price, and it's very alien indeed."

Shannon: “LARPs and Table-top games are very different beasts. What do you see as the biggest differences and how do you cater for them?”

Dastaplerthief: “While the most obvious thing is difference in the LARP and tabletop rules, I’d say that a far greater difference lies in planning game and session structure. Tabletop games move at the rate of narrative. You can spend several months in the same few hours of game time, or skip ahead a week or more. In LARPs this isn’t possible – time moves on at a rate corresponding with the real world, making downtimes all the more important. There is always a time-limit, and therefore a bit more of a sense of urgency."

"There is also differences in designing session premises – while Changeling doesn’t have as large a body of players as some of the other BtS venues it becomes very clunky to do an investigation with eight or nine PCs all clamouring for ST attention. More often investigations happen in downtimes and sessions focus on deciding how to deal with issues and politics"

"Actually going in to deal with something either requires a great deal more planning on the players’ part, or something urgent to prompt it, otherwise things tend to go nowhere. It’s fairly rare for everyone to synergize completely, as LARP PCs aren’t designed to work as well in a group as tabletop PCs are."

Shannon: “Any advice you’d give to other people seriously considering running a LARP game?”

Dastaplerthief: “Worldbuild. Seriously. There are so many PCs compared to tabletop, each with their own agenda. You need to be prepared to react from things coming at you from all sorts of directions, and attempts to railroad plot rarely go down well. Be prepared to run a lot on the fly, and remember that with that many people you generally can fit in less plot than in tabletop, so make those clues count!"

"PCs have a lot more control over IC-politics than you’d necessarily allow in tabletop, as there is more likely to be the numbers to support it, so there will inevitably be a political game, regardless of original intentions."

"Finally, remember that good downtime responses really can add to a game, as well as being a brilliant way to seed plot. The world does not stand still between sessions."

Okay, thank you for sharing with us. That's a lot of good advice for those running Changeling and LARP, as well.

If anyone has any questions, comment below and I'll see if I can get responses from the interviewee.

Interview with a Changeling LARP Storyteller: Andrew Watson

This time I'm going to interview a long term LARP player in the Camarilla who was once upon a time a Camarilla Changeling LARP Storyteller and who is now a Camarilla LARP Domain Storyteller (he manages the local game storytellers). He's pictured to the left in a character he played at a Noctis game. I've playing in a few games he's run and I've always enjoyed his fresh and insightful style. Since he's an old hat, I've focused my questions on LARP in general with a few questions directly about his Changeling experience.

Shannon: "So, what on Earth convinced you to run a LARP?"

Andrew: "Well, I spent all this time playing LARPs and watching LARPs and talking about them so I figured it couldn't be all that difficult. I was kinda wrong. But basically the opportunity came up. Nobody else was going to do it. So I thought I'd give it a shot. Also, I just like telling stories."

Shannon: "So what's the difference between running a LARP and a Tabletop? I mean, you've done both, but how do you do a LARP well?"

Andrew: "Well, the differences are scale and chronology, I reckon. So you've got a generally much larger group of players and the game's a whole lot less linear so to a larger extent what you have to do is create the playing field and then watch as the players do horrible things to it. So part of doing it well is actually accepting that but I think that applies to storytelling and running games in general."

Shannon: "Changeling must make that all the harder, too. Trying to double guess where changelings are going is ... well, an exercise in futility."

Andrew: "Yeah, when I was running changeling I probably never got the double guessing down pat and so I made things a lot more open-ended than I otherwise would have done. So sometimes people would approach a problem and say "I do X" which is completely outside what I would've considered. When that happens, you've sort of got to have some openings in the plot for that sort of thing to happen. Since Changeling is a pretty crazy game and characters tend to be pretty eccentric that can certainly become interesting.

I guess one of the important things is to have them bounce things off each other rather than just the world around them because that's one of the main aspects of the game is the personal, almost introspective, self-psychoanalysis. Because, you know, it's Changeling it's all about loss and how you deal with it and how you cope when you can't necessarily get back the things that are gone. And honestly players are better at helping each other figure that out than NPCs."

Shannon: "What's one thing you would different?"

Andrew: "Something I could've done better was being much more willing to say no you can't play that character concept. Every game has kooky character concepts but in Changeling that can get extreme. And so if someone actually creates a character about being kooky than that can get pretty extreme."

Shannon: "What's your favourite parts of a LARP?"

Andrew: "Character development, probably. And the really intense emotional scenes that you just don't get to the same extent in tabletop, at least not very often. I've played LARP games where there's 3 - 4 characters shouting at each other, someone's breaking down crying, and it's just really rewarding and it's cathartic as well. LARP actually encourages people a lot more to think about their character as a person because it has much more of a focus on socialising and the social aspect. Even just little quirks of personality or mannerisms are much more important because they have to be displayed rather than you mention it now and again."

Shannon: "Anything else?"

Andrew: "I love the politics. I know it's not everyone's thing but the alliances and the back stabbing and the scheming.... Two of the ideal situations for a LARP is when you have a group of up to 4 players doing a really intensely personal scene or when you have 100 players who all have their own individual goals and schemes. It's just being able to go between those two extremes just allows for a huge amount of diversity that tabletop just doesn't have access to."

Shannon: "What's the three tricks you'd wish every player remembered when playing in a political LARP?"

Andrew: "Do what you're meaning to do. Don't come up with a plan or intend to do something and then don't actually follow through on it because if everyone does that it's just really boring because it's easy to go 'I'll go do this and this and this' and then not do anything.

Don't be afraid to be nasty to characters but never be nasty to players. I mean, it's politics, people do terrible things to each other but everyone's there to have fun. There's no reason why you can't create an awesome story together rather than against each other.

And be a gracious loser. It's probably the most important one. Like be prepared to lose, to fail, and rather than be bitter about it when it does happen actually figure out ways to make it a better and more enjoyable story. Say your character has been foiled in his plans to take over the city well, maybe, he's had enough and he's going to completely change his tactic and try to support the city. And in losing, you can compromise with the other players. Maybe if you're going to lose out on something maybe there's some story element where you can realise some part of your character's personal story. Say they're betrayed by an ally, maybe it actually gives them the opportunity to re-connect with an old friend whom they've become alienated from. Basically, it all comes down to work with people, not against people, but work against their characters."

"It's not actually about winning or losing so it doesn't actually matter if you lose. And if you're not having fun, take the time to step back, take a break, and calm down, perhaps for a couple months if that's what you need."

Shannon: "What's the worst thing a LARP ST can do?"

Andrew: "The thing that's specific to LARP that I'd probably say is: Don't let the characters and the players do whatever the want. There has to be some guidance. Otherwise it does just get silly. Especially when you have 20 people in the room you need to exert some control. If there's a big combat happening you need to make sure people are not chatting, that they're paying attention, and that extends to disallowing problematic character concepts as well.

And stay organised. Don't let the paperwork and the people calling to talk about their characters get on top of you. Have assistants if you need them. It's a big undertaking. And more generally, for storytellers, don't just shoot down players whenever they try something even if it's something that's outside the character's experience. It's just really frustrating if players are failing at everything they try. There does need to be a ray of light, there needs to be some hope, and not just everything going bad constantly, otherwise people don't have fun, and that makes them put less into the game."

Shannon: "All right. That should be a wrap. Thanks!"

Well, there you have it. Some advice on LARP games from an old pro. Hope you enjoyed it!

Interview with a Storyteller: Adam Lopez

So, ladies and gentleman, I give to you the amazing, the incredible, Adam Lopez! No pushing please. Autographs at the end of the article. This maaaay be my fiance and the guy who runs me my absolute more favouritist game in my absolute favouritist genre, but I'm not biased or anything. Nope. I run this blog with absolute journalistic integrity.

Promise.

So, anyway, on to the questions.

Shannon: "So, why the World of Darkness?"

Adam: "The World of Darkness is a simple system but with a great deal of variety. If you put your mind to it you can make basically anything in it. Generally I wouldn't have ever said that horror was my thing but there are certain deep questions and in-depth exploration of a person's psyche that you get out of horror that you can't get anywhere else. Horror's confronting. And it's through that confrontation that you actually learn what a person is like. It's the same for characters. People who make characters for a WoD game are going to think a lot more about how their characters would react in certain situations than they would in D&D, for example, or many others."

Shannon: "Your interest in in-depth characters probably explains your complex and interesting NPCs. You have a real knack for breathing life into characters but just how do you manage to make an NPC feel so real?"

Adam: "I find that a lot of other STs and Players get annoyed when I show up to a session because I generally show up with a blank piece of paper and that's about it. I've always had a knack for envisioning things in my head and then attributing different things to it. For example, generally when you think of an alley, you might think of alleys you've seen in movies but I have a real knack for seeing the alley but also picking it apart. Seeing everything in the alley. Where doors might lead. That kind of thing. So when my players go into an alley, I already know that that door leads to the back room of a cafe or that the types of things that might be in the dumpster.

I've always also been good with people. When I talk to people I try to see where they're coming from, really put myself in their shoes, so when I think of an NPC I do exactly the same thing. I can very quickly attribute different personality traits when the NPC has a request for the PCs, I know exactly why he's doing it, what his true motivations are, how he feels about having to ask for help, how he feels about the PCs just based on what they are wearing or the way they act. I don't particularly know how I have this ability. I just always have.

As far as putting yourself in someone else's shoes, that's what roleplaying has always been for me. The desire to walk a mile in another person's shoes. Explore a life and a personality that I'll never know. And it's always fun to make yourself a little bit awesome on the side."

Shannon: "Reminds me a bit of how authors say they work. Do you ever find yourself watching a movie and putting yourself in the character's shoes? Or eavesdropping on people and trying to build a story from that?"

Adam: "Yeah. I used to do that a lot when I was a kid. Creating stories for toys I was given or that sort of thing. I used to try to write but I've never really been good at it. I've never been really good at creating a good story structure. I find PCs help with that. PCs have their own story they want to explore so things come more naturally that way whereas if you have to create the story by yourself it makes it a lot harder. I can describe a scene but I can't tell you where it's going to lead. Also when you're STing, the goal is to create isolated instances that link together toward a grander scheme.

I try to avoid now the temptation to take inspirations from movies and books that I've read and that sort of thing and insert it into the game because it's often recognisable and it can often create attachment to NPCs that you probably shouldn't have. There should always be the options for your players to react badly to an NPC or to not like their personality. Forcing them to deal with someone who they wouldn't is pretty bad practice. Also making anyone appear to have power beyond that which is obtainable of the PCs is also a pretty bad move unless they're the villains, of course, in which case numbers should still be able to take them down."

Shannon: "So are there any tricks to breathing life into characters?"

Adam: "Give them flaws. Real people are fractured individuals and those fractures have a root cause which blends into things. So when you spend enough time digging, which I shouldn't do but I do, you start figuring out what makes people human and once you can figure out why people do things that you think is irrational, you can bring that into your NPCs reactions in a very natural way and that's what makes them intriguing."

Shannon: "That explains why I find their reactions to things so intriguing, but how does a person portray a different demeanor? Y'know, that set of subtle behavioural cues that is so identifiably them?"

Adam: "I guess the best way to say it is stereotypes expanded. If you have to depict a dock worker, everyone has a preconception of what a dock worker will be but a stereotype of a dock worker is not going to engage people and isn't very accurate. So you take that stereotype and you add things. Maybe instead of being a gruff, grumpy man from the wrong side of the city, he's kind, light-hearted, perhaps even cultured, but then you ask yourself 'why?' Why is this person different from what I assume he would be? What if he has a child? What if he is raising a child without a partner? Now he's having to work long hours at a bad job but for the best of reasons.

Or maybe if we take the stereotype of the gruff dock worker to another extreme, what if he's on the take? What if it's his job to work these kinds of hours so he can tell the PCs that he sees nothing? That they're looking in the wrong direction? What if that same dock worker who's on the take is scared of the people he's taking money from and takes the cash from fear? Will he help the PCs or go with the party line? What if that's why he's so gruff in the first place?"

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So there you have it. He really does do awesome NPCs, by the way. I just wish I could somehow find a way to crack out the last few secrets so I can do it myself. My NPCs are generally 'good enough' but they just don't seem as alive as his do.

Anyway, next week we'll have an interview from a Changeling LARP Storyteller.

Interview with a DM: Christopher Riese

Shannon: “So, Chris, how long have you been a DM, approximately? And other than D&D, what games have you run?”

Chris: “I have been running D&D for roughly 12 years now and Dark heresy for perhaps the last 2 or 3. I can’t be sure anymore.”

Shannon: “How did you get into Dungeons & Dragons?”

Chris: “Well, Shannon, it was the year 2000. I was but a young lad of 14, wide eyed and full of youth perusing the PC games section at Target when I discovered something that would change my life. I passed my first search check and found 'A small blue box with a golden trim and a strange sigil on the cover depicting two elf heads. One light, one dark, merged above and below each other like a ying yang'.

It was Baldurs gate 2, and within a few weeks of its addictive, deep, intuitive game play - all my friends were into it as well - I found myself heading into the city to a now closed down RPG bookstore to buy the Core 3 for DND 3.0 and a Starter box containing some pre-generated characters, cardboard tokens covered with depictions of various monster portraits and a book of missions... I intuitively knew that I wanted to run the game, as I had always been the creative sort - spending endless hours scribbling RPG ideas and drawing map lay outs to create on Unreal Editor when I should have been doing homework.

It seemed that within no time we were slaying goblins, saving unicorns and sneaking past sleeping ogres (though in later years the old sleeping ogre was no longer very scary, and could be quickly destroyed with a coup-de-grace). I had found a game that fit me and my friends like a glove, and I still game with those same 3 friends to this day (albeit many new faces, including that of Shannon and her spouse Mr. Adomo have been a part of the story).”

Shannon: “What is it about D&D that continues to appeal to you?”

Chris: “Well despite the obvious sex appeal that comes with being a Veteran of many dnd campaigns *cough* I would have to say that there is a definite charm to the "Great-Grand-daddy-of-them-all" that appeals to me. (Alright, maybe 1st ed is probably the grand daddy ... let’s call 3.5 the great, great, grand foetus of them all). I just love making dungeons and writing missions. I love rolling up new towns, fleshing them out and spending long hours into the night bringing everything to life like a painter. It’s my Art and my hobby, one I love sharing with everyone I meet. And I’m not ashamed of it ... within a minutes of meeting someone new, I usually fish to see if they have ever role-played. I have found many new players in doing so.

The game can be as deep or as shallow as you want it to be. Whether you want a Beer and Pretzel style "Force the door and Smash the Ogres" night with a high character turnover and many good times to laugh about - or a Deep, complex series of intertwining character interplay in a dangerous world where every place has its story, ever nation has its politics and every monster has its niche. You can do it with DND. You can make it your own.”

Hard At Play

Shannon: “Well, it’s been awhile since I last played with you, but by my recollection, you’ve always had tremendous skill in describing combat in a way that is both slick and epic. Any tricks to the trade?”

Chris: “I’d like to think I've only learned and improved over time. The days of role-playing with you and Adam are sorely missed :) but I have 2 places that are always open should you ever choose to return (sneaky plug). But I digress, I take inspiration from movies, TV, games and recycle whatever cool imagery I have seen and use it to make combat scenes both visceral and satisfying. Such as the no holds barred violence of Sparticus, ludicrous action scenes in Xena or spell effects from Harry Potter.

People WANT to feel potent, but they should also be reminded that they are not "drunken gods". Thus, my character deaths are equally visceral. I have seen players disintegrated, torn limb from limb, chased down and eaten, sucked dry or enslaved by vampires, dissolved by gelatinous cubes, turned to stone and shattered apart, turned to salt, exploded, throttled to death, have their soul destroyed, thrown off a mountain, devoured by scarabs, turned into a chaos beast, killed by the party clerics’ own healing magic, hand-mashed by a giant demon, die from starvation down a pit trap, and much, much more... I seem to recall you being diced apart by your own blade barrier spell at one point as well. :) RIP Linda the cleric.

I guess the Tip in all this is not to baby the players. Let them live and die by their own dice rolls. Don’t be slack, cater to every skill and make sure if a player has taken it that you have covered it. Communicate! This is the most important one, make sure EVERYONE knows that you understand what their character is all about and how they fit in your world. If necessary ADAPT TO SUIT THEM. Don’t control the game with narrow options. Give them a selection of options and take their ideas onboard. If they are too out there, explain what you’re angling for. It really helps.

Finally don’t play the "hand of god" to keep your game running... If players will escalate to PVP for legitimate in-character role-play reasons - there is nothing that should stop them short of a legitimate distraction or talking them down in game through an NPC.

The final tip is learning to say no to people, and following it up by explaining why. Also, be open to debate but do not do it at the table. People who aren’t used to hearing the word can ruin your game if you don’t nip it in the bud early.”

Shannon: “Where do you get your inspiration when designing adventures, encounters, and the like?”

Chris: “I read a lot of source books and constantly find more inspiration relevant to what I am currently doing through my ample Stack of Dragon/Dungeon Mags from way back when. I also perused forums, use generators (both hand rolled and online) and borrow heavily from ideas I have used in the past to create fresher ideas. I love my dungeons to be Fair.

I don’t purpose build anything or purpose place anything to suit anyone in particular - often I will make sure that an encounter is tailored to the background information given for specific creatures.

Oh and steer away from making small dungeon rooms. Bottlenecked combats are never fun, always give the players and the monsters space for strategy unless it’s part of the encounter (such as an ever shifting maze with a crypt thing and a 2 displacer beasts).”

Just Another Evening

Shannon: “What’s been one of your favorite moments while running the game?”

Chris: “I have many... Most recently I would say running a serious D&D campaign for the first time with my nephew and niece. In one scene they were overrun by a hoard of water rats. During the fight my niece, suffering many rat bites and scratches to her forearms and hands, grappled and stuffed a rat into her backpack before handing it to her brother - who then messily power-slammed it into a wall. Violent but effective. But for nostalgia sake, I would have to say my favourite moments would have to be when my players add to my game world not only with content, but with in-game jokes (such as the devout sorceress who blessed her dice by ritually intoning "Shar you whoar!" before casting spells, or the deep imaskari ninja who could hide so well we all said "She's hiding in the sandwich" (literally, she could make SNIPE attacks in melee whilst hiding in plain sight).

It is the things players contribute, that i find are so much more important than what you yourself write. The game is never just about the DM. It’s about cooperative fantasy.

Shannon: “So many true words spoken there. Thank you for agreeing to be interviewed.”

So, everyone, there’s an interview with an old DM of mine. By the way, he has an old play-by-post over here if anyone’s interested. It was finished awhile ago but you might like to take a look.

If you have any further questions for him, you can post them in the comments section and I’ll see if I can get some answers for you.

Interview with a Keeper: Mr. Handy

Well, I've always wanted to learn more about how different Game Masters / Keepers, etc. do it so I figured I'd just go track a few down and ask them. The first interview is with Mr. Handy, a Keeper from http://www.callofcthulhu.org.uk/ who is currently involved in running (and playing) several Call of Cthulhu and BRP homebrew settings on that same Play-by-Post forum. Here we go...

Shannon: "So, I’ve been playing in your Zombie Apocalypse play-by-post game for a few years now and I remember that it was originally run by somebody else. Tell me what inspired you to take it up and keep it going for so long."

Mr. Handy: "That's right, Zombie Apocalypse was originally created by Welsh, who was the first Keeper. It began on No Mutants Allowed, a fansite for the Fallout series of computer games. This was actually not his first attempt to run a game like this, but like any good zombie, it refused to stay down. Unlike his earlier attempts to run it, this one really took off. I started out as a player at the very beginning in June 2006.

In October 2006, Welsh no longer had time to continue running the game. Rather than see it die like its previous incarnations, he asked me to take over as Keeper. I loved the game and wanted to keep it going too, and we both knew that none of the other players would have been able to do it. Over the next couple of months there was a transition period where both of us ran the game together. I started out writing smaller parts of the game that gradually increased.

When Chapter 2 started in 2007, I was flying solo. Welsh created the new characters for Chapter 2 between chapters, and he still had creative input and helped with some of the new characters for Chapter 3, but since then I've been running the show.

Zombie Apocalypse has always been a labor of love, and there are several reasons why I've kept it going all this time. The game is a lot of fun both to play and to run. I love games with apocalyptic settings, and I enjoy Romero's zombie movies, which are one of the inspirations for this game. The characters are great too, and even when ones that I've grown attached to die, I can always bring in new ones. I also like the complexity and the sheer chaos of the game, and the possibilities of where it can go are limitless. It is a lot of work, but it's definitely worth it."

Shannon: "In Zombie Apocalypse, you have several different zones in play at the same time. For example, in Chapter 6 you had a variety of simultaneous locations ranging from a school to an army base to a ranger station to a barn with different characters in each. There is also an element of travel involved with characters in cars passing several locations. How do you keep it all straight in your head? Are the locations based on real life places? And, if so, do you use Google Maps or some other program to identify where things should be?"

Mr. Handy: "Zombie Apocalypse started out in a very small area, in a truck stop in southwestern Nebraska and its environs. It remained there for the first two chapters, though there were references to events in different places and communication with some of them. The game started to spread in Chapter 3 as the characters were split up, though most of it still took place around the truck stop at that point.

It isn't easy to keep everything straight, but everything important is written down somewhere. I use one thread to keep track of the locations and weapons of the surviving characters, along with hyperlinks that allow you to trace each character's story. This is helpful to the players as well as to me.

Only some of the locations are based on actual places. Warren Air Force Base is a real place. The cities and towns that characters pass through and visit are real. Most of the locations in the story are ones that I make up. I make them up as needed, but the major buildings and areas are typically designed between chapters, when I have more time to work on them. Minor ones that I wasn't expecting to be used I can create on the fly. I have used an actual house layout for one such house in the game. In a play-by-post game, there's enough time between posts that this isn't a problem. I do use an online map site called Site Atlas to figure out where things should be. Welsh had given us a link to it at the beginning so that we could see where the game took place, and I've found it very useful for the various road trips and helicopter flights."

Shannon: "Us players can also pick up to three characters from a largely pre-generated list, often in different locations, and run them with all the risk of death that entails. I'm guessing that's why you have so many NPCs so players can take them over. What surprises me, though, is how you roleplay them until a player takes them over. You have literally dozens of NPCs at any one time. How do you keep them all straight? Their goals and their personalities? Also, how do you create so many differing personalities?"

Mr. Handy: Actually, you are allowed a maximum of four, though three is the recommended number. Any characters not played by players are NPCs and are usually available for a player to take over. It isn't easy to keep them all straight, but I do have details (including secrets, which often suggest goals and motivations for a character) written down for each of them. Each character also has a one-line quote that is a helpful reminder of each character's personality.

It's not easy to keep them all straight, but the play-by-post format helps with that. In fact, this game probably wouldn't work otherwise with so many characters. It would be nearly impossible to keep everything straight in real time, but when you have hours or even days to think before you post, it becomes managable.

Another trick I use is to have many characters fade into the background. The Omaha section has by far the highest population of any part of the game. I created nearly fifty characters in Omaha alone for the start of Chapter 4, expecting many of them to die. However, the players did such a masterful job that there wasn't a single character death in Omaha for the entire chapter, and only one death in Omaha in Chapter 5. Chapter 6 changed all that. However, most characters only have their moments in the spotlight before stepping back and letting others come forward.

Throughout Chapters 5 and 6, the vast majority of characters spent most of their time in the school cafeteria eating dinner and then dessert, only being brought into play as appropriate. Amelia Delacroix, the cook, was in the kitchen for a long time but came out late in chapter 6 to do something important (and likely saving the life of one of the PCs as a result).The Sword section is a lot easier to manage, as it has always had the lowest population, so each character gets frequent opportunities to shine and they all see a lot of action. Sword has also proven quite deadly, which has kept its numbers down in spite of me adding new characters. It almost didn't exist. The fairly large Under section of Chapter 3 experienced a near Total Party Kill, with one character who only barely survived to brought into Sword when I started it in Chapter 4.

Creating many different personalities and keeping them distinct isn't easy. I have plenty of ideas for character concepts, and I'm not sure where they all originate. Many of them are inspired by characters in books, movies, and TV shows, though I give all of them some original aspects. I also often mentally cast them as actors, sometimes even putting pictures of those actors in their character sheets. For example, Emily Montrose is inspired by Madeleine Stowe's portrayal of Dr. Kathryn Railly in 12 Monkeys, and I used a picture of her from that movie in her character sheet."

Shannon: "So what made you choose the Call of Cthulhu system for it?"

Mr. Handy: It was Welsh who chose the Call of Cthulhu system, but I agree with the reasons he gave. The Sanity mechanic was the key reason he chose it. It reflects very effectively the downward spiral into madness that would be common in an apocalyptic scenario such as Zombie Apocalypse. Sanity increases are very few and far between in this game. I awarded a 1d10 increase for characters who survived Chapter 1, but there are only a handful of those still alive at this point.

Characters also get a 1d10 increase when reaching a "safe haven" location for the first time, though "safe" is a relative term. Generally, Sanity tends to decline more and more. A few characters have clung to high Sanity, but most of them have taken significant hits as the horror keeps mounting. The lethality of the game does mean that it's rare for characters to live long enough to go completely insane. Only a few have made it down to single digits. One of them was hovering at 1 Sanity for a very long time. He did eventually hit zero and go permanently insane as a direct result of the player's own choice of action. I have one NPC at 3 Sanity. While he is quite, quite mad, he has some important things to say based on what he has seen and his insane insights. Players will need to filter out the signal from the noise when interacting with him.

Another advantage of Call of Cthulhu is that the rules are simple and very easy for new players to learn. Zombie Apocalypse has introduced a lot of players to Call of Cthulhu for the first time. When I joined, it was the first time I had played CoC in about ten years, but I was able to pick it up again quickly and even get to the point where I could run the game myself. Welsh was already familiar with CoC, as he was running a game at Play@Yog-Sothoth at the time and playing in others. It was he who introduced me to the site and encouraged moving the game there.

Also, combat in Call of Cthulhu is very quick, realistic, and deadly, which makes it fitting both for the medium and this particular game. Play by post games are slow enough as it is. Lengthy battles can really cause them to bog down, so it's good to keep it moving fast. Combat versus zombies is even easier, as the zombies don't even try to defend themselves and cannot attack unless they're close enough. The realism and lethality are important to the theme of the game. Characters are ordinary people, not superheroes. When they engage in battle, death is a very real risk."

Shannon: "So what advice would you give someone hoping to start up a play-by-post of their own?"

Mr. Handy: "I'd say start a lot smaller than I did. Use a shorter published scenario (such as The Haunting) to get your feet wet. Once you've got that under your belt, then you can move on to larger and more complex scenarios, including those that you write yourself. Zombie Apocalypse is massive and difficult to run, but well worth it.

You'll also need a lot of patience, as play-by-post moves very slowly. A scenario that could be played in four hours around a table may take months or even a year to run as a play-by-post. Your players will also need long attention spans so that they will stick with the game.

However, play-by-post also gives you advantages that are hard to achieve with tabletop games. You have plenty of time to think of a response and plan things out. You can also increase suspense by limiting player knowledge. When the party splits up, make separate threads for each group and do not allow the players to read the threads of those who are not in their group. This way the players won't know if something horrible has happened to the others, and if something horrible happens to them, they won't know if the others are in a position to help them. Spoiler buttons and private messages are a good way to give information to one player without the others knowing. Take full advantage of these techniques. Play-by-post also allows you to add to the experience by posting images, videos, and sound files, not just raw text. Even text can be formatted and displayed in different colors and sizes. All of these things can enhance the game for the players."

Shannon: "Thank you for doing this interview with me, Mr. Handy."

If anyone would like to view Zombie Apocalypse, you can find it here but if you don't have an account with the forum yet, you'll need to register and get your account activated by posting in one of the visible threads. (Blame the spammers!) Activation happens pretty quickly, though, and it's well worth the look.

So there you have it, my first Keeper interview. I'll aim to have one up weekly (ideally on Wednesdays) but it'll obviously depend on who I can get and when. Next week I should have a D&D tabletop Dungeon Master. After that, I'm hoping to get a few different Camarilla Live Action Roleplay Storytellers of different genres. If I'm lucky, I might even get to interview a Player or two. We Game Masters, etc. love to talk. It'd be interesting to hear the views of a player about their side of the fence.

Stay tuned!