{"id":1822,"date":"2018-11-04T08:24:34","date_gmt":"2018-11-04T16:24:34","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/usandacat.com\/thelair\/?p=1822"},"modified":"2018-11-04T08:24:34","modified_gmt":"2018-11-04T16:24:34","slug":"what-sps-is-teaching-me","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/usandacat.com\/thelair\/2018\/what-sps-is-teaching-me\/","title":{"rendered":"What SPS Is Teaching Me"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Sipping<\/a>Introduction<\/b><\/p>\n

Roughly 4 months ago I started a group of gamers called Sipping Primordial Soup (SPS).\u00c2\u00a0 The focus of this group is small-press role-playing games.\u00c2\u00a0 As part of this effort I have been running a lot of one-shot sessions.\u00c2\u00a0 I have learned quite a bit from running these various indie games.\u00c2\u00a0 I think they are really improving my game mastering skills.\u00c2\u00a0 This post contains some things I have learned so far.<\/p>\n

I am not going to expand on the background mechanics that I am mentioning below.\u00c2\u00a0 Instead I want to jump right to the point.\u00c2\u00a0 If you need more exposition on my thoughts please let me know and I will try my best to elaborate.<\/p>\n

It Is Ok Not To Like Every RPG System But Most Have Something To Offer<\/b><\/p>\n

One of the things I learned quickly is that some systems are not for me while others are intuitive and easy for me to pickup.\u00c2\u00a0 Masks, which is a genre that I feel is squarely in my wheelhouse (aka teenage superheroes), was actually tricky for me to run.\u00c2\u00a0 It took a while to get my head around the superhero who took down my villain by using one of his abilities to convince the villain that what he is doing won’t work.\u00c2\u00a0 It made sense in the fiction but took a while to grasp in the mechanics.\u00c2\u00a0 Colonial Gothic was the complete opposite.\u00c2\u00a0 It has old school mechanics that were intuitive and easy for me to pickup and run.\u00c2\u00a0 I have run Colonial Gothic twice now to great success.<\/p>\n

My takeaway is that even though systems vary greatly in mechanics it is important for my advancement in the hobby to understand and appreciate what these small-press RPG are trying to bring to the table.\u00c2\u00a0 Masks pulls back from the powers to focus on the emotional states of the characters.\u00c2\u00a0 That is one killer mechanic that really worked during my play.\u00c2\u00a0 I found it really enlightening.<\/p>\n

In general Powered By The Apocalypse (PBTA) games with their up front GM actions that push player response and foreshadow the impact of their responses falls squarely in this category.\u00c2\u00a0 I have learned about hard vs soft questioning by running PBTA games.\u00c2\u00a0 Also simple things like asking how the characters look during a climactic moment have been fun and I think give the players more agency and narrative control.\u00c2\u00a0 Failing as a mechanism to advance the plot is another important thing I have learned from PBTA.<\/p>\n

There are always more tricks to add to the GM toolkit!<\/p>\n

I Need More Practice Running Some Genres<\/b><\/p>\n

The same conclusions that I made with RPG systems apply to genres as well.\u00c2\u00a0 Some genres come super easy to me while others are tougher.\u00c2\u00a0 Anything gritty, deadly, and political is tougher for me where systems with grandiose heroes and clear cut villains are easier.\u00c2\u00a0 Masks and Colonial Gothic are both genres that are in me wheelhouses.\u00c2\u00a0 Masks is teenage superheroes and Colonial Gothic is monster hunting.\u00c2\u00a0 Both have clear protagonists and clear cut heroes.\u00c2\u00a0 Blades In The Dark is not as easy for me to run.\u00c2\u00a0 Every NPC in Blades In The Dark has their own motivations and nearly all of them are dishonest.<\/p>\n

This is one area where I think I have the potential for a lot of growth.\u00c2\u00a0 Running genres that are harder for me has really opened up my play style and shown me how I can present things in different lights.\u00c2\u00a0 After running Blades In The Dark for the first time I realized how much I have grown in this area.\u00c2\u00a0 Also PBTA games really push the GM to think on their feet.\u00c2\u00a0 I like the challenge it brings!<\/p>\n

I still have a lot to learn about gamemastering and I have been doing it since 1978.\u00c2\u00a0 :]<\/p>\n

Systems Should Promote The Style Of Play They Are Trying To Achieve<\/b><\/p>\n

Often the small-press games that are being played by the SPS group are hyper focused on a feeling that the author wants the gamers to experience as they play out a session.\u00c2\u00a0 Sometimes it works and sometimes it doesn’t but the key is the focus.\u00c2\u00a0 I have played and run some amazingly impactful games that are really enhanced by the laser like concentration in play.<\/p>\n

System that enforce the play style of the genre and setting are important.<\/p>\n

Character Ties Out Of The Gate Are Great<\/b><\/p>\n

PBTA where have you been all my life!\u00c2\u00a0 Many of the PBTA games used Bonds or similar mechanics to tie characters to other characters and the setting up front during the character creation phase.\u00c2\u00a0 The result is an immersive experience that happens organically during session 0.\u00c2\u00a0 Immediately there is something for the players and GM to utilize drive the fiction.<\/p>\n

The way Bonds enrich and direct play for a playbook is powerful.\u00c2\u00a0 Bonds act as reinforcement to the player in how that playbook should function and ties the character to the fiction.\u00c2\u00a0 The Watch does a good job of this with their Bond questions.<\/p>\n

Bonds, and similar mechanics that tie starting characters to each other and enforce the setting, are a powerful technique to drive the fiction early.<\/p>\n

The Goal Is For Everyone At The Table To Have Fun<\/b><\/p>\n

This is sort of an obvious statement but I think playing these type of small-press games has really led me to change my play style.\u00c2\u00a0 As a GM this means making sure each player gets spotlight time and player agency.\u00c2\u00a0 Focusing on what each player and character brings to the table is critical.<\/p>\n

As a player this means promoting the other players so that they can be “cool”.\u00c2\u00a0 One of my favorite things to do is start dialogs with other players to push along the fiction or compliment them on some really fun action that they just pulled off.\u00c2\u00a0 I think everyone wins when players and GMs foster this back-and-forth narrative trust.<\/p>\n

Trust and kindness for the win!<\/p>\n

Want To Join?<\/b><\/p>\n

If you want to join Sipping Primordial Soup, my small-press RPG group in the Santa Clara area, then email or tweet using @Kingbeasst.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Introduction Roughly 4 months ago I started a group of gamers called Sipping Primordial Soup (SPS).\u00c2\u00a0 The focus of this group is small-press role-playing games.\u00c2\u00a0 As part of this effort I have been running a lot of one-shot sessions.\u00c2\u00a0 I have learned quite a bit from running these various indie games.\u00c2\u00a0 I think they are […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3,6],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1822","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-games","category-growlings"],"post_mailing_queue_ids":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/usandacat.com\/thelair\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1822","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/usandacat.com\/thelair\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/usandacat.com\/thelair\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/usandacat.com\/thelair\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/usandacat.com\/thelair\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1822"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/usandacat.com\/thelair\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1822\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/usandacat.com\/thelair\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1822"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/usandacat.com\/thelair\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1822"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/usandacat.com\/thelair\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1822"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}