Musings on an Anniversary

( Long and rambling thoughts on my 6th anniversary )

Planning a session

Continuing my thoughts on what I do in prepping for my games I’d like to talk about prepping for a session. Which is different then prepping a story or prepping a scene.

In my games I usually have 2 or three stories going on at once, on their own tracks that may mix and mingle. So its helpful to have an idea of what is going to happen in a given game session.

So I record the following information:

The objectives of the session. Is there smething that I want to see happen that game? What is it? What has to happen (or not happen) to see it happen.

The start. If I’m good I always have a starting scene all planned. A good way to start the action. I’ll be honest, if I don’t start a session this way its pretty clear that I haven’t done my prep work.

Activities. This is the list of scenes I have prepped. And other things that are going to happen that may draw the players in. Usually it’s a good list of stuff to look at when there is a lull and I need to figure out what comes next. This serves as my springboard section.

Then after the session I evaluate it. What went right, what went wrong? What are the ramifications of the various conflicts and the scenes ad the roleplaying. What does this mean to the world and all the various nets of relationships within it. And then I update all that.

Next, I tackle how I develop a given story. And then scenes. And then maybe my mapping techniques (and I don’t mean geographical I suck at that stuff)

Game Prep: Building a Story

Most of my stories fit into the longer-term aspects of a game. As such each is considered towards the wider stories and the thematic goals of the game. What I always try to do is figure out where a given story fits into the game. I have a fairly simple tool for this. I take a piece of paper and on the top I list the reasons for the story. What is going on and why it’s important. A brief synopsis or a few ideas really, nothing too detailed as there’s time for that later. Primarily what I’m interested is what in it for the characters. Why are they interested? What does it mean? In short, the character’s goals in the story.

Then I divide the paper in two and title one column “facilitating factors” and the second “inhibiting factors”.

The facilitating factors are those things that will help the characters reach their goals. Just short bullet points. Ideally most of these are NPCs (including places and sometimes things). Then I do the same with the inhibiting factors, the stuff that will prevent the characters from reaching their goals.

This list of facilitating and inhibiting factors then helps me determine what scenes I need to build.

Phonogram: Rue Britannia

Phonogram by Kieron Gillen (story) and Jamie McKelvie (art and lettering) is a comic about magic and about music. And yes its incredibly preteniious and cute at the same time. Miraculously it succeeds in taking a musical period I have absolutely no connection to and making a fun story out of it. Which is a pretty big success in my mind. In the world of Phonogram, music is magic, in the same sort of way that works like Unknown Armies strive for. It would probably make a great Unknown Armies campaign, especially as there are no guns or violence. I appreciate that. Characters in the series use their knowledge of pop and rock music to perform spells to gain influence and power. The comic basically illuminates an underground rivalry between magical factions through the story of a young guy who uses his powers to take advantage of women. All in all not my perfect cup of tea but I’ll certainly pay attention to these fellows work in the future.