A couple questions for GMs

[AndrewD2]

I was just wondering a couple of things for current GMs.

 

1. How in depth of background do you require your players to have?

 

2. How often do you make sure players Psych Lims/Vulnerbilities/Suseptability/etc come into play (ie. you make sure that you are going to trigger these specific limitations)?

 

Thanks,

Andrew

[jkwleisemann]

Re: A couple questions for GMs

 

1: Depends on the player and the character. I know that, as a player, I'll vary from 73 pages of backstory (my current record for length, in prose format) down to a few simple paragraphs. A lot of it depends on how much detail I feel the player will flesh out over time. If I think a paragraph of backstory is just trying to put a fresh coat of varnish on a character who's nothing more than a collection of powers, I send 'em back to work. If I think it's because they're going to develop *more* for the character as time goes by, then I'm happy to leave 'em through.

 

2: Not too often, necessarily. Psych Lim's usually have situations available where they *can* come up any time. Vulnerabilities and Susceptibilities, I don't usually go out of my *way* to do it, but I make sure they do show.

 

I've gotten nailed too often by people who didn't believe that vulnerabilities could be anything less than Very Common in practice. IE - Vulnerability to Sonics just means that every Viper agent you run into carries a sonic blaster with him.

[CBikle]

Re: A couple questions for GMs

 

1 I encourage players to add as much detail as possible (I'm even willing to change or add events to the game's timeline from the PC's background).

 

At the very least, the character needs to have a profession that lends itself to plot hooks.

 

2 Not really, however I have limited hunteds and DNPCs to an 8 or less roll ; in future games I'll probably go further and reduce the max disad points for those limits to 25.

[Hugh Neilson]

Re: A couple questions for GMs

 

Second question first: over time, I find most tend to come up in play without me working towards it too much. I do look for opportunities where limitations may come forward as I'm designing adventures, but I don't generally design scenarios around disad's.

 

First question: this one bugs me a bit. We do this for fun, not as a job or an education. I see no need to "require" a player to "write a 1,000 word esay on your character". I expect them to provide some kind of summary of the character's background, personality and abilities. Setting specific parameters seems like overkill to me.

[Kabluey]

Re: A couple questions for GMs

 

1. It varies from a paragraph to five or so pages (the longest I've gotten so far). I used to require some background (without any specific length requirements or anything). Now I've started giving 5 xp for providing a background. I've vaguely thought of altering the xp bonus based on length, say, 2 pts for up to a page, 5 pages for 1+ pages, something like that. Haven't done it though.

 

2. I guess it depends on the sort of disad you're talking about. Psych, Social limitations: I almost never specifically set up situations for those, but they come up from time to time anyway. Hunteds, DNPC's: I never roll dice for those, I just use them when I want to based on what frequency they're bought at. Vulnerability, Susceptibility: I won't use them much, but I will make a point to use them every so often.

[Mike W]

Re: A couple questions for GMs

 

1. I generally want at least a page of background story, preferrably closer to two. I want something that is long enough to provide story hooks.

 

2. It depends on what the Disadvantage is. I expect people to play their Psych Lims at all times. But as far as "stepping on" Psych Lims(or anything else goes). I try to step on someone's disads once a game session. Whose disads(and which ones) depends on the story.

[hooligan x]

Re: A couple questions for GMs

 

1. I leave it up to the player, with the warning that I will flesh-out an sparse character. Some players prefer to get "Wolverined". Some would rather not. I find it's better to let them decide.

 

2. I usually forget most disads and my players will say things like "Crap city! I take double damage from unholy weapons!" or "Does the entangle shell trigger my claustophobia?".

Uh, yeah it does. Sorry about that.

[Hugh Neilson]

Re: A couple questions for GMs

 

I've vaguely thought of altering the xp bonus based on length' date=' say, 2 pts for up to a page, 5 pages for 1+ pages, something like that.[/quote']

 

Larger margins and bigger fonts, here I come!

[TheRavenIs]

Re: A couple questions for GMs

 

1. It all depends on the player. If they are good at making a C that is fun, has depth I don't worry all that much.

 

2. I learned many years ago to remeber those, much to my players pain.

[OddHat]

Re: A couple questions for GMs

 

I was just wondering a couple of things for current GMs.

 

1. How in depth of background do you require your players to have?

 

I don't require that much, but I appreciate a good back story, and I'll try to reward it in play in small ways. Generally, I ask that a back story fit into my world setting and illustrate at least a few of the character's disads. At the least, I'd like to see a fair reason for the character to do what he does.

 

2. How often do you make sure players Psych Lims/Vulnerbilities/Suseptability/etc come into play (ie. you make sure that you are going to trigger these specific limitations)?

 

Depends on the limit or disad. I discourage hunteds and DNPCs above the 8- level, as I don't want any one character's NPC set taking over the game. I will hang a game (or several) on a given character's hunted. Vulnerabilities come up when they come up, if I happen to have a villain who uses that attack type, or if the vulnerability could reasonably be learned by a foe. I try to make sure that most limitations pop up often enough to be worth the points they saved, but perfect mathematical balance is not my goal; my players are there to have fun. I will often review the character's sheets on game day to help me figure out interesting ways to bring disads and such into play.

[Hopscotch]

Re: A couple questions for GMs

 

I have never required backgrounds to be written out. I like to sit with the player and help them flesh out a background that fits into the campaign world.

Some players know exactly what their background is, while some need to be coaxed.

The background almost always suggests most of the character's disads.

 

I am always careful when I create enemies that might exploit a character's weakness. I make sure that I am not picking on the same character twice in a row.

I do find that these dangerous opponents make players play better, and they appreciate a victory over them even more. It can be a beautiful thing to see.

I also make sure to have villians that have weaknesses that the players can exploit, as long as it does not make it too easy. My players love to figure out the weak spots. Sadly, they are getting a little too good at it...

 

 

Hopscotch

[red_eagle123]

Re: A couple questions for GMs

 

I don't require a background from my players, though it definately helps me out in writing stories tailored to the character. In my current game I had 4 newcomers to Role Playing, so I got verbal rough backgrounds from them, and have since tailored them further, often adding in surprises or connections to other PC's they never thought of. I like to have some freedom to do this if I can, so a fully fleshed out background starting from birth to current activites, with an accompanying timeline and account of all important events (I've been a player in games where this happened in College) is too limiting in my opinion.

 

As others have said, Psychological Limitations will come into play naturally, as will some social and physical limitations. Vulnerabilities and Hunteds I have yet to write a game around. In fact, there is one hunted some of the players have that I haven't used yet, at least not directly. They've been referenced off-screen, and indirectly. But I've never brought them out to face the PC's directly.

[Fenixcrest]

Re: A couple questions for GMs

 

1. I don't require too much; generally, just enough background to give a personality framework and an explanation for a character's abilities. Some of my players are awesome, though. In my upcoming game:

"So, Stalin was a super in this timeline?"

"That's right. He called himself the Blood Red King, and ruled over the USSR with an iron fist and psionic powers until Captain America (not the Marvel one) went in there and decapitated him."

"Okay. My character's father was a Russian scientist who saw this coming and chose to launch his family into space for a few decades. He was one of the world's greatest geniuses, and had access to amazing super-technologies of the period. 50 years later, he has decided to check Earth out again, and my character, his daughter, opted to go down to planetside with some of his 1960's-era supertechnology."

"..."

"Yeah. She's a displaced 1960's scifi superhero."

"Buck Rogers style? With the awesome little zappy gun?"

"That's right."

...And I think that's good enough right there, plus it's bound to become more elaborate and weird as the game goes on. We've already developed a "not displaced, but kind of stuck in the past 1960's scifi villain" to be her hunted. The group and I are pretty excited about that one.

 

2. Psych lims, they pretty much come up when they come up. There was a character in this year's fantasy game who was afraid of becoming filthy. He usually got dropped in the mud or completely covered in blood at least once per session, resulting in him running screaming off the battlemat, toward the nearest water source. A less common psych lim, though, like a phobia of snakes, might only come up if the character actively ventures into a place where snakes are found, such as deserts and airplanes.

Vulnerabilities... it depends on the vulnerability, and how familiar villains are with the character. For example, I'm not too likely to throw a -spewing villain at the characters from out of nowhere... but a villain that's familiar with the character, like a Hunted or another recurring villain, especially a psychic one, is likely to bring -spewing backup with him. Susceptibilities (assuming uncommon ones, like Kryptonite, not common ones, like being submerged(think of all those dockside warehouse fights!)) are the same case.

[Rapier]

Re: A couple questions for GMs

 

1) I don't necessarily require much of any background, especially very early on. There is a settling in period that I give each character (3 games). During this period they can recreate/tweak or change any powers or background they want. Sometimes the character you initially build isn't the character you want to play and you can't tell that until you get into it. By the end of the third adventure I need to know enough about the character to incorporate them into the campaign and have a reasonalbe expectation or determing their reactions to situations. Sometimes I learn this through RP in the game and sometimes through a written History. Noone is necessarily required to provide a written history but I provide XP for written histories so very few players don't actually do one.

 

2) All disads come up as often as their frequency allows them to.

I try to design plotlines around the personalities of the characters (which usually comes to impacting their Disads). There is no real hard and fast rule for how often they come up.

[Ockham's Spoon]

Re: A couple questions for GMs

 

1. I don't require detailed backgrounds, but I encourage them. This is as much for the player as for me, because the better defined a character is at the outset, the easier they are to play, and you end up with a more consistent character. I have seen more than once a character go sour because they were poorly defined at the outset and didn't end up being quite what the player wanted. I do like my players to write the backgrounds down so I can refer to them later, because my memory is, well, its... What was I saying?

 

2. I use Disads as often as I can work them in reasonably, but on the whole my players probably get more points for their Disads than I generally enforce. In fact, I will not allow a Hunted at more than 8- because I am so bad about inserting them into the game. Psych Lims are my favorite, because they are not only the easiest to highlight, but they help define the character (see above). That said, I want a reason in the background that the hero brings hope to the hopeless, help to the helpless, and hap to the hapless. I don't want to hear that he is just a nice guy.

[LREggers]

Re: A couple questions for GMs

 

I was just wondering a couple of things for current GMs.

 

1. How in depth of background do you require your players to have?

 

2. How often do you make sure players Psych Lims/Vulnerbilities/Suseptability/etc come into play (ie. you make sure that you are going to trigger these specific limitations)?

 

Thanks,

Andrew

 

 

In the past (way back to RFEd), I didn't require or request background info as

I was a GM noob, and hadn't done much other than some D&D since then. Now that I'm gearing up again, and dusting off ancient cob-webs, I'm still not requiring PC background info, but I am at least requesting. As for the depth and detail, I'm leaving that up to the players for now.

 

As for Psych Lims/etc., it all depends on how much of a stickler on detail I feel like being, I s'pose.

 

 

Larry