For over a year I have been running a Dungeons and dragons fourth edition game and it has been going well. The party which started with just two players has ballooned in to as many as nine and even after pairing down the roister to those I really wanted to keep around I still found the system getting in the way of the story I wanted to tell. What is a GM to do?

My options seemed to be limited, kick out players I like and characters that are interesting, change the story to fit the combat slog of 4^th ed, find and create house rules to help speed up combat, or switch systems.

Changing the story to a more combat heavy dungeon crawl mechanic did not sit well with me. And cutting out characters for no other reason them my convince was not palatable. So that left me with the idea of shifting systems or modifying the one I have. The modify solution would probably be the easiest way to go but I have reached a point where I find no joy in opening a d and d book and considering the rules. I Gm and play rpgs for fun, I do not want it to become work. With that consideration made the only choice I had was to shove a new system down my player’s thoughts.

Fortunately my players were agreeable or at least willing to see were my madness will lead. We are switching the campaign to Burning Wheel. This is a new system for all of us but one that seems interesting and story driven. Hopefully it will meet both my needs and my player’s needs. I will keep updates coming on the outcome of this experiment.

My question is what would you have done? How would you handle the situation?

Powers do not make a hero; this is the most basic difference between a super powered game and a super Hero game. I play and Gm super hero games not powered games (one of the reasons I was never much of a fan of Aberrant and Trinity or Rifts ) so my first question to a player is not what are your powers but why are you a hero? / What is your motivation? Are you in it for the fame? Or because you can? To make the world a better place? Etc. Then what do you fear? Is it letting people down? The dark? Etc. What is your character interested in? Hobbies job etc. Who relies on your character when (s)he is not wearing a mask? When (s)he is? Who will miss them if the left? Who are you? What do you want? (Throwing those in to see who is paying attention) Finally what powers do you have? The same thing goes to team building most of the Hero team advice talk in the realm of powers make sure you have: the Brick, the fighter, the flyer and a utility player. But I believe that all super hero teams (and I think gaming groups in general) needs a blend of head, heart, hands and feet.

Head the character (and hopefully player) who _plans_ or at least thinks through options before leaping in the Character who at least tries to hold off TPK’s (Mr. Fantastic/Cyclops/Leonardo normally they are team leaders

Heart the character (and hopefully player) who feels this can be as well the one who hold’s the team together (Jean Grey, Invisible Girl, and Michalanglo) all fit in this niche can be the team leader in a pinch but normally second in command

Hands, by this I mean talents or skills not powers the ability to survive in the world without tights and a cape even though his looks are against him Donatello is in this category because of his skills Nightcrawler and his acrobatics Cypher and computers

Feet someone who gets the characters moving and doing something while this is normal for all games it is especially true for Super heroes where Mercenary and monster killer/treasure hunters are not normal Rapheal falls in this category as did Kitty Pryde and many of the younger characters on older teams the ones who leap before they look.

What happens without this well it can make for an interesting game session but not much in long term playability for example I once had a game where a character infiltrated a super villain team. The next session instead of turning them in he helped them destroy the city which effectively ended the game (did not let players infiltrate bad guys for a very long time after that) the main reason that he did it? No reason to be a hero he was just a guy with powers. And for teams well JLI was a fun read but….

1. Where are you from?
2. How far have you traveled from home before the adventure starts?
3. Who was your first love?
   1. How did it end, or is it still alive?
   2. What drew you to this person?
   3. How did you meet?
4. Are your parents still married?
   1. Were they ever married?
   2. If no why not?
   3. If yes do they still live in the place you grew up?
5. What is the weirdest thing that has ever happened to you?
6. What is your favorite holiday?
7. What was your dream job when you were ten?
   1. How did that influence your choice latter in life?
8. Where you a bully or where you bullied?
9. What was your parents dream job for you when you were a child?
10. Did you have a pet as a child and if so what happened to it?
11. Do you still have any scares or health problems from childhood injuries or disease?
12. Do you have siblings and if so what is your relationship with them?
13. What are your hobbies?
14. Did you go to school or did you grow up working on the farm?
15. Did you have a permanent home as a child?
16. What was the most traumatic thing that happened to you growing up?
17. Have you known true love?
    1. How did it end or is it still on going?
    2. How did you meet?
18. What was your first job?
    1. Did you like it?
    2. Why did you leave?
19. What was the happiest moment of your life up to now?
20. What was your biggest victory and worst defeat before you started adventuring?

    Do you have some great character backstoies to share? If so leave them in the comments and don’t forget to fallow the feed. Have a great day and happy gaming.

It is important to note that there are major differences between building world for fantasy, sci fi and modern games.  In fantasy games you need to start building the world from whole cloth.  in a modern or historic setting you are not so much building a world as you are tweaking and rebuilding what is already there based on a changed event or premise.  And with sci fi you are mostly back to whole cloth but with a basic foundation of reality if you chose to use it. We will look at each of these types of worlds indep and in there own time.

The purpose of world building no mater what the genre is the same to create an exiting and completing place for your story to play out.  how detailed and complex you make it is up to you however I strongly recommend maintaining a middle of the road approach. A world that is to detailed will leave little room for the players to be effective while a world with to little detail will feel gray and bland.

Some things that must be considered no matter what type of game you are running.

Tone: are you planing a dark game or a comedic game? this will have a direct effect on the history of your world.

Style: both the style of play of your group and your style of Gming should be taken in to account when building a world.  if you love flavor text and description of settings them make sure you keep this in mind as you build the world load it up with place that are a feast for the senses. On the other hand if you have a party that will start hacking while you are still talking don’t wast your time. Instead fill the world with beasts and dangers and your players will be happy.

Theme: Theme will dictate were you put the time and detail in. A game set adored a space station for instance should be vague about the rest of the galaxy while being detailed about the different areas of the station in detail. A story of an epic quest across the world will need general thought put in to all areas were the party is likely to travel.

Remember the idea of world building is to create an interesting and exiting backdrop for events to happen.  As the Gm the world is not your oyster but your character and you are as responsible as the players for making your character come alive.

How you think and what you think about when creating your character has a direct effect on how quickly he will advance in game. Don’t believe me? read on, give it a try and you will be rewarded. When you sit down to make a character were do you start? Do you work from a picture, or think about filling a role in the party?  Do you start with just some numbers on a page and a race or do you think about what you want to be able to do?  For the most part all of these starting places are means to answer the question “what can I do?” which I believe is the wrong question to ask if we truly want to make memorable characters that have more depth then the pools of there enemies blood.

The question we need to answer at the beginning of character creation is this: Who is my character, what is his current situation and how did he get there? The richer the character back story the more dynamic and complex the characters motivations will be. Lets look at three ways to start thinking about back story. Each of wich comes from a difrent first action of character creation.

First action: what is my role in the party.

The idea here is to think of how you will fit in with the group and how you can be effective in the main focal interaction of the game (i.e. combat,, investigation, court intrigue).  So with this thought in mind you desied to paly a pilot or a wizard detective what are some good ways to start thinking about backstory?

While you know why you as a player chose that class or career you need to shift to thinking about why did your character choose that path for there life?  Did you grow up wanting to be a pilot to escape a bad home life or maybe it is the family business, my father was a wizard so I will be.  just setting down this frame work gives you a lot of hooks to hang character personality and skills on.  At the hart of the back story proses this is the key to create a scaffolding so that when push comes together your character is a coherent whole.

First action: rolling stats

If we choose to roll states before we have even a concept of what we want to play we can let the character grow organically from the numbers.  Hun? Look at the states which are high which are low, if your character is particularly week is this an aspect of genetics or does he suffer from an energy suffered in his youth? If you have wisdom what life experience has led to that.  how did these intrinsic aspects of you characters being influence his childhood. Then start to think of hopes and dreams this then becomes the scaffolding.

First action working from an image (mental or otherwise)

If this is were the character creation proses starts for you you have also probably begun to tell yourself a story about the character.  you start thinking about were did that gun he is holding come from were did he get that scar.  These are simple questions we ask our selves and this is probably the essayist place to work from when it comes to back story.  It is also the hardest to come up with consistently when we need to make a character.

When we create a strong scaffolding of backstory for our characters we give our selves and our GMs ample hooks on which to hang story elements. With these hooks in place our characters will be more involved in the action of the game, they will spend more time in the spotlight and as a result we will get more opportunities to show of what we can do and there for more chance to advance in game

No matter what game you are playing there is one rule that must be remembered at all times.  If you find yourself in a game that violates this rule then you  must do something about it.  The rule is simple but if it is broken you will see GMs burn out and players leave the game in frustration.  What one rule could be so important that it can kill any game from Traveler to H.O.L.E. It is so imprtent and will show up so often around here we will just call it Rule #1.

Rule #1: We are here to have fun

If you have been a gamer for a long time you have probably reached the point were going to a game becomes a chore.  Maybe the story is moving to slowly or maybe the effort of prepping for the game is to much.  Some times we just need a break from one system, play stile or character and need a change.  I have seen more then one gaming group fall apart just because people stopped having fun with the game being played.  Enforcing this rule should be the GMs number one rule, every thing else he does should fallow from this one thought: Is every one having a good time. If we can answer yes to this question then we as game master are doing our job.

Now before you get all up in arms about this let me clarify a few things. Making sure that every one is having a good time does not mean giving them every magic item they want, letting them level up when they feel like it or handing them piles of treasurer.  What it does mean is letting the players do something cool each and every setion and giving them a story to tell to there bored nongamer friends.

Players while this is the predominantly the GMs responsibility you are not off the hook in keeping this rule.  GMs do a lot of work to put together the cool things for your character to do don’t go breaking the adventure just because you can. Do not act out of character for your character just to get an advantage. when we step outside our characters normal behavior we tend to block the path that is intended for us and we miss out on the cool things that we were supposed to see.  Does this mean you should always go were the GM wants you to, hell no but do it because it is what your character would do for his or her own reasons

Every thing else I share with you here will be directed at this one simple idea.  We get to gather with our friends to roleplay for one reason and that is to have a good time. What a good time means may be different from group to group and that is OK as long as every one at the table is having fun.  Some groups will just want to crawl through dungeons and loot dragons hordes, other groups will want to buckle there swash or get involved in court intrigues. The important thing is to know what the other players at the table want and to help them to find it. If we do this, help build the fun of others, they will help to increase our enjoyment of the game as well.

“So what will I find here?” I hear you asking. You will find tips on being a better GM and on being a better player. We will talk about how to build three dimensional characters and dynamic worlds. We will talk about keeping the game fun for every one including the GM. There should also be tech tips, web app reviews and plot hooks to be found laying about. I might also throw in a game review here and there as well.

If any of this interest you remember to book mark the sight and subscribe to the feed. If it doesn’t interest you move along nothing to see here. For those of you still here i will also be expecting some audience participation so don’t forget to leave comments.