More Interesting Story > More Points

Back to blogging, my work week has been pretty hectic as of late so I’m having difficulty being as regular when it comes to blog entries as I want to.  However, there have been some pretty interesting things going on as of late, one of which is that I’m playing L5R and I’m enjoying myself immensely.

L5R is one of those games where the social context of the setting weighs in very heavily as compared to combat.  Currently, my character’s pretty much locked between a rock and a hard place, having chosen duty and love over honor and glory, resulting in one very messed up Ronin.

Still, while some people might look at what I’ve done with my character and questioned my sanity, (given that I essentially hobbled my character and wasted a good number of points that I spent in character creation on) I feel justified.  The situation that my character was put in was unique and had very little in the way of choice for my character’s mindset.

I suppose this is where it’s becoming very obvious that I tend to make in-game choices in character first, then point-wise second.  I still stand by my choice though, in the end, the character’s story will end up being more entertaining in the long run, and I consider that a win.

Teambuilding Exercise

As a continuation of the last entry, I’m still on full speed in making HERO villains for my campaign.  As fun as it is to make villains that work alone as solos, the concept of a super villain team has to be the most challenging to build and play against.

When designing a villain team, I fall back to my standard stereotypes to set a what they can do, then string them together to a theme.  Powers, skillsets and roles all fall under this stage.  After that, then I start fleshing out each individual villain, working out personalities and quirks, as well as how they relate to the rest of their team.

Once I’ve got all that worked out, then I start ruminating on how their powers and fighting styles interact, and how they can each support the other.  I guess this extra step in making team villains makes or breaks them, as my two most “successful” combats in HERO where the players were sweating bullets were a combination of an organized team of villains, plus a major complication, like civilians or a bomb.

Well, I’ll probably be able to field test these guys sometime in the next few weeks.  I’ll update accordingly to see what happened, and if I feel they’ve been an effective supervillain team.

Supervillain Assembly Line

Now that I’m in full swing in villain generation in HERO, I’ve been going through the villains that I felt were cool in DC comics and occasionally Marvel. (I’ll come out and admit that I’m much more a fan of DC now, even when I started with Marvel.)  This sort of helps me out since that’s a whole database of ideas right there, just waiting  to inspire a few ideas for the HERO game.

So far, I’ve found that I’m getting predictable, far too many gadgeteers and martial artists.  I guess the whole Batman appreciation side of me is showing so I’m out to make more villans that move away from that stereotype.

I’m hoping by calling on some help from fellow GMs I can break out of the rut and challenge my players in new ways to keep them on their toes.   My players are a great bunch, and are more than able to handle a standard challenge, so it’s time to up the ante.

Reports of my death are greatly exaggerated…

I was merely half dead.

After a couple of very hectic workweeks, I’m back in the blog and still running HERO.  Things are off to an interesting start, with the players in my group compiling a rather interesting set of heroes, none of which would fall under the categories of an average cape.

This of course leads to an interesting twist in terms of thinking up of a plot.  With out standard capes, most of the standard tropes fly out the window, and I find myself resorting to something else… mainly personal plots.  Not that I mind, just that I usually take a few sessions before I start resorting to dragging the personal lives of the player characters and folding them this way and that.

Still it’s an interesting start, and I find myself at work with my copy of HERO Designer v.3 open half the time, building villains again.  I have to admit that after a hell week of work, building villains is now strangely therapeutic, letting me work out my frustrations and replace it with relaxing creative output.

NPC Factory

One of the less glamorous tasks of being a GM involve generating NPCs for whatever game you’re running.  Right now I’m about to start on a new story arc of a HERO game I’ve run for the group before, featuring a whole new cast of characters from my players.  What this means for me as a GM though is that I’ve got to start statting out a whole bunch of NPC from allies to opponents to regular thugs and flunkies.

While there’s a lot of ways to get around the usual requirements in terms of manpower (basically using templates for mooks and such) one of the appeals and trademarks of a superhero campaign has always been it’s villains.  Heroes are defined by their opposition, and villains act as foils for the heroes virtues.  Where heroes are selfless and courageous, villains are selfish and cowardly.

That doesn’t mean that villains can’t have any appeal though.  There are certain villains that manage to somehow win over the players (even if they inspire nothing but hate in the actual characters.)  These guys are what I aim for.  While some villains are one hit wonders, the appeal of the superhero genre applies to having recurring villains.  It’s hard to establish any rapport with a villain that’s dead at his first appearance after all.

This unique (if illogical) dynamic is what makes generating villains for a superhero campaign fun.  In a way it rewards my way of thinking as a GM.  It pays to make well rounded, capable villains with lives outside of theft and murder, so to speak, because the setting is more lenient, allowing dead villains a chance to come back, as long as the bodies aren’t found.  I don’t feel half as bad if I spend two to three hours generating villains if I know that they’ll be back at least twice or thrice before I set them aside for good. Preferably after they’ve managed to make an impact in the heroes lives.

Persona 4

I am once again a very happy man.

Back in the GM saddle

And running Superheroes again.

In the light of our recent saturdays being composed of far too much time sitting around and shooting the moon when there was gaming to be had, I’ve decided to start off my superheroes game again, this time with a new cast of characters and set in the future of the former superhero setting I ran a few months back.

I’m currently going through a refresher course in the HERO system, and building characters for the guys who really aren’t into the building aspect of the HERO system, and preparing villains for the first session.

The character roster seems pretty diverse so far, with very little in terms of standard capes, which should liven things a bit given that we can avoid cliche.

Admittedly running this campaign feels like coming home.  I’ve had a few issues with characters that didn’t fit the original vision of the campaign, but I’m hoping that I’ve learned to roll with the punches well enough for this game.  I’m honestly looking forward to running again, and hopefully deliver an equally enjoyable experience to my players.