WeekendHero.com Blog

A good GM and a good player sit down to discuss the next game they want to play.

(And, by the way, I have a problem with the phrases “good GM” and “good player.”  But that’s another discussion for another time.)

They haven’t gamed in awhile, or they just finished up a campaign and are looking forward to the next one.  Whatever. 

Scenario 1: The Good Player

The GM mentions he has a few games in mind he’s been wanting to run.  The player asks, “what’re the settings/genre?”  After the GM lays out the first setting in all its descriptive glory, the player should either go along with it, or “veto” it and ask what else the GM might have in mind.  Once the GM and the player agree on a setting/genre, the player asks, “do you have a story in mind (as in, for example, Babylon 5), or do you want to run an episodic campaign (as in, for example, Star Trek)?”  After that, the good player should ask, “what themes do you want to explore or utilize, and what themes are we going to avoid?”  This is the most important question a player can ever ask before making his character.  Armed with this, the player can come up with a suitable character concept for what the GM wants to run.  The good player creates a character that fits the setting, the story, and (especially) the themes of the game.

Scenario 2: The Good GM

The player mentions he has a really interesting character idea that he wants to play out and see where it goes.  The GM responds, “cool, we’ll talk systems in a minute, but do you have a setting in mind for this character?”  The player has an idea for a setting, and the GM either likes it, or he ”vetoes” it for one reason or another, but asks, “can your character idea exist in a different setting?  What else do you like?”  Once the setting is agreed on, the GM asks his player, “do you want to accomplish something with the character (story driven), or just see how different scenarios work out with him (episodic)?”  Then the good GM asks, “what themes or ideas do you want to explore with this character?”  This is the most important question that a GM can ask before coming up with a game that everyone will enjoy.  Armed with this, the GM can come up with a suitable game and story that the player wants to play.

It’s not the GM’s game.  It’s not the player’s game, either.  The game belongs to both of them.  And when you hash out the details before characters are rolled up, everyone knows what to expect.  I’ll say that again, everyone knows what to expect.  The details: the setting, the campaign type (story driven, or episodic), and most importantly, the themes of the game.  After that, pick the rules set that fits best, and then roll characters.

So I’m looking now at playing Warhammer Online. I’ve been playing the open beta for a week now. It’s really a lot of fun and takes me back, nostalgically, to when I used to play the table top Warhammer Fantasy minis game. I look back at those days, and it was always fun - even when I didn’t win.

I got rid of my Empire Army in 1998 when I was in need of money and hadn’t played the game in a couple years. It was a very nice army. I could field 10,000 points of Empire plus another 2,500 points of Dwarven allies. It was pretty cool. Of course, the average four or five hour game might be 2,000-2,500 points, so fielding 12,500 points would have been insanity!

When I started playing and collecting the miniatures, I didn’t really intend to build such a large possible army. But the Empire offered such variety that I started collecting figs of different types so I could field an army tailored-made to whatever opponent I might be facing. And, of course, a unit isn’t worth fielding unless you’re going to field 15 miniatures or more in the unit. So, my army just kept growing and growing until it was a monstrous 10k points.

Once I started reading about the Empire and the world and such, I decided it would be cool to be able to put some Dwarven allies in my army whenever I could. So I bought the Dwarf Army book and looked through it… And I had to have a couple gyrocopters and a unit (or two!) of Thunderers supporting my mighty Empire army. Eventually, even my “allies” miniatures collection got to be so many that I could literally field just a normal size army of them!

I could field any sort of Empire unit, and in large quantities. I had (if I recall correctly) 24 Knights of the White Wolf! I had two Empire War Wagons. I had several cannons and mortars. I could put up to 20 pistoleers on the table. My greatswords unit was 25 men strong. I had two 20-man units of swordsmen. I had a 20-man unit of flagellants, which were very hard to find at the time. And my general was mounted on a pegasus.

I read through the Empire Army book and decided my guys were from Ostermark. The colors of Ostermark were purple and yellow, or sometimes purple and white. And all that purple and yellow Empire finery looked good on the table. Ostermark had a special unit of swordsmen known as the Death’s Head Regiment whose colors were black and red. They didn’t have special stats different from any other unit of swords, but I had to have a separate unit painted in black and red.

Playing was always fun. I never lost against George’s Orcs and Gobbos. I got my ass handed to me by Hill’s Nurgle army. While I was living in Baltimore, I worked for Games Workshop, and we would play in the GW gaming room with real GW terrain pieces. I played a game there one night where I smoked this other guy’s Khorne army.

I bring all this up because playing Warhammer Online brings back those fun memories of playing WFB. I looked up the latest WFB stuff at games-workshop.com. The game is in it’s 7th edition now. That’s crazy! It was in it’s 3rd or 4th edition when I was playing, I think. It used to be a smaller rulebook; now it’s like 270+ pages.

Looking at what’s available for the 7th edition Empire Army, I have mixed feelings. A lot of what I remember is still there. But it looks like some of my favorite things are gone. No more War Wagon it seems. It looks like the knights miniatures have become kind of generic looking and the box claims you can make any of the knightly orders from it. Back in the day, the White Wolf knights were very different looking from the other orders. It’s one of the reasons I had chosen them. One thing hasn’t changed - the miniatures are still expensive even though many of them are plastic now.

But, I’m thinking of buying the new, 7th edition rules and the Empire Army book… and the Dwarf Army book. Maybe the Army of Bretonnia book and the Wood Elf book for allies. And the greenskins were always a hoot…

I think I have a weekend project.

I’ve decided to clean up and rework my 7th Sea site: Foul Weather Jack’s.  The site is three and a half years old, and I haven’t updated it in two years.  I still like the look and organization of the site, so no major changes there.  I think the site could use some general maintainence, though.

I’ve seen some typos and misspellings here and there.  Somehow, I had it in my head that ”definite” was spelled “definate.”  And that’s definitely wrong.  There’s an article or three that I want to reread and reword.  I saw one broken link; there are possibly others.  There are a lot of titles set in various pages where I wanted to add articles or background information and never got around to them.  So I need to consider what to do with those.  I should go through the links page and make sure the links to other fan sites are actually going to fan sites that are still in use.

As for content, a big issue for me are the game rules I’ve put up.  There are several house rules on there that I’ve been rethinking of late.  So I want to get in it and rehash them some.  Some of the house rules I don’t even use in my own games anymore.  What I want to do there is leave them on the site as an option, but I want to mark them with some sort of graphic indicating that I don’t use it myself.

And I do have an exciting new house rule to post as well.  Working with John Wick on his Houses of the Blooded site has lead me to revisit an idea I first saw in his “Wilderness of Mirrors” game.  It is an idea that he also uses extensively in Houses.  I think a game like 7th Sea (or L5R) is perfect for a little Narrative Control.  Ironically, I’ve been using Narrative Control in many of my games over the past few years in a minor way - a way that the players have never really taken advantage of before.

So that will be my weekend gaming project.

Oh yeah… Blog soon.

I’m currently looking for the right theme and widgets for what i want to do here.