First combat drop / Advice for new players

I'm currently exploring the possibility of running my first long distance game over the internet.
One of the logistical challenges I have is making sure a couple of new players are fully engaged and involved, and that they get all the guidance they need. One has never played before.
I'm a little concerned about remotely guiding a new player through the first few sessions. I've decided to use Fear Itself as the first game because its a low rules game and uses a d6, which everybody has.
I had looked around the internet for some new player advice, and worryingly came up short.
There's loads of 'getting started' advice for online video games, but nothing for pen & paper RPGs.
WTF, people. For shame.

So, OK, we need to fix this, like yesterday.


Total Party Kill advice for new players

- Stereotypes and stock characters are good. You'll hear a lot of talk as you get into the hobby about how everybody's character is a unique and precious flower amongst the weeds of predictable and dull average characters.
The people that say this are usually elitist ass holes, who are just apeing a character from an obscure book, film or comic.
As a new player, you shouldn't be pressured into creating a dramatically poignant homage to existentialism, rather you should be given the freedom to play Han Solo, Aragorn, Indie or Neo, if that's what you want to play right now.
Stock characters are classic, timeless and easy to portray. You'll be busy enough keeping up with the rules a d action without having to wade through obtuse characterization and motivation.

- Have a flick through the rulebook to get the geist of the setting and system, by all means, but don't for a minute think that you're expected to memorize it.
You'll probably get a good grip on the basics of a game if you read Wikipedia and its official web page.

- Talk to the other players. Hey, have a beer with them before and after. They'll happily give you advice and tell you about their character. This introductory period is the only time in your life you will genuinely be interested in hearing about somebody else's character. Enjoy it. Let their enthusiasm rub off on you. Look forward to the day you have such hoary war stories under your belt and can regale young pups with tales of your glory. Oh yes.

- At the gaming table, caffeine, sugar and trans-fats are your friends. One or two small beers may be good buddies as well, just pace yourself and be sensible.
If you turn up at a session with any combination of: soda, pizza, chips & dip, cookies, donuts, candy and ice cream in enough quantity to share, you will be a king, my friend. A king.
I tells ya.

There's obviously a hell of a lot more in the way of genuinely useful advice out there, and I invite all and sundry to either add it here, or to blog about it yourselves.
We, as a community, need to build up a greater repository of knowledge for those new to and interested in the hobby.

The best advice I have for players new to the hobby

Missions and Quests / How Grand Theft Auto taught me to love again

I recently traded in my PSP-1000, or Base Pack. It was old, battered, the battery was shot, the power pack had blown and i'd completed all the games I owned, and wasn't in any danger of getting any new ones. The last new game i'd gotten was Star Wars Battle Front Elite Squadron, on Father's day. That's when I discovered that the power pack was gone - it'd been on charge for about two months, and had the battery ran out after 15 minutes of play.
Whilst it was a hard decision, the only games I would definitely miss were the Grand Theft Auto games I had - Liberty City Stories and Vice City Stories. I think I actually knew my way around the streets of these two games better than my home town.

So, to help soften the blow, I bought myself GTA Chinatown Wars for the Nintendo DS. My wife has a DS and never uses it. It's my wife now, Dave!

I was thrilled to discover that Chinatown Wars is massive, detailed, immensely playable and possibly even more morally corrupt than the LC and VC Stories games.
In short order I found myself immersed in the sandbox of the game. Sod the actual missions - they're dangerous and likely to get you wasted or busted and cause the loss of your entire arsenal - i'm suddenly running around a huge map building a rep as a reliable and savvy drug dealer, making green and putting cheese in my pockets. Either that or feeding my burgeoning gambling addiction by way of scratch cards or rooting through dumpsters looking for guns or food.
Crime is glamorous.
The game play is 'top down' like the original GTA, and makes excellent use of the lower touch screen for controlling your GPS or throwing molotovs, hot wiring cars or reading emails.

Some screens from Chinatown Wars -
two game play shots, hot wiring a car and a cut scene

One of the things I love about the GTA series, especially since GTA 3, is the way the missions are assigned by recognisable characters. I quite liked Salvatore Leone, Phil Cassidy, Umberto Robina and others from the games.
All of the characters you meet in the games are obvious stock caricatures, often to comedic effect, but they all have a position, and they all want something, usually to do with the overall plot. None are neutral, and they all credible (if not actually believable).

And this led to a revelation, an epiphany if you will, when I first played GTA Liberty City Stories. This may be old news to many of you, but I found myself thinking "this is what my games should be like". Specifically, any 'quests' or 'missions' handed out should be for recognisable characters that polarise the players. They can either be loved or hated, but they should never be anonymous.
The players should always have a slight, ever present fear that something is about to go horribly wrong - either there will be unexpected complications or the guy who gave them this job will screw them over somehow.
It should always be clear to the players that the person they are talking to is an individual, and wants something bad. The players don't have to know immediately what it is, but they have to know that they are being used by this person to achieve a definite goal.

Ideally I would use these ideas in a Vampire: The Requiem game, as I see clear parallels between the dysfunctional social hierarchy of the Kindred and organised crime.

EDIT: Further to my train of thought, let's talk about 'Sandbox' games. GTA games allow the player to run around and entertain themselves in any number of ways. Players are not constrained by the game plot or missions. It is entirely possible to amass an in-game fortune and be thoroughly entertained without actually gunning down a single triad or hells angel.
Players can complete time trial races, street races, put out fires, dispense vigilante justice, save lives, drive taxi cabs, smuggle drugs, run protection rackets, sell guns and stolen cars, become a pimp, take on a set rampage challenge or just blow shit up.
I have even heard of somebody driving carefully around Liberty City and obeying traffic laws.

This level of player freedom is something I think every GM should aspire to. Some of the better games I have run have allowed the players to explore indefinitely. The better games I have played have happily provided me with ample rope with which to hang myself.

The best game I never played

Geek books are like crack. I see them. I want them. I do morally repulsive things to get them. Then, after I have them, and the euphoric buzz has faded, I feel a little guilty and maybe regret the purchase.
I can normally rationalise the purchase away though...
It's well written, so it's like buying a regular book
It's a good system that's got me thinking, so it's a mental exercise, which is good
Oh, I will use it, it's fucking awesome

Then, months or years later you look at your book shelf and realise that the literally hundreds of pounds you've spent could have gone on something more worthwhile, because you've never used the damn things.

Example
When my wife moved in, I showed willing and cleared out a load of my old RPG books. I sold off about 30 Mage: The Ascension books that I had never used.
I gave away about 15 Exalted books, 6 Orpheus books, 20+ Vampire: The Masquerade books, 1 Mummy: The Resurrection book, 20+ Ars Magica books and 4 Hunter: The Reckoning books that I had never used.

One of the rationalisations i used was that I was clearing house of everything I didn't use and was never going to use again.
I would start again.
Rebuild.

As of now, I have 22 New World of Darkness books, including core rule books, most of which I have never used. I've not used Mage, Vampire, Changeling and a number of supplements.
I have Ars Magica 5th Edition, which I have never used.
I have Exalted 2nd Edition, which i have never used.
I have Trail of Cthulhu, Fear Itself and Star Wars Saga Edition. I've not used any of them.

This is kind of depressing. A lot of these are great games (the exceptions being ArM5 and Exalted 2, which appear to piss all over the previous, stronger, editions).

Unfortunately i don't see an opportunity in the near future for play either, which is a real shame.

I'd really love to do something with Changeling: The Lost, which is a really rich game chock full of opportunities and creativity.
I have about three or four Star Wars games I could run, and could pull off a respectable Vampire: The Requiem game.
I think i'd prefer to play Mage instead of run it.

Now, if only my children would age about 5 years, i'd have a bit more time...

What is wrong with gaming today? part II

Also cool because it references a Tom Waits song
http://www.mobunited.com/mobunitedmedia/2010/03/21/where-did-you-go-tabletop-joe/

What should I be playing?

When I was in my early 20's I went through a period of angst, in which I really worried about the music I was listening to. Was it cool enough? Was I missing something that everybody else knew about? I got scared reading NME - there was so much going on, and I was there happily listening to the stuff I was listening to fives years ago.
Was I still relevant?


I have recently been gripped by the same fear when I think about role playing.
I've been playing White Wolf games pretty much exclusively since 1998. I've dabbled in D&D (which I do understand is popular with ver kidz, and makes me feel old because i'm sure I don't quite get it), Ars Magica (which is now, as far as I can tell, a game for aging medieval scholars/nerds) and games other people have kindly allowed me to play.


For awhile I thought I was indulging in a dying hobby, but some recent research has highlighted to me that the world has turned, and left me behind. People have moved on, and are no longer interested in the games i'm interested in.


This scares me, and makes me feel like an aging spinster at a 70's disco.


What should I be playing?

Puzzles in context

Last week my wife and I invested in a Nintendo DS. The free game we opted for was Professor Layton and the Curious Village, a classic point and click adventure in which you are tasked with solving the mystery of the Golden Apple, a great treasure hidden somewhere in the small, curious village of St. Mystere. Along the way there are other mysteries to solve as well - inheritances, disappearences, murders and the like.
There are examples of gameplay in the link below, the content of which is pretty much lifted directly from the game.
http://professorlaytonds.com/curiousvillage/

The twist to the game, that sets it apart from other point and click mysteries, is the blatant use of puzzles. Apparently everybody in St. Mystere is obessed with puzzles, and will often only release the information you need if you solve this one riddle they have. Hidden riddles abound throughout the town, secreted in alcoves, bushes and bottles, and the two main characters, Professor Layton and his apprentice, Luke, are also obsessed, posing riddles and brainteasers for each other at every turn.

You cannot progress through the game without solving a set amount of puzzles, and certain key puzzles. There are also hidden games and bonuses you can unlock.

It is very addictive. I've racked up about 9 hours play and solved 90 odd puzzles. My wife, who is not a gamer by any account, has played over 13 hours and solved 103 of the 130+ puzzles.
We've only had it a week.
It is surprisingly addictive.

It has also gotten me thinking about puzzles within RPGs.
My experience of puzzles in Roleplay, tabletop or live action, is not a good one.
The existence of a puzzle usually jars - why would the grand wizard use a block slide puzzle as a lock for his spell book? Why should the shadow spirit demand to know the answer to this riddle about legs and times of the day (which is clearly 'man') before letting the party entry to the tomb? Why do you need to 'speak friend and enter' to get into the mines of morias?
The puzzles used are usually either too simple or too hard - Great, I cannot progress through this door because this fiendish logic puzzle requires a level of maths knowledge I simply do not have! We fought through 17 rooms of Orcs, got to the final encounter, and it was a real anti-climax. Just a wooden puzzle sat on a table with a note saying 'solve me and pass'.

What I like about Professor Layton is that it 1/ provides a clear context for the use of puzzles that works naturally with the narrative and gameplay, 2/ gives an indication of the difficulty level of each puzzle, 3/ has a finite resource based  'hints and tips' buying system, so you're less likely to be stumped on a puzzle, 4/ rewards you for solving as many puzzles as you can.

I'm now thinking about ways I can use puzzles in future games that fit with the setting and situation, and provide a comparable challenge for the party.
And that aren't crap.