Received: by ATHENA-PO-3.MIT.EDU (5.45/4.7) id AA14702; Sun, 20 Oct 91 18:10:47 EDT Received: from M14S-010-6.MIT.EDU by Athena.MIT.EDU with SMTP id AA06562; Sun, 20 Oct 91 18:10:39 EDT Received: by m14s-010-6.MIT.EDU (5.61/4.7) id AA07011; Sun, 20 Oct 91 18:10:34 -0400 Message-Id: <9110202210.AA07011@m14s-010-6.MIT.EDU> To: jen@Athena.MIT.EDU, talkivin@Athena.MIT.EDU, dpolicar@Athena.MIT.EDU, bamf@Athena.MIT.EDU, gryphon@Athena.MIT.EDU, salea@Athena.MIT.EDU, kest@Athena.MIT.EDU, life@Athena.MIT.EDU, ccrazy@Athena.MIT.EDU, chope@Athena.MIT.EDU Cc: fxzane@Athena.MIT.EDU, roughdraftofassassingm'sguide@subject.MIT.EDU, -------@Athena.MIT.EDU, hifolks;@Athena.MIT.EDU Date: Sun, 20 Oct 91 18:10:32 EDT From: Jen Hawthorne Most of you know why you're getting this -- because you asked for it. Laura and Cael, you're getting it because I was told that you had had thoughts of starting similar projects in the past and might be talked into helping make this one a reality at last. This is an _outline_, very rough and far from complete, for the contents of a Guide on how to put together and GM an Assassin game (any style) for the MIT Assassins' Guild. There has been a perceived need for a such a thing for some time, and I think the time has come to fill said need. The purpose of this proposed Guide is twofold: one, to provide practical information for new (and old) GMs about such matters as dealing with the scheduling office and getting computer space to write in, and so forth; and two, to attempt to draw attention to matters that should be considered by GM teams when a game is being put together but are often overlooked. I would like to draw heavily on the pool of experienced gamemasters and players in the Guild in order to put this Guide together to make it the best and most useful tool possible for a GMing team, inexperienced or not. One purpose for which this Guide is explicity -NOT- intended is as a handbook on "how games ought to be written" or "the way to write the best possible Assassin game" or anything like that (in other words, this is _not_ supposed to a written version of "the Ides of March.") Any and all feedback and discussion on this topic is strongly encouraged. What do you think makes for a good game? What practical issues have I left out that deserve consideration when a game is being put together? What things do you specifically like to see or hate to see? What things that GM teams have done have you especially liked or disliked? If people are interested in discussing/flaming on these topics, we can use the defunct mailing list "generic" to do so (this was the mailing list for the generic team; it still exists and I'm an administrator, so I can add people to the list at will.) If you are in favor of this idea and are willing to participate, send me email and I'll put your name on the list. I welcome anyone to come and put their two cents in. Please feel free to forward this message and the Guide outline to anyone who might be interested in seeing it; this first message has only gone out to people I was sure would be interested in reading it, but I imagine there are a lot of other people who might like to participate in the discussion, and I'd like to hear from them. The actually writing up of this Guide will probably take a few months, as I'm very busy this term. Dave Oh has been talking about trying to set up some sort of Assassin Symposium for IAP; potentially, a finished first draft of the Guide might become the basis for some discussion at such a Symposium, and then the Guide could be edited in accord with new worthwhile ideas and opinions presented at the Symposium, then put out as a finished product by the Guild. Finishing a first draft of the Guide by IAP is going to be my personal goal, at any rate. In several places in the outline, I have put down topics or subtopics that I either have no opinion on myself or that I am unsure of, but that I nonetheless think should be discussed in the Guide. I've also tossed in a couple of notes on sections that I think may be especially troublesome to write well, and feedback on those sections is _especially_ encouraged. Also, any solid factual feedback from the High Council and other people about what a team's best options for getting computer space and print quotas are, what the Guild will and won't pay for, what a game's budget tends to be and how that's decided,etc, would be welcome. Some discussion topics to get the ball rolling, maybe: What are the terms of the unspoken Player-GM Convenant? Should they remain unspoken, or be codified somewhere? Exactly what is a kludge, in game terms? Are there more than one types of Kludge? Are there good kludges and bad kludges? How do you distinguish? How do you avoid them? Are there times when just kludging it is the best thing for the game? What times would that be? How honest should the guide be about slightly touchy matters, like for example, the fact that slot-getting is usually mostly a war of personality and faith (IMHO)? Should game reality (staying "in world") take precendence over what's fun and/or playable? Or vice versa? If the answer is "sometimes", under what circumstances? What's the best thing to do if a truly awful GM decision has been made by someone on the team and players have already taken action on it? Do you reality warp, or just try to ride it out? Should GM teams have a policy of overriding each other, or should they always support each other's decisions even if they think that they other GM is wrong? What are the pros and cons of End of the World plots? Should games have more zero sum or more non-zero sum plots? What are the advantages/disadvantages of deterministic versus non-deterministic combat mechanics? Is there a way to introduce an element of randomness without having to resort to dice? Are dice necessarily a bad thing? What is the effect of Athena on games? Does a lot of use of Athena make a game worse by limiting face-to-face interaction, or does it stimulate action by permitting private conversations and plotting between members of secret groups so that more things happen? Is it a good idea to make players doubt the secrecy of the mail so that commanders are leery of keeping in touch with their agents that way? Why do more games seem to be heading toward "mob style" violence instead of the old style sneak attack? Is this good or bad or indifferent? What if anything can/should be done to bring back some of the older action elements to the games? How can a "small" part (time limited) be written so that it is not an insignificant part? What parts of a game should get written first, and why? How should division of work be accomplished among a GM team so that no one feels like they're shouldering the majority of the load, and so that different GMs can work on the parts of the game that are their strength? How do you avoid the "See the X GM for that, not me" problem? What general guidelines should be followed in writing character sheets/ bluesheets? What sorts of character sheets do people like to have? What exactly _is_ game balance, and how should it be achieved? What are the advantages of "CLosed" and "Open" game environments? Should game action be allowed in/near the control room? Why or why not? What affect does it have on the game, if any? What are the important considerations in Casting? What makes for a good Rules Seminar? What advice would you give a new GM team on how to make things run smoothly and keep from going crazy while running a game? What did you find most (or least) helpful while you were running? And the topic I expect (and hope) will generate the most flamage: Just What Makes a Good Game, Anyway? In particular, I'd like to focus on what elements are most commonly found in "good" games, which ones seem to be most crucial for a game to "succeed". This question is even more difficult because there is no really good way to define whether a game "succeeded" or not. Some games are obviously good, some obviously bad, most are somewhere in between, so what is "success"? Hoping to hear from you, Jen Hawthorne ------------------------------------------------------------------------- So You Want To Be A GM ---------------------- (A very rough draft first outline of a proposed guide to GMing an MIT Assassins' Game.) I. Intro: A general description of what it means to be a gamemaster running a game under the auspices of the MIT Assassins' Guild. The Guild status, setup, and resources (Mailing lists, money, computer space, advice.) General useful info. _Possibly_ a brief discussion of the tacit Player-GM Covenant. II. Starting a Game A. Types of Games - Length i. Full 10-day ii. 5-day iii. Weekender iv. SIK v. Christmas party, "Starlight Express", and other one-night events B. Types of Games - Style i. "Concept Games" : Spy, Indiana Jones, etc. ii. Original Worlds iii. Literary Games iv. Other C. Other considerations in general game layout (# of people, amount of killing vs. amount of role-playing, etc.) D. Time and energy commitment in writing and running (dependant on what type of game is being run.) E. Putting together a team i. Get a team that will be able to stand each other after the game is done. ii. Get a team with reasonable skills in writing/plotting iii. Find someone experienced to add to the team or to use as an advisor iv. Ways to get experience (caveat: not everything learned is applicable to GMing an Assassin Game) a. GM Tabletop campaign b. GM a short game, weekender, SIK, or party c. GM a "mini-game", 20 people or so v. How many people will you need for the team? And how many is too many? vi. How to get the people you need. a. Ask your gaming friends b. Get a strong concept and be enthusiastic to attract people. c. Work on someone else's game first to make contacts d. Use the mailing list or announce at games F. Keeping your own expectations and those of the players reasonable. III. Early stages: Conceptualizing and plots A. Getting a slot i. The process of slot-getting ii. Various slots, disadvantages and advantages. a. Term vs. Non-Term b. First Fall 1. The "summer" problem 2. The "Too many freshmen players" problem 3. The "Intro to the Guild" problem c. Second Fall/Second Spring 1. Player exhaustion 2. Too close to end-of-term & finals 3. Term-time game d. IAP 1. Advantage: lots of time for people to play 2. Disadvantage: ditto. 3. Lots of people e. First Spring f. After Finals 1. No classes 2. Fewer people iii. Selecting actual running days a. Thursday to Sunday: why it's the rule b. Pros and Cons of holiday weekends. B. Computer space: /mit/assassin and other options. C. Plotting i. What is a plot? ii. Some common types of plots. iii. Keeping everyone busy iv. Making sure goals are achievable iii. The pros and cons of "End Of The World" plots. (Zero sum vesus non-zero-sum plots.) D. Mechanics i. Simulating as much as possible. ii. Separating combat from non-combat mechanics iii. Debugging your mechanics a. Have limitations and make them binding b. Try to anticipate player creativity iv. Weird Stuff mechanics: some words of warning v. Deterministic vs. Non-deterministic mechanics (to dice or not to dice?) vi. Some typical mechanics systems a. Ranged combat b. Hand-to-hand combat 1. Combat cards 2. Adrenaline packets 3. Adding more stuff to combat cards (Thieving defense etc, or weird stats.) c. Magic and other weird stuff. d. Assorted other mechanical twiddles 1. Alpha/Q packets 2. Memory packets. vii. "Neat mechanics" -- are they worth the hassle? (pictures, videotapes, etc.-- the more you have, the more time you have to give yourself to put them together and stuff them. But players really like them.) viii. Creating new mechanics ix. Dealing with Athena as a mechanic a. Email options b. Zephyr, private and public c. Pros and cons of computer use during a game. (** NOTE This needs more -- discuss things like search rules, kidnap rules, etc. here? Is this an appropriate place for it?) E. Publicizing your Game i. Written blurbs a. Getting them to people 1. paper 2. email (usually later, with questionnaire) b. The importance of a stylish, intriguing blurb c. Not giving away too much info in the blurb ii. Spoken blurbs a. When to deliver one b. How to make it effective 1. Be enthusiastic; have the whole team there if possible. 2. Don't misinform iii. Other options a. IAP Guide for IAP game b. Posting general flyers around campus c. The Guild Bulletin Board IV. Later Stages: Actually writing the game, and some administrivia A. When to start writing? (Depends on game length.) B. What to write first? C. Dividing up the work (what if some GMS are faster/better?) D. Some guidelines for writing sheets (basics) i. Character sheets ii. Bluesheets iii. Greensheets iv. Scenario sheets/worldsheets E. Other things that need writing and should not be left until the last minute. (They will need sanity checking and balancing.) i. Rules (may be mostly borrowed from earlier versions.) ii. Puzzles a. Must be checked by an outsider to make sure difficulty level is correct. b. Should not require special _player_ info to solve c. May or may not require special _character_ info to solve (pros and cons) iii. Item recipes iv. Drug effects sheets v. Memory packets vi. Anything else that needs writing F. Item Economies i. How many items to have? ii. What sorts of items to have? a. Plot-related b. Useful (guns, armor, etc.) c. Fun (personal items) iii. Item mechanics a. Transferable vs. Not Easily Transferable vs. bulky b. Info-items iv. Item distribution a. How common? b. How powerful? c. How easy to put together recipes? d. How hard to put together truly gross items from recipes? v. The Black/Grey/White markets vi. Random item distribution: pros and cons vii. "Open games" and obtaining common items viii. Availability of dangerous items (poisons, explosives, etc.) and game effects. ix. Stash rules x. Money in games: making it relevant G. "Open" and "Closed" game environments i. NPC versus Non-Player ii. Will NPCs be useful? To everyone or only to authority? and how useful will they be? Will they even _exist_? iii. Running down to the corner store for something iv. The problems and advantages of setting up a "closed" environment v. The "limited closed" environment. H. The Hideous Problem of Game Balance i. Just what constitutes game balance? Opinions differ. ii. The Elephants-and-the-Grass problem iii. Achieving balance: some ideas a. Balancing individual characters b. Balancing groups c. Balancing access to game power d. Extreme systems for achieving balance I. Areas of game action i. Absolute "no's" and why they are that way (offices, private dorm rooms, etc.) ii. Athena clusters -- action or not? iii. Near the control room -- action or not? J. Scheduling rooms i. The Control room a. What is it? b. Do we really need it? c. Where are the best places? ii. Meeting rooms a. Commonly used ones iii. Scheduling problems (esp. during term.) and how to deal with them. (What to do if we can't get a room or can only get it part time?) a. Part-time control rooms b. Having meetings in public places at odd hours iv. Dealing with the scheduling office a. Reserving rooms in the Guild's name b. Reserve several months in advance c. Keep your receipts in case of foulups (common!) K. The Questionnaire i. What is it and why do we need it? ii. When to send it out and how? iii. How do we write one? iv. What questions should we ask? a. Administrivia b. Player questions c. Character questions v. Which questions are the most crucial to ask? vi. Getting ideas from questionnaires V. Putting it together A. Casting i. How do we do it? ii. Things to avoid when casting a. Playing favorites b. "I just _know_ he/she'll love this part." d. Failing to pay attention to requests, esp. w/ regard to available time iii. Getting player permission to do weird casting things to them. iv. The importance and uses of a waitlist. v. Who to cast where? a. What does it mean to be a master? (not much) b. Is a first-timer automatically incompetent? (certainly not, but certain types of roles may not be appropriate for them.) vi. You won't be able to give everyone their perfect role, but you should try to make the largest number of people as happy as possible, _regardless_ of personal preference. vii. Discussing roles with players before handout; what do you want to tell them, and what do you want them to tell other players? Be careful! viii. Be aware how much difference casting makes to how your game runs, so give it some thought. (Though you won't always be able to do anything about casting problems.) ix. What to do about "bad" players? a. What _can_ you do? b. What _should_ you do? c. What must you at all costs _avoid_ doing? (**note** more things need to go here but it's a touchy subject.) B. Thingies, RTIs, widgets and wadgets i. Where to get "widgets" a. Leftovers from previous games b. Children's Museum c. Eli's ii. Where to get other things a. Patrol supplies (headbands) b. Patrol and disc guns from Sec'y Excheq. c. Being creative (art supply, cloth, etc.) C. The Paper Chase i. Who pays for this? a. Print quotas 1. Use your personal quota 2. Use the quota of other, willing, people/groups. b. Guild money (Xeroxing, stationery) ii. What to Print on Athena iii. What to Xerox and where iv. What to buy and where (standard shopping list: Envelopes (at least four different kinds), Colored paper, Sometimes white paper if it's cheaper that way, Index cards, with trackers and without, sometimes of various sizes, sometimes colored.) v. Printing item cards and ability cards a. Options b. Format examples vi. Printing Badges D. Stuffing the Stuff i. Make a checklist ii. Either have everything ready before you stuff and do it all at once, or start several days early and do it piecemeal. (Advs. and Disads. of each way, and feasibility) iii. Leave enough time! iv. If you can't get everything stuffed in time: a. Priorities b. Stalling for time; delaying game action start, and the rules seminar. c. Drastic measures: delaying packet handout. When is it a good idea? v. Recruit help from people who won't be playing. vi. Be organized! E. Reality and Sanity Checking i. Reality checks --"does this make sense?" ii. Sanity checks a. Checking cross-references b. Checking packet stuffing to avoid mis-stuffing sheets (esp. bluesheets!) iii. The rarely-achieved ideal method (all gms read all materials before game start to sanity check.) F. Getting to handout on time -- or not. Things that make the difference. VI. Running for your life, or, grabbing the tiger's ears. A. Game institutions i. Scheduled game meetings ii. Daily Rumour iii. Game Break B. Rules Seminar -- helpful tips on how to make it work. C. Helping out first timers i. The "first-timer" rules seminar ii. Ross Lippert's "first-timer" briefing sheet (can we get an on-line copy to make it available?) D. Dealing with Patrol during games -- the usual rules. E. Being accessible to players i. Keeping the Control Room staffed; schedules. ii. Busy times and quiet times iii. GM on-line iv. Leaving messages on doors and boards v. The "Queue": various styles vi. "Parallel Processing" vii. Keeping up with meetings; enlist player help or use a Ghost. viii. Extreme measures for keeping in touch; cellular phones, beepers, walkie-talkies. F. Ghosts: Uses, Abuses, and Problems i. Uses (Errand running, keeping track of meetings.) ii. Abuses (Don't make ghosts GM!) iii. Problems a. Physically in the way b. Ghosts passing information, esp. indirectly (snickering, being too obvious getting out of the way, etc.) iv. Keeping Ghosts from becoming problems a. Brief all ghosts about their responsibilities. b. Obvious badges. c. Require offical "ghosting" and post names of ghosts so they'll be recognized by players. d. Give players the right to order ghosts away G. Staying sane while running i. Eating and sleeping ii. Don't totally drop your classes; plan for them and make sure the other GMs know when you won't be able to be GMing. iii. Be prepared to deal with player unhappiness, dissatisfaction, and anger. iv. Plan "stress breaks" ahead of time. v. Kludges: be honest about them and don't be afraid to call a kludge a kludge if there's a good game reason for it. Not all kludges are bad things for a game. (Some, however, are; attempt to differentiate?)(Charles disagrees on this point; this is a good topic to discuss.) vi. Don't be afraid to bend the game's reality if the needs of true reality or playability are more pressing (see "Kludges") vii. Keep a log book and talk to the other GMs regularly; consult before making a big decision. viii. Don't be afraid to admit mistakes and don't go to extremes trying to defend or justify them. H. Reality warps i. What are they? ii. How can they be minimized? iii. When are they the best option? I. Time warps i. What are they? ii. What causes them? iii. How to deal with problems caused by them? J. GUILD RULES THAT MUST NOT UNDER ANY CIRCUMSTANCES BE BROKEN, AND WHY: i. Dealing with NPCS a. Cops b. Others VII. So What Makes A Good Game, Anyway? Some Theories and Opinions (I am making no attempt to organize this section in any way until I've gotten a lot more feedback from people; the things listed below are the immediate things I thought of plus things that people have thrown at me when I discussed this project with them. When giving feedback, please try to refrain from general flames about structuring a game and concentrate on common problems overall game design (as opposed to game writing.)) Whose game is this, anyway? Letting the players play. "Scripted" endings Player creativity -- encouraging it, not squelching it. Avoid panicking when the players think of something you didn't. (Avoid panicking in general.) Rebel without a Kludge -- avoiding the bad ones. Don't screw players for playing in character. Reality patches and compensation for bad decisions; good idea as long as you don't go overboard. Small parts don't have to be boring parts. In-game mysteries should be solvable. Be honest, be clear, be careful, and make double sure players understand exactly what you mean when you hand down a ruling. VIII. Helpful tips File Organization Listing items and abilities on character sheets