Yep, that’s right. I end poorly. If there’s one thing I’ve learned from the Convergence games it’s this: I can’t ever figure out how and when to end a game. And after a discussion last night with Mark about it, I’m not the only one who’s noticed.

Looking back over my storied career as a GM I’m struck by the sudden realization that I’ve always been afflicted with this issue. While I can usually find ways to throw more hooks and tangents than a forest of trees can shake sticks at, I never seems to know when the right time and the right way to end a good story… or a poor one for that matter.

Let’s take a few examples from my most recent Game Mastering events shall we?

• The Spring Convergence Scenario “You’re all going to die” horror ended with a whimper as the party died a pointless death (which was the point, but it never materialized properly.) Now You’d think that this sort of game would actually make it easy for me to end well… sadly, it didn’t.
• The Spring Convergence Supers Scenario ended when I couldn’t figure out how to continue the story when every plan the bad guys made was either tainted or outright thwarted by the do-gooders (again what was hoped-for, but in my mind not in the way it should have occured.)
• The Fall Convergence Old School D&D Scenario just kind of fizzled at the end as the party frustration never culminated with the desired creshendo of, “Huzzah! We finally saved her!” It was more like, “Thank the Gods! That’s finally over… can we go kill the annoying people in this town now?”

And that actually sums up the endings of most of the games I’ve run over the years. The party either just keeps slogging along waiting for the off-ramp that never seems to present itself, or the game just withers and dies away to be replaced by antoher game that just plods along into eternity.

To be fair to myself, there are benefits to being able to keep a game running for a long period of time. And since people seem to want me to run, I must do some things right. But I’m struck by my inability to close a game well. I can close a session with a cliff-hanger just fine, but I never get the ending right. It seems that Arcs are my hang-up. Single sessions that will continue aren’t a problem, but anything that terminates the game is a real failing in my bag o’ tricks.

If anyone has any bright ideas on how to better develop the Game/Arc-Ending skill, then I’m all ears. I’m sure my players would appreciate it as much as I.

Tags: advice, Convergence, D&D, Dungeons and Dragons, Game Mastering, horror, rpg, Superhero

As some of you may know, I have been blessed with a loving family. My wife tends to take the RPG focused parts of my life in stride as best she can. And while my kids are young and arguably not ready yet, I look forward to the day that I can introduce them to the wonders of structured RPGs.

Currently they play make-believe, which if you want to get technical is about as close to the mark as the root of any RPG. – KO

As I look over the landscape of games, I think probably a Supers game would be best to indoctrinate… err introduce my kids to gaming. Kids are already well educated on the superhero version of reality when they reach an age where a bit of structure and some “at the table” focus can be successfully introduced to the magic of make-believe.

I would consider maybe introducing a Meddling Kid, puzzle-solving game later (somewhere in the pre-teen age range I think) since clue finding and piecing-together can lose a child’s focus rather quickly. – KO

Per that, I’ve started to think of the various terms and silly descriptions we’ve adopted in our family for referencing various activities that might make good low-key villains for a younger audience. The upcoming weekly posts will include a villain with a discussion of powers and abilities without putting stats to him or her in any system.

These villains will be suitable to square-off against characters run by players in the 7+ year old range who run characters with powers like “Cannot be stopped” and “Always wins in the end“.

And who knows, maybe a bit of comedic, borderline absurd, low-key villainy is what your adult Supers game needs. – KO

Stay tuned to our next broadcast Do-Gooders, for tonight our heroes will face the first of many nefarious villains. On deck this week is The Tricky Trickster!

Tags: rpg, Superhero, system, Villains for Kids

The title pretty much sums up a little something I tried to do in the March Convergence supers game we played with the KORE rules. The basic premise is this: When the players all start to get that glazed, clueless look and start shrugging their shoulders, throw some bad guys at them and reintegrate them into the game.

In point of fact, I did this a number of times during the game; most notably at the very beginning. 

The game started with the characters heading to the Museum of Antiquities to investigate a robbery of sorts and getting sidetracked by a bank heist. Instant involvement, just add dice and foes. – KO

And it worked rather effectively. Any time the players started to loose their way, I simply tossed in some baddies and let the heroes trounce some nefarious foes. Once the dust and rubble was cleared, new avenues of investigation seemed to bubble up from the adrenaline.

I think the tactic would work well in quite a few genres. So the next time your investigators / superheroes / gumshoes / super spys / etc. get that glazed ham look in their eyes and begin to fidgit at the table, just toss some thugs their way and let them roll the dice. You’ll be amazed at the results.

Tags: advice, Convergence, game, KORE rpg, Musings, rpg, Superhero, technique

While not exactly what I anticipated, and a bit surprising to boot, the March get-together was a fantastic success in my book. Four games were played, of which I ran 2, we traded some secrets to theme and pacing, everyone seemed to have a good time, we covered the gambit of genres, and we all talked about doing it again next year.

Game #1 consisted of an old-school Boot Hill game run by Mark in which we were aboard a Kansas train that got robbed. Awesome fun combined with deadly Boot Hill mechanics. I’ll scan in and post my character “Three Finger Jim” soon.

Game #2 was the suspenseful and deadly, “You’re All Going to Die” run by me. Characters were assigned by random selection of Pinochle cards. The players took on the roles of B-movie victims in a no-win situation. I can’t say enough how much fun it was to run this scenario. So much so that I’m going to do this again next year… I mean who can’t come up with a slasher setting to put high school students into?

Game #3 was a 3rd Edition D&D game run by Luke. Let me tell you, we were seriously outmatched. And yet it was still a blast to try to pit our collective wits against his dragons and that dracolich… that’s right, dracolich. Luke always did have a nack for bringing out the big guns. And these guns were beyond compare.

Game #4 was a KORE quick and dirty mash-up Superhero game. Lots of fun until the end when I couldn’t find any way of ending the thing nicely after being outwitted by the 3 players. Someone inform me how to make a good ending of a summoning that has the summoner sent into low Earth orbit, the sacrifice snatched away and sent to the hospital, and the summoning locale buried under a metric ton of steel and iron… The best parts of the game were in using a technique of throwing a fight at the players every time they got stumped.

All in all a great success. I learned a lot and am looking forward to next year’s Convergence.

Tags: Boot Hill, Characters, Convergence, D&D, game, KORE rpg, rpg, Setting, Superhero, technique