KORPG™ Games 
This post is another addition spawned from the phone conversation between myself and Mark. There was a lot of good material discussed on that call, and here’s another of what I think was a gem of a realization. – KO
Want to be the center of the story?
Want the GM to cater to your desires and goals by crafting the story to meet the desires and goals of your character?
Want to be “The Hero” of the game?
Want to mold and shape the story with as much power as the guy behind the screen?
You want the reins of the game to drive the story?
Then step up.
In the past I’ve looked around at everyone around my gaming table and tried to ascertain just what desires they held for their characters. I considered the personalities of each player and made a small game plan on how to hook them and get them involved on a deeper level.
Not surprising, I didn’t do this in the Top Secret game we all remember. And yet this absence of planned hook never was an issue with The Greatest Game Ever Played. Perhaps I should have paid more attention to my Top Secret GM style back then. But at least I’m coming around to it now. – KO
Those days are over. I now realize that I’ve been doing this all wrong. I’m done catering to your whims. I’m done selling you on the game. You sell me on your character.
If you want the spotlight, then demand it.
You want to be the center of the story? Then engage me as a GM.
Want me to cater to your desires and those of your character? Compel me to do so.
You want to be the hero? Well bub, there’s a room full of games who are just slightly removed from the frustrated authors and directors and artists they might all be, sitting around the table with you. And so do they. Make your case within the game and I’ll be happy to accommodate you.
I’m no advocating not having a storyline idea to fall back on, but I’m advocating making the players identify the hooks and attack them with fervor… at least the ones they find interesting. I’m going to start expecting players to find their “in” and run with it with all their role-play might!
Fail to sell me on what you want to do? Then take a back seat to the guy who markets his ideas better. Either you make me care enough to make the world interesting for your character, or I’m going to have to assume you don’t care enough about your character to find the world interesting. End result? Welcome to the background.
Sell me well and I’ll run the game you’ve always wanted to play. Do so well enough and the Rules of Cool will apply to nearly everything you attempt. I won’t change reality to your every whim, but as the hero, the world will be your oyster and I’ll cater to nearly every desire within reason… until someone at the table catches my eye with a better up-sell.
Maybe this is how it should be done. Where am I wrong?
Before anyone else jumps the gun, this tactic isn’t for every situation. I wouldn’t use it with a group of mixed gaming experience. The novice might feel left out due to gaming ignorance. It could work but would require extra effort on part of both the GM and other players to provide an inclusive environment.
That said, I think it promotes better play. People who feel left out should start to insert themselves more into the game to get a portion of the spotlight. In a well established group, the spotlight will dance around between players evenly no matter if they are just starting a new game or not. I’m all for well considered characters with depth. Those with reasoned goals and motivations are far more enjoyable to play. They increase my enjoyment and make the game much more memorable.
Certainly you can have a good time with template character clones. Having a great time usually requires a lot more depth. At least in the gaming sessions I mostly enjoy. Great characters played with skill have driven my best campaigns beyond my original vision. The storyline becomes a shared, communal entity not just some general plot to keep the game in forward motion.
OK, yes. Obviously this is not for the uninitiated. Those novices at the table are given license to learn the ropes before being tossed in the deep water to swim with the sharks. (Was that enough metaphors?)
But those who are experienced in play should be able to handle this type of request. And newer players would do well to see this as the norm… nay, the base requisite to play the game well. That’s my desire; to raise the level of play among all involved.
I remember forcing our GM to treat my characters this way…with a pirate named Pytor of the Rake, due to the fact that he was essentially a coward/scavenger/thief type with just a spark of hero in him, wound up doing some serious damage with a rake he picked up in the deserted village while his playmates were rushing toward the Big Bad at the other end of the village…or my hyperactive super-genius 8 year-old girl who cracked the computer codes to bypass a lot of the threats the GM had lined up for us into the bad guy’s stronghold…and who could forget my female character who everyone except the GM thought was a guy on a quest of vengeance for the killers of her family when she was 4-5?
I fully endorse the idea that you have an initial plot, main bad guys, overarching theme, and especially for novice GM’s you probably need some key events to happen(using NPC’s is a good way for this to happen, or just keeping the alternatives boring enough to force the characters to travel to the North) but when all is said and done, gaming is about having fun, both for the GM and the players, and with a mixed group, you have to remember that just because someone hasn’t played RPG’s doesn’t mean that they don’t know about role-playing, story-telling and make-believe. If you treat people like children reading choose-your-own-adventure books, and only give them 2 choices, they’ll tire of it pretty quickly, even if you think they’re the coolest choices in the world.
I treat each game as a collabarative story, and you only get out of it what you put into it…and if your Ewok is in a flyer above a tree-house that just exploded because the wookie pulled all the pins on his 20 thermal grenades, which just killed the entire party, and you don’t want him to die, all you have to do is ask the GM what you’d have to roll in order to be blown upwards instead of blown to pieces…and then float your character into the next story line.
@Seth: So I’m reading your response and I’m thinking to myself, “Huh, that’s odd, I played in a game just like this… I wonder how many other pirates with rakes are in the rpg universe… wait… That’s the game I ran… Is this Seth? Seth,Seth?”
Nostalgia aside, that’s exactly what I think should happen. The players craft the characters and find ways of interacting/changing the storyline to match their desires. That’s the way it should work. I’ll have a baseline game-plan as a GM and see where it gets changed as it intersects with the game-plans of the players. But the key point is that if someone wants to be the hero, they should be encouraged to take the lead role at the table and mold the story to their desires. Such a methodology will of course require a GM willing to give up narrative control, but the rewards of doing so are so great, such should be encouraged.
And good point about playing RPGs vs. role-playing. We’ve all played make-believe at some time in our lives. At it’s core, that’s what RPGs are all about.
I agree with Mark that it is a great situational tactic. However, if prolonged, it can easily cause the mental drop out of all the other players. In my personal experience, past a certain point I’m going to do one of three things. 1. Eliminate or aid in the elimination of the spotlight character. 2. Do something else, such as playing a different game with the other bored players. 3. Make life extremely difficult for the GM, such as going solo or bucking the underlying story thread, or repeatedly asking “Can I do X?”, which may happen anyway. Everything in moderation. Most good gamers don’t mind taking a back seat for while and often it’s annoying when, as a player, you want to but nobody else steps up, but sit back there to long and it’s just dull.
@Randall: But my question is if it should be the GM’s responsibility to move spotlight around the table to make sure everyone gets their 15 minutes of fame? Or is it better if the players choose when and how their characters enter center stage?
I can certainly see the problem with playing in a game where the spotlight is always on a certain player’s character… we’ve all been there and it isn’t fun after a time. But what about when there’s uniformity of control among the players and no GM favoritism? Then shouldn’t the tactic work to lighten the load of all involved in the game?
As to being in the back seat too long… then just step up and take ownership of the limelight. I’m offering you a tactic that makes it just that easy.
@Kevin: You definitely have some good points. At the end of the day it probably mostly boils down to player dynamics. Some thrive on the spotlight while others abhor it so it mainly delegates the GM to a back seat on the matter anyway and arrives at it’s own equilibrium. BUT, for those players in the middle, and if you think back everyone can remember some of those, have you considered the total awesomeness that may have been brought to the fore if the GM took a few background cues and tied that into the player’s “buttons” and forced the spotlight on them, even for a short duration? Worst case scenario it’s a bust and one of us spotlight hogs latches onto some aspect and runs with it. But it makes me wonder if possibly there have been situations of greatness that we have missed out on because of the lack of spotlight. In general, there is a reason these people sit down at the table to engage in the hobby repeatedly and just because someone is not aggressive with their ideas or characters certainly does not mean they are less deserving or less viable for the spotlight.
@Randall: I wonder sometimes what awesomeness was lost because the game was geared toward what I as the GM thought should happen (read railroad) and not the players, vocal and glory-hounds or not.
@Randall & Kevin: I think both the players and the GM need to prompt players to do engage in play resulting in “awesomeness”. Some of the middle ground players don’t have the personalities to do it themselves so the GM needs to hook and push. The comfortable players should be insightful enough to recognize a push and aid in the process.
Much of it comes down to gaming experience. For years, we all played the rules closely. Then we started to move our actions into a space not covered exactly by the rules. Both sides of the table have to be on board with playing in that style. However, that doesn’t absolve anyone from not helping someone else to break free of the ball and chain the rules dictate. Sometimes a little railroading is required. Other times require the hogs to step back and play in a way to force someone else into the spotlight.
In the end, no matter what, there’s awesomeness left unplayed at the end of each and every session.