Feedback from a Player

[IanBruntlett]

Just finished a Traveller session with Nicola, a friend. I've lent her a copy of the Traveller core rules. She came round for a Traveller session, armed with sheafs of paper with suggestions on.

We've got a group of approximately 3 players, its fairly informal. Sometimes people turn up, sometimes they don't.

We're currently working our way through the "Beltstrike" adventure book. I've taken to writing notes for the players, titled "The Story so far", in an attempt to cut down on repeated exposition.

Nicola's suggestions included:-

1. Stay with the Traveller Universe (she wanted me to pick a sci-fi book and run a campaign based on that. If I get someone else to GM then I could start preparing something like that - probably Marion Zimmer Bradley's Darkover series).

2. Give player's a good idea of the session's purpose & background information. I _try_ to do that - but I feel I've got to balance exposition and action.

3. Have a Q & A session at the start of a role playing session so the players can confirm what they think is correct.

4. Have "Story so far" notes.

5. Have a copy of the core rules available for anyone interested.

6. Involve more people with refereeing.

 

[Gaidheal]

Sharing the load of rules resolution and bookkeeping is easy and should be routine (in other words you want to move in that direction, quickly, with a new group) - some very basic stuff that helps is (talking generic rpg here, btw):

In combat, have people roll their "to hit" and also roll appropriate damage for their weapon, if possible. This way, when you tell them whether it succeeded or not they can immediately give you the damage.

If possible, in combat, have people roll ahead of time. If something changes their action, no matter, if not, they have a "to hit" result ready for you and, as above, the damage. This works very well if you can tell them the 'target' result (sometimes you won't want to do that, though and don't feel compelled to), as experienced and mature players can be trusted to resolve their entire action for themselves and simply tell you what happened.

If your game has some sort of 'experience' system and obvious progression mechanic, encourage them to be thinking, outside the session, about where they want the character to 'go' and thus what they will 'spend XP on' next.



Shared campaigns can work very well but usually only with a well understood and detailed background (a favourite novel's world is a good choice here) - when you are the Referee/GM/Whatever, you NPC your character and keep them from spotlighting, when someone else takes over you pick back up and become a fully involved player again. This works especially well with a very small group as it solves the issue of "we want to play but do we have enough characters?" and "who's going to run it?" at the same time and quite elegantly. It can also be excellent for getting a much broader slice of the world as the others are likely to emphasize different aspects to you, when they are running the game.


Occasionally it can be worth saying "Next week is going to be heavy combat" or "expect a couple of weeks of heavy politics" but in general, the session's purpose is to play the game, no?


Recap is always, always a good idea if the game is weekly. Open with something like "As I recall, you were ... you'd ... and we left it with you doing ..., right?" - that way you've quickly reminded people of where you left the story, they probably remember what they intended to do at that point and will often get immediately back into role, too. Never be afraid to stop the game, as it were, in order to answer 'out of character' questions, though. Occasionally someone misinterprets a game concept or has no idea how a certain skill, gadget, whatever works and what they should look to do with it. Questions like that need to be honestly and thoroughly answered on a friend-talking-to-friend basis, then if satisfied the issue is cleared up pick up and if appropriate immediately allow changed actions or even roll back a little.


"Story so far" can be excellent, especially for players who are inclined to tell grand epics rather than steal all the loot, kill the NPCs and get drunk, in character (that can be fun, too, but it's a very different game!).


Rulebooks should be available for anyone to browse at any time in the game, so long as they are not failing to contribute because they're busy reading. That can be an issue with only a very small group, of course. Encourage them to buy the core rules, at least, for themself.


My thoughts, for now anyway. :¬)

P.S. Make notes. Specifically, write down every name of every place, person or thing. Write down what your NPCs were going to do and make a note of anything 'big' that the players do which is not obvious to them and you intend to 'follow up behind the scenes', as it were. Otherwise you will forget, your game will run less well, you will feel more pressured and you'll look less competent.

 

[IanBruntlett]

Sharing the load of rules resolution and bookkeeping is easy and should be routine (in other words you want to move in that direction, quickly, with a new group) - some very basic stuff that helps is (talking generic rpg here, btw):

I agree with you. Its early days yet but that's the way it will work.

In combat, have people roll their "to hit" and also roll appropriate damage for their weapon, if possible. This way, when you tell them whether it succeeded or not they can immediately give you the damage.

I've found combat to be terrifyingly dangerous. The potential for lethal damage is so much greater than in say, AD&D.

Shared campaigns can work very well but usually only with a well understood and detailed background (a favourite novel's world is a good choice here) - when you are the Referee/GM/Whatever, you NPC your character and keep them from spotlighting, when someone else takes over you pick back up and become a fully involved player again. This works especially well with a very small group as it solves the issue of "we want to play but do we have enough characters?" and "who's going to run it?" at the same time and quite elegantly. It can also be excellent for getting a much broader slice of the world as the others are likely to emphasize different aspects to you, when they are running the game.

Well, I'm fortunate in that new universe books are being developed. I could run OTU (Spinward Marches) adventures and Nicola could either go for Hammers Slammers or Judge Dredd universes.

Occasionally it can be worth saying "Next week is going to be heavy combat" or "expect a couple of weeks of heavy politics" but in general, the session's purpose is to play the game, no?

Good point

"Story so far" can be excellent, especially for players who are inclined to tell grand epics rather than steal all the loot, kill the NPCs and get drunk, in character (that can be fun, too, but it's a very different game!).


Rulebooks should be available for anyone to browse at any time in the game, so long as they are not failing to contribute because they're busy reading. That can be an issue with only a very small group, of course. Encourage them to buy the core rules, at least, for themself.


My thoughts, for now anyway. :¬)

P.S. Make notes. Specifically, write down every name of every place, person or thing. Write down what your NPCs were going to do and make a note of anything 'big' that the players do which is not obvious to them and you intend to 'follow up behind the scenes', as it were. Otherwise you will forget, your game will run less well, you will feel more pressured and you'll look less competent.

Thanks for that. All very good suggestions!

 

[The Chef]

my gaming group is a. small, only 2 others and b. due to geographical problems not very frequent. Luckily one of my players keeps a excellent log written in the first person for keeping notes. for action scenes these take place as comms traffic for a real pacey narrative. shes a bit of a whizz at this and keeps the game fresh for when we get together.

chef

 

[Dave Chase]

...

P.S. Make notes. Specifically, write down every name of every place, person or thing. Write down what your NPCs were going to do and make a note of anything 'big' that the players do which is not obvious to them and you intend to 'follow up behind the scenes', as it were. Otherwise you will forget, your game will run less well, you will feel more pressured and you'll look less competent.

Gaidheal made some very good suggestion/points. This one is must if (IMO) if you want to keep things flowing and connected.

You don't have to write down every little thing but notes are good to look back over time to see if that NPC or past adventure might come back and help them or hurt them in the current situation.

Also, you might find some new adventure to throw their way based on their past actions.

Dave Chase

 

[kristof65]

One of the things I do for my Traveller group is maintain a "daily journal". During each session I make real short notes about what was done each day, then immediately after the session, I type up a calendar/journal for the session using a table in MS Word (Excel would work, too).

The table is two columns - one gives the current day, the other gives a short summary of what happened that day. A lot of days are simply filled with "jumpspace" or "travelling" if nothing was going on that day. After I've made notes for a session, I use ***end of session*** to delineate the various sessions. I then post it as a PDF to our Yahoo Group.

It doesn't take a whole lot of time to do, and serves two major purposes - a recap of the story so far, and a calendar with which to coordinate other actions and events. By doing it right after the session, everything is still fresh in my mind, and I can make sure important points are covered in the summary.

I do a small "recap" at the beginning of each session, but this is primarily just saying what their last immediate action was - "Ok, so you had just left orbit of planet X and were headed to the jump point." Since I'm doing the work of the journal, I make it the player's responsibility to read it - which sounds harsh, but for those that have the foresight to print it out and keep it in their PC notebooks, it's a handy reference and review chart they can access anytime during a session - which makes it more useful than a longer recap, IMO.

 

[BP]

...
2. Give player's a good idea of the session's purpose & background information. I _try_ to do that - but I feel I've got to balance exposition and action.

Being a wordy sort to begin with, I always used props - letters, 'news clippings', wanted 'posters', pictures - to help convey background and goals...

The players can read, look and assimilate while I'm talking or even just letting them discuss among themselves with me mute.

This also helps when new players come on board or old ones rotate back in.

To help with notes - have a player take the 'minutes' of each session and have the same (or an available) player review them at the beginning of the next - this also addresses the referee assistant thing...

(A good example of this might be to read your local municipalities' board meeting minutes - usually available online or by calling if your area of the world supports such).

Enjoy.

 

[GypsyComet]

a calendar/journal for the session

Watching the weeks just *fly* by in a game with any serious amount of travel is fun and sometimes scary. Realizing that a game that started in 1105 will be pushing into the Fifth Frontier War (1108) *very* quickly can be a bit intimidating.