ࡱ> #` lbjbj 456~~~~~~~84N$*   mq#######$x%h'`#~#~~  $U!U!U!~ ~ #U!#U!U!~~U!  @coLU!#$0N$U!@( @(U!@(~U!xU!## |N$$$~~~~~~ CORE INTRODUCTION Kranos the wizard raised his staff above his head and recited arcane words from a forgotten language. The end of the staff shone brightly, illuminating the passage before him and dazzling his companions. The passage was dimly lit but they could see alcoves up ahead. Twenty yards on, an iron grill blocked their path. Wed better go back, said Zaxx. For the last time, I am not leaving this place without some gold in my pouch first. Tarak said gruffly. I want the orb before we leave, said Kranos. From the alcoves came strange noises followed by four large lizard men rushing towards them from the darkness. Tarak was a huge muscular barbarian fighter and he knew what to do. He pulled out the two handed battle axe that was strapped to his back. He lifted it above his head and ran screaming at the lizard men. Kranos held his magical medallion aloft. A beam of light shot from it. It struck one of the lizard men on the chest and flames burst forth from it. The creature collapsed. The other creatures watched in horror. This gave Tarak the advantage he needed. He struck his axe into the nearest creature. It cried out and its blood splattered the walls. Tarak pushed past the dying lizard man. Swinging his axe a second time, he hit another creature, cutting its arm off. Injured, it ran off screaming with its companion. Zaxx came from the shadows, sliding back his long stiletto knives and searched the bodies. Look at what Ive found, declared Zaxx. He showed his friends a small pendant with ornate carvings. You would steal the coins from a dead mans eyes. said Tarak. Zaxx was offended, despite the fact that as a young thief, he stole from graveyards. Zaxx, show me the pendant quickly before more of those foul creatures return, it might be important, said Kronos. Is this a story? Well, not quite. This is a role-playing adventure in a world of fantasy; this is a world were you are the hero. Role-playing games are stories where you can do anything you want, when you want. CORE is a role-playing system that allows you to play adventures, it is an open game system that can be customised to your game requirements; its a game that needs a minimum of two people to play, a Game Master and a Player. The Game Master is the person who creates an adventure for the Player(s) to explore. The Players create a character with different skills, abilities and backgrounds for themselves. The Game Master knows about the details of the adventure, who the baddies are for example, what theyre doing and where treasure is located etc. They would then give the Player(s) an introduction to the adventure and explain how and where their adventure begins. The Players decide what their characters want to do and the GM decides if the can do that. After an adventure maybe some of the players characters have survived. The Game Master would then give the Players characters Experience Points. The Player would add this to the characters total. If the characters total reached a certain level, the Players character would gain further abilities and skills. The Players could then use this new improved character in another adventure that the GM creates. The players characters could then tackle a more difficult adventure. That is the basics of a role playing game. The Players The main challenge players have is playing your character. If you create a sleazy thief who is a complete coward, you should play these attributes. If that character is in the middle of a fight, being a natural coward, he would hide and protect himself, rather than help his companions. If one of his companions or anybody else in the game had left their equipment unprotected, your character would steal it, regardless if this would create problems within the game later on. This will give you considerably more fun than just playing yourself in a fantasy world. As a player you gain experience points for your character by role-playing and game playing. Game playing is sticking to the rules, not Information Using (which means using game knowledge that doesnt apply to your character. i.e. another player is told they find a necklace while the others players are sleeping. As another player in the game, even though you know about the necklace, you cant use this information because you were asleep)! Sometimes you will come into conflicts within the game. A player might steal an important item that is needed in order to complete the adventure. If you are role-playing a thief who is greedy, you may want to keep an item for yourself. If your character does not share an item with the other players characters and this resulted in the adventure ending unfinished, the GM should reward you for it at least in some way, because you role played your character. Even the most mundane character classes can be fun to play. I once had a player who played a beggar. He was the dullest, dumbest character imaginable. He survived many adventures and became relatively high level compared to his original status. He had some exciting adventures for a beggar. He was able to evolve and become a respectable citizen. Dont be put off by having a weak or difficult character to play in the beginning. These can be the most fun and rewarding as they can always be improved. It is important for players to co-operate. Different classes have specialist skills and abilities. So co-operation is essential to succeed in difficult adventures. If players dont co-operate then the flow of the game will be interrupted. If this happens, your GM will deduct experience point from anybody who spoils the flow and fun of the game, unless youre role-playing someone who might spoil the flow of things! Heros A lot of new players think the purpose of Adventure Games is to explore new lands, fight monsters, solve puzzles and gain experience in order to improve your characters skill and abilities. This is partly true, it can be exciting, but you could be having even more fun. Imagine playing a character who is obsessed with killing goblins, who absolutely hates them, and flies into blind rages when he sees any. Another players character in the same group is a priest and wont let anyone in the group harm anything. This conflict between players is what role-playing is about. This is the essence of role-playing. Play your character and not yourself. It you can do that you will enjoy the game much more. Use your characters personality, motivations, fears and likes and dislikes to create someone interesting to play. The amount of enjoyment you have when you role-play will amaze you. Become your character by thinking like them, use your characters attributes as a guide to how your character should behave and a new world of experience will await you. A good example would be; if you were playing an orc-barbarian, and two other player characters are human fighters. There has been a battle and the characters are sharing the booty. A dead elf you killed in the fight might be tastier than that bag of gold on that table by the door. You might haggle with other players for the body. You might even forfeit your share of the treasure for it. Imagine you have a character that is a mystic but has a fear of demons. (A demon killed his family, when he was a small boy). The mystic is in a temple, and before him is a door with a symbol of a greater demon on it etched in gold. A player who doesnt role-play would not use his characters past history to influence his character motivations and to affect his actions, so would be likely to open the door. On the other hand, a player who role-played his character would knowingly use his characters past to influence his actions in the present. Nothing on earth would motivate him to open that door. If any other characters wanted to open it he would argue against it, even if it might benefit him or the party, or was essential to completing the adventure. The mystic might even use force to prevent other characters opening the door. This situation would only happen if you role-played your character, rather than just role-playing with that characters basic skills and abilities. What is Role-Playing and why is it better than Game-Playing Its important to understand the difference between Role-Playing and Game-Playing. Game-Playing is having knowledge of a games rule system, and how it relates to what your character can do or not do, it is also knowing when to ask the Games-Master for information or rule clarifications, etc. Game-Playing is using the game mechanics to improve the flow of the game. Role-Playing on the other hand is about you becoming your character, thinking like them, becoming them. When you role-play your character youre not concerned about your abilities/skills or what your hit points are. All you want to do is fulfil your character needs. A simple example of this would be; youre playing a tough Hobgoblin fighter, who is very emotional and has a low social standing. Along the way you meet an important Hobgoblin chief. He knocks your hat off then poops in it. If you game-played the game you would know that in hobgoblin culture this was a high sign of respect, so you would probably thank the Hobgoblin for the compliment and be on your way. If you role-played your character, the Hobgoblin would be elated, swell with pride, shed a few tears, slobber out a thank you, give the chief a big hug and ask if there is anything you could do for them. You would then stick your poop filled hat on your head and not wash for a couple of years. (He probably wouldnt wash anyway being a hobgoblin but its the thought that counts). Role-playing is about bringing your character to life. Out of Character Problems Staying in character during a role-playing game is essential. It might be necessary to go out-of-character briefly, when asking about rule clarifications etc, but dont do it too often as this will spoil the flow of the game. Its important to remember that every time you go out-of-character your credibility as a role-player and the role-playing atmosphere of the game suffers. Imagine you are playing a young nobleman who is a bit of a wimp. He is challenged by a tall knight with the crest of a Green Dragon on his Shield. In a previous adventure with a different character the player discovered that this particular knight is a drunk, who cant fight to save his life, and is a complete coward. If your character deliberately challenged the Knight knowing they would win a fight, this would be information-using which spoils the game. If you were role-playing a goblin who doesnt know anything about werewolves, who is then attacked by one and starts looking for a silver coated weapon, then this is defined as information using. As a human in the real world, you will probably know about silver and werewolves, but as a goblin you dont. Sometimes the GM might have to inform your character of some important details. Dont use another players details to benefit your character, or help you complete an adventure, unless this information has been revealed as part of the game. GMs can punish information users by taking off experience points. So stick to your character regardless. As you role-play you will have a chance to work out whether your character would be more concerned about that box of treasure beside him or the dying friend? Will your character ignore people that seem distraught and in need of assistance and if they help what would be their motivations. Would there be ulterior motives? If you dont ask yourself similar questions about your character; then chances are youre probably not doing much role-playing. Role-playing is like being an actor in a play or movie, except you dont have a concrete script. Role-playing is an ongoing story that changes depending on what your character decides to do. All the fun of the villager and the fat old space tramp Role-playing a stupid villager or a weak goblin can be fun, rewarding and challenging as they dont have skills and abilities that true adventuring classes have. Their chances of survival are less likely. More importantly they are harder to role-play because they are less knowledgeable and have a simpler outlook on life. One such character may have no knowledge about the undead, so it would be prudent for a good Role-Player to ignore a GMs obvious description of a zombie, and keep playing their character as if nothing has happened. Villagers and their ilk arent always stupid; just less experienced. Role-playing someone who is inexperienced is not always easy. Try and simulate what would someone do if a monster disappeared in front of them and then reappeared behind them. More then likely they would not calmly seek more information if this creature appeared hostile; they would just poop their pants and run away screaming. The difference between one character and another is the way you role-play. Its easy to role-play a bounty hunter that likes killing aliens. What is harder but more fun is role-playing a grumpy, old bounty hunter that gets the shakes if he doesnt get a drink every hour. When you generate a character, make them real, give them likes and dislikes. If your character was an archer, make him hopeless at using swords, or afraid of being hit. If he is a wizard, make him afraid of the undead. These faults have the potential for creating interesting plots and situations for your character. Give life to your character, so they can come alive. How to win in a role-playing game When youre role-playing youre already winning the game, because you should be having lots of fun and staying alive at the same time. Its nice when your character gains a few levels and completes a major quest, but that shouldnt be the most important part of the game. If your character survives an adventure then you can use it in another adventure, having gained some experience. By playing your character youre going to be achieving goals within the game that has nothing to with completing the game. Imagine you had a character that had a secret desire to kill a nobleman from a specific clan. This detail would be noted when the character was generated. The detail would not normally affect an adventure, unless the GM created a situation that involved that nobleman. How do you role-play Leonardo Da Vinci, or some other bright chap? Your GM will help you out with information that you dont actually know. Try to think in a completely different way when role-playing a genius, or someone with skills or knowledge you dont have. Think of unusual ways of doing things, or solving problems. If your character knows about cannons for example your GM could simple let you roll your characters relevant skills, or you could suggest some thing unusual, like mounting a cannon on a turntable on a wagon. Try to not underestimate your ability to think/role-play a genius. You can bluff your way through it. Many years ago, when I was a teenage GM, a classmate of mine came up with some incredible philosophical ideas when he was role-playing a priest character. We had a discussion about the adventure after it was over but the player was unable to expand on any of the issues we tried to raise. Strangely enough when he was back in character in a later game, he was a theological genius again and kept people spellbound. The Game Master Game Mastering is the art of running a role-playing game for a group of players. The GM describes events to players. They respond by telling the GM what they would like their character to do. The GM then decides if the players succeed or not and the cycle starts again. Slowly the game advances. There might be a couple of fights in the game, problems to solve or a chase scene. Adventures can be set in any time, place or genre. They can be based on books, films or comics, or simply created from your own mind. Its the GMs responsibility to keep players enthralled and challenged. GMs do this by playing all the monsters and enemies as realistically as possible. Contrary to popular belief, realism rather than fantasy is the essential ingredient for successful role play. Its about creating moments of danger and suspense, challenging situations, puzzles and problems. Its a difficult thing for a novice GM to do. It would get boring to just fight monsters all the time. Its easy to put in traps or obstacles. An exiting journey interspersed with a good plot will be a more fun adventure for everyone involved. The GM should rule their game world fairly. They should reward good role play and game playing. It doesnt even matter if adventurers never complete an adventure, as long as they enjoy doing it. As a GM you should reward players who work together and role-play. You might think that players get the best deal, but as the GM you know everything, can see everything. There is fun in creating strange monsters, famous people and bad guys. The GM knows where the traps and puzzles are. As you build adventures from nothing, creating villains and potential heroes is as exciting as being a role player. What will the players do next? Even as a GM you dont know what they will do in every event. This can be rewarding in itself. Nothing is predictable. The GM role-plays all other characters in the adventure, excluding the role players. So as the GM you still get to role-play and experience variety and diversity. Some people enjoy being a GM so much that they never want to be a player. All GMs should try a couple of adventures as a player, to get that different perspective. Its an essential experience and valuable insight into what scares and excites the average adventurer. Have fun and remember that the GM is not trying to kill off your character! Players can become attached to their characters. In some game systems, it can take lots of adventures for a character to gain any power or status. It would be a pity for a player to loose a character they could have had for months or even years. Good GMs will try to avoid killing off characters unnecessarily. Sometimes characters who will do something stupid or brave or a player fails some critical dice roll. A good GM will give a player a fair chance to survive a bad event. Occasionally a death will be deserved. As a GM you should explain why characters have died. If a player has a problem with a GMs decision, he should bring the issue up post-game, rather than during it. Bringing the problem up during the game is a bit like being interrupted from an exciting movie by latecomers looking for their seats. The players have a right to question a decision right there and then if they truly think it was unfair. For instance a players character may have fallen down a deep hole and died without the player being given a saving throw. Unless the hole was so deep that survival would be impossible, the player may have a point. How to create a good role-playing group I had recently moved and been unable to play role-playing games for a little while. I met some actors at a theatre group and invited them to a game. Ian had done a couple of adventures and wasnt too bad at role-playing. (He was the genius priest we talked about earlier)! Paul was a novice role-player who had watched a couple of adventures. Ian was playing a big tough fighter who was slow, but kind. Paul was playing a monk/priest who was a bit of a fanatic. I deliberately gave the players simple characters to play. The premise for the adventure was this; A NPC thief called Gelik, (a likeable chap, who had the personality of a dodgy car dealer) befriends Ians and Pauls characters. He pretends to be a fighter who was down on his luck. He then plans to take the adventurers to an abandoned tomb to rob them and escape with their belongings. The adventures objective would be to follow the thief and try to recover their stolen stuff. If the players succeed in retrieving more than half of their belongings, they have completed the adventure. The adventure started, Ian and Paul explored the town where the adventure was located and were just getting to grips with role-playing, buying equipment, having some fun and starting bar fights (usually Ians character). Unexpectedly, one of my more experienced players popped in for a cup of tea. I didnt want to stop the game, we all got chatting and I suggested that Robert should join the game. I gave the NPC character Gelik to Robert. Robert asked if he could change one or two details about the character. I didnt even check what changes he made. (He was a very experience role-player and I knew he wouldnt take advantage of the situation). I told him Geliks character main motivation was to rob the players blind. The adventure continued. Gelik was introduced to the players and the players headed off to the tomb. During the journey Robert persuaded Ian and Pauls character that his character Gelik was a famous fighter, who was down on his luck, and had to keep a low profile. The adventure turned out better than I could have imagined. Paul and Ians characters were both conned out of all their valuable goods before they even got to the tomb. They had total trust in Gelik. Robert and I were laughing hysterically because we both knew what was really going on. Ian and Paul were having fun playing their characters. They thought they were going on an adventure with a famous adventurer. They were a little puzzled why we were laughing so much though! As this point the adventure should be coming to an end, as I had originally planned and Gelik should run off with the characters goods. Robert decided he would take them to the tomb anyway and gave me a little wink. At this point I called a quick break; with the excuse to put the kettle on and get some snacks. Robert kept Ian and Paul busy asking them how their role playing was coming on etc. This is when I had the chance to add some extra details to the adventure and a few surprises and unexpected turns. We then continued the adventure. Once at the tomb, Gelik made Paul and Ians characters face all the dangers there and at the same time make it look like he was doing all the work. By the time the adventure ended, wed all had a very entertaining evening. It was one of the most memorable adventures for everyone involved and it was largely due to an experienced player role-playing his character, and in doing so, helping new players get to grips with their own role-playing. What to do if you character dies If a character dies, its not the end of the world, if fact it could be an opportunity to play a new, fresh character, or one youve been thinking about for a while. Most of the time the death of a player is accidental. In some game genres, it can even be temporary. In a sci-fi or space opera genre, your player friends could shove your body into a cryo-freeze unit and pay a fortune to bring your character back to life with illegal alien technology or in a fantasy genre try to bring them back with sorcery. Methods to bring characters back to life should be a very difficult/expensive process and not always work. If a characters death is total, a good GM will still reward a player, as a result of good role-playing and soothe the death by perhaps give them a slightly more powerful character to play next time. When and How to Bend the Rules The problem with most role-playing systems is the rules. How do you have a good role-playing system without rules? You dont! Rules guide a role-playing system and realistically limit what player characters can and cant do. There are times the GM should not follow the rules. If an adventure is going well and some of the players characters are injured badly, the GM will realise that one last battle might kill most of them, if not all of them off. The GM has a dilemma. If he sticks to the rules he knows that the players characters wont survive. This could put an end to a really good campaign. So the GM might decide to half all damage done to the adventurers. He does not let the players know this. So they think they are going to die and it creates drama. The players are seriously worried that their cherished character will perish. The GM has increased the characters chances to live, but has not guaranteed it. Decisions like this can make or break an adventure. It also makes a good GM. A GM should not make it easy for adventurers. If the players in the game caused damage to themselves foolishly, the GM should not give them any benefits. In the above example, there is still a good chance that one or two of the adventurers will die. The Block Buster and the Box Office Flop Having an adventure should be an experience akin to watching a good movie at your local cinema. There will a beginning, middle and an end. The story will unfold at a comfortable rate, not too slow and not so fast that it overwhelms. There will be satisfying moments of gripping drama, slices of comedy perhaps, a peppering of intrigue, absorbing dialogue, some mystery, a blast or two of nail-biting tension and of course, a finale. A bad adventure is like a bad movie or a terrible novel- dull, wrongly paced and without plot and believable charactersthe list will go on and on, just like a bad movie does. Your job as a GM is to make each adventure a blockbuster. There are simple techniques to increase fun and excitement of any adventure. The blame for bad adventures should be placed equally on role-players and game master. Anybody can be at fault, either some of the time or most of the time. Players need to be aware of their own fallibility. If they try to do too much too soon, its a lot like learning to run before they can walk and inevitably they will stumble. To increase the box office hits, its important not to be too unrealistic. This is a joint responsibility for both the G.M and the role player. Lets say you have created an adventure that is set on an alien planet, but need to add some spice to it, so you start off by having a NPC being killed in an unusual situation. The players could be friends with this NPC. The objective for the players is to find out who killed their friend. This would be a basic idea for an adventure. It could be livened up with the following suggestions: the planet has no laws regarding stealing, its legal. It could be made even more interesting by having the murderers from a thief-priest cult that are considered holy. This would give players considerable difficulty getting any outside help. The players may be given help from one of the locals who had something stolen from them by the priest cult. He knows where the murderers lair is and its secret entrance point. The lair is guarded by alien monsters that attack on sight. The adventure now begins to come alive. The key is not to overcomplicate the adventure. Adding just a few more ideas to the above adventure has created some new elements that may result in a better game. How to be a good GM A GM and three players start a game, one is an alien with telekinetic powers, another is an intelligent work robot and the last player is a bounty hunter. They are in a small fire fight at the spaceport with the local police. The bounty hunter tells the robot player to run across the airport and cover the other players as they get to their spacecraft. The bounty hunter and the robot start off towards their spaceship but the alien tells the GM that he is going to use his teleport ability to get into the spaceship. The GM advises the alien that this will be difficult, what with all the shooting and pandemonium going on. The concentration of the player would be compromised in such a high action situation. The player would be given a difficult dice roll but the player tells the GM that the other characters are only being shot at, not him. The player also tells the GM that the police cannot see him. The GM considers this and decides to give him a better chance. The player teleports, but as a result of the dice roll and other factors which influence the success of the teleportation, he lands on top of the spaceship, creating a much more interesting outcome. When the GM is flexible and open minded, the game will run more quickly and efficiently and the players will gain more respect for the GM and enjoy the adventure more. Overacting and hamming it up. Bring something to the game, not just pizza. This applies equally to the player and GM. Try to get into your characters heads. Its no good just playing a mean old archaeologist. The archaeologist could have a fear of androids for instance with a few idiosyncrasies added like rudeness, paranoia etc to complicate his personality and make him more rounded. A few quirks add depth. This is even more important for the GM than the players as the GM plays all NPCs and so has to make them all very different and distinct from one another. Non player characters tend to be short lived. They have walk on parts or cameo roles. Sometimes they are there simply to link one event to another or are strangers which are met briefly on a dusty road. They need to be bold and larger than life to a degree, in order to conjure a greater sense of believability. This can go a little too far. I once remember GM-ing a game a while ago that was set on a fantasy world. An adventurer was looking for a weapon smith to repair his damaged sword in a tiny village. Unfortunately he had not created a detailed description of the town, as I did not expect the adventurers to visit it more than once (They all kept returning to it even though there wasnt anything there)! In the end I created a few main characters; a local blacksmith, a shopkeeper and a tavern owner. To cut a long story short, the adventurer eventually visited the blacksmith, to see if he could fix his weapon. I quickly wrote down some notes for the blacksmith. I decided that he had a toothache and was grumpy as a result. I rolled a die for blacksmith skill. He failed, not only did he fail to fix the sword; he ended up damaging it more. The player was furious, he wanted the blacksmith to pay him compensation or give him a new sword. The blacksmith still has his painful toothache. He became very stubborn and refused to pay. He said the sword was already broken and was beyond repair. Eventually the local tavern owner held an impromptu court session (that most of the local villagers attended). One of the characters in the adventure party was a priest who had the trait of always telling the truth. The priest felt that the sword in question was indeed in a fairly sorry state already and could not be repaired as new. The player character with the broken sword lost his case and had to pay compensation to the blacksmith for wasting his time and attempting to discredit his skills. This was all because of a toothache. This small detail in a character was all that was needed to create an interesting event. As a role player, dont be afraid to over act. It will liven up the game and create atmosphere. If youre role playing a slimy goblin thief, become one. Theres nothing wrong in a little bit of method acting. It didnt Robert De Niro or Dustin Hoffman any harm. Combat: Kicking the S*** out of that poor Goblin Combat can be one of the most interesting events that happen in an adventure. Creating an exciting pace and keeping the realism going at the same time can be a difficult challenge even for an experienced GM. The way you can achieve this is to use a fast and simple combat system. That way you will guarantee that the combat action is exciting. If you need a more realistic combat, strip it of all the fancy effects, and extra dice rolling. Keep it simple. That way your players can concentrate on the adventure, and not dice rolling. Rolling a die for a critical hit can be exciting in it self. Allow your player to roll for important combat events; try to do most of the work yourself, that way your players will only have to concentrate on the game and not its mechanics. Allowing the players some freedom Five years after I had started GMing, my regular players and I decided that we wanted to try a different adventure genre, so as GM I suggested Secret Agents 007 semi realistic type game. My players generated their characters and I created a spontaneous adventure based on a news paper article. The article was about a serial killer. I created a twist were the killer was killing politicians of countries in alphabetical order. After the third killing the players were introduced to the adventure and the game started. Unfortunately the players didnt do a good investigation and mistakenly took a different serial killer for the one who was killing the politicians. A complete farce ensued. I was cracking up every ten or twenty minutes or so. The players were helping to cover up the serial killers deaths accidentally and the real killer of the politicians was right under their noses. The game ended when the British prime minister was assassinated. When I told my players that they were killing secret agents on their side and helping the bad guys at the same time, they were in fits of laughter. Even though they failed the adventure, I still rewarded them with experience points for role-playing. Even though the players failed the adventure abysmally, I still gave out deserved experience points and inadvertedly gained respect as a GM. Advanced Game Mastering, There is always someone bigger and better. To give your players a sense of challenge, there has to be opponents who are bigger and meaner that the players characters. Even if the characters are high level, its important for more powerful characters to be around for players to challenge. Give your players a chance to get their characters to a high level. I once held a Secret Ops game. One of my best role-players had a character who was a very high level martial artist. (Hed had the character for four years and so had developed it and was deadly with his hands and feet. He could defeat practically anybody at hand to hand combat. His character had visited various martial arts masters around the world and learnt secret fighting techniques. The player was very proud of this character and during an espionage job, he broke into a foreign embassy to steal some tapes. A gun fight broke out and the martial artist was caught out in the open, red handed. (One of the other players accidentally set off an alarm) When the fight started, the martial artist, a no-gun-skills character was unable to defend himself. He was shot at and critically injured. The other players characters escaped, thinking he was dead. He was captured. At this point the adventured ended, my player was upset. I told him that everything wasnt over yet. The following week I created a special escape adventure for his character. The other players were spectators to it. He was appreciative. Even though his character was initially tortured and grew very weak, he gave little information away about his colleagues / organisation and was left to rot in a cell. His characters nemesis was an evil Tibetan monk (also a martial artist) and with a couple of his henchmen (high level) he visited him during his imprisonment and beat him up. The player felt that if his character was fitter or the henchmen were not in the room he could defeat the monk. That evening the player escaped from his cell and was cornered by the monk and his henchmen. He killed two of the henchmen and blinded the monk in one eye before he was killed. It was a memorable escape attempt. My player thanked me for the chance to save his character; it was an adventure that our group found very memorable. Adventuring and interest One of the things that makes an adventure are the other characters you interact with, especially other players characters, ones with different skills, abilities, weaknesses and strengths. Imagine having a team leader who is really bad at his job but you must complete his missions in order to advance. You might have another character who is gung ho and starts shooting at the first sign of trouble. Its the conflicts and difficulties that characters have with each other that make games interesting. This is an interesting part of role-playing; you will be surprised by the actions of other players. Dont get upset or annoyed by this, just role-play your own character and have some fun. Try not to worry about what everyone else is doing, even if its really stupid stuff. Having things not turn out as you like them can create some interesting situations. During a Special Ops adventure, two of my best role-players had very different characters, one was a tough no nonsense ex-soldier and the other was an anally retentive intelligence tech expert. Their personalities and ways of doing things were very different. On one adventure they had to follow a diplomat from a embassy to a remote location, the ex-soldier kidnapped the diplomat without the intelligence expert knowing. He beat him up and interrogated him. Unfortunately for the soldier, the diplomat didnt know anything and was accidentally killed during the kidnap. When the intelligence expert found out, the fun began. Both players had to cover up the murder of a important diplomat. They had to hide it from the police and their bosses. The adventure was tense and difficult and both players ended up arguing, eventually shouting at each other. (They were arguing in character though). Eventually they completed the adventure and I awarded them a lot of experience points. When it was over we laughed and talked about it for a good while afterwards and it was all because of different characters personalities. Dont make the mistake of creating a character that is difficult and awkward just for the sake of it. That just creates conflict without the fun. As a GM, dont be tempted to change an adventure just because it looks like the players might not complete it. What matters is that the players are having fun and interesting things are happening. Characters development and description Here is a simple character description :- A weak skinny goblin with poor fighting abilities is intelligent and hates elves. He starts with one major magical item. This description is pretty simple and basic but I will show you how to develop an really interesting character from the above. Simple character background This goblin was abandoned as a child and adopted by a group of dark elf bandits, where he was bullied and enslaved. Thats why he hates elves! He learnt to steal things in order to survive. So the character became a thief. He stole a magic sword from the elf leader and then ran away from camp. Better character background Your character is the son of a goblin war boss and the runt of the litter. All his miserable life he has been bullied and beaten up. He dreams of adventure to escape his depressing existence. His fathers camp is attacked by a huge army of elves who kill everyone, except the goblin character, who hides under the dead body of his brother. The elves loot the camp, then leave. The poor goblin is enraged (even though he disliked his own family) and he vows to kill all elves. Before leaving camp the character finds a helmet that is magical. When he puts it on he discovers that he can understand what any humanoid is saying. More in depth character background This goblin was abandoned as a child. An old human priest who lived in the woods all by himself, found the half starved skinny goblin. The priest used a holy medallion to heal the goblin, then nursed the poor creature back to health and brought it up. Over the years the priest educated the goblin, who was bright and intelligent. One day some elves came to visit the old man. When they spotted the goblin they attacked him. The old man protected the creature and banished the elves. The elves said they would tell their queen, who had previously made an edict for all goblin kind in the woods to be killed. The priest knew this was legal and told the creature he had to leave. The creature wouldnt go. The elves came and demanded the creature to be handed over to them. The priest refused. They tried to capture the goblin again but the priest intervened and used the medallion on the goblin to save his life but the priest was mortally wounded. Before dying, the priest gave the medallion to the goblin and told him how to use it and that it was his. In his dying breath, the priest told him to go to the Head Priest of his Order and talk to the Abbot there who would help him. The goblin buried the old priest, who had been like a father to him, and set off to find the Priests Order. All three backgrounds bring depth to the character, but the last one gives more. It allows the character to have a history, a colourful past of pain and joy, like each of us, which the GM can use to create events for game for the players character. Weakness/Flaws Without any flaws or weaknesses, you character is less three dimensional. You arent giving the GM something to get their teeth into so they can create interesting situations for role-play. A good example of a character flaw is a hatred of something in particular. An example is a character who is a mercenary in a sci-fi adventure. They are an experienced fighter, but they have a hatred of Grievous Green Troll monsters which are huge, armour covered and highly intelligent creatures from the planet Zello. (His entire platoon was eaten alive when they were captured. The character was tied up and had to watch them being tortured). Given a situation where your character had to face a horde of Grievous Green Troll monsters, would they fight or flee? Giving your characters weaknesses can help the Gm personalise events for each player. Conflict / Encounters Adventures are about conflict. It doesn't need to be violent conflict but there must be problems and difficulties to face, otherwise there is no adventure, or at least a very boring adventure! Your players characters must be directly involved in the adventure otherwise they are just watching a story which isn't as much fun. Give your players some control of events, or at least make them feel theyve got control! If they are capable of changing events dramatically because of what they can do they will feel more grounded in that particular world. They will feel as if they belong to it, were born in it. If a adventure is going well dont change anything. If the players are stuck, lost or a bit puzzled about a certain situation or problem, give them a few realistic chances to get out of it. Make them work for it however, otherwise the game will seem too easy, will be too easy. Give the players a challenge. That way, when they complete an adventure, they will feel that they have achieved something worthwhile. Draw things out Your players have killed the Demon Droids. They are exhausted and out of ammo. The Evil Duke is on the Great Iron War Wagon and he is coming up the hill to destroy the players with his death ray. When an adventure is at a final scene dramatic scene, play it up for all it is worth. Create tension and doubt in the players. Make them sweat and get them on the edge of their seats the way we might all be at the end of an exciting movie. Let them think they dont have a chance. Never underplay the end of an adventure and make your players work for their victory. Create a big deal and magnify characters actions, as though it was their last. Knowing what your players want A good GM should be grow to instinctively know what interests and excite their players, when to create conflict, where to put problems and at what point to create challenges and quests. You should have a good idea of your players like and dislikes; their strengths and weaknesses. You should use these to keep your players enthusiastic. Give your players new challenges while making your job as a GM fun and interesting and worth the extra effort. Most GMs will be aware that a mixture of combat, problem solving and action scenes are essential for an exciting and interesting adventure. Role-playing groups are all different from one another. Some groups might lean towards action scenes. Others will like politics and intrigue. It might be beneficial to have an Adventure Aftermath, a post-mortem, where a discussion can take place about the game.     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