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Thanks to movies like The Lord of the Rings trilogy, and the Harry Potter and Star Wars series, geek culture has become a big part of the mainstream—which means roleplaying games have also become more widely accepted. They’re no longer the games geeky boys play in their parents’ basements. Now they’re games everyone plays, even movie stars like Vin Diesel. Along with their growing acceptance, there’s a wider variety of people designing games, so there’s been an explosion in the types of roleplaying games being published. There are games about a couple going through a breakup, surviving in a Mad Max-like future, characters fumbling their way through a crime-gone-wrong, vampires as spies, and, of course, a wide variety of science fiction and fantasy games. In addition, there are games that are almost purely narrative, with little or no dice involved, very tactical games that use maps, miniatures, and dice, and more games that fall between those two extremes. If there are fans of any genre or style of play, there’s a roleplaying game for them. The hope for this column is that it will point you toward games you may not have known about or considered playing, but it also exists to help people think about games differently; to consider why games are run the way they are and provide tips on how to run (or play) games that are more satisfying for everyone at the table. In this month’s GTM, there are a couple of big releases that draw their inspiration from different genres. The first is Curse of Strahd, the next big adventure from Wizards of the Coast for Dungeons & Dragons, which draws heavily on the horror genre to deliver a different sort of adventure for your heroes. The second is the Spymaster’s Handbook from Paizo for the Pathfinder Roleplaying Game, which draws on the espionage genre while still being rooted in a fantasy setting. ~ Running Horror ~ Every genre has its own rules, tropes, and role for the heroes. When you’re thinking about running or playing in a game with a different genre, you should familiarize yourself with what makes a story in that genre effective and interesting. Everyone has an intrinsic understanding of what makes one genre different from another, but understanding them a bit more fully can make your time at the table more entertaining and fulfilling.
In horror-themed games:
Horror works so well in movies and television because they synch sight and sound with the story being told to create an effect that’s more than the sum of their parts. In roleplaying games, these things are a bit trickier to coordinate, but tips for running horror games often include dimming the lights or playing by candlelight and putting on mood music—or better yet, using sound files or an app to trigger sound effects at the right moments to really make an impact. Those things can be effective, but they can also it hard to see the dice, see your character sheet, or read rulebooks. In addition, unless the music is simply atmospheric, it can include musical cues that occur at the wrong time and disrupt the flow of scenes. Which is not to say these devices can’t add a little flavor, but don’t rely on them alone to make your horror game scary.
The best tool you have to build tension is “buy in.” If you and the other players can come to the table with the understanding that you all want to be frightened. This can be difficult to maintain every minute of game night, but understanding that your characters are in a horror story, that things might scare them, and that they should react appropriately goes a long way towards making the story scarier. If, in the case of Curse of Strahd, you’re running a fantasy game with lots of horror conventions layered on top, it can be tricky to play scared. The reason for this is because in fantasy games you typically play a super-competent hero, while in horror games your hero should feel overwhelmed and at a disadvantage. Those two things don’t play well together and the first thing most players think when their fantasy hero sees a zombie is, “If I hit it hard enough, it will fall down.” Whereas, when a hero in a horror game sees a zombie, the player should feel tense because they don’t know if the zombie can be killed easily or if it’s a deadly threat. Resolving to have your character react in a more “horror” way will go a long way toward making your horror-themed way more satisfying. One thing to remember when playing in a horror game is that by having your character run away, or react differently than you might have it do normally, is that by doing so you’re not “losing the game.” Players in roleplaying games hate, hate, hate to lose. They hate to be defeated, killed, locked up, or admit defeat by running away. And to a lot of players reacting sub-optimally feels like losing. In the horror genre, it’s acceptable to run away—you are after all facing terrible, undead monsters who want to eat your soul. A little irrational fear is warranted. When you have your character react in such a way, you’re not losing, you’re playing differently and allowing the other players to enjoy your fear and giving the gamemaster a chance to set up an even cooler encounter. ~ Running Espionage ~ Spy movies and shows are a lot of fun. They’re filled with lots of henchmen to get in the way of suave, rugged heroes, with missions that revolve around rescuing someone or stealing (or recovering) stolen information that can be turned to evil devices. Anyone familiar with the James Bond movies or the Alias TV show should recognize these tropes along with the following:
In many ways, a typical espionage game is very similar to your standard fantasy game. None of the tropes listed above is out of place in a fantasy game or novel. The keys to making your game feel like it’s a spy game is to concentrate on secrets, uncovering information, infiltration over combat, and cool set-piece battles that make the heroes look awesome—especially at the climax of the story when the heroes have to make a final push to crush their enemies’ plans.
As with horror games, players need to change their approach in spy games. Instead of kicking in the door and killing everyone in sight until they find the character they were sent to rescue, characters in an espionage-style game should sneak in, removing only those threats they have to confront directly, and extract the person they were sent to get. Sure, things will go wrong somewhere along the way and descend into a battle, but even then the players’ goal should be to escape, not kill everybody in the place. ~ Description is Your Friend ~ The most important tip when running any genre of game that’s different than what you normally play is to use description well. Don’t overload players with pointless and useless information, but don’t be afraid to add touches of narration that add to the overall feel of the game. Think you can gross the players out with some added details about flies excitedly feeding on blood-covered earth? Go for it! It’s details like that that make scenes feel more real and disturbing. That’s exactly the sort of thing you want to give your players! ~ Game On! ~ Take a look at all of the roleplaying games and supplements offered this month and see what interests you. If you can, check out a new game and see if your friends are interested in playing in a different setting or different genre. It’s just as fun to change up the RPGs you’ve been playing as it is to try out different board games. You may find a new favorite!
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