I tried to GM Call of Cthulhu, without much success I might say, earlier this year. The issue I had problems with was, making the 1920's come alive. The Call of Cthulhu scenarios that I read were all very hand-out intensive, and I understand that this is true for most of the Cthulhu scenarios. This got me thinking about hand-outs and their effect on the game.
I have generally considered hand-outs to be beneficial for the game. For a player, it is exciting thing to receive them. In the past, I have used hand-outs where "blood" spots or missing parts of the parchment changed some of the meaning in the text, or made a text less certain and more open for speculation. This, I feel, is difficult to achieve without the handout, as it would be almost impossible to describe that some of the things are missing without emphasizing it too strongly.
In my Dragonlance campaign, the characters had obtained a piece of magical paper which contained information about some artifacts they where looking for. It was given to the players as a handout. The paper would change in accordance with what happened to the artifacts. So when the players destroyed one of the artifacts, the symbol for it disappeared from the paper. When the bad guy did some horrible sacrificial ritual with one of them, it would turn red and so on. After a while, the characters became obsessed with this piece of paper. It guided or maybe dictated many of their actions. I had intended the paper to be a motivator for finding the artifacts, but also a way for the players to know that there was a finite number of artifacts so that they would have a sense of approaching the goal. The hand-out did these things, but maybe it did it too well? Did it emphasize the plot line the GM had thought out too strongly, making the players feel they had no choice other than to search for the artifacts? Basically a fancy railroading-device?
One of the characters, or should I say players, got fed-up with the paper. He wanted to "liberate" himself from the obsession. So he took the paper, in game, and threw it into the camp fire. There, it burned for approximately 10 seconds, because the other characters used about two combat turns to get it out of the fire. I ruled that the magical item did in fact burn, against the objection of several of the players, and we threw the paper (the hand-out) into the fireplace. We left it there for 10 seconds, again against some objections, and took it out to look at what was left of it. I must say that, thinking back at this event, I remember that it was great fun.
After having attempted to GM Call of Cthulhu, I started thinking about hand-outs again. Because in the scenarios includes many hand-outs, that are essential to the story line.
I have started to wonder whether hand-outs are exclusively beneficial. For instance, in Call of Cthulhu, the players are rewarded for their research with a handout, when they are on the right track or at least on the track the scenario wants them to take. But when they are chasing the (wrong) red herring, I would not be able to summon any hand-outs for them, implicitly telling them that they are on a goose chase.
Does hand-outs make it abundantly clear that the GM has plans around some part of the story? I think this is an obvious yes. However, does it influence the players too strongly? Is giving out a hand-out a too strong indication that the GM wants the player to follow this particular lead, if yes is that bad?
1 comment:
From the players' (or player's, since I can only speak for me) perspective, a handout is an indication that this is something the GM has been prepared to do, and that it supports one of the "main" planned stories in the game.
When, as you say above, the player has a handout where they can directly see the consequences of their and others' major actions, this will necessarily turn this handout to the center of the players' attention, particularly if the GM does not appear as helpful as the piece of paper.
I am fond of handouts in the games or scenarios where they have a role, such as a traditional Cthulhu-story. They may not fit well into other stories, like those that span many sessions and periods of time, and where much is happening. You risk having to employ one of the players as a librarian. :)
It is now common to have access to a printer wherever one is playing, so one can make handouts on the fly to support the game, when the players or your NPCs take the game into unexplored territory.
To prepare for this, make a few templates with a background image, a handwriting style font, and perhaps a foreground image as mask. With this you can create templates like "diary entry", "written, crumpled note, or "newspaper clip".
(I like the crumpled notes...
"1: Remember to take laundry to the cleaners. The missus is not happy.
2: Buy bananas for the librarian.
3: Call a service man for the traps on tower second level.
4: Torture the princess on saturday. Practice maniac laugh first.")
Post a Comment