Re: [HOE] Campaign advice

[Theo McGuckin <tsm@jlab.org>]

>  4. Ask the players what they want >>
> I think this needs one little tweak.  Have the players give a PARTY concept 
> in addition to a character concept.  Usually, everyone makes their characters 
> pretty independent of everyone else and you get these random hullabaloos of 
> different motives.  

It depends on the group though. Some people like to make tightly nit
groups that work together and have a well structured layout (he's the HtH
guy, but him and her are decent too. He's the gunner, but everyone can
shoot some. He's the healer. She's the tech. etc.)
Other groups like to make their PCs with lots of secrets and hidden
agendas and then thrive on the conspiracy and chaos that ensues.
The big problem occurs when you have 1/2 of one and 1/2 of the other.
It all boils down to getting a "feel" for the group and talking to them.
But the points are still valid.

> Do ask them what they would like to do, but do this AS A PARTY.  This also 
> prevents situations where ONE character totally rules the plot for ages and 
> ages while all the others are just tagging along.  

Well what I do in my group is try to focus on one/two PCs per "arc". My
group alternates about a month with me running deadlands and a month with
Bob running HoE. So in that month time (it's not necessarily 4-weeks set
in stone) we try to get through one story line, like a series of
adventures to recover a stolen artifact. So for that "story arc" I focus
on a player. He gets to be the "star" but the other players aren't put on
the back burner or anything.
So in the last arc I did a big schpeel about Bob's PC Tycho who is
actually from HoE and got thrown into the past (and lost his memory in the
process). Some of what is going on with him was revealed, but they fought
to a good conclusion and the arc ended.
Next arc I plan on focusing more on the (now two) indians in the group
because they are a group that I've never done a lot with before. So those
PC's will be the stars and next time around it'll be the alchemist or the
gambler.
It's worked well so far...

> 5.  Have motivation.

<snip>

Also encourage the posse too take hinderances like Heroic, Law of the
West, Oath and Obligation. These are easy ways to "make" the posse do
stuff, I mean, how could the Heroic PC leave Killer Klowns without making
SURE that the hostages are all dead or safe?

Theo McGuckin - SysAdmin, JLab


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