The Eternal GM - Atmosphere in RPGs

Not much has changed in the last week in the GWO world. The Time Heroes Kickstarter hasn't advanced too much, though I have started on the Eras supplement and have seen a rough sketch of the Quick-Start Packet's cover. However, I do have the second article in "the Eternal GM" for you. I hope you enjoy and remember, at the end I will briefly mention a game that I feel does a great job of addressing the topic (and why).

Capturing Atmosphere

This week's topic is regarding a situation I see come up many times at the table. Unfortunately, it's also a situation that doesn't have a clear-cut solution (at least not a good one). That being said, there are things a GM can do to help evoke the atmosphere of a particular game. As always, there are certainly more than I will be discussing here, but these are what I use at my own table. I should note that the article will revolve heavily around horror because (in my mind) it's one of the most difficult atmosphere's to successfully get into at the table.

Know Your Players

For me, this is the biggest way to succeed with an atmospheric game (or really, any game). Unfortunately, it's an "all or nothing" scenario. You need to know your players for an atmosphere-heavy game to have any chance of succeeding. As GM, you should know your players' attitudes and how adjustable they are. For example, if you're trying to run a Call of Cthulhu adventure (seriously), but you know your group can't go more than five minutes between silly comments, you're going to need to find a way around that (or play a different game).

You need to weigh how much you and your players want to make a game work against whether or not the game is up your group's alley. Every game is not for every group, and that's okay. Just make sure you and your players are aware of this when playing an atmospheric game that's outside of the normal comfort zone.

Of course, if you're just starting out with a new group or running a one shot at a con, the preceding paragraph does you little to no good. Which brings us to:

Pacing, Pacing, Pacing

When running a game in which atmosphere plays a large part, pacing is everything. If you're running an action-adventure game, moving too slowly can make things feel boring for everyone. On the flip side, moving too quickly in a horror game won't give anyone a chance to feel the suspense.

The real trick is to make the pacing fit the atmosphere you're going for without feeling contrived or clunky. If the pacing doesn't feel natural it's going to jar the players out of their immersion just as much as the wrong pacing entirely.

Let's take horror as an example. You want to have periods of time where the PCs aren't directly facing whatever horrible force they're going up against. Heck, depending on the type of horror, you may want to make sure they don't have an idea of what it is (or think it's one thing only to find it's something else) until the third act.  However, you also want to make sure they know there's something, and that the something is a present danger. It doesn't matter if this is achieved through sightings, or gut feelings players get, or even finding evidence it has been there; all that matters is that the characters find pieces here and there that let them know they could be beset at any moment.

The point is this, really: think of good books or films that embody the atmosphere you are attempting to evoke and pattern your games after them. Even the biggest action-fest has a break where the characters have a breather between beat-downs.

Props

If you're playing a comedic action game and in a fight against the evil Clown Lord Bo-Zo you pull out a bat-shaped balloon and start smacking a character in the head with it, it'll be obvious they're in a silly world. Yeah, that one's a bit over the top. Here's a better example of atmosphere-related props: 

You're playing call of Cthulhu, the game is set in the 1920s. You tell the PCs that a telegram has been slipped under their door. When they pick it up, you then slide a piece of yellowed telegram-style paper under the GM screen (or across the table) towards them. Anything you can do, whether it's a physical prop, background music (to an extent), or document will help pull them deeper into the world you're trying to create for them.

As I write this, I find that it's a topic that may well deserve to be broken down with articles for various genres. I may well do that down the road, but hopefully this particular entry has given you some insight into how I, at least, try to pull the players into the overall atmosphere of the game we are playing.

What Is the Most Atmospheric RPG?

Dread. Please remember, this is based purely on my experience and your views might well differ from mine. I have yet to run a game that captures the intended atmosphere better than +Epidiah Ravachol and +nat barmore's game of horror. Evoking the atmosphere of the game is built right into the mechanics. There are no abilities, no dice, no skills. There are only answers to questions and a Jenga tower. It takes the most sweat-inducing game I know and applies to to a RPG. If you make the tower fall, no matter how or when, you're written out of the story somehow. It has instilled the kind of stress tales of the macabre should into my players better than any other RPG I have run.

New PLOT episode released (Sources of Inspiration)

Play on Target Episode 5: Sources of Inspiration

Our fifth episode of the Play on Target podcast has gone live on the site. This episode's topic was sources of inspiration. I, and my fellow hosts, each chose three printed sources that we use for inspiration when designing campaigns/adventures/etc.

My three sources of inspiration are:

 GURPS sourcebooks in general. I've never run the game, but the sourcebooks are crazy-full of flavor and atmosphere.

The Writer's Guide to Fantasy Literature. I picked this up as inspiration for fiction writing but found myself applying it to designing sessions more than anything else. It talks about common fantasy tropes, how to keep them fresh, etc.

The Atlas of Middle Earth. This one started as inspiration for running MERP 2E. However, the book is so well-done and in-depth that it works great for reference when designing your own worlds.

For the other hosts' sources, you'll have to give the episode a listen. Check it out!

The Evolution of a Gamer

I had a bit of an epiphany on my drive home from the weekly Mutants & Masterminds game I run at Rogue Robot (a local comic book/game store). The session went pretty well and the players had fun, which is always a plus for me. However, that isn't the epiphany that I had. It actually revolved around a specific situation during the game. On the drive home I realized that my views on things as a GM have shifted. I still can't put my finger on exactly when the change occurred, but they did. First though, the scene that got my brain going on the topic:


The players had (at long last) realized they should probably team attack the big bad as they were doing next to nothing to him one on one. I said "So, just tell me how you guys want to cooperate to attack the Buried One and you can make your rolls."

That comment was all but met with groans. One player said that that was the reason she hadn't suggested it already, she didn't have an idea of how to do it. Then another player said "Too bad you used all your plastique already, you could wad it in a ball, throw it to Alloy and I could throw him at the Buried One."

The skills they would be using would be the plastique-owner's (Nal) ranged blast skill, the one throwing Alloy (Rogue Robot)'s ranged laserfinger skill, and Alloy's unarmed attack skill. Technically, the description of what they wanted to do had nothing to do with the actual skills rolled (except Alloy's, tangentially). And Nal was out of plastique. However, I said to just roll with it. The game rules don't specify ANY description has to be given, and I thought it sounded cooler than "we all shoot/punch him at once."

They performed their team attack and the adventure continued on its course to the end. Afterwards I was driving home and I found myself realizing that not even a year ago, my answer might have been very different. 

I was weaned on OD&D, AD&D and the like. As a GM starting out, I quickly discovered that I was very much a "if it isn't on your character sheet, you don't have it" game master. I wasn't a hardcore simulationist. I always preferred leaving the battlemap out of things. I like drawing a sketch of the area and using tokens or even just drawn circles to mark the locations of players/NPCs. However, when it came to equipment, abilities, powers, etc., if you didn't have it written down then you didn't have it at all.

On the drive home last night, I started trying to pinpoint when it was that my attitude started to change. A year or so ago, in a best-case scenario I would have asked the player to spend a hero point to "edit the scene" to have the plastique for the attack. I also would have required the players come up with a description involving the specific skills they were rolling. Now, I call it fluff and say "if it sounds cool, go for it."

I think that part (if not all) of this stems from some of my RPG experiences over the past year. I read (though have yet to play) Burning Wheel for the first time. I also discovered and played both Fiasco and Dread for the first time. These are all games that revolve far more around story and collaborative storytelling than mechanics. I think perhaps my recent love affair with Fate Core is what finally pushed me over the edge completely into being a more narrative GM than mechanics-driven. 

I guess I really just find it funny because it wasn't until last night that I even realized it had happened. It's just one of those examples of change being gradual and one day you wake up realizing you aren't who you were the day prior. In addition, this is just one of those things I love about role playing.  I can not be a fan of your style of play, you can not be a fan of mine and we can both be 100 percent correct in our opinions. You can play games that are completely dice driven or games (like Amber) that require no dice whatsoever.

Well, there wasn't a ton of "enlightening" material in today's post, but it was still something I felt like sharing. Because regardless of role playing being "just a silly hobby," it can change people and their perceptions.