[zenten]

Ok, what would you say is the biggest common mistake an MET ST can make in a game?

I would say it's not communicating what you want properly to the players. You can have the best intentions, layed out setting, and fantastic system in the world, but if the players don't realize that they're there in why, you're just wasting your time.

[Trevoke]

Well, from my first and only experience, the mistakes I made...

0) give them a proper introduction to the game if they're new
1) give the players proper setting.
2) don't be short-handed (need storytellers or at least rule masters, one is barely enough)
3) have a few things happening at once
4) Remind them of the experience of bluebooking. Blubooking is important. it all happens in bluebooking.
5) Make sure the players HAVE REASONS TO INTERACT!

[Siv Volk]

From what I've read, it involves playing favourites and mixing in-out of game politics.

[Dolston]

There are a number of different pitfalls that can come from running a LARP.

The biggest mistake that I see is that people have no idea what kind of story they want to tell. Saying I want to run a Werewolf LARP is next to meaningless. It is like telling your waitress that you want a drink. Detail is important.

Next, comes characters. Bad characters will ruin a game. Never allow "I kill PCs" as a concept. Never have the "I fix everything for you" NPC. Speaking of which, NPCs are scenery. Make them beautiful scenery if you want but know they are nothing more than a lamp or a floor mat when compared to the PCs.

Poor information is also huge. Make sure you outline everything you think is important. This is especially true if you have made changes to the book setting or your physical environment/city.

Lack of man power is always an issue. I would never run a TT game for more than six players so I will not expect that an single Staff member can handle more than that. The staff may be bored at times but an adequate, well managed staff will allow your players to remain fluid and be engaged by setting and stories.

Lazy players are terrible. If you have someone who shows up expecting to be entertained and not add anything back ot the game, get rid of them. They are nothing more than a parasite. LARPing is an active for of entertainment where the players must take responsibility for their own enjoyment and the enjoyment of others.

People also need to understand the medium and what it is good at handling. The MET system is designed for politcal intrigue and social interactions so make sure your stories focus on political intrigue and social interactions and not creature-of-the-week beat-fests.

Understand conceits of the game. This means that even though your character may not show up he will anyhow because this is a simple function of the need to have characters together to interact. A good ST can make these situations rare. A good player can craft good, meaningful reasons for his character to be there. If you can do that, don't play. And I'm not talking about not playing for that session. I mean don't play in the chronicle. You are being selfish and MET requires selflessness to work.

Less is more is a key rule. As an ST, approach everything as conservatively as possible. This will ensure that everyone understands what the acceptable social base line is and will know what is and what is not normal so when something odd does happen, your players will be able to realize this is something important and not just another wacky creature feature.

And for god sakes people, be professional about you handle things. Nothing ruins a game like a lack of professionalism. There is a damn fine chance, especially in larger games or chronicles, you will be playing with people who don't know you or don't like you. This is not an obstacle to you being able to enjoy the game unless you or some other inconsiderate moron makes it one. Don't be a moron.

Speaking of which, understand that "but my character would do that" ot "It's just a game" is not an acceptable excuse for ruining the game for other people. Bullshit grade school excuses do not cut it. I'm 29 and don't have time for that kind of crap as a player or as an ST. Go find another game that doesn't involve other people since you lack the basic social skills to play a social game.

Fuck realism. This game is about drama not realism. The most realism that is needed is key landmarks are where they are in the real world, things fall when dropped and a can of coke is just a can of coke. Guns don't need to kill instantly and it really isn't that important if the cops show up a little quicker or slower than normal if it makes for a good scene.

Well, this has gotten a lot longer and more hostile than I expected. But one more. There must be a single, go to person to resolve issues. A final arbitrator is important to ensure things move a long quickly.

So that's all. Until later.

[Glacialis]

#1 by far: Delegating.

If you don't have Narrators, you will run yourself ragged and your players will be unhappy when they can't get ahold of numero uno.

If you don't communicate with your Narrators, or don't let them do anything, the whole point's moot.

[Beautiful Monster]

Storytellers who don't have the balls to say "This character is shit! Now go make something reasonable."

[Tao]

One thing I've noticed will ruin a LARP is a Parasite player. It's someone who begins accumulating a lot of power and influence quickly and then uses it to take control and dominate the game. These people usually know the rules well, and know how to twist them to their own advantage.

ST's, afraid of driving away any player, fail to take action and people start leaving the game.

[DGG]

Ok, what would you say is the biggest common mistake an MET ST can make in a game?

The biggest mistake I have seen are the following;

Silo STs: These are STs that don’t work on any feedback/commentary whatsoever. What a player does in a game is next to meaningless because player input is inconsequential to this grand vision the ST has in mind (whatever that may be). The Silo ST is also the very reason why he has a hard time getting assistant narrators because the Silo ST won’t even bother with the input from those who are trying to help. The Silo ST just churns out stories and plot hooks and players will be lucky if any plot threads that they make up will become integral to the LARP.

Have-my-cake-and-eat-it-too ST: These are STs who are, well basically just out there to have fun. I’m not saying that ST’s shouldn’t have fun but if they want to use the LARP as an opportunity to play a masturbation character or get drunk and stoned, well don’t be surprised if things don’t run smoothly. The ST should look after the players and at least make sure the spotlight is on them. I’ve seen an ST play an NPC as if they were a PC and she treated all the other players like they were NPCs. Not fun.

Get-ready-for-the-big KABLOOUIE ST: I see this phenomenon happen in one shot LARPS at gaming conventions (and is incidentally one of the reasons why I avoid them). The ST could be a phenomenal one, but he has essentially made this LARP a powder keg that is set to go off ten minutes before the end of the LARP (IE Suddenly, Lupines attack the Elysium!). I mean it’s just a one-shot, so who cares right? Next thing you now PCs are throwing off their high powered disciplines (in full public view, so screw the Masquerade). Everything was fine up until that point but some STs just gotta have that Death Star explosion climax

[zenten]

Get-ready- for-the-big KABLOOUIE ST: I see this phenomenon happen in one shot LARPS at gaming conventions (and is incidentally one of the reasons why I avoid them). The ST could be a phenomenal one, but he has essentially made this LARP a powder keg that is set to go off ten minutes before the end of the LARP (IE Suddenly, Lupines attack the Elysium!). I mean it’s just a one-shot, so who cares right? Next thing you now PCs are throwing off their high powered disciplines (in full public view, so screw the Masquerade). Everything was fine up until that point but some STs just gotta have that Death Star explosion climax

Sadly, I've seen that far too often in ongoing games as well.

[LadyHydralisk]

Argh! You guys just like, summed up all of the problems I was having playing this game, and why after two months of playing, I am finally quitting RPG's and all dorkdom forever. I just can't take this kind of heartache!

especially THIS was good:

[QUOTE]Speaking of which, understand that "but my character would do that" ot "It's just a game" is not an acceptable excuse for ruining the game for other people. Bullshit grade school excuses do not cut it. I'm 29 and don't have time for that kind of crap as a player or as an ST. Go find another game that doesn't involve other people since you lack the basic social skills to play a social game.
QUOTE]

I may not be able to do anything about the ruinous experience i just had tonight but your guys' comments made me feel a little better about it that it justified my feelings, that I was not the only one who saw these things. Tonight's experience was just so upsetting and anticlimactic.

This post has been edited by LadyHydralisk: 18 August 2005 - 09:23 AM

[Dolston]

I'm truly sorry that your ST is not strong enough to outright stop people from intentionally ruining someone's fun. If you ever make it to Ottawa, ON and I'm running a game, check it out. I think you will enjoy it.

[Valentine]

mass-combat.

The system just aint suited for that. There is nothing as annoying as to wait an hour, do a test, and wait another our till its your turn again.

Solution? Handle it between game sessions, with table top rules or something.

[adgramaine]

MET is a system built specifically with potential liabilities... I think that the OOC drama can be just as fatal as the IC stuff that might roll in.

After running my own Garou Chronicle to its sad conclusion, there are so many things that went wrong, some were my fault, some were not. So here I will say them, for the first time no less, in no particular order.

1 - The World is Too Big. I tried to create an Apocalypse game that was large, with many elements that I drew from. I tried to give the players as many options as I thought I could handle, as long as they fit within the realm of my story.

What happened? Players never see "the big picture": they get caught up in what is immediately effecting their characters and sometimes miss something that I might have spent three months deveolping for their characters. Or, as an extreme case, some players would actually see all my clues and misinterpret what they needed to do. This in itself was very enlightening and provided as much entertainment as it did heartbreak.

What I would do to fix it? Well, W:tA is probably the biggest game that can be run - it is epic, second is scope might be a Mage game, and I am sure we all have horrow stories on how some of these games have gone. In telling an epic story, there needs to be a single motif, a single thread element that always come back into bear. Not so much by strong-arming players, but letting their own IC actions somehow feed back into the story. This is a trick I learned only too late into the game, and by then, it was too late.

2 - Communication. Talking to people as an ST has to be a priotity. An ST has to be able to effectively communicate ideas not just through Storytelling, but in the coordination of all game-related events to include Player's Meetings, ST Meetings, time-bubbles, limited interactive scenes, and so forth. Email does not alway cut it. An ST must have several different ways to get in touch with his/her Staff of Narrators and Players. And this leads into my next point...

3 - Recordkeeping! My own Garou LARP started off with only 5 players and myself as ST. It was very easy to communicate and keep track of everything. But word of mouth got the game around to where at our highpoint we had 30 players and an ST Staff of 5. Good numbers, but having the people needed to do things does no good if not everyone is on the same page. All the ST Staff should be involved at some level of all the recordkeeping. The ST might know most of the character's capacities, but if the AST and Narrators have no clue that someone just bought a game-breaking Gift called "Sight from Beyond" and they don't know how it works, well, you've just created a big problem for yourself. Communicate with your Narrators - share common files, use Grapevine (if at all possible), update each other's records at least bi-weekly... especially if everyone is working on seperate elements of the game.

Read Dark Epics. It is a great source book and aid for any Storyteller.

4 - As far as the mechanics go... the mechanics of any system are in trouble if they are based off of something as simplistic as PRS (paper-rock-scissors). Encourage your players to play their characters without referring to how many retests they might have, or how often the can refresh the Traits on their sheets.

The game is about drama, isn't it? If mechanics bog down the drama, then something is wrong. And you have to find a happy meeting ground between the drama you might want as an ST, and the character sheets the players have developed over "x" number of LARP sessions.

5 - It is Just a Game - this is the biggest cop-out I have ever encountered within the WoD paradigm. It is not just a game. Games are about winning, and a sense of accomplishment. This is Storytelling. And a Story is about emotion, context, and interaction. Make sure your players know this, and that you are comfortable with this precept as well. Because if you lean too heavily to one side or the other, then you only set yourself up for failure, despite whatever best intentions you might have had going in.

And we all know what they say about the road and "best intentions", don't we?

Cheers!

Eric E. Johnson

[Loremaster]

I'd add two things:

Power-hungry storytellers. When the ST, or DM, or Guide, or whatever it is for your game feels the need to prove that he can beat you (usually through overpowered NPCs, but not always so), then the whole game gets in trouble.

Killing all PCs in the first 15 minutes of the first game. Involving a flamethrower using blessed oil and a cross that turns into a crossbow does not help.

[Dolston]

Power-hungry storytellers. When the ST, or DM, or Guide, or whatever it is for your game feels the need to prove that he can beat you (usually through overpowered NPCs, but not always so), then the whole game gets in trouble.

That is a scary, bad ST and the kind of person who ends up with an adverarial relationship with his or her players. It is impossible to have a good game in that environment since people are now working against each other instead of with each other.

[jadedeath]

That is a scary, bad ST and the kind of person who ends up with an adverarial relationship with his or her players. It is impossible to have a good game in that environment since people are now working against each other instead of with each other.

that's scary... that totally described the Pet game to a "T"

for those of you who didn't hear about it... I made it to Prince and the Justicar of my clan showed up and removed me from power... over things that no player could have prevented or known about... furthermore the ST's had the city being taken over by the Sabbat and the Elysium run into the barrens where the regular Camarilla game proceeded... the Cammies were so outnumbered that the main Tzimisce character's ghoul could beat up the toughest Brujah that the Cammies had...

sad sad game...

Logan