Sculpting Player Expectations
March 2008 Issue
Features
- From the Editors
- Craft Check: Make Your Own (Easier) Miniatures
- Gaming in the Media: The Cutest Serving of Stereotypes: The NYT on Dating a Gamer
Interviews
- Industry Interview: Victoria Lamb
Articles
- Lies, Damned Lies and Statistics: Analyzing a LARP
Author: Stephanie Pegg
- Sculpting Player Expectations
Author: Brendan Davis
- Women’s Gaming Group: First Impressions
Author: Robyn Fleming
Stephanie uses a LARP questionnaire to examine the questions "What do LARPers really want?" and "How different are men and women gamers, really?"
Brendan shares tips on how to use Power Point to get players excited and into the campaign they are about to embark on.
Robyn discusses her first impressions of her all-women gaming group.
Gamer Stories
Reviews
Odds 'n Ends
So, you’re finally ready to start your new campaign. Months spent creating a detailed world with a rich historical background and dozens of believable cultures. Hours devoted to creating important NPCs, towns and kingdoms. In your own mind, you imagine a world of fantastic adventure and breathtaking landscapes. But will your players? Will they share your excitement and vision when they play in your new campaign world? With a simple Powerpoint presentation and some handy information packets, you can establish your world and the game’s mood before the dice even hit the table.
Most people think of Powerpoint purely as a business tool, but it can also be used to create exciting slideshows that sculpt the players’ expectations before the game has begun. For instance, applying the familiar format of a dramatic movie trailer to Powerpoint can result in a stirring prologue to a campaign, establishing mood and a sense of excitement. Here is how:
Start small. Design a slide show that introduces your campaign’s theme and your world’s history. Model your presentation after a fantasy movie trailer by attaching an appropriate musical score to the slideshow and using evocative images as the backgrounds for each slide. Have individual lines of text set to fade in and out, as to mirror the effect of a narrator.
An effective slide show trailer might begin with something like:
- In the beginning
- There were two kingdoms
- And one source of ultimate power…
This technique can be used to explain many aspects of your campaign world. You may want to make separate slide shows describing the history of your world’s races, kingdoms and religions. The combination of text, music and images (here your maps can be a vital tool) really helps to plant seeds in your players imaginations and complete their understanding of the setting you have created.
Another way to impress your players before the game begins is to design a brochure-like information packet, to be handed out at the beginning of the first game session. This is a good opportunity to focus on your strengths as a Game Master. If you enjoy writing lengthy and evocative passages, this is an opportunity to impress players, but if you find writing difficult then you should keep the passages simple and short. If you are an outstanding artist, include illustrations of NPCs, monsters and locations, but if art is not your strongpoint then you should either reproduce appropriate images or perhaps omit images entirely and rely on text. Whatever techniques you decide to incorporate, your information packet should cover some of the following topics in order to make your world feel well-rounded and believable:
World Map: The first page of your information packet should be a copy of your world map. This means that the world details which follow will be easier for the players to visualize and place in context.
Introduction: Begin with a description of your world. What makes it unique? What themes can players expect to encounter? This is your opportunity to sell your world to the players.
History: Construct a narrative of your world’s history. Remember that a simple history is easier for players to remember, so try to narrow it down to the basics. If it helps, break up the history into a series of defined time periods. Remember to state what point in history the players will occupy.
Religion: This section may be a simple list of gods, or a detailed overview of how religion works in your world, depending on how you’ve chosen to approach the subject.
Politics: The relationships between your world’s kingdoms should be explained here. You should also describe their geography, spoken languages, economy and their populations of both friendly races and monsters.
People: Describe your world’s notable NPCs, both the powerful, influential ones, as well as those whom the players are likely to encounter.
Races: Explain your world’s playable races in terms of their statistics, history and culture. If the races in your world differ from those of the standard d20 setting, ensure this is made clear to your players.
Appendix: An appendix is a great place to add information that will be important down the road. You can include genealogies, maps, language glossaries and anything else you feel will be interesting or useful for the players.
Once you are happy with your document, you should consider taking it to your local copy store and having it printed and bound professionally. This is relatively inexpensive and the result will greatly impress your players.
Remember, these techniques are just to get the campaign started on the right foot. Once you are at the table, it’s up to you to follow through on the promise of the world you have created and the expectations you have sculpted.
Article © March 2008 by Brendan Davis.
