Book:The Game

The Game

Building Blocks

From smallest to largest, here are the chronological building blocks of an entertaining game: action, round, session, adventure, campaign, epic. Many actions happen in a round, many rounds fill a night’s session, several sessions make up an adventure, two or more adventures start a campaign, and a very long campaign is an epic.

The Players

There are plenty of theories out there on how many players make the perfect gaming group. I think the reality of the situation is that each GM has his or her own preference when it comes to the size of a gaming group, but that there is no magic number. Many of us, when we first started running games, took as many players as we could get. This worked out well for us, since beginning GMs should start with smaller groups and work their way up if they want more players. Remember that you have to find a place to play where your players will be comfortable, you'll likely be responsible for contacting them and letting them know when and where you'll be playing next, and you will have to keep all of them interested. You might also be delegated to order pizza.

I will say here that the larger the group, the more responsibility the GM has. Really, the style, mood, drama and action of the story work best with certain group dynamics. For small groups of 2-4 players, things like horror, mystery and dark fantasy work very well, in my opinion; when you don't have a sea of comrades at your side, the things that go bump in the night are a good deal scarier. For large groups of 8 or more, a long-running epic campaign works best, as you'll need plenty of time to get around to bringing each character to the fore for a bit of spotlight. Plus, with so many heroes, you'll need more villains and schemes than usual and it takes time to cultivate a truly dastardly nemesis.

For my part, since I enjoy creating dark moods and an atmosphere of intensity, I prefer 3-5 players. I'm often tempted to let more than that join the game, but if I do cave and allow more than 5 players I'll usually have them jump in only for a single adventure or a few sessions. If I really can't live without them in the game, or if they spread the guilt trip on thick enough, I'll cave. Eh, I'm a softie, what can I say?

The name of the game is fun, and so the real answer for how many players is best is this: however many players is fun for you, and fun for them, that's how many you should have.

The Round Table

• If the gaming area is not in the GM's house, where is it, and will that create problems?

The GM

While there can be many players, and sometimes players might have more than one character, there is only ever one GM. This means that you need to do your job well, since no one else is going to do it for you. Don’t fret, friend: being a GM isn’t as hard as it might sound. Here are some helpful and motivational snippets...

Be an Authority

You are the referee, the umpire, the storyteller, and the tech support. Don’t be afraid to flex your GM muscles and keep order in the game.

You are the final arbiter on which rules apply in your game, and which ones don’t.

When there arises a dispute between two or more players, it will fall to you to solve the dispute if they cannot.

Game balance is important since without it, characters die left and right, the story goes nowhere, the villains move into the suburbs with your parents, cats begin barking, and everything goes topsy-turvy. Maintaining game balance means that...

• a. No player character dominates the action of the game
• b. No player character can possess an item, spell, or power which makes him or her invulnerable, omnipotent, or overpowered, or in any other way ensures they are not of a relatively equal standing with the other player characters
• c. The party doesn't always lose (This sucks)
• d. The party doesn't automatically win (Can you say boring?)
• e. No player receives preferential treatment (see below)

Be Fair

The players have to trust the GM. If the players can see that your main goal is for everyone to have fun and to weave a good yarn, well, they will likely trust you.

Giving the players and their characters rewards for a job well done not only helps to establish your fairness, but promotes a good vibe. Be sure that when the PCs do something right, and do it well, they know it on both counts.

Personally, I scoff at the notion that monsters always keep huge piles of loot and magic items laying around in their lairs. This makes no sense for several reasons. First, if the bad guy in question has any intelligence at all, he would be using those magical weapons against the intruders who have so rudely barged into his home. Secondly, who keeps huge piles of money in chests where other people can easily find it? I know if it were me I'd either put it in a bank or spend it, and by that I mean that I'd definitely just spend it. Thirdly, if we assume the monster is not very intelligent, how would it know to hoard gold, precious jewels, and priceless artifacts? I encourage GMs to make creative and clever use of rewards and not to rely solely on the old standby of leaving inordinate piles of money under the monster's bed or gleaming, magical weapons hanging around in hallways.

Just be consistent, especially in your handling of disputes or rules interpretations. If you make a ruling on a vague rule or make a house rule, be sure to stick with it. Players don't like having their understanding of the game, world or story amount to nothing.

Be Prepared

Know the rules. Know your own material. Know your players. Know your limits. Number of players/characters.

Expect the Unexpected Bad Luck Defeat Problem Players No Shows

New Players

Be an Example

Stay focused

Be a Storyteller

Do you and the players describe the action using first person or third person narration? First person: Third person:

• Use awe-inspiring descriptions. While a picture is worth a thousand words, when used well a thousand words have a richer, more profound effect than one picture.

• Remember the Elements of Story

Be Cool

Role-playing games can become heated, where some players get into character and speak or act as that character in a way that ruffles feathers. Not all players will agree on every course of action. Characters are sometimes created which are opposed to one another. In the excitement of the game, sometimes tempers run hot and patience frays at the edges. Your job in these times is simple: be cool. It’s just a game, after all. It’s just a game and it should be fun. Once it ceases being fun, there’s little use in playing it. There will doubtless be times when the players get heated, so you’ll need to stay cool and try to cool things down for them.

• Take a Break
• Take a Hint

The other aspect of being cool is attracting players to your game. Personally, I greatly prefer to play Elysium with my friends, rather than people I don’t know, but I’m certainly not against the latter. On the contrary, I’ve made some good friends as a result of being thrown together as a player or GM with players I didn’t know. The best scenario, I think, is a gaming group of friends which brings the occasional fresh meat to the table. We all had to start gaming with one group or another, and I can tell you that getting a group together, whether made up of old friends or new, is a lot easier if you are a nice person. Coolness has little to do in this context with what kind of clothes you wear or who you hang out with or what you do on the weekends. Coolness has to do with an easygoing confidence and ability to let the little things slide. Coolness is about being able to connect with people. I’ve gamed with GMs and players who weren’t cool; they were stuffy, aloof, insecure, and defensive. I never gamed with them for long.

The Game

Play Often

Most gaming groups meet once a week for a three or four hour session. More than that is fine, if you are up to the task, but playing less than that means you won’t get much done and eventually, your story will likely fall apart. Simply put, the more you play, the better player or GM you will become. It doesn’t matter if you don’t understand all the rules right off the bat; chances are, you are playing with someone who does know them, and will help you along.

Truancy - Dealing with players who don't show up can be problematic, especially if that player doesn't call to let you know he isn't coming. Waiting for someone to show up delays the game, and is inconsiderate to your fellow players. So if you have to bail, let someone know, preferably the GM, so you don't hold up the game. You might be bummed that you can't be there, or maybe you really don't want the group to leave you behind. Don't worry about this: we all miss sessions. This applies to Gamemasters too. Don't run a weekly game and then forget to call your players to let them know your parents are coming over for dinner next week on game night and that you can't play. You'll have a bunch of angry players throwing dice at your window and demanding you make them lasagna too.

Play Well

Teamwork Ask Questions Make the Game Fun Even for the GM

Play Something Else

While this might amount to shooting myself in the foot, I've always believed that since inspiration comes from many sources, one has to open themselves up to those sources before inspiration strikes.

To that end, play lots of different games.

Elysium is a fairly generic system, and we designed it that way because we realized that other game systems we used limited our options and made some of the things we wanted for our characters impossible. Even between different editions of the same game, converting a character from one game to another can be a frustrating process.

Playing other games leads to fresh ideas, perspective on just how good a particular game is really, new friends, or inspiration for your own campaign or game. Jon Hawk and I started this endeavor because we were tired of the game we were playing and the limitations it imposed. We branched out to other games and game systems which still couldn't fill that void, and so finally we decided that if we wanted it done right, we had to do it ourselves.

Rules

The rules included in this book are more like guidelines than rules. While the GM should feel free to impose whatever rulings he thinks are fair and necessary during a game, he should also be able to amend or ignore rules which don't seem to contribute to his campaign. Important to remember, though, is that the rules included here aren't included without reason. Every gaming group I have ever had the pleasure to jump into a game with has had house rules which they had designed for their campaign. You'll see many of our own house rules called out in the book here, but surely you'll eventually stumble onto some of your own.

Most traditional high fantasy features the triumph of the "good guys" over the "evil guys." Elysium allows for that sort of game, sure, but really we wanted to open gaming up to the moral ambiguity and difference of opinion present in real life situations as well. Sometimes things aren't so black and white, other times they are. It can be hard to tell the good guys from the bad guys sometimes. You can run either kind of campaign with Elysium. This isn't a rules issue, per se, but a style choice. One of the coolest things I ever saw a GM do with regards to the style of campaign she wanted to run was this: Lisa had us create some heroes for a campaign. She told us the campaign was going to be the typical good vs. evil kind, so we should concentrate on making our characters champions of light and goodness and sunshine and farts, or what have you. We had done it a hundred times. The pretty boys march in, kill the orcs, depose the bad guy, save the girl. When we were done making our good guys Lisa took the character sheets and said "These characters look good. They'll do just fine as antagonists. Now make some bad guys. You guys are going to be playing "villains." I'm pretty sure there was a stunned silence at the table followed by a heartfelt and tear-choked "Thank You." As I remember, that campaign was a lot of fun, and opened up a lot of debate on the nature of right and wrong and heroes and villains. Lisa made the "good guys" really big jerks who did terrible things in the name of righteousness, and we were the misunderstood miscreants under the heel of a propaganda machine. Maybe our characters did deserve the notoriety we suffered, but by the end of the campaign, we had set the world somewhat to rights, and fulfilled our own personal motives. Most importantly, those "villainous" characters had changed dramatically.

World Building

There are two settings which will be made available to gaming groups playing the Elysium game. These are called “Burning Destiny,” a traditional high-fantasy realm complete with elves, dwarves and dragons, and “Otherworld,” a setting which has been dubbed “mage-punk”, which focuses on more alien races and a world caught up in the conflict between father industry and mother nature. And yet, for all of our hard work and seemingly good ideas on these two settings, you may find yourself saying “What garbage! Where do they come up with this stuff?” If you determine, for whatever reason, that you want to build your own planet, world, plane of existence, whatever, for use with the Elysium game, I have only one thing to say to you...

DO IT.

Elysium was designed to facilitate a wide array of genres, styles, settings, characters, and rules. The old adage holds true: if you want something done right, do it yourself.

Start Small

While it may be tempting to create an entire world right off the bat, complete with characters from the loftiest ruler to the lowliest thug, I can tell you from experience that this is a laborious and time-consuming endeavor. The Elysium game has taken us years to pull together and the settings involved, for as rich as they are, were the result of a slow and careful evolution. For our part, Jon Hawk and I likely started too big ourselves. What you find is that you really only need one town, one city, one dungeon, one band of characters to start with. From there, the player characters and the game tend to help you work outwards and develop the lay of the land. Take it from me: if you start small, and put your effort into thinking about fleshing out the character of your small coterie of people, places and things, you’ll have a rich game setting. Meanwhile, if you put all your energy into trying to create an entire planet of people, places and things, the fine detail will suffer neglect and your ideas will be harder to make palpable. Cities and towns will begin to feel superfluous to the players and the NPCs will seem flat and unrealized. The point is, don’t spread yourself so thin, don’t bite off more than you can chew. As a GM, you have a full plate as it is. Start small, and if you find that this works well enough for you, start tackling a larger chunk of the world on your plate.

Personality of Place

Characters aren’t the only things that have personality. Your locales should also be three-dimensional. Knowing what the personality or mood of a certain location is will help in your descriptions. Most players will know from reading books and watching movies that the graveyard is generally a bad place to be at night, and that summer camps with lakes are to be avoided at all costs. There’s no need to tell the PCs that the abandoned mines are dark and eerie, or that the palace of the king is stately and clean. But what if that graveyard possessed statues of the goddess of light and love, and a feeling of tranquility and rest resonated there? Maybe some of the characters’ family members are buried there. Suddenly the cemetery has gone from a place where zombies are likely to emerge from their graves, and turned into a safe place to rest, regroup and meditate. What if the palace of the king is beautiful, but unclean, suggesting the kingdom is falling into neglect or disarray? What if the evil minions who have taken over the mines are actually benevolent subterranean creatures who need the characters’ help in making friends with the nearby surface towns? These are all ways to turn a trite, overused locale into a three-dimensional location. There are uses for the tried and true staple locations of fantasy like the dungeon, the cave, the sorceror’s tower, the creepy forest, the ruined temple, but if that is all you have to offer, your world will lack a feeling of originality.