How do you Organize for a game?

[Putraack]

For a "big" campaign (that is, one I'm really vested in writing lots of stuff, and/or has some books for background & ideas), I use a box that looks like a plastic milk crate, but has rails for hanging folders. Then I have folders for maps, current adventure outline, unresolved threads, NPCs, PC background, and other stuff. There's usually a folder for stuff we did, and another one for scenes/encounters that didn't happen, but I can recycle later.

For shorter campaigns, it's usually a 3-ring binder with several Trapper-like folders for catching loose pages and 3x5 cards.

 

[Whipsnade]

Question: do you use any published tables to assist in making rumor creation - or is it all homemade or adhoc?

Both. It depended on whether the rumor was "small-R" or "big-R".

As I wrote before, the small/big designation depended on the rumor's overall importance. If it was a plot point or piece of critical information, it was "big". All the rest were "small" and used to set the scene, produce some uncertainty and/or surprises, provide the crucial "We're Not In Kansas" feeling, etc. Sometimes I promoted "small" rumors to "big" depending on how the plot/campaign progressed. That's why I tracked the "who, where, & when" associated with rumors.

The "big-R" rumors were all "handcrafted". I'd write them specifically, link them with a specific source or sources, and place them at a specific location or locations. The "small-R" stuff was pure slush pile material. I'd crib them from published adventures from both Traveller and other RPGs then file the serial numbers off. I'd write up a dozen or so by using the one paragraph news briefs found in most papers. I even made up 2D6 tables to help me mix & match 2, 3, or even 4 elements together.

Once I had a heap of them, I'd roughly sort them into topic piles. The biggest pile was usual tagged "general" however. Then, when a rumor was needed, I'd simply pluck a card out of a likely pile and play it from there. I very rarely used GDW's 2D6 matrix method and associated the "Scouts get a +1 on the red die, merchants a +1 on the white die, etc" DRMs. I tried it a few times but found it more of a bother to set up than it was worth.

I worked to make "small-R" rumors somewhat generic so I could customize them on the spot for whichever PC developed them. Using the corrupt orbital fuel boss example from my last post, I'd spin it differently for an ex-merchant getting it from a fellow free trader, "They're always grinding a credit from us. Did you here about what's going at the Conway highport?", than an ex-scout getting it from someone vaguely official, "Watch it at Conway. There's an investigation brewing regarding fuel assignments and you don't want your name linked to it.".

There's a piece of software called TableSmith or some such floating around the 'net. IIRC, there's a Yahoo Group for it. I remember trying it out and thinking just how easily I could have cranked out hundreds of "small-R" rumors using it.

One final note, like Sabredog I had an outline of the plot and subplots and they would go even if the players never stumbled across them. On certain things the clock kept ticking whether the players were aware of it or not.

 

[rancke]

I very rarely used GDW's 2D6 matrix method and associated the "Scouts get a +1 on the red die, merchants a +1 on the white die, etc" DRMs. I tried it a few times but found it more of a bother to set up than it was worth.

Indeed. I've done a few for campaign settings and it take forever and a day to finish them. Especially if you include the die roll modification options.

They do serve very nicely to give added details about the setting. Especially to the referee, who gets to read them all.


Hans

 

[BytePro]

Thanks Whipsnade!

'Rumors' sounds like a useful tool in a Ref's toolkit that I missed - my players were stuck with News bits and ferreted info. Perhaps because I never used any published adventures? Is GDW's 2D6 matrix method in a rulebook?

 

[Whipsnade]

Is GDW's 2D6 matrix method in a rulebook?

It was never presented as a rule AFAIK. As you surmised, the method was used in published adventures beginning with the first published adventure, Kinunir.

The basics of the grid are quite simple. You write up 36 rumors, arrange them in a 6x6 grid, and use a two 1D6 die rolls with one roll selecting the column and the other selecting the row. GDW also added a DM wrinkle in which certain previous careers or certain skills added a +1DM to one of the die rolls.

The DMs meant certain characters would be more likely to roll up certain rumors while also being prevented from rolling up others. For example, a +1DM roll on the column roll for PCs with a streetwise skill would mean those characters could never receive any of the six rumors in column one.

It's the DM wrinkle which made the matrix method too much trouble for me. Having to "seed" the table with an eye towards multiple DMs wasn't worth the effort IMHO.

Instead I simply had a shuffled deck of "generic" rumors which I could "spin" depending on the PC who received them. (I gave an example of spinning a rumor in a previous post.) I also borrowed another method from A1:Kinunir and made up rumors available only to specific careers. As with with generic rumors, these career rumors were a simple shuffled deck of 3x5 cards.

I like using shuffled decks of "small-R/big-R" rumors because I could recycle "small-R" stuff between different adventures/campaigns.

 

[rancke]

It was never presented as a rule AFAIK. As you surmised, the method was used in published adventures beginning with the first published adventure, Kinunir.

There were some rules in one of the versions. I've used them myself, but I can't remember where they are. I think it is T4.

The basics of the grid are quite simple. You write up 36 rumors, arrange them in a 6x6 grid, and use a two 1D6 die rolls with one roll selecting the column and the other selecting the row. GDW also added a DM wrinkle in which certain previous careers or certain skills added a +1DM to one of the die rolls.

26 rumors. 20 specific and six generic rumors. The six generic rumors are arranged in the 16 inner slots of the matrix and the specific rumors along the edge.

The DMs meant certain characters would be more likely to roll up certain rumors while also being prevented from rolling up others. For example, a +1DM roll on the column roll for PCs with a streetwise skill would mean those characters could never receive any of the six rumors in column one.

It's the DM wrinkle which made the matrix method too much trouble for me. Having to "seed" the table with an eye towards multiple DMs wasn't worth the effort IMHO.

You don't actually have to use DMs. I've made rumor matrices with DMs and without. Making them without is SO much easier!!


Hans

 

[BytePro]

Thanks guys!

 

[Darkhstarr]

A large library of TRaveller books, downloads, 7 notebooks of notes, lots of NPC's, & bouncing ideas off my wife (well not all-the ones effecting her crew don't get discussed).

 

[Riik O'Shae]

Hmmm...

I start out by purchasing a new three subject wire-bound notebook, a package of fine point pens in three colours, and collect my sourcebooks at the dining room table.

A mint julip near to hand, a cup of fresh coffee at my elbow and an idea fresh on my mind.

I take the idea and sketch out a rough outline. The rough outline is chivvied into a document closely resembling a more finished product and then set aside for further review later in the evening. The sourcebooks are placed in order of predicted use and set aside on a nearby coffee table for use during the game.

Friends are sought out first and offered positions at the table. New players are encouraged to fill in where needed. PC's are prepared in the first evening of gameplay. The premise for the game is presented to the players. Everyone is briefed on their backgrounds based on their chosen PC classes/professions. House rules are presented and discussed. Modifications are sometime made.

Gameplay starts the following week. We play the same day of the week starting at the same time and for the same duration every game night. The outline is referred to from time to time, but due to the character of players themselves, seldom if ever, followed.

My games have been as short as three months and have lasted as long as seven years. The same 5 players, with several new players in and out from time to time, as voted in by the players themselves (unanimous vote) both ways. I prefer team players over independent players. I have played with both kinds.

Much of my gameplay is 'off-the-cuff'. It can range from conventional to zany, or even downright scary. I have played for more than a decade with 4 of the players, and two or more years with several others.

The notebook contains adventure hooks and ideas to interject into the game when opportunity presents itself. And opportunities DO present themselves as long as I am patient with my players.

Currently, I am running one CT game with four PC's; and one AD&D, 2nd Edition game with 6 new PC's whose experience before now has been RPing 'cops and robbers'. I currently play in one 1st Edition AD&D game as a cleric.

My claim to success is to be as consistent as possible. Always do the same thing.

Riik

 

[Fritz_Brown]

SNIP lots of RP goodness

Can I play? *wiping tears from my eyes* I think I'm in love!

 

[SanDragon]

Indeed. Move to my neighborhood...