[UA] Group whinges

[matt ryan]

Good morning list,

Here is what I did. I bought the UA basic text when it first came out. I 
read it, loved it and stuck it on my shelf. We were playing Ars Magica and 
I knew my players wouldn't switch. It's okay. A good GM is patient.
         Now, after a few months of terribly rules heavy Deadlands  the 
players were ready for some simple rules. I sold them on the simplicity of 
the rules. I bought a second copy of the main rules used (in great shape 
from ebay) so I could loan it out. I stapled the appendices shut and wrote, 
"You really don't want to know," on page 185. I made copies of the sample 
characters (pp. 206-11) so they could read those pages.
         They started to get interested. I bought "One-shots" and ran the 
"Joy and Sorrow" story. I had a tape of creepy music and screams to play in 
the background. I gave everyone copies of their characters, name tags (Hi, 
my name is Eric Bonneville) and gave everyone a two page cheat sheet I had 
writtne explaining the character's stats and skills and how the dice 
worked. We had a blast.
         Then, the players made characters. I let them go wild, really. 
Some of them created backgrounds that were too complicate, but I said, 
"Great". I will pick and chooses what I want to do with them. We then 
played "Bill in Three Parts." The players started to develop their 
character's personalities. Meanwhile, I bought LG&M.
         Last week we played "Pinfeathers". I think I've got them hooked 
now. In fact, tonight we're stepping away from the published scenarios 
(which are great) and into my created world. I've got enough consequences 
from "Bill" and "Feathers" and enough relevant character background to 
start pitching some wild curves at them. I want to seep them in the 
underground occult scene by making them paranoid as hell.
         Example: One of the characters was walking around with a clockwork 
dog he created. I spent last night cutting and pasting pictures of a 
clockwork dog on top of a sidewalk picture. I grained it up a bit, made it 
black and white, printed it on photo paper as a 3x4 photo and wrote, "Quit 
it," on the back in red pen. It will be on the seat of the character's car 
when we start tonight.
         Thanks for letting me rant on, and on, and on . . .

matt

PS If anyone would like to see the cheat sheet I made my players I'd be 
happy to mail it as an attachment in a private email.

At 10:14 PM 7/16/01 +0200, you wrote:
>Ville's players are too clever. Mine are too damn... damn.... well, I 
>don't know
>what they are but it bugs the crap out of me.
>
>Quick question for the list: when you start new UA campaigns, how do you make
>sure there's a good degree of player investment in the campaign concept?
>Help, comments, appreciated.
>
>--
>"I only smile in the dark / My only comfort is the night gone black"
>Dylan Craig · Writer and Observer · Cape Town, South Africa
>Contact Details: http://www.eyeballkid.co.za/contact.html
>
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