[UA] Campaign Reversal

[gameloft]

This is my usual way of running many games.  Especially UA.  I find it works
wonderfully but the players need to be driven to participate also.  If they
just want a story laid out for them it won't work.

Ian

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----- Original Message -----
From: "Rich Ranallo" <zincoxide at sbcglobal.net>
To: <ua at lists.uchicago.edu>
Sent: Sunday, March 23, 2003 9:45 PM
Subject: [UA] Campaign Reversal


> (I'm cross-posting this between RPGnet and the UA mailing list, so some of
> you might be reading it twice.  Or not reading it twice, as the case may
> well be).
>
> While making characters for our latest Unknown Armies game, our group ran
> into a constant obstacle; we wanted the group to be a cohesive cabal, with
> a definite long-term goal.  But, not knowing what plot the GM had in
store,
> every group concept we came up with might very well have run contrary to
> the plot of the game (this is one of those one-shot, maybe long-term
games).
>
> So, then it occurred to me: Unknown Armies, like a lot of other games, is
> very character-driven.  It's not generally just about random people
> reacting to weird stuff happening all around them, it's about people with
> ambitions and the things they encounter when pursuing them.
>
> Typically, an RPG session comes about when a GM invents a plot.  He then
> goes looking for players, and the players make characters, which the GM
> either approves or disapproves, based on whether they'd fit into his game.
>
> I say, turn it around.  Get together with three or four friends and make
up
> a group.  Decide what kind of game you want to play (Street, Global or
> Cosmic level), and what kind of group you want (TNI enforcers, Naked
> Goddess followers, Mak Attax).  Then, once you've developed these
> characters, go out and find someone to run the game.  The GM then takes a
> little while and makes up a plot that fits the group, not the other way
> around.  So, if the group is playing a bunch of art terrorists bent on
> destroying the Daley Plaza Picasso sculpture in Chicago during an anti-war
> riot, they don't end up being railroaded into helping the New Inquisition
> rub out a rogue Duke in the alleys of San Francisco.
>
> Obviously, this puts a lot of burden on the GM, since he won't be able to
> take his sweet time making up a story.  Most likely, he'll have two weeks
> max to hammer out some sort of opposition to the group's agenda.  He'll
> have to know the game very well, and the players will have to give him a
> lot to work with, in the way of personality templates, history and
> connections for their characters.  I'm going to give this thing a try with
> my group soon; I start with a complete blank slate, and all I do is throw
> curveballs at the group as they try to find the Holy Grail or whatnot.
>
> Has anyone out there actually tried this sort of thing, or am I totally
off
> my rocker?
>
>
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>



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