Character Prologue

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Post originally by Erich at 2004-12-28 07:39:49
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The prologue is a great idea for character building. Some of my favorite characters (wow, doesn't that statement make me feel geeky) came about through a prologue--in which there were no die rolls, no character sheets and no known system. I was forced to think about the character, their motivations and history first rather than concentrating on the min/maxxing of whatever system. In fact when a prologue is used, I generally have much less munchkiny characters than when, say, I'm rolling up a HackMaster character on the fly.

Prologues don't work for every game, though... How you'd run a prologue for celestials in In Nomine is beyond me. Still, thanks for reminding me about a great way to help build character rather than character sheets!

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Post originally by Ian Sokoliwski at 2004-12-28 10:33:34
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Oh, sure, the prologue/prelude used here won't work terribly well in most superhero games (unless it is a very restricted setting); there are definite restrictions. It is, certainly, a different way of looking at Character Creation in most systems, and a potentially fun one.

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Post originally by Mattias Östklint at 2004-12-29 06:45:31
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Celestials in in Nomine, well, how about having a historical prologue? Set in the stone age, perhaps? Or during the war in heaven? biblical ages?

superhero preludes work great, actually, just set it before the powers manifest.

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Post originally by Matthew Timmins at 2005-01-11 10:01:10
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Another great article. I've always like the idea of a prologue. I paricularly like prolouges in WoD games, as the games work so much better if they have a firm "normal human" baseline to build on. I've read a few evil idea in sourcebooks that I've always wanted to try, but never felt at license to try with my players (there's only so many evil tricks you can get away with before the players rebel) -- having the players vote on which clan each potenial Vampire character in likely to be embraced into, or having the players make up characters for some other WoD game and then kill them in the 1st session and announce that you're actually playing Wraith, etc.

I've also toyed with the idea of a "prologue game" in which the PCs slowly, over the course of many session or the entire 1st game become the extra-human thingy of the book cover. One problem that I see with many WoD-type games is that the premise (spooky other world of dark secrets) is at odds with the way the game is played around the table ("I'm playing a Dream Speaker with 3 dots in Forces even though she believes that the Great Spirit does it all" or "I'm playing a unbeleving lawyer who gets turned into a werewolf with 3 dots of Primal Urge"). Players naturally see the game-world thru the game they're playing (or maybe its "sister games"). They KNOW what game they're are playing and what to expect, more or less. Instead of "What the hell was that?!" they are likey to say (or think) "Yikes that guy has Obtenebration 3, at least! My newbie vamp stocks up one flashlights and mirrors, um, on a hunch". It's not the players's fault and good players will pretend they don't know but they DO know (unless the GM makes up stuff, but even then it will probably resemble cannon stuff). It's not as much fun to pretend to be mystifed. So I've wanted to ran a game of mortals where the players at least don't know what (or if) they will become. (Which the new WoD book seems to encourage, by the way).

Of course one of the keys to running good game is knowing and meeting player expectations (if they want high adveture they are going to be upset when they get politcking). A few times in the past I've had to ask my players very vague question and seek "permission" for unspecified plots so as not to spoil the surprise ("would you like to play a game about, say, dreams and war,?" or "hey, I think it might be neat to tell a story about a plague or something, hm?"). Mystery and expectations are two of the limitations of gaming that are hardest to balance. (Maybe there's an article in there . . .).

Anyway, just so rambling thougts. Keep up the good work. game on.

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Post originally by Ian Sokoliwski at 2005-01-11 10:47:38
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Thanks for the comments :)

Yes, the mysteries of the WoD do end up conflicting with the fact that so many hard-core WW'ers own (or have read) so many WoD sourcebooks. One cool idea is heavily-editing the WoD (or crossing it with another game system - there was an old 2-part article in INPHOBIA about creating a WoD/Kult crossover which was a fun idea).

This can be a particular problem with H:tR, as so much of the game is based on the idea that the PC's have NO idea what they are going up against. The best way to deal with that, I find, is to mix up Clan disciplines and effects a bit (fr'instance, not only Nosferatu Vampires are really ugly - sometimes, they are Samedi, sometimes they have one of a handful of Flaws; lots of good reasons to make that Toreador a freak :) ), and only describe the most obvious, physical effects of what they look like and what their powers are (really, can someone tell just by looking whether a Vampire is using Dominate vs Presence? Plus, under the right circumstances, using Obtenebration to blend into the shadows can also be faked using Obfuscate or even the Protean ability of changing into a mist.).

I'm just finding that using game terms as sparingly as possible is the biggest help a GM can have to confuse the players. :)

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Post originally by Matthew Timmins at 2005-01-12 07:44:42
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I like your idea about using game terms as sparingly as possible. Sometimes I try to refrain from naming a creature or thing till the players name it, then I use the players's name. Unfortunatly I often find that the players wait me out (not intentionally, i'm sure). I slip, call the zombie a "zombie" and the players pick it up. Its not their fault, I'm there only point of access to the game scene, naturally they wait for me to describe things -- name them. But I like them to take a more active roll in creating the world and naming things is a good start.

Thanks for the advice.