New Werewolf game
I kicked off my new campaign! We’re playing fully virtual for the first time, so I had to make some adjustments. But it went well.
One of the biggest changes — for me — is that Erica can’t play with us this time. I haven’t run a game without her for twenty years and she’s been Costorytelling with me for a decade. Erica is a proactive player and loves to involve all the other PCs in her side projects or character arcs. She knows my story flow even if she doesn’t know anything about my story, so it’s like having someone on the inside.
But I’m gonna have to run this one without my inside operative. Thankfully, we’ve talked about using NPCs as guides to help out if players get stuck and I’ve worked to make sure that I’ve got good, open communication with my players.
Before we start any session I begin by asking if anyone has questions and I make sure never to shoot a question down. Sometimes I might have to put off answering if it’ll keep us from gaming for too long, or if I need some time to mull it over. But I try to be welcoming and that keeps my players talking to me.
So, how did the first session go? Pretty good! I know that lots of people have been doing virtual RP for a long time, but my group’s brand new to it. I decided that when I ask for dice rolls, I’d put them in the chat of our meeting. It can be easy to miss a question or mishear over video chat, with voices overlapping or cutting out. Hell, sometimes I have to repeat a roll for a scene two or three times when gaming in person because someone misses the ask. So I typed Charisma + Melee (difficulty 7) into the chat for the group to perform an impressive combat display, and nobody can miss it.
The other thing that I think went well wasn’t really anything to do with that. I keep in close contact with my players, I’ve been working with them through character creation and try to make myself available for questions or issues. I know that some Storytellers can be strict. It’s a stylistic choice: speaking only in character, not letting players discuss tactics mid-battle, and so on. But it’s not my style. Characters living inside the game world were born, raised, and live in it. They know things — often about worlds that are very different than ours — that I just can’t expect my players to know.
In the first session of the new game, I presented my players with a choice. The group had been chosen to reenact a famous battle of in-world history, working along with a pair of NPCs. An elder who gives my PCs orders hinted that he wouldn’t mind one of the NPCs failing this performance. It was part of the final test to place the characters in a new team. The elder wanted the young NPC girl off the squad. And probably home, having imaginary tea parties.
So how are my players supposed to know what to do with this hint? It’s a fictional world with fictional social norms, and it’s just the first session. Everyone’s still just trying to figure out their character’s speaking voice. My players felt comfortable asking me to put the request in context for them. Was that kind of scheming a normal thing?
I told them that sometimes the appearance of honor is just as important as actual honor. That an elder trying to keep the youngest member of his clan out of a team that would be sent into danger had some merit. But that sabotaging a group-member’s performance could look bad.
I didn’t answer the moral quandary for my players, though. They still had to choose: do something slightly dishonorable in order to protect a young girl — and maybe curry favor with the elder — or let the girl perform and stand or fail on her own merits? They decided not to sabotage the girl and they pulled off their reenactment. Not perfectly, but they let her shine.
The group’s about to head into some heavy combat, so we’ll see how they handle it. I’ve got two players that love the tactical combat and one more interested in the RP, plus we’re test driving some new house rules. But the characters’ journey is just beginning and I can’t wait until they figure out what I’ve got in store for them.
