Wraith session #8
Proactive vs. receptive players
On Sunday, I got to run my game! And I did it without my usual cocktail of coffee and a generous splash of alcohol. That was a health-based decision, but I think that I’m going to stick with it.
This week, I got really sick. I spent Tuesday and Wednesday pretty much passed out on the couch. By Thursday, I felt better enough to play in Aron’s new monthly Vampire game, and had a couple slices of pizza.
Big mistake. By the end of game, I was throwing up again and spent all of Friday trying to recover. On Sunday, I still wasn’t feeling great, but we had missed three out of four of our last sessions, so I didn’t want to cancel game. My stomach was feeling pretty iffy, so I skipped the coffee and booze. And did fine! Even sick, I felt comfortable and confident enough in my Storytelling that I didn’t need alcohol to relax.
You may have noticed that I didn’t subtitle this post with my health as a hurdle. I’ve Storytold this game through a hangover and an anxiety attack. Doing it while recovering from illness was the same — I put what little energy I had into the story and the NPCs, and got it back from my players in the form of enthusiastic engagement.
At this point, that’s not really news or advice. It’s served me — and been the centerpiece of blog posts — through emotional and physical problems alike. Show your players that you’re invested and enjoying the story, and they will pick up on your enthusiasm and reflect it right back at you.
Now let’s talk about something else!
Some players are more proactive than others; some generate their own character arcs and sub-plots, while others react entirely to the game as laid out by the Storyteller. With the former, it’s my job to roll with all the random ideas that they generate, and have the RPG world react. That kind of ad-libbing is something that I am still learning to improve — I’m an obsessive planner and note-taker, so running scenes by the seat of my pants is a challenge. Fun, but a challenge.
The other side of the coin are the players who take all of their cues from the game. For them, it’s my job to bring up any backstory elements that I want them to confront. In a way, these players are easier to serve because I can plan ahead — they won’t chase down a side-plot until I place it in front of them. I have the chance to think about and write up notes on any encounters I want them to have, then rehearse any aspects that I need to before game day.
They can be more challenging, too, because I can’t exactly sit back and watch the player generate and execute all of their own stories. I need to be in the middle of the fray, creating and guiding the side-story with all of the same care and involvement as the main plot.
Both kinds of players are great. They require different Storytelling skills to engage, but each of them bring a lot to an RPG. It’s awesome fun both to go chasing down the self-propelled players, and to lead the cue-takers through my stories. I’ve got a mix of both types in my Wraith game, and one of the second type is Bryan, playing the slowly reforming gang member, Gabriel.
Last session, the Cohort discovered that the warehouse where they all died — and which is a Fetter for all of them — was set to be demolished. That spurred them to check on their other Fetters, to make sure they would be safe and not destroyed. I had been prodding Gabriel on his Fetters, but this got him moving and heading back to the illegal chop shop where he used to work on stolen cars with his gang. There, the gang was working on recruiting a 13-year-old boy, Micah.
Now, Bryan never would have sent Gabriel out into the city, looking for a kid to guide down a better path than he himself had chosen. But when story events prodded him back to the chop shop, Bryan/Gabriel noticed Micah. He used Outrage to smash the beer bottle that the gang was offering the underaged kid, and left feeling disgusted with his old friends.
It was great! But then we had a week off for Mothers Day, and by the time we came back to game, Bryan didn’t remember most of the details of that interaction. I worried that he might lose Micah’s story thread, but wasn’t sure what to do about it. Until the Cohort was out hunting Pathos — the emotional energy that sustains wraiths — and ended up at a homeless shelter. I hadn’t planned on them going there, but one of my self-propelled players came up with the idea, so I rolled with it.
And then had a lightning bolt of inspiration. I didn’t have any scripted places for Micah to show up this session, but he’s a struggling kid in foster care, and I could have him conceivably come into the shelter for a hot meal. So I narrated that, then had one of the workers there talk to him, asking about school and friends — and revealing that Micah doesn’t have much of either. That’s why he’s so hungry for the attention of Gabriel’s old gang.
Gabriel went right to work trying to get Micah to step away from the gang, and then started brainstorming with another player character about how to improve Micah’s life. It was perfect! While Bryan might never have sought out this storyline on his own, I was able to pre-plan the chop shop scene, then ad-lib the one at the shelter. Now he’s invested, and ready to help this kid out.
Every player in your RPG comes to the session for something different. Some have their own designs, and some are there just to be social. Some are there to take in your story, and you need to be ready to give it to them. While ad hoc RP scenes aren’t my strong suit, I knew Micah’s story and was able to figure out a way to bring him into Gabriel’s path as many times as I needed in order to get my player’s attention and emotional investment.
It takes time and experience to learn which of your players will go searching for the storylines, and know which ones need a friendly introduction. But both of them are wonderful and rewarding players to run games for. And with a little work, you can get all of your players invested in your RPG.
