Roleplaying Games
Work for Your Game
My current main campaign is “The Dawn of Arcanum”. It’s a late 19th century game based on the Mage: The Ascension spinoff “Halls of the Arcanum”. It’s about paranormal investigations in a more academic vein. More library search, less monster hunting.
My players are really into it and I myself am excited. I have plans for the future, and the players (and characters) have made predictions for it with Tarot cards. They are nicely involved, and make art and research the era independently.
Like any new campaign this one has made me work for it. In this one I’ve strived to have a picture for each NPC, as the game is run on a virtual tabletop. I’ve had to finally read Wraith: The Oblivion 1st ed. that I’ve had for decades. I’ll have to plot out the larger picture taking into account the predictions.
Also, there are many new topics to research. Mundane ones, like the city and the era. Supernatural, like the ghosts and hauntings. Some things need new rules and rulings. I’ve researched drugs to make WoD-compatible rules for them. I’ve catalogued spirits of all kinds from the source books (WoD and other games too). To create the local world of the dead (wraithlands) I’ll have to figure out how many wraiths there are in the city. How many dead stick around after death? What is the half-life of a ghost?
What I’m trying to say is that great games may happen by chance from improvization, but usually they require work. To make the game world seem more real, it has to be populated by people, beings and places that are plausible. To help improvization, you need to have prepared material to pick and use when needed. To have a plot of some kind, you need to prepare beforehand and have an idea where the characters are heading. Work for your game!
