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skablah
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(Date Posted:11/08/2007 01:39:45)
Hi There,
I've been GMing on and off in 7th Sea for about two years time now. One frustrating note that i've been encountering is that in all my time of reading the books of 7th Sea's meta plot; I cannot actively recall all that is going on in the world 'at that time'. All the major NPC players; the pushers and shakers...this person who's the wife of this guy who slept with this guy and had a bastard son who's now the king and yada yada. Sometimes I find the metaplot turns into a gigantic soap operah.
At first, I tried to make a storyline with a focus on these meta plots. In the end, the players felt minor compared to these major players; and simply reacted to things I threw at them. None of them seemed hugely interested in 7th Sea; and that's when I started to question if it really should be a requirement for the playerbase to memorize the setting in order to enjoy the game...
My second attempt ruled out all the metapot. I treated the game more like my own creation, replacing NPC's as I saw fit; but I found a lot of holes in the plot this way.
That's when it dawned on me that the more 7th Sea material I read and adopt into my game, the less the game becomes my own magical creation. I had so many ideas for a game on the players handbook alone. But then I bought the GM Guide and wanted to learn more from there. The obsession to learn about the metaplots led to a fairly rigid structure with less openings for originality.
John Wick's games (7th Sea and L5R) are the only games I encounter that do this to me as a GM. It makes me want to pull out my hair! =P. I'm seeking advice here. What can I do to keep the metaplot mostly entact in the game, while not having it be the focus of my campaign while at the same time not having to memorize hundreds of pages of metaplot? I'm normally a great GM, but past attempts to run 7th Sea leave me cautious about GMing the game again. That's a hard statement to admit to. I'm usually proud of my campaigns. I'm wondering if anyone else has tripped over this. I know my players brought this up as concern for the game itself when they reviewed it. They said it looked like a very 'rigid' game.
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Black Jack Rackham
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(Date Posted:11/08/2007 04:06:00)
WARNING: SPOILER ALERT!!!
A very good question skablah. Let's see how I answer your questions. First I should say that I am, in point of fact, an obsessive completionist. Despite only becoming aware of this game about 6 years ago, I have managed to get a copy of every single 7th Sea release to be printed (including the hard to find Crow's Nest issues, and NOM newsletters, though the latter are in email format). So I think I speak from your perspective when I say that I love to read about the meta-plot. However, I don't think I've ever felt hampered by it. Great example, DK. I absolutely love 'em. Love the book, love the wierdness that goes with them, love the fact that they protect the rest of Theah from alien invasion.
And they absolutely, positively will never be PCs in my game. Sure I have toyed with the dark paths. Hell, my group of players even managed on one occasion to find another way into the dark paths (thereby learning that something horrible was waiting...elsewhere). While there, they even aided the DK in closing the paths to thwart an invasion. BUT, that being said, the DK just don't strike me as material rife with heroic derring do that is the stuff of swashbuckling legend. So away they go.
The night before last I had occasion to read an old article on Pyramid online by the esteemed Mr. Wick. He posited that old adage, "good writers borrow from others, great writers steal. I take that to heart in this game. There are plenty of places for the heroes to shine as much if not more than the movers and shakers. In my heroes case, they do the work and the 'names' take the credit.
So, I guess the question becomes, how to not trip over the meta-plot. The simple, short answer is "Chinese Menu" (i.e. take what you want and leave the rest behind).
More helpful though, I think, is for me to give you an example of how I took meta-plot and made it my own. My longest running campaign (over 5 years now) stole the idea of the pirates on La Bucca fighting their way to freedom. Cannon meta-plot describes how Allende (the handsomest, sexiest pirate/rightful king of Castille evar) led the pirates to their freedom.
Or at least that's how they are writing it in the history books. In MY 7th Sea, Allende merely had the connections to learn the schedule of the supply boats. He was quite charismatic and was able to get the guards to look his way while the HEROES did all the tough work. They were the ones who rescued Allende when the Inquisition showed up on the island to get rid of him once and for all, they were responsible for bluffing the Doctor who declared that the White Plague had returned, they were the ones who climbed the walls when the guards fled, they were the ones who manned the cannons that fought off the Castillian Armada ships, and most importantly they were the ones who got first pick of ships (leaving Allende with the lesser of the two ships, the 'Hanged Man').
Magic takes a back seat (with the exception of Sorte because we have an escaped fate-witch character), and the Syrneth are just so much background noise.
Anyway, thats my 2.65768769476 cents worth.
Mark
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"At times one remains faithful to a cause only because its opponents do not cease to be insipid."
Friedrich Nietzsche
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Salamanca
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(Date Posted:11/08/2007 07:06:57)
And now it's my turn to toss some advice on a very old subject with this game.
The metaplot in all it's intricate detail makes the game world an exciting place to play in. All those stories and plot hooks and events bring the world to life around your characters. It's what draws you in and gives the game it's richness.
But it certainly gets in the way of things. players have trouble getting the spotlight that a good swashbuckler needs to thrive. So what do you do about it?
You cherry pick the aspects and stories you want the players to get involved with and let their actions alter the written history as you go. Locally, the metaplot needs to only appear in the places you want the character to A) get involved in directly or B) avoid altogether.
I know, it seems odd to hit both ends of the spectrum but the metaplot is a great series of plothooks to involve players if you remember to let their actions change the outcome of the written plot. It also lets you as the GM shove an NPC into the events in some spots to keep the players out of events you don't feel like running.
but the best use for the metaplot is still as a news source for events far from your storyline. Letters from home updating a traveling hero about what's going on in their old homeland, newspaper articles about distant lands, rumors and legends, hearsay at court, drunken speculation in the tavern. All of that enriches your interactions between players and NPCs.
An old example from an old campaign. (spoilers to those using the Freiburg boxed set and adventure with the updated events in Montaigne revolution)
Trague is supposed to commit suicide and leave Logan Seigar as his heir. My players happen to really like Trague, I like playing Trague, and in character, the heroes have spent a ton of time interacting and helping him with the grand experiment that is Freiburg. One of the players picked up on the subtle change of attitude I added leading into his death and between a huge skill check and an insanely rare bottle of Vodacce wine lured Trague back off the roof and talked him out of suicide.
Now I'm at a crossroad in the plot. With Trague still alive, nothing really changes in the status quo of Eisen, he's still neutral, the other eisenfurst are no stronger with him around. Logan can continue to be the scribe or he can go replace his father. The Wachturn does not collapse and the heroes go about their lives. 6 months of play later, and we start having some issues with repercussions of Posen releasing Montegue, Heilgrund opting to not make a move as the whole freiburg invasion went even worse than projected, and Wische never recovering. It changes things locally but my players were still getting news from Ussura, Vodacce and Avalon about current events.
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Damn! Asking for exposition is like kryptonite to NPCs!
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Michel de Lalande
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(Date Posted:11/08/2007 14:26:16)
I GM one 7th Sea game that has met once a month since early 2003. They are in their 50's and one player is 65; I've known them for over 30 years in RPGs. While there are still a lot of personal issues and agendas still around, we know each other pretty well. Their perspectives are history and historical games, particularly historical miniatures.
While I've introduced the overall historical setting and mentioned some of the major personages from the metaplot to the players when it seemed appropriate, I don't think they've ever had a conversation with a named individual. I've created underlings for the PCs to interact with as needed to suit my purposes, but the players are self-motivated.
The campaign began with one session of background in Castille to establish their culture. They witnessed the Montaigne invasion from day one, fought with the Castillian army for awhile (until they could take it no longer), became guerrilla fighters, went into Montaigne behind the lines- then went off on their own to join the Explorers Guild, excavate certain ruins, fight with and against pirates. Now they are with Ponce de Leon in the New World and have found some natives with vials of liquid that seem to make people younger. Castille and the war have been left behind.
I prepare essentially no plot at all, but have bunches of NPC on hand for the PCs to encounter. So far one of the players has a recurring love interest who shows up at the wrong times, another has retainers from his former estate show up now and then. The players decide what they want to do, then do it! I don't need to motivate them beyond introducing valuables every now and then.
I'm playing in a 7th Sea game that started at the beginning of this year; we meet every other week. Four of the six players are around 20. The other player and the GM are in their 40's. The PCs are agents for Queen Elaine, who we meet about every third session. We report to Bors McAllister most every session, and often meet with many of the Queen's court. Bors usually has a mission for the PCs to perform, although they rarely come off exactly according to our plans! We interact with Sidhe often. The young players have experience with RPGs but don't have extensive experience with other games, and of course they don't have much background with history at all.
Conclusions:
1. Look at your players/audience when you determine how your campaign will work and what it needs from the metaplot.
2. Use as little or as much of the metaplot as you need for your world, for yourself and your players to have a good time.
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