Episode 9

Play Outside the Game and Steal Inspiration

All five players are back for this session. Some were at work wishing they could be at the last session yet others were out of the country enjoying time with family. This is where I do my best to bring them back in to the loop.

Many players come to the table to relax and enjoy their time playing a game. This usually means they didn't have a ton of spare time to think about RPGs during the non-adventure days. So when people have missed sessions they may have some catching up to do in the story. This is yet another reason why I have the players do a recap of the last time we played. It's like a shortened version of last session and it gets them in the RPG mindset.

I like to encourage playing outside the game. One thing I like to implement is some sort of chat conversation between me and the players. I used to use https://slack.com and now I use https://discordapp.com to do this amongst other things. I use it in and out of game time to keep in touch with the players. This way if a character finds a secret door or obtains a lot of loot, they get to decide whether or not they tell the others. Using one of these tools can help players to curb their temptations to meta game. Also it can allow returning players to be reintroduced after missing a session or two. This session I used it to have a character find out how many credits they had and for another to be sitting across the room while nobody noticed. If you announce it in game then normally this is when another player says I want to roll perception!

To drive a story along and keep players within the "bumpers" I use reoccurring NPCs. They help drive the story along and gets them out of the local tavern. (we all love the local tavern in an RPG ... am I right lol) I say don't be afraid to steal the inspiration from your favorite book, movie, skit, tv show, or even a friend or family member. This session I pulled from many different places. I used character likenesses from Mass Effect, Fringe, Hitchhiker's Guide, and even the CW's version of The Flash and Arrow. Am I a huge fan of all of these? Not necessarily, but some characters and story lines can be intriguing and fit very well in to an RPG. Feel free to steal these characteristics and make them work for you!

In the end we are all geeks about something. Use it and have fun with it!

-Scooter
@discopreacha