I’m looking at (finally!) writing up Refuge formally - but I’ve hit a snag. I don’t actually know how to write it up in a way that would be helpful to other people trying to run the game!
I’ve got some ideas - I’d want a list of character props, a brief rundown of characters, something about set dressing, plot info and what to do on the night. But how do I pull it together into a useful, structured, visually appealing guide?
Help? Suggestions? Advice?
[quote=“No Rectangulars”]I’m looking at (finally!) writing up Refuge formally - but I’ve hit a snag. I don’t actually know how to write it up in a way that would be helpful to other people trying to run the game!
I’ve got some ideas - I’d want a list of character props, a brief rundown of characters, something about set dressing, plot info and what to do on the night. But how do I pull it together into a useful, structured, visually appealing guide?
Help? Suggestions? Advice?[/quote]
Look at some published larps?
You don’t need a rundown of characters. But a plot synopsis and set-dressing info is vital, as is a timeline for the run.
Will you be publishing commercially, or just sticking it up on the web for the world to use?
[quote=“No Rectangulars”]I’m looking at (finally!) writing up Refuge formally - but I’ve hit a snag. I don’t actually know how to write it up in a way that would be helpful to other people trying to run the game!
I’ve got some ideas - I’d want a list of character props, a brief rundown of characters, something about set dressing, plot info and what to do on the night. But how do I pull it together into a useful, structured, visually appealing guide?
Help? Suggestions? Advice?[/quote]Have you had a look at the final version of Ryan’s Camelot game? He had it set up as the GM Guide, the Player’s Guide, the individual character sheets, plus another file for handouts, which I thought was a good way to structure the game documents. Also, he got Jackie to do the graphic design, and the finished document looked really lovely, so I think it’s worth putting some time and effort into that.
I think it’s a good idea to put in some kind of overview of what the plots are, and some guidelines on what kind of people to cast into what parts. Erm, can’t think of anything else that you haven’t already mentioned. Maybe some hints about on the night running?
[quote=“IdiotSavant”]
You don’t need a rundown of characters. But a plot synopsis and set-dressing info is vital, as is a timeline for the run.
Will you be publishing commercially, or just sticking it up on the web for the world to use?[/quote]
Maybe a rundown of factions then?
At this stage, I don’t know. I’ll have to consult with the other writers about what exactly to do with it, but we’re all keen on the idea of having it fixed up nicely and available in some manner.
When I ran Hindenburg with Steph & Fraser, we got some documentation from the nice folks who had written it for Kapcon. I don’t think they’d ever intended it for a re-run, and I was happy just to get any materials beyond the character sheet. There was a list of the plots and the characters involved in each, but the more I read the characters the more mysteries I sensed that weren’t explained in the plot writeup. This made it hard for me to know what the truth of the setting was: one character briefing might say one thing, and another say another, and the only way to figure out the setting-truth was to ask the writers.
So, my advice is to explain everything. Reveal all the secrets, make sure all the twists are spelt out in 100-foot-high letters. Things that seem obvious to you won’t be obvious to someone who hasn’t cross-analysed every character in tiny detail, and the GMs shouldn’t have to work that hard for understanding. You don’t want the GMs reading the characters and assuming that their beliefs are the truth, because that might effect the rulings and advice they give players. Besides, part of the fun of being GM is being the person in the know.
Refuge is an especially large game. Therefore you may want to provide some advice on how to structure the GMs so that they can effectively handle so many players, how to brief so many players, how to coral them into play, ideas for debriefing so many people (bearing in mind that not every game has a spare hour+ at the end for everyone to tell their story, cool as that is), etc. How to deal running the game with much fewer or more players. What characters and factions can be removed or invented with minimal disruption to the rest?
I thought that the players needed some more briefing than they got:
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There wasn’t much of a setting briefing. I didn’t know for example, what was legal - drugs, prostitution, gambling, etc, or what the political situation was. A written briefing with that stuff would be a great resource in a game with so many law enforcers, outlaws, politicians, etc. A map of the fictional town and who controlled what would also have made a really nice reference for people to roleplay off.
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There wasn’t much of a briefing on other characters, even prominant ones. Most characters I met answered “yes” when I asked in character “do I see you at church on Sunday?”, but half of them didn’t know I was the priest, or even that there was a town priest, and hadn’t considered whether their character was churchgoing until I asked, etc. I think there needed to be a “people who all the townfolk know” written briefing.
Thanks for that Ryan - there are definitely some valid points there that we addressed poorly or not at all on the night and that I’d really like to get right.
I agree with the need for more background - especially regarding the political, geography and ambience. We had a lot of problems with the townsfolk - realistically they would all have known each other for some time, but to put all that on every sheet would make them 10 times longer than they were. Some sort of scene-setting character document would be ideal, with basic descriptions of people others would be expected to know on sight. We sort of tried to do that by letting you all mingle a bit beforehand, but in practice that didn’t work so well.
I’ll also be including tips on getting paperwork etc out of the way expediently (like ‘don’t leave your players hanging around in the rain for hours’ 
)