Dealing with Game Boredom Part I

It's a Weekend night, and your game has gathered in the usual spot.  For a while things probably go fine, but then the Court officers go have a meeting, the Tremere go off to follow up on that cool plot, and a bunch of players, new players or players who haven't quite made it or even experienced players that don't have an in on a plot, are left, sitting around the gathering spot, bored.

Maybe you are one of the players, or maybe you are the ST watching these people.  What do you do to make things interesting?  Part II will be for players, this will be for STs.

This is a problem I've seen come up repeatedly.  It's not only when people go off into meetings, sometimes the whole game has a sort of ennui, doesn't catch on to plot, and doesn't seem to be interacting.

If you are a ST, there are several things you can do.  Lets talk first about one the things I've seen STs do(or done myself), and why they may not work.

Ghosts and Goblins and Werewolves Oh My!

One of the things I see STs do a lot, is as soon as the officers leave the room, they bring in some sort of weird beasty.  A spirit that messes with people, a ghost, a mischevious fairy, even an enraged werewolf.  Generally it takes only a minute or two before all the officers trump back in, the tremere show up, and the PCs who went to them for help get pushed to the side.  A similar situation is the one of the PCs who is bored gets a vision, or a phone call from influences, or whatever, about some problem.  The effect is mostly the same.

I don't think having some sort of supernatural creature waiting in the wings, or some problem that crops up as soon as an officer's meeting starts, makes anybody happy.  I don't think it leads to good plot.  

What does lead to good plot?  Well I'm not a big fan of NPC theatre, but a few well drawn NPCs that visit regularly can serve the Storyteller well.

It's important to establish these PCs before you use them.  They should have hospitality, occasionally drop in for gatherings, etc.  They can be present when the meetings start, or at the beginning of the night.  Then you use them as a catalyst.  This also helps when dealing with gathering sites that are "secured" by the PCs.  When some NPC shows up, having established that they have ways to find out where the site is, and permission to be present is a good thing.

If you've read my earlier post on plots for new players, you'll have some idea of the sorts of things NPCs can do with newer players or players on the outs that don't bring in the more powerful characters.  But when everybody is bored, you don't need to have a plot.  Sometimes you just need some questions, or an interesting item, or for the NPC to tell a story that sets the tone and gets players thinking, or brings up some of the history of the game.

A question the NPC could ask is, "so what happened to (previous prince's name?) they used to be Prince here, right?"  If nobody knows, they might tell a story about the Prince, with or without exaggeration.  This need not be the prince immediately before the current one.  Go back a few years, and there is probably a juicy story of tyrant removed, or a good prince brought low by treachery.

NPC questions can also work to circulate information on already existing plots for new players that may have stagnated.  Ask about the original rumor to get people talking, or even offer up a new tidbit, or an old one that wasn't spread widely enough.  

NPCs could even take advantage of a bored group of Kindred to lecture or teach, and then encourage comments.  

Another thing to do is to bring in NPCs that the new PCs outrank or can easily handle.  Unacknowledged childer, Caitiff who has hospitality but wants to know more about being a vampire,  ghouls who are messangers or observers for their domitors, even a drunk mortal who passes out, or drug addict looking to sell jewelry or stolen items.  Avoid problems that might bring in the officers... reporters and cops are probably not a great idea, unless one of the remaining PCs have some influence in those areas and has demonstrated they know how to use it in the past.  

You can also have NPCs that show up only when the officers are out of the way.  The Anarch recruiter (sent to me by Dan an OWBN player from Buffalo).  The Setite fence.   They may lecture, or pull people off to the side for conversations, or sell dubious goods.  The last can be a way to introduce interesting items like the music box I mentioned below.  

Running Sabbat Fights - an examination of a recent game event

Recently, a nearby game ran a big Camarilla fighting the Sabbat  event.  A city,which was previously Anarch, fell to the Sabbat, and the Camarilla domain nearby decided to organize an effort to take it back before the Sabbat dug in.  

I think the STs did a pretty good job.  However I wanted to offer my thoughts on what they did right, and what they might have done better.  I also want to hear what happened with groups different from mine, so I can build up a better picture.   I did manage to talk to a person who acted as both a PC in the background and played NPCs with extensive Sabbat experience, who have me his perspective.

The game is ordinarily 20 - 30 players, either local or visitors.  I think they had something like 70-90 total for this, based on eyeballing the crowd. (Edit: another player estimated 50 - 70, possibly not including late arrivals) The STs decided to not scale up the threat, and simply make the enemies smarter.  I'm not exactly clear how successful this was.

Non-Combatants/Influence

The STs asked some players as well as STs from other games to act as STs for scenes.  I think they were suprised by the number, since they ended up asking somebody to run the non-combatant masquerade covering portion without giving them any real instructions.

This lead directly to a significant amount of boredom for the players working to use influence.  Sure, we used influence to cover up the masquerade.  But there was no real influence use opposing us, despite the use of the dark epics system.  I would have liked to have seen Sabbat lasombra manipulating influence and prepping things from their end, so that it could have been a combat of influence... their sheriff deputies being blocked by our police contacts, The Camarilla media cover ups being avoided by their video bloggers.  

The ST, who had been given limited instruction, narrated a partial Sabbat fight when the Sabbat shadow stepped (a form of teleportation between shadows) in, but was unwilling to push very hard with it. So the Influence mongers fought for one round, against doppelgangers, then magically fell asleep, and it was called flavor.  A small and relatively weak Sabbat Pack, a group of shovelheads, or war ghouls would have been interesting.

On reflection, if no real challenge was going to be thrown at the influence mongers, their efforts should have been handwaved, with each individual getting a chance to do describe something great and creative they did with influence, and they should have been given the opportunity to play Sabbat NPCs.  

Combat Groups

There were three combat groups, each at different levels of ability.  The most powerful characters fought the most powerful NPCs.  The least powerful fought shovelheads (mass created indoctrinated vampires who are meant as a numerous distraction rather then a serious threat).  I believe this was a good strategy to allow players of different levels of experience and different abilities fight participate.  Some players acted as STs or NPC shovelheads. I am not sure to what extent that worked, but I will edit this when I find out.  I would guess that numerous PCs acting with unfamiliar sheets may have delayed matters.  That of course assumes they had pregen sheets. (edit, they did not, but made base characters, or had them made for them. )

Celerity/Extra Actions

Combat in a lot of cases lasted in real life several hours, and in game several seconds.  A lot of this has to do with a pernicious power... Celerity.  Celerity allows multiple actions within one round.  While in character the character acts faster, out of character, they act slower.  I believe, for massive combats, it may be useful to simplify celerity, and have the  third and fifth levels function normally, and the 1st, 2nd and fourth levels (which give extra actions, though the 1st may or may not depending on the game) give extra traits, or a retest.  This would have two effects.  It would speed up combat actions, and it would prevent celerity from giving those who had it more time with the STs then players who lack it.  

The game however did simplify the off-hand action, which in the mail rule book allows an additional action if one risks extra traits, to give an extra trait, and adjusts the amount of extra traits bid based on wether one has the merit, Ambidexterous, and a relevant ability aptitude (like firearms: double pistols).  I believe that an extra trait is not enough, when comparing to two handed weapons, and advocate an extra trait along with an additional point of damage, but I digress.

 Horror 

I believe the game did a relatively good job at creating a sense of horror, from the stories I heard.  The Sabbat in one location attacked a high school dance, simply to terrorize mortals and the Camarilla.  One Sabbat member killed a girl a Kindred was trying to help escape with a shot to the head that splattered the would be rescuer with blood, then taunted them by saying something like, "you can't save everyone, isn't it a pain to be noble?"

Then they released what are known as hell hounds, monsterous supernaturally adjusted and empowered dogs with an appetite for blood, into the dance.  

However I am not sure, to what extent, the players were challenged by their own inhumanity and monsterous nature.  The Sabbat are monsters, but when telling a story about the Camarilla fighting them, they can be effectively used as a dark reflection.  They should place Camarilla players in a situation where they have to choose between horrible choices... being unable to heal in combat, or killing a innocent person.  Letting a Sabbat pack get away to continue their rampage, or levelling an inhabited apartment building.  

Which brings me too.

Humanity

I know many STs make players throw challenges to keep their humanity after killing Sabbat.  Perhaps just as many don't.  After all, it can be argued that killing the bad guys is good.  I disagree with the later however.  

Vampire is not a game intended to have moral absolutes, or easy answers.  Actions can both be ostensibly good, can be completely justified and nonetheless morally damaging.  This is because of the nature of the beast.  I'll be writing a larger essay on this issue, but I believe fighting Sabbat justifies humanity challenges because the violence, and bloodshed, and killing strengthen the beast.  Keeping one's morals is about feeling guilty, and I'd let any person kill Sabbat and not feel guilty, assuming they agreed to lower their humanity.  Because it's not about who you kill.  It's about the fact that you chose to kill.  

In any case, I don't know the extent that people were encouraged to throw chops (edit some did, but perhaps not everyone who should have), but I did, and felt guilty for injuring the Sabbat and seeking glory, instead of working to help others escape.

Pre-event stuff

there were several things that happened prior to the event night that I thought deserved comment.  

One PC, intimately involved in the planning process, had been asked if they were willing to have their character screwed over by the ST, without details.  They agreed, and the ST decided that they were attacked and controlled by dominate to give information before finally breaking free.  This lead to some great scenes for a variety of players, and an ongoing storyline for some of those in the know.  

Also the Sabbat spent the previous game doing some general attempts to breach the masquerade and damage Camarilla interests, in an attempt to create problems for the Camarilla and probe their responses.  They attacked a hospital transformer (with no real effect on hospital function), a blood bank, and a bus (making the blood driver's blood boil from a distance).  Frankly, I thought the blood bank attack was good, but the rest seem disjointed and ineffective.  I would have liked to see some more effective attacks that served as double threats, as well as attacks that .  Sabbat dressed as police using disciplines and shooting people in shopping district.  ghouling and releasing animals from the Oakland zoo.  Making a Berkeley Lecturer's blood burn. Driving an Armoured Car into a Police station. 

Additional Thoughts

Having talked to a few people who witnessed combat.  I think I can say that the STs were not as well prepared as they could be.  Elders who should have been wily enough to challenge powerful PCs... or better yet, simply avoided them and reaked havoc.  As well, more STs would definitely have served the game better.  Shovelheads attacked in small groups, and were easily defeated, instead of being a real threat.  Finally, there was a lack of ST communication.  A set of Radios would have allowed the STs to keep in touch.

I also think that differing options that the STs didn't attempt would have been interest.  A Player who was unhappy with his PC volunteered to have him be killed by the Sabbat, and ended up playing a shovelhead.  I think it would have been interesting if that PC had been replaced by a Sabbat member.  The same player could have had an integral role, acted as an informant, and otherwise disrupted the Camarilla.

I think it would have been interesting if the victory was more pyhrric, with more Camarilla dead, more infrastructure destroyed, more breaches to cover, etc.  It seems like everything happened incredibly neatly, and aside from the volunteer I believe there was only one PC death.

There were also no assassination attempts.  I think attacking (and possibly killing) one of the PCs in charge would have made the story more interesting either way.

I also wonder, if things had gone differently, and the Camarilla had lost, If that would not have made for a better story.  Less satisfying for the players in the short term... but they were attacking like the Sabbat, in a series of nightime raids by groups on holdings of the other side.  In a toe to toe match, the Sabbat has the greater martial focus, so mindless violence should tilt the advantage in their favor.  The Camarilla could then plan and scheme and succeed by clever strategems instead of brute force.