Teamwork and tension are things which I find fun to have in a game session. It's why I prefer the old Mission Impossible tv series to the modern movie series - in the old series, each specialist contributed a bit to the mission as a whole. What was impossible for one was possible for them as a group.

That sort of teamwork, driven by or done under some external threat, I think that's great fun in a game session.

But I find that many gamers create real "individuals". I've been quite successful as a GM at getting them to connect their characters together, but they still don't act as a team. Some of you may be familiar with the basic infantry tactic of "fire and movement" or "mobile overwatch" - one group stops and gives covering fire while the other moves forward, then the second group stops and gives cover while the first moves forward. That's about the most basic kind of teamwork you can have.

But many game groups can't even manage that - players get impatient and have their characters all rush forwards at once. Obviously you can have them just get wiped out or captured, but I find that sort of thing isn't good for encouraging teamwork. It just pisses them off.

I've tried to help things out with game mechanics. Whatever the system, I say that there are "complementary traits" - your Maths helps your Physics, Jim's Strength can help Bob's Agility as he's trying to wriggle out of his bonds, that sort of thing. This is meant to encourage players to think "how can my guy help the other guy?" which is basically all teamwork is.

But I find I have to prompt players a lot. Everyone wants to be a one-person party.

Any thoughts? I'd love to be running military, police and espionage games, or games with elements of that in there - but they fall on their arse without teamwork.

"What boy has not sighed for the good old days of wars, revolutions, and riots; how I used to pore over the chronicles of those old days, those dear old days, when workmen went armed to their labors; when they fell upon one another with gun and bomb and dagger, and the streets ran red with blood! Ah, but those were the times when life was worth the living; when a man who went out by night knew not at which dark corner a "footpad" might leap upon and slay him; when wild beasts roamed the forest and the jungles, and there were savage men, and countries yet unexplored."

- ER Burroughs, The Lost Continent (1916)

And this is why we roleplay. But no authour would scribe such words today.

So! Last night with Olive absent due to having got in from his flight at some ungodly hour of the morning, and Matt absent due to being on the phone with a real estate agent to buy a house in some dreadfully bleak part of the country (Mildura), it seemed better to set aside Tiwesdæg for the session, and play a one-off instead.

Colin had with him on his little memory stick A|State (light version here) an rpg of a Dickensian cyberpunk world - though without much cyber.

This ridiculous system was point-buy, but we made it random to get into it quick. Aron played Johnathan, ill-educated thug, gas fitter, amateur theologian and thug. Also a thug. I played Jack, the spineless academic armed with his wits and a half-brick in a sock, though brilliant he was horribly disfigured by looking as though he were a Down's Syndrome sufferer and worse, with a mullet!


Johnathan was clad in a shiny ankle-length dogskin coat, and disappointingly carried not twins but only one katana, but also had a small revolver. Jack was clad in a cheap dogskin coat and cheap clothes and one shilling tie, looking like a pimp.

They ventured forth to pay Jack's library fine so he could graduate from university. Along the way they enjoyed a breakfast of dog kebab. They took the train, which was smelly and dirty, someone left the train door open, Johnathan rose to close it, and was accosted by a mugger who demanded his money. Jack approached with his half-brick in a sock and smacked the mugger over the back of the head, who reacted by collapsing with a groan. The two friends then removed the mugger's coat while the train patrons pointedly looked away. As they got off at the next stop, they tossed five shillings to the crowd to make them accomplices and keep them quiet. The coat proved to contain many shillings from less bold mugging victims and some lint.

They changed trains and arrived at the university about lunchtime. There they bumped into their friend Micky, who was sweating and worried because his old man a fisherman had been smacked over, "who could have done this? Help me find him." Astounded by the irony of fate, that a plot hook would come from a fisherman, the two set off to help out. They took the barge this time, and disappointed the bargeman by not engaging in witty repartee with him. They snooped around the fisherman's shack and found that a fancy strongbox was missing, and that the whole interior was visible from a spot across the canal.

"Does he have any enemies? Anyone out to get him? Perhaps from across the canal?"
"Only that crazy old man Jerry, rants and raves. We haven't seen him about for a bit though."
"Where can we find him?"
"Dunno, ask Terry, he sells watches and things over there."

The two went across the canal and found Terry, who told them old Jerry had died a few weeks back. They asked if he'd seen a strongbox, he said, "Oh yes I bought one and then sold it, I bought it from a guy with a hat and this coloured blanket over him, you'll find him in the market."

They went to the market and saw no such bloke, on returning to Terry they found him having legged it with all his dodgy merchandise. They grabbed a kid passing.
"You know Terry?"
"Yep."
"He's buggered off. Where does he live?"
"I don't know, guv. But I know someone who might know, I can point him out to you."
"Show us, then."
"I'd like to, guv, but thing is it's rather cold and I've got no shoes, I've got to find myself some new shoes."
"Would two shillings help keep you warm?"
"That they would, guv," he said, quickly pocketing them.

Off they went to the market again, and the kid pointed out a curly red-headed bloke. They thanked the kid and went and accosted the redhead.
"Hello there," said Johnathan, "We're looking for something - a strongbox?"
"A what? Er, I suppose I could get one for you. I'm someone who gets things."
"So we heard. We're looking for a particular one, though. One that went missing from a humble fisherman's shack recently."
"What? Oh bugger, this is about Terry, innit? He's the sod you want."
"Take us to him." Johnathan gestured with his pistol in his pocket.
"Alright, alright. But what's that in your pocket? You don't look glad to see me. We can make this a business arrangement."
"Just show us." The PCs had a strange urge propelling them forward to deal with these events quickly, perhaps it was because their guiding spirits saw that it was 10:30pm already and the GM wanted to go home.
"Look, I've got two of my blokes here in the crowd watching us, so don't try anything. Now we can do this friendly, or -" he raised his fist to strike at Johnathan, and quick as a whip, Jack knocked him in the goolies with his half-brick in a sock. To everyone's surprise the redhead stayed standing, though he was crouched over a bit and not happy.

A general melee ensued, scrappy and messy, which was resolved by Johnathan drawing his sword. The redhead's two goons backed off, and the redhead said, "there's no need for that, let's go," and off they went to Terry.

They found Terry in a scungy little dosshouse with all his stolen goods, which they promptly stole from him at swordpoint. All up the takings were thirty-five pounds, and a big stash of drugs. "And don't nick nothin' from any of our mates again!"

All-in-all, a fun session. The details of the system remain vague to us, I think it was percentile, and that a half-brick in a sock is the most deadly weapon known to man. Colin did very well, put on the spot like that, but came up with the goods - that's the true spirit of being a GM.

On Monday April 1st will be 25 years since I first picked up dice to roll up Jim Bob the Luckless, my Strength 9 fighter in AD&D1e, who struggled up to 3rd level only to perish ingloriously fighting a Gelatinous Cube.

I was thinking that sometime around there I'd like to have a special anniversary dungeon crawl with AD&D, to celebrate a quarter-century of my being a crap roleplayer, but having fun anyway.

Or is there a better way to celebrate, what do you lot reckon?

... will be Fourth Tiwesdæg

I began the year by laying out here the 10 campaigns I was keen to run, saying I wanted to run 4 in the year (9 sessions + 3 alternates each), invited players to them, and hosted the game sessions at my place for all but 1 or 2 of the sessions; they were the same place at the same time every week for each campaign. If any player was absent, we gamed on without them. I aimed to have 4 players for each campaign, and have not more than 2 of them stay for consecutive campaigns, rotating them through in the "game circle" spirit.

As a player I began this year with a revisit to Outbackalypse for 8 more-or-less fortnightly sessions, and then declined an invitation to game with the same players and GM in a GURPS Banestorm campaign. In the middle I played Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Dice for about 5 fortnightly sessions. Now at the end of this year I'm playing in AfterWorld, with 5 more-or-less fortnghtly sessions in all, and this is ongoing, but also planned to be of limited length, another 5 sessions in 2008.

As GM, this is how the game year went for me,

• underground, the Unknown Armies game of modern supernatural horror; this perished in a game group implosion after 3 sessions
• lofgeornost, a RuneQuest campaign, fizzled for me as GM but not for the players, so after 3 sessions I set it aside for the next one.
• Wasteland, a postapocalyptic game set in Australia using d6 and later GURPS, 10 sessions + 2 alternates - played by Aron, Emil, Graeme and Tyberious Funk
• CIVIS ROMANVS SVM, a game somewhat like the Rome TV series using GURPS, 8 sessions + 2 alternates, played by Chris, Matt and Tyberious Funk
• Osere, a modern-day private espionage game using a homebrew of mine, 10 sessions + 2 alternates, played by Dominik (who bailed), Emil, Matt and Nick

So after some New Year tumult and chaos I settled into a nice rhythm of campaigns around 10 sessions each, with a couple of alternate sessions each. Usually after each campaign there was a week's break for me, and then a week where we sorted out what we'd run next and with whom as players.

I find that having the closed-ended campaign with a rough guide as to the length helps keep players and GM committed, interested and showing up regularly. But I was only able to make this work by hosting almost every game session, so that everyone knew we'd be gaming at the same place and the same time each week; if anyone couldn't make a session, the game went on without them. If I'd tried to organise it each week not knowing when or where we'd play I'd not have had a quarter the sessions.

There were also Geektogethers.

Thus in all

• I GMed 34 campaign sessions
  • 28 of them part of 3 successful campaigns,
  • 6 of them part of two 3-session implosion/fizzles
• I played in 18 sessions of other GMs
• enjoyed 6 alternates
• had 3 Geektogethers and helped put 10 gamers into groups new or established.
  • the Winter Geektogether had 10 people, Spring 11, Summer 17.
  • in all, about 22 different people across the three.
  • From each Geektogether has arisen one entirely new game group, and at least 6 loose gamers put themselves into campaigns.
• I GMed
  • 11 different people more than one session each
  • drove off 3 of them but later mended bridges with 2
  • had 2 players for 2 different campaigns
  • 1 player for 3 different campaigns
  • the remaining 8 players for 1 campaign each
• I played with
  • 6 different people more than one session each
  • 3 of whom were players under me at some point

Of the 13 different people I gamed with, I genuinely liked all of them, and consider 4 of them good friends, 2 of whom I only met this year.

So though my gaming year began a bit rough as I made mistakes, once the tumults were over and settled down, I had overall very good gaming both as GM and player, had lots of game sessions, ate shitloads of cheetos, helped bring gamers together even outside my own group, and made new friends.

That's me, how about you lot?

The following story made me think of all the real-life things people have done which are so ballsy and creative, they're like player-characters in an rpg. So here's my example, give us some more!

Pinups of bikini-clad women hid jailbreak route, officials say

Two inmates at New Jersey's Union County Jail made a movie-style escape Saturday and remained at large Monday, according to Union County Prosecutor Ted Romankow.

Twenty-year-old Jose Espinosa and 32-year-old Otis Blunt, who are considered armed and dangerous, were discovered missing from their cells at about 5:15 p.m. Saturday, Romankow said.

The men left behind dummies in their beds, cinder block dust and a note wishing authorities "Happy Holidays."

Espinosa, who recently pleaded guilty to aggravated manslaughter, was to be sentenced on January 25 and faced a minimum of 17 years in prison. Blunt was being held in lieu of $75,000 bond on weapon and robbery charges.

Both men were being housed in the high security area of the multilevel jail, Romankow said.

Police said Espinosa and Blunt were in adjacent cells and used a long metal wire to scrape away mortar around the cinder block between their cells and the outer wall in Espinosa's cell.

Once the cement block between the cells was removed, they smashed the block and hid the pieces in a footlocker. According to police, Blunt, who is 5 feet 10 inches and weighs 210 pounds, squeezed into Espinosa's cell through an approximately 16- to 18-inch hole.

The two inmates wiggled through another 18-inch hole in the outer wall. From a roof landing, the two men "took a running jump or they were standing and they jumped approximately 15 feet out and about 30 feet down," Romankow said.

Then they jumped a razor-wire fence onto a New Jersey transit railroad bed to freedom, police said. Authorities found two sets of footprints in the snow heading in opposite directions.

At a news conference Monday, Romankow read the note that was found in Espinosa's cell, saying it represented the "arrogance of these two men."

"Thank you officer -------- for the tools needed, you're a real pal, Happy Holidays," the note read, with a smiley face drawn next to it.

Authorities are investigating the note's claims about the guard, the Associated Press reported. The guard has not turned in a report and disciplinary action has not been taken, Romankow said, according to AP.

To delay discovery of the escape, Espinosa and Blunt used dummies made of sheets and pillows in their beds. They also hung photographs of bikini-clad women to hide the holes in the walls, a move reminiscent of a scene in the Hollywood hit "The Shawshank Redemption."

Romankow played down the comparison.

"I think this is a very serious situation you saw," he said. "I really prefer not to compare with any movie, although I can understand why you might because it does look certainly very similar to some of them. Except in 'The Shawshank Redemption' they had a better poster on the wall."

According to police, Blunt tried to escape in September using similar methods. There is an $8,000 reward for the men's capture.

Romankow said a statewide hunt is under way, with several agencies involved.

Looking over John Kim's list of free rpgs, specifically the rules-lite ones, I came across Real Time: Playing Against the Clock. The authour says,

RealTime is the only roleplaying game played in real time -- that is, every minute of play corresponds to one minute of game time. It's inspired by the hit show 24 and the movie Nick Of Time, and if it's done right, players will feel all the same pulse-pounding tension and excitement. You can use it for modern action/adventure (and that's probably where you'll want to start, due to its familiarity), but you can use it for any genre and style, from science fiction to two-fisted pulp to Western to mythic high fantasy -- as long as you have a story that hinges on every tick of the clock.

Now that's something I've never tried, running even a single game session in real time. I've always been fairly generous about allowing players to discuss things and plan, giving each-other psychic advice on combats and interviews when the party is split - reasoning that these player discussions and this psychic advice is a good way to simulate the character's abilities. But you couldn't do much of that in real time.

Has anyone had experience running this sort of scenario, even for a game session? Des anyone know of other games specifically designed for it?

This thread over on therpgsite got me thinking, as below. Someone was asking about whether we preferred combat-heavy or non-combat games. And really I've no preference either way when GMing - I try to present situations where there's no one solution, the players can figure out their own, with or without violence in it.

As GM, you're there to provide challenges for the players and their characters. But there are two kinds of challenges - obstacles, and complications.

An "obstacle" is something for the character to climb - something which challenges the character's skills and the player's dice. This is everything from "check for traps" to "your daughter has been kidnapped by the evil overlord."

A "complication" is something for the player to figure out - something which challenges the player's imagination. For example, "your daughter has fallen in love with the son of the evil overlord."

When I think of an obstacle, there's usually a simple and foreseeable solution, I can match it to the PCs' skills. When I think of a complication, I've no idea what the solution will be. Sometimes the players choose a violent solution, sometimes non-violent. The important thing is that the characters and their players should have a choice.

The beauty of obstacles is that once overcome, you can forget about them - the player feels a sense of accomplishment, of things moving forward. The beauty of complications is that each produces another without any effort from the GM or planning from the players.

For example, in the game session last night the PCs had recently rescued a team member from capture by foreign agents. There were two foreign agents, one was killed and the other one wounded. Complication: "What do we do with the wounded one?" They could finish him off, patch him up and leave him there, take him with them... Each had its pros and cons; leaving him might have his mates come and bother them, as would taking him. In the end they took him because they wanted information.

This led to a second complication: "Now that we've got him and information from him, what do we do with him?" They couldn't give him to the police because they'd committed as many crimes as he had. They couldn't let him go because again he might cause trouble. And they couldn't kill him because they just didn't want to do that sort of thing (well, some did, some didn't). The information they got from him also led them to believe, "hey, actually we're on the same side, there's just been a misunderstanding." But now that they've killed his buddy and done some "enhanced interrogation" on him, it's a bit hard to say, "let's work together."

What's the solution? Will it involve combat, or not? I've no idea. But the players will figure something out, and in doing so they'll face and overcome a challenge, express something of their character, and the whole thing will move on, with new complications coming up.

The point is to present either a range of obstacles, some of which have combat solutions and some of which don't, or else to present complications, which they players can figure out their own solutions to - they might include combat, or might not.

Fuckin' Dancey. I just can't take seriously someone who tells me I Know The Truth But It's A Secret, and presents me with his gingerbread man with licorice on him, and tries to tell me it's a great revolution in roleplaying.

But most are content. Most gamers do not have only twenty minutes of fun in four hours. If that were my consistent experience, I'd look to my own GMing and roleplaying ability, rather than to the hobby as a whole.