TIP FOR PLAYERS: CONTAINING SPECULATION

I read this yesterday and I know that my own group of players could certainly do well to learn this bit of advice…

Investigative scenarios often bog down into speculative debate between players about what could be happening. Many things can be happening, but only one thing is. If more than one possible explanation ties together the clues you have so far, you need more clues.

Whenever you get stuck, get out and gather more information.

So that comes directly from the Gumshoe rules I am reading. My players frequently bog down into endless circular speculation. Not always about clues but maybe the best way to attack a fortified position, or how to try and sneak past a guard and so on. It is almost like they want the ‘perfect’ plan but either have insufficient information for making that plan or it simply doesn’t exist.

Whether it is about investigations and clues, planning an attack or escaping from a goblin hold it is really good advice for players to ‘get out there and do something!’ As a GM if the players turn inward and debate about things between themselves there is little that us as GMs can do about it. It doesn’t move the story on. If you get out there and interact with the world then we can give the players the clues they need, or the way into the castle or whatever.

Let’s face it, as GMs we want the characters to solve the mystery, defeat the bad guys or escape certain death as that is what their story is made of and that makes the game fun for everyone. They may not escape every time and it shouldn’t be easy or there is no sense of achievement or reward but likewise doing nothing but talking in circles also brings no sense of achievement or reward.

In the last game session I upset my players as their characters were in the middle of a market, I was describing the traders and the folk hanging about, including a secret police spy trying to get close to them when the players started a massive debate about what they were going to do next including sharing all sorts of information that only the individual characters would know. I did mention that people were taking an interest but the players were so engrossed they mostly missed it. When the bad guy turned out to be completely au fait with their plans they got very upset but I pointed out that they had discussed them at length in public they were adamant that they would never have done that if they had realised people could over hear them. I do not like meta gaming, it is cheating which ever way you look at it but the point is the debate achieved nothing as they were none the wiser at the end of it than they were at the start. RPGs are mostly an action game as in ‘action movies’ and if you do not act then the story does not progress.

Anyway, I thought that was a good bit of player advice so I thought I would share it.

The compelling fantasy art of JB Clark.

One of the obstacles in creating high quality RPG supplements is access or affordability of quality artwork. Consignment artists may be too pricey for a small publisher or individual and clip art may not give your product the polish that you’d like to create. Some publishers revert to using “open domain” art–oftentimes older art no longer protected by copyright.

During a recent search for cool, older artwork I came across some sketches by JB Clark. At first I thought this was fairly recent artwork, but incredibly, much of it is dated to the 1890’s! JB collaborated with William Strang and together they illustrated the Adventures of Baron Munchausen, Ali Baba and Sinbad. Of course these were all fantasy/fantastic adventures and their illustrations captured that classic fantasy feel we often call OSR art style. JB is particular compelling and did some great illustrations for translations of some writings of Lucian of Samosata.  One of Lucians more known works is True Story. This was meant to be a tongue and cheek work of science fiction and fantasy. It deals with outer space, interplanetary lifeforms and interplanetary warfare! Not bad imagination for a writer in c. 150 AD! Reading through it I realized it would make a crazy and highly stylized fantasy campaign.

I find this art so similar to the pen/pencil line art common in early RPGs. They feature “action” or “movement”, the characters are often armed and it features strange, fantastic creatures.

Check out the art above…is the top figure reaching for a sword stuck in blood? Is he prodding the liquid? It looks like the other two figures are calling to him to stop!  This feels like an image out of an old D&D module doesn’t it?

How about the picture below. A ship is in the background and it looks like the crew has disturbed a Roc nest!

Here is one more–pretty self-explanatory!

Do you know of any older artwork from the 19th century or earlier that would work in modern fantasy RPGs?