Changing the roles

In general, the Narrator is responsible for running and creating the setting and each Player responsible for his character. Players rarely get the chance to bring their ideas to the setting other than through their characters. The Narrator, because of his all knowing presence, rarely experiences the mystery of the world that he is creating.

The following article discusses some techniques that can be used to help remedy this by giving the Players a share in inventing the setting.

Players With Initiative

The role of a Player is largely reactive. The Narrator will describe a situation and the Players will react. If nothing much is happening during a game, the Narrator is the one expected to somehow instigate play. The first step towards giving Players more scope to develop the setting is to change their role from reactive to more active.

Activating Players

One way which this can be achieved I discovered by accident during a gaming session which I was Narrating. Whilst running a pre-written adventure during which the Players were expected to storm a castle Robin Hood-style, I had described what they could see of the castle from the surrounding forest when nature called and I had to leave the room. I just asked them to carry on planning whilst I was not there. When I came back down, they had a plan which I knew nothing about. I already had a good idea of what all the castle residents were doing at that time so rather than get them to explain it to me, I let them put it into action. For the first time in my career as a Narrator the Players intentions were unknown.

The Players were left to set the pace and even allowed to adlib details which I had not previously told them (i.e. there was ivy growing up a side wall) so long as they were not too outrageous. Since my surprise at the method of attack was genuine, then it logically meant that the inhabitants would react in a similar way, therefore making the reactions more realistic. It turned out that their plan which they revealed bit by bit was very effective in diverting the patrolling guards on the battlements whilst the rest of the group sneaked over a side wall.

Below is a rough transcript of the action.

Example

PLAYER 1:

I’ll run across the field after the skin-hardening spell has been cast, towards the castle, shield in hand, barking like a dog.

NARRATOR:

The guards on the battlement notice and shout at you to clear off, he looks serious.

PLAYER 1:

I’ll carry on.

NARRATOR:

A couple more guards on patrol stop to gaze at you while the first one leaves. One ready’s his bow.

PLAYER 1:

I’ll carry on.

NARRATOR:

What looks like the captain appers on the battlements and shouts down “Begone or we’ll have your head on a spike!” He nods to the bowman who lets off an arrow, obviously a warning shot as it misses by a mile.

REST OF GROUP:

Since the captain is distracted, we’ll sneak around the other side from the distraction and scale the walls…

It’s All About Style

This style is best suited to a scene where the Players are the aggressors and know their enemy, maybe as a reward for good planning. If the characters were James Bond style secret agents, an SAS squad who had thoroughly planned their operation, the final defeat of a now powerless villain or any other situation where you want the heroes to seem to have the ‘upper hand’ then this is a good technique.

It can also be a powerful tool to lull Players into a false sense of security as well as heighten suspense. To illustrate, imagine a scene similar to the film Aliens where the crew need to get to another part of their ship which they know is infested with aliens. The relative silence of the Narrator is reminiscent of the silence of the hidden enemy. Of course, once the aliens attack, then the Narrator can ‘snatch’ the control back putting the Players back into the much more powerless reactionary role and into confusion, (evil chuckle) Also when the Players have planned everything, by starting the scene as above they expect all to go well. However, there could be a fatal flaw in their plan or something could go horribly wrong and they are thrust back into their reactionary role in which they have to ‘adlib’ again, (for example, they jump out of the airduct to find the villain and his henchman with guns trained on them.)

Special Considerations

If you are just going for the style of play, then you will have to set the scene with enough details for the Players to make a decent plan. You may want to be available (although not listening in,) whilst the Players are planning to clarify any details.

If you are feeling especially generous or the characters are at a non-critical point, then you may feel like giving the Players full reins and allowing them to make up their surroundings whilst you listen in and perhaps give your own ideas. This can be unsettling for hardened Narrators who hold their setting as really quite personal and precious, but by doing this you are allowing the Players to contribute their own new ideas to the world. If the Players do start to become unreasonable then you can always stand in and deny them.

Another important consideration for this to work is the sequencing of events. In order for the Narrator to react properly, she will have to know exactly what is going on an when. Say in the first example the Narrator knew that the castle inhabitants had a device which allowed them to see into the forest and the Players mentioned that they had already sneaked around once the decoy had attracted attention. The Narrator would not have had the chance to let the Players know that their characters would have been spotted and the alarm raised.

Encouraging Player Adlibs

Players are used to asking questions of the Narrator and quite often it can get tiresome. Are there curtains on the window?, What material are they made out of? What pattern do they have? Are the windows leaded? etc… Such details can quickly drain a Narrator’s patience and creativity. But from a Player’s point of view, he has learned never to assume anything. So many times have they had their plans fail because they failed to notice (i.e. ask about,) a certain detail. You run and throw your shoulder into the window, but it’s leaded and doesn’t fully break. The werewolf is getting really close now…

In this particular example, keeping the Players on edge and paranoid about details is fine as it suits the horror style game it came from, but how about super heroes, brave knights and swashbuckling swordsmen? Should they be constantly checking the decor?

Let Their Creative Juices Trickle

First of all do not let your Players run wild. If you are lucky enough to have a group of Players who are quite happy to roleplay without an experience system or buckets of treasure then you can probably trust them to adlib an awful lot, if not (like me) then it is probably better to let them adlib little bits or at least provide a broad, overarching description which they can flesh out with details. The example in the next paragraph illustrates this.

The adlibs should usually be prompted by the Narrator even if it is only tacitly. You walk through the doorway into the plushly outfitted master bedroom. Where do you want to look? If the Player gets the hint then he could reply, I’ll look behind the curtains on the opposite wall and on the balcony outside, you can look in the mirrored cupboard in the corner, [referring to another player] otherwise he could ask what is in the room to which you would reply What do you think?. Be ready for blank looks, as this can take Players quite aback the first time…

If your group is anything like my own, then you are probably envisaging them with eyes lit by the golden prospect of every broom cupboard filled with treasure. This kind of abuse should not be allowed, they should know better. Try to explain to them that any of their adlibs that benefit them will only be allowed if it provides for sufficiently interesting play. This proves a great incentive for getting them more involved.

Do not forget that even though the Players are the ones talking now, you still have the final word of Narrator. You can still step in or better yet, twist it against them. Those who studied long and hard preparing for the time that a Player may come across a Dungeons & Dragons Wish spell will know what I mean.

PLAYER 1:

…and in the corner of the room stands a suit of full plate armour, average size and height, about my size really, I go over to it and try the helmet on…

NARRATOR: [Interrupting]

…as you take a step forward you see its left arm twitch slightly…

Perhaps you can guess what comes next.

Tapping Their Minds

They are lifesavers. Players that surmise and theorize out aloud about what they just saw in the shadows or what he thinks are the real intentions of that scheming deputy sheriff, have saved just about every cornered and idea-less Narrator. However, that Player may be away this week, or he is remaining agonizingly quiet. Fortunately, Player adlibs force them to talk.

Apart from the inspiration that listening to another’s ideas can give, there is another big bonus to character adlibs. The problem of perception had plagued many Narrators for ages. The ‘spotting of clues’ if you like. Some gaming systems have a skill that allows you to roll to notice some vital piece of evidence or an important object, but this is unsatisfying. The Player does not really feel as though he spotted it, rather he just rolled a die. Other Narrators have opted to do as Agatha Christie does and swamp players with hundreds of red herrings, but to do that on-the-fly takes a genius. Player adlibs provide another option because what the Player describes can be considered what their character notices about the room and you can always interrupt if they notice something that is out of the ordinary.

PLAYER:

I’ll make sure my clothes are straight in the mirror in the wardrobe before leaving the house, I don’t want anyone thinking anything untoward happened…

NARRATOR: [Interrupting]

…Actually, looking on the inside of the wardrobe you notice that the mirror has been removed and in fact, glancing to the side, you see the mirror from the dresser has been removed as well.

Keeping Everyone Involved

Some characters, due to their nature, will inevitably end up adlibbing a lot, such as the stereotypical Dungeons & Dragons thief who is always sneaking around rooms ahead of the main group. Some Players, due to their nature, will find themselves adlibbing a lot because they like the idea of having control and the limelight. This is where the other Players can soon feel left out.

The best way to spread the adlibbing is to let Players adlib for each other. When Player one enters a room, ask Player two what he thinks would be in there and let him describe it. It would be simple if it was not for inter-Player rivalries which are quite often rife. You may find you have to keep Players on a much tighter lead than when they are describing for each other as quite easily, disputes can occur. You never put anything interesting in my room… etc.

Players as Supporting Cast

There are times when a Player can become disinterested in his character. He has been the same character for the past six months and he is getting the fatal urges to create a new one ‘just in case’ his existing character dies. The Narrator on the other hand has characters coming out of his ears. He tries desperately to make each one individual, experimenting with semi-successful accents but conversations with himself, between supporting characters, still seem bizarre.

Once again a change of roles can help this.

Delegate

In my opinion it is unfair to give the Players a role which will detract from their own character. The Characters are the heroes of the plot and are the central personalities, and the Players should be able to give their full attention to them. In order to avoid this the Narrator could only give a role to a Player when his character is not intimately involved in the action, For example when the character is elsewhere or when he is playing a passive role in a scene i.e. listening to a speech. Some people like to offer the roles of Henchmen or allies to a Player, although for the reasons stated above, I do not tend to do this.

Giving a Player a Supporting role tends to work best when the group has been split. When the Narrator is focusing on one Player, rarely do the others do anything constructive, (the usual activity is to either listen intensively and give the game away ‘out of character’ or just sit and make jokes about your rather poor Irish accent.) The other Players could easily take the roles of a random store owner, a passing noble or a beggar in the street. Even though these roles are fairly inconsequential, it relieves Player boredom and the new responsibility means that they are less likely to give out of character spoilers.

The Unseen Scene

Novels are almost always written in the third person. Quite often a scene can be written which the main characters would not know about. Perhaps a short dialog between the villain and his second in command, (typically where he punished for being an ‘incompetent fool’) illustrates this best. This kind of scene is rarely featured in typical roleplaying as roleplaying tends to be a very ‘first person’ experience where the Players are expected to know no more than what their Characters know. If the Players take the part of Supporting Characters, then these ‘external’ scenes can be introduced.

But why?! I hear you scream, The Players will learn things that their Character should not know! However, do not forget that the Characters, in theory, know things that the Players do not know. A starting Player for example learns that his character lives in a kingdom ruled by an ‘unjust’ king. The Narrator does not have the time, (and more likely inclination,) to list all the injustices done against the Character, however the Character will never forget that three years ago the king levied such a tax that a quarter of his village was punished for non-payment, or that he mistreated his grandmother who worked in the castle. The reason I highlight this is because ‘external scenes’ often serve the purpose of familiarizing the reader with the character before he is introduced into the main plot-line. The previously mentioned ‘incompetent fool’ scene merely serves to demonstrate to the reader just what a throughly indecent person the villain is.

During these scenes it is probably best to not allow the Players to be the main villain as he is the one who normally dictates the action around him and also the advantage described in the next paragraph would be difficult to pull off. However it is possible and there are some advantages. Where there is a short, relatively insignificant, scene such as the ‘incompetent fool’ scene, the Narrator could describe the thoughts of the villain to the Player, for example, Your worthless head tax collector comes, head low into your chambers soaking wet from the rain outside, he has once again failed to collect all the dues from the people in the village and now he is dripping water over your prized fine fur rug, for this he must suffer. The Player now should have enough to go on to act out the villain, plus he gets and insight into the way the villains mind works. The biggest advantage by far of this though is the traditional concept of the hero being mirrored in his arch nemesis. How better to do this than have both been played, (at least for a short while,) by the same Player. After taking the role, (even briefly,) of the villain, the Player will, in future confrontations, look upon the villain as partly his own creation like a personal Frankenstein’s monster.

Clues are also given through these ‘external’ scenes. Agatha Christie’s Poirot includes lots of snippets of suspects doing suspicious things that Poirot would never see, yet the mystery is not spoiled. This can be done in many ways. The Players could play their part almost as an onlooker where the Narrator playing the villain, hints at parts of his grand scheme only for it to ‘cut back’ to normal play before too much is given away. Also the Players could use their roleplaying skills by trying to ‘trick’ vital information out of the Narrator, trying all the time to stay within the character of his bumbling henchman, of course this could be risky for the henchman…

PLAYER (Head tax collector):

…A-a-apologies my liege I did not mean to filthy your rug with my presence…

NARRATOR (Evil king), [Shouting]:

Quiet, Idiot! [normal] Now what went wrong, do you have that writ I gave you? [Narrator shakes head to indicate he should reply in the negative.]

PLAYER:

No, it got ruined in the rain my lord.

NARRATOR: [Pleased with this adlib, allows for a clue to be given.]

That writ was the only thing allowing me to tax Duke Firth’s land you fool. I shall have to send a messenger to apply for another! [Narrator indicates cut back to normal play.]

The clue given in the above example is good because knowing that a writ is needed to tax the land is something that the Characters would likely know, but not the Players, therefore bringing this knowledge into synchronisation. Also it demonstrated much better to the Players exactly what sort of character the king is.

The above, again, requires trust in your Players to play a Supporting Character responsibly. If you do not have this trust then you can still include a short ‘external’ scene acted out entirely by the Narrator.

The Underlying Requirement

Whatever measure you take to allow the Players to bring their ideas to the campaign, one stipulation is needed throughout: The Players have to be responsible. There may be Narrators reading this who like the ideas but can never see their Player take it seriously, in fact many (including our group at times,) prefer not to take their roleplaying seriously in which case many of the techniques used here may be used, but certainly it would be to achieve different effects.