Integrating Internet Material into RPG’s

You are likely reading this article from part of Paolo’s Shadowrun Archive, the largest Shadowrun site on the internet, so far. There is a large amount of Shadowrun material here, and on other Shadowrun sites around the web. It takes the form of house rules, character sheets, net.books, plot descriptions, programs, pretty much anything you can think of. Some of it is of amazing quality, rivaling that of the published sourcebooks. Most of it is ok, you could probably have thought of it yourself if you had the time. Some of it is downright terrible, and you wish you had never ever seen it before.

Eventually, whether as a player or a GM, you will find something online that you want to integrate into your game, and the best way to do so depends on exactly what it is.

House rules are perhaps the hardest to add in mid-campaign. This depends mainly on the type of house rules they are, brand new rules for a previously unexplored subject, or revised rules to an already covered subject. If it’s the former, going over the rules quickly with the players should be enough to decide if they are playable and useful. If they are revised rules, a proper playtesting of them is more appropriate. Quickly whip up a scenario that uses these rules and throw the characters into it. Have nothing really matter – its an off the cuff game, it doesn’t count in the overall campaign. You should be able to decide from that if the rule slows down or speeds up gameplay, makes the game more deadly or more realistic, etc.

Adding a new campaign element or events can also be tricky, but proper handling can make it go smoothly. If it’s merely an encounter or a set of encounters, integrate it as you would with something you had written, and everything should be fine. If its a ‘game breaker’, for example, a new type of magic that can neutralize most cyberware, be very careful with it. Most likely the NPC’s will get ahold of said technology first, unless the characters or a very close contact to them creates it. It may even be only rumors, or something that is so rare or expensive they cannot obtain it, but in awhile, it will become commonplace. For a real life example, look at DVD players. At least here in Canada, very few stores carry them, but soon several nationwide chains will pick them up, prices will drop, and they’ll become something that’s fairly common.

Adding ‘basic’ things such as new gear, armour, spells, etc, isn’t quite so hard. You likely already do so when a new supplement comes out from a published company. Some of the net.books of gear are extremely large, a hundred pages or more, with tons of equipment. Don’t just throw this at your players and say ‘New stuff, ya know?’. This is a guaranteed way for them to buy the most munchkin equipment and ignore the less powerful stuff. Rather, read through the material beforehand and make sure that it isn’t overly powered for your campaign. Edit it as you need, and then release it slowly to your players, perhaps 5-10 items each month, game time. Perhaps the ‘Ultra-explosive Grenades’ that the players buy 50 of at a bargain price are actually military duds, and 1 in 5 of them explodes early. After Ares introduces the Predator III pistol, its main competitors will be quick to release something similar, perhaps cheaper. Keep it realistic, as well as fair to your players.

If you’re a player and find something online that you would like to integrate into your live game, you have a few options. The easiest is to print the information out and give it to your GM, tell him you found it online and would like to use it. He’ll either

Smile smugly, and put it in his binder of stuff, saying “I’ll think about it.”
Look at it with a critical eye, point out its flaws, and ask you to re-work it
Scoff at all those ‘internet losers’ and rip it up.

In the case of C, kick him or her, hard.

Seriously though, if your GM refuses to use anything from the internet, you have several options. One is to say that you designed something yourself, or wrote these house rules yourself. Its not exactly ethical, but I don’t see a difference between something I write and something a friend writes and puts on his web page, its still gaming material. The other option is the barter; ‘Well, this spell has adverse side affects, and the one that Johny has doesn’t, and it’s a published spell.’

A third option is a bit more extreme, but could work. If you use the ‘rotating-GM’ idea, simply introduce the piece when it’s your turn to GM.

Even more extreme, GM your own campaign by yourself, and make it very obvious that you aren’t using normal published materials. Show up with just the main book, and a binder full of printouts.

Player: “Where’s your copy of Shadowtech?”
You: “Oh, I’m not using it. I’m setting the campaign in 2046, and we’re all in Australia.”
Player: “But FASA never published a book about Australia!”
You: “I know, but I found a great web site with a lot of information about it, and I wanted to try it.”

If the campaign goes well, then perhaps it will encourage the other GM to use internet materials, or at least be a bit more open to them.

Let me know what you think on this subject. Do you use materials from the internet in your games, or do you just draw on them for inspiration? Do you think the amount of information on the internet about RPG’s is good or bad for gaming? Email me at fro@lis.ab.ca

Adam Jury
Sunday, August 24 1997