Rap & Roleplaying

Part II or, the further adventures of Zen and the Art of Freestyle Gaming

Hopefully the last article gave you a clue as to what I mean when I say freestyle gaming. If you’re jumping ahead, I suggest you read part I first. At any rate, today what I’m going to focus on are some particulars. And a good particular to begin with is, well, how one starts up a freestyle game.

This is actually harder than it at first seems. In directed, more linear games, you have your start laid out rather neatly before you. In freeform gaming, it’s not so neat, because you don’t necessarily have a goal in mind (or you might have some objective in mind and little else). How I usually get started when nothing in particular is happening is to place the emphasis and the pressure for activities firmly on the gun-toting, spell-slinging shoulders of the PCs. I usually start out with some questions, things like: “So what exactly does your character do when he’s not shadowrunning?” or “So, it’s about five o’clock in the afternoon. Where are your characters, and what are they doing?” Not only does this give some opportunity for character development on a minutiae level (you might want to grab some notes down if the PC brings up anything particularly interesting for future reference), it gives you some pull as to what the characters might want to do. To me, it’s an added level of realism/immersion when you allow the characters to decide for themselves what they want to do. The world doesn’t often come looking for you—most days, it’s the exact opposite. So let the players start the first move.

And now things start to get fun. Everything will go best if you know the area that the PCs are in well—this goes back to what I mentioned earlier about having an established base of material—and then PCs will feel as if they are actually living in that world, because nothing is denied them by GM fiat. Then, as you react to the PCs actions, you can start to throw subtle and not so subtle adventure hooks at your leisure.

If the PCs are at a bar, maybe the bartender hears them talking about a run and interjects “You guys runners or something? Hey man, I don’t know much about that lifestyle but I do know that guy over in the corner over there, he’s looking for a few,” then goes back to scrubbing the bar.

Now, the players may bite on this or not. But, if they don’t want to wander aimlessly around town all night, they might. Or they might wait for something better to come along. But that’s OK, because you’ve got plenty more material.

Another good way to toss a hook is to simply feed off of character speculation. If the PCs in conversation mumble something about the possibility of some drek-hot cyberware in the warehouse next door, it’s no crime to have an NPC unknowingly confirm their suspicions and mention it.

There are so many ways of starting runs and what-not mid-adventure that I won’t even bother mentioning more, although I’d be interested in hearing from readers what they’ve found works.

Now that you’re on to some kind of mission, now what? Now you deal with whatever comes up, as it comes up. There will be times when you just make something up as you’re going along, with no clue as to where it will lead. Don’t worry about it, just go with it, and if you’re really stuck, take a break in the session so you can assess and bring everything back under control. The seeming chaos of this style of gaming is really the joy of it, of coming to a session with basically a rulebook, a screen, dice, and some blank paper and creating a memorable session somehow.

There are going to be times, however, when your creative juices are drained. But you still have to run a session. These moments are the hardest to deal with as a freestyle GM (or any type of GM, for that matter). These are the moments when I come prepared, not with a module or scripted adventure, but with extra amounts of material. Extra NPCs I’ve made, layouts for buildings, Matrix hosts, just tons of paper that I can use, in the absence of creating on the fly, to provide whatever comes up in session. My notes at these moments are what saves me from GM death. So, the moral is: always have backup.

That’s really all I can say on this topic, I guess. Much more is difficult to say without going into long and extensive stories which neither I nor the reader have time for. I hope, however, that this can be an adequate start on what could be a great, long conversation on the topic of freestyle gaming.

Enjoy.