Lunchtime Poll #20: Bait & Switch
You’ve got your character rolled up, a backstory with lots of plot hooks created, and you are perfectly equipped to survive in your environment. Only…you aren’t in your environment. Your GM has dropped you through a wormhole/dimension door/time warp/Stargate, and you are completely unprepared for so much as asking directions to the nearest bathroom-equivalent. From either a player or a GM perspective, discuss the pros and cons of a surprise setting switch.
As a GM, I love this tactic, because there’s nothing like starting your players out off-balance. At the same time, it drives me around the bend as a player, because I think I’ve signed up for one type of game, and I find myself in something else entirely. If you wanted to run a cross-dimensional campaign, why not just tell us, I grumble quietly to myself. Of course, I usually get over it in very short order, because a) I wouldn’t be playing if I didn’t want the GM to surprise me, and b) there’s nothing like appearing out of nowhere to get you interacting with the locals. By the time I’ve gone up a few levels, I can get into the idea that it’s not about creating a character that’s perfect for the environment, it’s doing the best you can with what you’ve got. Still, this tactic is like Third Rock from the Sun. The concept is at its best early on, and as the characters spend more time in the strange place, it becomes less strange, and so do they. That’s when the GM should let loose with the next big surprise.
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March 30th, 2005 at 9:31 am
You don’t know me; I got here by way of a couple other gaming blogs.
Anyway. The bait-and-switch can be fun, but I think you have to have players who really trust the GM to pull it off. It’s not something to try your first time with a new group, for example.
I’d also want to arrange things so that the Really Handy Ability that the player put half his points into (or whatever, just an example) is not rendered completely useless; to use GURPS terms, if your player has bought Magery 10, it’d be extremely mean to dump him on a no-mana world. Likely to lead to resentment…
March 30th, 2005 at 10:05 am
Lunchtime Poll 20: Bait & Switch
This week, Li asks us about dumping players into an alternate setting. One of my habits as a GM is…
March 30th, 2005 at 2:29 pm
Lunchtime Poll #20: Through the Looking Glass
Ravings of a Textual Deviant ? Lunchtime Poll #20: Bait & Switch Li asks: You?ve got your character rolled up, a backstory with lots of plot hooks created, and you are perfectly equipped to survive in your environment. Only?you aren?t in your environme…
March 30th, 2005 at 2:54 pm
Lunchtime Poll 20 :: Bait and Switch
Lunchtime Poll #20: Bait & Switch You?ve got your character rolled up, a backstory with lots of plot hooks created, and you are perfectly equipped to survive in your environment. Only?you aren?t in…
April 28th, 2005 at 6:29 pm
Lunchtime Poll #20: Bait & Switch
On Bait and Switch:
This can work, as long as the GM makes sure the characters remain cool. The focus should not shift to “explore this cool setting” without keeping the characters sharply in focus. Otherwise, you just feel disempowered.