Points of Light vs. Established Settings

As the GM of my IKRPG group (think steampunk D&D based in the Warmachine universe), the burden falls on me to know the story. When I've run D&D games in the past I've always used a "point of light" setting, where the setting was either entirely made up or loosely based on an existing setting like the Forgotten Realms or even Middle Earth. However, the IKRPG has challenged me by having my players be familiar with the world of the Iron Kingdoms, thus making the story come more alive for them if I based it in the world they know. It's the first time I've done this, and I never imagined how difficult it would be.

You'd think it'd be easier. I mean the setting is there, I just have to make up a story that fits the setting. The problem I'm having is that I like my players to take an active role in the world's conflicts, and witness all the big stuff that shapes the campaign. In a game like D&D where players can kill gods that's not so hard. But IKRPG only lets them off the leash a little bit, and so the thought of these heroic characters killing a monstrous dragon like Everblight is laughable because despite the fantasy influences, the Iron Kingdoms doesn't have room for nearly omnipotent heroes.

And that presents another problem. When working in an established setting you are restricted by timelines. My players can't kill Goreshade because he's still alive in the fiction. I can't have the Cryx start invading Llael or Five Fingers because they invaded the Thornwood first. If I'm going to stick to the fiction, I'm also allowing myself to be handcuffed by it. Sure they can take part in things that may have happened behind the scenes, or they can go on adventures that don't clash with facts, but my creativity is more invested on making it fit the story, rather than letting my players take it anywhere they want.

That's what I love about a Point of Light campaign setting. The second campaign I ran went off the rails from an adventure book, and my players had no idea what to expect. They were invested in the world because they knew nothing about it. It had influences of the Forgotten Realms, but I could reflavor a god, kill a hero, overthrow a kingdom, and it woudn't matter because it was our world and not the world of R.A. Salvatore. We weren't just visiting, we were carving out the story with our own hands. I gave them something to do for week 1, and what they did gave me something to do for week 2. It was immersive because everyone was invested in the world.

When I get them together in a few years and make them play one more game with me, you can believe that they will be fighting a deific Kobold Slinger because that's the sort of story they were crafting. In my IKRPG setting, I could have them storm the shores of Cryx and kill Toruk... except that midway through our campaign, a piece of fiction may be released that has Sorscha and Feora taking him down. Then what? We either have to make a choice to go off the rails and ignore the established world we stuck to, or change some story bits and try to keep going.

The good-ish thing about the IKRPG setting is that it takes place in the recent past, so you know what you can and can't do. While that works, it again asks that the campaign story run quietly alongside the official lore, only interfering when it makes sense. It's a hard line to toe - on one hand it lets you take things in lore that are barely mentioned and make them relevant and exciting. At the same time you know that your story simply can't impact the world.

And yes, I realize that GMs have creative liberty. I'm bogging myself down by sticking to "the rules" of the setting. I know other GMs can handle it perfectly well, but I have a hard time making a flexible story without having a flexible world in which it takes place.

That's what I've been struggling with as I've been coming up with story elements. I'm already running off the rails which you can read about if I ever get our last campaign story written up, but I'm trying to tread cautiously because I have some lore buffs in our group that may not appreciate too much deviation from the story. Not that I would fault anyone for feeling that way - if I'm working in an established setting, it's important not to bend the world out of shape and make it unrecognizable. It's just a simple matter of learning how to make an interesting story in a world full of interesting stories.


See you tomorrow!

Remember to follow me on Facebook. I'm doing a blog post every single day for 2013, and Facebook is a great way to stay up-to-date as well as take part in my monthly giveaways!

IKRPG GM Toolkit Review

Today I finally got my hands on the GM screen for IKRPG and wanted to share my initial thoughts.

First of all, it has Privateer Press's usual quality. The panels are durable, the artwork is gorgeous, and the inside stat panels are glued evenly and securely (a factor that I find important). PP put a lot of care in to making this and it really shows.



The screen itself is a great height. Older GM screens were more like 3-paneled folders, making it nearly impossible to see your players. Instead the panels are slightly larger than 4 pieces of printer paper set end to end, allowing you to see your players without them getting a peak at all your secrets. The 4 panels can be a bit cumbersome, but allows more flexible positioning depending on what you have behind the screen.

The kit also comes with some handy paper supplies. In addition to a stack of character sheets and a health tracker for players and warjacks, it comes with two nifty tools for GMs - encounter sheets and initiative trackers.



The initiative tracker will suit some GMs perfectly, while other can re-purpose it or ignore it altogether. Although it's a glorified index card, I plan on writing down the stats of several models I find myself using often (humans, thralls, etc) that don't use life spirals. This way I can have their stats in front of me at all times, and I can write any special rules on the blank backside.

The encounter sheet is something I'm sure I won't make full use of, but I can see it being a life saver for some GMs. I do, however, plan on putting 1 in a plastic sleeve so I can easily track several models that use life spirals. After using a model with a spiral for the first time, I can't wait to see how much this will smooth out damage tracking!

Finally, the most important part of a GM screen - the charts and stats inside. In the past, I've always used charts + paperclipped notes to quickly reference important things. It's not the fault of the screens - there's limited real estate for so many complex rules, so the makers have to decide what they think will be most useful and the GMs have to come up with the rest.

There are a few items in here that I don't find all too useful. One panel has a deviation graphic - something that really isn't helpful except as a guideline if you don't have a template. Then there is a rule for Fear which seems rather random compared to any other rules they could have put in. Fortunately that only takes up about 1/4 of a single panel. The rest of the stuff is solid gold.

There's a quick breakdown of Injuries (minus the table, thankfully) and temporary effects like stealth or crippled aspects. The rest of the panels are crammed with charts for combat, skills, and player actions. The best thing about this is that almost every rule has a page number beside it, allowing you to reference something if you need more specific wording. I love these charts because it answers every basic question that can come up during a game. It can't (and shouldn't) answer everything, but it will shave off a lot of wasted time spent digging through the dense rulebook.

Now then, it wouldn't be a review without some negatives. My biggest complaint, which seems to be shared by many, is that the screen's price is increased because of the mandatory additions. While they can be useful, it's really just a prettier version of anything that could have been pulled from PP's download section or created by hand. While $28 MSRP is great for what you get, if you're only using the screen then you're probably wasting $8-10. D&D had similar products and sold them separately - naturally the paper products weren't terribly popular, so this may be PP's way of making the products available without having a bunch of character sheets gathering dust in warehouses and shore shelves. However, I really wish there was an option to buy them separately, even if it only saved me a few bucks. Fortunately I shop at Miniature Market and DiscountGamesInc, so the cost of wasted paper was offset by the 25% discount.

Secondly, they didn't include anything about encounter creation. This is more of a personal gripe than anything because I never know how many players I'll have until I come to the game, or I'll want to increase an encounter's difficulty on the fly without going too extreme. But really, even a chart for encounter points and player leveling would have been great. However, I see their reasoning for not since everything on the screen is for what's happening during the game, not before and after.

I'm sure as time goes I'll find some things I'll have to write notes for. Overall, they used their given space very efficiently and included almost anything you would need to reference during a skill or combat encounter. The game is still a bit bare-bones when it comes to general NPC interactions, but I almost prefer that because it allows the player's creativity to dictate a conversation, not a set of rolls.

So if you're GMing a game of IKRPG, I highly recommend this. If you play once a week or once a month, it will make your games smooth and enjoyable, practically eliminating all the time wasted digging through rulebooks to figure out climbing or attack modifiers.

See you tomorrow! And if you're new around here, be sure to like my page on Facebook where I post daily blog content and monthly giveaways.