How to run a KUP game #1 - Character prep
TAGS: #HTRAKG
Finally I am ready! And I find not to be in late, but rather to have postponed till the right moment! With this post I kick-off a series of posts entitled ‘How to run a KUP game’. I have not planned how many posts it will be long however the core concepts of these posts will be part of the same chapter of the VIII·XII·XX Expanded rules. The book is almost complete and it misses the details of this chapter only, therefore before starting the writing of the book, I want to unfold the several aspects of the game I have on my notes… this means that as long as I write the KUP approach as I see it on these posts, it is possible that some other relevant concepts may pop up and be included later within this chapter… needless to say that I would also be extremely happy to have feedback from the readers! These could be even more important!
Ok, last comment before going live in the topics: if you read this and any other following topic and you have comments, questions, or clarifications, please please please let me know as I see this part extremely important for the development of the game.
The first topic to be discussed is the character’s background. According to the ‘game design notes’ left in the printed version of the core rule book, this is one of the most relevant features for a player: there are several reasons that support this thought. Firstly, a character ‘without a base’ is something similar to the situation of an amoral game (I discussed in my previous post here and here). Related to this concept, the ‘base’ provides a character with a story the player can use to build up a more and more consistent profile: the more details are added to the background and the clearer is the picture of the character to the eyes of the GM and the other players. Third point is that this ‘base’ can be used to play around the character’s story, it could really turn into an interesting aspect that often is overlooked… rather than building stories on NPCs or circumstanced forced to a point to generate an outcome at any cost, it is really a nice development if the campaign (or a single adventure) pivots on the personal story of one of the characters. Players feel more involved than other ‘hooks’ or ‘seeds’ and the GM gives a different turn to his campaign.
All these aspects could take pages of pages of explanations and details which show the overall benefit from the adoption of such a model, in here only a dozen of rows with three skimpy points are present. The main concept is that it is not worth to spend many words on something which is so essential (assuming the reader is aware of what is underlying) rather than explaining what are the negative outcomes in case of non-adotpion. Should the later be the case, the players won’t be engaged in their characters if not by ‘material’ goals such as maxing level or stats or attaining an incredible equipment, worth of a demigod. I personally find somehow ‘empty’ this development: the story would not be as rich and deep as it could be if, even without ‘ultra-stats’ or ‘uber-equipment’, the players feel highly involved in it with liaisons and reasons coming from their own character’s backgrounds.
For this reason, in the initial part of the campaign in a KUP game, the GM should try to lead the players to realize this aspect and support them to build a sound story behind their characters. Should this not happen, then the GM can ‘gently’ force them. What is required to a player is to have defined his character in terms of: the place of origin, the social class, the Morality path, the former occupation, the purpose of the character as an adventurer.
As these features will grow in terms of contents and details, the PC will be a part of the player bringing the player to try to have a more and more immersive experience while role-playing his creature (and trust me: this can happen even if the character has average stats and normal equipment!).
Let us see more in detail what it has to be developed in each of these points:
The place of origin: it is not a matter of precise localization of the venue within the setting, it is important to define the environment (dense jungle or desolated steppes) to give a perspective on how a character's character has developed; sociality or asociality depends also on the environment where a character grew up. This aspect, like the following ones, goes beyond the rule of allocating a part of the points on the skills tied to the place of origin and the social class.
The social class: like the previous point, also the social rung is deeply affecting the character. The reasons are very close to the place of origin and no further explanation is necessary.
The Morality path: this point is required to align the vision of the player to the GM one. Without an agreement on what the path is meant there could be circumstances of misunderstanding between player and GM. That is the main reason to explain how a player is going to role-play such a path: in this sense, the GM can also intervene in case the player has problems to follow it and without a pre-alignment this could result in some critical situations. Let’s see this step as a due clarification of the ‘social contract’ between each player and the GM (for further readings on this topic, I highly recommend the Kobold Guide to… by Wolfgang Baur).
The former occupation of the character: this piece of info is relevant to give consistency to the place of origin and the social class of the character… it greatly supports also the ES known by the character (those where the background points are allocated, of course!) and lastly it is a good help to the GM in case he wants to build a story around the players.
The purpose of the character as an adventurer: last but not least, or better the first and most important one! This point should help the character to focus on a good explanation that compelled his character to adventuring… the importance is clear without further words to be spent on explanation. However a positive side-effect (for the benefit of the GM) is worth to be outlined: the reason leading to adventuring is not only a very strong element in the development of the character, but also a very useful lever to be used by the GM (when necessary) to build the campaign around these facts. That is stronger than any other ‘neutral hook’ a GM can build, without any doubt.
As a conclusion: it could really be worth to spend 20/30 minutes with each player at the beginning of a campaign to go through these 5 points and clarify these aspects…
…we’re done with this first part! I hope these posts will engage even more the readers so that they can participate to the overall discussion of the KUP model.
Coming up next: I don’t know… seriously: I will pick up a new topic from my notes, I didn’t schedule anything so far!